The Citybilly Sketchbook: Updated Feb. 3, 2007

[J.Willis]

Welcome to my little corner of Conceptart and my journal / diary.

This will be as much as my thoughts and feelings of where I am in my drawings. So what you read now may change in the future. Anyway, it should be interesting to see where this goes.

I'm going to be upfront and let all know that I really do not enjoy drawing at all (or at least at this time of my life). I've gone to school for animation and have graduated with a good set of grades showing that I'm at least willing to work hard. I enjoy animation immensly and still want to do traditional styled animation, but I'm realistic enough to know that I'll never be hired by any company for my artistic skills. I didn't start drawing or doing any type of art until I arrived at school. So where I am at now is the difference between light and dark.

Now the biggest part of my dissatisfaction from drawing is the fact that my eye has been trained to see mistakes, but my "artistic muscle" hasn't been developed enough to at least make "good" drawings. But that is ok, and gives me something to shoot for as I really do want to be better at drawing.

Also, while at school, I learned that I enjoy painting and sculpture. But with that knowledge came the realization that to be better at painting and sculpture that I must become better at drawing (also learned the inverse is true as well).

So without further ado, I present... my growth.

Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to your constructive crits.

[J.Willis]

The following images are from my travel sketchbook (3.5 in W x 6 in H) that goes everywhere with me. Right now, I'm lucky to do one page a day in it as I am currently working 12 hour shifts with 3 hours travel times...ah the life of a poor game tester.

Also, since I'm starting anew with drawing, I'll begin counting from this point forward to be rid of my 5,000 pages of bad drawings (4 pages = 1 normal sketchbook page).

Some items I drew while I was waiting to meet my boss on the first day of work.

A poor attempt to capture my fiancee asleep on the ferry surround by Loomis manakins (this has all the makings of a very bad fairytale).

More copied Loomis manakins.

Loomis manakins were beginning to bore me, so I feel back onto animation and tried to give them a bit more life.

Manakined out here, so traveled over to Mentler's TSOFA (http://www.tsofa.com/forum/index.php) when CA experience the time travel hic-up. Saw the post of adopting a master or something like that and decided I would do a single master copy a day of Raphael to chart improvement.

Second attempt at Raphael.

Number of pages completed = 2.5

[Badger]

Nice stuff going on! I like your barrage of loomis manakins.
remember how eyes sit in their sockets when drawing them from the side.
Also hair has a lot of volume, it grows away from the head and is pulled back down by gravity.
Keep going, the progress is obvious.
-B-

[Teigrob]

I agree, very nice progress, keep it up! I find it interesting that you "hate to draw" but are doing it anyway! I suggest altering your attitude a trifle: "drawing is hard, but the rewards are worth it!" Sometimes attitude makes all the difference. ;) You may not be where you want to be, but if your attitude is one of "I can only get better after this drawing" you will be far happier with your progress. My only crit - watch your proportions: your ribcages tend to be too big in comparison with your lower body.

[J.Willis]

Badger: Thank you for the advise. Going back to study anatomy from the skeleton outward is on my list of things to do as soon as I get a few hours of my life back.

Teigrob: I will endevor to change my additude towards drawing. Thank you for calling me on it. As for porportions, yeah, they get me just about everytime. I haven't quite worked out the secret to doing them when the person is not standing straight and tall. Course, the straight and tall aren't all that proportional either now that I go back and look at them again.

Drew this little page up yesterday. I had a rare free moment at work (well actually most of the day) and figured I'd take Badger up on his hidden suggestion and do a couple more manakins. But not feeling particularly inspired or anything, I searched for a few images of fencers. And volia, there was this one of the guy leaping in the air to land his hit and evade his opponent. Talk about cool.

The others were taken from a Sky Vodka ad in some zine I happened across at work.

[Teigrob]

Looking good there! I think you should do more poses and portraits from ref at this point - it's certainly helping you keep your proportions better. On the lady's face, remember that the face is a cylinder and the features 'wrap around' the face. She's looking kinda flat at the moment! :) Keep it up!

