Umbrella Girl Returns

So, remember the umbrella girl?

SHE'S BACK!

I've been working on a complete story overhaul all year, including redoes of storyboards and character designs. Especially in giving the poor umbrella girl anatomy. This is why we do figure drawing and gesture drawing, kids!

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Art belongs tome

On the Rooftops of London...

I watched "Mary Poppins" chimney sweep segment and parts of the Broadway show. This is what happened.

The Broadway version of "Step in Time" has some of the most amazing choreography I've ever seen, Broadway or otherwise. Plus, Bert gets all the prizes for tap-dancing and singing upside down! Don't believe me? Check it out here.

So, if you don't mind, I'll be putting some soot on my face and start leaping around rooftops singing "Chim Chim Cheree."

Brush Pen
"Mary Poppins" belongs to Disney

Rainy Day

We get a lot of these in Florida. I used this piece of concept art from "Mulan" as reference. Still practicing my color choices and speedpainting.

 

Mulan is owned by Disney

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Name That Tune...

As any veteran of Disney Parks knows, every single "area" of the Parks has its own theme music. From ride queues, ride entrances, Main Street, shops, hotel lobbies, firework shows, atmospheric music in the Epcot pavilions... Disney cares quite a lot about the immersive and imaginative power of music.

One of my walking routes around the Walt Disney World Resorts takes me around several of these "music areas": the Disney Vacation Club Preview Center - which has its own music loop, Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa - which has its own music loop, the arcade - which has its own various blips and noises, and the pool - which has dance music.

The trip starts off pleasantly, with something like "When You Wish Upon A Star," or "Beauty and the Beast" playing lightly over the speakers.

 

Then, slowly but surely, a jazzy instrumental number akin to Gershwin and the early 1900's comes into the mix.

 

As the arcade comes into view, so does Dance Dance Revolution classics come audible to the ears.

 

And everyone else is having a blast at the pool.

 

And then, a highly recognizable Sherman Brothers tune builds to a climax as the pleasant "When You Wish Upon A Star" or "Beauty and the Beast" descrescendos to an end.

 

Guess which song will be stuck in my head for the remainder of the day?

And yet, what's the first playlist I go to on my iPod? The Disney one. Loyalty never wavers. And yes, I will quote along with Mickey while listening to "Fantasmic!".

ALL THE PHOTOSHOP

Shy and Dusty

Character for a short story. She's barely half-done; I'm still working on finalizing it all.

I think I'm starting to get a feel for this whole digital painting thing!

Sketchbook Express and Photoshop

Character is mine. No stealy. No touchy.

Songbird - Warm-up

I like songs. I like birds. I like the watercolor settings on Corel. Seemed like a good idea.

Corel Sketchpad

Master of Ceremonies

Working on some character designs for a short film for school. Yup, I'm not in school and I'm doing schoolwork. And I love it. I get to draw and spend my spare time (if any) in the most Magical Place on Earth!

 And I kinda like the idea of this guy having a toupee. It probably flies off his head randomly.

As an added bonus feature, here are some silhouettes of a long, spindly, bird-like fellow I'm working on.

Warm-Up

Something fun before I get down to the nitty gritty (this sounds better when you say it in a Nacho Libre voice). Inspired by Pierre Alary's fantastic and beautiful Belladone (props to my friend Kiersten for introducing me!)

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Something Pretty

Wanted to paint my deer-unicorn and a pretty forest. So I did. Inspired by Princess Mononoke.

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Downtime

So, a typical day: Take phone calls, sketch during break, set up tours, sketch during break, make people's dreams come true, sketch during break, go home, sketch in Photoshop and Flash, go to Church activity/Disney Park/maybe eat, do some speedpainting, go to bed, dream about sketching, wake up, get ready for work, repeat.

All in all, pretty good :)

I've been doing a lot of studies from Ken Hultgren's Art of Animal Drawing. Seriously one of the best books about animal anatomy for the artist EVER. However, the deer-unicorn-creature is not included in said book. You'll have to find one for yourself out in the wild. Oh, and the Haunted Mansion reference is not included in said book either. You'll have to make a trip to the Happiest Place(s) On Earth to see it.

Fun fact: The deer-unicorn is more or less a mythical creature taken from Asian legends of the kirin. The kirin is basically the Eastern version of the unicorn, more based on a deer or goat rather than a horse.

Blue pencil, Col-Erase, and uni-ball. Oh, yes.

Disney owns the Haunted Mansion

Speed Painting - Take 3

It's another one! This week's highlight: This lovely background from Disney's Pocahontas. As usual, the top is the original art, the bottom is my speedpaint.

