Animation Time! - Skybot Rig

Today's Inspiration:
"I'd love to think of the quality of my work as fine art. On the other hand, I'm in the wrong field. That's because of people and their judgments. If you illustrate a book, you're an illustrator. I'd like to think of Fine Art as being what it sounds like - fine. Quality. There are fine artists that do comics, there are fine artists that do classical art, there are fine artists that do illustration and yet, if they're in a certain field they think of themselves as fine artists when they could be terrible artists. It's the quality of art that counts. Whether it has all the great elements that make great art: the color, the design, the composition, the emotion it creates, all those things. If it doesn't do that, I don't care how skillfully done it is."

- Frank Frazetta
http://www.amazon.com/Frazetta-Sketchbook-Frank/dp/1934331562/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1433405230&sr=8-2&keywords=frank+frazetta+sketchbook

Program - Maya 2014

Rig - Skybotx
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/skybotx

Animator's Bibles:
Character Animation Crash Course
Animator's Survival Kit
Illusion of Life
12 Principles of Animation
Drawn to Life


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Happy Dance!

I got my acceptance letter to Animation Mentor today! Woo Hoo! I can't wait to start! I'm working way to slow and meticulous as of late. I think I also might be trying to focus too hard. My hand's cramping up and my led is breaking more often than I'd like. I have to loosen up. Still loving the walk cycles although they're getting to be a bit daunting to do one a day with all the rest of the images I want to get out. I have about 3x what I can put up that I just don't have the time in a day to clean up and prep for scanning. I've been debating just working on single sheets of paper too rather than my sketchbooks. I'd like to have a larger flat surface and I think it would scan in easier as well, but I do enjoy having everything together in one spine. It makes for a good archive and more portable.

Claude and his turtle playing baseball and sharing a coffee.


Gilligan trying out a Picasso move and a Bananaphone.


Our little hero had just gotten back from another long adventure.


No sooner had he reached his bed, but his eyes locked themselves shut in hopes to stay closed for at least a few business days.


A friend on Facebook linked a video of Johnny Cash so I had to draw an old rocker.


Bored Hobo Elephant waiting for the next train.


How my hand feels every night before I fall asleep.


I was listening to the latest Ninja Mountain podcast on Frazetta and Socar Myles mentioned Howard Pyle. I had never heard of him by name so I looked him up and lo and behold he's the creator of all the great pirate illustrations I loved as a kid. What an extensive library of amazing images he produced in his lifetime. I hope to be able to have at least half that many stunningly memorable images someday in my archive. Thanks for the inspiration!

Busy Busy Busy!

In the last day and a half I finished up my application for Animation Mentor and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Cross your fingers extra hard for me! Found out that the art institute wants some examples of my work, but evidently all the want is basically still life with gesture drawings, so part of my time is gonna be spent working on that. Preston Blair is a genius I'm learning so much from his book, and along with this blog, keeping me focused on drawing. Here's a couple animation cycles.

Claude and his turtle exploring and goofing around.


Hungry Hungry Gilligan showing off his pearly whites.


Our little hero is deathly afraid of birds and soon crocodile men.


A couple portraits I'm working on for my art institute portfolio.


I was thinking about the email John Shroades sent me in which he mentioned Chris Van Allsberg. Who has produced some of the most amazingly beautiful illustrations, but that made me think about some of the children's books I loved as a kid. One of those was Graeme Base's 11th Hour. Graeme base is best known for Animalia. What I love most about Graeme's illustrations is not just his vibrant color but how much detail he can cram into a single image. Unlike Frazetta who would articulate breathtakingly his main character and the action and then leave the rest of the image completely subtle, Base adds so much detail that you have to spend some time soaking up every little unique aspect of the image. I did a little research on Base and came across a video interview he gave. He said being a successful illustrator comes down to the 3 P's. Passion, you have to love what you do and do it for your own enjoyment. Perspiration you
have to master your style. Lastly Providence, you have to have just a little smidgen of luck. Thanks for the inspiration!

Bonus Day!

Had a busy couple of days, and I've been wanting to try a bunch of new stuff at the same time. For some reason lately my Preston Blair study has been rather intimidating to me. I think I'm just building it up too much in my head. Still staying consistent though and working on knocking out my 10,000 hours.

Thinking about doing a monster series of Gilligan and I came across a Charles Schultz collection the other day so I had to mess around with some Peanuts style.


Claude and his turtle studying and practicing magic.


Little Hero paying homage to Frazetta, and getting squished by a gorilla. You know it's just like any normal day.


I started a new sketchbook that I'm only using Pen in. Trying to challenge myself not to be a perfectionist, just do it perfect the first time.


Quick little perspective sketch.


Ultimate 5!


A mutant chicken.


Like I mentioned earlier I was looking at some Charles Schultz work, but what got me there was Bill Keane. Not only is he the father of the great Glen Keane, but he's the creator of the Family Circus. From reading a bit about him he really had a great idea behind his drawing career. He kept his focus on drawing, but also on his family. I think that attention to family really showed in his artwork and was one of the factors in making his work great, popular, and timeless. Thanks for the inspiration!

Frank Frazetta

Was a little nervous to start my Preston Blair study for today. One, I usually don't do comic book style drawings so the superhero type was a little new to me and two, for some reason I'm nervous redrawing my circles these days. I think I nailed it though, Just doing it and not psyching yourself out is half the battle, or is that not what GI Joe used to tell me.

My niece recently found some tadpoles (polliwogs is a way better name though) so Gillifrog was born.



Claude and his turtle sharing a pint.


Our little hero vs a fierce Owlbear.


Unfortunately for us the Mustache Bandit discovered Twitter.


I woke up this morning and saw on my Facebook feed that Imaginefx had reported that a hero of mine died today. Frank Frazetta passed away today. A few years back I rediscovered Conan. I was instantly hooked. I loved every part of it. From Conan's mannerism and attitude to the over the top violence and gratuitous sexuality it's one of the few franchises I like everything about. The movies are fun, the stories great, and the art especially is spectacular. I love Frazetta's style there was no one who did what he did back in the day. After doing a bit of research and reading some great articles about him on both the Inspiration Grab Bag, Lambiek.net and Cartoon Snap. I was reminded that he also did some amazing cartoons in his early career. Thanks for sharing your gift Frank Frazetta. I'm wearing my Conan T shirt in your honor.