Face Time

It has been a very busy past few weeks for me.  My Grandparents are in town from Florida, my brother graduated high school, and I had a road trip with my mom to Indiana for a baby shower.  On top of all of that I have been working a lot.  Yesterday I finally had a chance to draw with my brother Ben we had an art day.  I got a book on life drawing basics and one tip it gave was called point to point starting one place and building on it.  SO I took the model and started with her face which is what I seem to struggle with the most as time goes on I'll finish the whole body.

 

-__-

Ok So aside from the mistakes on the face and feet I think I did really good on the shading of the torso.  I feel like I'm getting the hang of shading the contors of the body to make them stand out.  I am still in the habit of making my lines to heavy (need to fix that).  I feel like this could be a really strong sketch if I did it again now that i have looked at it and know my mistakes.

Breaking New Ground

I have a book I got for christmas quiet a few years ago called The Fashion Book that showcases designers, models, and icons for the past 75 years.  It contains great references for poses and thats where I found the picture I did below.  It is Naomi Campbell modeling for Norma Karmali in British Vogue in 1990.  I loved the pose and the ethnic look it had and I hope I captured it well enough.

Best YET!....I think

This pose took me forever!  I probably drew this everyday for a week straight until I got the result I was happy with.  Once again I found myself struggling with proportions with this it was the distance between the ankle and the knee and the knee and the thigh.  The head was also giving me trouble the eye is a bit big and probably in the wrong place but I was so focused on the body I didn't bother with it too much. 

meanwhile at 4 o'clock in the morning

For many reasons I could not sleep last night so I decided to be productive.  I've drawn this character several times before and this is the first time I got it anywhere close to the original.  The top picture is the original and the bottom is my recreation. It is not exact but it is the closest I've gotten to it. 

Female figure.....kinda

I have a file on my computer of references I found online and I really loved the pose this girl was in and soon realized just because I liked it does not mean I can do it.  I am not sure if I am biting off more then I could chew trying to draw full scale figures but I don't feel like I am too far off.

I know just by looking at this I really really need to work on proportions and making my lines a bit more precise.  With a bit more practice hopefully I can fix my mistakes 

Returning to the Drawing Board

 Hey Everyone, Sorry I haven't been posting much lately I guess you could say I am going threw drawers block.  I am just not as motivated as I was to draw and took a small 

vacation.  Now I am back and working on some new stuff I hope to have posted in the next week or so. 

I am putting all my muscle studies to work and trying to put them together to make one 

body.  It didn't turn out quiet as good as I wanted it to but oh well it's not like it's then only one I'll 

draw.  If anyone has any tips please share :D

Muscles in the Back and Chest

CUTEST GAME EVER!

So I am the oldest of 6 two of my younger brothers Riley (11) and Bailey (9) asked me to play a video game with them when they came home from school it's called Little Big Planet.

Now I am the epitomine of a girl that does NOT play video games but this game was the cutest thing I
have ever seen!  I made my own little character and my little brothers were very patient in teaching me
how to navigate the game.  It was a very enjoyable experience to play a game that was so creative.  You literally could make anything!  There were all these cool textures, patterns, and designs that made it very esthetically pleasing.  Who knows I may even play the game again :D

I feel Proud :D

I finally feel like I drew something well!  I drew the muscles in the leg and
color coated them and I feel like I did a good job on the shading and the
texture of them.  It is one of the rare occasions that I look at something I've
done and feel like I did a good job. 

Well that would be nice

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts lately on
speaking of animation and spline doctors and
one thing a lot of the animators and directors
have in common is that they all went to CalArts

I'm not saying that the school is what makes you better
you can learn to do anything well wherever you are. 
What I am saying is wouldn't that be nice?  It would be
wonderful to escape my small hometown and go to the
school that taught the best of the best.  Realistically I
know it can't happen but hey a girl can dream.

20 DHC Days 20!

Well this has been interesting, I do think
I can draw a hand now probably not that
well but who said I'd stop here?

I'll always draw, and I'll always be looking
for new ways to improve myself.
For those out their who followed my
journey thanks for being interested.
Now that I've finished hands I think
I'll move onto feet but I'll try to post 5
in a day or something so it is more
interesting to look at. 

20 DHC Days 19

20 DHC Days 18

20 DHC Days 17

I feel by trying this method I backtracked 5 steps

Passion Re Awakened

I was watching a documentary last night called "The Pixar Story", great documentary by the way I recomend it to anyone, anyway as I was listening to John Lasseter and how he would stop at nothing to achieve his dream something inside me was re awakened something that I haven't felt in a long time.