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: A cylinder? I hadn't thought of doing that. I'll see to doing that here soon. And thank you for the encouragement.

Took another stab and doing a head from the same Vodka ad. The back of the head looks a little too flat to my eye, so out came the Barcsay anatomy book to look at skulls. I tried just drawing the shape and line of the skull, but found it very difficult with the level of rendering it had.

Probably going to study skulls a bit more. Been thinking of approaching human drawing from a top down, inside out.

[J.Willis]

Another attempt at doing a head in profile. I'll keep coming back to it, but wanted to take a shot at doing eyes after looking at Teigrob's thread. Figured, hey, why not as it's just a circle... I now understand what my teachers said about simple is hard to do. I freely admit that of all the parts of a face, I love eyes. But boy do I have a ways to go. Some look alright, others....well practice makes perfect.

Not a lot of access to a scanner, so going to be lengths inbetween posts. Also, only another month or so to go before the 60 hour work weeks are over and perhaps, I'll get more time to draw/sclupt/paint/model to improve.

I'm not drawing much each day, but at least I'm drawing a little. I'm starting to find drawing becoming more enjoyable like exercising. I lost a lot of weight exercising, so this means I'll get lots better (or so the theory goes).

[van]

Well, draw some more. You have some nice lines going here.

[Teigrob]

Those eyes are looking great! I can see that you're starting to really feel the form, and that's an important step. Seeing in 3d is hard for people (even people in animation school...d'oh!) so once you start noticing how the form rotates in space and are able to represent it on paper, you are well on your way to improving by leaps and bounds. Who cares if you only draw a little each day? At least you're drawing a little each day, which is better than none at all! Keep it up, citybilly - I want to see some more from you! :)

[J.Willis]

Van: Thank you for you encouragement and the kick in the rear. I truly enjoy your thread and the paintings you do.

Teigrob: Your wish is my command...delivery of a few more pages. As you will see, I'm still hit or miss on the form, but I figure I'll get it eventually.

Well it's been a little over a month since my last post. A lot has happened during the past month, so not a lot of drawing on my part. I've moved into an apartment, moved my fiancee into her apartment (which will later be our home), filed for bankruptcy, got a small respite from 12-hour shifts (60 hour weeks) before starting them up again (ship dates and titles are so much fun), and finally decided what I wanted to do with my career. Thank the Lord that He helped me keep my sanity through all this...otherwise I would be stuck doing art with mashed potatoes with a nice jacket that only comes in white and must be worn backwards (all for fashion's sake of course).

So through this topsy-turvy month, I didn't really draw all that much. I basically doodled here and there when I had a few spare moments that weren't filled with sleep, work, or travel. (And let me tell you, drawing on buses in Seattle is next to impossible with the road conditions they maintain.)

Two thing, I've noticed during this time. I found that when I do idle doodles I'm a lot more looser and my forms seem to be better. Second, I really missed drawing.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings and more of my drawings.

Just about all these drawings are from refernce, whether is a Gustov Dore, photos on the web, or "Drawing Dynamic Comics." The right half of the second page is a combination of doodles and reference.

My personal crits are I need to study heads, facial features (eyes and noses) more, and hands. The Gustov Dore copy has a lot going for it in terms of posing and line, but the rendering, hand, and clothing need serious studies. Part of this I know to be from trying to "see" the form from a printout that made elements darker than they should be.

The head on the first page started strong, but once I tried the nose it flattened out. So off I went to try and understand how the nose is constructed in form....hence the drawing comic reference towards the lower portion of the last page. I'm still trying to figure out the structure of the nose and how it fits with the face. The 3/4 view gets me the most as I'm having trouble drawing through it to position correctly.

