Another go! (October 27, 2009)

[Onir]

Hello everyone, my name is William Justin King and I'm a recent graduate of the Art Institute of Boston with a degree in Animation. I'm currently just working on my reel and portfolio, hoping to work in feature animation someday. I'm open to any and all criticism, so feel free to be brutal :) Thanks for looking!

----

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/class_zombiefigure.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/grid_01_painting101.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/class_final_painting101.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/finalsp_painting101.jpg

The next group are mostly digital doodles I've done recently; I'm driving myself to get better at painting now, digital and traditional (though I haven't been able to get back into oils for going on a month now.. soon hopefully). The face and kitty are from photos, and the bottle, door/cabinet setup, and legs are both from life. These are in chronological ordering going left to right.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/refsk_10.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/refsk_11.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/stlfe_03.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_33.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_34.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_35.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/stlfe_04.jpg

And this last one is just some sketches of my roommates' bikes.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0001.jpg

Okay these last links are to a few of my animations I have on youtube (I also have a post here with them, and I'll probably update it when I actually have more recent work).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73FC90yDfJ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r_yRmSdzHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBos5WQDT7U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDS8pmpjzVk

And that's about it! I'll definitely be updating again soon and please feel free to comment and crit my work. Thanks for looking :)

718870

[Goog]

Neato arts man. Enjoy the painting of the waterbottles, it gives off a nice vibe. Don't forget that painting is the same as drawing :D! also...more contrast in your pieces will doo lots. cheers!

[hp]

DUDEEEEE you updated! :D not much to crit, just keep posting =P

how is school?

*subscribes*

[Toffeeliz]

niiiice stuff - i esp. like the still lifes in digital and traditional as well as the kitten head. I think the size is ok as well as the angle. Great stuff

[Jska]

Hey Onir! Thanks for stopping by my book, I appreciate the crit. Looks like you're going in a good direction... the lighting studies are looking good, the transparent amber colored (medicine?) bottle one is definitely nice... keep it up man :D

[Onir]

Goog - Thanks man :) I hear ya on painting and drawing, I really need to get more consistent with both haha.. hopefully this thread will help keep me going. I agree about more contrast, something I always have trouble with (both knowing how much to use and when to stop haha).

hp - Hey Emily! Hope ya don't mind me calling you that ;) Figured it's about time I tried to get back into this thing... School is going well; last year was pretty busy but it helped me learn how to manage my time a bit better. How're things going for you? Are you still working at that studio doing texturing and such?

Toffeeliz - Thanks, glad ya liked em :) hehe I've gotten into the habit of writing comments like the head one to myself when I'm drawing; the perfectionist in me gets a little irked when things are off even the slightest (when using ref. of course).

Jska - Thanks! I was pretty psyched with the way the medicine bottle turned out (happy it reads as a medicine bottle as well lol), it was the first time I had really sat down and painted something digitally in a while. Makes me happy that traditional methods definitely carry over :^^:

--

Back with another digital study. I would prefer to update with at least a few things, but I took a fall on my bike yesterday and though I'm not hurt in any major way, sketching is hurting my shoulder a little. I'll get more up here though, dontcha worry bout that! :D

This was a funky kind of setup, and I realize now how much my ellipses suck lol. I learned that water is very hard to paint as well. As a quick side note, when I shrank the image down lines appeared between some of the marks I made; I tried covering up most of them, but if you see some random lines they're probably a result of that.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/stlfe_05.jpg

Thanks for looking!

[Toffeeliz]

Toffeeliz - Thanks, glad ya liked em :) hehe I've gotten into the habit of writing comments like the head one to myself when I'm drawing; the perfectionist in me gets a little irked when things are off even the slightest (when using ref. of course).

I get annoyed when that sort of stuff happens too, but lately I've realised it takes the fun out of it if you get overly stressed over a few marks on paper. Time for masterpieces later lol.

I think you did well on the elipse and the glass, the shadows on the table? are a litte off around the glasses base though I think.Hope your shoulder feels ok :mittenbop:

[Onir]

Toffeeliz - Time for masterpieces later, eh? Haha that's certainly a good way to think. When my sketches don't look right to me I usually get frustrated and start over/go back to doing studies... which is why I don't have much work for myself :P I agree that the shadows do look a bit off now that you mention it, shoulda put a bit more thought into them. And thank ya, my shoulder has gotten better :^^:

--

Well, back with a few sketches. I hate the way I draw faces that aren't from ref, so I was doodling around trying to figure some things out. A big part of my goal is to get to a point where what I'm drawing are things I'd actually like to animate. I've yet to succeed in achieving any style that I feel fits what I want to do. How I can achieve such a thing is beyond me at the moment.. I probably should do studies from styles that I like instead of purely from things that are realistic. A few faces here and there and the 3 top figures on the last page are reffed from characterdesigns.com, otherwise these are just doodles out of my head (a random face or two is from the Animators Survival Guide as well.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0002.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0003.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0004.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0005.jpg

After these pages I got frustrated and felt brushing up on anatomy can't hurt. So I turned to Bridgman (I left my intense anatomy book at home, but Bridgman is definitely a great source either way) and did some torso studies. Took a few notes too.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0006.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0007.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0008.jpg

Thanks for stopping in! Advice/crits are always welcome and appreciated ;)

[Farvus]

Hey. I see you have second sketchbook. It's great to finally see new updates after long time.
I like those still life paintings. Good observation of proportions and really nice colors. After those many years of drawing my ellipses suck too :D. The best excercise would be to just draw tons of them on some big paper but it can be a bit boring.
Maybe try to slow down a bit when shading. Here the cast shadow doesn't read well - http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0002.jpg. I know it's all quick sketches but being too fast for very long time can lead to some bad habits.

Keep posting.

[Onir]

Farvus - Hey man, thanks for stopping by :) You're very right about me needing to slow down when I sketch.. I've got a reaally bad sense of time when I draw. Minutes feel much shorter than they really are, so I often feel as though I've been drawing for 10 minute when it's only been 5. That and trying to stay in gesture mode even in longer drawings makes things a bit harder than they should be hehe.

--

Back with a bunch of doodle pages; for some reason I haven't done much photo ref. work lately, outside of a few heads here and there (and the dog and figure quick studies from Ken Anderson on the page with the dude lounging). Trying to get better with quick life drawing as well as imaginative stuff, so gonna keep chugging in that direction. Got lots to work on (including animation stuff which I SHOULD be doing but am too lazy to start), so please feel free to crit the crap outta me on anything I post lol.

For some reason I really like the way the knees at the bottom of this first one came out...

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0009.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0012.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0011.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0010.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0013.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0014.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0015.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0016.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0017.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0018.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0019.jpg

I gotta try to format these images in a more attractive way...

Yea though, thanks for looking!

[Onir]

Hello once again, back with a few things; couple of digital pieces, a pencil study, and a small animation done in Flash.

The face is from reference, done in about 30 minutes. I was just kinda going with the flow messing around, and when I saw 30 minutes had passed I decided to stop. Kinda like how it came out; gotta keep working at that... The second piece is just a doodle.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/refsk_14.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_37.jpg

After looking at a drapery thread over in the Art Discussion (I think) forum and realizing that I need to improve my grasp of form and shape A LOT, I decided to draw a shirt I have on my door, as well as my jeans and towel in my closet :P

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0020.jpg

and this last one is a short animation I did as a gift to my Dad for his birthday. I still haven't given it to him, as I want to finish one for my brother as well (their birthdays are 4 days apart; last week as well :x ) and I'm slowly working away at that. It does have some VERY basic interactivity in the actual file, but I'm just posting the animation here. I suck at actionscript anyway ;)

As a quick note, this was the first primarily straight ahead (no planning poses, just drawing frame after frame and deciding as you go) animation I've done for quite a while. Was lots of fun, gonna definitely keep screwing around with it.. see what I can come up with hehe.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/th_bday_anim_02.jpg (http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/?action=view&current=bday_anim_02.flv)

Thanks for looking!

[timpaatkins]

Hey man, thanks for giving feedback on my animation!

I like the birthday clip you did, nice and simple, fluid and nice key poses. I see your doing some photoreffing up there for poses, may I suggest that you get out there and do some cafe sketching? I bring a small watercolorset in an altoids can and a brush pen with water, plus a nice inkpen.=no erasing! I even put a small metal beltclip on the back of the altoids, so i can clip it to my SB, thus I am free to use both hands. Good for standing up to capture a quick pose.
then just start sketching away! mentally tell yourself, "this is a 10 sec one of the action of getting coffee over there, this is 30 sec of the action of reading the menu" etc etc. After you have slaughtered a few sketchbook, you'll see immense improvement, both in line quality, confidence, and color. I really cant recommend it enough! I have some on my homepage.
And keep the crap sketchbooks! Whenever I'm feeling like I just wanna give up, I pull out a SB three books back and realize that Im improving!

Keep It up mate!

Tim

[fragmentedchimp]

yo dood. youve made some serious progress man in your book. your still life studies are great, especially the cat, keep it up man, drawing from life is so damn essential to.. to.. to-everything! im subscribed. rock on! :asspat:

edit: this (http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0020.jpg)is great. brilliant example of what im talking about. you already know 4 quick rows of quick pencil dashing is enough to render the backdrop to all the lighter shadows present. . all a learning experience, and its looking good :)

[Black Spot]

Nice sketchbook; lots of variation. I’m sure I’ve seen your animations somewhere else as well, but forget where. Keep going.

[Onir]

timpaatkins - thanks so much for the advice man :) I love going out and drawing in public, but I always find it hard to bring myself to; I also find that I suck at drawing in public lately so that doesn't help lol. I do know of some cafes I could go to around here, so I'll probably give what you're saying a go. Looking at your work I can definitely see that it pays off :)

fragmentedchimp - thanks much man :) You flatter me about that one sketch hehe, I was just kinda going with what felt good at the time. I'll definitely keep drawing from life though, certainly seems like it pays off in everything as you said ;)

Black Spot - thank you :) Hmm I might have a similar style to someone I'm not sure of? lol I've only really shown my animations on here and on youtube.

