Bloomies!

My first post-CCS summer has officially begun! I have been, quite graciously, been contacted by a number of perspective freelance clients, this first week or so post-graduation, and am amidst the process of seeing which job pans out first - all are quite exciting, so I'm thrilled with the prospects. Meanwhile, as I am taking a roughly two-week break from Caravan's production to refresh my mind I, for the first time in many, many months, am able to do artwork for FUN! It's exhilarating! I decided to kick off some portfolio-building personal pieces with a request for a friend. My roommate and good buddy Patrick Stannard drew some fantastic caricatures of the two of us and our roommates, and asked if I'd color it for him. I couldn't resist. Below is some of the process, as well as the final piece!

Above is the drawing as I received it - Pat's beautifully gestural under-sketching and all. From left to right: Niles Bontrager, myself Mel Miller, Pat himself, and Kerry Newill.

As gorgeous as the under-sketching was, I needed clear line work to really get the color to work at its best, so, away it went. Here's the lines as they'd appear in the final image, after nixing the Red channel.

Choosing colors was made particularly fun, as I was able to base them all of stuff my roomies and I actually own. It personalized the piece all the more. Above - the flat colors! Somehow, that phase always takes me the longest.

And finally - the final piece! I love the results, and it was incredibly fun and relaxing to work on as a whole. A great way to kick off my post CCS art-life, for sure. Thank you for lending the lines to color, Patar! ♥ Also, major kudos for the resources: Mayang's Texture Library, and DeviantArt's Rawox for the Photoshop brush of the Detroit city skyline. And to Coldplay for ever conceiving of "Life in Technicolour II" as it was on repeat habitually the entire time I was coloring this. Damn, I love that song.

So yes. Four quirky animators living under one suburbanite roof. Personally, I think we'd make an ace animated sitcom ;)

Bless you, roomies. Bloomies.

♥Mel