Enjoy Every Moment!

Who knows the future. Enjoy every moment!

Kittenbus!

Just like every venture to the Ghibli Blog. I came across something amazing, but this time it's even more amazing than usual!

Just watch! It's adorable!

Oh and a quick little tip to everyone out there in internet land to check out a couple fantastic illustrators that I rediscovered today.

Allison Hershey who did the lovely art in Halls of the Dead Faery Tale Adventures 2, and
Laurent Cluzel and Jacques Muller who produced the beautiful illustrations illustrations in Fable. Their sites are featured to the right ->
along with a few other new links if you haven't check that section out lately!

Midweek and still so much to do!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week. I can't believe how fast it's flying by.

The Final Exhaustion!

Quite a long week, but productive nonetheless!

A bit more perspective work.

Where's the feeling? Where's the emotion?

Don Bluth's critique this week really hit home with me. There's no feeling or emotion, not in the drawing itself, but behind the drawing. He's been talking about this for a little while now between the man vs art podcast and his last two seminars. He said he's gonna keep shouting it until someone hears. I for one am going to open my ears as wide as they can go to hopefully try and grasp what he wants. A couple of his questions he wants us all to ask ourselves is did you push it till it becomes obvious what you feel? Can you draw a character that represents emotion? Can you animate a character that makes people think it's alive and thinking? And in the words of the illusive Mark Rudolph ... Think about it.

Visualize

Visualize Visualize Visualize!

Last night I finally signed up for Don's Club, the Don Bluth Animation course, now I'm kicking myself that I didn't do it sooner. Tonight was my first class and it was chock full of information. I don't usually take notes, but I ended up with a page full of notes and a page full of drawings.
The main theme he had for us today was Visualize. What makes creative people valuable is that they can never really be replaced. As Rual from ManvsArt says, "be yourself cause no one else can be" or something to that effect. That being said our creativity and our skill come from our visualization, before you do anything visualize what you are going to do and try to get as close to that as you can. Whether it's animating, caricaturing, drawing, story-boarding, illustrating, whatever visualize, visualize, visualize!

Here's a quick glimpse at today's notes. (Note to self: use darker pencils!)


(second page of just notes and like always click to enlarge)


Today's concern week pose is Sorrowful Concern.


Here's a little concept design I'm working on that I might turn into a logo, or menu for the site later on.

(Gilligan, Claude's Turtle, Claude, and the Little Hero)

Be obsessed with what you want!

Been having a blast creating lately! I'm trying not to be too busy to update here everyday!

Preston Blair style hunter sneak rough 2

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Preston Blair style hunter sneak color 2

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I was trying for a loose water color like look, with yesterdays color cycle, but I don't think it came across. So I spent way too long coloring this tonight, but I think it came out a lot better. *Yawn*

Trying my hand at some 3d modeling in Maya, a little test starring Claude.

I've been listening to a lot of Toon In to the World of Animation podcasts lately, and I really enjoyed the episode with Sharon Colman (#28). Who has a lovely accent and also worked on How to Train Your Dragon as a story artist! Anyways at the end of the interview Tee Bosustow asked Sharon what advice she had for new comers to animation, and she said "You've just got to, to really in a perverse way just be obsessed with what you want, and stick with it and don't worry too much about what people are are thinking or what you should be doing, just do it." That's been stuck in my head for the past few days, so thanks for the inspiration!

Miltdusa

Sometimes you just need to take a little break. I was noticing the I'm too tired warble in my final line work today after work, so even though I wanted to get tonight's drawings done right away, I knew I needed to step away for a bit. Lo and behold the rest of the drawings went pretty smoothly.

Gilligan keep on truckinging.


Claude tries on his new toupee.


Pirate a Day


With our little hero feeling good in his fancy new duds he paid Theodore the Tailor in the towns favorite currency, and went on his way.


