Dear ol' Dad

Visiting with my folks. Here is a small painting of my dad watching the tube one night. (6x8 acrylic on a strathmore sketchbook.) About the size of those self-published sketchbooks everyone is doing.

I love painting dramatic lighting. It's probably one of the most interesting compositional devices.

Spring Show

A piece from the schools Spring Show that sold. I was really excited. It was another quick study piece. 40 min. 9x12 oil on canvas panel. The idea was to push the colors you saw on the model as far as you felt you could get away with. It's an excercise that allows you to begin to use more expressive color choices based on what nature presents you. Sorolla is a great example for this approach. John Asaro is also a master of color.

I also won an award for the piece below.
It felt great to be recognized!
It was one of my favorite quick studies.
Done in 2 hours in my living room.
8x12 Oil on masonite.
(Bad photo though)

Here are 3 pieces I had in the show and my daughter standing next to the figure piece I did.
The still life I did was around the corner.

Green Vespa

Small study from last semester. 9x12 oil on canvas panel about an hour and a half. I recently took a quick studies class with one of best instructors on the subject Craig Nelson. He's a great painter and enthusiastic instructor. He used to be down at Art Center and was an illustrator for many years. Such an inspirational class!

Painting quickstudies forces you to extract the essence and use more lively brushwork. You focus more on what is important. In class we do about 7 paintings, starting with 20 minutes and then moving to 40 minutes. It's like training for an olympic event. The mileage really makes you more confident in your drawing and color choices.

Here is a Detail:

Torque

I love the feel of Prismacolor on smooth color laser paper. You can really get into the force, torque and movement of the pose in a way that feels more free to me than pen. I just downloaded all the Walt Stanchfield notes and one that particularly jumped out at me was entitled "A Drawing Style for Animation". I had an idea based on Villpu, but the drawings in the notes are a great eye opener for me as to how to approach drawing as an animator. I can't wait to dig in!

Gesture

I have spent alot of my drawing time under the influence of illustrative drawing principles which is why I may have a little more of the "kitchen sink"(as I hear most animation guys put it) in my drawings. I watched a little Vilppu and I can see the thinking is a little different, but we still have the same concerns in illustrative drawing. Squash and stretch, angles, energy, opinion, it's all got to be there.

Drawing on the bus

It's extremely difficult to draw on the bus. Psychically it tests your hand against the violent shaking of the bus, not to mention how easy it is for people to figure out what you are doing at such close quarters. Then they keep looking at you and ruining that moment you were trying to capture.

I've been looking more and more at animators these days and realizing I want to change my approach to drawing on location. I've been reading blogs by James Robertson and Nick Sung, along with Gabrielle Pennacchioli, John Nevarez, Marcelo Vignali and so many others.

I'm glad too. I learned about Walt Stanchfield and Milt Kahl. Guys I never knew, but definitely recognized their art when I saw it. I've always loved animation, but have a greater appreciation for it lately.