Character Design

We recently did a cool character design assignment in my visual storytelling class.

The task was to create a character who could exist in the universe of an existing animated movie, so I chose one of my favorite movies, Paranorman. The character i was working off of was Alvin, the bully.

 By Heidi Smith, property of Laika.

I wanted to make Alvin's older brother, Garrett.

Garrett is about 6 years older than Alvin, and the two were very close. Garrett always hung out with Alvin on the weekends, and was Alvin's biggest supporter when he was learning to breakdance. 

Garrett was strong and confident, but due to academic struggles he could never find much direction in his life. So he joined the military and served a year in Afghanistan before getting killed by an ied.

Garrett's death was the cause of Alvin's bullyhood, because he just couldn't deal with the loss. Alvin keeps this picture, the last one taken of them hidden in his room, and it is one of his most prized possessions. 

I got so into this project, and by the time I was finished, i truly felt like I knew Garrett. I knew how he would talk and move. I knew what he would do when he was procrastinating. I could picture him not only existing in the world of Paranorman, but also in ours. I felt so much for this character, and now I have to move on to new characters and new stories. Such is the life of an animation student, I guess.

On another note, foreshortening is hard to draw. So are hands. And this doodle I did while watching Gravity Falls has both of those things.

I really need to learn more about hands.

Laugh Lines and Lost Edges

Since we are learning how to draw the head right now in my figure drawing class, I have been drawing lots and lots of portraits.

Charcoal, 1 hour.

As with any other kind of drawing, the only thing that can make me better

is lots and lots of practice.

 

Charcoal, 1 hour

Some drawings are less successful. Pieces might not fit together, 

or proportions may be out of whack. 

Charcoal, 2.5 hours

But then sometimes you'll do an awesome portrait, and then it's a good day.  

 

Another Self Portrait

I did a self portrait for my life drawing class, and I think I like it even  more than that other portrait I did a couple weeks ago. You can see that here:

 http://jcummingsart.blogspot.com/2013/01/self-portrait.html

This portrait, done in charcoal, took about 3 hours.

Looking at it now, I can see that I need to work on building the structure longer before I get carried away with rendering. This is one of my favorite drawings to date though. I'm getting confident enough with charcoal that I can start playing with lost edges and other fun little tricks. I am thoroughly enjoying myself lately.

Head Drawing

Sucking at something is the first step to being kinda good at something

-Jake the Dog
 

Charcoal, 40 minutes.

Those words from Jake are very comforting to me lately. I feel more and more like I am leaving the sucking stage and getting into the being kinda good stage. This is one of the best Portrait drawings I've been able to do, and I was able to do it in 40 minutes. It still has its issues, like the mushy eye and the unfinished mouth, but on the other hand, that is one of the best ears I've drawn. I can say with some confidence that this drawing doesn't suck. It may even be kinda good.

Painting

I've been painting more lately. I've been studying painters and pushing myself to

learn to paint looser and not get wrapped up in insignificant details. The more I paint, the more I love painting. I've started to see that painting is such a great outlet for your own personal creativity. There are so many ways to mix paint, choose colors, and apply the brushstrokes that everyone paints differently. Finding exactly how I paint is shaping up to be quite an enjoyable journey.

The shadow side of this tree looks much better than the light side I think.

These are paintings from the figure drawing marathon that I just finished. The fist two are hour long studies and the second one was about three hours. I had never painted a figure before, and I really enjoyed it.

This is a painting of Gregory Manchess, one of the painters I've been studying lately. His loose brushwork and talent for describing form are things I strive for in my own paintings.

Figure Drawing Marathon

Just finished up a four day figure drawing marathon 

with the shrunkenheadman club.

 

The first two days were just not good days for me. 

Those were the days that the nudes came in.

On the last day though, we did costume drawings and i definitely hit my stride here.

I thought that I would do terribly drawing the clothing, but the marks that I

naturally make with my hand lend themselves nicely to clothing drawing.

Fun.

 Drawing unflattering caricatures of people you don't know is fun.

Both the quality and style of what I draw lately are incredibly inconsistent. Maybe it's because i don't think about most of my drawing until I've already started them. Whatever the reason, right after I finished the caricatures, I did this drawing.

I don't know what part of the endless reaches of my mind these drawings come from, but someday I hope I can go there.