Happy Halloween!

Here’s an attempt at pumpkin carving I made tonight…..

And here it is next to my girlfriend Sian’s one….

Sketches: October 25th and 26th

Here are a few more sketches. Work has been ultra busy at the moment leaving me little time to sketch, so I’ve had to sketch when I can during lunchtime. Click for larger versions!

Sketches: October 22nd to October 24th

I keep meaning to post all of my sketches in my sketchbook so as to avoid creating the impression that I’m better than I am. I think honesty is the key to improving. However it can sometimes be hard to spare the time to scan everything in.

I reached the end of the sketchbook containing my LA drawings the other day and have since started a new one. So I thought I’d attempt to keep on top of scanning each page in, unedited. I might however pick out my favourite drawing in each post and try to look at why it’s my favourite. I’d also like to invite anyone else to pick a favourite and tell me why you picked it as it would help me to learn what other people appreciate. So on the left is my favourite from the past few days, which I actually drew this evening.

The reason I have picked it is that I feel that it is the drawing which most captures a “moment”. Many of my drawings concentrate on just trying to get an image that represents what the person I was observing looked like. I tend to do this because I have somewhat of a complex about my ability to draw in the technical sense of the word. I want to be better at making an arm look like an arm or a head look like a head. In doing this I tend to lose sight of the reason for drawing, which is in essence capturing life.

This is one rare case that I feel I have been able to concentrate on that essence.

 

And below are all of the sketchbook pages so far. The first five pages were drawn while watching TV, which I find much less fun than drawing from life. I still try to do it though as any practice is worthwhile. You can click the images for larger versions.

Like I say, please feel free to comment on whether you have a favourite and why. It would help me a lot. Thanks! :)

Lego Update

Back in March 2009 I showed a Lego Batman ornament given to all the production crew of the videogame. Since I rarely mention my work at Traveller’s Tales on here, I thought I might show my current collection. I love that they are stackable! Actually it’s just as well that they are stackable as I’m running out of shelf space for having them side-by-side!

What can I say about working there now? Well as I’ve mentioned before, we’re still working on Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars, although there’s not long left to go on that. I think that although Lego characters are rather simple compared with something that might be animated at Pixar, I have learned a huge amount from working with them, particularly on Clone Wars, and the limitations have probably been more of a benefit than a curse as they have forced me to think creatively. The good thing is that I believe that there are still more lessons I can learn from these little guys as well as from my fellow animators.

Also, anyone notice that Americans say “Legos” while us Europeans say “Lego”?   :P

What a Mug!

Is this the best mug ever? Quite possibly! I got this from Disneyland and got far too excited about it! It came as a set with a matching Minnie one, which is now in use by my girlfriend.

Pub Sketches

Here’s a couple more sketches from today. I know a while back I said I’d post all my sketches, even the bad ones, but I just don’t fancy sitting in front on my scanner for hours on end! So these are my two favourites.

Sketching Progress

Over the past three weeks I’ve filled another sketchbook, however I haven’t got time to scan them all in, so I’ll just post a handful of sketches. The dog is one of my favourites that I drew while sitting outside a Starbucks in Hollywood. It has a certain something that as yet I have been unable to replicate in any other sketch. I keep trying though!

The other sketches were done in the last couple of days back here in sunny (ha!) England. I normally draw with ink in my sketchbooks but I decided to give pencil a go after admiring the handiwork of Chris Chua.

I have quite a way to go before I can draw people with as much life as he does, but again I keep trying! Actually with these sketches I took a different approach to usual. As I normally feel that my detail work lets down my sketches, I’ve concentrated mainly on details. The results have given me a little confidence so hopefully I can now apply what I’ve learned here to some more interesting poses!

A Most Unexpected Trip

A few months ago I received an email from a most surprising source…..Andreas Deja! Andreas was the supervising animator of such fantastic Disney characters as (to name but a few) Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Mama Odie from The Princess and the Frog, Jafar from Aladdin, King Triton from The Little Mermaid, Lilo from Lilo and Stich, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and my own personal favourite; Scar from The Lion King. Andreas was kind enough to offer to spare my girlfriend and I some time from his extremely busy schedule to meet us and give us a tour of the Disney Animation Studios. Being an opportunity we just couldn’t pass up, we scraped together every penny we could get hold of and a couple of weeks ago we jumped on a plane and flew over to Los Angeles.

Turning up at the studio filled me with an unbelievable amount of both excitement and nerves as I just didn’t know what to expect. However the visit would turn out to affect me in ways that I simply never saw coming.

The trouble is that for various reasons I don’t think I can really talk about these ways!

Suffice to say Sian and I both thoroughly enjoyed our visit and I am now more determined than ever to become a 2D animator.

While we were there we also met such people as animator Glen Keane, producer Don Hahn, director Kirk Wise, and Beauty and the Beast voices Paige O’Hara and Bobby Benson. Oh and on the old Disney lot we met some magical Disney squirrels that come to you when you make a clicking noise!

Thanks Andreas for an unforgettable day :)

Practice Animation

I made a quick 2D animation tonight. Not very satisfied with it, but then I didn’t really put a lot of thought into it before starting. This pose took more time to sort out than all the other drawings combined!