Life Drawing

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Life Drawing class with Professor Payne!

This is my life drawing class! Professor Jesse Payne is our instructor. (go see his drawings!) I love this class so much because I've learned a lot about drawing from the human figure and have been able to refine my life drawing skills- I was frustrated at first because I had already taken Life drawing at Winthrop and it didn't transfer over to SCAD, but I've grown to love and look forward to this class every week. I have seen a huge jump between my drawings from last year and this year.
Plus, the people in my class are very talented... We've been pushing each other since day 1 and I think a lot of people have improved their sighting skills.
The drawing we've been working on most recently is our second big project for the class.

In this photo were having a mid-way critique of our drawings in the style of Seurat. My drawing is hiding in the middle behind the easel. Here are some references that I would look at before class to get an idea and refresh my memory of Seurat's style.

Coraline Field Trip!

I had a chance to see Coraline with some of my friends, and all in all, I thought it was beautifully made. I would love to work on a project like Coraline someday. I'm still forming opinions about the storyline- I really enjoyed the fact that they didn't just hand information to the audience on a silver platter, (minus the video game-esque sequence at the end with the search for eyeballs.) I would see it again if I had the chance. The 3d was beautiful. I really hope that becomes a standard with animations... Over time I think they will be able to pull back a little and save drastic uses of 3d because there were several times that my eyes started hurting- maybe a touch less would be a perfect balance.

As for the story, woah creepy! Be careful what you wish for is their tagline- I think there's also a theme that things just aren't perfect here, and when they seem like they are- they could quite possibly are lies. We live in a fallen world. It's just a fact.

Perfect IS coming though. Probably not through a hole in the wall and sans buttons for eyes.... but when Perfect does come back, it will be Good and Pure and Holy and everything we've been waiting for.

This is a video about rigger Oliver Jones and animating Coraline.



Some Coraline Art by Chris Appelhans:





And this link is Animation World Network talking about the 3d in Coraline, other animations, and what it means for films made in the future.

Visual Effects are fun!

Arielle and Rose! I'm learning how to use a green screen, and these are my friends! Rose put me in one of her projects a few weeks ago, and I'm eager to see how it turned out. I'll be hiking through a forest! We also made one that is going to be Disneyland, but I think that one was mostly a joke. Though, it could be forserious. We'll see if she sends me any stills :)

Study of Goob- the original was done by a talented artist named Robh Ruppel. My rendering doesn't really look much like Goob... but I'm excited to do more- play with lighting.. etc.

It’s not about us… It’s not about us being a part of a Christian bubble… It’s about us being a part of the real world. It’s about us reclaiming the arts, and leading in creativity…
Rob Bell

Michael's Birthday

We went out for Michael's birthday at VinnieVanGoGo's Sunday afternoon. We had some very yummy pizza!

My roomate bought him the most AWESOME card!

We made him wear one of the stickers. This is my point of view of Michael's face. He is a tall man.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Ringling Bros. Circus came to SCAD

James came with us too, but you don't see him because he's taking the picture.
Silly sequential artists.

When I graduate, it'll be this exact same picture, minus the elephants. But on that same floor and everything. It doesn't much look like the Trustees Theatre, but it is. I promise!
Sketches to come.

I am liking my Life Drawing book more every time I read it

"Familiarity with the face and our dependence on it as a communicaion tool can block objectivity in drawing.
As artists, our goal is to enter a naive visual state in order to see the world not as we think it is, but as it truly is.
It takes a lot of courage for someone to forget what he knows and observe what is really there."

Amelie and Apple Pie

Some New Models

These were super fun! I modeled, textured, and lit these guys- inspired by Hieronymus Bosch paintings- plus, they're made with Maya-chocolate!

Chaper Eigh: Capuring Life

"The Judeo-Christian worldview, which formed the early foundation for European and American artistic culture, explained that people are made in the image of God. The implication of that worldview is that people are not like the rest of nature. Human beings have a transcendent quality that imbues their live with consequence and their struggles and triumphs with eternal significance.

"In our postmodern era, the prevailing belief that human beings originated from the primordial soup rather than from the heavens makes it unsurprising that heroic figures seem outdated and that the focus of art has moved away from the figure. Nevertheless, the human figure will always have a place in art. The human being is unique in that it not only has an external reality, but an internal one- and this provides one of the most varied sources of interest imaginable.
...
[referring to now] "The marred disfigured, fragmented figure is commonplace in twentieth- century art. The figure is often shown as no more transcendent than a piece of clay."

-From Classical Drawing Atelier, by Juliette Aristides



Found this bit when I was doing a chapter outline for my super fun life drawing class.

In other news, my "T" key no longer works. I have to mash it down really hard for it to realize that it is being pushed. My outline is littered with sentences like, "he sudy of value gives he work a believable onal srucure. And an undersanding of form ensures ha he surface opography reads convincingly in relaion o a ligh source."

She's at it again!

Courtney Hood and I went out into Savannah and made some pictures again.
Mad Props to her for taking such fun pictures!

Can you guess?

Sorry I neglected to post my decision on Wednesday. Thank yall so much for the input. I thought it would be more fun to show you the beginning of the concept stuff for the room I decided to make, rather than to just tell you.

It is more fun this way, don't you agree?

New Project Ideas

Today was the first day of the Winter 2009 quarter at SCAD. I only have one Monday/Wednesday studio- and I think it will be my most challenging class so far. This is the first class that I am taking that begins with the prefix ANIM- and it's completely computer based modeling and building. The official name for it is 'Digital Form, Space, and Lighting'.

Our assignment for Wednesday is to choose a famous somebody so we can begin to design and create a set or room that reflects who they are. At first, I had no idea who I was going to pick- I was thinking Abe Lincoln and similar historical figures. They would have been cool I guess, but I really want to push this project.

I made a list of books that I've read growing up, trying to remember the ones that seemed the most vivid in my imagination. The ones where the author was writing a whole painting in my head while I read.
THE LIST:

- Corduroy- I feel like there is a picture of him on a shelf in a toy store with an escalator.. The book was checked out of the Savannah local library, so I couldn't check to see if I had made it up.

- Pinocchio- I would like to make Geppetto's workshop.. Lots of potential for clock designs and marionette strings, puppets that never got finished? I would stay away from Disney's Pinocchio, design my own layout and everything.

-Miss Havisham's House- From Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The house, called "Satis House" is falling apart and decaying, reflecting Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham was set to be married and was already wearing her wedding dress and one shoe when she received a letter from her fiance leaving her at the altar. She stopped all of the clocks in that minute, and left the wedding cake and feast on the table for years. Making that room would be fun- there would be a fireplace and spiderwebby candlesticks everywhere

-The witch from Hansel and Gretel- CANDY HOUSE!!! It could be bright and colorful and it would smell like peppermint and gingerbread. Okay, so it wouldn't smell, but it would be super yummy looking. Furniture made with Maya-gumdrops! Crystallized sugar chandelier! And since it's the witch's house, it can't be ALL sweet... Angry personified oven and candy cane bars on the windows!

-The Nutcracker- not a person, but probably acceptable. Two options: the Christmas morning scene with a tree and lights and toys and presents. Or an 'on stage' version with curtains and wings, as if set up for an elaborate ballet.


I'm not going to tell you which one is my favorite yet.. I want you to tell me! Which one is your favorite? Why? Did I leave someone cool out?
I'll update on Wednesday to let yall know which one I picked!