Another Speedy

So this is a painting I "finished" recently and I tied it in to another project I'm working on. I'm making good headway on my children's book (preview coming soon) but sometimes I need to take a break, so then I'll just revise one of my quick starts from work.

Speedpaints

I've got a lot of stuff that I want to post on here soon, but they need just a bit more finessing. In the meantime, here are some speed paintings that I've done recently during lunch breaks at work with my coworkers. It's fun because we'll yell out a word or a phrase and that'll inspire our starting process, and we usually limit them to about 15 minutes. Then, on the same day or another, we'll touch them up. These range from 25 min to about 1hr45min.

Harley Painted

Been really good with working on my children's book project so I thought I'd treat myself to a break from working on it. So I spent that time painting the sketch from below and it was both a STRUGGLE and FUN. The struggle was in getting her face just right (wow, painting girls is extremely delicate) and the fun was in practicing my material indication.

Happy New Year!!!

2011 is almost and one of my goals for 2012 is to do more drawing. All of my artistic exploits, be they for work or for my children's book, are currently done in Photoshop and even then it's a lot of painting. I've hardly done any pencil to paper drawing in a long time, so I made a personal goal to do more sketching and drawing. It's amazing how even after years of training and practice, the age old motto still applies:

"If you don't use it, you lose it!"

So instead of waiting for Jan 1, 2012 to officially start, I committed myself to sketching out a character/costume design for the character Harley Quinn. My inspiration stems from a punk/rock influence, and the costuming should be more visible in the painting, which I hope to complete soon. Until now, here's the rough sketch, with mistakes and all.

Cheers and thanks to everyone who stops by or visits. I do my best to visit back or even randomly blog jump to find out what other cool stuff people are doing. I'm really thankful that we live in a time that allows us to connect across continents and oceans through the shared pursuit of making art. Let's keep it going in 2012, at least until the world ends :) 

Composition for Print

Extreme vertical compositions that would not work for film, at least not for a traditional widescreen shot. Panning up and down is another case.

Notice the nice rhythm from the flow of Batman's cape in the first panel that originates bottom left of the spread and gets picked up with his fingers in the next, continuing on through Joker's eyes and finally ending on Batman's head top right of the spread.

Nice layering of environment and silhouettes that also take into account the spine of the book and adjust accordingly.

Smaller repeating panels of similar size can denote story beats that are all equally important and that usually build up to a bigger release, as in the splash page.

Very nice spread utilizing the principle of extreme size variations to further enhance the storytelling through the composition.

This spread utilizes a nice division of space that creates very graphic shapes for a quick read but with details for further viewing.

These are some slides from one of my last lectures of the quarter. They cover some points that show how composition for stationary mediums like print are both similar and different from that of film. These beautiful illustrations are credited to the respective creators: Dave McKean ("Arkham Asylum" graphic novel), Barry Jackson ("Danny Diamondback" children's book) & Shaun Tan ("Emigrantes" graphic novel).

The main driving point here is that the difference for stationary mediums allows the artist much more creative freedom with regard to the layout and composition. Since the viewer can gaze upon a single image for as long as he or she would like, the artist can therefore explore less conventional compositions and even play with the read of the image by making it less clear than if it were for film.

The other points are that stationary mediums allow for much more interesting aspect ratios that are not of film dimensions. Of course usually these are set by a publisher or art director, but the freedom to play with vertical compositions and extremely distorted proportions can make the storytelling that much more fun.

Last but not least is that there exists a greater interaction between the art and the viewer. The viewer can go back and forth, skip ahead if so desired, or really dive deep into a singular image. All of these factors and more allow for different needs of the composition than the standard clear read that is required for film because of the length of time on screen of any particular shot.

I hope these help. I've been making good progress on both my children's book and another personal project, but since I don't want to post them until they're finished, I'll try to sneak in another personal sketch or something like that before the new year. Cheers!

Childhood Imagination

When I was a lot younger I had the privilege of being around during the airing of the BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES in the 1990s. Aside from the reruns of the campy 1960s Adam West show and the Tim Burton live action movies, this was my primary window into the world of Gotham City and the mythos surrounding all of the characters. I bought the dvds when they came out a couple years back and recently re-watched the entire series, and they are just as good today as they were over 10 years ago.

Even back then I knew there was something special about that show. It just seemed...different. It wasn't like any other show on TV as it felt more like short movies what with the voice acting, the music, the art style, and most importantly the storytelling. And now that I am much older, all of the subtleties of the artistry of that show are visible to me and I appreciate that much more.

Not only that, but that tv show inspired me. Being a kid already prone to daydreaming about worlds more interesting than our own, it allowed me to dive into the world they created for Batman and to simply let myself get lost in it. To this day, that incarnation of Batman is what I perceive to be a masterful project produced by multiple sets of talent coming together. It inspired me to strive to make my own personal creative endeavors as rich and wonderful as that series was.

So I created this piece in the style of their unique title cards as a 'thank you' to all those involved in creating such a wonderful piece of television history. Thank you to all those involved, and especially, wherever they may be if they ever see this - Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Eric Radomski, Jean MacCurdy, Glen Murakami, Kevin Altieri, John Calmette, and someone with whom I have had the pleasure of befriending thanks to today's technology - my friend Ted Blackman. 

Here's to good tv! Cause if all tv shows were as good as that one, kids sitting in front of the tv all day wouldn't be so bad I think.

Studying Composition from Film

A lot of artists are familiar with doing film studies, and they're a great way to understand a film's certain aesthetic for composition or color or lighting. In addition to doing those, I recommend analyzing key frames from films in the context of at least these 3 questions:

1. Who is the "star?

Sometimes the star is obvious and everything in the composition points to it, other times it's less obvious yet still recognizable. In the first example, Aladdin is the star and the composition literally points to him and reinforces his being surrounded and trapped. In the second, none of the people are the "star" because in the context of the movie, the scene is about the information in those documents and the lighting really helps to highlight that the "star" of this scene is what the guard is holding.

