Pictures

Allo everyone!

Just a quick new old pic - this was one of the portraits I did for my portraiture assignment last year. I had a heap of fun doing the assignment - it was a lot of work - but I learnt HEAPS. So was very thankful for the opportunity. : ) This is a gorgeous young friend of mine who is part of the Gems kids club that I'm a leader at. : ) 

She was an excellent model.

Booky

So the exciting news is that Lord willing we have a new book underway - the same lovely author as I worked with before on Duke - this time a new story! It's all under wraps at the moment, but I'm looking forward to illustrating this one because there is HEAPS of scope for the imagination!

It has been a pretty busy week - and this term is going to be massive - but pretty amazingly cool at the same time. This week we have been animating a lovely ballerina girl - walking over to a dresser, sitting down and applying her make-up. We've been given a month for this one so we can get it lovely and smoooooth.

Here's some drawings of the model - designed by one of my tutors, and redrawn for practice from the model sheet by me. She's very sweet. : )

Eep, not a good picture - but the excellent news is that I'm getting a scanner for my birthday! So no more scummy pics after that! Hurrah!

Birdy

Just a little pic that I did for a girl in my class today.

WIP

Just a first attempt at painting in Photoshop!

Yup - I admit, I'm not amazingly well practiced in this marvelous program. 

So yup - one of my old sketches that I decided to give a go at painting - so not quite done, but getting there! If anyone has any tips they are welcome!

Self-portrait

This was me after a week of attempting to animate a walk in perspective.

I think it will be me again next week after attempting to animate another walk in perspective. (I'll keep you updated) :)

Learning from the Best #2 - Ollie Johnston

Ollie Johnston

This man was pretty amazingly amazing. 

He was one of the 'Nine Old Men' who made animation what it is today. 

It's thanks to Ollie and the other talented men who studied and worked hour after hour and must have gone through screeds of paper, that we can enjoy and appreciate (and take for granted) so many fantastic animated movies today - whether CG or 2D. 

Ollie had many many movie credits to his name, and so many epic characters. 

Such as:

Pinocchio - Pinocchio
Fantasia - Cupids in "Pastoral Symphony", Centaurettes by the lake
Bambi - Bambi, Thumper
The Three Caballeros - "The Flying Gauchito", Donald Duck, Panchito Pistoles, Jose Carioca
Make Mine Music - "Casey at the Bat", "Peter and the Wolf"
Song of the South - Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear
Melody Time - Johnny Appleseed and Johnny's Guardian Angel in "Johnny Appleseed", "Little Toot"
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - Trial Scene, Ichabod Crane
Cinderella - Evil Stepsisters, Lackey
Alice in Wonderland - Alice, King of Hearts
Peter Pan - Mr. Smee
Lady and the Tramp - Lady, Jock, Trusty
Sleeping Beauty - Three Good Fairies
One Hundred and One Dalmatians - Pongo, Perdita, Puppies, Nanny Cook
The Sword in the Stone - Wart, Merlin, Archimedes
The Jungle Book - Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera
The Aristocats - Duchess, Thomas O'Malley, Kittens, Amelia, Abigail, Uncle Waldo
Robin Hood - Prince John, Sir Hiss, Robin Hood, Little John, Maid Marian
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo
The Rescuers - Bernard, Bianca, Chairman, Rufus the Cat, Penny, Orville the Albatross
The Fox and the Hound - Young Tod and Young Copper

Epic right?!

But one of my favourite characters of Ollie's, is Rufus the cat from 'The Rescuers'. Rufus is particularly special because he was a self-caricature of Ollie! So he really did put himself in the shoes of his character. And Rufus is just such a sweet character. 

So here is my copy of Ollie Johnston's Rufus.

All credit goes to Ollie Johnston for this delightful character.

For more info on Ollie you can visit this website he set up with his fellow genius animator and best friend Frank Thomas - http://frankanollie.com/ 

Learning from the Best #1 - Carter Goodrich

I was looking through my art books tonight, and had a browse through my 'Art of Ratatouille' (took me a few goes to get the spelling right on that one) book - and came across a brilliant pencil drawing by Carter Goodrich. So I thought I'd give it a go doing a copy. 

I figure that one of the best ways to learn how someone does something - short of being shown by the person themselves - is to try to figure it out yourself. So I thought that I would start a little series for myself I have entitled 'Learning from the Best'. Thought that I'd pick some of my favourite artists - do a version of one of their drawings (I hope they don't mind), and put some info up here about them and why I think they are great!

So here goes:

Carter Goodrich

I have a massive admiration for artists who are illustrators, and yet have been able to successfully apply their artwork to animated film. To me, that would be amazingly cool. Carter Goodrich is one of these very clever people. Below is my humble copy of a concept drawing that he did of the character Emile from Ratatouille.

His film credits include:

Prince of Egypt

Finding Nemo

Monsters Inc.

Shrek

Spirit

Sinbad

Open Season

Despicable Me

Ratatouille

He has also illustrated children's books (woot!). I love the shapes that he uses in his art - and the softness of the colours and textures that he achieves. 

His art is worth checking out!

http://cartergoodrich.com

Thanks for being amazing Carter Goodrich!

I missed yoooou!

Hello blog, I'm back from a loverly holiday. 

That is one thing that sure is great about being a student. The holidays. And this time I did take them. Although I was really sick the second week, but was down visiting family and they took excellent care of me. : )

Well I haven't been up to heaps, but I did find this week pic that I drew last term.

When I was in Fourth Form (which these days they call Year 10) my maths class was an old pre-fab which still had one of those revolving chalk boards in it. My maths teacher wrote a lot up on the blackboard - chalk dust flying. Every now and then he would duck out into his office which was up the front of the room, to check some notes, or get some books... or so he said. Coz he always seemed to come back out of the office with chalk dust all around his mouth. 

Suspicious yes?

However our conclusion was that he was sneaking out there to gobble mouthfuls of chalk that he had become addicted to over the years of having to use it to teach! Thus the reason that they changed to white boards - although they have their own set of issues I hear...

Nice to be back!

Lady in red pen

Had a red pen.

So drew a red picture.

Stormy weather

It is so stormy outside today! And since we are up on a bit of a hill you really feel the wind. 

Ok, I admit, I was a little teensy bit scared. But it's sooo nice to be at home in the warm!

Therefore, as inspired by the weather, an umbrella girl. 

Girls with attitude

So it's been a while again. And I have missed you. 

Last week was a crazy week - but overall - a really excellent experience.

We got our film submitted on time - and to a standard that I think that the directors were happy with. So hurrah for that!

Here are a coupla girls with attitude. I need to get on to some new drawings so I'll work on that over the week. 

Hope everyone else is going well!