--

Back again with some sketches and doodles. I sat outside of the mall on the 4th and drew for 30 - 40 minutes; got a decent number of drawings, though they aren't all that great. I can't seem to get a figure down quick enough.. I'm sure it'll come in time, so I'm just gonna keep choppin away!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0021.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0022.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0023.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0024.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0025.jpg

I'm beginning to feel more comfortable doodling in Painter with the harder edged brushes, but I still suck pretty bad at blending. Things to work on.. hehe :^^:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_38.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_39.jpg

Thanks for looking! :rocker:

[Onir]

Hello once again; back with some sketches in such.

Went to the doctor earlier this week and apparently the reason my shoulder was hurting is because I injured my rotator cuff :$ Taking medicine to help bring down inflammation, and it's helping so far... luckily drawing never hurt my shoulder much so at least I've been able to do that hehe. Been doing a bunch of quick sketches lately (some in cafes as timpaatkins suggested), so that's what most of these are. I've also got some gestures from posemaniacs and a still life (both of which I did before the big batch of gestures I did yesterday and today).

Chair drawing I've got mixed feelings about; made me realize how much I suck at pencil rendering lol.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0026.jpg

Posemaniac gestures; redrew a few poses with costumes at the end.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0040.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0041.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0042.jpg

and quick sketches from yesterday and today. I've been reading about quick sketches and from what I'm gathering quantity + thoughtfulness = improved quality? lol Either way I'm going to try and fill up this little sketchbook with as many of these things as I can.

Had to bunch them all into one image (didn't really want to post up 13 pics hehe), so I apologize for the weird formatting.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/gstrgp_001.jpg

Allrighty, thanks for looking! :)

[Onir]

Gah, been over 2 weeks? woops :$ To be fair, the internet in my apartment was down for about 2 weeks so it wasn't as easy as I would have liked to update. Lately, though, I've just fallen back into that rut of not wanting to scan alot of things which, in turn, makes me not want to update. :P

So, I've got a few things, just to get the ball rolling again. All recent, just practice and stuff. The little guy up top is a sprite I made for Sinix's sprite animation weekly thread over in Community Activities. It's a lot of fun! I learned a good amount from it as well; go check it out! :teeth:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sprite_01_sfs1.gif

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0043.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0044.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0045.jpg

Thanks for looking!

[Onir]

Back with a few things; I went to the museum Wednesday night and drew a bunch of stuff. It took me a little bit to warm up (as the first drawing will show) but I felt pretty good by the last one (which is my favorite of the bunch). Also I've got a couple doodles and a flipbook I did when the internet was down.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0046.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0049.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0047.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0048.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0050.jpg

I shot this with the equipment at my school; stupid me chose the one stand with a broken light, then I forgot to change the resolution of the pictures lol. Makes a decent gif though.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_flipbk_01.gif

Thanks for looking!

[hp]

i keep trying to post in your sketchbook and then CA always goes down :(

cool animation...you should post more like that.

i think you've got line down pretty good, i would work more on form. as an animator you prolly are more about getting just a quick thing down though.

[Toffeeliz]

i love the last animation bit! theres a lot of cool people studies in here and since they seem relevant mostly to animation I'm gonna ask this; do you film people when you're out and about? I think I've heard of some animators doing that...

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/refsk_14.jpg that one made me interested - I think it was the 100%opacity that did it. Nice and bold....now go do it in real oil paints!! I got all excited when i saw your sketching watercolours set too lol :yum:

[Onir]

hp - Ahh yea CA goes down a decent amount for me as well; sall good either way, thanks for stopping in either way :) Glad ya like the animation, I really should do more of those.. pretty relaxing actually hehe. I completely agree about my form though, been trying to figure out what to do to get better at it recently. Probably gonna go look at some Bridgman and continue doing still lives.

Toffeeliz - Thanks! Hmm I don't film people when I'm out and about, but that's a really good idea. People have lots of eccentricities that I'm sure I've wanted to take note of at a later point. Yea gonna have to keep that in mind ;) Good to hear you like that painting as well, I'll have to mess around with that some more. Oh and sadly that isn't my watercolor set :\ timpaatkins was just showing it to me as an example; I actually lost my little watercolors about two years ago lol, haven't gotten the will (or the money lately) to go and get some new ones. Soon though!

--

Cool well got a few more things; been trying to do at least one digital thing a day, regardless of whether or not it's a long study. Got some pencil reference sketches as well.

Going chronologically:

I wanted to paint something with a more simplistic shape, so I grabbed the thing I hold my night-time retainer in. Kinda of a funky shape, but it was good practice albeit harder than I would have thought. The bike is just a doodle that rose from a scribble.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/stlfe_06.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_43.jpg

These next two are both about 20 minutes each and are from photo references. I was going for a bit of color and a bit of shape. I suck at quickly rendering form so I think (maybe just hope) it helped in that a little bit lol.

Ref images here (http://www.yunphoto.net/en/photobase/yp4443.html) and here (http://www.pbase.com/image/68815632).
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/env_03.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/env_04.jpg

some fashion studies from one of the sites in the reference forum and a study from Alex Kanevsky (the guy with the pant leg rolled up is just a doodle, not from a photo).

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0051.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0052.jpg

aaaaand lastly my sprite for this week. Was lots of fun, though I wish I had spread it out over a few days :dead:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sprite_02_stp3.gif

Okay! Thanks for looking as always :)

[Euphemism]

Hello, I like your little notebooks! Even your anatomy notes - of course, it's a requirement at Animation College that they beat the idea of 'a structured figure, not linear!' into your head.* ;) I like your paintings too! Once you unlock the key to softening and blending, you ought to keep a balance between literal hard and soft edges between shadows, corners, light, etc. You're making great progress! :) BTW, you should make your little jumping action man-to-ball GIF into a user avatar, that'd be cool in showing your repetwah around the forums. :D

*Former casualty... :(

[hp]

your retainer looks awesome! really nice values.

as for the landscape i would try using some more blending in a few select areas. since you like hard brushes you might try barontieri's watercolor brush (i'm not sure what the actual brush is called...it's relatively hard edged but it has good blending capabilities)

[Onir]

Euphemism - Thanks! I kinda find it fun to write notes to myself when I'm out drawing and stuff; not sure why, just picked it up in high school and been doing it since lol. I really feel like I'm struggling with the structured figure lately; I've focused so much on line quality that my rendering and ability to put objects in space have fallen behind. I definitely agree about my edging as well, another thing I'm really trying to get better at hehe. Glad to hear I'm improving though :) Can't really feel it at times, ya know? And you flatter me about that little flipbook lol; I'd make an avatar but I don't think it's high enough rez, I'd have to crop it, and I think I'm a bit bashful for that ;)

hp - Thank ya! Blending is a really good idea, I just really suck at it lol. Guess practice makes perfect though, eh? I'll definitely look for Barontieri's brushes as well, certainly sounds nice from what you're describing :)

--

Back with two digital studies. The first I did last night before bed; I only intended to spend a little bit on it but I got sucked in and went for over an hour on it. Lots of fun, though the setup I had was pretty strange. The second is a failed SP lol.

So yea I took a pill bottle (anti-inflammatories for my shoulder; it's much better now, but I still have a couple days left) and placed it on top of a small thing of gesso and put it in front of my second monitor. I put a black background up behind it and worked in the dark; got a neat subtle glow effect through the bottle. Hard stuff, I definitely made it lighter than it should be (greener as well), but was lots of fun.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/stlfe_07.jpg

And this is a self portrait I stopped on midway through (hence the roughness and the missing right pupil lol). Things were going alright, I was noticing alot of problems and was slowly chopping my way through the mess when I got distracted and stepped away for like 40 minutes lol. This took I'd say between 30 - 40 minutes; I take a while to get to a simplistic block-in stage, though I'm getting faster little by little.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sp_12.jpg

Thanks for looking! :rocker:

[Toffeeliz]

I think the retainer box is fantastic! Lovely blue colours. The head looked like it was going along fine. I've tried to stop myself leaving a piece that has errors on now; I reckon they will always happen but my aim is to get more finished work done now - probably not what you're aiming for. Glad to hear that you don't have many more anti-inflammatories left, maybe you could have used a harder brush/ darker colour to define the pills inside more? keep it up man :D its great to see your updates.

[hp]

don't forget the ear =P i hate ears myself.

maybe do what zord had to do in IA's mentoring thread. take a photo of yourself and use the cutout filter in photoshop to simplify it. then as you finish the simplistic one, maybe increase the number of pieces the cutout. might help in getting you to simplify the form faster, ionno :D

[Farvus]

Ow. I missed many updates here.
When did you get so good at painting? Those still lifes look amazing! It's also great to see you're doing tons of life drawing. That's something on which you improve really fast. I think sometimes you don't pay enough attention to form. There's often just general silhouette of character and maybe gesture but shading lines doesn't show the the volume. Make the hatching wrap around the form and you'll get more 3d result.

Unless it's some specific excercise, you could allow yourself for some opacity in this self portrait. I mean different opacity in pen pressure. Blending values can be a bit spoiling thing for painting skills and I generally try to paint all planes with completely opaque strokes but you still have to show some difference between soft and hard edge.

Keep it up. I'll try to look here more often.

[Onir]

Toffeeliz - Thanks! Hmm I guess I'm aiming for both finished and more unfinished work; I almost feel like if I can stop part way through a piece and still have it work to some degree then I'm working in a good direction. Finished work is always nice to have, though, and I reaaaally need to start making some hehe. Goood point about the pills as well lol, they do kinda just look like blobs at the moment.

hp - I didn't notice the ear until you mentioned it! lol I really need to keep that in mind from now on. That cutout idea is pretty genius as well, sounds like a nice way to force you to see simpler shapes. Hmm gonna have to go find that thread ;) Thanks!!

