Team CHOW II-Team Coco Meowza

[Sekino]

Aaaand It's on! Let's fill this baby up with ideas!

Since we don't know the brief yet (and it seems there might be some surprises), I was thinking maybe we could start by posting random sketches that show what styles and genres we're each most comfortable with. Perhaps it would allow us to get more familliar with each other artistically and get a better idea how to mesh our strenghts together once the brief is up. (We also could go through all of our sketchbooks, but I though it might be simpler to create a clean slate here)

Any thoughts or other suggestions?

[AsaB]

Whoo, it's up! Most awesome thumbnail, dear Sekino, like I already told you! Haha

Yeah, also great idea about throwing in some sketches for introductions. Since one of our members doesn't even have a SB yet, it's even better. Also, maybe a sentence or two about ourselves wouldn't hurt either, just so we get to know each other properly! I think it might also help if we'd write our strengths and weaknesses artistically. It's also good to get an outsider's opinion on those, perhaps I write something as a strength that you guys then point out I'm completely lousy at! In any case, a written and visual artistic introduction should be a good start.

I'm gonna get started on mine!

[3mMajster]

Wow Sekino that looks great!
I'm the one without SB. And it would be best that I introduce myself first.
My name is Milosh Krstic, aka 3mMajster, I am studying for the internet technology, in the free time I like to draw, and play guitar. Recently I started to draw CD covers for bands.
My great love are comics, and definitely favorite caracter is Konan.
Anyway here is one quickie that I did now, tomorrow I'll do a couple more.

[Mat Kaminski]

I'm already skeered of this power house

[AsaB]

Mat, is that a challenge? I assure you that we will try to kick everyone's butts, consider yours now in the danger zone!

Ahem. Right. My introduction!

I'm Ása, a 22 year old girl architecture student and I love to draw!
I especially love drawing anything with fantasy, ancient cultures and historical stuff, especially intricate outfits and patterns. I basically love immersing myself into research and then drawing whatever I was poking in Which is why I can't wait to dive into whatever era/time we decide on and learning all about it!

Arty strenght: females, clothes/folds, portraits, hair, inking, cel-shading etc
Arty weaknesses: males (errm), environments, weapons, sci-fi, realistic painting etc

Yeah, those lists are by far not exhaustive!

Here's something I find very typical of my drawing style, these sort of exaggerated and comic-like figures:


I think that's it then!

[Sekino]

Whoa! Nice stuff up here already!

Alright, so I'm a modest graphic designer and illustrator. My first love was comic books, especially belgium/french comics, so being inspired by Franquin, Hergé and Uderzo/Goscinny, I love art based on humour and storytelling.

I believe I'm best at lineart and cartooning. I do love colouring as well. I am most interested in characters and creatures (both humans and animals). I'm fine with environments, I just don't tend to draw them much unless it is requested.

Some quick sketches:

[AsaB]

Awesome, guys
I'm sure we will be able to make something kickass with this bucket of talent

So here are just a few wonderings and thoughts:

I was thinking about what would be the best way to organize things. We could take a character each, or we could each do a little on every one. Are there any preferences? I'm personally kind of unsure. It does sounds handy to have a character per artist, but I'm also afraid that the overall mood won't be consistant enough like that. Maybe we could browse the sketchbooks from the last Team Chow to see how people played it then.

Style! Looking at the sketches above, I think we all have a rather stylized ways of drawing. That is, none of us seem to favour realism specificaly--correct me if I'm wrong! I just got the feeling that most of us draw in a more comic or animation kind of style. Is that something we should go for? I think we should play on our strengths in this one, so it's just an idea.

Right. So if anyone has started brainstorming for an era/genre that we could put this into, please post random pictures and whatnot to show what you were thinking about Inspiration boards, we need them! I'm gonna do some contemplating.

[Sekino]

Wow, it's looking good already! I like how we really do seem to share several common elements (and that we're probably not going for epic, super-realistic sci-fi game art ).

I was thinking about what would be the best way to organize things. We could take a character each, or we could each do a little on every one. Are there any preferences? I'm personally kind of unsure. It does sounds handy to have a character per artist, but I'm also afraid that the overall mood won't be consistant enough like that.

On that note, I think we should allow ourselves some time to experiment a bit instead of aiming at a finished piece right out the gates (as long as our time management is good). We could try to each handle a character first. If the result is consistent enough, we'll party . We could also go over them and bring corrections if needed. However, we ought to be willing to scrap our designs and start over if the first attempt fails and not be 'married' to any idea if it doesn't work. So maybe our 'scheduling' could look something like this:

August 1 to 3 (or from whenever we get the brief)- Brainstorm sessions, assigning characters to team members.

August 4 to 7- Semi-finished character attempts, first evaluation for overall style, consistency, etc...

August 8 to 14- Polishing first designs if adequate OR creating alternatives based on corrections.

August 15 to 21- Preparing final submission, presentation, additional corrections...

