End of the week time!

Yay! We made it through another week. Phew for that. : ) 

Got a big weekend ahead but it'll be fun. 

Here's another pick that I am going to be exhibiting over the weekend - I put it up a couple of months ago when it was unfinished - so here's the finished article. Another reason for celebration.

So I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

P.S.

Hi!

We have been animating this week - and it has been tough. Really tough. 

But cool. Very cool. 

So here is a little sketch I did of the little girl that we are animating. She was designed by my tutor but I was doing some practice drawings of her today and did this little interpretation of her. 

It's funny tho, how when you see your drawings scanned or photographed you then see the mistakes - and they seem REALLY obvious. Kind of like when you hold it up to a mirror I guess. 

Oh well. We finish our scene next week - our tutors have kindly given us 8 days to complete the keys and breakdowns of the scene, so maybe next week (again if I'm feeling brave), I'll pop up the line test on here. : )

Oh and the P.S. is in regards to the Japanese Art Festival on this Friday, Saturday and Sunday - I'm going to donate 50% of the sales of my art to the Japanese Tsunami Relief Fund that they will be fundraising for at the exhibition - so all you Aucklanders out there come and buy some art! I think that quite a few of the artists are doing the same thing - so it's for a very good cause. 

Til next time...

oxo

Art Festival Promo...

Yuss! The Japanese Art Festival is on this weekend, and yours truly is exhibiting (first exhibit ever mind you). : ) There are a whole lot of artists from Japan who are sending their work to NZ - and a few who are also coming along - and their work along with a range of Kiwi artists will be displayed this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Aotea Centre in Auckland city. 

I also understand that they are going to be having some fundraising for the victims of the Japanese tsunami and earthquake, and the Christchurch one also.

This is one of mine that will be exhibited and for sale...

I really will try and get a nice scanner one of these days.

Acrylic on canvas...

I just had one of those days today that was not great. 

It's so hard to stay motivated when you know that you have so so so far to go, 

and you wonder if you will ever get there. 

*sigh*

Twigs are cool!

Today we have a little blue bird. I am harking back to old drawings because I haven't had the time to do any finished pieces over the last week and I wanted to put some colour up. : ) So the above wee chap is a recent old one - from January, during the summer holidays

And the below one is a real oldy - from back in my high school days. Yup we did really random stuff in high school art. We had to collect a bunch of twigs and shells and feathers etc. Tie them all together and then draw them! I mean, who wouldn't! 

However, all joking aside (as hilarious as that was), I must admit I actually did enjoy the exercise. The textures of the twigs were really cool and as you can see, I even found one with moss growing on it. And as you can also most likely see - I had a LOT of fun with the ink. Hehe. And seriously, when I say old (without giving toooooo much information away about my age) when I say high school, we are talking over 10 years ago. : P 

Seriously I can't believe how fast time flies. 

Maybe one of these days, I'll go out and find some new 21st century twigs and do some new studies...

So much information...

Happy new week everyone. : )

It was a really full on day today. Spent the morning looking at movie clips analyzing layout and composition (very cool). Saw some amazing scenes from some epic films. There is just so much to think about in these things tho. We take a massive amount for granted when we watch a film. 

Then, the afternoon was awesome because Mr. John Ewing came in - who was the co-founder of our school and was trained in animation at Disney by one of the nine old men in the 50's and 60's. He is so knowledgeable, and his experience is huge - and yet despite all that he is very gracious and humble. So he spent I think just over an hour and a half answering our questions and sharing stories of working at Disney on films such as The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmatians etc. 

Last year he came into our class too and had a look at some of my work. He is now writing and illustrating children's books - which is what I have a particular interest in too - so he gave me a heap of advice on my drawings. 

Well, now that I have finished my book - my tutor from last year said that I should get him to look at the drawings so he can give me some feedback. So, hopefully tomorrow, he is going to look at my work and give me some advice. I am really nervous, especially because I know that there is HEAPS wrong with my drawings, and also he is just so hugely experienced and worked with these amazing people. However - I am not going to pass up the opportunity to get some feedback from such a man just coz I'm nervous!!! This is his website for those who may be interested: http://www.johnwewing.com/index.html

I thought it would be a bit yawn to not put up a picture - so here are a couple of quick mermaid sketches - even though one in particular is really messy and unfinished. And hey everyone, I very much welcome critique and feedback so please, please feel free to offer advice. : ) One of these days I'll get the chance to put up some more finished colourful pretty work (hopefully). : )

Thursday

I got to learn some more today! It's so exciting. 

To be honest I think it's just awesome to have left school - gone out and worked for some years, gained some life experience; and then to come back to actively learn and you just appreciate it soooo much more than you did when you were at high school and HAD to go rather than choosing to go. 

Especially when it's animation. : D

I was trying to be all rough and stuff today, so I drew a really fast sketch from a memory I have as a kid.

Yup, we used to leap into the air off the teeniest, tiniest concrete step into a paddling pool and think that we were practically Evil Kenevil. This is a semi-altered memory I have of my best friend at the time doing a bomb into the paddling pool. Don't worry, it ended well (as well as it could all things considered).

