A Bit More Mojo

So I didn't get as much done today as I'd like to have, since I spent a lot more time out of the house than planned, but it was a good drawing day anyway. For one thing, I moved on to boxes as planned and managed to get a good solid page of the silly things. I'm shooting for two pages of these a day as well as two pages of spheres as my warmup, then moving on to an indeterminate number of pages of blobs and maybe in three or four days start adding soft, bendy boxes. I don't want to rush things though, so it'll happen when it happens.



What's cool here is that I did end up doing a page of blobs today as well, and they turned out WAY better than expected. I think I'm finally starting to internalize the concepts of volume and depth, which is seriously positive if I want to make characters and environments that really grab a viewer. What I need more than anything is to capitalize on that progress and really push the concept as much as I can, even if things get seriously weird in the process.



As a bonus, I've added a couple of pages from last Friday's life drawing session. The group keeps meeting until the end of the month, but my last week is going to be this Friday, sadly. I'm going to be starting the animation workshop on the 15th, and I can only justify so many nights out of the house to myself. As it is, for those first two weeks it'll be Tuesday/Thursday for classes, plus Wednesday for life drawing at Sandy Hill and I gotta fit groceries in there somewhere. So something's gotta give, and it might as well be the thing that's gonna end soon anyway.

In any case, my gestures have really transformed in the past couple of months, which is really amazing. I had no idea there'd be such a change from just using Vilppu's method, but wow. That stuff's seriously powerful.

Brane Ded

That pretty much describes my day, honestly. Not feeling too hot and totally unable to think coherently. Probably nothing to do with working last night, unless you count coming home in 12C weather with no jacket, but probably a lot to do with hauling drywall yesterday morning. Maybe even more to do with the crappy weather today, who knows.

In any case, two pages today. not terribly pleased with them overall, but at least there's a feeling of form and volume to most of it, and that's really what's important.

Now I'm gonna go watch Iron Man, I haven't seen it yet.

Easy money

Turns out work was way easier than I thought, giving me some time to putter about in my cute li'l 5x7" purse-sized sketchbook with the Robert Batemen cover (goat!). I probably should have done more, but it's really hard to get into it when you've got interruptions every 10-15 minutes or so.

My output tonight seems to be more on the "disturbingly biological" side than the "impressive megafauna" that I had been doing, but that's how it goes. Tonight seems to have been the night for slippery flukes and gnarled pseudopenii in any case, so that's what y'all get to look at.

Oh, one other thing, it seems I've got something cool to look forward to this summer. I was contacted by Algonquin about a summer animation workshop that's going on, and it seems I was identified as someone who could really benefit from the extra instruction. Well now, it might come off as "remedial" or whatever, but you know what? It tells me there's somebody out there who wants me to succeed, and they're tossing opportunities at my feet, that's what it tells me! And damn if I'm not gonna pick them up. It's 27 hours of class time spread out over the whole summer, starting on the 15th, and you know I'm gonna be there.

I'm pumped about this. So that gives me another week and a half to push my basic drawing ability, so my goal right now is to post new stuff every day until then, at least. Mostly Vilppu, of course, since that's my focus, but if anything else happens to get done, I'll toss that up as well.

Anyhow, blobs. Enjoy!

Still not pen...I mean King

So more variations on a theme again, will continue a bit longer before moving on to cubic forms (although I'll probably keep doing a page a day of these). I'm noticing a few things though, like what's working and what's not. Mostly those cool large animal-type critters, but some other stuff besides.

Which, I suppose, is exactly what Paul wanted us to do on the final assignment. If you're reading, Paul, this is where you get to feel smug because one of your students belatedly realized you were right all along. I just hadn't gotten to the point where I'd internalized it.

Anyhow, probably nothing tomorrow since I'm hauling drywall in the morning, and I actually have a paid gig in the evening (hotel front desk), so that doesn't leave a lot of drawing time. But who knows how things will shake out. We'll see. In the meantime, enjoy the blobs.

More blobs

So this week was eventful in a way, in that I failed to get what I thought would be an absolutely perfect job for me, leaving me still jobless. And with 1/4 of my summer holidays already passed, you can imagine I'm rather nervous about the whole state of affairs. Last year I didn't get a job at all, despite having good qualifications for temp work, which I chalk up to a very dry clerical market last year.

However, the outlook is not totally bleak. I have a shift Saturday evening temping at a downtown hotel to work the front desk, which doesn't sound too bad. Especially if there's a chance it could lead to a lot more work at the same location, very easily accessible from my place. Problem is, most of the shifts they offer are 11pm to 7am, which isn't exactly the most preferable in the world. But what can I say, I can't be picky this late in the game. All I want to do is get through the summer to start classes again in September, and maybe build some skill and make a couple of bucks on the way. Not too much to ask, eh?

So blobs, that's what you're really here for. Much better to look at STILL NOT PENISES, I'M NOT LISTENING LA LA LA than to listen to me whine about employment.

Fun fact: This same exercise is what inspired my late, lamented (and it was lamentable, looking back at it now) webcomic, Xeno's Paradise. I think I'm understanding it better this time around, but it's nice to know something good came out of my earlier effort.

Totally not naughty bits

So a month into summer holidays, I've come to a decision about my short-term goals. They're pretty simple, really. I plan to work my way through The Vilppu Drawing Manual, and complete at least two animation projects. Nothing big, but enough to build on the skills I gained this past year. Even if those two things is all I accomplish in the next three months, I'll still be a far better artist than I am now, so it's something to look forward to.

So here's where I am right now, round forms. Pretty simple, really. First of all, I'm doing two pages of this daily:

Looks simple, right? That's 'cuz it is. Nothing but spheres, or rather circles and crossed ellipses. Couldn't be easier. But as simple as it is, the benefits are huge, helping me build confidence, become more efficient at mark-making, build my spacial sense and get way better at drawing and conceiving rounded forms. That's a lot of stuff just for two pages of circles a day.

The other exercise, which I really started to get serious with yesterday, is taking those round shapes and combining them. So making blobby forms, stretching them, twisting them, piling them one on top of another, making critters out of them, giving them personality. It's tonnes of fun, seriously, and I don't think I could really get into it to this degree without two years of art training under my belt. Here's what I managed to produce today:

Cool beans, huh? And lemme tell ya, it's HARD to put a big blob and a smaller blob together and not have it come out as someone's naughty bits. Dunno if I succeeded 100%, but there's still a lot of cool, funky stuff in there. I'll post more as I get them done, so stay tuned.

From Life

Clearly it's been too long since I posted. But summer is here, and with it a lot of free drawing time, so hopefully I'll be able to provide some worthwhile work to show you all.

So first things first, I managed to pass first year Animation! Whee! Which doesn't let me off the hook or anything, it was way too close for my taste. That means this summer is going to have a lot to do with bringing my skills a lot closer to where I want them to be. To do that, I've been starting to work my way through the Vilppu Drawing Manual, in an attempt to make my basic drawing skills stronger, as well as doing a lot of life drawing.

That out of the way, here are some selections from this week's sessions at Sandy Hill and the life drawing club that's running at the school until mid-June. I'd love for it to keep running all summer, but we weren't able to get enough sign-ups. Totally disappointing, I was hoping to see a lot more familiar faces.

Not that something like that's gonna stop me.