[Teigrob]

I love the lips you did on the first page: they've got volume, nicely rendered, and the form is excellant! :) You're a beginner, but the artist you will be shines through! Cute bull, btw - nice sense of movement, and a good feel for the bones underneath. The nose studies are coming along really well - keep those up! And the lady in the dress? Lovely - your shading is a tad tenative, but you seem to have a good idea of lighting. Keep drawing dude - and I'm glad to hear you're not drowning in life's events. :)

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Thanks for the encouragement. I feel like I'm still hit or miss on my sense of weight and structure, but it's coming in spurts which is better than none at all. As for the rendering...let's just say Carl Jackson was a big influence on the way I'd like to use the pencil...and his constant nudging me to draw and render at the same time.


Not much to say lately, other than I believe it is nearly time to look for another job after today's meeting and learning the wonderful cycle of game development as the holidays draw closer. Don't know about you, but this citybilly needs food for the table and a roof over his head. So I'll have to try and figure out how to keep drawing while also getting ramped up in other skills that I'm going to need to move over to game level design.

Anyway, here's the next quater page.

First, I know the gentleman's nose is too wide. This was purposefully done as I was trying to figure what the ringleader of a circus would look like. After all he's showing the bearded lady and such. So wouldn't he seem a bit off as well?

The rest is just idle drawings and trying to work out my version of the CHoW. I probably won't enter due to time restrictions, but I figure it's good exercise anyway.

[Teigrob]

I love the moose! Look at those big knobby knees! :confident The ringleader looks very nice too - and the sword. The manequin is looking a bit stiff, though. The background looks like it's off the ground, but the feet don't match up - they look like they're planted quite solidly on the ground. Just indicate the ground better, and that'll solve the problem. :)

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Thanks again for the crits. You are right about the manakin. Originally, I thought I'd have the person sliding across the ground then decided to change it without thinking about the feet. A definate oversight on my part that I'll need to be aware of in the future.


Well not a lot of updates going here. Been a little over a month and not much to show. I'm aggrivated at myself for not drawing more and the only way to get rid of that aggrivation is to just draw. During the month, I went to a life drawing session and felt so inadequate. The pencil felt foreign to my hand, again another reason to draw a little bit each day. But with the rush to get the last few games finished for the XBox 360 launch and then getting disbanded the Friday, November 18th, I guess it's not surprising that I haven't drawn much.

On the plus side, Harry Potter 4 was good. :)

[Azeira]

would like to see some completed full figures. Keep up the studies, and the practice.

Woodruff

[Zord]

Kentucky, keep posting man! Cool to see the studies from Loomis, just keep pumping them! Drawing everyday gets a lot easier once you keep at it for awhile, and even though you don't see the progress, we do.. if you post. So keep at it! :)

[Teigrob]

Cool update! I can really see the improvement in your lifedrawings, especially the torso one - you really nailed the form, and lighting. Keep drawing...I want to see you posting more often...:D

[J.Willis]

Azeira: Those are about as complete as I can do at this time. I'm not fast by any stretch of the imagination. All those poses where anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes and it was not until the last page there that I was finally getting warmed up.

Zord: Thank you. Going to take a slight devation from Loomis for a bit and try my hand with Bridgman.

Teigrob: You're wish is my command... only you don't really get wishes and I'm not a genie... so anyway, I promise to try and update more often with more drawing.


Ok, trying my hand at Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life and I'm not happy with my hand's skills. I am having trouble of getting the concept of box to translate into 3D faces. They still look to flat and porportions are off, especial around the eyes. The bottome right one looks like I'm slowly getting the concept and doesn't look quite as flat as I was drawing guide lines to figure out where parts of anatomy should line up.

[Teigrob]

You're right, the bottom right looks the best out of all of them. If you keep drawing everyday, you'll see a marked improvement in no time...the trick is to give yourself time to learn. You can't learn if you don't draw...;) So draw every day! :teeth:

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Ok.... draw, draw, draw. I think I might be getting your message. :)


More Bridgman. The middle two I tried on my own using the box method and well... they leave a lot to be desired. The bottom left's perspective just got me as I don't have a solid understanding of how the neck and head connects. Oh well.... more studying is need.