August 22 to 28- Depending on how well we stay on track, we'll either have a near-finished submission by then OR a nice extra week to panic

Obviously, that's very general and not cast in stone, but I think giving ourselves weekly deadlines might be a good way to keep on top of things while still tending to our lives.

I didn't bother scheduling more brainstorm sessions because I figure we ought to PM or chat with each other as often as possible as we go. The more communication the better.

And, yes, some inspiration boards sound great

[3mMajster]

I think that we should stick to this schedule, it gives us plenty of time to design our work.
Actually I agree with everything that Sekino said.
I'll go looking for some inspiration on the internet.

[AsaB]

Yeah, I can't really imagine us producing super-realistic sci-fi stuff! I think we'll probably make something like team GrogroZoo did last round, although I'm definitely not suggesting any copying! But this kind of playful and exaggerated comic-style might suit us better.

Excellent timeline, Sekino! I was also gonna suggest something like that, it will definitely keep us going if we have weekly deadlines to 'worry' about. So every Saturday might be good for that?
The final renderings will probably take the least of our times, so let's by all means try to use our time wisely to make a kickass concept and presentation!

And of course, we'll probably go back and forth a few times with the designs! In that case we'll need almost constant feedback and communicating. Is it maybe possible to have some fixed times for a team chat? I know we have different time zones, but it's not much more than a few hours, so I think we'll manage. In any case, we should be able to grab hold of each other easily. My MSN is in my profile and then there's the CA chat as well. Whatever suits you guys!

[Sekino]

Alright! First great chat with all five members present (Special thanks to XanaChama for saving and sorting out the conversation)

We've got a little preliminary activity figured out (I hope I got everything right, but we probably can fudge a bit; it's just for practice ). We've decided to work on a pseudo CHOW among ourselves to better pinpoint our style, creative process and working method.

TASK- Each member creates a minimum of one character according to the following brief (we can experiment with more if we have time).

STYLE- Inspired by the Saturday morning cartoons we used to watch, back when logic and/or good taste didn't matter as much as noise, flash and fun. So find your inner 80's Ninja Turtles or Samurai Pizza Cats and think sugary breakfast cereal and sofa cushions on the floor

CHARACTER TYPE- The characters must be object-based, meaning they can be either a single object or several objects combined (yes, fruits count as objects). So no humans or animals.

SETTING- The characters are basically 'normal people' in the way that they live in a world and era similar to ours. They can be neighbours in a small town, working stiffs in an office, tourists, etc... So we're not going for superheroes, fantasy/magic or sci-fi (aside from the sentient objects element).

DEADLINE July 31- This doesn't mean we can only post then; that's just all the time we have for this activity before the real Team CHOW brief. WIPs, inspiration boards, ideas, sketches, let's bring it on. Hopefully, we'll get stuff we can use for the real CHOW.

GOAL- Finding out what styles and method suit us best as a group, getting to know each other better and having a jolly good time

I hope that covers it. If you guys have things to add or change to this brief, go right ahead.

[AsaB]

Great work, Sekino! I think this explains it all very clearly, at least it does to me
Yeah, the chat was very illuminating, really got things rolling properly! I think we all really clicked well together and agreed on most things too. Promising start, in any case!

After you left, the rest of us got to wondering about organization. I know every team only gets one SB, but if it ever gets confusing or we would need to separate some elements etc, Xana suggested to either get a blogspot or make a social group here on CA for the team. I quite like the idea of the social group if things ever get too busy over here, we could make separate threads there for different elements. But it's just an idea, it's very possible that this one thread will be more than sufficient!

Anyway, I can't think of anything else that needs to be added to Sekino's list above. Let's get started!

[Sekino]

Played around a bit with various objects... So far, individual objects are working better for me than combinations:



After running out of juice, Spray mellowed out big time and turned to buddhism:



I'll experiment some more tomorrow

[AsaB]

Great start, Sekino! These are all awesome, haha, I adore the clock guy

I'm gonna get started on making an inspiration board, but first, here are a few sketches I did this morning. I did also just work with individual objects so far, had a hard time combining them. But this was just a little something to get me started anyway!

[Pretty_Angel]

That are some really fun ideas, you two! "Spray" makes me smile, haha. x3

I also have something on my mind but wasn't able to scribble it down yet. Still need to learn for my test on Monday! D:

[AsaB]

Thanks Sabrina! Eugh, school giving you problems, huh? Well, if you have the time, it'd be fun to see your ideas!

Okee, I made a quick inspiration board purely for 80's cartoons, just to get the general idea of the designs and colour. If you guys want to dig deeper into this subject, like some particular genre or type of cartoons, go right ahead! I just grabbed the main cartoons, although I'm sure I forgot some. I might make another with personified objects or fruits, but you guys feel free to make some too

[3mMajster]

Great stuff guys!
I just came from work, the boss kept us longer than usual.
I'll try to do some stuff tonight, and post it here.
Keep up with the good work!

