Hatsu Timeline: 2007-2011

I think between all the confusion and craziness running around during my graduation this past May I totally forgot to post this. It's my final project for my Graphic Novel class. I felt that curriculum of the class could have benefited from a little more structure, but I can't complain to much... I got to learn much more about the art of comics, while still earning academic credits. Couldn't ask for a better class :)

Anyway, my final consisted of making a summary, character sheets, and a comicbook page. I thought I'd use my character Hatsu Moto, the mini forest emp, since she's been present throughout my time in college.

2007:
Hatsu is a relatively recent character. She was created during a watercolor drawing practice assignment during my first semester of college:



2008:
I was finally able to get my hands on my own copy of Photoshop CS3! I was so excited that I thought I'd try my hand at digital drawing.

This was my first completed digital drawing in Photoshop ever. Not to great, but it was a start.



Later that year, I completed my Animation 2 college course by creating a faux animated opening title sequence called, "The Days Of Hatsu Moto" :)



2009:
2009 was the year I tried my hand at digitally coloring a full animation for my Animation 3 college course. The animation was never finished because that kind of digital coloring took way too long to complete for each individual frame. However, Hatsu, and several of my other original characters are featured in it.



2010:
Hatsu is one of several of my original characters to be featured as a guest in my degree project talk show animation, "DTV". She was only featured for a few seconds, but so far she seems to get the best viewer reaction than any other character in the animation. She is voiced by me.




2011:
Finally, for one of my last classes in college, The Grapic Novel, we had to make a summary, character sheets, and a comicbook page. So, I thought, "why not use Hatsu?"

Summary:

The Days Of Hatsu Moto takes place in present day Los Angeles. The story chronicles the life of a mini forest imp named Hatsu Moto and her quest to save a man’s soul from his own ill-deeds and crude personality, which has been prophesied will lead to is death 3 years from now.

Hatsu plays the literal conscience to Rodney, the man who she’s supposed to “save”. She does this by accompanying Rodney where ever he goes and by putting him through many seemingly ridiculous tests, much to his dismay.

Despite her tiny size (she’s only 5 inches tall), Hatsu is very resourceful, and having magical powers doesn’t hurt either. Rodney initially despises Hatsu’s presence and finds her constantly chipper attitude and high-pitched voice extremely annoying. However, he very slowly starts to warm up to her.

Character Sheets:



Comic Page:



--
And that's about it... Hatsu's history since '07 :)

I felt happy doing this because it made me feel so sentimental. As a character, Hatsu was born during my first year of college, in one of my first courses. For those who don't know, Hatsu means "first" in Japanese (初). Throughout my college years Hatsu Moto has been a resource for me to use to push myself to try new things. And while all those things may not have worked, I still learned so much from doing them and I'm a better artist/person for it.

So thank you Hatsu, my little forest imp :) <3