AMERICA

oye, the madness! too bad I decided this isn't a photo blog, because I've got TONS of pictures from europe. well, anyway. thought I'd share some of the sketches from my cute red moleskin. it has a great deal of character- pages torn out, broken binding, oil stains from being dropped under the metro train in Paris. yup.

these are all quick on-the-go sketches from around Lacoste and Paris and my brains.









yes, that is my big annoying futura-font name. if I ever hear of anyone stealing my artwork it'll be a big annoying WATERMARK, people!!!!! don't listen to those orphan-works prigs. :P

Indiana Zelda in the Catacombs and a massacre in Arles

a long title, but highly appropriate.



this is the LAST PROJECT for my character/Layout class!!!! *insert applause* you can see all stages of it up there. all drawn in graphite.

ok, so this pan shot started as a simple hallway from the arena in Arles, but after we went to Paris and saw the catacombs Jacques suggested i make the hallway like the catacombs. so i did.

those bones.... never mind. i shall not complain. my fingers are sore though. all those BONES!!!!! that lighting was darn difficult too. putting Zelda in was relatively easy after that. drew her over top on tracing paper. CHAAAARGE!!!!!

ok, so this one is really my crowning glory, i guess. finished it yesterday evening. another scene originally based on Arles and then distorted and warped beyond recognition. this one is based off of a photo; actually you can see the original sketch in one of the previous posts. but, i thought it was boring. i wanted to do something to the scene, and i wanted it to be something that was out-of-character for me in particular, so that nobody can say i always draw the same things. because i hate it when people do that.

so the first thing my genius brain thinks of? dead people! let's strew some dead people around in the streets! :D yay!!! ok, when i first started re-drawing this in blue line it looked absolutely horrid; i couldn't get the bodies to look dead, and drawing it all on a larger scale, and trying to get the inking to have the similar sketchy effect as my original drawing on a larger scale, etc. but through the inking process i was able to fudge and tweak enough that i got it to look pretty nice. and it looks sweet all framed and hung up for the gallery show that starts tomorrow. i'll have to take some pictures. :)

Rooftops of Lacoste

another ink drawing. i drew this sitting up on the terrace behind Brett's house. HB graphite first, and sketched it all out, then i started inking but i got so cold i had to stop because i couldn't hold my hand steady. that was a few weeks ago, and i just finished inking over the sketch a little while ago. turned out pretty nice. (the perspective of the luberon valley is forced though.)

i am very much tempted to change the layout of this and make it vertical, with a lot more space up into the sky, with a big silhouetted ninja descending upon the town. really, the rooftops of Lacoste were made for ninjas to be running all over them, i know it.

Chateau de Sade

a lovely day up at the Chateau de Sade. 65 degrees F, and there are some lovely sculptures around to accent the slowly crumbling edifice.

no, the castle isn't actually falling down anymore. just it looks so bad because it was abandoned for a couple hundred years. what's left of it has been reinforced so that it won't fall down anymore. hurrah for Pierre Cardin! :)

drew this with teh brush pen again. i like that brush pen.

LAST MODEL DAY

the last day to have a model in class!!! sad day. but, i did get a GREAT crop of sketches, so i suppose it's somewhat ok. :)
i was rusty at the first for the gestures but warmed up after a page or so... i think cuz i missed the gestures monday with florent. but it got better. above is 15 seconds...

these are 2-minute poses (zelda's idea) and i really love how these got out too. guess my ballpoint pen was in a good mood.
more odd numbers. this was a 7-minute pose- no underdrawing! :D
and THIS is my favorite! 15 minute pose. i shall not rant. i shall not. ballpoint and brush pen. peace out.

PANTS

florent with pants. jacques had us studying folds, and NO SIMPLIFICATION!!!! all contours. verrry complicated things, pants. i liked doing this though, because folds are one of my weaknesses.

we did some more block shading as well, and this is still the only one that turned out well, including the ones from last week. blarg. oh well.
last i did a portrait of florent since it's his last week. but he said he'd come to Vernissage, so that'll be cool. :) another ballpoint. i haven't drawn a real portrait in a good while, so i thought i may as well.

Helix Construction

continuing work on Helix Strafflegrass's design. thought it might be interesting to see some of the craziness that this is for animation.

this is a construction drawing; basically you show the character's proportions and build him out of basic shapes because this makes things easier when drawing from different weird angles. it has to be very detailed- as Jacques says, if you handed this off to an animation team in Korea would they understand it? :)