Farvus - Aww you flatter me :bashful: hehe With the new school year starting and graduation beginning to loom over me, I've been feeling I really need to kick it in to gear if I want to survive after school lol. You're absolutely right, my work lacks form verrry badly most of the time; I'll definitely start working more structurally in my shading. I tried messing with the sensitivity on my tablet in painter after reading your post and I got some interesting results. Blending feels a bit easier now hehe, so hopefully I'm taking a step in a good direction.

--

Thanks much for stopping in guys, I appreciate it :) I'm back with some traditional and digital stuff; my roommate helped me to pick up the brush again so I've started using oils a bit more recently. It's kinda nice going between digital and traditional; very different approaches and feels, really helps me appreciate both of em hehe.

This first oil study was done a couple of weeks ago; just took me a while to upload the pics :P It was about a 2 hour session, was trying to get a better feel for wet in wet painting. The odd self portrait was about 1.5 to 2 hours long; I kinda started with a simple shape I saw and went from there (hence the baaad placement on the board). LOTS of mistakes anatomically (lips are too wide and I do NOT have a square jaw like that) and it kinda warped as I went (as my roommate said it's pretty pear shaped), but it was fun overall. Got a couple of close ups for details along side each.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/stlftr_01.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/stlftr_01_d.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sptr_01.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sptr_01_d.jpg

Some digital doodles; I haven't done much observational stuff digitally lately (which will change soon), but these two doodles were lots of fun and I kinda feel like I learned something from both.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_44.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_45.jpg

Thanks for looking as always! :sungod:

[Toffeeliz]

I think the self-portrait is quite nice (if a little moody lol) the dragon doodle is really fun too :D

[Farvus]

Hey. I realised I got your old sketchbook in saved subscribtions. Now it's ok.

The oil painting self portrait looks good. Values could be better but the skintones are really well done.

The dragon has funny pose. As you see I have similar observations to Toffeeliz :D

Keep it up!

[Onir]

Toffeeliz - Thanks! For some reason alot of the self portraits I do (especially if I do them for a while) become much more serious/tired lol. I gotta try something a bit more energetic next time ;)

Farvus - haha Thanks :) I agree about my values, tends to be an area that I can't push far enough. Gotta keep workin at it!

---

Back with 2 digital studies; trying to keep the ball rollin!

I think I need to get better with mark making. Ref (http://www.pbase.com/ktsang/image/34505655) for this first one.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/env_05.jpg

This one is a master study, did it in around 40 minutes or so; here's the ref (http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=29911).

Edit: photobucket removed my copy because she's naked :(

Thanks for looking!

[Toffeeliz]

I'm not too good with work using ref. pic on the computer. The colours on the top one are a bit off but you choose a pretty hard picture to do lol. theres not much in the way of values on it
As for the lower one, a little more work and time on it and it will be really good! you have a little bit of bother on the face but other than that great work - esp. the ass lol!

[Farvus]

Oh. Yeah. It seems like your digital art is getting more painterly and there is some stroke economy starting to appear. You could use low opacity brush with sky color to add some atmospheric perspective.

Good job.

[hp]

nice painting! i agree it's more painterly now.

make sure you watch the direction of your strokes to make sure things appear flat or in the right direction.

[Onir]

Toffeeliz - Thanks! I tried spending a bit more time on a reffed image I have this time like you said, came out a bit more polished. I do need to spend more time on things in general though, probably start doing that more often. Just gotta keep at it!

Farvus - Thank ya! I am trying to be a bit more thoughtful about my marks with these paintings (and more thoughtful about my art in general), seems like it helps alot. Good idea about the low opacity brush, definitely gonna have to try that.

hp - Thanks! Will definitely keep that in mind; color and shape flatness is something I'm trying to get better with.

---

Aww photobucket took down my master copy; looks like I'll have to start putting any nudes in a speedo or something :P Back with a few more things, some digital things, some pencil things, and a sprite for the weekly activity.

I was watching beach volleyball and though "Hey, this would probably be good ref to work from". So I looked some pics up and painted one :^^: Spent a bit more time on this one (specifically the torso area), felt it rendered out decently. Can't link the image since it was in flash, but it's on the NBC site. And a random face doodle; came out decently, albeit very plain overall.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/refsk_16.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_46.jpg

Some pencil things; the thumbnails are an exercise I learned in class that was done at Warner Bros. to practice staging for animation. Just a simple teapot and a cup of tea; works to get you thinking of lots of angles lol. Otherwise just some observed stuff from around my room, and the little environment doodles were value practices. I must say that I was inspired by Idiot Apathy's pencil drawings on one of his blogs for those, I'd recommend looking em up if ya get the chance.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0053.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0054.jpg

Aaand the sprite animation for this week. I missed last week's (skipped my mind completely) so I'll get around to it at some point, but this week's is a dust animation. My first time doing more special effects focused animation, so it was fun to attempt it. Gonna do more if I can.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/dust_01.gif

Thanks for looking as always!

[Toffeeliz]

the detail on her torso worked out really well - your shadow values are getting much better! :D one the pencil work, try to use lonegr strokes rather than the short snappy ones that you used on the botytle in the bottom left - looks better. Nice little composition sketches going on though :D

and the dust animation is very cute :D

[Farvus]

Hey! Really nice update. I like the volleyball study. You spent more time on torso and it really shows. It looks complete even though you didn't use small brushes to render details. That's something you gotta shoot for.
The face seems to have too long nose. Most of the structure looks good but maybe this area around lips is not enough defined.
Thumbnails are good idea for exercise. I planned to do more of that but I was too lazy. Maybe try to slow down when rendering stuff.

Keep it up!

[Onir]

Toffeeliz - Thanks! I'll try using longer pencil strokes, probably force me to calm down some when I'm drawing (not that I'm on edge or anything lol I tend to think in a gesture state of mind at times though).

Farvus - Thank ya :teeth: Good eye on the face and such, will definitely keep em in mind for the future. I'll try slowing down as well; as I said to Toffeeliz, I tend to think gesturally alot so I usually race to establish a base hehe.

---

Back with a quick update; I'm going back home to NJ until next Sunday or so on Wednesday so I probably won't update until then. Hopefully I'll come back with some things to show; I start school in a couple of weeks as well, so I need to start doing prep work for that (expect storyboards and an animatic! gotta really work on these things) when I get back.

Couple of digital doodles and another dust sprite (though it's more of a bubble burst I think). First doodle was just kinda messing around, liked the way it came out, and the second one was around 45 minutes I think.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_47.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_48.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/dust_02.gif

Thanks for looking! :yayca:

[Euphemism]

Hi, thanks for dropping by my SB again!

I'm going to comment on your speed-paints now.... I like the pose of your olive-coloured sketch, the figure looks half-balanced but remedies this in the line of action - it looks like a 'C'. :) The purple portrait's face is proportionate, but her hair sits much too far forward, this can be noticeable in the top/back of her head, and the hair looks like it's sitting two inches from her head!

I like the Olympian painting and the pencil sketches in your last post before, they're bright and expressive. :)

[Toffeeliz]

I like the sweet little bubble sprite :D very cute! http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_47.jpg even though it was just messing about I think it's the best of the two paintings. The nose is good on this one http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_48.jpg

have fun in NJ mate! :D

[hp]

the girl in the skirt is really really goood!!!!! :D

looks like you're getting pretty good at blending too. keep it up.

[Farvus]

The new face looks much better than previous one. There is much more form so eyes, lips and nose look like they are placed well in space. Something about the top of the head bugs me. I think this part is a bit too big even though she might have very dense hair. Maybe try studying skull structure a bit.
The full figure girl is really nice. You could push it further to see how far you can go. I haven't seen any finished stuff from you for a long time :).

Keep it up!

[Onir]

Euphemism - Thanks! Now that you mention it I can definitely see that her hair is HUGE lol, will have to keep that in mind for the future. Happy to hear the line of action worked with the skirt lady as well :)

Toffeeliz- Thank ya, glad ya like em :^^:

hp - Thanks! I'll have to try more of those figures, seems like that one turned out to be one of my better things lately hehe.

Farvus - I agree completely, Euphemism was pointing out the top of the head as well. I've had a problem with hair and the overall structure of the head, perhaps it is time to look at it again. It has been a while since I've finished something hasn't it? lol eek :$ I might have to try what you're saying, even if for nothing more than to actually finish something again.

---

Back with a bunch of pencil stuff; was nice to go back home for a few days, see the family and such. I did more reading than drawing while home, so trying to jump start things again.

I went to the beach with my parents one day while I was home and drew a bit there. Didn't go swimming or anything, more just enjoyed the weather with them. Got a bit of drawing done there.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0058.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0059.jpg

some dooodles (two of the top faces on the second page were reffed):
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0060.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0064.jpg

some 30 sec. gestures from posemaniacs:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0063.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0062.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0061.jpg

aaand some hands and master studies. The last one is a close up of the top one (I liked it when I did it so I scanned it in alone hehe). Here are the ref images 1 (http://www.wga.hu/art/b/benouvil/two_men.jpg) 2 (http://www.wga.hu/art/d/delacroi/7/704delac.jpg) 3 (http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=13791) 4 (http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=27536)

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0057.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0056.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0055.jpg

As always, thanks for looking!

[Toffeeliz]

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0059.jpg
"sand/ or tiny mountain range!" the munchkins of Oz agree! :D lovely gesture work on the other pages!
i would jsut suggest trying to smoothen out your pencil strokes when expressing light and tone/shadow :D

[Onir]

Toffeeliz - Lol forgot I wrote that :bashful: Thank ya, will certainly try to smooth out my lines a bit; I do tend to leave them more broken or zig-zaggy when I shade (especially quickly).

