New Stuff

[Charles]

You cool cats on AN's Gallery get me wanting ta join in the fun.

This is from last night's Visual Development class at the Academy. Usually a demo, but it's more the result of a jam with my students.

Col-Erase Blue on 12 fld paper.

[JK Riki]

Wow, that's really cool and super expressive! The eyes are captured perfectly. What's the story with the bumps on his forehead? Just wondering. Kind of gives him an extraterrestrial feel.

[skynet]

The pointy ears and the circles on the forehead make it two extraterrestrial features to me... or a human from the future, or from the past and future which could just mean he's been around longer than us. Definitely a humanoid, whatever that really means.

What I like is it gives off the feeling that he's not looking at you, but looking through you or inside your mind. It's a powerfully calm expression.

[Charles]

Thank you fellas, and right you are! It's an alien holy man. In class I instruct my students to develop their assignments with a specific concept or theme in mind as if we were in a studio development situation. I had this idea and sketched it out while they were doing their thing. Practice what you teach.

Artshark is the Academy's mascot. Time for a visit from him, so I did this a few days earlier. I'll be putting a final line on this and digitally coloring it soon.

Col-Erase Blue on 12 fld paper and some clean up in Photoshop.

[Charles]

This is a demo I did this week for the Character Design 1 class at my school.

It's a head rotation for a design I came up with on the spot. The design itself is a bit Yogi Bearish in its inspiration I would say, but that's okay. The lesson I was getting across was how to properly rotate an image created from one's imagination.

Col-Erase blue pencil on 12 fld paper, utilizing an animation disk.

[Charles]

This here is from last night VisDev class, working with gray scale markers to teach tonal relationships. A quick demo sketched out with ball point pen in a free form style. The ink bled when the marker pigment interacted with it so I tried to use it to a creative advantage. On 12 fld animation paper. I did a little tinting in Photoshop to add some blush to the face

[airman4]

download/file.php?id=1649&mode=view/rokbox.jpg

my favorite

do you do full animated stuff ?

[Charles]

Thank you, and yes, I do animate. Hopefully soon I'll be able to share a film I produced.

These sketches are from last night's Background Design class. We're getting into props and vehicles. Not so much demos, but my participation with the rest of the class in coming up with concepts for futuristic vehicles. I don't do this very much as I'm mostly a character centric artist, but it was good practice and I enjoyed myself.

Black Prismacolor pencil on white animation paper.

[Charles]

More concept designs from last night's class. Thought I'd include the school's logo to fill in the corner.

[airman4]

I see

the car sketch are badass.
love the dynamism on the edges lines

[Charles]

Thank you again, I appreciate your comments.

Well, I'm on a bit of a roll lately. Mostly cuz of the changes coming from the new location for classes. Smaller groups, more focused sessions.

This is what I was able to generate this evening in VisDev.

Picking up on the black prismacolor pencil from last night, on 12 fld paper, using the school's logo to fill the corner.

This was a value study demo in black line and watercolor on Strathmore paper. Tonal relationships are essential in controlling color. Monochromatic rendering helps in mastering this aspect of rendering.

Afterwards, we hung around and did some more sketching and I came up with this. Col-erase Blue on 12 fld animation paper.

Feels good to be creating again. Hopefully I can keep it up despite the distractions and demands of the day.

[Charles]

Last night in VisDev class I had a chance to get into color a little bit. On coarse toned paper I sketched this out lightly in blue pencil, then followed up with fine point black link marker. Found some old pastels and added color to the form along with white Prismacolor pencil for the eyes. Later, after I scanned the image, I finished it in Photoshop. I like to combine both analog and digital techniques, and it gives my students an example of how both can be effectively utilized for the final composition.

[Charles]

I was drawing on a pad of course toned paper that was actually a long sheet of pan paper folded like a sketchebook. I've had it lying around for years and used it to draw on for last night's class. This is what I did while I was waiting for the class to clear. Fine point black line pen, each is 12 fld page in size.

[creative]

WHOA!! Dude! Thats some awesome talent there!!!! I really want to get this good as well!

[Charles]

Thank you for the positive comments, I appreciate it.

All of the drawing I'm doing lately is in the class environment and as such, I tend to be all over the place while at the same time getting one dimensional. Still, it's better than no drawing at all. I'm gonna try and break out at some point.

Here's what I've done this week so far. This character was a rework of a design a student had going on Monday night. Drawing 'A' is the original sketch where I was suggesting simplification, exaggeration, attention to construction and some iconic design elements.

Last night with the second group of Character Design students, I used the image to demonstrate / participate with my students in the facial expression aspect of the class. The assignment was to create six distinct expressions of one character, so I expanded on what I did the night before.

I didn't use a lightbox, I drew straight ahead, one image next to the other to challenge my draftsmanship and keep my chops up. Col-erase Blue on white paper.

[Charles]

Last night in VisDev at the Academy at the end of the evening I got around to sketching. I was with a student giving direction and was inspired by her work for class. I went on to describe using flow and finding the rhythm and poetry of a composition. I was also looking to get away from the straight on approach I've been taking to character concepts lately and bring more life to the pose. Col-erase Blue on 12 fld paper.

[Car t00n]

That girl sketch is really good!

[Charles]

Thank you.

This has been a good couple of months as I've been able to get back into the swing of drawing more than before with the new way I'm operating my school. Affording me more opportunity to create.

I'll be wrapping up the topic soon and moving on to another since it's getting extended. I don't maintain a personal blog or site for my art, so this is where I take it when I do new stuff to show.

From this week's class in Character Design, a comparative demonstration. Col-erase Blue on 12 fld animation paper.

Followed that up with a quick gray marker character concept study in Vis Dev. Sketched with a fine point Sharpie which bled slightly when marker was applied.

[space]

really nice and appealing stuff! Keep posting!

[Charles]

Thanks Chris.

I'll be wrapping up the thread I think and continue on a new one as I come up with more images. I appreciate the viewings and comments that I've gotten so far. The past couple of months have been a positive experience as I feel I'm getting back into a groove again.

This was done last week during the Vis Dev class. Thought I'd have some fun by having my students art direct me. Started by asking them what I should sketch. Human or animal, funny or serious, so on, until we decided on a werewolf, serious, more human than animal in form.

Got carried away as I drew larger than the paper surface could contain, so I taped extra sheets until I got everything on there. Difficult to scan, but I managed to capture the entire image. Not much retouching, just a little fine tuning in Photoshop. It is what it is.

This topic was a good time. Thanks again, and I'll continue to keep creating.