The Master guides, the student follows....

As promised, the short animation which was inspired by the previous post....ok, it's not complete yet, only the thumbs and Key positions for now. I'm a bit frustrated at the moment because we only had a week to do this. The first sketch I did pumped me up so much, I really wanted to do this well, But I find it hard to move characters around when I don't "know" them. I kind of had to do a model sheet as I go along, tracing from keys positions, but that only helps a little. My friend Tim thinks its more beneficial to concentrate on the animation as this isn't a character design course. He says to keep my shapes real simple, but I know what I'm like, drawing stick figures all week will kill me. I know I can draw stick figures, but turning heads and bodys, thats the challenge (for me anyway) Guess I have to find a balance.

And Again....
Wes



Master & Student on Vimeo



Master & student keys on Vimeo

Master & Student....

I haven’t done much character/ finished/ highly stylised pieces of late because I really want to concentrate on becoming a better draughtsman, and most of my work prior to now is 99.99999% comic/ character design and 0.001% life/ observational drawing (most of which is over the last 3 months). I’ve been told however that my blog is…er…ahem…a bit boring LOL. So I think I’ll start posting a healthy balance of life drawing and character work. This latest piece is for our animation task this week, character interaction. I find it helps my motivation to set the feeling of the animation with one drawing. The final animation won’t look like this, I only have a week, but it’s important to get to know the characters and believe in them. That’s what Glen Keane says anyway :)

Tried to give it a painterly feel in photoshop but colour, paints etc is not my strong point. After the course I definately want to start learning how to paint.

If I like the final animation, I might post it.

And Again....

Wes

Been Busy....

....hence the big post. I’ve had a really good start to the year and feeling pumped. Hope it stays like this. Thought I’d give a quick breakdown of what I’ve been up to over the past couple weeks. After this I’m gonna discipline myself and make sure I post at least once a week.

Life Drawing at Back Hill 10th and 17th Jan 2007...

Had 2 sessions so far this year. The 1st was a real struggle. Couldn't draw. it could have been because I hadn't done it for a while, could've been I expected so much after a long break. Maybe I wasn't feeling the model. Maybe a combination of everything I just mentioned, but I know I was really frustrated so I just started drawing people round the class. Thats when I started to relax.....

The second session I really tried to put things into play. We had a good model. Very feminine figure. I was told before the holidays that I overwork my figures sometimes. So this session I really tried to look harder and find the best marks to describe the form. Also went mad with shadows coz I'm usually afraid of them. I think it's my best life drawing session so far. Our Lecturer, Maryclare, warned me to be careful of making my "handwriting" too strong. As in there is nothing wrong with style but sometimes we can loose the importance of life drawing. Loosing form with creative marks. I think she thought I was offended but what kind of a student would I be if I couldn't take constructive criticism . (Just for the record Maryclare, I appreciate all the advice you give, never worry about offending me :)

New Out & About Book...

The paper in the other one sucked LOL. This one's a lot better. I was also told I need to study faces more so I've really tried to push that but I find it reeaaaaally hard. I've noticed I seem to draw better with the animation col-erase pencils than pen. Not that I want to blame my tools LOL but the blue pencil is so comfy to draw with.

Thundercat Revamp...

Seen a lot of blogs with Thundercats re-inventions. Sean "Cheeks" Galloway is by far the best. It's a big departure but if they made a cartoon of it, I think I'd love it. It's somewhere on his blog, check it out. Anywho I thought I'd try my hand at a Thundercat but I thought I'd cross the legend with Bleach (if you dont know what bleach is I can't help you, not sure I want to either LOL). Did a few sketches and came up with a pose only to find I hated it. The figure's very stiff and lacks personality. The swords a bit crap as well. My brother hates it. Said I should create a "Blog of Shame" and post it quick LOL. I definately will to take another stab at it when my work load calms down. I'll Make Lion-O cooler and more cocky. I'll probably do "Bankai" and "Shikai" variants (please watch Bleach).

1st Major Project

This is probably the first time we've got to do real character design on the course. Last term was more about getting the mechanics of animation down, you know bouncing balls, arcs, overshoots blah blah blah :) This term is about acting and bringing characters to life. Here's some school work :)

These are the images for my storyboard. It's not 100% yet. Still needs a layout and lots of film jargon (which I'm still getting to grips with). I'm thinking of taking an eastern approach to the layout, so you read it down instead of across. Just wanna be different I guess. At the moment it's across. Don't wanna say what my story's about just yet (prefer you to guess). Sound is definately a big factor in it. In fact, the thing that makes all the noise won't be seen in the final animation (that was a clue)

Books

My Christmas present arrived to day :) :) :) yes my smile is big. Happy happy joy, joy The other 2 books I ordered because I want to study outside my subject to "inform" my subject. I'll probably talk about that another time...

phew, ok gonna go now. Till the next post people, keep striving and keep helping each other to strive.

And Again....

Wes

A Few Train Faces....

Not much to say. Someone told me I talk too much (they know who they are LOL). Back at uni now, ready to go.Was told I should study faces so here they are…

And again….

Wes

Why animators shouldn't study animation....

No drawings this post. Just wanted to share my thoughts on a film called (pause for effect)…..”Big” It came on TV over the Christmas holidays, channel 5 me thinks. It’s amazing to watch something in your child hood, come back years later, watch it in adulthood and look at it in the same way and yet in a completely different way. I’m studying animation, so over the last couple months I’ve tried to look at things closely, understand movement, mannerisms etc. Watching that film gave me an appreciation for why Tom Hanks is such a good actor. You can see he really studied the mannerisms of children to pull off a very believable performance. I’m not talking about the obvious things like, playing with toys or chewing with your mouth open. Little things like, lying down on his stomach watching TV and his legs are up in the air swinging behind him. The part where he's in the toy store talking to his boss continuously swinging and playing with his bag. Even when he cried it was like a child, constantly fiddling with his fingers. The greatest animators of our time repeatedly say don’t try to do animation by studying only animation because you’ll only learn mechanically techniques. I thought I understood that, but for some reason watching that film really brought home what they mean. I’ve had a lot of epiphanies lately, and I hope they keep coming.

And again….
Wes

New Year, No Fear....

Thats right people, 2007 is here, hope everyone had a good time welcoming in the new year and "learning" from the old. I definately learnt alot about myself over the last 2 weeks. I've seen a lot of blogs, with so many talented, hardworking and confident artists. Realising how high the levels are out there began to affect me big time. I just started looking at my work and loathing it. Became very concious and just didn't really feel like drawing. Don't wanna go into too much detail but the b-line is, (through much soul searching) I'm glad to be me, and I like the way I draw. Don't get me wrong, this ain't self indulgence. I have so much more to learn, and need to make vast improvements before I consider myself good but I'm realising or remembering that it's important to find the things in your drawings that you do like. It's important to have confidence but not arrogance. I think me starting this blog is probably the 2nd best thing I did last year (1st doing the animation course). I'm really excited and can't wait to see who I'll be in a year. Ok, enough talk, more drawings. LET 2007 BEGIN!!!!

And again....
Wes

PS Just wanna thank Tim McCourt (for making me aware of blogs) and (Kristian Antonelli for giving me the push to actually start it) Check their blogs out....
www.kristianantonelli.blogspot.com www.messytimbo.blogspot.com



Conflicting angles and perspective on the chair methinks.....


Drew this in the X ray room at Barking Hospital, I added the greys in photoshop, got the idea from Kristian. He seems to make it look so natural and spontaneous. Anywho, I think I got some of the shadows wrong. Next time I'll take notes so I can put the shadows down properly....