Sunday, August 9, 2009

Posing Paints


So I was practicing quick sketches a few days ago from pictures of people posing, and thought, why not use paint? At first, I wanted them to look like the gesture drawings people do with paint- quick strokes representing so much dynamics.


















But you know what it's like with paint. You may not actually be good at it at all (as in my case), but it won't stop you from painting on and on. So that's what happened here- I didn't want to stop with just lines, although maybe I should've and asked others if I did a satisfactory job with the "gesture drawing". Or "action drawing". I need to fix my definitions. But instead, I wanted to go ahead and do something different with it. It was difficult to stop. And it's so easy to make mistakes with paint, at least for me. I always tried to avoid working with paint, and even in my Foundation Drawing class (which, to be honest, was my first ever proper art course, unless you count the stuff in junior and middle school, where we weren't really taught anything. So, really, my first drawing course was in college. It's a frightening truth, but I wish people would disagree to it)... Anyway, even in the drawing class, when the teacher would ask us to do "loose paintings" of teddy bears and porcelain dolls, I'd be so hesitant. "It's supposed to look loose and quick". But you can never resist concentrating on details, slowing down the brush strokes, keeping a tight grip over your paintbrush. The teacher liked what I did, but I honestly didn't get what was so appealing. Same goes here, I tried loose, but I honestly don't know- is it good? Is it even loose? I probably spent 5 minutes on each.




















And the result is this. Some of them I don't like- especially the ones which are just outlines and colored in, like a coloring book. It didn't start out like that, I had subtle shading and stuff, but again, I was trying to be loose! :S I wish I had viewers to tell me what they think of them, to critique and things. That's why I love school. I want to make the most of it. And once again, the same ol' argument- life is so short! Anyway, I did a few quick action sketches (or maybe not so quick- I need to work on that. Probably took a minute or so, but I'll get better), using reference videos. Mostly random YouTube stuff- Eadward Muybridge videos, sports videos, Charlie Chaplin videos, etc., etc. What I did was pause the video every few frames or so and quickly sketch the motion, and then repeat. Is there a better way? I don't know, I just randomly started doing it. I'll post those later. I don't know if it's a good way of keeping track of my progress or not, but I'll post them anyway.

Monday, August 3, 2009

In Color!



Yay! Finally finished it!! @ 24 fps, on twos. The quality here after uploading is terrible! Grr. I'm not too satisfied with it obviously. It's too stiff...And the head does nothing interesting.But I'm happy with the frills, it's my first time doing details like that in an animation.

I was watching the Dick Van Dyke show yesterday (after I Love Lucy!), and here's a quote I really liked from it: "You can draw a heart with a pen and paper, but you can't measure one"

Hmm.