The Old is New

As my Spring Break drew to an end, I decided to do a few things I hadn't done in a while.  First, I was bored and going through various Blogs and I came across some work from one of my old favorites, Adam Warren.  For those not in the know, look him up--he's fantastic!  American-born, Anime-influenced.  The man has amazing pencil control and a superb sense of humor.  I'm not really an anime fan (at all), but I have always been highly influenced by his work.  In fact, back in high school, my best friend and I even created our own comic series based largely on his work and the work of Joe Madureira.  Anywho, so here are a few new sketches I did in that manga style (though they are de-manga-ized a tad):

Then I got out my colored paper sketchpad (that's the technical name for it, I believe) and had some fun drawing a well-lighted figure.  This is Carrie Underwood from the latest issue of Allure magazine:

Laguna Beach Sketches

After the visit to Disneyland, we drove further south to a little place called Laguna Beach where we hung out in the sun for a while.  I also did some sketching of the basketball players, volleyball players, children, and passers-by:

DISNEYLAND!!!

This week is Spring Break here at the Academy of Art University, so I ventured down south a tad to Anaheim, California to visit one of my favorite places: Disneyland!  One day's never enough to take in both parks, but here are some of the pictures I took during my abbreviated stay (the ones that didn't turn out blurry--I don't like my camera):

So many amazing things to see there, of course, but I think the coolest addition they have at the moment is the Toy Story Zoetrope.  There's a circle of various levels of your favorite Toy Story characters all sculpted to perfection (through advanced computer technology straight from the Pixar source).  Each character's mold changes slightly as it goes around the circle, like animation.  They then spin the circle very fast, so all you can see of the characters is a blur.  Then, BAM!, they turn on the strobe lights and, thanks to persistence of vision and such, the characters come to life before your very eyes!

My video of it didn't turn out so great (again, stupid camera), but here's a [YouTube video] of it that gives you the idea. Obviously, because of the strobe and the camera's shutter speed, it's a bit choppy.  The actual product is quite the site to behold!

That New Disney Movie...

"Rapunzel", "Unbraided", "Tangled", "Glen Keane's Computer Animated Movie"...call it what you will, I just cannot wait for November 24th to come!  I mean, look at this:

And have you seen the teaser trailer?

Legion of Honor Museum Excursion

Living here in San Francisco while I work towards my degree does have it's perks, one of which being the number of art museums the city has.  Today, the class took a field trip to the Legion of Honor Museum over-ish by the Golden Gate Bridge.  Lots of really amazing artwork there (and some regular artwork, too).  Next time I go, I'll have to bring my camera (didn't know those were allowed), but for now, here are some of the sketches I did.  Mind you, these pages were done in a little over two hours (never enough time!)...

And, for the record, my favorite piece that I looked over today (there are many more to peruse on future trips) would have to be this Pierre Paul Prud'hon from 1814, Venus Bathing:

Just something about that classical female body type...

Jack & the Beanstalk - Character Expressions & Composition

Two things this week, as we approach midterms and spring break.  First, we had to take our character (in this case, Jack) and develop six facial expressions for them.  Below are some of my initial sketches (top) and then the final renderings of the six I chose:

Did they turn out how I wanted them to?  Not really.  I think there's some issues with the facial proportions, mostly in terms of the eye size.  I will be reworking them when I get the chance.  Part two of our homework for the week was to pick one of the four value studies we had done a few weeks back and to make a full-sized (13" x 7") composition drawing.  We will next add value to this drawing and then color it.  Let the fun begin...

Jack & the Beanstalk - Character Turnaround

This week, we had to pick one of our characters and do a turnaround model sheet showing front, three-quarter view, side, back three-quarter view, and back angles.  Below are my rough sketches working out the turn, followed by the final turnaround drawings:

Jack & the Beanstalk - Initial Character Designs

This week, we've moved on to character design with our Jack & the Beanstalk story. We first had to draw several thumbnails to lock down the basic shape of the characters. Then we start adding some details here and there. Next week, we'll go more in-depth with the designs and create model sheets, but here are the thumbnails: