Daz Danger - Promo Image #2

Protowilson - ID

Daz Danger - Mina Minor

Life-drawing 13th December 2010

I was not feeling particularly in control of proportion for this session, but forged on nonetheless.

Gone

Frankenchicken - ID

Finally getting back to this series idea.

Daz Danger - Ed Fizz

More concept work.

Life-drawing 5th Dec 2010

Back to Sunday life-drawing after a couple of months' hiatus. Hello, proportions? Where did you go?!

Morning Quickies - 4th Dec '10

Being keenly aware of the lack of personal artistic development that I'm committing to, it's my plan to spend 30 mins a day doing life drawing. The Posemaniacs website makes this easier for me, plus it also gets me out of bed at 6am instead of lolling about in bed. I've felt that I've let a lot of things slip away and come to the realisation that I can only get better with my art if I actually, well, practice. Concept.
So, these are examples of 30 second and 1 minute poses. I'm a very slow drawer, so I'm keeping the pose length short. Hence, detail is mostly absent in favour of the flavour of the pose. I hope.

Daz Danger - promo image

Morning sketches

I'm trying to get into the habit of doing 30 mins of quick figure sketching in the mornings, with the aid of the Posemaniacs site.
These are 30 second and 1 minute poses.

Character Design - Darren

Character Development - Sharon

Character Development

Glen Keane

Whilst Australia is pretty out-of-the-way when it comes to contact with the mighty in the industry, in Melbourne, we're luckier than most Australian states to get the opportunity to meet and hear from some animators that many of us greatly admire. Glen Keane is such a person. Along with Roy Conli, the producer of Disney's 'Tangled', he gave a talk at ACMI and gave us the wonderful chance to see him draw live and talk about working on 'Tangled'. Glen Keane is an amazing artist. His knowledge of anatomy, dimension and aethetics is extensive and awe-inspiring. He was key animator for Ariel in 'The Little Mermaid' and for the Beast in 'Beauty & The Beast' and is arguably one of the greatest animators alive today. To see his drawings is both exhilirating and humbling, so it was an especially interesting move for this traditional animator to become involved with a 3D animated film as Animation Supervisor. He said that he drew as much on this film as he did on the 2D traditional films he has worked on, and to see his hand-drawn pass over a computer animated image and how it turned something that was, at best, passable into something beautifully crafted and full of character showed us how vital it is that animators can draw and how traditional animation has so much to give the world of computer animation. It is also lovely to hear him encourage Australian animators and acknowledge the pool of talent in this country that tries its hardest to survive in a world where the government gives little support and where other countries can do it cheaper. It was also heartwarming to see students and young animators in the crowd listening very carefully and enjoying the masterclass. The craft of drawing animation will, hopefully, always find a place in this constantly evolving medium.
This is not to detract from what Roy Conli had to say. The non-artistic side of a production is often undervalued or scorned as the "evil" or "difficult" part of a production. It is an unenviable job and one I wouldn't care for. I mentioned this to him as he was signing the programme for the Disney exhibition that is being held at ACMI, and he said that he felt that ensuring a project comes in on schedule and under-budget is not his primary function... that more important was ensuring that the film that is originally envisioned is created to the highest standard and with the greatest pride in the craft of animation, and that everyone works together to make it so.

Roy Conli, producer. He had a stylish goatee as well as interesting things to say!
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Glen Keane, the master at work.
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Details are crucial in animation. It can make the difference between keeping a character on-model and IC and watching that same character become someone or something else.
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Glen Keane caught on camera pulling the same expression as the character he's drawing... a not uncommon occurance for animators!

Research

An old friend.

Nightmare

Originally for a competition over on Sketchoholic, but I never finished it in time.

Intensity Club #32

Today's topic: Enlightened Hillbilly.

Life-drawing 5th September 2010

Not a very good session. It felt like I was drawing with some else's arm.

Intensity Club # 30 + more effort

Today's theme for Intensity Club was 'Evil Prom Queen'. Mmm, proms... we just don't have them here in Aus. Maybe debs or formals come close, but proms seem to be a whole culture elsewhere. Consequently, I really didn't know what the hell I was drawing.



I decided to work more on it afterwards.

Life-drawing 22nd August 2010

It's been a while since I drew a male model, so I would describe today's efforts as 'cautious'.
Next week's going to be even more 'cautious'... off to a burlesque bar. I sense a train wreck approaching.

Intensity Club #27

The topic was 'Fairy Godmother'. I struggled with this, and I think it's apparent. However, it's an idea I'd like to revisit when I have time. So in November most likely.

Life-drawing 15th August 2010

A bit better this week. Still too hamfisted with the charcoal, though.

Intensity Club #25

Got out of the habit of doing these, so back into it this morning. The topic was 'Crazy General'. Army dudes... no idea how to draw them.

Life-Drawing 1st & 8th August

Been so busy that I didn't have a chance 'til now to put these up. One week I tried charcoal and had OK success. Last week was a disaster - I ditched the charcoal and ran back into the familiar embrace of graphite. My sense of proportion was still absent, though. Horrible.

Lifedrawing 25th July 2010

Might try charcoal next week.

Life-drawing 18th July 2010

Intensity Club #18

Topic was old/1900s technologies. I'm rubbish at machines. Plus I missed the upload window cos I don't watch the clock and allow for transcontinental time delay.
This was meant to be some kind of chicken pie making machine.

Chiustream #52

Topic was baby version of a movie character. I'd like to work on this more over the weekend.

Life-drawing 11th July 2010

Back after a two-week hiatus. I really need to start learning how to draw feet properly.

Wall Street Cyclops

There was a Nate Wragg Interview and contest over at Sketchoholic, with the topic of 'Wall Street Cyclops'. I had several, half-formed ideas that weren't really pertinent to the topic, and had not enough time (for me) to do a decent job on the idea I did go with. I had intented to make the building look like an arrow going up while the design of the cyclopic bull was meant to represent an arrow going down. But that didn't work, plus it'd contradict the bull metaphor of a surging market. The background is meant to be reminiscent of a US dollar bill. Again, doesn't come through. Aaahhhh, these half-formed ideas!

Street Magic

Yeah, I think it's clear I didn't have a strong idea for this topic, haha!

Intensity Club #14

Today's topic was "Fat King". And I'll grab any excuse not to draw a human, so I picked a potbelly pig instead. Here's the version I submitted:

As aeronik rightly pointed out, the light's very flat, so I did another layer over the topic just quickly:

Better!