[Teigrob]

For the bottom one 'getting you' you did a pretty good job. :) I actually like the two you did on your own better than the ones from ref. The topmost one; the perspective's off - the ear is at a different angle than the face. The next one: I like the face - excellant job nailing the foreshortening - but the back of the skull looks too long. The first up-tilted head is very well done, and the full frontal is only a tiny bit off - it doesn't feel like there's an equal amount of head between the top and bottom. If the eyes are the center, there should be equal space from eyes to top of the head, as there is between the eyes and the chin. Of course, it could be the hairdo that's throwing me, asymmetrical as it is. :) Nothing wrong with that - asymmetry is a good thing. Makes life interesting. :teeth:

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Thank you for the crits and encouragement. I'll just keep plugging away and who knows I may one day know how to get the head looking good.

And onto more heads. Haven't drawn much as I was feeling quite ill for a bit, but now I'm doing better and have finally cleaned off my desk to draw again.

Started working from Drawing Dynamic Comics and Hogarth's Drawing the Human Head. I'm finding it difficult with facial features placement or more correctly perspective of said facial features. The second page of Hogarth copies just wasn't happening. The first I feel is by far the best. The other two copies I tried incorporating Bridgman's box to help. Needless to say, I need a lot more practice and study.

I've also noticed that I have a tendency to make the face long and narrow. I'm not certain why, even when using blocking shapes to figure out the volume, I seem to still come out narrow and long.

[Teigrob]

I agree - the top left is your best. Try making the box wider. Consciously make the face broader...even grotesquely so, if that helps. You have a tendacy to make the nose too wide - remember that the nose is only as wide as the space between the eyes. :) Keep practicing! :cheerleader:

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: I will endeavor to keep all that in mind as I work, thank you.

I'm getting the bug to start doing storyboards again, so I decided to do some research into tricone hats (pirate hats to the rest of the world it seems). Maybe it's just me, but hats (and clothing) for that matter is hard to wrap my head around and get it to look like it's suppose to look.

The two top right ones came out looking the best. My need to study faces and how they are built I feel detract the most from the two on the left. Not to mention that the perspect of the hats is off from the perspective of the faces. I don't think I've quite figured out how to keep perspective of everything together..... oh well, more practice is the key.

[Teigrob]

Your faces are getting better. :) The gentleman bottom left is looking quite good. The top right hat is indeed quite good. Don't despair about putting hats on heads - my hat's off to you, seeing as that is a subject I generally avoid due to difficulty. :teeth:

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: I'm shocked that you can't do hats, when your sketchbook thread speaks that you can accomplish just about anything you set your mind to do.


Just starting to do some exploration after look at this past weeks CHoW (Battle Angel). I know the porportions are off of the manakin and shaded. I was trying to figure out if the composition would work.

And some study of how helmets fit on the human head.... They give me fits. I think it's due to not really knowing how the head is constructed.

[Teigrob]

It's looking pretty good, actually. Check out www.saveloomis.org and "Fun with a pencil"! I was just checking it today, and his head breakdown is so easy and fun looking I'm going to try it as soon as possible. :teeth:

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Thanks for the link. Yeah, it definately made it easier to figure out heads. I wish school had started this way. I may have drawn more and found it far more enjoyable.

Well at the suggestion of Teigrob, I took a stab at doing heads the Loomis way. It made it infinately easier to draw. Though I'm still slow with the pencil. It took me the better part of an hour to do these heads. Figure I'll keep at these for a bit and see if I can go faster and nail better proportions.

[Teigrob]

Hey, those are pretty good! And from what you said, faster done too. Did you copy all of them direct, or do some copies and some your own? I'd suggest doing the latter...that way his hints have a chance to sink in, and you'll be having more fun. Man, I need to go through that book...it looks so fun...

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Yeah, they are going a little faster (ok, a lot faster) than I usually draw. And thank you for the link.

