The LOWEdown

First Sketches of Twenty Dozen

2012-01-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying my break between semesters at the Academy by drawing very, very little. This next semester's going to be a big one, and since it starts next week, I figured I'd better brush up on things. Here are my first sketches of "twenty dozen" (it'll catch on), drawn from magazines:

Digital Storyboarding - Pink Story

2011-12-17T12:18:00.000-08:00

The lack of posts from my Digital Storyboarding class was due to the fact that our last two DreamWorks instructors (Louie del Carmen and Rad Sechrist) combined efforts and had us work on one story for the last 10 weeks of class. Louie started us off with thumbnails and a rough pass, while Rad finished things up until a final pass was ready to pitch. Lots of great notes, information, and insight shared from these guys, some of which I will try to post during the coming weeks.

At any rate, here's the final boards that I pitched to Rad. My story follows a grandfather who doesn't want his grandson to wear pink but needs to realize that clothes don't make the man.
Pink - Final Storyboards
And here are the rough storyboards that I had pitched to Louie:
Pink - Rough Storyboards
I also had to do a little character design, so here are some of the various digital character sketches I created for the project. Lots of influence from Colin Jack on these.

Clothed Figure 3 - Weeks 12, 13, 14, & 15

2011-12-14T16:05:00.001-08:00

I fell behind in posting these each week, so here are the final four weeks of my Clothed Figure 3 class:

As always, I feel the need to stand on a mountaintop and point out that the instructor was Timothy Gula, whom I cannot speak highly enough about. I have truly learned so, so much from Mr. Gula and feel I was quite privileged to be in his class. The old saying is that those who can't, teach, but every once in a while you find the rare specimen who can actually do both and do them well. And with that, I present the final additions to my Gullery™, the "cherry on top" of which is an original Gula-style doodle ("Gudle"?) given to me to always inspire:

Advanced Perspective - Final

2011-12-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

The last five weeks of my Advanced Perspective class were spent working on our final project, which was basically visual development of a story of our choosing. The final presentation need to include: 3 characters, 1 environment design, 90 thumbnails, and 5 compositions. This was great news for me, as I hadn't been able to work on my thesis project at all this busy semester. Jumping back in where I left off, I continued working on Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends! I'm pretty pleased with the progress I've finally made on this story over the past several weeks. The characters are much farther along and just about where I want/need them to be, the world is now fleshed out, and (perhaps most importantly) the sequence I'm boarding is finally starting to come together and seem like it's going to work!! Here are the final presentation boards as I presented them last night to my class:

As I've often mentioned, the class was instructed by Brandon Luyen and was quite enjoyable. Be sure to check out his blog, as he was photographing everyone's final work and posted it for all to enjoy. There's some real talent in that class.

'Tis the Season

2011-11-19T10:59:00.001-08:00

One of the great joys of my life is being able to share my talents with others, and this is especially true during the holiday season. Check out this "gem" from 2006:

Working in retail during the holiday provides a lot of interesting challenges, but it's also a great place to share my abilities with others in the form of gifts. Here are some Create Your Own Vinylmation figures that I painted for the Disney Store management team last year:

I also painted a couple of things for some special Cast Members. There was a special Giants Donald Duck for Jimmy:

And a Tinkerbell for someone whose name I don't recall...

All of the Cast Members also got to design their own Secret Santa stockings. Mine featured Casey Jr.:

Impressive, I know. So this year, I had to figure out a way to top myself. I realized quickly that the only thing better than one character is five characters! Then, I just had to figure out a clever layout. I was about to declare such a notion impossible when BAM! What if I drew five characters on some fake animation paper?

KA-CHOW! All I had to do now was figure out the five most important characters in the Disney catalog. I had to have Casey Jr., naturally. Flynn Rider and Finn McMissile were obvious additions that had to be included. My love of the West and Tom Hanks meant Woody needed a spot. And my extreme admiration for Glen Keane and love of Tarzan filled the last spot. [and yes, I know Glen did not animate Young Tarzan. Get over yourself, animation buff!] So, I sketched down my thoughts in my sketchbook, using some reference, of course.

Then, I drew them for real on some vellum.

A little Prismacolor marker on the back for Woody and Finn. For Flynn and Young Tarzan, I actually colored them digitally and printed it out on a transparency to give a "painted cel" feel.

Then, I glued it all down onto my stocking, added my name and some decor with Nupastels, and voila:

Pareidolia

2011-11-12T22:17:00.001-08:00

You know how sometimes you can stare at bathroom tiles or other patterns in a certain way and see a face or other object within the random patternous abyss? Well, my top-notch, award-winning research team has discovered that this phenomenon is called pareidolia. I see different things on my bathroom floor tiles all the time (usually dust and hair) and figured it'd be a fun exercise to take what I'm seeing to a more finalized point. Mostly, though, I'm just stealing the idea from my classmate, Shirong.

Clothed Figure 3 - Weeks 10 & 11

2011-11-11T12:00:00.001-08:00

Raise your hand if you saw this coming: an additional two weeks of figure drawing from Timothy Gula's Clothed Figure 3 class! It's been several weeks now since Mr. Gula sat down and drew on my pad, which means that he sees me "getting it"...but also means that I can't add anything to my Gullery™. :^\

Jack and the Netherlands

2011-11-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

So, here's something pretty different:

Not long ago, I was contacted by Delana Arnold, a resident of the Netherlands who stumbled upon my Jack and the Beanstalk artwork. She was working on a project of her own for school where she had to animate the story using After Effects and 3D layers and asked if she could use my drawings for her project. Naturally, I was flattered and 1000% allowed it. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to help her out with any new drawings, so she had to seek out other sources for some characters and story moments that I didn't get to. Regardless, the end result is nothing short of amazingly awesome! Sit back, relax, and thoroughly enjoy...

Pretty darn neato, huh?!? Be sure to post some YouTube comments about how your breath was taken away!
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------Video created by:Delana ArnoldDeeSign Multimediawww.dee-signmultimedia.com

Advanced Perspective - Week 8

2011-11-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

In honor of Halloween, this week's theme was Horror. The weekly perspective theory was "looking straight down", which is basically just a fancy way of saying that your vertical vanishing point is within the confines of your picture plane. Hmm, or maybe the latter is the fancy way. In any case, here are the results:

Clothed Figure 3 - Weeks 8 & 9

2011-10-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

Two more weeks of Clothed Figure 3 with Mr. Timothy Gula. I am definitely starting to get it! Which is awesome. Unfortunately, that also means he's no longer drawing samples for me, so no new amazing works of art to add to my Gula Gallery ("Gulery"?).

Advanced Perspective - Week 7

2011-10-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

This week, the theme was Egypt. Of course, everything I ever needed to know about Egypt, I learned from this:

So my three illustrations this week create a small story about two old, misinformed American tourists and their native tour guide/reluctant accomplice.

Advanced Perspective - Week 6

2011-10-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

This week was a make-up/catch-up week for my class, since many people have been falling behind and complaining about not having enough time. Guess they've all been too busy playing whatever video game just came out. Undergrads...

At any rate, I redid one of my Geisha-themed illustrations that I didn't think turned out right and changed up two other illustrations a bit, giving them a smidgen more of love. They look better, but I still don't really care much about anything that I've created in this class. Two more themed weeks and we get to work on our own stories for the rest of the semester. Which means I'll finally have some time for my Thesis! Yes!

Clothed Figure 3 - Weeks 3-7

2011-10-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

Five weeks worth of figure drawing. Can you see the progress? It's subtle, but I think it's there.

And, of course, here's five weeks of Mr. Timothy Gula adding to my private collection of his work.

Advanced Perspective - Week 5

2011-10-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

This week's theme was Greek. I was unfortunately rushed quite a bit this week for various reasons, not the least of which was finishing my parent's anniversary gift and also spending four days flying to and attending their surprise party. I still managed to turn some stuff out, though. The first illustration is one of the classic Trojan Horse, while the second celebrates the glory that was television's Hercules and Xena.

Hercules, Xena, and related characters © MCA/Universal and Renaissance Pictures.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

2011-10-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

I took a break from my regularly scheduled homework (or rather, stopped sleeping in order to create more time) to do a special little something to celebrate my parent's 30th wedding anniversary. The project was coordinated by my sister, Tiffanie, who also planned a well-executed surprise anniversary dinner complete with plenty of neighbors, friends, family, and ME (the biggest surprise of all, since I haven't been home since January and am currently in classes). Fun was had by all and my parents were completely surprised!

The idea behind this illustration (which was inspired by the art prints at Your Memory Lane, though highly improved upon) was to create a collection of various buildings, landmarks, icons, logos, cars, etc. that gather from and represent my parents' 30 years of marriage. I created each person, place, and thing (even the logos) with a textured brush in Photoshop. It was then printed (at FedEx Office, who robbed it of it's vibrancy) and framed for all to see and enjoy. Now, for the first time ever, you can experience it in it's original RGB full-color glory!