I don't mean to give you my life story here but it is kind of neccesary in order to understand what exactly was re awakened.  I spent two year in high school in a vocational program called Interactive Multimedia which put to use all of my favorite arts, film, drawing, computers and storytelling.  It was through this program that I found animation originally I had wanted to go into film direction but once I took a animation workshop I was sold on the idea.  Animation pushed me in new ways learning new computer software, understanding characters and actions and why they were done.  I had to get in touch again with my acting side that had been in speech and debate for four years and in and out of school plays and musicals.  When I watched "The Pixar Story" I realized that it was not just the characters and movments that made a good movie it was the story.  Pixar has been so succesful because their stories are fresh new concepts.

That is my re awakening my love for storytelling, I got so lost in trying to learn to draw again and learn Maya that I forgot about all the other things I liked to do.  I need to learn to balance these things stories, characters, and design.  The only way I can do that is spend a little bit of time on both which is easier said then done.  It is very easy for me to be absorbed in one thing and I have to break out of that.  I want to work for Pixar so badly, I want to make these wonderful stories come to life and share them with people and hopeful with enough practice I'll get there someday.  In the mean time I started brainstorming a few story ideas in which I want to sketch characters for and keep them in handy for the one chance I might get to pitch them to someone who will like them and have faith in me to direct them.

20 DHC Days 16

20 DHC Days 11-15

My room mate gave me the idea of 

drawing the alphabet in sign lanuguage 

which was an awesome idea!  The only 

thing is I did them all in one day so these

are the drawings meant for days 11-15

20 DHC Day 9/10

20 DHC Day 8/9

getting a bit ahead of myself I have a lot of

free time lately so I find that all I have been 

wanting to do is draw so don't 

be surprised if I have several posts in one 

day for awhile

20 DHC Day 8

20 DHC Day 6

20 DHC Day 5

20 DHC Day 4

I know it is early but I had some extra time on 

my hands (PUN) and figured I'd draw the next set

20 DHC Day 3

Nothing like a cup of coffee and a sketch pad 

to start your day :D

20 DHC Day 2

getting there.... I think

20DHC Day 1

SO I decided to start my 20 Day

Hand Challenge Early.  I haven't 

had much to do lately and my last two 

weeks are relatively early and I just

couldn't see the point in waiting any 

more.  So here is day one :D

Flapper Self Portrait

Coffee Cups and C++

There is no denying that C++ is my least 

favorite class of all time.  I may even hate 

it more than math.  Because I dislike it so

my form of entertaining myself today was

seeing how many times I could draw my

coffee cup in 45 minutes. I'm sad to say I 

only got two done and was on my way to

finishing the third by the time class ended. 

the only question is what will I draw in my 

next class? 

The Gilgers' Take Bowling Green

 

It was sibs weekend at Bowling Green this 

weekend, my brother Ben came up to see me.  

He is 18 and I am 20 so there is only a two year 

age gap.  I am lucky we are so close.  It is shocking 

to me  to hear stories or people that don't get along 

with their sibs.  I don't know with out Ben he 

gives me someone  to draw with. He and I are 

both artists of sorts I'm more digital and he is a painter.  

It was so great to have him up to see me and him being here 

also motivated me to draw more.  We sat and sketched for 

hours and I never got bored.  We did stuff like that all the 

time back home and it was nice to be back at it again.  

So I owe a thank you to my baby brother for bringing me 

a reminder of home. 

My Summer Challenge

Whenever I am around people who draw all the time the first thought that comes to mind is "I WANT TO DO THAT!"  I feel like I can draw but I need to be better, I know there are defiantly a lot of things I have to work on and I know there even more that I need to learn.  So while looking at some other people character drawings I asked them how do you get that good?  The answer was lock yourself in a room with enough food to survive for a few days and do nothing but draw.  Now I'm not going to go that extreme but I may do something similar.  I designed a summer challenge to get better at drawing, my first challenge is called twenty days of hands.  I found some drawing tutorials on stumbleupon and deviant art and have a tutorial a day in my sketch book for twenty pages.  I'll do the same thing with feet, draw nothing but feet for twenty days.  It doesn't have to be long I could just take an hour a day to learn.  When I'm done with that I'll think of some more challenges but I plan on spending an hour a day this summer drawing something!

Grave of the Fireflies

   Ow my heart hurts!  I just saw "Grave of the Fireflies"

   for the first time.  That was the most painful movie I

   have ever seen.  No not painful like "this is a bad movie"

  painful like this is really sad but I can't stop watching.

 It was just such a powerful film, I loved the relationship

 between Seita and Setsuko.  Which made it even more

  horrible when they died.  I learned stuff about WWII

 I never knew before.  My heart is broken for all those

 people.  I respect this film for the impact it had on me

...but I don't think I'll rush to see it again anytime soon.

