Inkvember?

Hey guys. Finally had a little time to work on some personal art. At life drawing a couple of weeks ago, I drew one that I liked a lot. Wanted to ink and finish it. 

Played with gold paint pen. No reason except I wanted to. Thanks to Mom and Dad for educating me on how people stored their LPs in the 60's and 70's!

John Mahoney's Zentropa Life Drawing Jam!

Center Stage Gallery hosted a life drawing jam in honor of John Mahoney's Zentropa book. Had to go support the teacher/boss, so I made sure to attend. Had a GREAT time! Tried to draw in a John-esque style today. Was a little of a challenge, but totally enjoyed it!



Looking forward to turning these into latex! Gonna play with them some more.

How NOT to Pass A Storyboard Test!

I debated whether or not to post this, but as I claim that this blog is a record of my journey into the animation industry, I feel it only right to post this. So, in homage to my largest ever post on this blog, "How to NOT Get Accepted to CalArts!", I present "How NOT to Pass A Storyboard Test!".

Several months ago, I guess it was January, I applied to a great little studio out here and was granted a storyboard test. (For those of you who don't know- a storyboard test is what a studio gives you to apply for a storyboarding job. They care less about a resume- for a story job, it's ALLLL about the test!) I have taken a couple at this point. Never been very happy with them. Usually, I stress myself out so much that I just flail! (Really should stop over-thinking everything...) This particular test was cool in that I got to try to board a short story out of Walt Disney's life. A little known story, I guess. I liked it right away. I had one week.

SOOO MUCH PAPER later and SEVERAL uhhh, complications including running a friend to the hospital and catching the flu, I had what I guessed was an okay test. There were sections I was definitely happier with, and several, I was just NOT! But- I turned it in and hoped for the best.

Long story short- I did not get the job. It happens. You apply, you get rejected or you just never hear back. (Still can't decide which of those is worse.) BUT! One great thing came out of taking the storyboard test. When I got to the studio, I saw that they were also testing for Inbetweeners! (I later took that test as well! Felt MUCH better about that one! Still didn't get it, but not because of any failing on my part, I was assured.)

Saw this video posted on Facebook a while back. It is from the company AND it just happens to include several storyboard tests. Once of which happens to belong to yours truly. Now, I'm not going to come right out and say which one is mine, maybe you can figure it out yourself, maybe you can't, but there is some GREAT information in here for anyone else looking into storyboarding for the animation industry!



I couldn't believe he named the video that- it IMMEDIATELY reminded me of my blog post from 6 years ago!

I took down all of his notes for my reference next time. Glad to have the input. I hope some of you can find something useful to apply to your work too. (Sorry the video is so long. He really does break down a lot though!)

Hillbilly Heaven!

Just gotta keep drawing!

You never know when something will suddenly click. Backstory: We have a model who comes to CSG and I've seen him before, and we just did not click. I disliked the poses, I disliked the character he dressed as, I just didn't get anything from him. I eventually left early. The rest of the evening went unbelievably horrible.

But on Wednesday, he came back. I was immediately a little hesitant. Would it be another bad night? Would I get anything I could use? Then he put on this wig... This wig was the worst wig ever- the cut was uneven and choppy and man, I just FED ON IT! I made the hair cover his eyes and suddenly, I had a little character! I drew the guy for the rest of the night! Sometimes I drew him taller, sometimes shorter, but I liked him either way.



Okay, so I seriously need to work on my rabbits, but whatever!

Drawing through the pain

Life drawing last night was the incomparable Daniella Traub. This woman can hold some FANTASTIC poses! Plus, she's all leg- hahaha! She came dressed as some sort of 60's mod girl or something, and the first thing I thought of was a 60's alien girl, which eventually rolled a little into 50's carhop. Anyway, it was fun! With the exception of some bad pain in my right (read: drawing) elbow from a long and hard work week, everything was great.





However, by this point in the night, the pain in my elbow had become immense. Instead of quitting and wrapping up for the night, I shifted to my left hand and finished out the night. I put all of the left-handed sketches together in chronological order so you can see- as I did- how my hand started to cope quickly.


Would love to play with some of these later and see what happens. Keep drawing, guys! <3

Pirates, Pirates everywhere!

(Also titled, Why we love John Tucker!)

Went to life drawing again. It was the wondrous John Tucker last night! He was doing his pirate thing. I was doing my "I've been working on a really amazing project that heavily features non-perfect and clean lines, so I am going to try that tonight" thing. Most of these drawings are basically one line drawings, never lifting the pen off the paper. I am delighted with some of the results.





I also did two great little sketches of one of my friends in class, drawing, but she has forbidden me to post them. Color me not happy. *pouts*

Also, odd little tidbit of trivia. It's been so hot down here in LA, that the glue holding my sketchpad together MELTED! My sketchpad is no longer a neat, squared off pad, it's more of a "I'm ready to flip this animation shot with perfect flippity" angle. And yes, I did just say that.

Think fauns, centaurs- THINK!

Okay, so at life drawing last night, the model wore these huge horns. And while I know she was trying to channel a little more "Maleficent", I tried to go the faun/centaur route. I don't know how successful I was, but I would like to go back to these soon and try to spin them a little in the direction of Freddy Moore/Manu Arenas. If you don't know who Manu Arenas is- GO LOOK HIM UP NOW!




Okay, admittedly the main reason I may want to turn her into a faun or centaur was because I couldn't actually see her legs through all the people at drawing last night. I never sit in the front. But I think this could be a fun game. We shall see.

Also, not sure why I avoided her hands all night... That's not like me at all! Admittedly, I was REALLY far back...