Tackling Some Gestures

I felt so bad about the sheer boringness of my last post that I made sure that I have something to actually show you today! I had hoped to add my opinion of Home on the Range to the end of a post showing off my latest artwork, but I was feeling that bad for not posting anything in ages that I decided I had to put it on its own. I went looking on the internet for good action pictures to use as references for my drawings and decided that rugby was to be my chosen topic. I have wanted to try to draw more than one figure in a gesture drawing for a while but have never got round to it until now. Here's my first attempt:
It's not quite in proportion - that seems to be a running theme in my drawings. I need to work on getting the sizes of different body parts correct. My next attempt was a bit tricky:
Rugby players tend to do a lot of 'dummy' movements, making it seem like they are moving one way, when they are actually moving another. This poses an interesting problem when trying to draw them and make their gestures read correctly. I'm not too pleased with attempt number three:
I don't really know why I don't like it, but I don't...so there! To finish, I decided to try the hardest of all the pictures I found, showing not just two, but four figures:
I liked the fact that they all fitted together in one sweeping motion. I'm not sure how well you can see what is going on, so below is the original photo I used.
Anyone notice my new blog post separators? I thought it would be a nice little touch to divide each post by a set of animation paper holes. I got these from Frank & Ollie's site. I don't know if that counts as stealing, so I'm advertising their site here to make up for it!

Don't Have a Cow!

A couple of nights ago, I watched Home on the Range with Sian. Being Disney's supposed last 2D feature back in 2004, I was assuming it wasn't going to be particularly good. As you will know, I have been feeling (and I'm not alone in this) fed up with the endless barrage of 3D animated films. Not that I dislike 3D movies, I just feel that their average quality leaves much to be desired. Anyway, we put the bovine-filled disk in and sat back, prepared to at least give it a chance.

Well it was the first time in a long time that I was instantly sucked into a film. It was really good! I should say that it didn't feel completely like the epic Disney movies that I grew up with, much in the way that Robin Hood doesn't seem to quite fit in amongst the likes of Snow White and Lady and the Tramp, but it nevertheless was most enjoyable. There were also a few points at which I was laughing out loud - an unusual occurrence when watching even the "funniest" of 3D films.

Anyway, as boring as this post is, I just thought I'd share that with you all. Go and watch a 2D movie that you haven't seen before. You may find it pleasantly refreshing!

First Step

Upon reviewing my Google Analytics page a few days ago, I noticed how few visits my blog has received recently. After pondering possible solutions to this, I decided the best plan of action was to get off my back side and update it!

So here I am, artwork-less but with some news at least...I have a job! Yes, sound the fanfare and stop the press, I am, for the first time in my life, employed in a job that I actually enjoy. As any of you regular readers will know, I had two interviews recently for a camera operator and film editor job here in Manchester for a company called Cut 'n' Copy. Well I'm happy to say that they went well and I was offered the job on Friday. The only downside was that my first day at work was to be Saturday. However I mustn't complain because I enjoyed every minute of it. Without going into all the fine details of it (since it is in no way animation related), I was filming a wedding.

I must say that I am very excited indeed about this job as;
a) my boss may read this
and
b) I see it as the first stepping-stone (career-wise) to getting to my dream animation job.

Yes, I know it's still a long way from drawing, but it will teach me a lot of skills that will be useful to me as an animator. It is also significant for me due to me having achieved my change of career path from one of science to one of art. I shall now celebrate by altering my profile description!

Dusting off the Cobwebs

See? I'm back again...and it hasn't even been 24 hours! I decided that I needed a little table on which I could pile my animation paper by the side of my animation desk. We had a little stack of drawers at the other side of the living room that fitted the bill so I moved it. Unfortunately it disturbed a pile of dust that had been quietly collecting behind it for months, so Sian and I spent most of the afternoon clearing up the mess!

