Portrait of The Sea Witch

Hey Guys!

I haven't updated in quite a bit (I've been too busy with pre-pro for my thesis, that I've unfortunately neglected this blog). But, now that Spring Break is here, I'd thought I'd at least post something fun!

Here's a painting I did as a part of a 24-hour challenge we had at our school. Aaron Blaise--an incredible artist, and former Disney animator/director--came to visit again this year to demo/show his art. As part of his visit, there was a 24-hour art challenge (where the winner would have their work displayed at Ringling's Madeby Gallery, plus the possibility of winning some other cool prizes)!

Below is the painting I sent off--I didn't get to everything I wanted, but I managed with the time given. And then the one after it is the one I continued working on after the deadline. Special thanks to my friend, Courtney, who gave me some tips/guidance. She's super cool! ;)

Sketches + Update

I haven't posted in quite some time--I've been really busy this semester. I'm in the midst of pre-production towards my thesis film, so most of my time has been devoted to that. However, about two weeks ago, I decided to go to the Sarasota Jungle Gardens to see the sunlight and do some animal drawing. It was fun, and definitely a morale booster--sometimes, it's easy for me to get caught up in work (which I think is the case for most people). So it's nice taking breaks to just go observe nature/wildlife.

Here are some of the drawings I sketched:

(Note: There was a cockatiel that mimicked the sound of a cat perfectly--that's the reason for the meow, haha!).

Also, here are just some random sketches taken from my sketchbook about a week ago.

Thomas Scholes (pronounced "skulls", not "shoals", I think?) also came to visit Ringling and perform digital painting demos live! It was really cool meeting him--I really admired his work as a freshman, so who would've thought I'd get to meet him two years later. He's incredibly witty, and really good at presenting. Unfortunately, I couldn't see what he looked like during his first demo (I wasn't wearing my contacts), so his hair's wrong on the first sketch page. Oh well...

Tom and Andrew Theo also presented a demo together at Ringling's Digital Painting Sketch Club, which was pretty cool!

Tom talking about what clients ask for...

And to finish this post, here's some horse sketches I did for pre-production research. 

Thank you, and ciao for now!

The Last Samurai Composition/ Beats Study

Hey Everyone!

Before the winter break ends (and I have to go back to school), I did a small, scene study from the movie, "The Last Samurai". It was fun going back to this movie--it was a movie that's haunted me for a while, mainly because of the war scenes.

This scene is where Tom Cruise--er, I mean, Algren, is attempting to make his last stand before the head samurai realizes Algren is the "White Tiger", the symbol he had seen in his vision earlier in the movie.

This scene was interesting to analyze. I never realized how much the director/cinematographer utilized the environment (trees, ferns, plants) to create frames within frames. It was also cool to realize how quick the cuts were--they reminded me of the same timing like when a tiger attacks/swipes its paws. Lastly, triangular compositions dominated the scene, as well as circles. To me, they helped establish the main subject of the shot, as well as the hierarchy of who was in the frame. This is especially noticeable in the scenes with the head samurai--when the focus is not on Algren, the head samurai dominates every shot he's in.

And here's the shots blown up (if you'd like to flip through the boards instead). I tried to get the main story image of each shot, so things like camera movement/push-ins are not shown in these boards. The main importance of the exercise was to study the composition/importance of each shot.

Also, after about half-way through this study, I went on the hunt for new storyboard brushes I could use. That's when I stumbled across J.P. Vine's brush set--if you're like me and you're looking for something a little more natural in terms of "story brushes", I'd give his set a whirl. They're fantastic!!!

http://jpvine.com/2012/07/09/free-photoshop-storyboarding-brushes/

Ciao for now!