Exploring shapes for a random character design. She's a bit rough around the edges and scary when you first meet her but has a good heart.
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The art blog of illustrator Christian Bocquee - features regular postings of illustration, character design, sketches, and animation.
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/2/2014
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Exploring shapes for a random character design. She's a bit rough around the edges and scary when you first meet her but has a good heart.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 6/22/2014
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Inspired by the city I live in, Brisbane. Colonies of flying foxes at dusk, and seemingly rickety Queenslanders on stilts. Growing up here these were pretty typical sights, though don't try and find where this is. This one's made up. More process pictures can be viewed on my Facebook page.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 6/13/2014
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 6/6/2014
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If you've been following this blog you'll be pretty familiar with this character by now. Here's a couple more scraps exploring different mediums and treatments. We are still seeking a publisher for this one, however I have been quite happy to just keep filling my sketchbooks with ideas for it. If/when we do find a willing publisher, I think the character and his world are going to flow from my pen/pencil/brush like an old friend..
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/25/2014
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Visual story telling, it's finally starting to click for me what this means. I'm really excited about the possibilities after doing Alex Woo's gesture drawing course. These sketches are based on an experience growing up. One of my first jobs was helping a milko after school. I have fond memories of that job. I've also been reading about story structure. Hopefully I can find the essence of the story that I feel lurks in these memories. The idea will keep warm on the back burner until then. I hope you enjoy these scraps.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/23/2014
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In need of a motivational boost I was going back over my old sketchbooks to see how much (if) my drawings have improved. The sketchbook my hand landed on happened to contain some cafe sketching from three years ago to the day. Here's a spontaneous portrait I found of a gentleman from Rockhampton who I got chatting with. I remember not liking this drawing very much at the time. But funnily, when I stumbled upon it a second time I felt it was one of the more inspired pieces amongst a lot of pretty bad drawings.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/9/2014
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I'm nearing the end of a gesture drawing course with Alex Woo. Here's some of my homework practice from an earlier lesson on exaggeration. It has been a challenge and made me feel like a complete beginner, but I think I've found a few ingredients that have been missing in my past work.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 3/12/2014
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Above: Using dark cool colours and shapes that look similar to clutching fingers I hope to have conveyed a sense of danger for the bun, (who wants to keep dry naturally).
Below: Children tumble out of school at the end of a day. Bun meets natural predator, school children.
More from The Very Cross Bun. I'm about half way through the final art for this book. I don't think there's a single illustration without a few things I wouldn't change if I could go back and revise. But for those few imperfections, I think there are just as many happy accidents. I have tried to maintain a sense of play in their making, which I hope comes out in the art. Approaching each piece at the outset as an experiment rather than a finished piece seems to have tricked my perfectionism into finishing illustrations that in the end I hope are spontaneous and enjoyable to look at.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 2/26/2014
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A new preparation sketch for the book project titled 'The Very Cross Bun' mentioned in the last post.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 2/22/2014
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After quite a lot of anxiety filled experimentation I finally came up with this piece which will serve as a compass as I finish off a long overdue collaboration with author Jennifer Poulter. You can see some more experimentation with style in this earlier post. I really liked the sparse pen & watercolour of some of those pieces, but in the end gravitated towards this more vibrant, textured look.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 1/17/2014
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 11/13/2013
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 9/18/2013
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Here are some of my favourite illustrations from Legends in their own Lunchbox. I did a total of more than 128 illustrations I think, so this is only a tiny fraction. I can gratefully say I took a lot of lessons from this project. One of the biggest was how to simplify. Simplify characters, props, backgrounds, compositions etc. That's a never ending journey, but I do feel I made some progress in this department, and I think this lesson is going to affect my future work.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 9/5/2013
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The first two books in the series which I just finished illustrating. The publisher was surprisingly open to my showing the artwork, so I'll see what I can post from behind the scenes in coming posts. If you'd like to get your hands on the books they are available from Macmillan's website here.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/27/2013
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 6/24/2013
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Experiments with different techniques and colour schemes. At the top is the final piece rendered with graphite pencil on watercolour paper.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 5/4/2013
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Friend Paul C. Newman wrote a short story called The Dog Tags. After reading it I thought it would make a good story to illustrate. At this stage I'm only doing one or two concept illustrations to see what it might look like. I put a lot of time into the colours for this one but I'm not sure how well I chose them. With digital painting I find it a real challenge to limit the number of colours and to keep them all singing together in harmony.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/9/2013
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Another experiment with the loose pen style. More practice at hatching will do me good. I had to fix a few spots in Photoshop and the horse didn't fade away into the background quite like I'd pictured it.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/9/2013
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With some down time on the horizon my thoughts are returning to personal work. I've been wanting to flesh out my folio for some time with those styles I most enjoy working in. Here's a character that's been making appearances in my sketchbook the last year or so. I have him down tentatively as a drover, definitely a dreamer, and probably an anti-hero of some kind, though my knowledge of Australian history and rural life in general is sadly lacking, and definitely the weakest link when it comes to taking this character beyond the concept stage.
