Stopping for a bite to eat

Sumatran Elephant

To read about Sumatran Elephants, check out the World Wildlife's website:

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/sumatran-elephant

2014 Inktober Amur Leopard

For 2014 Inktober I was planning on doing one sketch a week from the endangered animals list on the World Wildlife Federation's website. This week's sketch is of the Amur Leopard. 

https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/amur-leopard

speed paint - beach and stars

Green Arrow Doodle

Pandas!

Production Schedule

I took the summer off from working on my thesis film 'Tethered.' It was a much needed break, but I am ready to tackle this project again. Im in the process of putting together my production schedule. The next week of editing my animatic, and adding a rough cut of sound will help me determine the final length of the film and also the rest of my schedule. Revisiting my animatic will give me a chance to reassess my asset lists that I've created using Trello. I've also started a blog for the film specifically, but I'm not sure if I want to use wordpress or blogger yet so I just made the bones of both blogs for now.

tetheredshortfilm.wordpress.com
tetheredshortfilm.blogspot.com

More updates soon to come! (... or I'm in trouble for finishing this on time...)

Dragon Con 2014

Cardinal Speed Paint 30 min.

This little guy was outside my window this morning which lead to this 30 min speed paint. First time I have been able to keep it down to 30 min. which is encouraging for doing more of these. :)

Sketch of Kara

Sketch of my sister Kara from life. It's nice to take a minute and just draw what's around you. 

Effects Lightening Test

Two ways of how to approach animating lightening. One more approach to try out!

UPDATE:

Card captor Sakura for Fan Art Friday

Bradley... Cooper

Animation effects test of lil' Bradley showing up on the scene.

Master copies of Water

Here are some master copies of water from the "elemental magic vol II" book.

May the 4th/May the Force be with you

In celebration of May the 4th, here is a sketch of Nate and I as Jedi.

The Jackalope is alive!

I can not believe how long it took me to throw this little guy into flash. But he now has a fully operational rig. Now to actually get him moving. But here is a little blink and mouth chomp. 

Fan art Friday

Quick fan art Friday doodle of sailor Jupiter!!! 

Tumblr

I started a tumblr! No posts yet... but if I update tumblr, I will also be updated this blog. In case, you care to follow me on another social media website here is the link:

http://jennazona.tumblr.com/

Character Design: ink and color options

The next step will be to create secondary poses of the character with various expressions. As far as the color goes, I'm leaning toward the 2nd option on the bottom row. Grey fur with a black vest.

I think in this ink version he got a bit thicker in his chest then I initially wanted. I'll be doing another revised version with the decided color scheme.

UPDATE:
Here is the ink version, with his upper torso a bit thinner then it is above.

Character Design: Sketchbook Assignment 5: Full Figure

This assignment was another full figure, but I went rouge on this one. Heinrich Kley has some incredible pen drawings, but he also is incredibly dated with some of his images. So BEWARE if you decide to google him. Here is the very short wiki article about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Kley

Here is an ink drawing by Heinrich Kley from the book "The Drawings of Heinrich Kley" page 74:

My Copy:

Character Design: Sketchbook Assignment 4: Feet

The 4th sketchbook assignment is a master copy of a feet.

Andrew Loomis drawing from his book, "Figure Drawing for all it's Worth" Page 70 and 74:

My copy of various feet:

Happy Valentines Day

Valentine's Day is a day to spend with your loved ones, especially when you need to be there for a friend.

Speed Paint 2 Hours. 

Speed Paint 1.5 hours Kitty

Alright, speed paint, expect more of these or feel free to yell at me to do more. 1.5 hours From blank canvas, to drawing, to where it is. Sometimes it's about the feeling of an object then the details.

Character Design: 3 styles

The next part was to take a silhouette and explore three different styles. Next part: Pick one and draw the final line work. Then: 3 different color versions. While I like the shapes of the character, costumes and all that, I still don't know how I would want him to look when he is animated. Thick lines? Thin lines? solid blocks of color? Color with edging of texture? Painterly?

Character Design: Sketchbook Assignment 3: Full Figure

The third sketchbook assignment is similar to the others, a master copy of a full figure. I decided to stick with Andrew Loomis as the master I would copy.

