Day 2: Celebrity Crush

Supposed to be Emma Watson in case that isn't clear.

Having fun getting used to my computer again. not sure

if any of these values work. I'll fix them if I can grab 

another computer sometime soon. Merry Christmas Eve.

Day One: Self Portrait

Thought I would do a daily challenge thing over the winter break.

I've been using the cintiqs for so long that it's a little hard for me

to switch back to my tablet. I also recently found Macklemore

and Childish Gambino. It's all I listen to now. Also trying to look

at a few masters. I started focusing on some of the tiny details in

my face a little too early, and then started looking at Liepke and 

noticed how he focuses more on blocking it in correctly. I started

out by looking at this guy named Sachin Teng and was just playing

with his design sense, and I also did a few studies of Eric Canete

earlier this morning. This is basically my brains summary of a bunch

of artists and just a bit of  me. I'm kind of on a painting trip now.

Merry almost Christmas Eve. 

The Blue Room

Over the past few days I've been working

on a new project based on an urban legend.

A few years after Mary Winchester died

Harry Houdini went to the Winchester

house with a medium. She was there to 

prove that she could interact with those 

who are beyond the grave. He was there

to prove she could not. What else happens

in the story is still in flux, but that's the gist.

I played around with mediums and colors

just to get out a few rough ideas. Starting

with pencil and in a more cartoony style is

my comfort zone, but it allowed me to focus

mainly on the personalities. 

With this drawing I was worried less

about getting the character into it, and 

more about drawing in a style inspired
by Arthur Rackham, focusing on lines, 

patterns, textures and colors. 

Urban Legends

Today we got our new assignment

and I'm already excited. I don't exactly

know what story we're going with, but

I just wanted to get my feet wet. I read

a few creepy stories about ghosts, demons

and aliens and just started painting the little

ideas that would pop into my head.

I also wanted to see what I could push

with a lack of saturation or complete

saturation, low key and high key, etc.

Really I just wanted to play. 

I also talked to my teammates and 

it looks like we should be able to

try something new involving glass.

basically, I'm excited. 

recently

What have I done recently you might ask?

Not a whole hell of a lot. A 30 minute study

and some revised character designs. But life 

stuff has happened. I got to put together a 

portfolio and I realized that portfolio's aren't

exactly something you can rush. It's also something

that you slowly put together overtime.

I also got to go to CTN animation expo

this year! that was amazing and inspiring!

I got to meet some amazing artists, and I got

a few interviews which were more than

fantastic. I'm off to another class though.

Happy thanksgiving to everyone!

City of the Beasts and things

All of these are quick paintings

showing how I felt about every

scene. Basically I needed a break

from painting Nadia, so I took

today to paint a few of these.

 

I like how they came out so I might

paint the rest of the book this way.

I just need to find the time.

 

 

so basically a kid runs home from school

and finds out that his mom who has been

sick is going to get treatment in texas.

 

 

He has to go live with his grandma

in New York and go on a trip with her to

the Amazon. He also has to find his way

to her place and has no idea how

to get there. On the way he gets all

his stuff stolen.

 

 

He finally finds his grandmothers

apartment after a long ordeal. He's

angry she didn't pick him up but the

second she answers the door she starts

scolding him for taking so long and

his attitude immediately changes.

She acts like he needs to be able to

take better care of himself and find

his way around places because if

he can't make it here, he can't make

it anywhere. Especially the Amazon.





When he gets there he meets this girl

who talks to animals and they basically

become soulmates later but they don't

right now. Yeah, I'm awesome at stories.

be he gets to this place and they talk

and stuff. It's cool, trust me. 

 

Then they start heading down the

amazon in search for The Beasts.

A few other characters join them and

Everything is fine...for now.

 

While I'm here, I'll also post a

few quick studies I did recently.

I wanted to see how much I could

do in less and less time:

 

1 hour:

 

 

30 minutes:

 

12 minutes:

City of the Beasts

This is the main Character for our new BFA project:

Alexander Cold. It took me a while to start to get how

this style worked, and this is about when it started

working for me.

I then moved onto a few color and pattern studies.

I then grabbed the pieces that I liked from each and

combined them to make something that felt like Alex.



I tried out a different painting style and it feels like

it works for this project. It takes forever because it's

so completely different to me than attacking the cintiq

with my tablet pen, but I imagine that having to think

about each gradient and shadow shape is probably a 

good thing. Two more characters by Friday! 





The other thing I decided to do to help us

out was make a short opening video to

start off our presentation. here is the BG

and this is the video:

 

 



City of the Beasts

 Our BFA class is starting a new project and we just finished the first week.

 The story is about a boy named Alexander Cold who is starting to grow up. 

While his father takes Alexander's sick mother to a hospital he is sent to live

with his grandmother who promptly takes him to the Amazon where he meets

 Nadia Santos. A half Native South American, half Canadian nine year old

who is one of the wisest characters in the book. Not smart, but wise. She can

talk to animals and always travels around with a monkey named Boroba.

 The wisest character in the book is Walimai. an old man who can travel 

to and from the spirit realm. A young lady's soul is tied to him and travels

with him until it is finally his turn to walk as a soul.

 A few other characters are Doctor Torres, the nurse who is trying

to protect  the indians by inoculating them with antibodies, Professor

LeBlanc, a rather annoying author who writes fantasy that masquerades

as history, and Cesar Santos, a man smitten (like all the others) with 

Doctor Torres who is also leading the expedition and is Nadia's father.

We were allowed to choose an art style for our group and we chose

Disney TV. I tried to spend a lot of the first week trying to draw like it.

 Playing with heads, shapes and gestures is something I haven't really done

in a while and it was fun to get back to pencils and graphite sticks.

A lot of what I tried was meant to break the drawing by starting off with

a quick sketch of buttered toast, or Frontbutt (the colored in drawing above) 

with his butt in front, or his anatomically incorrect mouth. There were quite 

a few times where I looked at my paper and said "That's so stupid." 

but I loved that. 

There are quite a few fun props to do and I haven't ever really done prop

design so I had no idea what I was doing (which was really exciting!) Her 

necklace is a huge story element so I thought I'd play with that or even how

many different kinds of feathers or bottles there could be. 

 We decided to do the Amazonian town in the book and built it on stilts.

I played around with a few value comps and tried something more towards

the Disney TV for kids style. I might have broken it a bit, but I would have

love it as a kid.

Lastly, I enjoyed when Nadia and Alexander met Padre Valdomero, a European

priest who has actually seen the beast. This is the drawing I expected him to give them.

*          *          *          *          *

We have a fun team, and many weeks ahead so I look forward to future posts.

My visual development cohorts are:

Bridget Ore:                       http://sketchblerg.blogspot.com/

Jen Armstrong:                    http://scribblisch.blogspot.com/

Naima Sawyer-Dymski:           http://naima.deviantart.com/

You should look at their stuff because it's awesome.

End of the Well Project

 

 



The Well Line art

 

I changed my character design and

drew a few moment peice ideas. Had

a lot of fun drawing these yesterday,

and can't wait to start painting them.

 

 

 

 

24 hour Animation

Our job was to finish an animation in 24 hours.

We didn't quite do that, but we painted some

pretty pictures! Al Sparks and I teamed up

to make these. He would give me a quick 

layout, I would draw and begin the painting,

Then I would hand it back to him to finish while

I started the next one. Hopefully we'll finish the 

film soon, now back to sleep.