(And, of course, I had to thumbnail it out, first. Force of habit.)

Digital Storyboarding - Frankenstein Boards

2011-10-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

This week was our last week with Jeff Snow (go follow his blog, if you don't already!), so the final boards from our sequence of Frankenstein were due (-ish, apparently). We all had to get up and pitch them to the class, which lead to two interesting things: 1.) I was the only one in the class to have actually finished my boards (after three weeks, a lot of people--it's an undergrad class--still hadn't even finished roughing out the entire sequence!) and 2.) Jeff said my pitch was "too verbose". That is the first time in my entire life that I have been informed that I talked too much! Shocking! He was, of course, just reminding me to let the drawings do the talking. Which apparently they did pretty well. He said they were "very strong" and seemed pleased with the results. I am too, in some ways, but I feel there's plenty of room for improvement with whatever Louie del Carmen brings us next week. Game on, DreamWorks-story-artists-turned-Academy-of-Art-instructors!

Frankenstein Boards

Advanced Perspective - Week 4

2011-10-03T17:04:00.000-07:00

Howdy, partner! Western was the theme this week. Yeehaw! Of course, we also had to demonstrate "looking down". There's a snake in my boot! I decided to try a pencil line/digital color illustration in the style of Peter de Sève (which didn't work so great with the smaller characters) and also figured this would be a rare opportunity to create a bit of Toy Story fan art. Ride like the wind, Bullseye! Mixed results, as always, but life does go on.

Toy Story Characters © Disney/Pixar

Somebody's poisoned the water hole!

Advanced Perspective - Week 3

2011-09-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Noah's Ark was the theme this week. One week is not nearly enough time to research and craft two illustrations that also follow the week's perspective rule while also trying out new styles. Kept it all digital this week, but I still tried to try something new with my rendering techniques.

Onward to next week...

Advanced Perspective - Week 2

2011-09-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

Theme this week was "geisha". I have absolutely no knowledge of what a geisha is/does. Haven't even seen Memoirs of a Geisha. So I just checked Wikipedia and Google Images and came up with a couple of things. Hopefully they make sense. If not...oh well.

I've decided that I'm really going to try to test my artistic skills with this class, since the instructor has declared "open media" for the assignments. Last week, I went all digital using Sketchbook Pro. This week, I started traditionally with pencil and brush pen/ink wash, then scanned and colored digitally in Photoshop. I'm also going to try different styles in terms of character design and such. Hopefully, I'll wind up with a nice variety of work for my portfolio.

Digital Storyboarding - Frankenstein Roughs

2011-09-17T14:41:00.000-07:00

My Digital Storyboarding class with Jeff Snow has really kicked into high gear! He gave us a copy of the script for Frankenstein (the 1994 version) and let us choose between two sequences to board from. I chose the sequence where The Creature stumbles upon a peasant dwelling. We also get to use the Official DreamWorks Templates that they 4 realz use at the studio!! :^D

First, as always, is designing the characters. I was originally going to go with a more realistic approach, but then realized the amount of time it would take to draw that out...so I then switched over to a more cartoony approach. I kept the Twilight-inspired flock of dark hair, though. I also had to map out the environment, so I created a quick "blue print" for the layout of the peasant's dwelling. All based on research, of course!

I got to pitch my boards this morning in front of class (or at least to those who were actually there), and it went over quite well. Jeff pointed out some areas to add reaction shots and where I needed some extra hook-up drawings. Overall, he said he liked the quality of my roughs, which was quite the moment of validation. Next step is to make the recommended changes and clean-up the boards. But first, enjoy the sequence thus far:
Frankenstein Roughs

Clothed Figure 3 - Week 2

2011-09-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

Another week of drawing the clothed figure with Mr. Timothy Gula. We drew a few heads; here's one he drew for me:

They were drawn in 10 minute poses, so we were just capturing the essence and gesture, not making a likeness. I turned out a lot of crappy drawings during this class period, but then--towards the end of class--I think I finally started to start to comprehend his method of drawing. Well, my drawings started to look halfway decent, anyway. :^\ More to learn...

[*note Mr. Gula's redraw of the arm in the inset]

Advanced Perspective - Week 1

2011-09-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

And for the last of my three new Fall Semester classes I have Advanced Perspective for Illustration, Film, & Games. This class is being taught by Brandon Luyen, who has worked in the Game Industry for some time. This is set to be an interesting, informative, and homework-ridden class.

Week one found us learning about pushing the depth of a picture by aligning different parts of a character thru the horizon line, specifically thru the head, torso, and lower leg. Our homework was to demonstrate these principals via a samurai theme. I chose to tell the story of three kids playing samurai. Two of the boys have to make their own outfits, while one boy borrows his dad's actual costume. My results are as follows:

Drawings were done digitally in Sketchbook Pro; value and layout done in Photoshop.

Digital Storyboarding - Week 1

2011-09-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

My next class is the one I am most excited about: Digital Storyboarding for Feature Animation. This class is being taught by three DreamWorks Story Artists--Jeff Snow, Louie del Carmen, and Rad Sechrist--who each get to teach the course for 5 weeks (in that order). Very exciting!!

The first class was a lot of introducing ourselves (boring), but Jeff Snow showed us some of the amazing stuff he's been working on, including some great Marvel storyboards with Spiderman and Iron Man. We're talking sworn to secrecy, classified, this gets out and I have to kill you kinds of stuff here, folks. Mr. Snow has been working in the industry for 20 years, 15 of which have been at DreamWorks. He is also in charge of the DreamWorks Story Initiative program.

Our first homework assignment was to create a single image that tells the story of "The Letter". Lots of options for interpretation, but I settled on this one:

The Letter

Drawn digitally using SketchbookPro.

Clothed Figure 3 - Week 1

2011-09-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

The Fall 2011 semester arriveth! Three brand new classes, all of which should be awesome (and hopefully light on homework so I can continue to work on my thesis project)!

My first class was Clothed Figure 3, which is being taught by Timothy Gula, a non-faculty member that they are apparently flying in from Santa Monica (or San-Somewhere) just to teach the class! Pretty cool! Chuck Pyle (Illustration Director) did an introduction for Mr. Gula, singing his praises and pointing out that he would be teaching a non-Barbara Bradley method of figure drawing! Ooooohhhhh. Old habits die hard, though, as I soon learned. Mr. Gula has done a lot of comic book work during the 90's (such as Judge Dredd), as well as some action figure design, some cartoon work, and plenty of other things. He was also very open about his methods and very personal as an instructor. In fact, in addition to regular group demonstrations of how he works and uses his tools, he went around to each of us throughout the evening and would draw out a pose on our drawing pads. Very neat to be inspired by and learn from. Here are the two he drew in mine:

As I said, though, old habits die hard. Trying to drop what I've been so used to doing for two years here at the Academy and adopt his new method--as well as having taken the summer off--lead to some not-so-great life drawings this week.

Progress to be made! I look forward to the challenge. :^)

Midpoint Review Presentation Book

2011-08-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

I love this Scribd site and it's ability to let me post PDF files to my blog! Since I had my Midpoint Review book sitting around already in PDF form, I figured I'd upload it and share with you fine folks.

For those who don't know, one of the many aspects of a Midpoint Review for a Graduate student is the proposal book, which includes a production breakdown and timeline for your Thesis project. As I may have mentioned, my review went over quite well with minimal changes to my proposal. Flipping through the "book" here, you'll find the synopsis descriptions, sketches, and sample storyboards that I presented for each of my three stories. You can compare this work to more recent postings and see how much has changed already. It's an ongoing work-in-progress.
Midpoint Review Presentation Book

And for the record, no, I will not be following the timeline at the end too terribly closely. Hopefully, I will actually have my final review at the end of next summer!

RETAILiation: Rough Storyboard

2011-08-28T17:21:00.000-07:00

I have given it some thought, and I truly feel that the Midpoint Review is a lot like making the trailer for your movie before you've even written the script for it. By that, I mean that you present your story to the panel/audience in a very vague but hopefully appealing way in an attempt to whet their appetite so that they'll "green light" your thesis project (and to keep the metaphor going, some trailers definitely reveal more of the movie's plot than others do). Then, they tell you what they expect to see from you based on what you've just shown them. Presenting your thesis at the final review is, therefore, really showing them the final movie, and you'd better give them all they wanted and more. For myself--with a Storyboarding focus--I actually had to present three different "trailers". And they all went over very well. Which is good. Great, really. But now I have to write the script for three movies, so to speak, and it's pretty daunting. Luckily, I only have to storyboard a single sequence from each story. I find myself trimming a lot of "fat" from the overall story lines and focusing instead on the specific sequences that I actually have to board and turn in. The trick is finding that balance of developing the overall story enough so that the sequence actually has some weight to it on it's own while avoiding bogging down the sequence with unnecessary details that are not essential for the sequence to play out.

