Thursday, 20 December 2007

Feeling Colourful.....











Thanx everyone for the comments on the last post, sad and excited at the same time. To leave everyone for a year burns a bit, still having trouble dealing with that. Anyway, here’s a few sketches from life. I’ve been drawing hands a lot lately. I had to in-between some hands on my test and I struggled more than I wanted to so I need to really attack hands on another level. I’m also trying to do things like draw environments and put more people in a drawing. Just take a look at my blog, hardly any buildings or landscapes, been a bit of a one trick merchant. The first pic is of the canteen at work, I’m quite proud of it as it’s probably my best attempt to date. Drawing environments from life is something I really struggle with. I completely seize up. Lately I’ve been looking at the subjects that I'm challenged by and try to draw it in my mind. I find it really helps to discover the reasons I have difficulties with certain things. I noticed that certain blocks come up either when I have to sketch more than one person in a scene or have to deal with perspective etc, so “mind drawing” helps me to work out things without my being too worried about changing or scrapping a picture. (I’m not suggesting this is an original idea by the way, it must be in a book somewhere, I just haven’t read it yet) The last picture is example of a struggle. I learnt a lot from it that’s why I posted it. I started reading about perspective and it is shocking how little I know. Of late, I’m trying to apply those principles to my drawings and I noticed I started becoming rigid. I don’t know why but every time I tackle something new I hold the pen like I know nothing. They say you should “empty your cup” to learn something new, but I not only empty the cup, I throw it away. When I get stuck I have to filter through the trash and find my cup again and fill it with what I already know. I guess that’s me giving myself little credit. I think what I might start doing is make a point of posting my struggles to show, I don’t find this easy (I kind of started in the last post). I’ll probably post a Christmas pic next and also start work on the superhero thumb from the last post (Thanx for your patience Omer)…

And Again….

Wes

PS: a pic of the book I'm reading if your interested......

Saturday, 8 December 2007

Another large one (got the news....)



















Sorry for the lack of posts lately, Been really busy, So much has been happening lately, Recently became an My sis became a mother the other day, so I'm an uncle Yay. I'm also off to Scotland 2moro for an Interview at Ink Digital. I'll be doing a 2 day inbetweening test for Sylvain Chomet's new film. Special thanks to Ken Anderson for letting me know about it. I'm so nervous. Anyway, I'll just post my latest sketches and updtate when I get back. Wish me Luck

UPDATE: I wanted to talk about the direction of my work, trying to draw things other than people. I'm trying to expand my knowlege on perspective etc, I'll talk about that on the next post. As for the other business, I came back from Scotland yesterday morning. Did a 2 day test which looked easy but was much harder than it seemed In those 2 days I learnt a lot and I have a better appreciation for the hard work that goes into making a feature. Everyone at Ink was really supportive and helpful and was prepared to lend a hand when I was confused. I gave it my all people and.......I got an offer :) Come Mid Jan, I will be moving to Dundee, Scotland for 1 year to work on the Illusionist as an inbetweener. I'll have a two month trial period so I can get used to the style. I have a lot of work to do, but this is a dream come true for me so I will not take it lightly. I'll make sure I keep fighting for this and learn lots. On the downside I don't know if I can work on my short anymore which I'm not too happy about, I'll see how it goes. Just wanna thank everyone for their help and support so far, I'll do my very best not to let you down.

And Again....
Wes