Figure vs Gesture

Yesterday was figure drawing day again. But this time I tried to approach the class a little different. At the CTN event I went to a talk about 'Gesture drawing the pixar way'. The talk was about the principles and exercises they do at the figure/gesture drawing classes they have at pixar. 

What they talked about was:

 "Don't focus on the science of drawing, focus on the soul of drawing. Gesture drawing is the science of the soul. Use the model as a jumping of shot. Take the mental shot, and go. Don't be a slave to the model. Don't get trapped in anatomy. Don't copy the model, interpret it. Go from a pose to a story."

So that is what I tried to do yesterday in the class, interpret the model and draw the story. Here's some of my first attempts:

CTN Animation Expo 2011 by Rubber Onion

One of the people I met at the CTN Expo was Stephen Brooks from Rubber Onion. He has posted a nice video and a fun read on his blog that, I think, captures the spirit of the CTN Animation Expo 2011 very well. 

Here is the video or read and watch the original post on his blog: www.rubberonion.com/blog/

(You can even spot me in there somewhere)

CTN Expo - It's a wrap

The third day for me started out with a presentation about gesture drawing, the pixar way. This was a really interesting talk and I can't wait to try some things they talked about in the figure drawing I'm attending back home.

I got to meet with some great people; J Scot Campbell, Sean 'Cheeks' Galloway, Sergio Paez, Pascal Campion, Fergal Reilly, Yvette Kaplan, Dominick Domingo, Bill Plympton, Piet Kroon and Andreas Deja.

CTN has been an incredible experience for me and I'm definitely will be coming back next year.

CTN, you're awesome!

CTN Expo - Day 2

The second day for me was about inspiration.

I got to meet some inspiring people; Bobby Chiu, Ryan Green, Regis Loisel, Tina Price, Kei Cedera & Cristophe Lautrette to name a few.

The Lion King Panel was a really fun talk with 9 of the creators, packed with lots of great and funny anecdotes about the production of the film.

Highlight of the day for me, was a talk by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman which started with the phrase: "Seeing is Believing".

That's a short impression of my second day, on to the 3rd and final day of the CTN Animation Expo.

CTN Expo - Day 1

My first day at the CTN Expo in one word: Awesome. I met with so many great people, Louie del Carmen, Kent Melton & Peter de Seve to name just a few.

The highlight of the day for me was the Panel with Andreas Deja. He showed some great penciltests from Lady and the Tramp and the Sword in the Stone, and shared some great stories on Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl.

But the program said there was also a surprise guest with Andreas, and that was the cherry on the cake:

Richard Sherman of the Sherman Brothers was there and played on the piano some of the amazing classic songs they wrote for The Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins! Plus he also shared some great stories about how it was to work for Walt Disney back in the days. It was pretty magical, I have to say.

So that's a little impression of my first day here in Burbank at the CTN Expo. I'm off for day 2 and I'm curious if it will beat the first.

Universal Studios - Burbank - Venice

and CTN is only 2 days away ...

CTN animation eXpo

Only one flight and 6 days away...

For a taste of the previous editions:

click 

Philemon

Philemon character sketch.

Figure drawing

Some of the 5 minute studies I did yesterday at figure drawing class.

Little Blackbook

Look what I received with the mail today ...

Baucis

Character exploration study for the character Baucis.

Figure drawing

At the figure drawing class I'm attending, we always do three drawing sessions. Each session is an hour long, and the first session is 5 minute poses.  

Here's today's 'first hour' results.

Ζεύς

Character exploration sketch.

Exploring

Character exploration sketches for the characters of  the story I'm working on.

2 minute gestures

Tonights' 2 minute warm-ups:

2 minute gestures

Before I start working on my storyboard I do some 2 minute gesture sketches to loosen up.

Here's some of the warm-ups from today:

WIP

(work in progress)

Figure Drawing

I signed up for  'Open Atelier Figure Drawing and Painting' again this year. Today was the first day and here's two 15 minute studies I did. Feeling a bit rusty with the material, but looking forward to the rest of the year! 

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...'The Boy with Golden Hands'...

SketchoZINES Vol 4: CUTESIES

Last week I received a message from the people at sketchoholic.com that one of my works is being feautured in a publication they have called:

SketchoZINE's Vol 4 CUTESIES Art Book / Digital magazine.

How cool!

This is the image they selected:


"I created this last year in 2010 and it is titled 'Junkyard Robot'."

Sketchoholic is a FREE global community for Independent digital and traditional artists, photographers, designers, animators, film makers and sculptors.

Go have a look for yourself!

A boy finds an egg...

An example of how I search for the best way to tell the story...



...and testing one of the thumb ideas in a sketch.

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... squeek!

Overview

About a month ago I got feeling kinda 'lost' in my attempt to try and develop a little short story. I had chosen a direction for the story, and was writing down ideas and sketching thumbs inside a sketchbook, even did some storyboarding but it felt like I was going round in circles. I felt there were all kinds of things wrong with what I was working on, but I couldn't see what it was.

I needed to create overview.

I needed to create something to help organise my thoughts and get some overview of what I was doing. I felt I had to create a place where I can turn all my written ideas into simple visuals and put them all in one place. So I build this little pinboard:



So far it is working great. Every idea I have, either if it's a 'new story direction'-idea, a 'sequence'-idea or an 'improved composition'-idea for an existing thumbnail, I quickly sketch it out, and pin it on the right place on the board. This visual way of developing my ideas is working better for me than writing it down in words or do sketches inside a sketchbook like I've been doing so far.
Also, every day, I pick out one thumbnail on the board that I feel has key story potential, and turn it into a bigger greyscale sketch. Like so:



And of course there are thumbnails that either don't make it to the pinboard or are taking of after several days.
For those I've created a special place, I don't throw them away, who knows I might need them one day, but I gather them in a box.



Right now I'm focussing on sketching and developing the beginning, aka the CONFLICT, and the ending for my story, aka the RESOLUTION.
When I'm happy with those two images, then it makes sense to me to take the next step: develop the middle part of the story and start with storyboarding sequences.

So back to the board!

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Painting

...a boulder wall.

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'Hmmm... what's for dinner?'

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Caricaturing

... my fellow game studio colleagues.

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