Off to the races

So I introduced Wendy to you already. Looks like she's gonna be a part of my life for some time, which is hardly a surprise. She'll be the standard model for the rest of first year, and probably the bulk of second year as well, so you'd better get used to seeing her here a lot. That's a good thing really, since she's such a nice, simple model that I can actually comprehend the mechanics of, which I really need at this point. Working with Wendy will seriously improve my figure drawing, and there's nothing bad about that.



So on the topic of projects, the latest is to animate the character from sitting on a box to standing upright. So to figure out the best way to do that, we've done thumbnails to work out each part of the action. I'm kinda new to thumbnailing characters, so it's really valuable information for me. And I see right away the use of it, it's great stuff. The ones with the stars are the images I picked for my progression from sit to stand.

The order to read them is 1, 3, 2, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 6.

In with the new

Not much to say, since it's late. But here's the first page of sketches of "Wendy", the character we've been given for the sit-to-stand project that we got assigned today, and I suspect we'll be using through the rest of second term. She's fun so far, although I've still got a ways to go to really familiarize myself with her.

Anatomy

Pretty self-explanatory. I've realized that my anatomy is pretty weak, even though my forms are starting to improve. So what with the rest of the term focusing on walk cycles and similar movements, it's about time I started doing some heavy anatomy studies. All this is from Gottfried Bammes' Der Nackte Mensch, basically a German anatomy for artists book. Can't understand a word of the text, but the illustrations are gold.

Not sitting idle

Well, I'm still sitting idle more than I should, but I'm trying not to entirely. I'm not gonna get better unless I draw a lot, and I've got a lot better to get. I've seen where animation students can get to by third year, and that's what I've got to shoot for.

New video

Try to contain your excitement.

Eh

Couple of pages, but not pleased with them.

Not the same

Two pages today, although I really should be doing more than that. Technically I'm still on holiday, but just as technically artists don't get holidays. So I'm allowed to feel like I'm not accomplishing much.

In any case, it's a study in how far along I am. The first page is my work, from photo reference. Certainly not my worst work, and just as certainly a damn sight better than what I was doing a year ago, or even six months. Or even two. The other is a page of "master studies" of famed artist Alphonse Mucha.

You can tell one from the other by the MASSIVE DIFFERENCE IN QUALITY.

What this tells me is, as far as I've come, there's a lot further to go yet. If I think I've gone half of half of halfway, I'm fooling myself, and I've got to work a LOT harder.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Wine may be involved

Two pages: