Week 6 - Artcasts
Hi there,
I am still enjoying my gesture drawing course with Alex Woo but I haven't got round to doing the assignments yet so thought I'd post about something else - artcasts!
Over the past few years I have come across some material which has reminded me both of what it is I am trying to achieve (big picture) and how I should approach it on a daily basis (details).
I have listened to quite a few inspiring ones but I keep listening to this one over and over again. I think it's mostly because it is coming from people who are not yet professionals but have had a change in perspective and they say some things that one should keep in mind constantly.
Have a listen if you are interested:
http://chrisoatley.com/visdevmyths/
Until next time, God bless!
Week 5 - Gesture Drawing - Line of Action
Hey there!
So... I signed up to Schoolism Subscriptions earlier this week and started taking the gesture drawing class with Alex Woo.
For those of you who don't know, the way it works is that there 8-12 weeks worth of pre-recorded lectures and there are assignments to complete each week. You can watch the videos at your own pace and you have access to the instructor's feedback on the assignments of those who are signed up to the full (more expensive) course. The benefit of this is that you can learn from other's mistakes and hopefully recognise when you are about to make the same errors.
After week 1's lectures my mind is already blown. I have never understood line of action and I am definitely beginning to now and I am starting to see things more simply and graphically which is exciting.
Here are snippets of my assignment below. You may not be able to make head or tail of this so you just have to trust me that I am doing the right thing :)
Looking forward to the next lesson. The plan is to listen to lectures on Tuesdays and do the assignments on Fridays. Much more learning to come.
Until next time, God bless!
Week 4 - Some more anatomy - legs
Hello people,
So, I finally got round to having a go at leg anatomy and I must confess it was and is a struggle - I think it's partly due to pictures I found and partly because there is a lot going on. What you see below is unfortunately me pretty much copying what I see without understanding and hoping that understanding will come later.
I think for now I will study legs on the surface from life and photographs and look at gesture etc. All I can do is keep trying right?
I will of course update you on any progress.
Until next time, God bless!
Week 3 - Fan art - A fresh perspective
Since I decided I wanted to pursue a career in Animation I have heard murmurings of underground debate about whether artists should be making fan art or not. For those of you who are not sure what I mean by fan art it refers to artwork based on already existing fictional characters - in this case I am referring specifically to characters which have already been visually represented.
One argument in favour of making fan art is that it will increase you public profile and then you can use that to get people interested in your original characters; an argument against is that making fan art is cheapening yourself and you should spend time developing your own intellectual property.
Until this point I have't been sure which camp I sit in - sometimes I see fan art and it bores me, other times I see fan and it excites the heck out of me.
Here is some fan art that excites me:
The artwork below is by Alan Stewart (@artofalan on Instagram)
3,050 Likes, 44 Comments - Alan Stewart (@artofalan) on Instagram: "Sassy little MegaMan! . . . #capcom #megaman #illustration #art #artofvisuals #artoftheday..."
2,320 Likes, 16 Comments - Alan Stewart (@artofalan) on Instagram: "Some More of my Skeletor obsession from this year #motu #skeletor #sketchbook #drawing #art..."
2,331 Likes, 18 Comments - Alan Stewart (@artofalan) on Instagram: "Just having some fun making Mario look like a moron! We've been playing Mario Odyssey at home here..."
1,609 Likes, 12 Comments - Alan Stewart (@artofalan) on Instagram: "One more RAF for today. . . . #tmnt #drawing #illustration #turtles #characterdesign #fun..."
The artwork below is by Justin Rodrigues (@JTown67 on Instagram)
2,041 Likes, 14 Comments - Justin Rodrigues (@jtown67) on Instagram: "Itty bitty Mikey #michelangelo #tmnt #ninjaturtle #turtlepower #herosinahalfshell"
2,199 Likes, 19 Comments - Justin Rodrigues (@jtown67) on Instagram: "His wallet is full but he's still gonna smash your vases. #sketch #doodle #lonk #link..."
