Thanksgiving Crazy Turkey!!

Hello! I hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was because of this Thanksgiving that sparked an inspiration for a new turkey drawing! I have some exciting work Id like to present that are in development! I think it helps me to have different projects to work on so that it keeps my mind active with more inspiration and ideas. Anywho here is my turkey(in progress):

My turkey has teeth as you can see in the opening of the beak. Ill color them and see if I like them or not. Im afraid they might make my turkey look took terrifying. But thats the fun of experimenting(seeing what looks good or not)! Speaking of experiments, I also played around with brushes and the painting mode. Im pleased with how the burn mode turned out for the larger feathers above his head.

When I looked at my last blog posting, I did say I should post drawings from my sketchbook sometime. Well it just so happens that I did some while I was away in NYC as well as over the weekend with my dad while he was oil painting in his friend's gallery. Here are excerpts from my sketchbook:

 

The first one are just random characters. This was where I also tried out an inking pen(Not the inkwell kind, but the plastic one that you can squeeze, and has a brush tip.)and careful outlined my sketches. It was actually pretty fun and would like to try inking again!

My last 3 excerpts are design ideas for a stop motion film I have in mind. You'll see a few drawings where she looks "snake-like". That's because my story will be about how my chihuahua, Glory, sneaks up to a dinner plate to eat something real quick. Ive caught her on more than one occasion trying to eat from my plate. Its pretty funny! She only has this behavior because her previous owners(my family and I believes)let her eat whatever she wanted. So we've been trying to correct this behavior. Anywho, the best part is that my other chihuahua, Lulu, has acquired a new funny behavior! Every time(well almost)she sees Glory try to sneak a bite, she will growl at her as if to say "Dont even think about it!!". I want to play around with how Glory is so skinny, lanky, and snake-like. Ill even exaggerate it too. As far as the medium goes, I was thinking about making this into a paper stop motion film. I remember animating a super short little story in paper in my first animation class. So it has been quite some time since Ive used the medium. If I do go through with paper, I would like to use different textures to make it interesting as well as to make the shots have a nice composition.

Thats about it for now. I will be visting my sister and friends next week until the end of classes. I WILL however keep developing my Glory character and she will definitely be posted in the next blog entry!

Birds have fascinating details!!

I have something Im super excited to post! The Jasper spread is on the back burner for just a tad longer, but will be up soon! In the meantime, Ive started a new project for dad. We've been on and off with the concept of "Social Story" cards where an illustration is on one side, while the description of how to handle the situation appropriately, is on the back. My dad works with people with disabilities, who struggle with making the right decisions. So through these cards, they can easily see what they need to do. The illustration makes it fun for them to look at, but at the same time reinforces the concept in a positive, meaningful way. Rather then reading a bunch of text with no pictures,(which may be hard to understand) the illustration gives them a more concrete idea of whats being explained. The last card I have made proved to be a success! My dad came home and told me the client loved it! To the right is my first social story card.

My next card is currently in progress. I have roughed out several ideas for how I want the character to look like. Its a bunch of head drawings, but I tend to start from the head. Once I have a look, Ill do some gesture drawings of how I want the body to look like. Oh and I wanted to mention that these were all done digitally with my Wacom. I draw both digitally and traditionally. Come to think of it, I think Ill post one of my drawings from my sketchbook sometime.

Thats about it for now. I'll post a special surprise for the blog background nextime! When I saved the bird drawings at one point, I saw the file for the blog background. Rather than showing in progress posts about it(along with what else Im working on), Ill surprise you, and just post the blog background! Stay tuned!! :)

The Art of the Character Spread!!

Before I get into my second post, I wanted to announce(actually two) that Im currently in the process of making a custom background for this blog. I think Im getting a hang of this blog site :). The second announcement being that Ill be away visiting a friend from college in NYC for 3 days. So Ill be unable to post while Im away.

Its been just about two weeks since my first post. So I thought I should update my Jasper post. However, for the last 3 months I was working extremely hard on my portfolio that I brought to IlluxCon, an illustration convention for the fantasy/adventure/scifi genre. This explains why I was unable to post sooner since all I could think about was finishing my work and then going off to go print them. Anywho, IlluxCon was fantastic!! It lasted 4 days filled with AMAZING art that opened up my eyes and filled my head with new inspiration for the future! I also surprised myself by gathering the courage to talk to people and give them my business card! I was extremely nervous and found it hard to go up to them to introduce myself. Somehow I was able to talk to them and show off my work. Im glad I was able to talk to these awesome people who gave me such great advice for my artwork. I did have quite a few pieces that were close to being done, but I just added them in there so I can get other people's opinions other than from my friends and family. It was DEFINITELY worth it! This was my first time showing my portfolio to several people. My very first time was when I went to Ottawa for the Ottawa Animation Festival and talked to an animator from Disney's Tangled who said it needed alot of work as far as presentation goes. So for those last 3 months I made sure to make them as presentable as possible. After its all said and done, I still do need to work on several things to pump up my work to make it even better. It was fantastic getting feedback, because I know it will only make me stronger and better as an artist!

Below is my Jasper spread. I went ahead and posted what it looks like currently. I know I have a layer turned off with the Jasper's vest on the top left. I laughed at myself for making a silly mistake as I slid this into my portfolio. Anyway, if you have any helpful suggestions, thoughts, and comments, feel free to drop me comment and Ill get back to you soon.