Started to really reference artists I admire and channeling their influence and their approaches into my own cafe sketches.  Interesting how it's finally just now clicking that lines and rhythms are like these demi-elements to create strong, weighty shapes.  I've also started working in Maya again, which it will be very fun to finally see how these incorporated principles of drawing will translate over.

On a side note, I've been writing less and less lately since, just this past semester, I realized that I was too into art philosophy and not enough on technique itself.  As a result, I've been more productive and have been more doing than thinking (though I'm going to have to go back to it soon since I've been having a harder time expressing my thoughts clearly as of late).

On a side-side note, I visited my old high school and they put up a Ringling poster.  Neat!

Winter Break

Finished my first semester at Ringling - now I'm back at home and doing more cafe sketching.  These are some things I've been aiming to keep in mind and interchange every time I draw.

• Things overlapping and twisting the from creates depth and interest
• Check silhouette for clear depiction of the pose
• Exaggerate the silhouette to make it more clear and interesting if it's too contained
• We use shapes to animate, so think about the most basic shape breakdown
• Think about strong, bold shapes
• Don't forget perspective
• Remember that when cafe sketching, we are not just drawing people, but people doing something
• Eat your dinner first, then you can have your dessert
• Sight measure
• Draw negative shapes too

2D Design:Unity

Final assignment for our 2D design class where we have to make an abstract composition, then channel it into a representational drawing.  All in all, this class was really life-changing as to how compositions work and what it takes to create compose elements appealingly...

Memory Project Portrait

Thought I'd try to put my studies to good cause and volunteered in the Memory Project, an annual club here at Ringling where we do portraits for orphan children from another country.  Did digital since I'm trying to learn more about rendering in photoshop and whatnot.

I hope he likes it :]

Egg Noggin'

I try warming up nowadays before diving into homework.  I got in the habit of just doing anatomy studies but now I'm working to transition into more fun, off the top of my head storytelling stuff.  Only 30 more days until Christmas!

Figure I Portraits

I think I'm overdue for sharing more work, so I took some time to photograph these drawings for our Figure class' portrait unit.  Appropriate enough since I just posted those Dr. Horrible caricatures.

I also just received these back today since I submitted them a month ago for grading.  They look nicer than what I remember them to be, so I better post them up before I change my mind.

Funny how that is, how we our work makes us fluctuate back and forth between liking and hating it - both past and present.

18x24 Canson Sketch

Just some tablet fun

I should sketch for myself more often; just some for fun stuff of Dr. Horrible (and I haven't gotten to do as much on the tablet lately).  Overall, I was going for a Sean Galloway style where less is more.  The first sketch on the left was just trying to get a feel for the style while the other two I was trying to think a bit more emotionally.

Quote of the Day

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."

Animated TurnAround

One cool thing I've seen upperclassmen here at Ringling do is upload animated process/pass gifs of their illustrations.  I don't have any passes recorded like theirs, but I thought I'd get in a similar spirit and take an older model sheet I made from the beginning of the summer and edit it into an animated turnaround.  The feet are a little twitchy, but overall I'm surprised I was able to keep its form and structure consistent enough back then since that's a bigger struggle of mine.

Tylermon, Digivolve to...

Presentation Epiphanies: Invented Car Design

First part of another perspective assignment where we had to design a futuristic car.  While drawing these, I had a spontaneous epiphany that instead of just showing my ideas to the teacher as they were in my sketchbook, I approached it by composing it into more of a design spreadsheet.  I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but I should be approaching ALL of my assignments in this more professional, extra-mile manner like this.  Think of the teacher as if he/she were the boss of my dream job and not just another teacher...

AKA When America didn't think it's American enough

On another note, I think one of my creative niches revolves around imagining the most ridiculous, impractical concepts and trying to make them practical

Force: Dynamic Life Drawing excerpt

Fear kills passion.


Pay attention to your internal dialogue.  It will reveal your fears.

City Scape

As promised, I've been posting much more irregularly.  We've been working a lot with traditional media so it kind of parlyzes my creative groove scanning / photographing my stuffs for documenting.

But anywho, here's my one-point cityscape for our perspective class.  I've been sort of in a blank mindset for the past few days, so I might come back and dump the thoughts and epiphanies I was able to reap while doing this assignment.

Long ago, in the snowy mountains of Nepal, the Gods bestowed an oasis as a gift for lost travelers.  In return, the people built a city around this oasis as a beacon of sanctuary.

Dipsy!

Last night I attended Ringling's digital painting club, Dipsy.  There was a demo presentation done by the awesomely awesome Matt Howley and I also got to compete in a design challenge.  The competition was definitely intimidating, being only a first year going against multiple upperclassmen and the fact that I didn't know the competition was starting until halfway through the time limit, but go big or go home, right?

This week's subject was "The Fastest Dwarf."  I thought dwarves have such little legs but big arms, so I wanted him to move like a gorilla - combining speed without sacrificing his brutish strength

Ringling: Chapter 1

It's rolling into the third week since I've started school here at Ringling.  After years of perseverance, it's been the most rewarding thing in the world to finally find a place where I feel I belong, that I can call home.

