For the last part of the work experience, I finalised the beach and hospital backgrounds, created some seaweed assets and painted a big underwater background in 4K so that Marie can zoom in and use it as a stage or pan across however she likes. I’m quite proud of how the stickers came out! I hope they’ll be used in the final.

Marie very helpfully gave me two books with gorgeous visuals of seaweed and coral, one on underwater British marine life and one called the seaweed collector’s handbook which was particularly stunning! I’m sometimes a bit lazy to collect references and use them, but I can truly see the difference in how convincing the shapes are after I’ve looked at some proper references. I’m an impatient person and sometimes rush right into drawing rather than taking time to research, but seeing the results of using references convinces me to slow down and save myself time later on. Researching for references is a good habit that I feel I could nurture.

Doing this project has really boosted my confidence as a colourist, so much so I feel like I could potentially get into it in the animation industry. Of course, it wouldn’t be my primary skill since I have never been trained as a painter or sought to develop my colour awareness very far. But it’s nice to know that I can do it when the opportunity or need arises.

That being said, I found it harder to work on the abstract underwater background, because I had less form and shapes to work with as a base and arrange them within the composition. I had to go for a more soft painterly look, which I’m not entirely comfortable with yet since I like clean edges and flat, matte shapes.

Overall, I’ve found that I really like working on a project with others, rather than independently working on my own. I like contributing to someone else’s story ideas and providing the visuals after negotiating and understanding what they need. It may be even preferable to creating alone – even though I’d have complete power over a personal project, I wouldn’t feel the same excitement of collaboration. I suppose this means I’m not cut out to be a showrunner, but that’s okay!