--

Back with another small update; I felt since this is my 1000th post that I should be posting art while I do it :P hehe nothing finished sadly, just some studies. This site (http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zm5s-nkmr/index.html), though it's in Japanese, has some great tutorials on it. Now I can't read Japanese for the life of me, but the drawings are great and it's pretty self-explanatory overall. Found my way to the noses and did a few studies following the examples on there. I've been generally bad with noses and this helped a good amount I'd say.

After I copied the examples I did mostly ones out of my head. On the second page it's mostly unreffed ones as well, though the face in the upper right is a tiny self-portrait. Figured I should try my nose, and just kinda went with it from there. I liked it so I have a closer shot as well :D

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0065.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0066.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0067.jpg

Thanks for looking! :rocker:

[Nele Ooms]

Hi, I really like those skeches, as well as your paintings and digital work!! Great stuff here!!

[Onir]

Nele Ooms - Thanks much! :)

--

Back with some more sketches, still on a nose kick. I'll probably do skull/head studies next so I can have a more solid foundation to put these noses on lol.

So yea, mostly noses with a couple of reffed landscape studies.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0068.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0069.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0071.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0070.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0072.jpg

Thanks for looking!

[hp]

nice noses :D good to see you approaching more form based stuff! great doodles too.

[Toffeeliz]

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0072.jpg

where the practice really showed fluency imo :D keep it up mate and just draw everyone's nose all the time! :D go in to the draw, become the nose!

[Farvus]

Nice sketches.

I think the nose itself isn't really a big problem. It's basicly series of wedges and in even more simplified form, single wide box-like shape with some more softer organic parts and more angular parts (especially in masculine face) where you have bone. More important is how it's placed on a skull. Look carefully how it connects under the brow line and how the bone of the nose connects with cheekbones.
Basicly every smaller part of face like eye, nose or lips depend on structure underneath. When you properly sketch cheek masses in perspective, you will get small space exactly between them to put nose and it will look right. Same goes for drawing ridge of the skull on top of which you have eyebrows. Once you get right angle of it's "slopes" and it's curve the eye sockets wrapping around those planes will look right. To properly put all basic skull shapes in space you need to really get into perspective. Try to draw the whole face as if it was really big building. You got something like this mentioned in Loomis I think.

I think your rendering with pencil is not organized enough. Try to break hatching lines into smaller clumps. Like here - http://www.fineart.sk/photos/loomis_heads/061.JPG. You also need too group your values into something simplier beacause it's unclear. One single value for shadow and one for light like in Cutout filter in Photoshop. Once you get it right, break into halftones and so on.

My favourite page is the last one. I guess it looks like you're improving.

Keep it up.

[Onir]

hp - Thanks! Yea I think that the nose studies really helped me start to think more in terms of form, and I'm just gonna keep pushing in that direction. Hopefully it'll really start to show as I keep goin with it.

Toffeeliz - lol Thanks :) I do have to say that drawing those noses makes me analyze everyone's nose I see now; kinda strange haha.

Farvus - Thanks for the strong words man :) I've been hitting the Loomis books hard (mostly got studies today) and I'm definitely seeing what you mean about the head in perspective. And you're absolutely right about my pencil work, I do need to organize my shading more; I might jump ahead and do some of the tonal section of Loomis while working through the rest of the construction at the same time. Either way I'll keep working at it!

---

The last couple of days I've been really going through Loomis' book on heads and hands; I don't think I'd ever really gone through and studied Loomis' books for whatever reason. I can say I've learned a good amount already and it's helped in my non reffed drawings as well (been working on a storyboard as well, but it's not done so I don't have it scanned in yet).

Anyhoo, here are a bunch of Loomis studies and a couple more things. As the school year starts in a few days and I need to start working on my semester animation, I've decided to try and make a few concept boards to help me get some idea of color and feel. Also I figure it's a good opportunity to start getting some more finished work done; so I have a few pose sketches for that as well.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0075.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0076.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0077.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0078.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0079.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0080.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0081.jpg

And the poses: I did a couple of thumbs then realized how much I sucked at the moment, causing me to start the above studies :P

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0073.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0074.jpg

Lastly, something from flash. Was just trying to be loose, mess around with blurring and such. I saved it as a transparent gif not thinking it'd be anti-aliased like it is (stupid me); it's not as bad on here as I thought it'd be and I'll try to fix it, but for some reason I didn't feel like saving an actual flash file of it at the time. :nohope:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/ranim_01.gif

Thanks for looking!

[Farvus]

These heads are much better than previous ones. I see you're easily capable of doing more construction underneath final lines and that's great. Sometimes there are mistakes in foreshortening but there's no special method for overcoming that. You just need to keep practising, measure proportions and see how it changes in different angles.

You can use stronger lines for heavier masses and lighter for lighter masses. You can also use additional light construction lines (which are usually not visible) to indicate where to put rendering. This way you'll pay more attention to different edges of facial planes.

The animation is really nice. I like the second move when he punches and strongly leans forward.

Keep it up!

[Toffeeliz]

Sweet animation - nice flow to it :D

The head studies are coming along fabulously. You could do with drawing someone's head from that angle now and see how the theory is put into practice. Another thing is you are working at a pretty small scale - super-size to a sheet of A3 if possible and use charcoal or pastel for a larger line :D it's just a case of adapting to proportions - you can get stuck drawing in too small or too big sometimes so I find it good to do a bit of both :D

[cout<mecha]

Hey I was in the motion graphics section of CA and decided to see what you were up to. I like the last animation you worked on, are you taking a class? I do quite a bit of this type of thing, maybe you will visit my sketchbook as I've just posted a little guide to anatomy figures for anime.

Well, keep up the good work and don't stress out to much just try to finish your thoughts! :)

[hp]

animation looks sweeet!!!

what is your schedule like at school?

[Onir]

Farvus - Thanks! These studies are really helping me with doing guidelines initially. I'll try the line weight indications you are mentioning, they definitely sound useful.

Toffeeliz - Thank ya! You're absolutely right, I need to do more studies at a larger scale; I think the school year is going to require much more large scale things, but regardless I do tend to stay at or around a sketchbook size. I'll try to move a bit bigger in the future.

cout<mecha - I'm kind of taking classes for animation; nothing too instructional now (just entering my senior year) but lots of practice and stuff. I'll check your book out asap, thanks for the encouragement! I'll try to finish my thoughts a bit more, as I do have a habit to rush with art at times :)

hp - Thanks! This semester is pretty backed, taking 6 classes (luckily each is only once a week) so I've got a decent amount to juggle. I'll go a bit more in depth in a second ;)

---

Hello everyone, kinda fell in to a no-scan mood for a bit there; finally got up the will and scanned in what I've done recently. A mixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly, mostly sketches though. School has started and I can see the storm clouds on the horizon lol; things are gonna get pretty hard soon enough I bet. Here's a brief class list:

Animation Projects 2 - Working on my semester project (which I'm in the process of making an animatic for)
Experimental Illustration - Just had that today; pretty much going to be experimenting in various ways to come up with an illustration. Seems like it'll be fun
Comic Books and Storyboarding - Haven't had this yet, but the name mostly says it. Gonna be one of my heavier classes I think
Art since 1945 - Art history, always good stuff to know
Character Development - We basically take characters and get very deep with them, eventually animating them in simple situations
Collaborative Animation - Animation working in a group; gotta make some concept sketches/simple storyboards for Thursday actually

So yea, that's my class list, I'll post up what I make in there when I can ;) Here are sketches and such though:

Loomis
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0090.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0091.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0092.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0093.jpg

Head doodles and a doodle thingy
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0089.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0085.jpg

Character sketches from first class of Character Development; TERRIBLE drawings over all lol, I kinda rushed through the vast majority of them. The characters are ridiculous too (the big guy is Roland, a 47 year old, 6' 2", 700 lb., Monkey trainer who is allergic to monkeys and the mohawk guy is a mentally challenged 11 year old who is strongly Catholic, has an eyepatch, and sells Sno Cones for a living.... gotta love class brainstorm sessions lol) so it was a bit strange thinking of designs immediately. The last guy is my character, a 31 year old Astronomer/Conspiracy Theorist :P Yep.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0082.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0084.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0083.jpg

Some non-ref sketches I much prefer, outside of the anatomy errors here and there
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0086.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0087.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/nsk_0088.jpg

Last but not least is a sprite I did for Sprite of the Week (in the community section, go join in!!) Jump!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/spt_03.gif

Thanks for looking! :sungod:

[Onir]

Hello once again; back with a quick quick update, just the storyboard that I've been working on (unfinished primarily because my printer ran out of ink) and the 360 sprite from last weeks S.A.W (here is the link to this weeks;GO JOIN! (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=136996)).

I won't be at my computer until next Sunday at the earliest; going up with my school to Ottawa for the International Animation Festival. Bringing up some work to hopefully pique the interest of some employers as well as just going up to enjoy the fine animation that's being done. Hopefully I'll bring back some interesting doodles to show, but yea otherwise I'll hopefully update again sometime soon.

Here's the unfinished storyboard for my potential semester project; it's based on a dream I had some time ago, and it's probably rather hard to read with it's light drawings, illegible text, and me not running you through it. I'll get an animatic together sometime soon and that should help :P

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sb_gttl_0001.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sb_gttl_0002.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sb_gttl_0003.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sb_gttl_0004.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sb_gttl_0005.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sb_gttl_0006.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sb_gttl_0007.jpg

and my spinning sprite. Dirty edges on this guy, didn't think about the edges as I was coloring him.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_360_01.gif

Thanks for looking!

[Toffeeliz]

love the kung fu sketches and this litle guy! http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/spt_03.gif keep working on the latest sprite. You're fantastic at animation :D

[hp]

cool sprites! how many frames do you use for something like the turnaround?

[cout<mecha]

Your designs seem a bit too comic style. Plan out the structures or basic shapes of the characters so that they will be easy to animate. There seems to be a lot of sliding going on and it needs more perspective. Keep going!