With that in mind, I decided to first work on my most self-contained sequence. Primarily this summer, I focused my thesis work attention to RETAILiation, my 2D television animated series. This show would theoretically be on Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, etc. I first developed the idea over a year ago, and a lot has changed since I originally conceived the story. I have given up a lot of story elements that I loved in an attempt to find that aforementioned balance and keep the sequence lean. Minimizing characters, using one location, cutting comical running gags I conceived for the show that wouldn't have the time to recur. The woes of being a creator, I suppose.

All that having been said, I think I was able to put together a fun and funny little sequence, and I'm pleased to be able to share it here (in rough form, of course). Below is a PDF file of my first draft for "RETAILiation: The Day We Got Fired". A few changes to be made and the boards need to be cleaned up, but the story's all there. Check it out and let me know what you think!
RETAILiation - Rough Storyboard
The drawings were all done digitally on my Cintiq using Toon Boom StoryBoard Pro, which is a fantastic program for storyboarding. I also intend to make this into an animatic, as I am required to turn in one animatic, and this story is the one I feel most suited to take that leap. For those that are interested in my thought process while I created these boards (you poor souls), below are my thumbnail sketches for the sequence. The first pass, followed by a revised one, with plenty of staging changes along the way...

RETAILiation: Rough Character Designs

2011-08-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

As I've often said, I don't consider myself a character designer. I doubt anyone else does, either. But I do what I can, and my design work for RETAILiation is no exception. These are some rough model sheets for the characters seen in the sequence. The designs have changed greatly from their original conception (some more than others), and plenty of refinement is still needed. I also have to create prop sheets and layout designs as part of my final deliverables. Overall, though, I feel they're on the right path to completion. Sometimes the best thing to do is shelf a project and come back to it later with fresh eyes and ideas. :^)

Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends: Character Concept Design

2011-08-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

With the Fall Semester here at AAU quickly approaching, I'm finally taking a moment to breathe and reflect on the thesis work that I've created over the summer. Still miles to go in the coming year, but I'm pleased with the progress I've thus far made.

Here is a collection of scanned pages from my sketchbook as I was developing the characters for my Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends story. The idea is that these characters would be CG in a feature length story (in the vein of Pixar, DreamWorks, modern Disney, Blue Sky, etc.). At Sherrie Sinclair's request, I have abandoned my previous design ideas where the characters were all of similar basic shape with specific animal characteristics attached to each design. Those designs were done with a 2D project in mind, and apparently simply won't work in a 3D environment where characters have to be rigged to move. I've drawn a lot of influence from the work of T.S. Sullivant and classic four-legged Disney. That having been said, I'm definitely not a character designer. Eagle-eyed visitors may also notice that I replaced the Donkey character with a Rabbit. This was done in an attempt to make a more visually interesting character lineup. I'm definitely looking forward to refining these designs and beginning to flesh out the story sequence!

And I Ain't Lion!

2011-07-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

I was messing around with SketchBookPro today as I did some research for my Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends thesis story. These'll be the characters used in my story:

Lion

Donkey

Rhino

Yak

Unicorn

DoDo Bird

These are just some realistic renderings from reality (and who needs that??), but I will next be designing them in the fashion of T.S. Sullivant. I'll be sure to post those as I develop them, as well as all the rough work from the thesis story I've been working on for most of the summer, RETAILiation. Stay tuned!

Composition Studies: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

2011-07-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

Another round of studies from a live-action movie. With the final film (which is amazing) being released to theaters this weekend, I thought it'd be fun to revisit the third (and my favorite) of the films, Prisoner of Azkaban.

Only two pages this time. I got really "liney"/"rendery" with this, so I really need to try a different process next time. They just take too long. Definitely a fine learning tool, though.

Quotable Quotes 8

2011-07-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations."

-Orson Welles

Happy Fourth of July!

2011-07-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

Just a character I was doodling with earlier this year: Pete, the Patriotic Pickle.

Happy 4th, everyone!

Composition Studies

2011-06-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

It was recommended by my Midpoint Review Committee that I revisit my copy of Hans Bacher's Dream Worlds (an excellent book on composition and design from a true talent) and pay particular attention to the page that lists all the movies he recommends studying compositions from. A lot of movies on there, and they've all been added to my Netflix queue. The basic idea is to draw small thumbnails of not only great compositions but also basic shots, paying attention to cutting, scene planning, etc. In doing so, it should teach me more about film making and therefore make me a better storyboard artist. Yay!

I stumbled upon some screen grabs from Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief on a blog and decided that it would be a great place to start:

Just a few simple shots. I did these in pencil. Then I got the new True Grit Blu-Ray combo pack in the mail--which is simply a fantastic movie, especially for cinematography--so I decided to go ahead and draw some composition studies from the entirety of that movie:

This proved to be a multi-day, too-many-hour, exhausting task! They're each about 1.75 x 4" in size. I decided to go with pen and marker on this one. Black, 30% Warm Grey, 60% Warm Grey, and a dash of brush pen for emphasis. I ended up getting too caught up in the details, so I will definitely change my methods for the next go 'round. Still, it was very informative and actually pretty fun.

Alright, now back to my actual thesis work. I should have some things to post soon, so stay tuned! :^)

Quotable Quotes 7

2011-06-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

"A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people."

-Thomas Mann

Very true. Obviously, you can replace the word "writer" and it's verb with almost any other profession: artist, singer, president, gas station attendant, etc.

Jack & the Lost Beanstalk

2011-05-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun a year ago working on the classic tale of Jack & the Beanstalk for my Visual Elements of Story class. So much fun, in fact, that I decided to keep working with it and began another composition after the class had ended. A move and a long job hunt left me without enough time to see it through, but I was recently cleaning up my digital workspace and thought I'd share the rough comp I developed:

I will definitely be creating a few pieces like this as I develop a body of work for my Thesis projects. Stay tuned for more on that subject this summer.

Character Design - Final Portfolio

2011-05-23T11:11:00.000-07:00

I think I've posted most of this stuff as the weeks went by, but here is what I turned in as my final portfolio for Michael Buffington's Character Design class.

And also, here's the in-class sketches from the final class:

Developing Story Class

2011-05-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

With two studio classes and my midpoint presentation this semester, I knew that I wanted my third class to be one where I didn't have to draw so much. So I decided to take Developing Story from the Motion Pictures and Television department. And boy was that a great move! (no sarcasm implied) As you might suspect, Developing Story focuses on story telling and development. Simple story structure. I've got so many great handouts on story, now! Totally worth it. The instructor, Donna Laemmlen, was also incredibly warm and supportive of all the class's crazy ideas, as well as being a fan of animated films. During the semester, she actually won an award from the International Family Film Festival for the animated feature screenplay she wrote, "Sheila, the Gila Monster", and was kind enough to show it to us, along with some of the character sketches she had had created. Very cool!

The class itself, as far as assignments go, was composed of developing two short film stories, both of which had to be pitched to the class and one of which had to be pitched as the final to two "industry insiders" (whom were just teachers at the school, come to find out). For the pitches, I actually developed some visuals, so I thought I'd post them here, along with a brief synopsis of the stories themselves.

"A Little Dastardly"

Logline: A dastardly, reformed villain wants to settle down with his family, but his old nemesis isn't ready to move on.

A little backstory: two super villains (above, left) were frustrated that their evil schemes to thwart the city's resident hero (right) never came to fruition. Tired with failure, they get drunk and grumble of their misfortunes. The night leads to unexpected relations, and nine months later, a child (little dude in the middle, right) comes to be. The villains realize that this is their chance to reform their evil ways and hopefully be more successful with a "normal" domestic life.

The story itself begins with the child, now grown a bit, playing in a suburbia backyard sandbox. We quickly realize that this child is a real devil child, making a mess and terrorizing the neighbor's cat. When the neighbor complains, the child is sent to his room. The parents cram into a closet to discuss their choices in giving up the super villain life. The closet, it turns out, is actually an elevator to a secret sub-basement where the villains have created a museum of sorts to remember and preserve their old evil memories. As they're discussing the possibilities of the son of two super villains ever not being villainous, there is a knock at the door. The villains go up to answer it, assuming it is yet another neighbor coming to complain of their son's misdeeds. Just before the villain can grab the door knob, however, BAM! The door flies open, blasting the villains to the ground. In flies the hero, shouting his catchphrase: "Justice has found you!" He begins pummeling the villains, who are simply no match, having been caught by surprise and being years out of shape. As the hero is about to deliver the final blow and final bring these evil doers to justice, ZAP! The hero falls to the ground. The villains, look at each other in shock, then turn their attention over the befallen hero to the other side of the room. There, they find their son standing with a laser gun. He was able to achieve what the two of them never could, and they realize that maybe being bad isn't so bad after all.

Original Sketches

"The Truth Was Out There"

Logline: A world-famous archaeologist is about to finish writing his memoir, but not everyone wants the details of his life's discoveries revealed.

We open inside a massive, "Citizen Kane"-like mansion where there is a knock at the door. An old man slowly makes his way to answer it. In walks a middle-aged man who questions why he has been called in at such a late hour. We discover that the old man is writing his memoirs, but his age prevents him from being able to type, leading to the hiring of the younger man as a transcriber. As the two men walk to the old man's office, we learn that his partner, another famous archaeologist, has just passed away. The old man has decided that he has some new things to add to the memoir he has almost finished.

We flash back as the archaeologist dictates the story of what would've been his most famous, world-changing discovery. It was the big fish that got away, though the old man can no longer recall specific details of the discovery. His age has gotten the best of him. But he does know that the discovery was quite revelatory, because as the two archaeologists were leaving, they were confronted by a man in a black trench coat.

Revealing little of who he was, who had sent him, or how he found out about the two men's work, this man made them an offer they couldn't refuse. Giving them the choice of life or death, the man in the black trench coat claims he will make them rich and famous if they simply leave this site and never return or speak of it again. The two men accepted his terms, and his promises held true.

At this point, the transcriber stops the old man short, and believing him to be delusional, tells him to get some sleep. He says he will return in the morning to discuss the additions further. The old man begrudgingly agrees and sees the younger man off. He heads to his room to retire for the night.

The old man crawls into bed and turns out the light. From the shadows steps forth a man in a black trench coat.

Original Thumbnail Sketches

Both of the stories were well-received in class and I hope to one day work on them more. Maybe I will put together a short story book that I can illustrate? Only time will tell.

Figurative Concepts: Final Class

2011-05-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

"I attribute my success to this: I never took or gave any excuses."

- Florence Nightingale (via Nicolas P. Villarreal)

The final collection of drawings from my Figurative Concepts class:

And here are a few pages from the week before:

This was a great class. It was nice to be able to look back at my work from Head Drawing and Clothed Figure Drawing (from my first semester in Fall 2009) and see how far I've come. I hope I can carry the momentum and knowledge over to Fall's Clothed Figure 3 class...but I'm sure I'll completely forget it all over the summer. If you don't use it, you lose it. :^\

Figurative Concepts Final

2011-05-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

The final project for my Figurative Concepts class was to draw a clothed model. Done it before (in Clothed Figure class), will probably have to do it again (in Clothed Figure 3 next semester). I can't say I was too thrilled to have to do this--it probably didn't help matters that I stuck with the same reference photo shoot I had used before--and I have been itching for this semester to be over for some time, but I powered through and came up with something I like to call "Good enough."

Here's the final, matted work:

Meh. "B" work, at best. And Nicolas will know it, too. Here's the reference photograph, taken by me back in 2009:

And here's the Animated GIF of Progress:

Let's Get Political?

2011-05-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

We got to do two one-hour poses in Figurative Concepts this week, which I always find fun. I'm a bit rusty with longer poses, so the focal point isn't as clear as it should be. The model really liked them! He even said I've got a future and that he wants to be in my comic book. Not sure what comic that is...he also said that he looks like one of Moammar Gadhafi's men and added "No wonder they wanna kill him." I laughed, as I assumed it to be a bit of topical humor. Anywho, vine charcoal, 2B charcoal pencil, and smooth newsprint:

Character Design, Weeks 12, 13, & 14

2011-05-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

Three weeks of in-class Character Design sketches:

Your age is showing...

2011-05-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

For the last new assignment in my Character Design class, we had to show a character's age progression from toddler to child to adult to old person. Since I've been busy with the maquette that I also have to do for that class, I didn't have much time to toy around with this assignment. So I went with something simple and graphic, inspired once again by the awesome Aurore Damant. I really enjoy her simple style and shorthand for anatomy.

All drawn and colored in Photoshop based off of this quick sketch:

That's [Also] So Bouguereau!

2011-05-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

Once more, my Figurative Concepts homework was to copy a master painting, and once more, I chose Bouguereau. This time, however, we got to keep the clothes on. [click here to see previous, nude attempt] Unlike before, however, I really didn't have the time (or desire) that I had once had.

This time, I chose Bouguereau's Little Thief painting from 1900:

(She stole the pear, I guess.)

I believe I spent a little over 10 hours on this one, though not as consecutively as before. I ended up with this:

Most of that time was spent on proportions (proportions, PROPORTIONS!), which I think are pretty much correct. At least they were before I had to rush the value and started adding details/folds too soon and had to go back and try to adjust values without losing detail...and it just became a real mess. Truly wish we were given more time on these things. I mean, one week to draw 30 sketches in a park and then one week to copy a master painting?!? Very frustrating.

Anywho, I again took pictures of the progress as I went along and compiled them into an animated GIF, for your viewing pleasure:

Figurative Concepts, Part 3: The Clothed Figure 3 Preview/Clothed Figure Drawing Flashback

2011-04-29T16:07:00.000-07:00

The last five weeks of my Figurative Concepts class are dedicated to studying the clothed figure. Knowing that I'm going to go through an entire fifteen weeks of clothed figure next semester (since I will be taking "Clothed Figure 3"), I can't help but feel a tad uninterested. Let us not forget that I had also taken a clothed figure class my first semester here (called "Clothed Figure Drawing"). So, yeah, here are some more clothed figure drawings to add to that pile:

Character Design, Weeks 10 & 11

2011-04-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

Our second male and our first Asian (model, that is)...

The Last of the Portraitans

2011-04-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of drawing Mohicans... I mean portraits in my Figurative Concepts class. Dottie was our model, and while I didn't capture her likeness, it was still a fairly pleasing way to end my portrait drawing career here at the Academy (by which I mean I had better not have to ever draw them again).

And the homework for the week, which I forgot to post the other day, was an EXTREME Self-Portrait*. [*Basically just a self-portrait where we use our hands to push around our facial features.]

25 Expressions - Rapunzel

2011-04-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

One of the assignments due this week for Michael Buffington's Character Design class was the 25 Essential Expressions Challenge. For this assignment, now stay with me on this, we essentially had to pick a character and draw them acting out 25 different expressions. As we all know, Disney's Tangled just came out on Blu-Ray/DVD and it is just so fantastic and inspiring. Then when you add in the "Art of" book with all those Glen Keane drawings in it?? ...well, I thought I'd go digging where the inspiration was ready to explode, hoping I'd find some gold or oil or at least a diamond in the rough. So for my character, I chose Rapunzel.

My feelings towards this project can probably best be described through the drawings I spent hours and hours on:

At first when I finished, I was all

and when I thought about how much time I had spent, I was very

And then I started to wonder

and even felt a little

I was

by what I saw! I mean, I thought I was pretty

with the pencil, but what lay before me just made me

I was

and

at the same time. How could I be so

about this assignment and end up feeling so

And I know right now you're all

but I am not being

when I say that I was filled with

But then I posted a picture of my sketches on Facebook, and my Friends said i was just being

and I was pretty

by that. It definitely made me feel more

and I am extremely

to feel that support from those around me. The

that my drawings weren't any good was washed away in a moment of

I'm still not completely

with the results, but I'm

of drawing Rapunzel expressions. Now that I'm done, it's time to get

And when I drink, I get quite

so watch out ladies.

Oh, and I also drew this one:

but I don't really know what it means.

I think that's all 25 of 'em. You can also go over to my deviantART page and download the complete collection in a pretty large format and with some quick color slapped on. Oh, and here are a few of the warm-up sketches that I did based on Glen Keane's amazingness:

Rapunzel and related entities © The Walt Disney Company.

*UPDATE: So I turned in this assignment today, and it went over well. Apparently I got an "A++" on it. Not sure what kind of a grading scale that is. Michael Buffington payed me an awesome compliment though, stating that I have so much potential that he can see me with my own booth at next year's WonderCon or CTN. Great motivation to keep at it. :^)

Portrait Drawing, Week 4

2011-04-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

Fourth in-class portrait drawing for my Figurative Concepts class. Wasn't quite feeling it today; drew him too bulky, among other things. Only one week of portraits left before me move on to clothed figure!

Self-Portrait

2011-04-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

I assume this one is self-explanatory.

Character Design, Weeks 8 & 9

2011-04-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

In this week's Character Design class, we took a trip under the sea!

...in our minds!

Seriously, though, the model had made her own mermaid costume, which was an absolute inspiration and a real blast to draw. Unfortunately, we had a shortened model session due to a maquette lecture, but here are some of the poses I had time to catch (or hook, if you will):

And, just to prove that the seaweed ain't always greener, here are the previous week's drawings. It was pretty rough returning from Disneyland after Spring Break. Should've brought a sketchbook and drawn while standing in line.

Last night's Hangover..

2011-04-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished up my latest Character Design project, which was to take a movie and draw four characters from it in an animated series style. I was at first thinking the classic Back to the Future, but then I remembered--vaguely and with help from Google--that they had already created a cartoon series for it! Grrr...

My second choice was the modern-day classic, The Hangover. Pretty sure that there's no series based on this movie...at least not until the world feasts their eyes on these amazing character designs!:

I ended up going with a Stephen Silver-esque style, probably because I've seen him do similar things with movies like Clerks, Indiana Jones, The Goonies, etc. Could be developed further and revised, but when you've only got a week to do things before starting on new things, you've just got to stay on the horse and keep riding. On to the next project! Heeyaw!