................ I feel like with every speed painting I do, positioning and composition slowly deteriorates.............

Photoshop. 30 minutes. One brush. One layer. The usual.

Disney owns Pocahontas

Quickie Doodle

Most days, this is how I feel :)

I just bought "Rapunzel's Amazing Hair," a children's book illustrated by the talented Claire Keane. I was very inspired and set about to emulating her lovely style.

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Speedpaint - Take 2

Woohoo! I did another one! This time, Lion King concept art takes center stage as inspiration. Important artistic technique put to work today: Lighting. Important artistic technique learned: Don't be shy about contrast, especially between lights and darks. I realized, looking back on this, definitely could've made my darks darker and lights lighter for a more dramatic distinction between light and shadow. I love the contrast of stormy dark and sunshine bright in this piece; reminds me a lot of the storms we get here in Florida. Acacia trees have such artistically pleasing shapes! More contrast with horizontal and vertical lines and shapes than most Western trees.

I eyeballed most of the colors for this piece! I only color-picked my two first colors just so I could get within the piece's palette range.

Lion King belongs to Disney. Screenshot not mine.
Photoshop. One brush. One layer. TO RULE THEM ALL.

Speedpaint - Take1!

Hey everyone! I'm happy to say that I'm settling into my new role and the beginning of my Professional Internship here in Walt Disney World! I'm determined to do much more gesture drawing, animation, storyboarding, and painting than ever before while I'm away from school for the next semester. I;m happy to say that I've been spending more time in the Parks sketching than riding rides! :D

I was recently inspired by the lovely Heather Dixon to do some speedpainting. Basically, take a picture, repaint it in 30 minutes without using a color picker. However, being as this was my first speedpaint, I decided to flub the rules and do some color-picking. But hey, first go at this. Gimme a chance.

I decided to speedpaint this awesome piece of concept art from the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence from the Fantasia films. This has always been one of my favorite pieces of concept art, with its moody warm and cool color palette and great lighting.

So... I was so excited at the prospect of working in color that I ignored the prospect of... layout and composition. Again. First time :P Improvement happens... eventually. Anywho, it was a whole mess of fun to do, but now my wrist is screaming out in agony and pleading for a soak in a hot tub.

Photoshop. One brush. Whut now.

Fantasia and Mickey Mouse belong to Disney

Hi there! *crickets*

... well, this has been the longest unexpected hiatus I've ever done... Sorry about that! I finished up another semester at BYU - probably my most successful ever, academically and animationally - and moved back to California to get ready to move to Florida again! Starting next month, I'll be starting a Professional Internship at Walt Disney World! I super-stoked to go back and make dreams come true on a level much closer to a possible career!

In the meantime, here are some drawings! I've been reading Ben Caldwell's Action Cartooning, which is probably one of the best "how-to-draw" books I've seen in the juvenile section in a long time. He goes a lot into shape, caricatures, anatomy, and really shows you how to do it, not just copy a picture. I highly recommend to every artist, amateur or professional. He's got some pretty sweet art!

With that, enjoy these drawings! I've been doing quite a lot of these Ben Caldwell practices, plus a lot of gestures and environment drawings, so expect those soon!

Drawn with the almighty pencil. Red lead and graphite. Heck yes.

Poster Thoughts

Just some quickie thumbnails of poster ideas for our upcoming film "Chasm." I got a lot of inspiration from Brittney Lee and Pixar's "Up."

Did I ever tell you how much I love color? Well, now you know.

Glen Keane, guys!!!!

Check it out! It's the amazing Glen Keane in one spot!

http://glenkeane.jakegreenanimation.com/Index.html

You've probably heard it more than once, but this guy's a genius artist. I actually had the pleasure of listening to him last year and by golly, it was super inspirational. He talked a lot about getting inside of yourself and your emotions and bringing that out onto the paper. The more you put your soul into your drawings, the stronger they will be.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand..................................... I posted a doodle. I've had this character concept floating around for a really long time, and I think a story about her is finally starting to solidify. So, enjoy a little piece of me on paper :)

NOW GO LOOK AT GLEN KEANE'S WORK AND BE INSPIRED.

Watercolor Sketching

Painting... I want to do more of it. Computer screens hurt my eyes x_x Inspired by Hans Bacher's beautiful paintings for Mulan when painting this.

Watercolor and gouache

More Figure Drawings

Um, just so you know... I still draw. A lot.

We've been doing lots of head studies in Advanced Life Drawing, with a bit of gesture drawing, too. These are some of my more recent drawings.

And someday... I will learn how to draw NOT big, Disney Princess eyes. Workin' on it.

Nupastel on Newsprint.

"Chasm" Art

I'm not dead yet!

