classes

yep, I've got some work-intensive classes this semester. here's some work I've been doing for them. The big monster was done for digital painting class, and the B&W ones are for storyboarding.

lightsaber-chucks

painter class

the new semester has begun and I've got quite the schedule. I only need two art history classes to graduate, but I need a whole lot more skill to get a job, so I'm taking storyboard and character design - the two most intensive classes in the animation program, along with a Corel Painter class. I'll be graduating in December. I'm 85% scared and 15% excited about it. Graduation means that I'm being pushed into a job market I don't know I can compete in.

color, style, emulation

Here's what I've been doing for the last week. I decided to emulate a couple styles. the first is a very girly style from female illustrator J. Gheduzzi and the second is Cheeks. I'm pretty disappointed with what I'm doing at the moment. I really want to be making stuff that brings a character to life and tells a story...

Colors! homebrew for the DS

I talked to Adam Ford from avalanche and asked him what I need to work on in order to get accepted to work with their company. Basically, his answer was that I needed to give them a lot more of a wow factor, and then he broke it down into what I have to work on to create this kind of a wow factor:
-Place more emphasis on volume. Draw around the figure instead of concentrating on value. Draw high detail areas first and then the rest of it will work itself out.
-Work more with color. show more narrative pieces that convey character instead of just doing studies.
-Be aware of composition and how your composition contributes to the meaning/story of a piece.
-Show your experience with digital media. Companies want to see that you can use them.

And so, I pulled out my nintendo DS and used a homebrew app called colors! tried to work on using digital media and color at the same time. I was not aware that these colors were so saturated until I saw them on my computer screen.

Level grinding, only with paint

okay, I'm a sucker for crappy movies, and I was feeling rather uninspired whilst looking for subject matter to paint. here we have Torgo from "Manos" the Hands of Fate, and Zed from Zardoz, along with an attempt at character design and another attempt at stylization/caricature.

Rejection, change, and sketchbook club

In the month since I last posted, I have:
Gotten rejected from the BYU animation program
moved to Seattle
went through a couple weeks of crippling self-doubt
went out and drew hobos to overcome said self-doubt
started up a sketchbook club.

The rejection was a huge blow to my self-concept; I thought that all of my figure drawings were perfectly solid. Apparently they weren't good enough. Also, I'm going to have to get creative about how to get employment after my eminent graduation. I've had a dreadful feeling for the longest time that I might still be waiting tables after I've graduated from one of the top 100 schools in the country. Ewww...
I had just watched Batman Begins right before I got the painfully short letter from the visual arts department, and in my head I've got a little Michael Cain asking "why do we fall down? So we might learn to pick ourselves up again." So in order to get myself out of a rut, I decided to go out and start drawing again, so I went hobo hunting and just drew the first guy I found drinking near a bus stop.
I also started up my sketchbook club, and had our first meeting on Thursday. Drawing moving people is a pretty new and big challenge for me, and I'm trying to be able to make my sketchbooking stuff look less two dimensional.