Anyway, after the dust settled, so to speak, I decided I had better make use of the new arrangement. So I sat down at the animation desk and began to draw. I decided to try to conjure up some poses from my imagination in order to give it a dust-off too.
The face in the top left was just a warm up drawing. I'm not sure what I was going for with the one at the top right. It kinda looks like a person straining to see something in the distance. I'm not really sure that's what I was drawing though. The bottom left one turned out better. It's meant to be someone saluting. I guess the legs should be a bit closer together to make him look like he's standing to attention. As it is, he looks a bit like he's distressed! The one on the bottom right was supposed to be creeping. This next batch is utter crap!
I intended the top left one to be someone throwing a ball but it's a very weak pose. The top right one was meant to be someone straining to pick up a heavy object. The bottom one was going to be someone who had just been pushed off his feet like in a rugby tackle. Or a football tackle for you americans! Like I said - rubbish. I prefer these next ones:
The left one was a guy looking a bit depressed with his hands in his pockets. I imagined him walking along in the gutter, kicking a stone half-heartedly. The one on the right was intended as an old man resting against a wall after a tiring walk. However it looks more like a younger guy posing by leaning on a wall. At least the wall works!
I had intended this one to be someone leaping into a room from a hole in the ceiling. I don't really know why. Finally, I decided to try to draw something similar to my LowMan animation.
I was quite pleased with it except for it's shoulders. I find shoulders particularly difficult to draw. I read in one of my books that a person's arms are only attached to the body where the collarbone meets the breast bone. This is why the shoulders can move around into many different positions. I really need to develop a good way of coping with them.

Hello Stranger

Good god, it's been two weeks since I last passed this way. How the time flies! I've had so many chances to get some good drawing practice in, but I have given up at the first sign of failure every time. I went camping in the Lake District over Easter. I thought it would be a great opportunity to take some great photos and draw some great pictures. Neither occurred. Well I did attempt some, but they were rather less than impressive!

Yesterday I went out with Sian, specifically to do some drawing. The weather was beautiful and so we went to a little pub down the road. There were students sitting on the grass outside, kicking balls around and other sketchable activities. We sat down with a nice cold drink and began to draw. The following was the result:
Well the one at the bottom left wasn't drawn at that pub. We felt a bit in the way there so we moved on to another one. I'm not at all happy with these drawings, but then I can't expect them to be good since I am out of practice. Also I had just started a new sketchbook and I find that the first page of drawings is always bad. I always think, "right, I'm going to fill this book with great drawings," but I get so caught up in that thought that I screw up straight away.

I decided that I need to start going to life drawing classes again. I recently saw an advert in an art shop in the city for a class that looked good so I'm going to look into that.

I apologise for this boring post - I just wanted to get something on here and I'm too tired to type anything interesting! I have two job interviews this week. Both are for video editing positions. The first is tomorrow and I'm desperate to get it (or the next one) since I hate the job I'm in!

Finally...Happy Birthday Sian! My girlfriend is 21 today. Well as I write this, it has just turned midnight so I guess she was 21 yesterday! Why not celebrate by visiting her blog or looking at her photos?

'Till next time...I promise it won't be so long!

What if...?

I haven't had a lot to post in the last few days. It's the usual story - work crushing all my creative spirit! I have managed to find a few more drawing videos for my collection...some better than others, so check them out and get inspired!

I saw a post on John K's blog today that got me thinking. It's an old post from March of last year, but I guess he must have updated it as it appeared as 'unread' on my Google Reader. Anyway, John makes the claim that the Beatles ruined the world. Now I'm a big fan of the Fab Four and so I don't share that opinion, but I do agree that the world changed significantly during their time, and that some people might see that change as bad.

As we have all been told many times, "things were better in the old days." I think every subject has been described as having a 'golden age', which usually occurred around the 1940s. And animation is no exception of course. Reading through the comments under John's post has led me to realise that a huge proportion of people think that animation was better in the 'good old days'...and I have to agree with them. However I also noticed a lot of people saying that they only watch cartoons from the 1940s, and those people who can draw only draw cartoons from that era.

Is it me or is that crazy?

How is animation going to make the high quality come-back that we all wish for if we dwell on the subject of how crap most stuff is now. As I commented on John's blog, let's learn from what has worked before (both back in the golden age and more recently) and build on it. The quality of 1940s animation was wonderful - we all know that. But why shouldn't that of the early 21st century be even better?

The Beatles didn't ruin the world. By changing the world, they demonstrated that the world can be changed. Don't sit there and moan about the state of our planet, or our art form...

...CHANGE IT!