More Loomis heads. Thought I'd try seeing if doing these shapes would help me figure out the construction of a persons head from reference. The first turned out horrible, the second is the best, but still has room for improvement, and the third I lost it (of course it could have been because the person is asian). The last three are copies from Loomis.

Things I've noticed is that hair is just something I don't understand and it has a tendency to flatten everything out.

[Teigrob]

Not from what I see. You've got a good grasp of contour lines, you just need to develop it. Keep practicing Loomis, he's helping you a lot! :)

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Aye, aye. Practicing it will be. :)

More heads. The first two with reference for berets. Again, I need help with hats and figuring out how they sit just so on the head. I understand how it encircles the head, but I just can't seem to pull it off when drawing it. The last three are Loomis copies with slight alterations on my part to see if I have a good grasp of head construction. The closer I try for realistic, the more difficult it becomes to draw them correctly.

The last one was suppose to be a female head, but I lost it along the way and just couldn't see anymore what I was suppose to be drawing with all the construction lines floating around.

[J.Willis]

Today was a doodle day I guess. I just started doing a Loomis type head and wondered if I could do a reasonable looking dwarf head. The rest grew from that. While cleaning it up to see what exactly I had done, I got the urge to ink (something I haven't done in a very long time...and does it ever show).

I know there is anatomy issues with the hands' positioning and it shows that I need to study them more. They are exaggeration in size on purpose. The rest of my anatomy is suffering as well, but I really didn't care as I was enjoying myself today.

[Teigrob]

Hey, looking good! I can see that you're really starting to see the form. Your belts and whatnot are wrapping around the form. Good job, keep drawing! :cheerleader:

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Thanks. :)

Well it's a new year. My goal / resolution is to get as many of these 5,000 bad pages out of me as possilbe by drawing at least 30 minutes a day as life permits. I'm just not promising to post everyday. :)

The following are just a hodge-podge of stuff. Helmets from reference, some copying of Vilppu stuff (difficult to see his lines at times), some drawing just to move the pencil around, and my hand from an exercise in Drawing on the Right-Side of the Brain.

My biggest crit against myself is the image opposite the helmets. My copying of Vilppu came out with way wrong proportions and comical.

[Teigrob]

Maybe you don't see it in yourself, but you are definitely getting better about seeing the form and translating it to paper. :) Good resolution, look forward to seeing what your drawings are like a year from now!

[Skrunchey]

OK KENTUCKY...you need to climb back on your horse and start posting again!!! I like what I see so far, and you have definately come a long way since I met you AAAAH the good ol' days... more later...
**i will run and check to see if i can find more recent drawing posts**
I know ... I know... kick me for I have not posted much myself... but I will :D

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Thanks for the encouragement and I'm going to keep plugging away.

Skrunchey: Here's me trying to get back in the saddle. Now it's your turn to put up some drawings.

Well it's been awhile since my last post. I freely admit that I haven't been drawing a lot during the time as life was a bit busy the past few months, what with getting married to Teigrob and all. Hence the small post.

I'm slowly trying to get back into the habit of drawing a bit everyday.

=====

Just basic doodles and what not. The lower legs of Jango / Boba Fett are a bit short.

Coffee shop drawing trying to get a handle on perspective of the environment and life drawing all at once.

[Ashrumm]

Whats going on Kentucky, keep on posting one thing i might add is your eyes look like footballs and that can be a problem, but nonetheless we are all learning so keep on drawing. You have made some great strides keep drawing. :D

[Skrunchey]

I know... I know... I need to actually post sketchbook stuff... gotta get one going on here too!!! Anyways, you are right on the proportions being off... if your paper seems to shrink when you draw tape another on to it so you're not feeling like you have to squish the rest on the little bit of paper you have left...that is what i do... besides WE paid GOOD money for light tables in school so lets use 'em!!! *grin* I will try to scan and post some of the stuff I've been working on too... celtic knots for borders have been taking up some of my time lately..plus research for the new "project" keep it up you WILL improve...

