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Time to Start Again

Right, this blog died a little bit after my second year of university. I made it to record the progress of my developing practice module. Since then I have graduated, with a first class I might add, and .... been living at home with the parents for a year or so. I've been looking at why things aren't going anywhere for me at the moment and the bottom line is - I need to work harder. I need to stop expecting things to drop into my lap and for everything to be smooth sailing. In an effort to improve, in an area sorely neglected I might add, I have enrolled in The Magic Box . A Chris Oatley class which deals in the art of digital painting. I have only just begun and I thought it would be good to track my progress here.


So watch this space, I have just begun the first assignment; 'Fancy Animals'. You have to choose a painted portrait with atmospheric lighting and then an animal to replace the head. This is right up my street as I am keen on character design, however the aim is not on design, but the next step; Colour Comp.

You can see my research for the first assignment here

I very much like lists.

Birthday

It was Neeva's birthday on Thursday, so I drew her receiving her very first birthday present; a tortoise named Terry.

(I'm grateful that blogger decided to live again)

Some sketchbook stuff

I generally try to take my sketchbook out with me so that, should the mood strike, I can do a couple of quick observational drawings. Its good practice for me and I really enjoy it.

I am in a musical called Sweet Charity and it's now started to get serious. We had a sunday rehursal so I took my sketchbook along, it's really hard to draw people when acting because they move so much, but I tried. Also some one braught along their kids and someone else braught their dog, always fun to draw.

This was on holiday, but I was being distracted by over the shoulder lookers so I quite pretty quickly.

Random at homeness, my sister talking on the phone. It was good to study one person for a little while, you sort of get to know their shape better and they become easier to draw after a while.

Poster research

This is a fantastic site for how to make a good informative poster. It's worth the read and not too long either.

I have looked at a few sites and they all say some pretty similar things;

name and tital should be first, your tital should be your punchline
condense your information
you have roughly 11 seconds to grab your audience, so use your tital well
don't put too much information on the poster, if its too busy no one will bother to look at it
and the text size needs to be able to be read from 6 feet away.

These are only a few of the criteria but they are pretty helpful.

Neeva

So I scanned it in and coloured it and now I actually have some sort of finshed thing! Yay! Though I apologise for the sound quality... not entirely sure how to fix it but hopefully you can work it out just from her lips haha.
And yes, I am indeed proud of it, even with all the faults.

... the image behind her is one I found on google... I just wanted her to be outside due to her flowy hair.

facebook

I'm trying to churn out a picture a day for Neeva's facebook so her page is a little more interesting. I may have also started to have conversations with her.. ie myself, so we'll see what happens with that haha.

lip sync

So i've been working on my lip sync as I've not really done any before.

This was just a quick test to see if I could link the word properly, its not great but it was a starting point.

The next one is much better, I even went a bit over board and did floaty hair for fun. It was hard to get the eyes to look alive when she is looking forward and not doing anything other than speaking. Anyway, I'm going to scan in, colour and sync tomorrow. But I thought I'd put up what I have done so far. She is saying "my name is Neeva"

I am hoping to have something that I can put on her facebook, like those funny vids people put on. I have some ideas which I'm going to start storyboarding and hopefully get done whilst we're still here.

Day 1

I have had a very good day indeed. I kept to my new schedule and ticked off all my tasks for today. Yay!
Also I work the full 8 hour day today which made me feel very good. Now I get to chill out properly, until tomorrow.

This morning I got Neeva to lipsync to 'Hello' but I am finding her face quite hard to animate as it's not got much structure, not really sure what to do about it.
Then I came home and wrote my evaluation, something I was expecting to be doing all week but I think I have finished!

And then I did a picture for Neeva's facebook which is definatly the best so far --->

Holiday is definatly over...

So, with the holiday drawing to a close I realise that all that lovely time I could have been working I didn't. As a consequence the next couple of weeks are going to be hectik but productive.

