Getting back on track

Well it's about time I started drawing again. I mean it is the purpose of why I started this blogger in the first place.

I think it's best I get this out of the way now since I'll be posting alot of work styled this way. I like anime, and I like the style they use for characters. Thats not to say Im a biased fan of the genre or style of art, hardly. I like disney, I like alot of north american animation and find that exaggeration and expression of emotion, plus fluidity of charater movement in north american animation (feature productions anyway) is king to that of what you can find elsewhere. (except of Miyazaki, his stuff is much the same, just very different in ideas and excecution) I mean I grew up with all the regular shows kids of the early 80's had, both the good and the bad. (Inspector Gadget, Ninja Turtles, COPS, heck freakin Care Bears) So it's not like I shun the stuff and swear by anime like it's the bible. It just happens to be my particular preference in character design, thats all.

It's not all hunky dory though, theres alot of times where I feel restricted in my style and that since I've been drawing it for so long it prevents me from trying other styles or taking on a more gritty north american comic book style. I'd like to be able to be well versed in all aspects to be honest so I'll be working hard to try and mix in a variety of work into this. I also need to go back to life drawing badly... I feel the lack of it is making my work rougher, even more so since I haven't been drawing in a while...


Ok so lets start out with these two pics. Both of these were done for anime north this year and while I was sort of happy with them at the time (I finished them the night before the convention) the kinda sad part is that its pretty apparent on where my issues lie. Just for reference, the first pic with "Ray=Out" on the top is from a show called Eureka Seven and the other pic is from a show called Full Metal Alchemist. Both shows I liked and had great animation for long running shows (roughly 50 eps each series)

First pic I should have put the hand in the back WAY back not as close to force perspective abit more. The hand up front on the board is TERRIBLE and really shows that I need to work on my hands... alot... The picture is suppose to be forced perspective and it really had my mind bugged when I was trying to do the board he's on so it's probably wrong all over the place, worst places being the board wheel (circular thing on the front) and the duct on the back which now stick out like a sore thumb. The foot thats on the front of the board you shouldn't be able to see, and now that I look at it again, the shirt should be curved up on more of an angle since hit body is going away from the board and the viewer.

The second pic the character up fronts arm is suppose to be going closer to the camera which makes the outlining thicker, however it just looks like it's HUGE instead of forced perspective instead. The fingers on the hand look like cocktail wieners (again going back to my lack of time doing hand studies) and.. what the hell was I thinking doing the metallic shine, it just looks corny.

I find that when I look back at my old stuff, I can hear my design teacher from animation saying, " You need more thumbnails, more structure, more reference.." And to be honest, he's right, theres still alot I lack, and it shows how amature I am through my work. But it's all stuff that I'm willing to work on and improve. Through friends and honest feed back from.. well anyone whos artistically inclined really would help!

But at the sametime in all this Im trying to rediscover the fun of drawing, and exploring new things... Algonquins animation program teaches you as much as they can from a, "You can get a job out of college" perspective and doesn't leave alot of time for personal style development. It's not neccessarily a bad thing, but it's just draining and for people like me who take time to become motivated into drawing, it sucks the life out of you.

My friend Jarrett Young have talked about this often. Jarrett goes to Sheridan College and is entering his 4th year, he's been a good friend of mine since HS and we talk and meet as often as we can. There are 2 fundemental things that Sheridan and Algonquin do differently. Sheridan allows you to explore and find different styles in your work, they let your creativity run free and animation can take a slightly laid back focus (but still teach you the principals) in comparison to character design and design style in general. Algonquin will give you instructions on animation fundementals and provide you with training for animation from the get go and let you gradually trying things out ONLY when you've grapsed the basics in order to prep you for a job once your done. Both programs are good, and ones not more correct then the other. Where Sheridan wins is through budget, facilities, avalible classes (such as extra life drawing) and reputation which can play a big or small roll whatever way you cut it.

ok I digress, I seem to be stemming topics here.. man who knew I could type this much in a blog.. cripes...

anyway, going back to things... the last one is the most recent.. and well.. heck it's not even done, but again I needed something to get back in the saddle so I whipped this up after watching a show called Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1989) the character on the left is leaning and one arm is longer then the other, the little girl up front is leaning and proportions are wacky, and girl on the right is.. well she has no legs... plus I didn't draw through at all so it's a mystery where her arms and legs are right now. It's not done, but I was done drawing it (dont feel like continuing it) Pretty cruddy way to get back on track. But as bad as it all sounds and how bad I put down my work, it's all constructive criticizim and things Im pointing out myself about my art work. Im not on here starving for attention saying stuff like, " Yeah my art sucks! love meeee " but at the same time I think it's good to know when you can point out and say whats wrong with your own work. It's better then saying, " I dont know whats wrong with it..." because if you say something like that you better
a.) get someone else to look at it
b.) get your eyes checked
c.) go back to school for art because chances are you'll need some instruction to slap you in the face about this.
d.) get a live journal account emo kid, where you and thousands of others can battle to the death for attention.

oh and thanks to the readers who made it this far in my... novel... fuck I gotta start cutting my post size down..