Looking at this drawing I definitely knew that there was a heap that could be done to the pose of the character to enhance it - but I just couldn't figure out exactly what those changes would be to be honest. So I asked my tutor. : )

He did a redrawing of it for me - but I thought that I should practice and did my own version of what he showed me...

So much better right!?

A few things in particular that he highlighted:

• Vary the feet - put them at different angles, and one higher than the other and it'll create a more dynamic and visually stimulating drawing - as well as capturing the movement better I think.
• His hair is better as a - hmmmm, lump (hehe) rather than those random billion lines that I drew (what was I thinking?!?!) - also I guess, especially if the character is going to be animated it would make things a little easier!
• And his arms angled upwards - again more dynamic; and although my tutor didn't say this - I kinda think that it indicates the fact that he's going to start moving downwards soon. Dunno - what does anyone else out there think?

Well, I am very much looking forward to being able to see and think of these things naturally, but in the meantime I'll attempt to cultivate it with more research!

One of these days I'll put up a finished piece of work too. Got the art exhibition coming up soon so should be able to put up some of my work from that.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Trees

Right so I was drawing a tree today. Why not right? Coz trees are rad.

I did have another one of those 'ah ha!' moments again today tho - coz my fab tutor gave me some excellent advice again - this time (what do you know) on drawing trees!

So, below, my original tree.

Then my tutor gave me some tips that I thought I'd share (especially as I'm hoping that putting it on here will solidify it into my spongey brain - it soaks stuff up but it has a lotta holes in it too).

So, observe below my glorious photoshop efforts to help me explain. 

(Please bear with me a little on this one - I am not very well practiced at Photoshop and also can't find my stylus for my tablet - so this was all done with the finger on the mousepad : P)

Check out my colourful squiggly lines. Cool huh? Heh heh.

Anyway, basic stuff that you all prolly know, but I needed reminding of:

Yellow: The yellow lines at the top are basically my tutor advising me to add more of the smaller branches at the top - or at least draw them in in the first place - gives the drawing more variety in the shapes and is just a bit more realistic. 

Orange: Something I did right! The use of the straight line vs. the curve - ye-yah. 

Pink (or red depending on your preference): I'd done a lot of curves in the trunk of the tree - so my tutor advised mixing up the shapes by making the bush behind more spiky - and also said to make sure I don't just follow the exact same shape as the roots of the tree below.

Green: I had done my lovely repetitive bubbly curves on the roots - but it made it a LOT more interesting and natural when he drew more of a variation in the line (similar to the trunk) with a curve then a straighter line then curve etc. Not easy to see in my wobbly green lines but hopefully you get the gist. 

So that 'ah ha' moment was especially when he pointed out those bubbly roots. Ech. They stand out so blatantly now to me - whereas before they seemed fine! Well hurrah for learning to see new stuff. 

And here's the girl who is going to be leaning against the tree reading her book. Complete with munted toeless foot. Nice. : )

The Lost Thing Trailer

YAY! I love Shaun Tan - and this short film looks so amazing! Not surprised it won an Oscar. Can't wait to see the whole film. I've got his book 'The Red Tree' which is also very very amazing. Worth a read. : )

Tuesday

Well another day and I'm pretty happy to be honest. I finished my layout assignment which isn't due till Thursday, so I'm getting heaps of time to fix up stuff. I finally got my head around layout, and it isn't as complicated as I first thought it was, however it's a huge amount of work, especially drafting up the backgrounds (which I am still NOT awesome at). And my tutor told me the other day that in the studio when he was working as head of the layout department, he churned out 10 full sets of layouts a day. Which is the amount our class was given 8 days to do. : P However we are beginners - and he assures me he was once in our shoes (hard to imagine but there you go).

Anyway - I was feeling a little like this today...

Which is a great feeling. 

Then I got some advice from my tutor, and he showed me that I was actually feeling a little more like this...

Which is an even better feeling because it makes more sense! Luis is one of my very excellent tutors and he highlighted in particular the simplification of the arms - making the muscle tone less obvious can make a female figure look more feminine (if that's what you are going for). Also the movement of the dress around her legs. 

You know how you have those moments, where you have been looking at something for ages without seemingly seeing the obvious? And then once it's pointed out to you, you're like, 'I seriously can't believe that I didn't see that there before'. Yeah, well, I had one of those moments with that dress. You'll see on my drawing that I have this oh so delightful fold in her skirt kinda inbetween her knees. Just gotta love that drapery; except when it doesn't make any sense! So anyway, on Luis' drawing, it's nice and smooth where there's the most drag, billowing back the point where the wind blows it to the left. 

Now that, is drapery that makes more sense.

K, so that might seem amazingly obvious to all you very clever people out there, but when I was drawing that picture, it obviously, wasn't obvious to me. So lesson of the day: Actually THINK when you draw Hannah. 

Thanks for bearing with me. 

: )

Monday

I couldn't think of what to title this post - so I just gave it the name of the day. Seemed to make sense. Well it's been ages since I posted - however a lot has been accomplished! 

I finished my illustrations! Hurrah!

I passed my storyboarding exam! Wahoo!

And now I'm getting started on my drawings for the exhibition that is in less than 3 weeks!! Yay... I think.

So hopefully I will be posting more often, and stuff. So watch this space. : )

Below, a fish. Painted in acrylics, just coz.