Two portraits walk into a bar...

2011-04-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

...one says, "This looks like a good place to hang."

Now that the Fozzie Bear jokes are over, here's the portrait drawing I did today of the beautiful Simone (who asked to take a picture of it stating that "My mom appreciates it."):

I think it's my best portrait yet! I might just marry it. And then there's the one from last week, which Nicolas kept to grade as a midpoint test (I got an "A-" on it, Victor). It's the "frog-faced" model guy with an afro wig:

Love that guy. No less than two (2) drawings of him exist in my portfolio. True story.

Mother Dearest,

2011-03-31T10:35:00.000-07:00

Guess what I've been doing since 4:15am! No, not sleeping--that stuff's for non-grad students. Since I didn't have the focus to accomplish my Figurative Concepts homework yesterday, apparently my sub-conscience decided to reschedule the task. After tossing and turning for about an hour and a half, I finally just got up and drew a portrait. What a way to start a day!

So, the assignment was to draw a portrait of a friend or family member. Family to the rescue! The Georgia wing of my empire banned together, set-up their own lighting, and photographed each other. I've only had the time and motivation to do one so far, but more may come as I find time. I do enjoy the process and always see the need for improvement. In any case, I present to you, my Mother:

Photograph © 2011 Tiffanie Wright. Used with permission.
Lighting by Dave Lowe.

Character Design, Week 7

2011-03-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

In this week's Character Design class, we took a field trip to Africa!

...in our minds!

Seriously, though, the model--who was African-American--went all tribal on us with a cool fur/hide outfit and spears and bowls and baskets and all that other stuff that we associate with that wild, wild place called Africa. It was like National Geographic in that room!

Hmm...just realizing that I really need a cheetah in there somewhere...

Inspiration: Aurore Damant Edition

2011-03-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

This week's Character Design homework was the last one where we had to copy the style of an established artist. While Mr. Buffington gave us free reign with our artist choice, I decided to head deeper down the cartoony rabbit hole and went with Aurore Damant. Aurore lives in Paris and works as an illustrator and character designer (she worked on Amy Poehler's "The Mighty B!" series). Very cartoony designs. I was so inspired by her illustration work that I went all out with my three full figure drawings and colored them in Photoshop! I think they turned out alright.

The previous week's artist was Colin Jack. I really enjoyed his sketchy approach to rendering. Apparently he actually does all his digital work in Sketchbook Pro, which is a program I recently purchased through the Mac App Store AND LOVE! I didn't have the time, though, to really explore his style like I would've liked to. Regardless, here are a few pieces from last week:

My Political Cartoon

2011-03-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, I was on the school bus heading to class, and the bus comes to a dead halt at Market Street. Why? Because a group of people rallied a protest march (I couldn't see over what) and traffic was stopped. The whole thing lasted an eternal four (4!) minutes. The bright side? I got to class an conjured this doodle:

Sharpie Pen and brush pen, with some warm grey Prismacolor markers for value.

A Return to Form (Shadows)

2011-03-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

I loves me some classical drawing. There, I said it! After five weeks of nude figure drawing, we have new course headings in my Figurative Concepts class and are now spending five weeks on portraits before five weeks of clothed figure. And we're doing them the classical way via sfumato and such. Like Da Vinci (no, not the code...well, kind of the code). We are actually using the methods described best in the William Maughan book, The Artist's Complete Guide to Drawing the Head, with pastel pencils and the all-coveted Velvet Gray Paper.

My first semester at The Academy, I had Mark Tennant's Head Drawing class (check out his website--guy is amazing). It kicked my butt. Hard. Especially the last five weeks with oil painting. But it is probably the class that I learned the most in, certainly when applied to life drawing. Now I rock out head proportions. Hard.

That having been said, here is my pathetic attempt at a portrait drawing today. Ugh...

Hopefully the next four weeks will be more in my favor.

Three Weeks of Character Design Sketches

2011-03-09T11:42:00.000-08:00

Apparently my Character Design class consists of drawing a bunch of sexy chicks in cool outfits. Needless to say, it is the Greatest. Class. Ever.

The last week was especially cool, because the model asked to take pictures of some of my drawings to post on her Flickr and Tumblr sites! There's a new honor for me. :^)

That's So Bouguereau!

2011-03-03T23:28:00.000-08:00

This week in Nicolas's Figurative Concepts class--and this is only week 4, mind you--the homework was to copy a Master painting with charcoal at 18 x 24". (!) Luckily for me (but most unfortunate for all those first semester students I am in the class with), I have had practice doing such things from my other Fine Arts classes. Of course, those were just drawings, not paintings, and we often had multiple weeks to tackle the more difficult and elaborate ones...but yeah, so one week to copy a Master painting. I went with Nicolas's favorite painter, William-Adolphe Bouguereau. This guy could paint a foot that looks more realistic than your own foot. And he did! And it hangs in San Francisco's own Legion of Honor.

Anyway, I digress. I chose Bouguereau's Elegy painting from 1899:

After spending somewhere between 11 and 12 hours on it throughout the week, here's what I ended up with:

Sorry the image looks warped around the edges. We were to focus on the nude figure, which I did. I had to render some of the background so that you could see the relative value between it and the figure itself. Lots of nit-picky things that I'd change if I could do it over again or at least spend more time with it. Still good enough to impress all those first semester kids in my class, though. And really, that's what it's all about.

Also, just for fun, I took pictures of my work throughout the 11-12 hours to show my progress! From a quick sketch to refining the edges to making corrections to redrawing to more corrections to more redrawing to rendering to rerendering, etc. until I have the final piece. Enjoy!

Figurative Concepts - Week 4

2011-02-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

Inspiration: Bruce Timm Edition

2011-02-21T23:07:00.000-08:00

As previously mentioned, for my Character Design class, the artist whose style we had to emulate this week was Bruce Timm. Bruce is best known (from my childhood, at least) for being the driving force behind the look of Batman: The Animated Series and all the shows that followed it. His style is deceptively simple, incredibly appealing, and has definitely defined the look of all the DC Comics cartoons that have come out throughout the past couple decades (and even the recent Marvel ones, really), even when he wasn't the character designer.

This was another week of my own style getting in the way of the artist, but I also found myself naturally following a lot of what Bruce does. It was an odd sort of nostalgia drawing Batman for the first time in a good many years. Since Bruce comes from a comic book background and therefore does a lot of brush work to clean up/ink his work, I thought this would be the perfect week to try my cool new Pentel Arts Pocket Brush Pen! Let me tell you, it works awesomely! I can't say I've tried any similar permanent ink brush pens, but I like the results I got with this one. I definitely have a good deal to learn in terms of controlling it, but I will for sure be using it in my own work in the future.

Anywho, so here are a few pieces I created in Bruce Timm's style (-ish), then cleaned up with my new brush pen, then colored in Photoshop. Long live the 90's!

Character Design, Weeks 1-3

2011-02-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

As I had mentioned previously, this semester I am taking a Character Design class, taught by Michael Buffington. He's a long-winded fellow, but he does have some good points. And though I don't particularly care for his drawing style, I do appreciate his mentality when it comes to drawing. I mean, anyone who sets out to draw 1,001 heads (and accomplishes it, then decides to draw 1,000 more) clearly must love what he does.

Anyway, for this class--at least to start with--we have a weekly artist whose style we must emulate. Week one was Phil Bourassa:

Week two was Sean "Cheeks" Galloway:

I will admit that, as Michael pointed out to me, I'm letting my own style interfere with replicating the artist's style. The above three were the drawings he said he liked, even though they aren't exactly in the style of the artist. Something to work on in the coming weeks.

During class time, there's a live model who puts together cool outfits and does 2-3 minute poses for us to draw from. That's been fun. It's been a challenge to figure out drawing from the model in pencil (as opposed to charcoal) on 8.5x14" paper (as opposed to 18x24" newsprint) while altering the model's look and pose to make a better animation drawing. A new way of thinking, for sure. Here's a sampling of my progress on that front from this past week:

This week's artist is Bruce Timm, which I believe means that I legally have to watch the 90's Batman cartoons as I draw. This is clearly a tough career path I have chosen...

More conceptual figures

2011-02-18T19:31:00.000-08:00

Week 3 of my "Figurative Concepts" class. I think I'm finally starting to remember how to draw real people again. We've been using charcoal pencils (I favor the 4B), but I just had to whip out the vine charcoal this week. I like using it to quickly block in the figure and line of action, then rough in some tones before switching to the charcoal pencil to really dig into the form and details. Kind of like sculpting, I am to understand. I'm still too "heavy-handed" overall, but it's getting better.

Well, go figure(ative concepts)!

2011-02-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

New semester. New classes. New drawings to post (...and then eventually not have time to post).

