Back Online!

Sorry for not getting out an update last night. Spent most of yesterday and a chunk of today getting my internet working again. So tonight is the first ever DOUBLE POST! Still not getting as much time to work on my Preston Blair study as I'd like. I just adore his style. I have to remember to stay on model. Keeping proportions equal, new angles for hands, and maintaining consistent perspectives were my tough spots on these ones.

Gilligan rub a dub dubbing and preparing for Toy Story 3!

Claude and his turtle goofing off.



I've gotten through all the Greek gods that I know a significant amount about. So I'm having to do a bit of research each day for Minithology. Tonight's cast members are Hestia and Dionysus.



The night before last I watched part of Fantasia 2000! Wow what a great movie. The animation is just captivating. Anyways, I was thinking about the Sorcerer's Apprentice skit and the Drunk Bumble Bee animation short (I'll have to find a link for this one), while sitting on the phone waiting for my ISP to figure out what was going on, so sketched this little apprentice riding a bumble bee.



Working on a project that I can't really say to much about right now, but I like this character design concept I came up with for it.



I mentioned Fantasia 2000 a little bit earlier and while I'm only half way through it, I love what I've watched so far. The whales flying in the air scene was beautiful, but what really caught my attention was Rhapsody in Blue. Simply breathtaking. I've talked about how I love Hirschfeld before, but I never knew this existed until now. He creates such great characters and each one has so much personality and life. I'd love to be able to draw like him. Just keep practicing.

Which brings me to today's inspiration. I caught the tail end of Chris Oatley's Artcast on Ustream tonight. It was great. Toward the end of the show they asked for questions and they actually used my question to wrap up the evening. I asked, "What advice do you have for artists just starting out?". The panel he had on said some great things. I'll try to recap what they said. Find your passion. Just keep drawing, learning, looking, and researching. Be open to criticism. Keep good connections with your friends and colleagues, and surround yourself with artists that are better and worse than you. So that you can learn from their experiences and knowledge and share it with others. Thanks for the great tips!

Off On Avoiding Tangents Again

I think tomorrow *crosses fingers* I'll work more on the Preston Blair study. I didn't spend much time on it tonight. What I did do I think took way too long for how much I got done. I did find out that I really haven't spent nearly enough time studying and drawing faces turning to the rear. Quite Challenging, but I think I hit it in the end.

Gilligan practicing Arithmetic ( +, -, x, /)



Claude scolding his turtle. Again working with different perspectives and layouts. Trying to keep these drawings dynamic like comic book covers.


I think I might spend a bit too much time, if that's possible thinking about Minithology. I like reading up on Greek mythology and then trying to blend it with all the Hercules and Xena I used to watch as a kid, and my own ideas of how I think the characters should play out. Tonights stars are Hermes, Ares, and Aphrodite.



A while back I talked a little bit about avoiding the tangent. I came across The Temple of the Seven Golden Camels blog today and wow what a resource. The most current post had a link to Will Finn's blog Small Room. He did a great write up about the downfalls of tangents with some great examples from both Scooby-Doo and the Flintstones. He really fleshes out a lot of great drawing pitfalls to avoid. Definitely worth a look.

blog post soundtrack of the day ~ Glee Soundtrack

All The Young Heroines

How do I start off today? I think that's where. That's the way today has been going. It seems like I'm always avoiding doing straight head on faces. I tend to over analyze them. The eyes have to be exact, the lips have to be perfect, the nose has to be here, the ears there, etc. While yes, you do have to have the right parts in the right places, If you actually study a persons face it's never exact. At least I'm aiming for perfection. Preston Blair's young heroine (as in the girl, not the drug *how could a drug be "young" anyways*) seems pretty straight forward, but not for me. Well not tonight it seems. Powered through it, and it actually turned out alright. After scanning it in and analyzing it, I found even more areas that I wasn't 100% satisfied with. On a more positive note it helped me recognize a couple more areas I need to focus on.

First day of my new character a day challenge. I was listening to Kim Holm talk about Norse mythology on Art and Story Extreme, and I've always been a fan of mythology, mainly of the Greek flair. At the same time I was thinking of the art style of Mucha Lucha. Which is odd because I've never actually seen the show. So I came up with the idea of Mythological Luchadores. After thinking about it throughout the work day and talking to Rhys about the idea. I kinda morphed the concept into what I've coined now as "Minithology". So here's a couple character ideas (Zeus, Hera, and Hercules).

Gilligan's trip to the Zoo.


Claude and his turtle try to change a light bulb.


As you might have guessed from some of my other posts I partake of the occasional computer/console game. I've come to the realization lately that I don't necessarily even enjoy playing them. I simply like to immerse myself into the imaginative worlds other people have created. When I was little I didn't have a video game system so I used to go over to my friend's houses and watch them play. I loved it even more than I liked to play them myself. Rhys and I bought a new Xbox360 today! Our old one Red Ringed. So I got to play a few minutes of Fable 2 today. I think that franchise might be in my top 5. The art style is such a great mixture of actual medieval / post medieval concepts and outrageous over the top creativity. If you've never checked out the art you really should do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes looking at Lionhead Studios concept art page or Mike McCarthy's cghub portfolio.