SKETCH DUMP (school edition)

Junior year go! 

 Some thumbnail focusing on balance. These were for my intro to 3d animation class

 Observational sketching

 More observation!

 For my Backgrounds and layouts class: One point interior

 2-point exterior. These are really just for the teacher to see

how bad we are at perspective.

 Tree! For the BG class

 Trees! Same class

 Tree again! Still BG's

 Environmental sketches for Storyboards

Same as above.

I am taking a reduced class-load this year, switching over to the ever-despicable "5-year" plan. There are a couple of motivating factors behind this. Mainly I want to be able to maintain my workout program, and having finally gotten back into Taekwondo this is very important to me.  Furthermore: I have some serious confidence issues that I am trying to work on. This does not prevent me from being outrageously busy.

It's close. The feeling that I get when I am doing TKD, I can almost reach that with drawing. It's a feeling of hyper-focus, almost zen-like. Everything in the world and life but that very moment ceases to be, leaving no anxiety, fear, apprehension... Nothing to really hold me back. Of course I get frustrated when I screw up, especially right now during this period of getting back in shape. But that feeling is fleeting, It flashes by and is gone in an instant. That is what I have been striving to achieve in these past two years at DigiPen, and it is close. 

Fear... That is what has been my biggest enemy. Fear of what? Failing? I know I am just a student (will I ever be anything but?), all of this is practice. Every mark on every page is just another step up on this never-ending climb. Once a drawing starts that fear resides, not entirely, but with every new drawing it does a little more. It's the start that kills me. Sitting down and staring at blank paper or computer screen, ideas buzzing about with all the other noise in my head... Even when drawing from observation, especially when drawing environments. All that visual information becomes noise, it's difficult for me to pare it down to it's most essential shapes and forms. That's what practice is for, right? Learning how to to filter through that clutter and grab a hold of the essential?

Is it an unfamiliarity with the process? I do get bogged down by each step. Too reluctant to move forward with confidence, too impatient to not skip steps along the way. How frustrating that is.

It's not all so bad, though. Some switches are being flipped on, others off, in my head. The Way is being more and more well lit for every walk I take through it.

Kick combo pose test (and some figure drawing)

Oh look! More animation! Did in flash, not nearly done.

You know what's terrible? I have 7 years of taekwondo under my belt (7 years in my adult life, mind you, not some long-gone time from elementary and junior high) and for whatever stupid reason I had to redraw the poses for these kicks about a billion flipping times each. I guess that's what happens when you don't do any real prep work for the animation.


Waitwaitwait. What the hell am I doing updating this blog so frequently? I don't draw this much in my free time... do I? Something is going on here, I'll get to the bottom of it! But for now,  naked people!

These were from photo's on the internet. I know, I know, a travesty! Drawing from photographs! On a computer! How dare I?

Rough animation test

Animated in Flash.


I think my brain has made a breakthrough flip-switching. Just in the past few days I have stopped feeling an internal guilt and pressure to practice art. What has replaced that is a genuine desire to practice, to draw, paint and animate. A major source of this change I think is from a simple alteration in the way of thinking about art.

Previously, like said above, there was an internal guilt, as if I was trying to wrestle myself into submission to sit still and practice. Instead I would waste time, dicking around on the internet for hours as I tried to convince myself to work. I had to sit and think about this, it was a real issue. Why did I have such a hard time practicing? I know it is necessary, it is good for me and when I actually sit down to do it I enjoy it greatly. The short answer: I was going about it the wrong way. My approach to practice was too regimented, too strict and rigid. Changing the plan from "work X hours on X number of studies from such-and-such book" to " I am going to get my sketchbook and [whatever book] and draw. I don't care how long, I don't care if it's from the book. I know what I need to practice, and I will start with that, but if I wander, let's wander."


I have to credit a couple people with helping inspire this as well. My wife, her work ethic is amazing. The incredible thing about her is that she loves being lazy. She loves being lazy so much that she will work her ass off to get work done (well) early so she will have more time to be lazy, guilt-free.  The other person is a classmate of mine (well, technically he is a year ahead of me, but goes to the same school and pursues the same degree). Just looking at his DeviantArt page [ http://irvingbrew.deviantart.com/ ] and seeing how much work he has put in in the past few years, how much fun he has on paint-chat and doing random doodles... I know that other artists do this, but seeing it from someone that you personally know makes a big difference, makes it seem that much more real. At least, for me it does.

Well, let's hope I can keep this mindset.  A breakthrough has been made, let's not rest on my laurels and watch opportunity pass me by.

Animations!

Bite and chew done my freshman year. This is still one of my favorites

This was my final from Freshman year. I animated the Samurai, partner (TJ Lamb) animated the ninja.

The walk was drawn on paper and colored in photoshop. This was for a game team that I worked with in my sophomore year. The team dissolved and the game was never finished so this is the only animation that ended up getting done for it.

Some drawings from DP

Figure drawings done at DP and Gage

S

This was my Sophomore animation project. I animated the fat guy, my partner animated the lady. I did the original line art for the background while my partner did the painting.

I'm moderately happy with it. The motion works in spite of the wiggle-vision. I have had to really deal with learning a ton while working on a long project..... it makes the later stages of the production difficult to stick with. I see so many things that I did wrong, or could have done better at the early stages but have had to push forward with it because I had a product to deliver. It's an important lesson, but a frustrating one. It's funny, though, I was talking to my uncle recently (a long time software engineer)  asking him if this was common in his line of work; It totally is. So, I am pretty sure I have that to look forward to for the rest of my life. C'est la vie.

It's Character Driven

Stupid fun assignment in my character design class sent me here: http://itscharacterdriven.blogspot.com/ .

Beautiful
Stoned
Mystic
May or may not be an alien