This semester, I am enrolled in Developing Story (an MPT class where we--you guessed it--develop stories and talk about story development), Character Design and Drawing for Animators with Michael Buffington, and Figurative Concepts with the Academy's resident superstar, Nicolas Villarreal. Following in the mammoth footsteps of my fellow student/friend/undoubtedly future coworker Adam Knight (check out his blog if you haven't--you're in for a treat!), I have decided to post some of my figure work from the first two weeks in collage form. So, without further ado or name-dropping, I present Naked Chicks: Weeks One and Two...

Me? A comic book artist?!?

2011-01-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

Back in high school, when all I knew was that I liked to draw, I had no idea where I wanted to go to college. I was an avid comic book reader from the awesome decade that was the 1990's, so I figured comics were a great place to head. Somewhere online, I must've found a spec-script for a six-page Spider-Man story and decided to draw out the pages to test my comic book skills. Now, I had my own comic series going with my old best friend from Missouri when I was in middle school--and it was quite the hit among the relatives we would mail copies to--but I hadn't attempted anything on any professional level. Sure, I had my über cool Stickman comic strips that I had been drawing since 1997, and all my classmates and teachers enjoyed those, but an actual comic book is way different from cartoony doodles on a piece of loose leaf, ruled paper!

Anywayz, I was cleaning-up some of my digital workspace and came across my scans of these six Spider-Man pages that I had drawn oh so long ago. Without further ado, I present to you the reason that I am in Animation and not comic books:

To briefly conclude the story, when looking for colleges, I discovered that the fancy term for comic books is "Sequential Art". Which lead me to SCAD. Which--after a trip down to Savannah left a far too fishy smell in my nose...literally--lead me to animation and storyboarding at the Art Institute of Atlanta. And storyboarding is really just cinematic comic book making, when you think about it. I guess I wasn't totally clueless in high school.

Fall 2010 - Color Theory

2010-12-25T23:12:00.000-08:00

Next up in my end-of-semester round-up posts is my Color Theory class with Cameron Wasson. First and foremost, Cameron is such a delightful and knowledgeable teacher! Her metaphors--which, for the record, she concocts in an improvisational manner--make learning fun, and her zest for art both classic and contemporary is truly inspiring. I have made a couple of previous postings about my work for this class: my first Design Project and my analogous split-complimentary color scheme portrait painting. Here are some of the other projects I created for this class, starting with the Optic Mix painting:

As you can see, I started with the blue bird on a branch photograph, which I then cropped. Next, I created a black & white Value Study of the image, followed by a Color Study. The idea behind an Optic Mix painting is that the colors are mixed in the viewer's eye as opposed to the artist mixing them on the palette. Therefore, the final image is a series of tiny dots created with a ruling pen. It was a mind-bending experience, for sure, and I was never pleased with my control over the tool or the limited palette we were allowed. Next unposted project was a Color Temperature painting:

Here, Cameron gave us a box of colored blocks from which to pick and create an interesting arrangement. We then photographed that arrangement under a filtered light, in this case a warm filter. After the standard value and color studies, a final painting was created. The yellow block is all but lost in this painting, and the shadows were far too blue. Since this was a "learning" class--as opposed to a "create amazing portfolio artwork" class--I didn't choose to redo any projects. As long as I was learning from them, I felt they were as successful as they needed to be. And finally, we have the final project for the class:

The final project was a landscape illustration that showed Atmospheric Perspective. I went to my not-so-massive library of personal images and found some great ones from Lake Tahoe (from when my parents were kind enough to fly out here to San Francisco to visit me and free me--for the weekend--from this dreadful city). Following Cameron's advice to cater the image towards our Majors, I decided to use a cinematic aspect ratio, so I had to move around a few of the elements from the photograph before I created the usual value and color studies. You can also see a rare work-in-progress image just above the final painting. One thing I definitely learned from this final painting--besides how far I've come in my knowledge of painting with gouache paint and of color theory itself--is the importance of designing everything thoroughly in the early stages. Lack of design (as seen in the far-to-rough value study) lead to problems with the foreground plant life and ultimately really ruined what was otherwise a very pleasing painting. Lesson learned for next time!

Fall 2010 - Layout Design

2010-12-17T22:02:00.000-08:00

Well, another semester has come to a close for the Academy of Art University, so that means it's time for my bi-annual (a word I'll use because "semesterly" apparently isn't one) posting of classwork. First up, Layout Design for Animators with Oliver Sin.

Posted below are the pages from my Final Book, which compiled all the weekly "Directions" that Oliver gave us to create a layout design for. I found this class to be a frustrating one--not artistically, but in terms of instruction--and I will definitely say that I'm not very pleased with any of the work I produced for this class. Not a complete waste of time and energy, but I definitely did not learn anything new about layout design. If nothing else, I will say that it's good to learn new techniques, even if those techniques aren't right for you.

Color Theory - Project 3

2010-11-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

The third assignment for my Color Theory class was to pick a celebrity and create an analogous split complementary painting that tells their story with color. Easy, I know. After failed attempts at the likes of Megan Fox, Natalie Portman, and even Sarah Chalke, I finally came back to reality and chose Steven Spielberg. I found a fantastic picture of him in that famous director pose where they use their hands to frame a shot.

Then, I had to render that image, simplifying the shapes and assigning values that create form. Additionally, I had to think about the story I wanted to tell with my illustration. I also had to find another picture of Steven where I could actually see his left hand (since the right part of this image is blocked) and had to try to blend it into the scene.

You'll notice I also placed extra emphasis on the eyes to make sure that the focal point is clear. He sees the composition of his shot through his hands with his eyes. This was actually drawn roughly on paper first, then values were cleaned up and assigned in Photoshop, which made it much easier to play around with the values and colors of each shape.

Speaking of the colors of each shape, I decided to go with the Red Analogous Split Complementary color scheme, using the complementary Green around the eyes and splashed around the "Golden Rectangle" that his hands create. Cool colors for the hair and background, oranges for the face, and reds for the hands.

You can then see how all that work was for not, as my horrid painting abilities killed all my weeks of preparation (okay, so I can honestly say that it looks a bit better in reality than this scan shows, but it's still not so great). Gouache painting is not as fun as you may think...especially when you also have Layout Design and Preproduction work to get done, too. I think I'll be rather pleased when this semester is over...

Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends: Back in Action

2010-11-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

Now that I've finalized the content of my three thesis stories, I can start to focus on them one-by-one. First up: Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends. This is my 3-D animated feature-length story, and I'm focusing on the climactic twist when we discover that the Unicorn was not actually kidnapped by the Dodo Bird, but was, in fact, constructing an elaborate plan to get the Dodo out of the picture so he could open up the portal to the Land of Imagination!!! Whoa! Below are some sketches of me continuing to figure out the character anatomy and then some presentation storyboards I did of an earlier story moment for this dramatic sequence.

[*all boards done traditionally with pencil on paper]

Shuttle Shorts

2010-11-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

Good news everyone! My hiatus from Blog posting has not been without good reason: I've had to nail down my three story ideas for my Thesis Project. And that "good news" that I mentioned earlier? It's that I've finally nailed them down. :^) The next step is to really start fleshing things out, and I came to a realization that I haven't actually boarded anything in over a year! Yikes! So, I've decided to brush the dust off my Mad Skillz with some short little sequences based on things I find funny and/or have overheard on various Academy of Art Shuttle trips. Shuttle Shorts, they shall be called. Hopefully this will help sharpen my neglected story senses, because this first one is pretty rough...

*RUMBLE.*

Sorry. I'm trying not to throw myself all over you.

I'm going to pretend that's because you find me irresistible and not because of the laws of physics.

Quotable Quotes 6

2010-10-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

"A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking."

-Arthur M. Bloch, writer

Color Theory Class

2010-10-01T22:42:00.000-07:00

Been a bit busy between homework & work, so the blog postings have been sparse. I shall do my best to post stuff from my classes as I finish projects. First up to bat: Color Theory.

My Color Theory class is lead by the brilliant instructor Cameron Wasson. It is, believe it or not, currently my favorite class. Such an intense class (read: lots of working in-class and lots of homework hours), but I have already gained so much knowledge that I can use forever (...or at least until I pay people to do this kind of stuff for me). Gouache paint costs way too much money, though, so that's a real downside. Plus, I also seem to be buying a bunch of things that I don't foresee myself ever using again in other classes. Still, can you put a price on knowledge? The Academy seems to think so. And it's pretty high. Also, Cameron is not only a great instructor/teacher, but she has THE BEST anecdotes! It's a real treat just to watch her formulate them on-the-fly. Most importantly, she clearly has a real love/passion for what she does, and I think I respect that more than anything else and can certainly get behind it.

At any rate, our first project is to be turned in this week and I thought I'd share my interpretation of it here. Using the Golden Rectangle, we had to create a 9-value design, then colorize it. Below are exploratory marker sketches, the B&W painting, and the color version, done in gouache paint.