Tangled

So last night was the first time I've seen the movie 

Tangled.  I cannot remember the last Disney Movie 

I enjoyed this much!  It was entertaining and not overly

cliche.  Yea there were moments but I still liked them. 

Watching films like this give me a new found inspiration, 

I already love what I do but I want to do what they did in 

Tangled I want to speak to an audience like that, make them 

feel for characters that I created.  I want to create beautiful 

moving stories.  So thanks Tangled for reminding me why I 

am doing this.

Well Back to the Drawing Board

Well I got the email this morning

I didn't make it into P.U.P It sucked

to read the email and think they

were going to say congratulations

but it went on to say they decided

to go with someone else.  There is

always next year and by then I'll

have gotten better, I just have to

keep trying.  In the end I'm glad

I applied because then I know

that I tried and all I can do now

is try again. Just Keep Swimming

Road Block

Okay so all my professors decided to welcome me back from spring break with a mountain of homework.  I swear I could get a climbing axe and rope and scale the thing like Mount Everest!  I have no time for animation which is all I can think about, I was so excited to be starting the pendulum and now I have to put it on the back burner, because unfortunately for me animation is only something I can do in my spare time right now.  I am taking my school work one thing at a time and getting it done on time but in the back of my mind all I can think of are the deadlines.  I feel so stressed about everything, its like this giant rain cloud of failure is hovering over my head and I am running to find shelter.  I just have to keep moving forward and hope that I can manage to pass all my classes.  

Let the Pendulum Swing

Well Spring Break is over and so is my

break from animation.  I shouldn't have

taken one in the first place but I really

just couldn't find the time over the break. 

Now that I am back at school I'm back at

it again.  I'm starting pendulums now and

have drawn out the animation before

actually animating it.  I think this method

is easier and by drawing it I can visualize

it better.  Tomorrow I plan on going to the

lab to get it started, wish me luck :D

FIN!

I finished!  When I finally had time for it, the truth is it really isn't that good.  With school and work closing in on all sides I could not find the time I wanted to finish this.  I wish there was more animation but those are the two best ball bounces I have....scratch that those are the only two ball bounces I have.  I hope this is enough to get into P.U.P, it's all I want is to be excepted.  I know it's unlikely and yes I know there is always next year but it would be nice.

Don't tell me the sky is the limit, there are foot prints on the moon

 As many know Pixar has a program for Freshmen and Sophmores in college called "Pixar Undergraduate Program" (PUP).  I am attempting to get what I have together so I can apply, so please forgive my lack of postings lately.  I know I don't have much but I hope it is at least enough, this opportunity is to good to pass up and I hope I get in.  Wish me luck. 

                                           

I shall call Him "Squishy" and he shall be my Squishy

TA-DA! I have a sucessful squishy ball bounce!  I even did some research on the turtorials that Maya provides and looked up how to make it red.  I spent 5 hours on the darn thing and I feel accomplished, is it perfect? No not really but that will all come in time.  I had a blast working on it and I can't wait to start another project!  For the next two months it will probably be nothing of posts of the same things just hopefully the next will be better then the last.  They should be right?  I mean my grandparents, parents, and every other elder in my life has not been telling me "practice makes perfect" for nothing right?

A Success and A Half

FINALLY! I have a ball bounce that I sat and did by myself!  Yes there are some kinks that need worked out but the first skeletal part of it is done and I feel accomplished!  The half the success is that when I uploaded it on youtube part of the video went missing :/ so its hard to see the whole thing.  But still it is started and I am ready to finish it.  So I give to you Ball Bounce Take One.

Sad Panda

Okay so a ball bounce is way harder then I thought, I think I tried on my own for 2 hours then I finally accepted defeat and asked for help.  I feel like an idiot, I thought everything looked right on the time bar but every time my ball bounced it went to fast and looked like it was having a spasm.  When Jeff came over and extended my time line and showed me I was using the wrong part of the graph editor I wanted to sink threw the floor and die.  At least now its started and I plan on going back to the lab every day until I have a successful ball bounce. 

The Beggining

Ball Bounces, the first and most fundemental thing to learn.  I started off by reading Richard William's book "The Animators Survival Kit".  I then drew out the picture above using his book as a reference.  I tried to make the movements closer together at the top of the ark and more spaced out at the bottom.  Looking at the sketch now I realize I probably didn't do the best job of it.  Last night I went to the computer lab and my friend Jeff had me do a Ball Bounce my way first, then looking at what I had done he asked me how I went about it.  I admitted I had try to create my own math to it, he chuckled and said "OK well don't do that."  The showing me about contact positions he told me to animate the in between s.  The again showed me where I was wrong, and after repeating this several times I started to feel like he was doing all the work.  Tonight I'm going back to the lab and this time I'm on my own, and hopefully I remember everything Jeff taught me. 

Ball Bounce