[Onir]

Toffeeliz - thanks much, you're too kind :)

hp - thanks! the turn around took 8 frames if I remember correctly; definitely could be smoother, but it gets the job done hehe

cout<mecha - thanks, I appreciate the advice; simplification is definitely something I've been striving to get better at, though stylized realism is a personal goal of mine. I think as I'm animating I'm getting better at consistency issues like sliding, so hopefully the more I work at it it'll improve. either way, I'll keep tryin hehe

---

Hey everyone, been a few months again. Last semester got quite hectic and I really wasn't able to check in here as much as I would have liked. As this coming semester is my last, however, I'm going to try to increase my productivity/output up a large amount so I can hopefully graduate with some momentum (personal momentum if anything). Regardless, I'd like to just start participating more; would be nice to make more contacts/friends :) I've probably said that before, but hey it's a new year right? lol

Well I'm posting back work for the moment; I'll upload some actual sketches and current stuff very soon. This is work from last semester for the moment, though. First up is the 6 pages we had to do for my Comic book and storyboarding class. This is the Marvel test plot, just a simple 6 page story involving Spiderman and Mr. Hyde (not sure if it's still what's used though). We're lucky enough for our teacher to have worked at Marvel as a colorist for a while so he was able to give us some great feedback. Either way these pages helped me start learning how to clean up rough pages, as well as to use a lightbox/tracing paper to aid in the process. I learned alot in that class, though these pages might not reflect it lol. I've got lots of work to do to get better!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_mtp_01.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_mtp_02.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_mtp_03.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_mtp_04.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_mtp_05.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_mtp_06.jpg

Next is a pinup we had to do while working on the last of the six above pages. We weren't required to focus on any specific character, and this one was primarily just up to us. The two characters are no one in particular, just people I came up with. I was trying to work in a more stylized manner in all of the work in that class, and I think this is probably the best it came out to be. Definitely getting inspired by Stuart Immonen's work (thinking specifically of his work in Next Wave), though I'm not sure whether or not it shows.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_pinup_01.jpg

and these last two are just animations I posted in my little thread in the animation section of the forum. I didn't get to animate as much as I would have liked last semester, but these two things I'm pretty happy with. They are meant to be specific interactions between my personal character (who's in both), a salesman, and our class character. The salesman is in the first of the two, and the class character (a cross-dressing monkey trainer named Roland, whom I may have mentioned above) is in the second.

2JR_ce1YtPo

hku1m4HGm4Q

Well, I'm sorry for taking so long to post again, but I hope this will at least start to change that. Thanks again for looking! And of course crits/comments are always welcome and appreciated :)

[hp]

omg these animations are awesome!!!! really nice and fluid.

have you applied anywhere?

the pages are pretty cool too, esp the style. i think there are a few panels that don't quite hold up to the rest but overall it's really nice. are you considering going into comics? or just animation?

[Onir]

hp - thanks, you're too kind :) I haven't applied anywhere yet, still trying to build up my demo reel some more. I'd like to apply for jobs that require 3D stuff, but I'm still rather inexperienced with Maya... hopefully I can work with it a little this semester. Glad ya like the comic as well, I was having a hard time trying to figure out a look I could work with. I don't plan on doing any comic work (right now at least), though a graphic novel or something in the future would be great. If I can get there of course ;)

--

Hey, back with a few more things; would have updated sooner, but this piece I was working on took longer than I would have liked. So yea here we go:

This is a sprite I never animated for the SAW activity that was going on in the community section (would be great if it started up again, would actually be able to do stuff this semester).

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/bbsprite_01.gif

Now to preface this, I have a ridiculous amount of blank notecards lol. I needed them for a storyboard I did last year and ended up using around 75 or so of them; staples only sells them in packs of 400 though sooo :D I also have about as many smaller ones left over too, so yea I doodle on them alot haha. I did these two when I was working on the piece that'll follow this one; I think I was channeling Ashley Wood's style (though it's nowhere near as good as his work) somewhat on the top one hehe.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_163.jpg

And this last one was the final for a short class I just finished taking. It's my attempt at illustrating the Chinese myth of P'an Ku, the first living being and the one to separate the sky and the earth. There are ALOT of problems with it (which I tried to fix on the hand), but I'm pretty happy to have finished something lol. Was alot of fun working in ink too.

570866

I'll probably put this up over in the Critique Center as well; I'm aware of a number of problems, but the best way to improve is to get as much feedback as I can, right? Thanks for looking as always!

[Toffeeliz]

boy, Atlas really let himself go yeah? i would have thought there'd be more shadow on his belly if there is that much on his back. the rock like things in the background are a little like table Mountain haha :D

[Black Spot]

I enjoyed catching up here. Really liked your animated sprites.

[Onir]

toffeeliz - gah good point about the shadow; will certainly have to keep such things in mind for the future. thanks as always :)

Black Spot - thanks, glad you liked em :)

---

heeey guys, what's it been.. 6, almost 7 months? well I apologize very much for that, my final semester proved to be quite a lot of work and stress. but now that I'm a graduate and hoping to get a real industry job in the not too distant future I figure I should get back on here and try to get more involved. so yes to the art:

here are a few digital doodles I did a week or so back.. I haven't improved much as you'll see! hehe :dead:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_51.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_52.jpg

a badly animated "sprite" I did in flash; came out waay too fast and jerky when I look at it now.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/landwhale_02.gif

some pen sketches; first is a random sheet of faces I did and the second is a couple of sketches of one of the two cats currently living with us. The cat sketches are the most recent btw (from earlier today actually).

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_173.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_174.jpg

my senior reel came out pretty meh in my opinion and I didn't finish my senior film either, hard as I did try. I did come out of it with this following short though which I was actually pretty happy with; was my first venture into stop motion as well.

LXf2UuVbz48

so yes, from now on I'm going to be trying to push myself a bit harder... I've learned alot and gotten a good footing but now I need to start climbing and fast. any criticism and/or advice is welcome and appreciated :)

thanks for looking!

[hp]

post your reel!!!!

if you're interested in coming out for a semester, i'm going to the concept design academy in pasadena. there's a REALLY good storyboarding class here taught by jay olivia that i'm taking right now. it's like a billion hours of work a week tho ^^ you'd prolly be used to it as an animator tho ^^

also have you thought about animation mentor? i heard it's pretty good.

anddd i know cartoon network was hiring at anime expo, dunno if you're interested in working for them.

i think some of the animation in your stuff is a little shaky but the sprites are pretty good (don't listen to me, i dunno anything about animation). your sketching's also getting a lot better! looking forward to seeing your new stuff!

[cout<mecha]

Congratz on graduating. I see you have posted some animation experiments here, have you tried posting them in the motion graphics forum for critique? In my opinion your simplicity and abstraction have worked well for you but you seem to hold back when it comes to sequential work by oversimplifying things like camera angles and character detail. Your movement is fairly decent though so keep working on animation!

[Onir]

hp - Ahhh alrighty hehe, I'll post it up... I'd like to hear some feedback on it's current state anyway, would be a good help for where I decide to go with it next. very cool that you're out in Pasadena! I would love to join ya for a semester, probably learn alot (my storyboarding could always use work) and it's be cool to actually meet you in person :P but unfortunately I'm not too good on money atm, so I'll just have to keep that in mind for the time being. Good idea on animationmentor as well, something else I'll really have to keep in mind; and CN hiring is always good to hear as well (even if I don't necessarily want to work there it's a job and good experience right?). Thank ya for the input on my animation as well, any feedback is good feedback. I agree I really need to get back to the basics and improve my timing, spacing, acting, everything.

cout<mecha - Thanks! Yea I really do need to put my things over in the proper area so I can get some more feedback, been slow on doing it though for whatever reason... soon though! I agree about my camera work, I tend to opt for more simplified shot because of time constraints and also because I'm a fan of longer shots between cuts. That said I know my storytelling needs work so I hope to improve at that from now on.

---

Eehh, I type too much; gotta be more to the point, quicker to the art!

Firstly, here's my reel from my senior year. It's nothing too amazing, but I will say quickly that most of the pencil tests in there are from my unfinished film (which I have no idea if I will finish, sort of cornered myself because of time).

tjYn1eOVdHo

I'd like to have some actual animation studies up here but I wasn't around my computer or my apartment very much these last few days. I have been sketching alot though, so here's what I've produced lately.

Last Thursday I had no power in my room so I sketched a couple things in my room then took a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts and drew for a couple hours; most of it came out pretty bad (I SUCK are rendering in ball point pen) but the last couple showed some glimmer of hope I'd like to think.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_175.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_176.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_177.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_178.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_179.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_180.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_181.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_182.jpg

Then Saturday I went up to Maine with a friend to visit one of my roommates. We went out to his friend's island for a night (the one sketch of my knee and a room was done really early when I couldn't fall back asleep, so quality isn't too great), then he showed us a couple of sights in Maine.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_187.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_188.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_189.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_190.jpg

The last sketch above made me realize how badly I needed to return to basics and begin touching up on my understanding of form, shape, light, etc. So I started doing some studies from Loomis' Creative Illustration, then I went to the park with a couple of friends and we drew out there for a bit. Switched back to pencil for a change of pace as well.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_183.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_184.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_185.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_186.jpg

And this last one I did yesterday morning as well; a friend has a facebook group where we have to illustrate a word for the week. Doesn't need to be fancy, more an exploration of ideas. This was my meager offering for the word Next.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/flannel_next.jpg

So yes, that's been the last few days or so. I'll be back with something animated! Thanks for looking!

[hp]

nice reel! your 2d animation is definitely a lot better than your 3d. i noticed in a few spots the shape of the form changed considerably when it wasn't necessary imo, i know animation is supposed to be super exaggerated sometimes but i think some parts could use a bit more subtlety. on the guy escaping the gears, i'm not sure if he's supposed to be floaty but even if he is i think he could use some more impact when he hits the floor - like maybe make the part where he brushes the ground a bit more snappy.

your sketches are soooo good! esp the duck hehe

well if you ever want to visit before term's over (end of august), you can feel free to stay at me and my roomie's house, i'm sure the school would let you sit in on a session.

i know disney is hiring in their recent grad program as well, i'm pretty sure they were hiring storyboard artists (dunno if you're interested in storyboarding?)

