Excessive Life Drawing Dumpage

I had an enjoyable time in Life Drawing this year; I think a lot of this had to do with the fact that we were essentially given free reign in regards to exploring mediums (media?) and styles. That relieved considerable pressure from producing ultra-finessed, polished, 'pretty' drawings, and I guess as you can see, I sorta thrived in straying from that course and enjoyed some experimentation. The above three were drawn with my right (i.e. non-dominant) hand, which meant less control but more vitality and expression in the line-work I think. Kudos to Tim McCormick in encouraging the search for individual style. Enjoy!

p.s. these last two made it up in the hallway display case, at which point I can now promptly cross 'get life-drawings in the display case' off my '100 Things To Do Before I Die' list...

'cause you've been so good this year...

.. here's a little treat.

Sets and Such

I'm afraid this post is neither particularly 'soon' (as was promised in the previous post), nor does it contain photographic evidence of finished puppets, and for that I am truly sorry. They're coming. - (the pictures, I mean. The puppets themselves, sans facial features and Grandma's slippers, are done).

Currrently I'm working on said facial features - I'm making their mouths and eyebrows from sewing thread shaped into place with no-fray (fray-check, whichever you like) that dries clear and will then be stuck on the puppets with .. something yet-to-be-determined. (The slightest bit of gluestick? That might leave gunky residue, or a build-up to such. Vaseline? If it doesn't end up looking too shiny, I might go this route). I made a quick test head though, so I'll be trying said options out. As for eyeballs, I'll be testing paper ones tomorrow, and if that doesn't fly, probably thin pieces of clay.

I'm also pleased to announce that my sets, with the exception of painted 'sky' backgrounds (views from windows) were finished as of Tuesday. I was hoping to get them all done the day before, but a day off is fine, and they were finished within a little over a week anyways.



(A little peek at the process. I start by referring to my storyboards, using cardboard stand-ins for set sizes so I know how much of the actual building-materials I'll need. Once I'm satisfied with the framing and have worked out the basic logistics/blocking, I move on to the wonders of gator-board (foam sandwiched between cardboard = very sturdy) and acrylic paint, followed by 'furniture', set details and whatnot painted with goauche - I think I spelled that correctly - on watercolour paper).



It looks like a meagre amount for 10 or so sets, but in some cases I used both sides of the set boards, and there were varied amounts of work required for each one. I had a little trouble determining colours, since I'm trying to keep the atmosphere 'warm' throughout the film and I like pastels, but I also made my characters' costumes rather pastel-y too, hence it took some time making sure they don't blend in too much. Lighting will help out with that too I think.

Anyways, I'm going to get some sleep: I've been doing a profound amount of misplacing things/ knocking stuff over lately, and it's getting kinda annoying.