A few days ago, I did a sketch of the characters from Stripes:

Cast of Stripes Sketch

I made three attempts to render the sketch into something more polished. If you can like any of these, you can buy a print for around $3.00 (including shipping)!

Click here to order a print of my first try:

Cast of Stripes - Try 1

Cast of Stripes - Try 2

Cast of Stripes - Try 3

Here are some more concept drawings from the Stripes animated short I’m making. I was working on the designs for the main characters. Instead of having one solid, unchanging design, Japanese character designs often straddle between realism and caricature even within the same film. I really like this approach and want to do something similar with Stripes.

Toward the bottom are drawings of kids based on pictures a friend of mine took in Kenya.

Concept art for Stripes

I’ve written two-three drafts of story so far. It’s so challenging! But I will not give up until its really good!

Kangas are colorful, large pieces of cloth worn by people in many parts of Africa. They often have sayings printed on them. In Kenya, these sayings are often in Swahili.

I’m thinking about using kangas to the opening credits. I want the opening credits to be light and cheery, to let the audience know that the rest of the short is light-hearted as well.

I did a little research. A while back, I bought a book on kangas from the National Museum of Kenya. It’s called Kangas: 101 Uses by Jeannette Hanby and David Bygott. It’s a great little book with drawings and info about kangas. (There’s a few used copies on Amazon: Kangas: 101 Uses)

I also looked at the one kanga that I actually own. I have it hanging in my apartment:

Kanga with 'Congratulations Barack Obama' printed on it. I bought this gem in Nairobi in 2008, right after the US elections.

With the book and my Obama kanga as inspiration, I created a pattern in Flash:

Flash-drawn kanga

Then I took a picture of one of my white bedsheets by standing on a chair and taking the picture from above. I combined the images in photoshop for this:

Kanga design with texture

Then I decided that the design was too ‘perfect,’ as is the case when you use straight lines and shapes in Flash. So I decided to go over the whole thing hand-drawing the elements in Flash. I liked that better. I also added some zebras and a map of Africa:

Hand-drawn kanga design with texture

Eventually, I think I will do a process like this for the opening credits, using lots of different kanga designs and animating their elements. I’ve had lots of ideas for the opening credits. I think they will be pretty fun!