[Teigrob]

Definitely getting better at seeing the form and describing it. :) The last one from the coffee shop is very good - we'll have to go back next sunday, eh? :P

[J.Willis]

ashrumm: I've always had a bit of issues with eyes. They have gotten better, but yes you are right they do resemble footballs. And I plan on drawing a little bit each workday for the next six months or so... gametesting can get to be boring and straining on the eyes.

Skrunchey: It's a small sketchbook. Small enough to fit in my front pocket of my jeans to be carried around. I'll try your suggestion when I remember. Otherwise, I just need to have a better idea of my "work area" as Carl Jackson reminded me time and again.

Teigrob: Thanks for seeing what I don't right now. And yes, we'll have to go back even if I only draw a couple of pages. It's more that I ususally draw in a day. :)

========

I've been giving into my love of armor lately. Something that goes back to 1977 I believe when I first saw Stormtroopers and developed a love for body armor. These are reference drawings from A Squared Armory (http://www.a2armory.com/).

[Skrunchey]

body armour is an awesome start to anatomy..it kind of shuts off the part of your brain that says your anatomy if off, and lets you get the proportions right... for some reason the brain seems to let you do technical drawing more freely than anatomical...I started out with architechtural drawing classes in high school shortly there after I found my love for doing faces..you kind of have to fool your brain into thinking that faces are the same as buildings...that is probably why they try to get use to break everything into 'simple' shapes before moving into the detail..

one suggestion I have would be that, after you do a drawing of armour, take some tracing paper over your drawing and work on fitting body parts in it... your armour helmets look good :)

[mentler]

Bridgman, Loomis and Hale oH My!!!

These are the boys <> read the text as well as looking at the pics.

Download all the Loomis books if you haven't yet.
Read them and do the stuff till it sinks in.

Draw the Bridgman drawings until you run out of pencils

And read the Hale books a dozen times each.

"Master Class in Figure Drawing" and
"Drawing Lessons From the Great Masters"

Forget "Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters" book is not that good

Do this Grasshopper and you will learn.

TheAncientWhiteHairedOne

[Teigrob]

Yep, definitely looking better there. You should indulge your armour fetish more, without letting go on the anatomy, as Mentler says. :) I think Skrunchey's suggestion is a good one, using tracing paper to put the bod inside the armour. Yay! Keep it up! :teeth:

[J.Willis]

Skrunchy: Good advice, I'll have to give that a try sometime... hopefully sooner rather than later.

Mentler: Thank you for the book suggestions. I've finally got the Loomis books into a Word doc and PDF to make is easier to work through his studies. Right now I figure I should focus on one book at time and just get through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

Teigrob: Will do when I go back to doing armor.

==========

Ok, so it's been a long time since my last post. I haven't drawn as much as I should as this update will no doubt show, but I hadn't completely stopped. Much like a love-hate relationship, I always keep coming back. I can't give it up, but I get so frustrated with not drawing what I see. I know it's a matter of gutting through it and drawing, drawing, and drawing some more and then drawing more when I feel like I can't draw anymore.

I've also started sculpting again. Nothing exciting, just trying to my hands back into shape.

I could blame my banjo for the distraction, but that would only be a poor excuse. :)

Practicing shading and light on a rock and trying to draw a person from memory.

A portrait of Walt Disney that didn't turn out so well, trying to figure out shapes and shading of trees, and a self-portrait.

Exercise from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by drawing from a master copy (Picasso) upside down.

Drawing a person from memory exercise from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.



Sketchbook the Second

Life Drawing

Crtis:
1. Need to do more drawing.
2. Need to study anatomy.

[Teigrob]

More lifedrawing for you, I think. :) And more studies! And yes, your banjo excuse is a poor one. :D Heh, draw more! (and update more too, please).