[Onir]

hp - thanks! I definitely agree with you on the shape changes, I was sort of on a limited animation kick for a while (threw unnecessary blurs and smears on eeeevverything haha). And you're absolutely right about the guy in the gears; that was probably my earliest attempt at animating pose to pose in Maya and I wasn't thinking about weight or anything as I was going, so I agree about the need for a bit more snap here and there.

thanks much for the offer as well! I may take you up on that if I can get some money up to travel out west, would be a great opportunity. thanks much for the reminder about Disney as well, I had been meaning to apply to them for their animation grad program (more CG focused but I do want to get into that at some point); I do like storyboarding alot as well, I just never thought I was very good at it haha. did you apply for the Disney storyboarding position?

---

Back again with a WIP; I feel like I NEVER have works in progress to post, which feels like a bad thing haha. I decided to start working on more basic exercises to (hopefully) improve as an animator all around, simpler things I could actually do to start producing a decent amount. It's barely animated and roughly timed out so far... this was alot of fun, I'll definitely be working on it. any thoughts on it are much appreciated as always! :teeth:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_floursack_01.gif

[hp]

i can't remember what i applied for, i think i applied for like all the positions hahahaha.

anyhoo nice animation! i've actually being using same idea more in my torsos hehe so i can think of how the body twists etc.

[Peter Berkovski]

nice thread mate :) good and hard work so far, I could recommend you to check carefully your last test (bag sack) - to me it's seems you've been missing some major key frames in the walk and it come out little unconvincing ;) beside that your work is really good, best regards!

[Onir]

hp - haha hey why not eh? I'm hoping to get my reel packed up and sent out to Disney by tomorrow (I know I'm already reaaaaallly late on it), then I'm crossing my fingers. glad ya liked the animation as well, I'm happy you mentioned about the torsos as well. I remember one of my animation teachers telling me to think about the flour sack when doing figure drawing, and that's been bobbing around in my head for a little while now. you and someone over in the motion graphics section saying that, though, has helped bring that back up and I can tell ya it's helping hehe.

Peter Berkovski - thanks man :) I completely agree with you about the key frames; for some stupid reason whenever I key out a walk without thinking a little I start with the passing phase (was raised starting on the contact phase, then going to the passing phase). also I tend to forget about the low and high positions as well... good reason to keep the survival kit nearby me I guess lol. I'll keep working at it! thanks again!

---

Sooooo that animation above? Well I did it using Plastic Animation Paper (http://www.plasticanimationpaper.dk/index.asp?locale=) because I was very curious about a raster based animation program (and an alternative to flash or toon boom); nothing wrong with the program or anything, I really really like it. Got Photoshop sorta brush and nice pressure sensitivity, and, since I'm poor and am only using the free version, it's forcing me to approach it from a more traditional standpoint (which I prefer in many ways). The BIG problem for me though was figuring out that the save button is on the left side of the window when you go to save... and the cancel button is a similar shape. So I apparently never saved what I was working on :( :nohope:

I'll be back with more animation though! Just trying to come up with something I like as much as that last one haha... Yes though as for now, I've got a quick sketch of the word Misfire and two pencil sketches I did while waiting at my old school today.

The line is holding this together, I know, but I'm kinda happy with it. Not sure if the idea is solid though.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/flannel_misfire.jpg

And I have to say that Idiot Apathy's environment sketches were a reaaally big inspiration and influence on the right one... not that it's even close to what he is doing.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_192_c.jpg

Thanks for looking!

[Jamie Romoser]

Whats up Onir :sungod: You have a awsome sketchbook going here. The animations are ace! Really makes me want to try something like that out.
looking forward to seeing more work -Jamie

[YihyoungLi]

I just went through your sketchbook, and I'm amazed by the animations. Especially your 2D ones--the gestures and expressions are quite believable. In the most recent post, maybe the shadows in the boy could be cleaner? It's difficult to determine where the light source is coming from.

Your overall head structure is good--especially for the cartoon faces--but sometimes there are proportion errors or skewed planes in the referenced ones. I stumbled over this artist's conception of the head: How to Draw the Head From Any Perspective" (http://www.stanprokopenko.com/blog/2009/05/draw-head-any-angle/). It's really simple, but I find that it works very well. :)

[dCepT]

Love the animations :) The potato sack anim has nice and loose lines! Have you tried sketching in that sort of loose.. animation-y style?

dC

[Onir]

OmertA - thanks much, I appreciate that :)

YihyoungLi - thanks for the crit and the link! very good point on the lighting of the boy, I tried to be consistent and simple but it definitely fell a part a bit somewhere. gotta work at that more... and yes that link to the head construction is really nice! I'll probably do some studies from there as time goes on; got a nice solid way to approach it going there.

dCept - thanks man :) hmm honestly I haven't really tried to haha; in school they introduced a more measured way of approaching drawing and that's what i usually tend to fall back to. I have been trying to get my drawing more confident and direct lately, and approaching it in a more animated fashion seems like it'd be a good way to go... no idea if that makes sense but yes I'll give it a try! haha

---

Hey guys, back really quick with an update. As it turns out I'm going back home until sometime next week, so I won't have any updates until at least then.

Yep though, here is my offering this go around:

Some sketching from sculptures at the MFA. The first sketch came out reaaally bad (wasn't thinking or something); I'll just say it was a "warm up".

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_193.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_194.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_195.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_196.jpg

aaaand another start to a floursack animation (since the other one got overwritten or something). I apologize for the weird quality as well, photoshop was being stupid so I had to use after effects.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjk_floursack_02.gif

feedback appreciated as always; thanks for looking!

[YihyoungLi]

The sketches look pro! I can definitely perceive where the light is coming from. The foot looks stellar, and those hands are nicely captured. However, I think the proportions are off. Independently, the limbs look fine. But, for example, the legs seem kind of short/skinny. In the right figure, the arms connection to the torso is also strange.

There seems to be a big gap in the animation, but the gestures are definitely believable.

[HAJiME]

Very nice animations! If you have a PC, you might wanna try using PAP http://plasticanimationpaper.dk/

Love the comic pages too! Fantastic stuff all round, keep it up.

[dCepT]

The new sketches look real good! Your hatching seems a little hurried at times.. I have the same problem.. hehe.. Made total sense with the more.. direct approach.. might help loosening up your hand before doing measured drawings too :)

dC

[hp]

nice sketches! the animation looks pretty good, i might work a little more on the trip, it seemed kind of confusing (altho obviously not very many frames in the end)

[Onir]

YihyoungLi - gah you're absolutely right on the proportions; I'm trying to get better at eyeing them, but I do still have the habit of making the torso too long/the legs too short. gonna keep working at it though! hehe thanks much for the crit :) and yea I need to go in and finish off that animation... the trip is definitely pretty abstract right now hehe

HAJiME - thanks! I've actually been using the free version of PAP for the last couple of animations, and I reaaaaally like it hehe. nice having a raster program for animation that works well (Easytoon is good too, though I never got used to the set up).

dCepT - I'm definitely with ya on the hatching, I get really impatient some times (at least when things don't seem to be working out) so I get a bit quicker with it and screw it all up haha. I never think of reaaally loosening up my hand before I start drawing, probably why me first drawing or two always looks like crap hehe. good to keep in mind; thanks!

hp - thank ya! yea I definitely need to fill out that fall more so that it looks like it should.. also gotta finish it so I can move onto something else hehe.

----

a bit of a long break between posts, went home for a week and got some rest, figured some things out (though I didn't draw too much unfortunately). when I got back I went to the museum with my roommate and drew (which the first few sketches are from) and then tuesday into wednesday I did a 24 hour comic thing with some friends. we went from 1 pm tuesday to 1 pm wednesday and the goal was 24 pages in 24 hours; needless to say I failed lol, got 19 done and then went a bit braindead around 6 - 7 am and couldn't figure out where to take my comic for the life of me. the pages are a bit big so I don't have them here unfortunately, but I'll post them up when I can.

otherwise, I've just been trying to revamp my drawing approach a bit... the comic thing made me realize I'm relying way too much on measuring, which is resulting in very boring and repetitive designs. so I've been looking trying to become more loose and simple, doing quicker and rougher gestures while looking at movies or pictures or just from my imagination.

here are the museum pictures:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_197.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_198.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_199.jpg

and the most recent gestures/sketches:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_200.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_201.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_202.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_203.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_204.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_205.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_206.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_207.jpg

oh and here are a couple quick paints I did for my friends drawing group. The first is the word "Bloated" and the second is for "Supreme" (supposed to be a supreme court judge? hehe)

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/flannel_bloated.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/flannel_supreme.jpg

thanks for looking!

[hp]

wow your drawing def has gotten like 10x better in this post. much more fluid and drawing thru things. this sounds weird but there are some really good lines delineating the hip/crotch area haha in your stuff

keep it up!

[Farvus]

I haven't been here for long time. Lots of cool stuff going on in here. Your figures got more volume. Something your art lacked a lot some time ago, I think. http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_198.jpg - For example this one looks like progress.

Try to simplify value shapes in your tone drawings. Group together shadows and lights to get more clarity. For example here (http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_194.jpg) it seems too chaotic. I would recommend seeing this demo on Nathan Fowkes blog http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.com/2008/09/head-drawing-demo.html. He shows it well.

Apart from that you're developing some nice cartoony style. I'm looking forward to see how it will get richer. :)

Cheers.

[Onir]

hp - wow thanks! I've actually done a good number of hogarth studies (good amount of focus on the torso and hips among other things) so I guess that'd do it! haha

Farvus - ooo thanks for the link! that is a great demo, gonna have to try that approach next time. glad to hear the form in my drawing has improved, I remember you (and others) telling me I needed to improve with that a while ago so it's been a big focus of mine :P And yea I realized this last year that I really enjoy a stylized/cartoony look so I've been trying to find a nice balance as I work. either way, thanks much once again!

