Here’s a piece of concept art I created in 2013 to try and capture the ‘feel’ of the film I wanted to make for my third year at university studying Animation. My limitations as an artist, and the software I was using meant that the film never reached my vision entirely, but I was still very happy with the final piece. ‘Sunshine in the Shadows’ was based on what I saw of the Romani people when I was in Romania in 2009, and the things I heard have happened to them in Europe. Though living in poverty, the children I met whilst there were just like children who live in the UK – Wanting to have fun, be loved and use their imagination. My dad provided the music for the film. You can watch it on the Animation section of my website, as well as some other animations: https://benbernard-smith.com/animation/

A train station is this week’s building, as suggested my my mum. I based it mostly off of Chester station, but also some others. It’s a bit wonky, but I like the details in it!

Daft Character #11! As well as continuing to play a bit with line variation, I am also playing with shadow now. I’ve never been able to draw a good, convincing shadow, so I’m going to try some techniques as the days and weeks go by.

Tribute #5! This is a character called Saxon from David Petersen’s comic series ‘Mouse Guard’. Like a mix of Brambly Hedge and the Lord of the Rings, Mouse Guard is a wonderful series that follows a group of mice who guard towns and villages of mice, helping them in getting supplies, sorting out village disputes and protecting against predators. A film is currently in development which is very exciting!

Daft Character #10! I quite like the bold lines around the edge of the character, but I wonder if it’d work better having most of the lines bold, or varying in size. I forgot to do the bold lines around the building on Tuesday, but I will remember for the Tribute tomorrow!

This was a piece I did for an exhibition at Funky Aardvark called ‘Colour Explosion’ that happened earlier this year. I decided to do a silent comic strip where that literally happened. I inked it by hand, coloured it on Photoshop and then entered a print of the finished piece. I’m very pleased to say that it sold!

A bit of a peculiar building today, loosely based on Birmingham’s Selfridge’s (as suggested by Katie Corbett). I decided to changed it up quite a bit by using the shape of Selfridge’s but duplicating it, and then adding a bottom section. The lines helped it not to look like a burger, and I quite like it now. The design might work well as the basis of a spy base in the future.

Daft Character #9! A cute little bunny rabbit. With all my drawings this week I’m going to do a thick black outline around the character or object, as I’m trying to find ways to make my style a little more distinctive.

I have been a fan of Tintin ever since I was about 7 or 8, but because of a very unique and different style, I never attempted to draw him. This might be my first ever proper attempt and I think it went quite well. I am currently re-reading the stories and enjoying them from an older perspective. Whilst some stories I am not enjoying as much as I remember, some of the stories I am enjoying more. Age is a funny thing. God bless and see ya Monday!