On a related side-note, Mark Kennedy (awesome Disney story artist) has been doing his own color theorizing in his free time and posts a few great thoughts on color over at his Temple of the Seven Golden Camels blog. It's worth a read.

My 3 Thesis Proposals

2010-09-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Alright, so the first assignment for my Preproduction class is to create three (3) story ideas for our Thesis project, including a visual for each. I, of course, have dozens of story ideas, so it was fun to par down which ones would make the cut. Decided to go with variety, so there's one television series, one movie/book series, and one stand-alone short (so Rainforest Roomies got dropped *frowny face*). And the winners are:

[*NOTE: As always, please pretend my proposals are read by Jon Hamm in full-genius Don Draper mode.]

RETAILiation

The Hook: Three roommates who are lifelong friends combat their mediocre RETAIL lives.
Thoughts: What happens when you graduate from high school and don't know what to do with your life? What if you don't go to college? What if you end up in a boring, mundane RETAIL job? How do you deal with the mediocrity of life with an uncertain future? Can life-long friendships survive the changes--or lack there of--that life presents us with?

Many people view retail as being a low-tier, anyone-can-do-it kind of job. Maybe you had a retail job in high school, after school or over summer break. Maybe you worked part time during college as a means to an end. But what if you don't progress from high school and just "get stuck" at that retail job? RETAILiation isn't just a retaliation against retail, as the title implies. It's a retaliation against the implied/assumed boredom that is a retail position. Also, it's funny.

Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends

The Hook: Enter an Animal Kingdom akin to the Garden of Eden paradise just after Adam & Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit and had their eyes opened.
Thoughts: Welcome to the Paradise that is the Land of Cutesywootseykins, where animals exist with a sort of naïvety, without hunger or any wants & needs, save the desire to live each day to it's fullest. Their world is not unlike the Garden of Eden that Adam & Eve inhabited. So what happens when, like in that story, someone takes a bite from the forbidden fruit? What happens when their perfect world is suddenly thrust into the "Circle of Life" cycle? We are able to witness the birth of the animal Food Chain that, in it's own way, unites the many lands of the Animal Kingdom.

A brave few have taken it upon themselves to find out what is happening and, hopefully, save this Paradise in which they live. Can they prevent the inevitable?

Planned as a book series, actually (though, it could be adapted into a movie series a la Harry Potter), the first storyline is titled "The Great Unicorn Rescue". It revolves around the formation of the group as they set out to rescue the Unicorn from the clutches of The DoDo Bird! Expect a surprise plot twist at the end, though.

Deer in the Headlights: A Lightning Bug Story

The Hook: Boy bug likes girl bug. Other, bigger boy bug likes girl bug. Girl bug likes other, bigger boy bug. Girl bug proposes a contest to win her affection. Will everyone get what they want?
Thoughts: I've published a whole bunch of sketches and story thoughts on this over the past year or two. There's also a whole section of it, complete with fully storyboarded sequence, over at my website -->Click Here to see all that. I'm really banking on my first two ideas--which I've listed in order of desirability--so I thought I should throw in a short story idea to flesh out my three. This was just the one with the most development to it. Hopefully I'll be able to work on some of my other short story ideas in a Storyboarding class at some point. Or maybe I'll just take a dozen more Fine Arts classes...the school seems to like me in those.

Anywho, those are my three ID-ers. Thoughts?

I got me a Joe Murray book..

2010-09-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

I received my amazon.com pre-order of the new Joe Murray book, "Creating Animated Cartoons with Character" earlier this week and I haven't been able to put it down! Okay, well that's not totally true. I've had work, so I put it down then. And sometimes I was so inspired by the book that I had to put it down and doodle in my sketchbook or jot down notes. Also, there were big stretches of time where I was sleeping. But anyway, the point I meant to make is that it's a great book that very thoroughly covers the creative process and business side of creating your own animated series (which, it has been rumored, is what I want to do). I liked it so much that I actually posted an amazon.com Review! You can read it below. And, if you want to purchase the book (and you should), I recommend this link, which takes you to amazon.com through Joe Murray's website, so he gets a slightly bigger slice. He created Rocko and Camp Lazlo, I think he deserves it! :^)

Casey Lowe's amazon.com Review:
***** Sound advice from someone who's been in the trenches (twice!)
For those who haven't caught on yet, this book was written (brilliantly, I feel) by the great Joe Murray, creator of the hit shows "Rocko's Modern Life" and "Camp Lazlo". I got my copy of this book the other day and was shocked at how thick it actually was! My immediate thought was that it would be filled with big pictures and sparse text; a pleasant surprise awaited me as I flipped through it. It's much more dense and thorough than I expected. The book is actually very well thought-out, entertaining, and informative. The pictures that are included (which are sized just right, not just filler) pertain to the text and are really quite inspiring.

A bit on the content: Mr. Murray starts with a brief Bio that includes some great illustrations from earlier in his career, followed by a very brief animation history lesson. This is a great way to start the book, since you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. He commences to plow forward by picking his brain about his own process in creating characters and stories, following them from initial kernel of an idea in your head to getting them on paper to creating personalities to pitching your idea, preparing a mini-bible for the pilot, producing the pilot, taking it to series, maintaining your sanity when this is your life day in and day out for years, etc. He does a fantastic job of illustrating the realities of the business while still infusing plenty of his creativity. His thorough commentary provides a step-by-step insight into what to expect (and prepare yourself for) in the creation of a television animation series. The icing on the cake? Mr. Murray also includes several interviews with other series creators and talents, picking their brains about their own process and insights on the industry.

I cannot recommend this book enough for both creatives and fans of cartoons! :^)

Lady in Blue

2010-08-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned, I recently downloaded the new Photoshop CS5 trial version, so I've been testing out it's awesomeness (and yes, it is quite awesome). I had this really moody, blue-lit picture that I'd been wanting to do something with, so I decided to draw it and then color it in CS5. I've done things like this before with charcoal, but I went with a Tuscan Red Col-Erase pencil this time around. Much more line work and pencil mileage. Then I scanned it and added color in Photoshop, sampling from the original photo. I also saved progressive versions of the file, so I figured I'd post a few of them to show my "process". Below are the results, from pencil to flat color to adding in shading, then highlights. In the final version, you can see how I brought down the pencil lines to bring focus to the eye. Of course I only now notice all the anatomical errors (the biggest of which is the fact that her left arm is too far away from the rest of her body, making her shoulders seem broad and hips thin), but this was mainly a color/lighting project, anyway. I hope to do some more lighting illustrations with this process in the future.

Photoshop Self-Portrait

2010-08-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

Was just goofing around with Photoshop, trying out a new painting technique. Thought I'd do a self-portrait. I'm thinking this would make a better Halloween costume, though...

Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends

2010-08-04T19:36:00.000-07:00

Just realized that I never posted these sketches from the "Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends" series I was working on. Again, I'm going forward with "Retailiation", but this is my backup plan.

As you can see, the characters are all animals. There's a generic body type and certain animal characteristics are applied to it to create each character. Plenty of fun lands and stories are a brewin' in the ol' noggin...

RETAILiation

2010-07-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

I just finished the first draft of my "Pilot" episode, so I guess I'm going through with this...RETAILiation is going to be my next project. Yes, I know I've had several false starts with "Rainforest Roomies" and "Fuzzy Fury Rescue Friends" (the latter of which I still haven't posted anything on), but this one should be for realsies. I actually could see this as being my thesis project, so I know there will be a lot of changes along the way over the next year or so. Basically, the concept of RETAILiation is that three high school friends are all sharing an apartment and working together at a mall. I'd like to highlight the fact that, just because they have a mediocre retail job, doesn't mean they lead a mediocre life. I'm thinking of posting this as a series of comic books first, to get my feet wet, and then create the animatic for my thesis. Of course, that largely depends on what The School decides upon. I will also be continuing work on the other two concepts mentioned above. Story. Story. Story.

In any case, here's a sketch of the three main characters, (from left to right) Chad, Mellie, and Greg:

More to follow...

Happy Birthday, Mother!

2010-07-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

Today is my Mother's birthday. She is of an undisclosed age, and I had the time this year to make her a card (A LoweQuality Card, as it were). This is something I've done before, where I paint some flower arrangement, then scan it and turn it into a card with text from Photoshop. Here's the watercolor/colored pencil illustration I did for it:

So she'll get the card and can have the original illustration for framing (because mothers love those sorts of things).

All Hands on Deck

2010-07-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

So today, I made a specific attempt to fill an entire page of my sketchbook with nothing but hand drawings. And I succeeded! Below are the results:

The hands were all (or at least mostly) drawn originally by the great Milt Kahl, taken from posted scans on this fantastic blog: The Art Center. Hands can be so difficult to draw even when you take your time, but when you're trying to churn out some storyboards, you really need to have simplified hand shapes committed to memory.

Practice, practice, practice...

