Tangled Gestures, Part 1

This morning I sat down for a couple of hours and sketched some quick gestures from Disney's Tangled. Most of these took about a minute or two, done in Adobe Flash.

Friday Open Drawing

So I learned two things about myself today during the Open Drawing Session.... 1) I draw a million times better when I'm relaxed (duh!), and 2) I am a million times more relaxed during drawing sessions when I listen to music and don't worry about the people around me. So I tried applying these two epiphanies today, and I must say they worked! My drawings may not be the best in the world, but I actually came out of there happy with my work instead of frustrated!

Here's what I got (some didn't photograph so well-- sorry):

Diving Back In

So the past couple days I've gotten back into the figure drawing game (after a tiny break). I'd forgotten how much fun it is!
These were from the Friday Open Drawing Session at school. There were only two people there the whole time (one other person dropped in for an hour). It was pretty dead. But still fun.
Mostly gestures. The second one down I really ran out of room for the head (beats drawing it poorly I guess).






"A work of art can never be really finished; it is abandoned."
--Brooke McEldowney
Thanks again, Bob and Bev!

Midterms and Lost in Translation...

Midterms! Midterms! Midterms!
My figure drawing class is going fairly well (I'm learning a lot, but still have a long way to go!). The teacher, Scott T. Petersen, is great at getting us to put some life and personality into our work. We've focused a ton on story, setting and motivation (quite a bit more than anatomy or technique), and I must say it's been a blast. Here are some of the better pieces that have come out of whatever instrument happens to be in my hand...

On a somewhat related note, I have officially begun my first Animation class at the Y (and, yes, "Animation" should always be capitalized!). Kelly Loosli is my instructor there, and he is hilarious. This is the legendary bouncing ball... Prepare to yawn:

And, on a final (and altogether unrelated) note, my wife dropped everything and went to China for six months (before we met, surprisingly enough) to teach English to some youngsters over there (she had the time of her life--or so I'm told). Anyway, she brought back a ton of Chinese-crafted stuff, most of which features some sort of poor translation into English. The prize of her collection is this lovely jacket.

Take a look-see (be sure to read slowly!):

I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. We have, however, agreed to name our firstborn "Sinrill" (boy or girl-- it's all good).

The front of it reads:

Is that not the funniest thing you've ever seen? If not, I shall eat my hat! (Let me know-- I'll get the ketchup ready)

Anyway, just want to put that out there. Thanks to all you who stop by to read my blog. It's been fun to see this little creation of mine increase in poipularity. Hopefully this blog is constantly directing you to higher fhings!

More Gestures

Fall is Here... Hear the Yell...

Wow! Fall semester has begun, and it seems like I'm in way over my head. The days are long (get up at 5, get home at 11), so I miss my wife terribly. But things are going well art-wise, so this temporary toughness is doing some good (and my wife is amazingly supportive). Mary, I love you!!!

Here's a couple of gestures that I liked from the open drawing session on Friday. They're not perfect, but I'm getting better bit by bit (or line upon line).

More importantly, my wife and I have been married for one year! Wahoo! It's been great. Married life takes some adjusting (especially if your prior existence was rather Ptolemic like mine) but there's nothing better in the world. Here's a little doodle of the two of us I did before we got married. My wife decided it should go on our wedding invitations (especially when she learned how photogenic I'm not).

Gestures are HARD!

So since I'm immersing myself in every possible effort to get ready for the Animation program, I have been introduced to the lovely concept of gesture drawing. In case you don't know, it's basically trying to capture an expressive movement or action in a figure while maintaining a correct (albeit concise) anatomical structure in the drawing....and all that is done during a pose that lasts anywhere from 30 seconds to three or four minutes. So here are a few of the ones I've done lately that have shown glimmers of hope.