cat heads

automata WIP video 1

automata WIP

Spent a little time today doing paper planning for a griffin automata. I'd like to carve this out of wood or something later. You can do most of the planning in 2d before transferring it to a 3d medium. Heavy card stock and brads are good for this. I like that it looks like a shadow puppet in this stage. I've been having fun wiggling him around.

I got a decent leg prototype moving around(It's old school IK!). I need to lock the range of motion on a couple of the joints though, so the joints don't flip backwards. That's easy to do. You can see the little piece of brown paper on the upper thigh that I used to lock the knee in place.

I included the first round of notes that have rough ideas of what I need to do. There are a lot of sliders and more 3 dimensional rotations that I haven't put thought into yet. I want him to have a really nice gait that isn't restricted to a single plane.

It's a weekend for harping about rad movies I guess

The Brothers Bloom was AWESOME!
This trailer makes it look poopy though. Ignore it and trust me.

To whom it may concern...

Dear Mr. Pixar,

Thank you for Up.

I had been worried it would be tacky from the trailers. I had been worried it would be another half formed, but highly polished film. Instead I got a beautiful story, with characters I can feel for... sobs, laughter, adventure, a sense of life. This is the kind of film that is worthy of an Oscar. Not one of the fake Oscars for weird categories either, but a real one. This movie competes with the best and I'm very happy. I haven't heard an audience respond like that in years, nor myself.

Thank you so much!

I will be encouraging every one I know full heartedly to go see Up.

P.S.

I would like to know though, when will you make a musical?

yak

hungry

rest

also quick lions

quick lions

well fed

dragon heads

girl

captured

Sasquatch 2009

This was so much fun! Pancakes, all day picnic, all kinds of new music, good friends, and camping in one of the most beautiful places you could hope for. :)

Thought Process

Something that might be interesting to some is that when I'm doing normal sketching, I don't think in terms of drawing a thing or a single form. Usually I've got a short moment that I'm thinking about, sometimes it's much more elaborate and becomes a fully fleshed character as I think of it. That animation from the last post is kind of a rough version of how I see a sketch. I'm not terribly interested in drawing say, a horse. I am interested in drawing something that feels like a horse, and you can't do that with a static image in mind. If I draw a horse I am thinking about what it might feel like to be a horse, what might it's thoughts be, and so how that translates into it's motion. If I can sense my own motion in relation to it's motion I can get something down that feels good. It's definately a way of anthromorphizing whatever subject I am trying to draw. Part of the reason to do this is that if you draw a very realistic image, but don't add humanity into it, people note that it's technically good, but don't feel anything for it. We have great difficulty seperating ourselves from ourselves when evaluating the world. Which, overall is a good thing, but does lead to conflicts of interest. In art, this seems to be technical vs emotional conflicts. Most people lean towards one or the other. I think the worst art is poorly done technical pieces. It's got no heart, and it doesn't fullfill it's technical lean. The really good artists can do both, forming wonderful whole sensations. I'd be pretty proud if I could capture an image like that some day.

added a few more frames

rough animation

Opened up PAP and did some sketching. Been a little while. It's a functional program at best. I should really take some time aside and re learn Flash.

dancy fauns

fauns

sketches

griffin

I'm supposed to bring back a unicorn, but I guess you'll have to do.

More bunnies!

Dragon and Dog Final

I got some great feedback and made a couple of small, but important adjustments. I brought the green tree line on the right of the dog down so that it isn't making a straight line that continued across the dog's face. This I think is what was bothering me that I just couldn't see anymore. So obvious and yet so hidden! I adjusted the dragon's pupil to get rid of the cross eyed effect a bit. I tend to favor a cross eyed look for some reason. I darkened parts of the dog's body to force it into the foreground more. I added a few other tweaks, but I'm blanking on what they were.

mo' bunnies

This batch was drawn in about 45 minutes tonight. I think I've been getting into a good spot of just cutting loose and letting the ideas flow. I'm trying to get into a mode of resisting hesitation. Even a moment of hesitation seems to ruin the rhythm and energy of simply doing. Once it gets interupted there's little you can do to get it back except maybe turn the music higher and dance, then come back and draw later, before you've completely tired yourself out.
Be silly and translate that energy!

chillins

bunnies

Jiggity Jig

I miss home. On an up note, I just saw lightning crash exactly behind the Space Needle like 2 seconds ago! That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen!!!!!

Dragon and the Dog, Done?

I might try to do more if I get any bright ideas, but I think the small additions are about as far as I know how to go. Something is still bothering me, but I don't know what.

Added some small bounce lights. Lightened the dragon eye on the light side. Added smaller details.

spring "cleaning" break

Slowly but surely this hizzouse will be clean. Because of all the back and forth I've taken up pretending to drive from one end of the place to the other.

quickies

Dragon and Dog WIP

I think I was able to push to a happier spot tonight. Thanks for the support Doug and Trev! I want it to be done, but I think there is still more to do. Dang if I know what.

I defined the scales more with color details and outlines to get rid of some of the blurriness I complained about before. Lightened the bg behind the dog to separate the values and make him stand out better. Painted in green areas and defined plants with some yellows. Drew in a couple details with sharpie and added highlights.

The dragon looks hungrier than I like for the image, but maybe that's okay. A little bit of conflict is usually a positive. People care more when danger is about. Plus the care free expression of the dog is probably strong enough to keep it out of the scary territory. Is the dog retarded? Is he messing with the dragon intentionally? What's going on here?

mo' hoomans

hoomans

Dragon and Dog WIP

Added some detail passes and then knocked them back with more washes. Another yellow one on the dragon and green and blue on the tree and dog. Then went in and tried to pick out more scales using a pinkish orange color. Painted the far background yellow again to brighten it and cover the line work a little.


I decided to stop working on this for now today, even though I'd like to continue. I've lost perspective and I just see a big mess I don't care for. Maybe I just need food and time away from it. It seems like the image is becoming progressively worse the more I work on it.
I'm incredibly frustrated at the moment. Lots of swearing, hopefully bird doesn't pick anything up.