Saturday, July 29, 2017

Sketching Trip and Some Reflections

This last week, the family took a trip to the Central Coast, Bay Area, and Oregon. Since I went out and bought a sketchbook that conveniently fits in my bag, I wanted to make sure that I included it in my packing. 

One of the other reasons that I wanted to bring it is so that I could continue to build up my consistency in my sketching habits. It can be very difficult for me to sketch, not necessarily because I don't want to, but because I feel insecure about a number of things surrounding my art. In particular, I can sometimes feel bad that I'm taking time to sketch when I'm with other people. 

But one of my goals is to work past the insecurity that I feel, not just in my art but in other areas of my life. As I've said before on here, I'm so glad I actually took the time to draw. Right now I'm dealing with a lot of things and taking the time to draw actually made me more at peace. 

This is the Pigeon Point lighthouse...it doubles as a hostel and was absolutely adorable. I might try to come back here someday. 

Baseball games are not necessarily my favorite places to draw...I often feel like there's too much going on. This sketch ended up being one of my favorite recent ones though, and it's always fun having people around you tell you that they like your work.

That's all I was able to do...we went to Crater Lake, OR one day and I absolutely kicked myself that my small, compact sketchbook (that I bought to fit in a bag)....was left in the hotel room. I took a ton of pictures in the hopes that I will be inspired to take the time to create a more fully developed work. 

Monday, April 17, 2017

Character Design Improvements, Part 2

Thanks to some of the lessons I'm teaching my students in the final days of school (five weeks and counting, yay!) I decided to do some practice at character designing. This method is what I basically call the "Frankenstein" method. Basically, I take elements from different figures that I like, splice them together and paint over it. It allows for a more hyper-real (in some cases) look to the character and, quite frankly, saves a ton of time. Being the nerd that I am, I decided to reach out to a group of friends and have them send me descriptions of their characters. Enjoy!


Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Character Design Improvements

Okay, so life is still pretty hectic, and I haven't been posting nearly as much as I hoped I would this year, but nonetheless I am still drawing. I wanted to share a new piece that I'm working on. My newest character, Sibella. Not much to say about her, except when I compare her to my previous character, Rowena I see just how much I've grown as an artist over the last four years. That's a great encouragement, especially when I am continuously beating myself up for not drawing as much as I think I should.

Enjoy!

(On a completely unrelated note, I had not realized how much of an influence Disney has on my design until I took a look at her and saw how much she...unintentionally...looks like a Disney character...)

Friday, January 13, 2017

2017: The First Post and a Rediscovery

As part of my New Year's resolution this year, I'm excited to post the first drawings of 2017. My friend and I went to a local restaurant to hang out and got to spend some time drawing.

Part of the reason that (I think) I was reluctant to fill up my sketchbook was because I was too concerned about making things look like something people would be pleased to see. To all of my students reading this: That is a terrible mindset to have! I was so concerned about making each of my pages perfect that I missed out on the joy of creating. That should be one of the primary motivators of your work: the joy of creating.

In response to that, I switched up my drawing tools. Normally I work with my micron pens in my sketchbook and I don't vary it too often. Last night, I switched to drawing with one of my favorite tools in college, my carbothello pencils (a type of charcoal pencils). Now, this may not seem like a huge difference, but it allowed me to loosen up a little bit.



On a (slightly) different note...

Lately, I've been rediscovering the joy of creating. I'm excited to be working on a pet project of mine, a 3D Design class (covering animation and modelling); because I need to teach the material, I've had the chance to shake the cobwebs off. I haven't animated in 3 years...and the last time I animated, it was for school purposes. I had forgotten something: Animating is so much fun! This is a rough pass (a very rough pass), but considering how long it's been, I'm also extremely pleased with it!