Life Drawing

After days of reading Drawn to Life and drawing nothing but animal characters for Deviantart commissions, I've been itching to do some life drawing. I knocked out a few pages tonight that I have varying degrees of happiness with. I've also been really admiring Chris Sanders' style and worked on a few attempts to emulate it.

I've been wanting to work on my feet, hands and faces for some time now. I feel like I have a better understanding of the structure of the foot but I'm not 100% confident yet. I still feel like I'm missing a few more pieces of the puzzle but I'm getting there. The leg in the center is from one of Chris Sander's drawings. I wanted to see if I could copy his style from an existing drawing before trying to apply it to a drawing of my own.


My attempts at trying to get more appealing leg shapes.


A 10-20 min drawing. I didn't think to time myself, so I'm not sure exactly how long it took.


Finally, here are my attempts at drawing in Chris' style. Lol, now I need to learn how to draw heads, hair, and faces to go with them...

Another Commission

Hey guys,

I'm really enjoying being able to draw something everyday. Doing commissions has been keeping me pleasantly busy. Today's commission was to design a steam-punk hyena character with two costume vairations. I drew a quick hyena sketch in preparation using this photo as reference. I'd say this character has been the most difficult one I've ever had to draw since I've struggled with drawing clothes for years. Once I get some extra cash I'm going to get a book on drawing clothes/folds and I'll do some studies to remedy that. I really cant wait to get to Disney and participate in their daily life drawing sessions!



While doing research on steam-punk related props and clothing, I stumbled across this awesome website called Crabfu SteamWorks. It features functioning steam-punk robots built by a guy who also happens to be an animator and a concept artist. How cool is that???? I'd love to build a robot of my own if I had the knowledge and resources for it.

Princess and the Frog

Hey everyone,

There's an awesome video on Dr. Facilier from Princess and the Frog online at CartoonBrew. I remember being blown away by rough pencil tests of him dancing last summer and even more excited from seeing Dr. Facilier finished and in color. I can't wait to see the finished film. I attend one of the wip screenings last year and was very pleased. It was awesome to see the bare bones of the movie and now it's super exciting to see various finished clips. Princess and the Frog looks beautiful and I think it's an excellent example of the glory of 2d animation at its best. Every time I see something from the film, I'm reminded of why I got into animation in the first place and what an honor it would be to work at Disney. I still can't believe I've accepted a position at the studio of my dreams!

Deviantart Commission

Katie and Tobermorey are the property of Stamps at: http://www.tobermorey.com/index.php

Twitch

I've decided to give Twitch an upgrade from his previously drawn self. He was lacking in the anatomy/structure department, lol. I'm really enjoying being able to draw freely now without having to worry about turning it in as an assignment! It's still hard to believe that I'm finished with school. Part of me is expecting to return to class in the fall, lol. I guess that's somewhat true since they have a huge amount of classes at Disney. I will definitely be watching new lectures and re-watching the ones I saw last summer once I get there!

Updating My Freelance Portfolio

Hey guys,

I'm working on updating my freelance portfolio while preparing to go to Disney. Things have been really slow as far as acquiring freelance illustration work and I have one more month of rent to pay before moving to California. Here's a look at one of the new additions to my portfolio. Hopefully my new work will attract some clients.

When You Wish Upon a Star...

Your dreams come true!!!!!!!!!! I just got the best phone call of 2009, I will be returning to Disney next month as a talent development animator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D =D =D =D

Can't Wait

Man, Siggraph has made me even more excited about getting started in this industry! I can't wait until I can be a part of some of the amazing productions coming up! I'd be happy to have a chance to animate the tiniest background character(s) and shortest shots in the film, just as long as I'm there and a part of the process. I seriously cant wait!

I finally found my sketchbook from my last quarter at SCAD and can now return to working on my drunk Norman scene. I've been in contact with Prof. Webber this entire time and he's really encouraging me to return to that scene as well. Now that I have all of my notes, I plan on putting it back in production tomorrow as soon as I finish my commission from Deviantart. I'll also be keeping my eyes and ears open for a phone call or an email from Disney, Sony, and Reelfx. My summer of animation unemployment may be coming to an end soon and I can't wait! =D

Success at Siggraph

Hey everyone,

Siggraph's been a blast so far! I'm really glad that I decided to come. So far I've had my reel reviewed by two people from Disney, recruiters from Sony, and critiqued by the amazing Bobby Beck and Shawn Kelly! Bobby and Shawn gave students and alumni feedback on their reels during the AM Birds of a Feather meeting. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to get to everyone during the meeting but Bobby and Shawn were nice enough to review the leftover reels out in a quiet hallway. I'm very grateful to them taking the time to review everyone's reel since mine was one of the ones that wasn't seen during the meeting. Surprisingly, they didn't have a long list of things for me to change. They both really enjoyed my reel which means a ton to me. It was truly an honor to have them give me feedback.

My reel was also received very positively by Disney and Sony as well. I'm hoping to hear back from both studios within the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll hear back from ReelFx soon as well. I had a great interview with them last month and I'm not sure what's happened...

Job Fair Excitement

Hey guys,

I cant wait for the job fair tomorrow! I found out that MPC and DoubleNegative are hiring too so I plan on dropping off a reel with both of them. On Wed. I also have an interview with:

I'm super excited and cant wait to speak with the representative from Sony!!!!! I think its awesome that so many studios are hiring right now. I hope I'll hear something good from one of them soon! =D

AM Showcase 2009

Greetings from Siggraph guys,

The Animation Mentor student showcase is now online. Check out all the amazing work here.
Congrats to everyone who's work is featured in the reel!!!!

Siggraph Bound!

I hope to see you there! =D