Nevertheless, I wanted to develop this loose pen style of illustration in my folio in the hopes of getting to actually use it on some real projects, and I felt this character provided fertile ground for some folio pieces.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 3/28/2013
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Holiday sketches from last January, except the very bottom one which was with Google street view - definitely the easiest way to travel.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 2/28/2013
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Well it's been a while, but here's my entry for this week's Illustration Friday. The week's word is 'Whisper'. Hope you like it!
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/21/2012
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Given the briefness of these opportunities I usually observe for as long as I can first, trying to draw in my mind before putting pen to paper. Usually once people notice they have become a subject I am done with the observation part, so I don't think it's too uncomfortable for anyone involved. It's much easier to look without being noticed, than to look-and-draw without being noticed, and I think it's good practice for the visual memory to divide drawing and observing in this way. In fact drawing in-your-mind only is something you can do anytime you want to make visual notes. Just look as if you really were drawing, following the contours and the forms. People get less mad this way, and it's amazing how much looking you can get away with!
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/13/2012
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/12/2012
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/11/2012
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The art blog of illustrator Christian Bocquee - features regular postings of illustration, character design, sketches, and animation.
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Number of Readers that added this blog to their MyJacketFlap: 2
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/2/2014
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Exploring shapes for a random character design. She's a bit rough around the edges and scary when you first meet her but has a good heart.
By: Christian Bocquee,
on 6/22/2014
Blog: The art of Christian Bocquee (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: imaginary, buildings, landscapes, pen and wash, watercolour, Add a tag
Inspired by the city I live in, Brisbane. Colonies of flying foxes at dusk, and seemingly rickety Queenslanders on stilts. Growing up here these were pretty typical sights, though don't try and find where this is. This one's made up. More process pictures can be viewed on my Facebook page.
0 Comments on Brisbane on stilts as of 6/23/2014 3:41:00 AM
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 6/13/2014
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 6/6/2014
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If you've been following this blog you'll be pretty familiar with this character by now. Here's a couple more scraps exploring different mediums and treatments. We are still seeking a publisher for this one, however I have been quite happy to just keep filling my sketchbooks with ideas for it. If/when we do find a willing publisher, I think the character and his world are going to flow from my pen/pencil/brush like an old friend..
0 Comments on Juggling projects as of 6/6/2014 7:39:00 AM
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/25/2014
Blog: The art of Christian Bocquee (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Visual story telling, it's finally starting to click for me what this means. I'm really excited about the possibilities after doing Alex Woo's gesture drawing course. These sketches are based on an experience growing up. One of my first jobs was helping a milko after school. I have fond memories of that job. I've also been reading about story structure. Hopefully I can find the essence of the story that I feel lurks in these memories. The idea will keep warm on the back burner until then. I hope you enjoy these scraps.
0 Comments on Milko story as of 4/25/2014 9:49:00 PM
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/23/2014
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In need of a motivational boost I was going back over my old sketchbooks to see how much (if) my drawings have improved. The sketchbook my hand landed on happened to contain some cafe sketching from three years ago to the day. Here's a spontaneous portrait I found of a gentleman from Rockhampton who I got chatting with. I remember not liking this drawing very much at the time. But funnily, when I stumbled upon it a second time I felt it was one of the more inspired pieces amongst a lot of pretty bad drawings.
0 Comments on Chance portrait as of 4/23/2014 7:59:00 PM
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/9/2014
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I'm nearing the end of a gesture drawing course with Alex Woo. Here's some of my homework practice from an earlier lesson on exaggeration. It has been a challenge and made me feel like a complete beginner, but I think I've found a few ingredients that have been missing in my past work.
0 Comments on Gesture drawing practice as of 4/9/2014 9:55:00 PM
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 3/12/2014
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Below: Children tumble out of school at the end of a day. Bun meets natural predator, school children.
More from The Very Cross Bun. I'm about half way through the final art for this book. I don't think there's a single illustration without a few things I wouldn't change if I could go back and revise. But for those few imperfections, I think there are just as many happy accidents. I have tried to maintain a sense of play in their making, which I hope comes out in the art. Approaching each piece at the outset as an experiment rather than a finished piece seems to have tricked my perfectionism into finishing illustrations that in the end I hope are spontaneous and enjoyable to look at.
0 Comments on The Very Cross Bun ...continued as of 3/12/2014 5:42:00 AM
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 2/26/2014
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A new preparation sketch for the book project titled 'The Very Cross Bun' mentioned in the last post.