Tentatively Titled: Rainforest Roomies

2010-06-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

As I overindulge in revisiting my favorite childhood cartoons, I started thinking (inevitably) about my own body of work and what I could do next. I started thinking--perhaps dangerously--about what hasn't been done yet, and I realized that we really haven't had an animal-centric show located in the rainforest about a resort/spa run by said rainforest animals! So, I decided to make one. Still doing animal research--there are so many to choose from!--but I'm liking the capybara and the tapir as two early front-runners for main characters. Also doing some "location scouting". Below are some early, quick animal sketches as I do my research. I've also begun to develop the capybara character, which I see as being a John Candy type--lovable, but slow. More to follow..

♫ Summer Sketchin', had me a blast... ♪

2010-06-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a collection of some of the things I've been sketching this summer. I've been rekindling my love of "The Angry Beavers", since Netflix has the first two seasons streaming from their site. (I've actually only watched the first season. Twenty-five episodes in a season?? Not in today's world!) Also some Toy Story 3 sketches as I flipped through the amazing "Art of" book. Currently working on some really cool stuff--now that I've given up on my Lil' Drac revamp--that I hope to share soon! Enjoy!

Futurama : Rebirth

2010-06-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

Ah, at long last, the return of the one Fox should've saved in the first place...

Lil' Drac: The Re-Deadening

2010-06-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

ERGH!!! After several days experiencing a personal "story retreat", I've come to the unfortunate realization that, in order for this epic story to work, I need to make the audience hate the person that kills Dracula. Lil' Drac would have to kill the man who killed his father, but his father killed a bunch of villagers that didn't really do anything to deserve it....so....looks like I'll be shelving my Lil' Drac resurrection story...for now, at least.

Grrr...look at all those wasted notes and story sketches!

Lil' Drac: The Resurrection

2010-06-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

Since I'm not taking summer classes at the Academy of Art this year, I figured I'd better find my own project to work on to keep my skills sharp. I've been debating a lot of different ideas. I have several story ideas I want to flesh out, storyboard, and create an animatic for. But then I figured I'll be doing a lot of that for my Thesis Project during the next year or so. And so I started looking back over what else I've got up my sleeve. As a kid, I had created my own comic series with my friend and even wanted to be a comic artist before getting into animation, but I haven't given it much thought since. Then, I was watching this great interview over at CTN Animation Expo about the importance of story at Pixar. All four of these Pixar story artists also do comic books! That's when I had my epiphany to do my own comic book, which I think will be a nice addition to my portfolio when I graduate. But a comic about what? Well, that's when I decided to finally revisit my undergraduate masterpiece: Lil' Drac! I figure, if it won me the Best of Show Portfolio Award, it must be fairly descent, at least. After I had created the animatic for class, I had continued to fiddle around with the characters and the world, expanding and refining it. I had even written a second script to use for another animatic, but I never ended up producing it--too many story changes from the original at that point. I feel like now's the perfect time to finally redefine my creation and adapt him for the comic book/graphic novel world! Working heavily on story, at the moment, but here are some of the sketches I've been doing as I re-imagine the world of Lil' Drac...

No Toy Left Behind.

2010-06-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

What can I say, but "F.A.O. my Schwarz!"

It Takes Two to Get Tangled

2010-06-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't watched it yet, here's the first Official Trailer for Disney's "Tangled" via their official YouTube page!

Also, here's a link to an earlier cut of the trailer, which actually has some great storyboard work and shots that got cut from the final edit: http://lineboil.com/2010/03/watch-the-leaked-tangled-trailer-and-teaser/
Rinse. Rescue. Repeat.

Let's Go YouTubin'!

2010-06-12T23:28:00.000-07:00

Just added a dozen animations to my YouTube channel! They're all from my undergraduate classes, so they're pretty bad. They made me laugh though...and reminded me why I'm in pre-production. Some are traditional, others are using 3D Studio Max, like this little gem here:

Be sure to check them out at youtube.com/casemanartist!

Getting Further Tangled...

2010-06-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

Naturally, there will be a 3-D trailer for Disney's winter 2010 release "Tangled" premiering in theaters before the wonder that is "Toy Story 3", but did you realize that you can already view said trailer by heading over to the Official Tangled website? Well, you can. And IT. IS. AWESOME!!! I am so friggin' pumped for this movie! Glen Keane is a god and I simply cannot wait to see what his Midas Touch will do for Walt Disney Animation's 50th Feature Animated Movie!!!
Below are some screenshots from the trailer, for your (and my) viewing pleasure...

Figure Studio - The Last Day

2010-05-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Looks like I forgot to post my final drawing from my Figure Studio class! Here it is, in all it's poorly-photographed glory:

I'm not taking any Summer classes at AAU, so I won't have any classwork until Fall Semester starts up again in September. I do, however, intend to work on a few things here and there to keep my skills sharp, so I'll post what I like. Stay tuned...

Figure Studio Final

2010-05-16T18:10:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting the homework assignments from my Figure Studio class here, mostly because they've all been multi-week copies of various Bargue drawings. As a change of pace, for our final we got to copy a Prud'hon drawing! It's actually pretty exciting, because I really enjoy his figure work, and his painting in the Legion of Honor was a highlight of that trip. So, without further a due, here's my Prud'hon copy, done with charcoal and white chalk:

Jack & the Beanstalk - Pièce de Résistance

2010-05-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

Talk about bittersweet endings...below is the final presentation for my Visual Elements of Story class here at the Academy. Nicolas Villarreal has been a phenomenal teacher, and I can truly say that this class has, by far, been my favorite that I've taken yet! The final is basically two presentation boards, one for compositions and one for characters, that show the progression and culmination of everything we've done this semester! *phew.* Lots of work to compile, let me tell you! Each of these are actually 20" x 30", but Blogger only allows images to be so large (1600 pixels, I believe), so you'll have to use your imagination as to the size. Sorry if any details are lost, but all these images can be seen in their larger forms elsewhere on this very blog. I do still have every intention of coloring that third composition (lower, right corner of the composition board) this summer, so stay tuned for that. Otherwise, it's likely the end of the road for Jack and Co. It's a shame, as I was just starting to get into the characters and the story. Seems a waste...who knows. Good characters never die, right?...

Jack & the Beanstalk - Jack Poses

2010-05-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

One of the last things we had to do for our story in my Visual Elements of Story class was to create 10 facial expressions and 5 full-body poses for the character that we've been developing, coloring one from each. We also had to redraw the character turnaround to represent any changes to the character. Below are my results with Jack:

Jack & the Beanstalk - Composition 2 - FINAL

2010-05-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

Wow! I've been so busy with my finals that I haven't posted anything on my blog! Well, it's time to make up for this neglect--I can't leave all four of my followers wondering what's next! First off, here's the final version of my second composition:

Yes, this has been Nicolas-approved. By which, I mean he told me to stop working on it. :^) Definitely much more pleased with this one than I was with the first one, though I still see plenty of room for improvement.

Yet Another Figure Studio Drawing

2010-05-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest act of desperation in my attempt to grasp the wonder of the human form:

Another Figure Studio Drawing

2010-05-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

Here's this week's Figure Studio drawing. While I can't say the drawing is much better, the lighting in here is just SO bad (can't emphasize that enough). Adjusted as best I could in Photoshop. Once I'm out of student housing and somewhere with descent lighting, I'll retake these and update. Until that day, behold:

Jack & the Beanstalk - Composition 2 Progression + Character Line-Up

2010-05-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

Two things this week: a character line-up and 90% of Comp 2 finished. First up is the line-up, complete with some character sketches I did:

And then there's the second composition. I've made a lot of progress on it. Lots of changes, both big and small. I think it's really coming together, but it's just not quite there for me. I'll be sure to post the final, once I have it..

Go Figure...Studio

2010-04-28T16:56:00.000-07:00

Another casualty of poor student housing lighting and my lack of über cool drawing skills. I will admit, there are some elements I like--the paper, for example, is of quality...

Jack & the Beanstalk - Composition 2 Progression

2010-04-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

As previously posted, I'm currently working on the second of two compositions for "Jack & the Beanstalk" for my Visual Elements of Story class at AAU. Here's what I had last night:

Today in class, we got to work on the project, so here was about 4 hours of additional work (redid the foreground leaves, started on the characters):

Then my teacher, the brilliant Nicolas Villarreal, made a few [amazing] modifications:

So now I have a ton of clean-up work to do. But, it's going to look SOOO much better now, once it's finished. This is definitely why I'm paying the big bucks to go to school. :^)

Jack & the Beanstalk - Compositions 2 & 3 Color Studies

2010-04-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

Continuing my work on the next two compositions for Jack & the Beanstalk. Based on review of my previously posted line art, I made a few changes to the layouts, first. Then I developed black & white value studies in Photoshop, which were then colored via a "Color" layer on top of the value studies. It was a nice, quick way to keep my values but add color. Below are the results:

I like the second one down in both cases. Really digging that "Red October" sky. At some point, I'm really going to have to scratch this itch I have to do a night scene with stars...cause stars are just awesome. Supposed to have about 30-40% of the finals for these done by Tuesday, so check back for progress..