[3mMajster]

Here are some sketches, I'll try latter to add some color.

[3mMajster]

Here is the pen king.

[Pretty_Angel]

@Asa: There's a lot of 90s stuff mixed into your sheet. XD

So yeah, I threw something together. Not much though.

[AsaB]

Awesome ideas everyone

Sabrina, yeah, I actually know there's something that's not strictly from the 80's, but it's still something I consider in the "same package". That 80's vibe leaked well into the first few years of the 90's. I could very much be wrong, though! Anyone feel free to make up a new one :3

[Sekino]

Looking good!!

Asa- I think my faves are the blackberry (or cell?), lava lamp and the book reading the book. They have so much personality and movement!

3mMajster- The pencil is great, but I personally get more character out of the apple... like some country bumpkin goin' fishing (and using its own worms as bait= brilliant)

XanaChama- The toaster is adorable! What is he staring at in shock, though? And I figure you shouldn't be afraid of your own ideas concerning the can (your address isn't online, right? )...

Pretty_Angel- Good start! I think if you added a few more features to the pots (noses, eyebrows, cheeks...) and perhaps exagerrate their outlines more, they would really come across as two distinct 'ladies' and personas.

(Sorry for throwing all the crits in one shot: I'm not sure if I'll be online very often today...)

I've tried my hand at fruits. They ended up being quite anthropomorphized (I hope it won't start a 'frooty' movement or some such)...



I had to colour this one

[AsaB]

Thanks for the good crits, Sekino, very good points!
Ah man, your latest is just great. I adore the cherry twins, what a fantastic idea! The tourist couple is great too, although I think the pinepple man outshines his ladyfriend by far, I like how you used the fruit's texture as his own hair and beard.

Sorry I don't have anything right now, my little brother was just returning home from a 2 month trip and the whole day went into chatting and whatnot. I'll get more done tonight Gonna tackle some fruits!

[Sekino]

Thanks Asa Even with what we have so far, I think we can already begin to determine how our styles ought to mesh together and what are our strong points for the CHOW brief.

I'm really glad that we all seem to handle characterization well (i.e. expression, personality..) and we're all rooted in linework. It was a very short exercise, but it's great that we already have something to look at as a group Maybe by tomorrow afternoon, we could all put down our thoughts on our work so far; crits, new ideas, concerns (if anyone has them), etc... ?

Oh, and another thing: If you guys have time, perhaps it'd be good to try and colour some of your sketches (except Majster, unless you want to do more). We can judge everybody's lines and design so far but the colouring will be very important to maintain consistency. That way, if colouring ends up being a problem for anyone in terms of speed or comfort, perhaps we could consider some people doing the linework and others doing the colours?

NOTE: I feel I sound bossy as heck! I'm really just writing down suggestions as they pop in my head so I won't forget. Other plans/ideas are most welcome!

[AsaB]

You don't sound bossy, don't worry It's crucial to talk about all this and the earlier, the better. So by all means don't be shy to share your thoughts.

And I agree, we already have a pretty clear picture of how our styles are. I'm very glad we all seem to be on the same page in these matters, I think they will all manage to mix well together

Good idea to have one final thoughts/crits/etc tomorrow before the big one starts, we should definitely get used to other team members critting our stuff! Hopefully everyone will have thrown in a second batch by then so we'll have more to crit.

I did a little browsing in the SBs from the first round of Team Chow and some of the same concerns popped up there. I saw many did take turns, some did all the inks, others the colours etc. I quite like that idea, I personally think I'm much better at inking than colouring! But let's see what the rest thinks

[Sekino]

This is how well our 'pre-CHOW' characters work together, in only 3 days (and minor adjustments of contrast and layout) Not too shabby for a start

[3mMajster]

Hi guys, great work!
Sorry for yesterday, I haven't been home all day, had to finish some documentation.
I'll try to do some more work tonight.
Anyway need to say some words about your work.
AsaB: excellent job, I especially like that roll of toilet paper, it looks so mean.
Sekino: I have no words, your work is fantastic, those cherry twins look so mmmmeeeoooowwww.
XanaChama: I like that can, especially the face expression , it would look even better if you would add some color.
Pretty_Angel: It's great, I like the plants, maybe because I have a house full of them.

[3mMajster]

This is how well our 'pre-CHOW' characters work together, in only 3 days (and minor adjustments of contrast and layout) Not too shabby for a start

I think it's sooooooo goooooooood.
I must say it again, GREAT JOB YOU GUYS!!!

It seems to me that my apple fisher needs some corrections, so I'll try to make it better.

[3mMajster]

Here is the apple fisher, hope it's little better.

[Pretty_Angel]

Hi there!

Sorry for yesterday -- I don't know how but I totally missed the last posts. I've put the thread on my watchlist, but somehow it slipped through my radar... O_o Won't happen again. >_<