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Tealin ([personal profile] tealin) wrote2006-07-11 02:55 pm
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A Batch of Bartimaeus

So last night was Life Drawing, which more often than not ends up being an excuse to draw my own stuff. As I had just finished Ptolemy's Gate the day before*, it was (understandably) the subject of my distraction. I scanned these at work so they're kind of streaky, sorry.

Kitty, Angry - Ooh, she's angry a lot. You can see a rejected drawing underneath her arm.
Kitty, Afraid - She's afraid a little less frequently than angry but it does happen. Her outfit is kind of based on the cursory description of a black tunic and trousers during the summoning scene. Not very imaginative, I'm afraid, but it's good for action stuff. This was drawn over the gutter of the newsprint pad, hence the line and shadow. Hands = uck.
Nathaniel - All (well, mostly**) grown up. Managed to make him look slighty less like Mr Stroud than how I see him in my head ... not easy.
Nathaniel Ushers Kitty to the Car - and eventually the theatre. I like Kitty here; Nathaniel's pretty bad but there's no way to edit him out and still have the vaguest clue what's going on.
Ptolemy - I like everything but the face.
Kittyblob - Uhhh ... I can't really say too much about this without giving away an important part of the book. To be safe: this is Kitty's self-image constructed with awkward coordination. Yeah. That seems vague enough...
Pyramid of Slime - Bartimaeus doesn't have enough energy to maintain a physical form beyond that of a bit of slime, but he still has the dignity to at least pull himself into a pyramid ... of slime. (The big cartoon eyes could not be resis- avoided.)
Quentin Makepeace - Mad, mad mad. This one's just a thumbnail (larger than life size!) but I seem to work best at that scale (or else at life drawing scale...) I don't know where I got the idea of his hair being like that; I think there might be a character in Christmas Orange that's rotund with red hair that waves out sideways. He also looks a but like Tweedledee/Dum though without the 19th-century-caricature-of-an-Irishman face.

*In just over twenty-four hours ... it's one of those books. I took a nap afterwards. It's also one of those books.
**Yes, yes, I know, there are some technicalities here. Hush now.

[identity profile] msjoplin.livejournal.com 2006-07-11 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooh, I have to read that now! I bought it ages ago and forgot I have it. :S

Do you think it's better or worse than Amulet (I'm assuming it's pretty good as you read it in 24 hours :D)?

[identity profile] twirlynoodle.livejournal.com 2006-07-11 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I liked it much better, myself.... not that I didn't like Amulet, but it was more sophisticated and the writing was better, I thought.

You have read Golem's Eye, right? That's ... kind of important...

[identity profile] msjoplin.livejournal.com 2006-07-11 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, shit, I've bought Golem's eye, not the Gate. Hee. Well, yeah, I'll read that first :D

Mr. Stroud

(Anonymous) 2006-07-11 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Why shouldn't he look like Mr. Stroud? I've found that if I let my drawings (or usually just character perceptions that I can't draw) look the way they want, they almost certainly evolve into something else eventually.

What's even more frustrating is that the way I imagine someone to look doesn't change half as often as the way I draw them.

I've been drawing Commodore Norrington lately; for some reason, it is very relaxing.

-Kaelynn

[identity profile] twirlynoodle.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
I did need to make older Nathaniel look like a logical progression from his younger self... while my young Nathaniel and the actual Mr Stroud look like they might be related, they don't look like the same person.

[identity profile] sreya.livejournal.com 2006-07-11 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
*laughing* I didn't slow down enough to see what this set was from, just saw Life Drawing, "Kitty, Angry" and "Kitty, Afraid" and thought I'd find drawings of a cat! Oops!

They look really good, though.

[identity profile] dried-frog-pill.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
Ahhhh I need to read these books. I read the first one, but I haven't gotten around to getting the others.

~ Banana

(Anonymous) 2006-07-12 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
Blob Kitty makes me implode.

MORE!

[identity profile] twirlynoodle.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
There's two more up now. For more, you'll have to wait ... Try bugging [livejournal.com profile] tulanoodle for some more – it's her department, really.

~ Banana

(Anonymous) 2006-07-12 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
But yours are so perty!

