Antigone stuff.

Click the above image to enlarge. I couldn't get it any bigger without having it jut out of the reading area and into the sidebar.

This project started life as the accompaniment to a family tree of the characters of Antigone—one of my favourite plays. Our class eschewed Socrates' original for Jean Anouilh's bleaker, modernist 1940s version, which would be why none of these bright sparks are wearing a toga. I rediscovered the pencil sketches recently and thought they could do with a bit of sprucing up.

Antigone. Our protagonist. Sulky and defiant, she is every inch Oedipus' daughter (yes, that Oedipus). I would say she is principled but that's the thing I love about the Anouilh version: she isn't, not really, because nobody is. Antigone is adrift and damn aware of it. In theory, I admire her grudgingly. In practice, she usually gets on my nerves.

Creon. Our antagonist. In the classical sense of someone who opposes the protagonist, I mean. I like him better than Antigone a good deal of the time, because he's just a decent man trying to do his job.

(Reddish characters are from Oedipus' family, which is actually kind of important because they're the arrogant royals having tête-à-têtes with fate. Blue is Creon's family—common folk. Symbolism, yo.)

Ismene. Antigone's sister. The prettiest thing I have ever drawn, no joke. I like her translucent blouse and her vaguely Russian skirt.

Haemon. Antigone's fiancé. A mystery how he ever fell for her, really, because he is dashing and bold and far more given to prefer girls like Ismene. That sure is a nice suit. I envy how well it fits on him.

Polynices. The first dead brother. He and Eteocles kill each other in single combat over the fate of the city of Thebes. He is the traitor and so as punishment Creon declares that he is to be left unburied, but of course Antigone takes it into her head that she must. It's established pretty quickly that he's kind of a terrible person. Will Eteocles prove any different?

Megareus. Haemon's brother. Also dead, but of no consequence. He might not actually even be mentioned in the play. I included him for the hell of it and also because it would be a shame to waste such a nice profile (and such curly hair).

Eteocles. The second dead brother. He defended Thebes and was feted as a hero after his death, but Creon reveals that he was just as ready to sell the city out as Polynices was. Plot twist: both brothers were shitty people! O delicious ambiguity. Also, his coat looks like it's made of towels. How unfortunate.

(No Eurydice because I didn't like how I drew her. Sucks to suck, E.)

May issue.

Been a while, hasn't it?

I'm graduating—have graduated—so this is the last ever Feedback post you'll see. On here, I mean. I try not to think about it too much and you shouldn't either, because as far as this blog is concerned, I'm still going to be posting irregular updates of directionless art.

For an article about the new security procedures. At time of writing they were getting a lot more uptight about demanding ID at the gates, and I would happily concede that it was in our best interest if I had any faith that this would change anything. Our Journalism teacher went down to see the alleged draconianism of the new measures in action and came back calling it a non-event. He is, as per usual, correct.

For the annual sum-up of our school's sporting achievements. This one ran in black and white about half the size of a postcard, but I'm putting it up here big and in colour because I like it, damn you. It's also the biggest and most unified illustration I've ever had to do so props for that as well.

For an article about online classes. That background is shameful and I am appropriately ashamed.

BONUS

May was the month of fits and starts. I think everything but the cover went through a couple of drafts beforehand, so here you go.

Initial idea for security. I wanted a wall of IDs, but the copy-pasting alone would've killed me.

IASAS review: assortment of drafts, initial lineart overlaid on the sketch, a halfhearted attempt at skintones. I've been getting better at colouring people but that's mostly been through adventures in colourising pencil sketches. Those'll go up here too in their own time.

Draft of the online illustration. I kinda like this one, but the proportions are off and fullbody had more action.

Laras out.

Teaser.

A little something I'm working on for this month's issue.

Badminton issue.

'Sup, guys. Our school has been hosting an interscholastic badminton tourney for the past few days, and since it's kind of a thing for us to give live coverage to at least one big sporting event per year, the entire staff has been working their backs off to pull a mini-issue together. The "IASAS BADMINTON SPECIAL" text really should have been higher up on the page but I'm quite proud of what I did with the A-shuttlecock and Q-racquet. Very clean.

Putting out a mini-issue (16 pages instead of 24) with a sporty focus meant that there really wasn't a call for much artwork. This is the rough sketch for the back cover. Initally we were going for a sort of Ellen Forney Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian dichotomy kind of vibe, but that didn't go too well.

Cleaned-up lines. Her arm is stupid and so's his foot (and, come to think of it, hers are too). Racquet looks decent, though. His face is nicely angular.

 Colours by the inimitable Ydriss. Love you long time, girlie. ♥

Various posters.

And by "various", I actually mean two. Process pictures sure go a long way towards bulking up a post.

First is a poster advertising my friend's one-act play. Given that the actors billed are all underclassmen, I'm not sure if life will precisely imitate art where costuming is concerned.

EDIT

What do you know, my friend agreed with me. He also asked for a version with Satan put in. The kid playing the demon (and let me make this clear right now: he's a great guy, really ace, really enthusiastic) just so happens to be terribly and irrevocably blond, which messed up my entire colour scheme for a little while. Everything turned out okay in the end, though.

Second one's pretty cute. I've done a poster for Fashion Rationale before and loved the end result, so this was a fun client to come back to—plus this time I remembered to save process pictures! Here we have the rough sketch; the font is Infinity, if you are so interested (and if you ever want to identify any font I've used, feel free to drop me a line).

Cleaned-up lineart. Getting from the first image to this one took about three and a half hours, for those of you keeping track.

Finished product. This project was basically an excuse to draw questionable fashion trends, and by that yardstick I'd say it was pretty damn successful, thank you very much.

EDITED AGAIN

Playing around in Photoshop resulted in two more versions! I almost think I like the teal one better than the original, honestly, but I've always been a sucker for teal. (click for big)