Andrew Loomis drawing from his book, "Figure Drawing for all it's Worth" Page 146

My copy of his drawing: 

Character Design: Silhoettes

Here are some silhouettes I had created for the first step to creating our character. Also here is another reference board, with clothing on there, images of actual wolves, and some images from Carter Goodrich. I really like his approach to the werewolf and furry creatures in general. So I'm trying to keep him in mind for this character.

Character Design: Sketchbook Assignment 2: Hands

Last week I caught "the bug" that was going around the office along with a couple late nights at work. But luckily, no class today, which means I have time to catch up!

Sketchbook assignment 2 was to do a master copy of an approved artist's drawings of hands. Then, do some life drawings of your own hand.

I choose to copy

page 141 from Andrew Loomis's "Drawing The Head & Hands":

Master Copies:

Life drawing of my own hand:

Character Design: Sketch Book Assignment 1: Master Copy

Sketchbook Assignment 1 is to do a master copy, and we were assigned Carter Goodrich. I thought I would study his werewolf design for Hotel Transylvania since I will be working on a werewolf of my own.

Here is my copy (taken with my cell phone) and then his original drawing (from his website: http://cartergoodrich.com/ ). Looking at these, I need to adjust my values to match his better. And the back on mine isn't quiet there yet.

PART 2:

The 2nd part of this assignment is to do another drawing where we breakdown the character into simple shapes to understand the design of the character.

I probably went a little overboard but you can see how the character is made up of ovals and some thin rectangles. The character is very top heavy in his shoulder area leading into his head and has very skinny legs and arms; which are characteristics of an actual dog/wolf. 

UPDATE:

As I mentioned yesterday I was little light on the values. I went back in and pumped them up. 

Character Design Assignment - Part 1

I decided to try and follow along with the assignments for the Character Design class I am TAing (teacher assisting). The first assignment is to write a short synopsis for a story and a character description.

-----------

STORY: DRAFT 1:

Briggs has the passion of the greatest musicians to have lived, despite his very below average musical talent. One night after a particularly lame performance, Briggs is stopped by a mysterious man who tells him to go to the crossroads that very night at midnight. There he will meet someone who can give him the musical talent he always dreamed of.

That night Briggs finds himself speaking to a very cynical devil who decides to let him keep his soul at the price of his human body. Now the first thing to know about Briggs is that he is not the best looking man in the first place so his chances with the ladies were not going to get any better: musical talent or not. He agreed to the deal. The little devil gave him his musical talent and simultaneously turned him into a permanent werewolf.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION: DRAFT 1:

Briggs is a tall werewolf with a long nose, pointy ears, and a passion for music. He is always working on some kind of tune and can be very awkward to talk to, but his music does most of the talking anyway. When he is around women his self esteem falls through the floor, but is immediately brought up through the ceiling once he gets on stage.

REFERENCES:

I have to look up some references still but I have some ideas about jazz players/blues players, New Orleans/Louisiana,  the south, and a kind of sepia world.

Here is my first draft of some references. Outfits, various potential instruments, color palettes, such as the colors for midnight, during the day, and of course whenever New orleans has a party.

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Look forward to 50 silhouette thumbnails for Briggs the musical werewolf, coming up next as PART 2!!!

Character Design: Links!

Here are some links for a Character Design class I am "Teaching Assisting." Claire Almon is teaching the class and she also happens to be a coworker of mine!

Here is a link to her website:
http://clairealmon.carbonmade.com/

NEED AN IDEA? USE A CHARACTER RANDOMIZER:
http://www.kuautli.com/randomizer/

GESTURE GENERATING WEBSITE:

http://www.quickposes.com/

http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/

http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/

CHARACTER DESIGNERS:

http://silvertoons.com/

http://artofnicomarlet.tumblr.com/

http://cartergoodrich.com/

http://www.peterdeseve.com/

http://anna-cattish.tumblr.com/

http://marnette.canalblog.com/

http://fyre-flye.deviantart.com/

http://ericguillon.blogspot.com/
http://louromano.blogspot.com/
http://www.jamiehewlett.com/
or
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/jamie-hewlett
http://keiacedera.blogspot.com/

OTHER SITES:
http://amonsterinparis.blogspot.com/
http://imaginismstudios.com/