*queue Disney music*

Anywho, being back in the classroom is such a breathe of fresh air.  One thing I really like is how the curriculum is structured, particularly how all the classes synthesize and ultimately weave into one another.  Just based off understanding the general assignments, I'm already feeling an increase in my drawing quality and speed.

But with being back in school, gotta shift gears in work ethics.  Working hard is important, but it's just as important to know yourself and apply how you are wired to learn.  I feel like my skin has been shed in trying to draw to impress others or to be the best for the sake of it - I realize that when I draw to learn, the good drawings will naturally be born.  But more on that later.

Personal notes I wrote to myself...

• Warm up by doing classwork first, always draw to learn.  Then apply what you learned at the end of the day for my own personal work.
• Look at the figure - observe it.  Then decide what is the best way/method to approach drawing it based on its most visually important information.  Remember that there is no one formula that will work for every situation, only applied and interchangeable tools and techniques.
• Don't just haphazardly draw out the gesture - have a balance of observing, thinking, and feeling.

But yeah!  I'd feel weird if I made another post without any drawings to accompany it, so here are some gestures I've done during my time here.

PS - Writing and uploading stuff for the blog is also somewhat time consuming for me, so I'm probably going to be posting much more infrequently during the school year.

Wedding Portraits

My older sister is getting married next month so I drew up something for her as a gift.  Took the path of doing individual portraits of her new side of the family as a series - the idea being that they were all still unified by a tetrad color palette.

Also, I leave for Ringling in 2 days.

Back to basics

It's been a while since I've done rendering in photoshop and any basic / 'academic' drawing, so here's a few shape studies to end the day with.

Staging & Mood Observation: Kick-Ass

There's a really awesome post on staging and how it affects mood and drama that's been sticking with me every time I've watched movies since.  In a nutshell, it talks about how flat staging is often used for humor while, by contrast, dynamic staging is used for more emotional and dramatic scenes.  I applied this earlier today when I re-watched one of my favorite movies, "Kick-Ass," by screen capping a few compositions that I think really reflected those moods due those techniques.

Flat Staging - humorous moments

Dynamic/Emotional Staging - these ones were a bit tougher for me to spot since I was trying to find unique, interesting, dynamic compositions that were rooted in the more emotional/dramatic parts in regards to the characters and what they're feeling, versus the pure action bits.  Not a problem with the movie itself, but I think I just spotted something else for me to improve on.

Midnight Drawing Challenge: Cyborg Slave

Hosted another Midnight Drawing Challenge and the character prompt we ran with was a mermaid/cyborg/sex slave (I'm hoping the dildo trident kind of gives it away).

Curious and Curiouser

Creativity, to me, is the ability to have the eyes of a child - eyes of wonder, eyes of possibility - throughout your entire life.  And then be able to use that creative insight or vision or ability to see things, to solve problems or to affect something for a more positive outcome... When we were children, everything was a first.  Basically, we saw things for the first time - and that's a wonderful mask of experience.

-Kevin Carroll 

Da-da-dump

Last night was the first time figure drawing in months because of the job, living in Wisconsin (where my local area is pretty bone dry when it comes to art), and making time to try some new things... dance lessons, for instance.  Anywho, It's been a while since I've posted any actual drawings, so here's a bit of random cafe sketches and some results from last night's session.

Even though I'm still feeling a bit of that slump and drawing dry spell, I'm pretty excited to get my new life started at Ringling.  I realize that I'm someone who excels when I have a community to really contribute to and be a part of and, despite the endless opportunities the internet can provide in this regard, nothing beats the physicality of motivating people right there alongside you.  There isn't anything left for me here, so I'm just twiddling my thumbs, waiting for my real life to begin.

Miscellaneous writing and sketch combo makes for a happy sketchbook

Dance school performers at Summerfest

Just came to this realization, but at some point in my life... I'd like to work on a Spider-Man film.

Self-Observation

“Animation is about creating the illusion of life. And you can't create it if you don't have one.”

-Brad Bird

For the past month, my work ethic has been paralyzed due to me searching for a productive balance while still living life for what it is.  I reflected back upon how I've been living in comparison to others my age and I can't help but feel that I've missed out on a chunk of my youth... I won't dig too much into it here, but let's just say I feel like a stick in the mud, often opting to try drawing or do something productive with myself over anything much else - friends, family, relationships...  But I need to continue letting myself being consumed by this dream and passion if it is to ever become a reality; I am not the most talented or the fastest artist, so my work ethic is all I have.  But what part of me am I willing to sacrifice to preserve that ethic?

I also noticed that in my independent studies, I'm very inattentive and easily distracted.  Not good.  Need self-discipline and focus.

I'm really hoping getting back into the classroom and drawing alongside motivated peers will be the push to help me snap me back into it, but I feel that is quite dangerous because I would be relying on the outside forces around me and not from within myself.

Venting.  Maybe I'm just hitting a limit and getting some kind of tunnel vision, maybe I'm just being a bitch.  Hopefully by pouring a little of this in writing, it gets juices flowing a bit.

Run

"Stop Reciting Theory and Hit Me"

Story Game 10

Image for tonight's Story Game