---

back with some more doodles and sketches mostly. outside of the bed and the 2 pages of gestures, the work is primarily from imagination. still trying to get used to constructing figures and things in a more direct way. I really like starting with shapes, but my natural inclination is to start measuring and dropping in arbitrary lines to indicate form n such. so yea, been fighting that a bit haha. as always crits are always welcomed and appreciated :teeth:

so yep, my bed and 30 second gestures from Posemaniacs.com

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_208.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_211.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_212.jpg

and doodles
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_209.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_210.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/sk_213.jpg

oh yes, I finished up the flour sack animation from above. completely redid the fall, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

4I2VS9Fhf1Y

thanks for looking!

[cout<mecha]

Hey Onir! Nice work as always and your animation is getting even better. One thing to remember on you drawing the female. I noticed you losing depth when it comes to the breastal reigion. This quick drawing shows what I do to always get good measurements.
748092
I hang the breasts from an imaginary tie around the neck so that they rest on top of the chest instead of somewhere inside it or otherwise. Just try it once! :)

[Farvus]

Nice gestures.
Sorry. No useful crit comes to my mind. Maybe try sketching with brushpen/brush to get more "flowing" lines or do some blind contour drawings to get more line control. More attention to hands. Try doing gesture drawings of hands only. They can say as much as the whole body.

Cheers.

[dCepT]

Yep.. definately a jump up in the last couple of posts! Seems the animation-take is doing you good! :) Keep rockin'!

dC

[Onir]

cout<mecha - thanks for the advice! that approach makes alot of sense, takes gravity into account and everything; I haven't drawn any naked ladies lately but I'm definitely keeping that method in mind :)

Farvus - thank ya, forgot about brush pens, definitely gonna have to give those a go again. every time I use em I have a drop in confidence haha, so definitely a good way to test myself I imagine. blind contours always help as well... yes though, I did a bunch of hands as you suggested, tried doing them pretty quickly. gotta love hands, always a challenge

dCept - thanks man! yea that approach really clicked with me for some reason haha, I'm not gonna question it though!

---

So yes got some quick hands, some studies from characterdesigns.com, some doodles and a very rough character sheet for a lipsync I'm starting.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_002.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_003.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_004.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_005.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_001.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_006.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_007.jpg

a rough sketch of Fresh, and an abandoned illustration I worked on for a bit yesterday (there's a lot of open space for figures I had in there but just didn't add when I decided it wasn't working). really need to work on my color choices.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/flannel_fresh.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_54.jpg

thanks for looking!

[dCepT]

Good hand studies! The last enviro seems to be a bit wonky perspective wise.. And I agree that it's a bit empty.. hehe.. I like the character sheet as well! Gonna be cool to see where it ends up :)

dC

[hp]

for the last piece maybe do a study of one of those lush middle easterny type paintings with all the vibrant yellows and gold leaf.

great hands!

[Onir]

dCept - thanks! good point on the perspective, barely planned the piece so I guess it's expected haha

hp - ooo good idea on the paintings to study, definitely gonna look into that. thanks!

---

smaller update today; started working in Maya again some more (forgot how much fun it is), so I have a small video from that. I also finally put together a pdf of my 2d work so I can send more than just my reel to studios; most of the stuff in there I've already posted, but I'll put the pdf up on here if anyone is interested in looking (always open to feedback as well ;) hehe) and lastly I did a rather quick self-portrait recently trying to approach it a bit more like the head tutorial Farvus posted for me a little while ago. it was fun, but I botched the proportions a bit (probably didn't help that I was working with the pad flat on my desk either). ah well, good practice.

self portrait (I made myself look emaciated haha)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_008.jpg

and some ball bounces
ujUVbULIo90

hmm seems the pdf is a bit too big to upload directly through CA; I'll get it up soon as I can.. thanks for looking!

[YihyoungLi]

Hey you're updating a lot more often now! :asskisser: haha.

The hands on your other update have a convincing sense of volume; the clean lines are delicious. Your imagined characters are kinda stiff. The studies from characterdesigns are very languid and lifelike; perhaps injecting some of their contrapposto and curvier gesture lines into your imagined figures.

The fish and background are leaning towards the flat side; some darker shadows could volumize them. Maybe gray-scale studies could help too.

Self portrait is really good! I understand the lighting very well. The eye area is funky--to high I think, and the bridge is shaped strangely.

Keep it UP!!!!!!! Woohoo!

[Onir]

YihyoungLi - gah you're absolutely right about my characters; I've been looking specifically at hip/shoulder tilt in my studies but I don't think about it in my imaginative characters as much for whatever reason. that'll change! looking back at that self portrait now I can definitely see more of what you mean (the bridge of the nose is way too square, the eyes are uneven, the jaw is too small, bleh haha), things I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for as I go along. and I should do more grayscale paintings, probably help alot with getting painted form down. whew, thanks much for the great crits!

---

back with a few things; I did a few doodles trying to get them to be a bit lively, then I kinda fell into a slump for a day or two. didn't draw so much for a day or two and lost a bunch of confidence... been reading Drawn to Life, Walt Stanchfield's lectures, and it's been a giant help. I got to a part where he started listing the important things to look for when assembling the gesture/first impression, and one of them was thrust (basically just a part of the body that is jutting out moreso than another, such as a hip or an elbow. helps indicate body language and weight); must say that was a small revelation to me haha, really helped me look at doing the figure in a different light. so yea, long story short I have a page of gestures that, while maybe not particularly great, was a step in my understanding of weight and gesture.

bleh I ramble too much; got two digi paints as well, one that's a doodle and another that's a study. was looking at Prometheus|ANJ's art tutorials and was testing out a few things he was suggesting.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_009.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_010.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_55.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/refsk_18.jpg
and the reference (http://www.characterdesigns.com/bandaid/content/eventPhotos/2127/2231/RenFair_2008_109.jpg) for the feet.

thanks for looking!

[Toffeeliz]

great figure studies but maybe lighter colours on the boat picture? The sky looks plum :D

[YihyoungLi]

Wow really wonderful gestures! I'm pleasantly surprised; it seems that small revelation pushed you forward a lot. The first page is gorgeous; I can feel characters tingling with liveliness. The girl riding the bike and the guy at the counter are my faves. Thanks for sharing.

The color studies are nice too. I think the peach strip in the boat piece is too ambiguous; I assume it represents light in the sky, but it could be more integrated with the purples.

Keep up the good work!

[pantless_wanderer]

Nice gestures, and those pillow animations are looking very nice. The one thing I would critique is that your shading isn't always able to accurately describe the form and volume of the objects (for example, the weird eyes in your self-portrait), and sometimes the way you use line and shading together turns out looking kinda flat (like in the last pic, the one with the shoes).

But if it's animation you're interested in then you're definitely on the right path, with those nice gestures full of life and some nice fluid lines.

Keep up! :)

[dCepT]

That is right! The last two sketchpages rawk! Gettin' to be really really dynamic!

Sorry for not being constructive at all, but the sketchpages are a step up so I'm gonna leave you with an :asspat:.. hehe

dC

[Onir]

toffeeliz - Thank ya! Good point about the colors; I like high saturation, but I tend to just get darker and darker when I paint hehe. And yea that sky is a bit too purple now that you mention it lol

YihyoungLi - Thanks! Yea for some reason that little thing clicked with me, helped me see things differently. I completely agree about the orange on the boat; I see people use rim light alot and I figured I'd give it a try lol need to do more studies to get a stronger understanding of it I think. Thanks for the crit either way!

pantless_wanderer - Thanks for the crits, I completely agree! hehe I really do need to work on my shading; unfortunately while I learned the basics of structural shading in school, as an animation major we were never required to go much further with it. Try as I might, I still haven't improved a whole lot with my rendering... definitely need to get better at that, even if animation is my focus :) thanks again!

dCept - Thanks, man! No worries about the criticism, I appreciate any and everything you guys say to me, encouragement included ;)

--

Sorry for the delay on this update, I'm back with a few things. Member conceptartist posted a cool Reilly Method Head Quick Sketch (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166868) over in the tutorials subforum, and I figured I'd give the week long thing a try. Now, granted, I think I did 6 of 7 days (not sure what happened on the 7th day haha) but either way the method is great and I think it really helped. So I've got a rather large image with a collection of heads from August 27 - September 1, reading left to right.

These are all from photo ref, all in ball point pen. Sorry if this is too big for anyone, let me know and I'll try to shrink it down.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_012.jpg

While I was working on those I got the urge to practice my profiles as well, so here's a page of those, also in ballpoint.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_011.jpg

Last still image is a random sketch I did pretty quickly last night; proportions and composition aren't very good, but I liked the pose so I went with it hehe.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_56.jpg

And here's a walk cycle I did in Maya over the weekend.

X9qV-SeK85c

thanks for looking!

[Onir]

Ello, back with a smaller update; some quick face sketches, trying to work in a manner similar to the ones from my previous post. And an apple still life done in Photoshop.. been a while since I've done one of those, forgot how enjoyable it could be. I stopped after a bit, and I really stopped paying a whole lot of attention to the background after a bit (as is probably evident) :P

Sorry for the weird scan, my sketchbook is a bit bigger than my scanner's scan area.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_013.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/stlfe_08.jpg

thanks for looking!

[YihyoungLi]

Although it wouldn't hurt to work bigger, the faces are looking nice. The noses in some of them seem too long or exaggerated, but the newer batch def looks better than the other one.

The colors in the apple piece are convincing, however the objects seem floaty. I think defining the edges a little more will give them more weight.

Keep it up!

[YihyoungLi]

Although it wouldn't hurt to work bigger, the faces are looking nice. The noses in some of them seem too long or exaggerated, but the newer batch def looks better than the other one.