2,012 Likes, 12 Comments - Justin Rodrigues (@jtown67) on Instagram: "Lonk #lonk #link #legendofzelda #ocarinaoftime #sketch #doodle #characterdesign"
3,112 Likes, 33 Comments - Justin Rodrigues (@jtown67) on Instagram: "The prince of all Saiyans #vegeeta #characterdesign #saiyan #itsover9000 #dragonballz"
These are two of my favourite artists and they have managed to keep the essence of the characters, but still make it their own and this is the kind of fan art I personally like seeing.
Having said that, what I have discovered through trying fan art of my own is the personal benefit of fan art. This week I decided to have a go at drawing characters from one of my all-time favourite cartoons, Dexter's Laboratory. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed drawing Dexter and DeeDee - initially I tried to stray too far from the designs and the results were horrible haha! See below (yucky stuff):
I then really tried to think of what epitomised those characters and what was essential to their design. In the end, I only made subtle changes to their design and focused more on using their personas to create typical poses for them.
This was the game changer for me! Not only was I able to notice how simple the costumes were (which will ultimately help my own designs) but I was able to focus mostly on the pose which was a relief as most of the time I am trying to do both at the same time.
Needless to say I will be doing a lot more fan art to learn from.
Until next time, God bless!
Week 2 - SIMPLICITY, WHY DO YOU ELUDE ME?
Hello people! I hope you are well.
So... the first thing to say following my last blog post is that I did not focus on leg anatomy this week as I said I would so I am none the wiser there. Instead, I got sucked into admiring shapes and wondering how such simple shapes can be so appealing.
One of my biggest pitfalls, not just in art but in life, is that I often tell myself that things cannot be as simple as they are and so I end up over-complicating them and the result helps no one. This is something I am working on.
With regards to Character Design, I see incredibly simple base shapes and I can never believe how simple they are so when I go to draw my own characters what do I do? I make more complex shapes than the Professionals because surely that will make my work look better even though it is the opposite of what my heroes do. Makes no sense right? I need to constantly remind myself to keep it simple and that the first design doesn't have to be and in fact should not be the final design - it is a process so I should be free to fail.
Anyway, I am a work in progress and the more I look at people's designs and listen to blogposts the more I realise how important clarity of thought is. If my thoughts are jumbled how can I convey something simply? Food for thought... That's all I have to say this week.
Until next time, God bless!
Week 1 - Beginnings
Hey everyone! What's up?
Just thought I'd start recording this new leg of my journey. I have recently taken a year's contract at a Mental Health Charity, working there 4 days a week. Have I given up on working in the Animation industry? Not a chance! The exact opposite in fact - I am more motivated than ever. I know that I will become a professional Character Designer and this decision I took was with that in mind. I realised that I am not yet ready for the Industry and the best way to address that is to invest in my development. The idea is that I am not going to actively look for work this year but rather spend the time and some of the money on courses to improve myself.
There is an endless list of things I need to improve but by the grace of God I am actually aware of my weaknesses which puts me in a great starting position. Before I even take a Character Design course, I first need to improve my anatomy knowledge and my gesture drawing so that is what I have begun doing.
About a week ago I came across Taylor Krahenbuhl's old portfolio ( and I was just struck by how many different variations he was able to produce - see below:
TAYLOR KRAHENBUHL'S WORK
TAYLOR KRAHENBUHL'S WORK
I had been aware of my lack of anatomy knowledge before, but this made me think 'Okay, there is a secret this guy knows that I have never come close to knowing!' There was a revelation that it must be his understanding of anatomy which allows him to abstract things in a number of ways and it still look believable (of course he knows Character Design secrets too but it is underpinned by a confidence in what he is drawing). This was the catalyst for me to improve my basic understanding of anatomy which, this week I learned, was even more basic than I realised. Time to spice up my drawings!
I can't lie to you I have very little interest in learning the names of all the bones and muscles - I just want to know what they look like. These are some studies that I did during the week, I have simplified them for my own benefit:
Don't laugh at me, but I can already see how much I have improved since learning the general position of where thing are in the body. At the moment I am trying to get a general overview and later on I will return to specific parts. This week I have looked at the head, torso and arms and next week I will focus on legs, but I am aware that I will definitely need to return to heads and hands as these are key in figure drawing. These anatomy studies will of course be accompanied by life drawing and studies from other references to see how things fit together.
Until next time, God bless!