0 Comments on The Very Cross Bun as of 2/28/2014 12:29:00 AM
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 2/22/2014
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After quite a lot of anxiety filled experimentation I finally came up with this piece which will serve as a compass as I finish off a long overdue collaboration with author Jennifer Poulter. You can see some more experimentation with style in this earlier post. I really liked the sparse pen & watercolour of some of those pieces, but in the end gravitated towards this more vibrant, textured look.
0 Comments on Style guide as of 1/1/1900
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 1/17/2014
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I'm not sure if I can call these life drawing, as I used photo reference (hope I didn't lose too many of you with that admission). Better use of tone and pencil rendering are what I was looking to work on here. The model photos were provided by a very handy Youtube channel here.
I also made use of a trick my teacher showed me this week, which was to begin with cylinders. I really thought I'd gotten past the cylinder drawing stage of my artistic career, but I was amazed how much closer this got me looking at the orientation of hips etc.
Below is a recent location sketch (whilst I'm misnaming posts) done directly in pen - mistakes and all.
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 11/13/2013
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This year I am contributing a 'how to draw' series for the QLD State Library Summer Reading Club blog. There will be six lessons over six weeks starting from December 1st. It'll be really easy stuff, so if you're a young grasshopper or just starting out it should be quite useful for you!
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 9/18/2013
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Here are some of my favourite illustrations from Legends in their own Lunchbox. I did a total of more than 128 illustrations I think, so this is only a tiny fraction. I can gratefully say I took a lot of lessons from this project. One of the biggest was how to simplify. Simplify characters, props, backgrounds, compositions etc. That's a never ending journey, but I do feel I made some progress in this department, and I think this lesson is going to affect my future work.
0 Comments on More from LITOL series as of 1/1/1900
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 9/5/2013
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The first two books in the series which I just finished illustrating. The publisher was surprisingly open to my showing the artwork, so I'll see what I can post from behind the scenes in coming posts. If you'd like to get your hands on the books they are available from Macmillan's website here.
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/27/2013
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A nine-ish month project has just concluded so I'm looking forward to resuming regular posting. Here are some oldies until I dust off my sketchbooks.
anger-eating demon concept.
young lady in heels hopping over a puddle.
0 Comments on Still alive... as of 1/1/1900
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 6/24/2013
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Experiments with different techniques and colour schemes. At the top is the final piece rendered with graphite pencil on watercolour paper.
0 Comments on Four frogs as of 1/1/1900
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 5/4/2013
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Friend Paul C. Newman wrote a short story called The Dog Tags. After reading it I thought it would make a good story to illustrate. At this stage I'm only doing one or two concept illustrations to see what it might look like. I put a lot of time into the colours for this one but I'm not sure how well I chose them. With digital painting I find it a real challenge to limit the number of colours and to keep them all singing together in harmony.
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/9/2013
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Another experiment with the loose pen style. More practice at hatching will do me good. I had to fix a few spots in Photoshop and the horse didn't fade away into the background quite like I'd pictured it.
0 Comments on Drover with horse as of 4/9/2013 11:16:00 PM
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 4/9/2013
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With some down time on the horizon my thoughts are returning to personal work. I've been wanting to flesh out my folio for some time with those styles I most enjoy working in. Here's a character that's been making appearances in my sketchbook the last year or so. I have him down tentatively as a drover, definitely a dreamer, and probably an anti-hero of some kind, though my knowledge of Australian history and rural life in general is sadly lacking, and definitely the weakest link when it comes to taking this character beyond the concept stage.
Nevertheless, I wanted to develop this loose pen style of illustration in my folio in the hopes of getting to actually use it on some real projects, and I felt this character provided fertile ground for some folio pieces.
0 Comments on Lost drover as of 4/9/2013 4:10:00 AM
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 3/28/2013
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Holiday sketches from last January, except the very bottom one which was with Google street view - definitely the easiest way to travel.
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 2/28/2013
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“If you listen quietly enough life will whisper its secrets to you.” ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru
Well it's been a while, but here's my entry for this week's Illustration Friday. The week's word is 'Whisper'. Hope you like it!
2 Comments on 'Whisper', last added: 3/1/2013
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/21/2012
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Given the briefness of these opportunities I usually observe for as long as I can first, trying to draw in my mind before putting pen to paper. Usually once people notice they have become a subject I am done with the observation part, so I don't think it's too uncomfortable for anyone involved. It's much easier to look without being noticed, than to look-and-draw without being noticed, and I think it's good practice for the visual memory to divide drawing and observing in this way. In fact drawing in-your-mind only is something you can do anytime you want to make visual notes. Just look as if you really were drawing, following the contours and the forms. People get less mad this way, and it's amazing how much looking you can get away with!
0 Comments on Mall sketches as of 1/1/1900
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/13/2012
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/12/2012
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By: Christian Bocquee,
on 7/11/2012
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Splendid!
thank you!