This is just a mere sampling of what I've been working on for the past month. Our new BYU Animation short "Chasm" requires giant chunks of machinery lying around. These were some explorations of styles and types of machines.

I think my favorite is the top left one. I imagine it's a little trash compactor that runs around on wheels, bumping into objects, possibly flipping over and flailing on its back like an upturned turtle...

Photoshop and ink

Prehistoric Art Episode II: Return of the Smilidon

Remember this? Now it's better! I was experimenting with Illustrator and vector stuff while fixing it up.

Illustrator and Photoshop

Figure Drawings

Some 5-minute poses and a 40-ish minute pose from my figure drawing class from the past couple of weeks. It's a pretty challenging class since it focuses more on sustained figures rather than gesture. I'm still learning a lot about drawing in correct measurements... like that your fingers and a ballpoint pen are not exactly the most accurate tools of measuring. Challenging, but it's a good challenge, and I remain optimistic!

Done in Nupastel and vine charcoal.

Flyers - Week 11

Whew, it's getting harder and harder to keep up with my flyers! I'm actually a couple weeks behind in posting only because the stuff I have is still super sketchy and I want to refine it! One of the goals I have for this year is to make some more refined drawings and sketches, especially with color.

Anyways, this flyer was inspired by Cirque du Soleil: La Nouba, in Orlando (right in Downtown Disney!). I've seen the show twice and my favorite act in La Nouba is "Rêve Rogue," a ballet where dancers fly through the air on silk. I thought it was a pretty unique way to fly :)

Just a sketch with my Prisma Color pencils.
Drew it while listening to this over and over again. You will, too, should you listen to it. And watch it. It'll blow your mind.

Canyon

Still doing film work! The story takes place on the edge of a canyon where a giant plume of clouds rise. I need to work on the clouds some more, but those rocks were super fun to paint! And I got to use all those photos I took from Arches and Canyonlands National Parks as reference (hence why I stuck an arch on the horizon). It's great being able to paint something that I've had some experience with; makes it all the more real when I paint it. That's why it's important to get out there and be inspired from the real world: Your art will breathe a whole new life!

Here's where my inspiration came from! This was taken from the end of the Island in the Sky plateau of Canyonlands. The Park is divided into three "districts" by the Colorado and Green Rivers that run through the canyons. This is looking into the Maze district, which is only accessible with 4-wheel drive with extreme off-roading. It's a convoluted set of canyons that used to be a hideout for a lot of bandits and thieves, including Butch Cassidy. Island in the Sky is easily the most accessible district and most visited, while the Needles (off-screen to the left) is a little less accessible, but not as crazy as the Maze.

Now you know (hopefully) more about Canyonlands then you did before you read this post!

Photoshop

Cannon Design

Just a cannon design for our upcoming student film of 2013! Obviously, still a lot of flaws, but for having five days' notice and also having to do research and sketches and designs... I think it turned out pretty okay. I was inspired by WWII, trains, Epic Mickey, Howl's Moving Castle... the idea is that this cannon needs to be built from random objects welded together and had metal sheets placed over it. Overall, very fun :)

Photoshop

Flyers - Week 10... And Drawing Exercises!

First off, I need to preface this flyer. For one, it was inevitable that a superhero would make it into this series. And two, I found this cool drawing suggestion: Take a drawing of yours from years ago, and redraw it! This super gal was the first character I made up when I decided that I wanted to do art for the rest of my life. I made up crazy long stories about her and her superheroine friends, fighting monsters and villains, meanwhile still going to high school. Heck, I even dressed up as her for Halloween one year! I was a lot of fun and nostalgic revisiting this first creation of mine :)


Here's the redraw exercise I did before I drew the Flyer version. It was a pretty awesome way of seeing how much I've improved (11 years will do that), but also how much the "essence" of my drawing has stayed the same. However, I'm also starting to see habits that I've kept for the past 11 years, and now I'm working on changing them!
Here's another exercise: Redraw a screenshot from a movie. It was also inevitable that I would draw something from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." May I just say that this scene was AWESOME. Yeah, yeah, different location, but DANGIT Alan Rickman rocked. And Daniel Radcliffe had some really great, subtle expressions that I want to try to draw sometime. I love doing expressions, but it's really hard to get a look of "mixed" emotion. Overall, the characters' interactions and reactions were super close to how I envisioned them in the book, and delicately played. Thumbs up, guys.

Enough ranting... I just really like the way this sketch turned out! And for some reason, I felt super comfortable with drawing in three-dimensions with this sketch... perhaps I should do screenshot studies more often!


Copic markers, Staedtler pens, Crayola color pencils, ballpoint pen, and pencil