I intend to finish my days with a shape challenge. This is where I have 5 shapes, the same each week, and create different things with them. Todays was simple as it was the first one.

Faces -

holiday

So I have had my lovely week off, got burned and did alot of swimming. It was good.
But I have returned to work now, and I'm happy to say that I have written my Visual Culture essay and proposal. (A big deal for me as I fine writing essays really hard).

Not only that I have done some bits for Neeva's Facebook.

Doing things

Art Means To Do - Marcel Duchamp

I have not been making art, I've been not doing. Pushing out the odd and slightly tepid drawing. If art means to do then hang the consequences and make mistakes, right?

Anyway, I'm going on holiday for a week and I intend to draw stuff. Probably unrelated or whatever, but I need to get my love of doing art back on track. Especially before next year.
It's really strange because before this project I drew and drew and drew, then apparently this thing has made me feel completely inadequate.
Trying to focus on writing essays is even harder, but I guess persistence is key.

Now, I'm off to paint someone's pool house.

random

I watched Pirates of the Caribbean the other night and I had a bit of a renewal of love for Jack Sparrow. His character is just pretty awsome.
I couldn't help but make some sort of stupid encounter between him and Neeva. Yes I know its very girly but shhhh.

'Being a drawing is pretty awsome sometimes.' - Neeva Sol

outside

We just nipped out to the park as its such a beautiful afternoon. I took my sketchbook along so I didn't feel like I was completely skiving haha. But sitting outside sketching with some friends is a pretty ideal way of spending an afternnon, so I kind of cheated.

I am thinking of doing my 'final' film on a kid of around 5-6 years old, so this was good research. I'm thinking the story is this (in 5 words) - Boy Scared of Cracked Pavements.

Also, this is my song for today. This sitting outside in the hazy afternoon, perfect.

and maybe this too...

Some things...

I got these done this morning, an aid for some animation that I plan to have a go at for her. It's tricky to stay inside at the moment. The weather is just too glorious. 

I know this has no sound but it was just a test. She is supposed to be saying "hello, my name is Neeva" I need some more mouth shapes aparently. (And a sound track ha)

Facebook

This interent phenomina is a cause for alot of my procrastination. I didn't think I'd ever be so obsessed but aparently I have very little self control.
Well, when we had to make our professional practice presentation the professional guest said I ought to make my character a facebook page. Well I had completely forgotten about it until the other day. And I thought I would really enjoy doing this so I have set it up and now I'm working on pictures and things I can put up on there to make her seem like a real person.
I thought it could be an ongoing project. And I can involve animation and things in it too so it fits in.

Here is the background of the first picture to be put onto her page.

Neeva Sol's facebook. Add her as a friend?

Lip Syncing

Soo.... I was looking at my animation so far and I thought that while its fun to do it's not really going anywhere or going to be of much use to me later. Also, I don't think I'll look back on the film at the end and say yeah, I'm really proud of that.

So I was talking to my dad and he said it seamed silly not to be using the characters that I draw all the time to actually animate with. And I had to agree. I have been looking at loads of character animation and wishing that I could be as good as that. So why not use this opportunity to have a go.
I haven't really done any handdrawn lipsyncing so I want to have a go at some words. Then build from there. Should be fun.

Recent Sketchbook pages...

Some pages from my sketchbook, I felt guilty that I had no animation to show... I draw to chill out in the evenings, it's one of my favourite past times. Even if they do turn out a little....iffy.

These are taken direct from my sketchbook... they are a bit of a jumble.

A week of excuses...

Right, this week, after promising myself I would have a great and productive week... sort of went to pot. Due to lots of different reasons, none of which are really excusable, I have only completed one day of work. One!! In a whole week. Sort of dissapointed in myself really. There may be many hours in a day but boy do they go fast!
Anyway, back in the rhythm tomorrow and in uni doing some animation. I have one to show from tuesday but it's still at uni so I'll post tomorrow.
Back on the horse people!!!!