I got to watch part of the Rescuers last night, after not having seen this movie for who knows how long, and hearing and reading lots about it (since it was one of the last things Milt Kahl worked on) I was happy that it still stood up to what I was hoping it would. I really picked up on a lot of the things Walt Stanchfield has been talking about regarding drastic angles to emphasize the pose and to really get the gestures across. (Drawn to Life Vol 1) I wish they would have developed the Madame Medusa character story-wise a bit more, cause Milt Kahl delivers an outstanding performance. Thanks for the inspiration!

(Check out Inspector Cleuzo's posts on Madame Medusa for some great Milt Kahl drawings!)

Opportunities and Goals

Sorry about last night's update being a little late... I got caught up roughing and retouching up the Preston Blair run cycle. Overall I think it turned out pretty good, but I've got to remind myself to keep to deadlines and although perfection is key you have to keep yourself on schedule.

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Gilligan is kind of a scared-i-cat.


Gilligan doing his best greek fountain impression.


Claude and his turtle being kings of the world,


and then realizing that they aren't.


Pirate a Day


Pirate a Day - Article the Second


After a few hours of trying different looks our little hero and Theodore found one that worked perfectly!


Our little hero couldn't thank Theodore the tailor enough!

So life has thrown me quite a few twists since really following my dream to be an artist / animator. Some things have vastly improved while others have simply fallen by the wayside. I'm right now again at a crossroads in life. I was listening to the Asifa Hollywood Animation Podcast with Beth Sleven, and they were talking about which colleges were the best to go to for animation, which books were the best to read, what skills to practice and develop, and they came to the conclusion that it really doesn't mater as long as you really have the desire and motivation, along with some sort of talent of course. For example one of her fellow animators started out as a law student. Which reminded me of something Eamonn Butler said on the Animation Podcast. It was something to the effect of you never really know exactly what opportunities are going to come your way and you have to take advantage of everyone. Well here's to decisions, hard work, life, motivation, opportunities, and goals. Thanks for the inspiration!

Practice What You Stink At!

After using the Cintiq for a few days now I finally have started to draw quite a bit more freely. Doing my roughs and cleaning them up on a new layer has helped to make my traditional drawing flow smoother and faster. Even my repencils are going quicker finally!

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Gilligan suffering from a bit of gas.


Claude and his turtle are at it again!


Pirate a Day


Turns out the second outfit Theodore suggested for our little hero wasn't quite his style either.


Life's been a bit busy the last few days, so I haven't had much time to spend with my usual books, Drawn to Life Vol 1. and the Illusion of Life, but I have caught a few great little tidbits here and there. Kevin Cross and Mark Rudolph have been rather entertaining on Art and Story Extreme this week. I rediscovered the Toon In to Animaion Podcast and every episode seems to be full of rich history, interesting people, and fascinating interviews. I can't wait to get through the backlog. On a side note I really should look into UPA pictures more. They sound fascinating. Anyone have any good recommendations? Finally John K has had a couple of great posts this week on drawing exercises the best little tidbit out of them was "PRACTICE THE THINGS YOU STINK AT." Thanks for the inspiration!

The 3 C's Cintiq, Conan, and Cary Nord

If the Cintiq were a woman I'd marry it, and for the record not in a creepy way I just like drawing with it. It's so much fun. Wacom's Cintiq feels so much more natural than the old Bamboo I used to use. I still am trying to balance out my use of the Cintiq with traditional pencil and paper, but we'll see when I run out of sketchpads if I go out and buy more ... I probably will.

Gilligan Playing in the grass... I think...


Claude and his turtle still enjoying their time at the park.


Pirate a Day


Theodore thought the first outfit our little hero tried on didn't quite suit him.


I love Cary Nord's take on Conan. Frazetta is the Conan litmus test for sure, but Cary Nord just has a way with his line work that is truly appealing. That being said he hasn't done a Conan comic for quite some time, but it looks like he's going to be doing some covers at least again soon. I picked up Conan Vol 8 a couple of days ago, and if you are a fan of Conan, graphic novels or just illustration in general, do yourself a favor and pick up Vol 1 I'm sure you'll fall in love with the Cimmerian by the end of the first page. Thanks for the Inspiration!