Crits - as you know, I think your biggest problem is proportion more than anything else. Perspective...ah, everyone has problems with that, especially looking up at someone's face and trying to figure out the jaw and what not. Just keep at it, but focus more on proportion and nailing that before worrying about perspective.

[J.Willis]

Teigrob: Yep, definately more life drawing for me. As for the studies, I'm working on it as these next few will show. Thank you for the crits as always, I know I don't always seem grateful when you give them.

====================

Well it's a New Year and it's been an interesting on so far. Pneumonia, contract ends for Microsoft Game Studios, move north, looking for work, and still working at helping to pull an animation together.

The following is the last life drawing class we went to in Seattle where the alumni were the models. Needless to say I need a lot more study and less time trying to instruct 1st quaters who will in all probabilty draw better than I. :)

This next one is from "sketchbook" pages I made for my planner so I would always have something to sketch on no matter where I'm at. In this case, all these are from church and one reference picture. Basically I need to do more life studies, lighting and shading studies, hair studies, and hand studies.

And finally, I tried to draw a lion's head and failed miserably after realising that I don't know the form for the lion's head. So out came Animal Anatomy for Artists. All together both of the skull references probably took me close to two weeks to draw and shade (as I was working on it in fits and spurts). The head reference is from Burne Hogarth's Drawing the Human Head.

At this point I figure it would be better to focus on form and accuracy no matter how long it takes to draw rather than just crank out bad page after bad page.

[J.Willis]

More Burne Horgarth head studies.

[chumble spuzz]

Hey! Those Hogarth heads are looking pretty good. You must be improving. :)

Also, it's good that you can point out your own mistakes. That means you have a good eye. Well, two good eyes, hopefully. :P

[oomgawa]

Hey that last post was NICE!
So what? Didya decide to stop?
More?

[Skrunchey]

I agree with Oomgawa!! more? I know you have been chaotically busy... so i forgive ya....hope to see some doodles soon!

[J.Willis]

Oomgawa and Skrunchey:

Nope didn't quit. Was busy studying for my Apple Certs, getting my workout routine figured out, starting a business, getting my health straightened out, thinking long and hard about what I want to do artistically and trying to be a good husband to my beautifully pregnant wife.

So the next post after this will be my journey to become a good story artist. Some of the sketches and stuff I will put up will seem redundant, but I opted to start from the beginning quite litterally with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

The reason, I've been trained to look at stuff critically, but I am not by any stretch of the imagination a solid draftsman. But I figured that since I can now start doing some of the same workouts as the U.S. Navy SEALs, then I can become a better draftsman. So this is going to be mostly exercising the artist muscles. I expect it to be painful physically (since I'm not use to drawing anymore) and emotionally (as my crits and possibly many others are going to be very harsh). But as the SEAL motto states: "The only easy day was yesterday."

Thank you both for pushing me to grow.

[Skrunchey]

So glad to see you back in the semi swing again!!

I sould really follow the example set before me and post more myself.... bad me :) eventually I will get it right!!!

Good Luck, and I can't wait to see what you turn out!!

[J.Willis]

Well it's been a bit of a hectic time. I had meant to do this post earlier, but with Teigrob's and my little blessing putting in an appearance finally I just haven't had the time to do this. But I did do some serious thinking before starting over again and came to the conclusion that a.) I've been trained as an animator / artist and b.) that with no blame on the institution I attended I needed to start over as two years went by far to fast and that I hadn't really learned all my lessons as well as I needed to be a good draughtsman.

So here I am, going back to the beginning and focusing on drawing / storytelling. Two main (and important) ingredients for writing and doing animation.

The following are from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and it's accompanying workbook. The first three are pre-instructional drawings of a self-portrait, drawing a person from memory, and drawing my hand (each of these I spent at least an hour or more on). The next two are the original drawing from Picaso and my attempt at reproducing it as upside down drawings.

[Skrunchey]

Good to see you are getting back in the saddle again!

Your daughter is adorable! Congrats!

keep on practicing!