The colors in the apple piece are convincing, however the objects seem floaty. I think defining the edges a little more will give them more weight.

Keep it up!

[hp]

the walkcycle looks pretty good, my crit is the arms are a bit floppy from the side view

your heads are getting way better!

[Onir]

YihyoungLi - thanks for the crits! I definitely agree with ya on both fronts, the noses do look very caricatured looking back at them now. And good point on the edges, definitely need to start working with that a bit more as I work.

hp - thanks! very good point on the floppiness of the arms, I went a bit overboard with the follow through on em hehe. I'll try to restrain em back a bit next time.

---

Woo way too big of a gap between posts, sorry about that. I have an odd bunch of things, so here we go:

A couple weeks ago I went home for a few days to see my family and I sketched alot on the bus and train ride down and back up; here's a collection of the sketches. Unfortunately, I may have lost this little sketchbook a day or two :( Least I scanned in some of it I guess.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_014.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_015.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_016.jpg

Some recent doodles: the first is a rhino in a boxing pose and the second is a little demon guy with a huge head. The demon guy was done while I was trying to brainstorm some designs for the baddies in a short I'm gonna be starting up soon. No idea why I drew a (very inaccurate) rhino in a fighting stance though (had some fun with paper texture on that one though).

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_57.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_58.jpg

And here's a character design I'm leaning towards for the above mentioned short. I'm hoping to get a rough storyboard/animatic done in the next week or so, so I'll get that up here when it's done. I was thinking about using this textured paper over top of the main character in the animation, but I'm starting to lean away from it... probably use it for something else, where it might fit more. I also sketched up a psuedo-rendered portrait of the guy yesterday... pretty mixed feelings about it.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/dcsk_01.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/dcsk_01_t.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/dcsk_02.jpg

And last but not least, a little tropical bird sprite I did. As with the rhino, I have no idea what inspired this (though we have been watching through Planet Earth lately...).

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/092609_bird.png

Thanks much for looking! Oh and if any of these images are a bit too big, lemme know and I'll shrink em down.

[Farvus]

Nice stuff.

I like idea with the rhino. The pic has pretty good range of values. I'm not really sure about his pose though. The legs placement looks like he's boxing but the arms and face expression don't say that. Maybe raise his fists a bit so that they cover a bit of head. Also I think his head would catch more light than his belly if it's from above.

The sprite is cool :D.

Keep going.

[hp]

cute sprite :D

obviously the sketches are just sketches but i think you should practice using more boxy shapes, probably from being in an animation bg you use more curly shapes. also i'm jealous, i get motion sick while looking at a book or drawing in a bus/car so i can't do subway or bus sketches :D

about the char, i think you should simplify his shapes a lot more. think about what you have to draw and what can just be hinted at. i dunno if you're just going to make a refined animatic but it would suck to draw a complicated char over and over :D <~~lazy

just personal opinion tho. :D

[Onir]

Farvus - Thanks! Good point about the rhino hehe, the boxing thing was sorta just something I thought kinda fit after I sketched him lol. I will probably return and try to tighten him up some, definitely raise his fists to help push the boxing idea more. Good call on the lighting too, the shadows from his arms are too big.

hp - Gah stinks that you can't draw or read while in a car/bus, though I understand to degree; for some reason playing games has made me sick the last couple times I've tried playing it while traveling. Yes though, good idea on trying to draw a bit more boxy, I have noticed my lines curving ALOT as I draw lately haha. Helps, but not the best thing to do I'm sure. I have tried drawing a bit boxier lately, but it's proving alot harder... On a similar note, I completely agree with you on the character design; I haven't made a whole lot of progress on the animatic, primarily because drawing the character on model repeatedly isn't as easy as I'd like lol. I've simplified the shoulders and his overall shapes so he's easier to draw, though I'm still messing around to see if I can get it to a easier point.

And glad both of you liked the sprite! :teeth:

---

A bit of a long time between updates again, sorry about that. I've made it my main focus as of late to improve my reel as much as I possibly can... I'm out of school and I'm not working in the field I went to school for, which isn't the best feeling. I feel I know enough to work professionally for a studio in some capacity, but my reel really doesn't reflect that at the moment. So, I've gotta make it so it does! :) So yes the main point of that is that I'll be posting many more animations or animation related work.

Enough of that and to the work! These first ones are for an image advertising my friends local drink and draw thing that he's been trying to do. I've only done these sketches but I was thinking of something involving a quill and inkwell tap pouring ink into a beer mug that's atop a sketchpad as a coaster. The second image is a simple color study I did to get the initial thought down.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_017.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_017_ct.jpg

This is just a doodle I did for practice in a way. I've been looking at Patri Balanovsky's (Chuck,mate) work alot lately, always been a big fan, and I thought I'd try to do something in a way similar to his sketches. Didn't really achieve his level at all, but I kinda like the result.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/doodles_59.jpg

And lastly just a couple of walk cycles I did recently.

AOFJL5ASslk

Thanks for looking!

[hp]

i've noticed that your walkcycles are often a bit stompy, i don't know what you would do to fix that or if it was on purpose though T.T

great idea with the drink and draw thing!

and i love the portrait, it's really great!

do you know emily t., she does pretty cool layouts for animation. i could totally see you doing something like that for your animatic.
http://monsterlings.blogspot.com/

another great layout artist.
http://blvd-square.deviantart.com/

and kim taylor, she did a fun little animation.
http://pencilsandjam.blogspot.com/2009/09/animation-fun.html

just thought you'd like to see!

[dCepT]

Damn I've missed a lot of updates! Sorry! *adds subscription to thread*

My favorite parts are the ballpoint quick sketches.. hehe..

hp is right about the walkcycles.. maybe try to do one that is really light on his feet as well? Could look good in a reel that you master lotsa different expressions in body language as well :)

The boxer-rhino seems a bit of balance.. if he extended his right (our left) leg a bit to the side, he'd look more balanced :)

Keep rockin'!

dC

[Mag-Neo]

----- wonderful sketch.... mate........ keep 'em coming........ CHEERS!....... :yayca:

[Onir]

hp - Couldn't agree with ya more on the stompiness hehe; I'd gotten so into the idea of getting a really nice snap to each step that I didn't realize I was doing it all the time lol. I tried a softer step in my recent attempt at animating in maya, no idea if it worked out though hehe. Glad ya liked the d&d thingy and the portrait, gotta start working on those more.. And a big thanks for the links!! I really like the work of all three of them, started following Emily T. on blogger as well (that sounds rather creepy); definitely have to shoot for something like what she does for my ever elusive animatic (really gotta start working on that).

dCept - Thanks! Unfortunately I lost my little sketchbook, so I haven't been able to do many of those quick sketches of late (hopefully I can change that soon). Good idea on the body language thing, I really need to start venturing in to that area. I feel like I'm getting a bit more of grasp on spacing and timing (at least to the point where I can screw around with it a bit for different results), so acting and expressiveness are a really important thing I should start going for. Thanks for the crit on the rhino too hehe, makes alot of sense, especially given his size.

Mag-Neo - Thanks man, much appreciated :)

---

So yea, I've had things to post for a little while but I was driving myself insane trying to find a way to get somethings online. I didn't want to upload them to youtube or vimeo since they are just wips, but I couldn't find anyway to get them to work correctly as gifs (seems like any animation done on ones is flattened out to twos when I export them, which is reaaaaaallly aggravating). Anyhoo I woke up and said screw it and uploaded them onto photobucket haha.

First some posemaniacs gestures and some doodles. I need to start drawing more animals, help diversify my imagination a bit. I also just need to start drawing more, not liking the quality of these.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_018.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/wjksk_019.jpg

And now animation time! A walk cycle, an explosion, a guy lifting and throwing a rock (could have ended it better but got fed up and figured I'd get some feed back on the bulk of it), and a wip of a walk cycle in maya. I haven't touched the head, chest or collarbones yet, wanted to see if I could get some feedback before I moved further. Not sure how to embed from photobucket, so I apologize for the text links.

http://vid12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/walk_03_c.flv
http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/?action=view&current=walk_03_c.flv
http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a237/jemanjiman/?action=view&current=heavylift_01_c.flv

e3fFXSF5iUs

Thanks for looking!

[hp]

looks pretty good for the walkcycle vid! a lot more natural. i covered up the top half with my hand since you haven't gotten to that yet. i think he might be swaying a bit too much from side to side. it's hard to say, it's like you want to exaggerate movement special to that character, but then you don't want to go overboard.

the guy lifting is pretty natural, good job!

dude your animal sketches are so much better than mine haha. i need to go to the zoo!

[Farvus]

I dig the walkcycle. Looks energetic :).

[dCepT]

Do you buy ImagineFX? They've had a running series on animal anatomy a few issues now.. Lotta good advice in there! Other than that, if you like buying artbooks (I know I do.. more like an addiction :P) there's a really good one called "Anatomy Drawing School" which has drawings of everything from all the bones in the body, through to the whole human form, animal anatomy and comparative anatomy between humans and animals, so you can get really good memory hooks for the various body types of animals. Link to amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anatomy-Drawing-School-Geza-Feher/dp/3833125284)

Animals gotta be broken into anatomical studies just as much as the human body has to.. :) Upside is that it's fun studying these things! hehe

Dig the animation stuffs! My girlfriend and me wanna get a hold of a stop-motion skeleton and build a puppet for it and try out some animation too.. hehe.. You're definitely an inspiration for that! I'll let ya know when we eventually get around to doing something about it! Hehe

dC

[cout<mecha]

Hey, back again! Looks like you've been busy too! Oh, a little fairy tole me to tell you to focus more on quality and less quantity. Also USe a technique that will let you be more confident with your marks. That's all folks!

[Dacountno2]

saw you over on the how to paint in PS thread, and you should throw some of that stuff in your sketchbook - I'm seeing a vast improvement in both style and technique. Kudos!