Chet Spiewak- Art Blog

Over the past several years I received many suggestions from moms and kids alike, for creating a series of Christmas tree ornaments based on the characters from “An Ornaments’ Tale”.  I thought to myself– this can make a great holiday memory for the entire family…

The prototypes are being  built by hand — much like ornaments of old….

Topher the train ornament is being built from wood…

Percy too will be built from wood…… and decorated by hand…

I’ haven’t posted in a while cause’ I been waiting for my new custom blog theme…  I wanted my new blog to improve my visitors viewing experience, with more options, book galleries and a professional face lift… So, I embarked on a journey to find a guru to help me with this vision…

Two months later…….I have a great pic of an unusable Blog.

I’ve been working hard on creating all the ornament characters for my new Holiday book. This week I focused my attention on Zoe.  My inspiration was to create an angel with an old world look and handmade feel.. I think I accomplished my mission..

Here 2 versions of Zoe…. Fresh from my creation studio…

Here is Zoe with all her textures, materials and colors applied..

Why is Zoe so happy?… Cause she can’t wait to share her Christmas story…

My goal when modeling  a character is to capture their personality! I try to use the initial design drawings and storyboard sketches as  guides for modeling the character.    Zoe is a carefree, and full of spirit- and had to have a old world hand crafted look and feel.

Zoe ornament cartoon sketch…

I blew the dust of my keyboard,  fired up the computer  and launched the 3D software to start modeling the new characters, props and the actual interior of house needed for creating the illustrations for the new book.   I chose Milton as the first character candidate in the modeling/animating process.   I needed to create a look of an old world hand made wooden biplane ornament.

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MILTON  3D Mesh model

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MILTON  3D Model no-textures

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MILTON  3D Model with Textures

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 MILTON  Smiling!  Because he’s so ready to be animated!

The storyline for the second book is complete!  The final storyboard tally is over 30  illustrations for the book.  Wow– A lot work ahead…

Storyboard/Illustration#03

Fiona is hiding deep within the branches of the Christmas tree,– She’s scared…  But why?…

Storyboard/Illustration #07

Crystal informs the rest of ornaments of the family’s  bad news..

FYI -I  just posted some key storyboards on my blog for people interested in the storyline and feel of the second book in the series. 

With the storyline for “An Ornaments’ Tale, Fiona’s Flight” finally completed, now it’s time to storyboard the adventure. The storyboards layout the storyline and provide a road map for creating the  artwork.

In this storyboard the ornaments propel themselves down a hallway to visit the sick child.

The flying ornaments introduce themselves…. (continued in next pane)

to Fiona and friends

As more and more storyboards are rendered– We slowly start to see the depth, perspective and emotion in this holiday adventure.

I’m knee deep in design, working hard on the storyline. This year the ornaments over come their fears and differences  in an attempt to bring the cheer of the holidays to a sick bed ridden child.

As an author/artist I approach creating a book from an artist’s perspective.   I use the power of the pencil to render drawings and sketches of a possible storyline.  It differs from  the traditional approach of writing  pages of script, notes and text, but it works wonders for me.

The pics below are snap shot sketches of the storyline…….

Percy wishes he could fly — just like the rest flying ornaments…. Think of all the cool places..….

The ornaments gather at child bed…

Percy, Crystal, Topher,  Stanley and Fiona from the book#1 are joined by Milton, Angela, Felix and Sherman on a Christmas adventure set for 2011 holidays.  This is my first mock up drawing of all the characters interacting with each other.

http://www.3dstorybooks.com/VideoPreview/AnOrnamentsTale.wmv