I checked your sister (?), but she doesn't seem to have posted anything Bartimaeusy in living memory. :( Keep drawing, though, whatever fandom - you're too good to stop. XD

[identity profile] twirlynoodle.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
She hasn't posted them, but she's got them ... That's why you need to bug her.

[identity profile] wicked-warrior.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 06:44 am (UTC)(link)
Hmmm, sketches ^^ You can't imagine how much I learn from your sketches :)
I like how you use the simple lines of always in the faces but manage to create different features and therefore, different characters.
Great dynamism in the first two and the last one :)

[identity profile] twirlynoodle.livejournal.com 2006-07-14 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
Huh, funny ... usually I get criticism along the lines of 'your characters don't look different enough.' Thanks. :)

[identity profile] green--desire.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 07:52 am (UTC)(link)
omg your nathaniel really does look like a younger stroud. thats kind of cool though now that i think about it...damn it don't taint my own image! haha im easily influenced. I love the slime pyramid I totally pictured it with big weird eyes only one of them was on top and the other was like sliding off the end of one side in cartoon form. I pictured the whole thing as a disney movie actually, all the characters where animated drawings in my mind. weird.

[identity profile] twirlynoodle.livejournal.com 2006-07-14 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
Your slime pyramid is funnier than mine... I think I like yours better.

Yeah, while reading it I was convinced the only way it could ever be moviefied (that's a technical term) was in animation – even if the humans were live-action, there would have to be so much CG that they might as well make it animated right off. And it'd be more economical to do 2D because you'd have to employ a horde of modellers for a year just to come up with all the models and rigs for the crazy demon shapes and all their various forms, then there's the problem of morphing, and that's not even considering the effects or the insane amount of rendering time. Whereas in 2D ... you draw it, it's done. Everyone uses the computers in their heads. Fabulous.

[identity profile] green--desire.livejournal.com 2006-07-15 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
Seriously! There would be so much cg characters and speical effects it would be just so cheesy, and rediculously over budgeted to fund those effects then theyd also have to deal with stupid crap with the actors aging blah blah, it would actually probably get way more attention if it was a 2d animation, plus a million times cheaper to make. Like whatever non-anime movie decides to give 2d a comeback will get lots of attention just for being in classic disney style 2D. Also the movie could cut out some of the boring parts where I zoned out and skimmed. haha.

[identity profile] pyri-prongs.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 10:18 am (UTC)(link)
Hooray for Ptolemy's Gate, even though it's bloody depressing.

Kittyblob and slime pyramid Bartimaeus are my favourites, strangely. They're cute. Poor Bartimaeus, he's such a pompous sweetheart.

[identity profile] artroomloner16.livejournal.com 2006-07-15 09:36 am (UTC)(link)
I love the Bartimaeus Trilogy! Your drawings of mandrake and kitty are really accurate, Disney seriously should hire you. anyway, i read it not too long ago and just finished the Abhorsen series. You should really check it out! i promise you'll love it, the first book is called Sabriel.

[identity profile] twirlynoodle.livejournal.com 2006-07-15 05:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I have read it ... that series definitely tipped over my weird-o-meter more than a few times, but it was good. that's another series in my sister' territory ... if only she'd bother to draw something from it. She's always talking about how it makes her want to do concept art. Are you reading this, Tula?

[identity profile] twirlynoodle.livejournal.com 2006-07-16 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
Here's the ONE (http://www.nocturnalsoldier.org/Tealin/xhp/misc/chez-abhorsen.jpg) piece of art I squeezed out of the Nix books. The Abhorsen house, or courtyard thereof. I don't know how canon it is, I mostly just wanted to play with colour.

[identity profile] ubersnark.livejournal.com 2006-07-20 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
Wow. Just wow.
Understand, I love, worship, and sacrifice chickens to the Bartimaeus trilogy, so seeing somebody actually do fanart (not to mention GOOD fanart) for it is...like something really, really good. Words escape me. Understand, Ptolemy's Gate is the book that made me sob and write an analysis on my LJ instead of cleaning my house for relatives coming over for my grandmother's freakin' funeral.
You = wonderful. And so does Barty the slime pyramid (cartoon eyes included ^.^).