đ„ Jonny Brownlee's quest for gold has a been a long and patient one (to say the least). â đŹđ§
It's been a crazy couple months this end - both happy and fruitful moments to not so good news or pleasant experiences. Between you and me, I'm currently doing really well with an overall sense of content-ness (yea that's a word). I've been writing a lot since lockdown in early March just to keep tabs on how I'm doing and capture those moments you tend to gloss over when it comes to looking to the year ahead.
I've been a bit behind on the blog front, so here's a couple highlights from the last few months.
What have I been watching?
Currently the latest season of Killing Eve. It's great. I also went on a comedy hype and started rewatching Friends, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Motherland and Spaced. Whilst giving Peep Show and Brooklyn Nine Nine a go.
Have I done any drawing?
Yeah a proper mix of stuff too. What's been really nice is I've finally started creating more illustration as part of my freelance and personal work.
What music have I been listening to?
Today I've absolutely loved listening to the ferocious and hypnotic sounds of The Oh See's. But on a more regular repeat, it's been either Lausse the Cat or Maverick Sabre.
Until next time, peace!
To help celebrate Happy Go Skate Day last month I put this jolly little animation together for it. My workplace, Six shared it on Instagram as quite a few of us either grew up skating or still do it to this day so it seemed like a fitting tribute. Fortunately, I managed to finish the whole thing in just one sitting (which is unusual for me!). That said if I took any longer, I would have missed putting it out on the day so having tight deadlines are good because you are realistic with what you can do and commit to.
With that in mind, the simpler the better. Most importantly it had have soul and capture some aspect of skateboarding. I used the half pipe shape to draw a big smiley on the page, then thought about how the skateboarder should skate. One aspect I thought of was based on something I've recently been learning which is to go up and back down the ramp effortlessly and let gravity do the hard work for you. It sounds so basic and easy when you talk through it and technically it is really. All it involves is a little trust in how you're moving and patience. So when you go up a ramp, naturally you'll get to a point where you've stopped propelling and gravity will help bring you back down to Earth (excuse my very basic Science lingo), at this point you want to relax and turn your head back down the ramp to turn your board and ride away clean. Here's a much better way to explain what I just mentioned along with a video.
It was that smooth, gradual and floaty movement that I wanted to mimic in my animation. When the character races across the bottom of the ramp, I stretched his body to exaggerate his movement which is a technique I've wanted to toy with for a while.
All in all, I'm really happy with how this turned out!
