For the longest time I’ve been trying to come up with a process of creating well-rendered art that maintains the spontaneity and liveliness of my sketches (I’m still working on it). One morning, I was really grinding away, thinking about how I could do this, when I had the idea of buying a lightbox, an item I hadn’t used since my high school art class. In my sleepy head I was thinking … “That’s it … I know … I’ll buy a LIGHTBOX!” And immediately I started plotting how I would go to Utrecht and buy it, and plan my whole day around this important event. When I woke up I told my boyfriend about it. It seems really silly now to be so excited about a lightbox, but at the time, my boyfriend said I had the “crazy eyes.”
More Copic marker sketches, but with a layer of colored pencil on top! I had a lot of fun doing these guys. I’m considering using this kind of thing for my comic.
It feels like a fun process because I’m building the image three ways, making it stronger each time. In the ink drawings I was doing, it’s hard to build a cohesive image because I have to think about how all the pieces will work together separately (like the ink linework, the ink shading, and the tones). With these drawings, I start with a rough blue sketch, going for good shapes. Then I block in the values with the warm gray Copic markers. Then I just lightly go over all of it was colored pencil. Because the tones tell most of the story, the color is just spruces it up. And the colored pencil glides right over the marker. Fun!
I’m working on a comic book. I’m trying to figure out what process will work for me … I’m looking for a good balance of speed and quality. While waiting for my computer to handle working on several 300 dpi 9″ x 12″ files, I started doodling using an erasable blue pencil and warm gray Copic markers. I liked the process, so I continued and did a few more. These are the better of the lot.
Something about the cool blue of the pencil and the warm gray values felt nice. Complete. More so than the labored black and white inked drawings I was working on.
Yesterday, I was reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book: Outliers: The Story of Success
. He hypothesizes that in order to really master something, like a sport or instrument, you need at least 10,000 hours of practice (about 10 years of practicing many hours a day).
Continue reading →
After getting a lot of feedback at Disney a few weeks ago, I’m ready to jump back into making storyboards. I wanted to get another look at staging and cinematography in live action, and I started with Troy. Here are four pages of storyboards I did while watching Troy (with a finger on the pause button). If you know the movie, this is the scene where Paris and Hector are being toasted by the king of Sparta, Paris all the while ogling Helen. (If you don’t know the movie, then this will all look like chicken scratch).
Continue reading →
I have two out of the three big books of Muybridge’s prints. I did these sketches from those books. They’re great! If you don’t know about his amazing photographs, you can learn about them here.
I LOVE Arrested Development. I consider it the funniest thing ever created. Next to In the Loop.
Here are some Precise V5 pen sketches/gestures done while watching AD on Hulu:
Jason Bateman is so adorable! <3 <3
I am also a big fan of The Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Here’s some quick sketches done while watching:
On April 8th and 9th 2010, I went to Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California for the third annual Inspire Days. I was invited by the director of the Talent Development Program who I met at the Ottawa Film Festival last October.
During those two days, I heard talks by Disney animators, story artists, visual development artists and many others. I showed my story and character design portfolios to many people and took notes on their suggestions. Needless to say, it was very exciting. I’m posting below notes I took on the general creative process of making a film and comments about my portfolio. Enjoy.
Continue reading →
At the farmer’s market last weekend, I saw this sheepskin and was instantly smitten. I wanted it very badly. Time was limited and before I knew it, I had bought it.
Continue reading →
Grevy’s zebra and asian elephant
Peccaries (and a mischievous squirrel who tried to raid my bag while I was watching the peccaries)
Clouded leopards 1
Clouded leopards 2
I went to the zoo the other day to get some exercise and drew these sketches. Last time I did this, I found it really helpful to stick to one animal for at least a half hour or hour and really work at it until I felt comfortable drawing it’s form. But this time, I did my usual thing of moving from animal to animal fairly quickly.
