Sea Sprite

Possible character for my thesis project...

Rawrrrrr!

Finally! I went to the Academy of Science this past week with my Character Design class. It was great! I only wish we had more time there, I felt like I just got started when they made the announcement that they were closing.

Next field trip will be the Zoo. This will be a challenge because while all the animals at Academy of Science are stuffed and obviously do not move (except the penguins), the animals at the Zoo are all very much alive and I doubt they will graciously hold still for me to draw them. But I look forward to the challenge it presents.

I have also been toying with the idea of quitting my part time job in order to devote more time to school work and of course my thesis project. I think the key to this will be creating a schedule for myself and sticking to it. This has always been difficult for me in the past as I have a tendency to "lollygag" - as my father would put it. It's hard to work when there are so many distractions like internet, TV, and books. Speaking of books, my favorite author has recently come out with a new book despite his demise in April of 2007. It is a series of previously unpublished short stories that I cannot wait to purchase and add to my collection. Hopefully I can reserve these as a reward for work well done!

Happy Halloween!!

What is lacking...

Sorry, no animals sketches yet. Unfortunately my class hasn't been able to make it on a field trip. I have my fingers crossed for next week!

In some good news I have started to solidify a plot for my thesis- thanks to the help of some of my wonderful classmates! With that step done I should be getting down to all of the drawing. So up next will be concept sketches for my thesis project: "THEMANON" (the title is a work in progress, so please let me know what you think!).

In the mean time, here is a sketch from my clothed figure drawing class, enjoy!

So it goes

Last night I talked to my Dad and he said "I read your blog! It's good! I don't know what you are going to do with it, but it's good!" To which I replied "I don't know either..."

I suppose right now I am using it as motivation to think more about my work and what is out there that inspires me. Thinking, contemplating, observing, it's all easy to do. But organizing those thoughts into an interesting and coherent paragraph, that's the hard part. Eventually, when I get my huge and prestigious following, this will be something I will agonize over. But for now I think I will leave the agonizing to my undeveloped thesis project.

Above is a page from my sketchbook...as well as my finished bowling ball pin :)

Strike!

It's funny how in baseball a strike is a bad thing but in bowling it's a great thing! I guess I should be happy that I prefer bowling. So, I have started an art project involving a bowling pin for one of my classes that I will hopefully be posting pictures of sometime next week. During this project I have already discovered the ineffectiveness of hand held sandpaper (and how awful that scraping sound is) and I expect I will continue to learn new things before this reaches completion.

Recently I have been exploring the wonderful drawings of Milt Kahl. Holy moly if I wanted to be intimidated I certainly found the right artist. People these days seem to knock Disney animation all the time, but Milt was around when Disney movies were what they should be; beautiful. Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, The Sword in the Stone, Jungle Book, Robin Hood, and those are just my favorites of his. If I ever get to the point where I can draw even half as good as Milt I think I will be satisfied...well maybe not but I'll be pretty darn happy I got that far. So I am posting one of Milt's lovely drawings with the promise that I will be posting more of my own stuff next week. I am going to the Zoo with my character design class so, with Robin Hood and Jungle Book in mind, hopefully I should have some lovely new and fresh drawings!

Faith

Today during my character design class I thought, not for the first time, that it is easier for me to have faith in others than it is to have faith in myself. I look around at all the amazing drawings of the students around me and am dismayed when I come back around to my own drawing pad. I tell myself that I just need more practice and I will get there, but there is always some reason, some excuse to practice less and do something else instead. I feel like I keep breaking promises to myself and wish there was a way that I could really commit to believing in my abilities and working my hardest to achieve my potential. At least then if I fail I won't have any regrets. I mean that's what this whole going to graduate school thing is about anyway. Achieving my dreams of working as a concept artist in a studio, or at least knowing that I tried.

Oh well, back to the drawing board as they say...

No time like the present

So this is my first and only blog so far. I have yet to create a website and felt like this would be the next best (and easiest) thing.

Today I have devoted to drawing and contemplating ideas for my thesis project. In the background I have "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" playing as inspiration, since my story is also set in mankind's future. Still trying to figure out the main conflict, central characters and resolution, so I have quite a ways to go. In the mean time I think I'll continue surfing the net for cool new art and artists. Right now: Robert Valley and Sean Galloway.