2. What happened right before or will right after?

No composition exists alone, and if you find yourself not understanding a composition, consider what was shown right before or will be shown right after to help put it in context. In the Aladdin scene, it might seem a bit odd that the composition is somewhat symmetrical and that the center of interest is rather in the middle, but it makes sense that such a stable composition would be used right after an exciting and dynamic chase sequence to reinforce the peace and quiet Aladdin and Abu have earned.

3. What am I supposed to feel?

These two compositions both elicit different and rather opposite feelings. The first encourages the feeling that Aladdin is feeling down and insignificant in the context of the size of the city and its imposing nature on him. In the second, we get the opposite feeling. This scene from "Lawrence of Arabia" suggests the feeling of openness and how the landscape is both prone to be explored and its massive presence in contrast to the minuscule presence of the people in the scene.

Hope this helps anyone trying to understand film a bit better. Remember, compositions aren't just dark and light shapes on a screen. They're a visual device to help serve the story.

Composition Guidelines and Breakdowns

These are just a few slides from my Composition & Layout class that I wanted to share. The main idea behind these is that when you're studying a well composed image or want to make one yourself, there are a few key principles that must be in effect in order for it to be compelling. Please note that these are NOT my layouts but those of amazing artists whose work I found online or scanned from books I own and I show them here ONLY for the purposes of instruction.

It all comes down to what your FOCAL POINT is and where you want to place that in the frame of your image. After that, it's a delicate and artful balance of how you break up the SPACE further and place the elements of your image in a way that they create DEPTH and RHYTHM that help to lead the viewer through the image.

I recommend doing some analyses on some of your favorite images and hopefully you'll see that there's more at work in the image than what you originally thought. 

Design Process Analysis

These are just a few of the slides I made for a recent lecture I gave in my Project Preparation and Research class at the LA Academy of Figurative Art. The topic of that week covered design fundamentals and I used the great William Joyce's airship sketch (found online) from the "Meet the Robinsons" Disney movie as an example of just beautifully thought out and executed design. 

I just started teaching a second class, Layout and Composition for Entertainment, this past Saturday and both of these endeavors have kept me considerably busy these past few weeks. I will still find time to keep working on my children's book project and hopefully other personal art as well, but if I don't get around to that, I'll try and post some of the stuff from my classes so that they may hopefully inspire and inform others.

Paintings

Painted these a while back starting from abstractions. 

"The Gift" part 2

Some more character sketches from my aforementioned story "The Gift."

On another note, preparing lectures and slideshows for my upcoming class is more time consuming than I had expected. It reminds me of my presentation days back at UCLA when I was doing lab research and I had to prepare powerpoints and be prepared for an onslaught of questions from faculty trying to find any holes in my process. I guess compared to that, my class should be much more fun!

Pre-Glittery Vampires!

This is an old layout I did for a class in which I re-interpreted the book "Interview with the Vampire" by Anne Rice. The specific scene for anyone that knows the story (or the movie) is the scene where Louis, the main character and narrator, is transforming into a vampire in the middle of the night in a New Orleans cemetery. 

I did it in charcoal on Strathmore illustration paper (about 16"x9"). I remember at the time specifically doing it traditionally despite everyone else doing their pieces digitally because I was really in love with Simon Varela's charcoal pieces from the art of "Finding Nemo." As any bright-eyed student who's tried to emulate a great master's style or aesthetic knows, it's not so easy. Probably the last old piece I'll post up for now, but I like how it holds up even after a few years so I figured I'd show it.

Rediscovering Some Older Works

Been busy with work and personal matters lately, so I apologize for the infrequent posts. While prepping for my upcoming teaching job at LAAFA, I've had to go through a lot of my old art archives for examples and so forth. I found these layout line drawings that I had done for my Galapagos graduation project and realized that I had never posted them before. I had fun revisiting those memories of when I was working on it, so I thought I'd share the work. 

I'll probably be posting some more old work along with new work, so hope you like 'em. Thanks for stopping by!

The Grandest Canyon of Them All!!!

Mather Point

Yavapai Point

I just came in a few hours ago from spending a long weekend at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. It was my second time and I still cannot describe its beauty in any words that could do it justice. All I can say is it's breathtaking and a must for any fan of natural wonders.

Being an artist, I just had to separate from my friends for a few hours and do at least one painting. After all, how many chances will I get to paint the Grand Canyon FROM LIFE? So I sat down and did a little gouache sketch in my sketchbook. Earlier at a different viewpoint I had done a pencil sketch while the rest of my group was taking pictures. 

The atmospheric depth the canyon creates is just unbelievable, and I just had to humbly try and capture that impression for myself. It was quite amusing, too, how many fellow tourists would look over my shoulder. I had never felt so self-conscious while painting in my life, especially during the lay-in stage. I kept wishing I could tell them - "don't worry, it'll look better later...hopefully." A few people asked permission to photograph my painting and myself painting it, with which I had no problem. It still makes me laugh to think that in multiple hard drives and albums across the world, there's a random picture of random me and my simple painting amongst the rest of their vacation photos.

Teaching this Fall at the LA Academy of Figurative Art

A few weeks ago I received the honor of being asked to teach at the LA Academy of Figurative Art in Van Nuys, CA. They are primarily an Atelier school focusing on a strong foundational approach to drawing and painting, but they have recently started introducing Entertainment based classes into their curriculum.

I will be running a class introducing the principles of composition and layout as they apply to Entertainment mediums. I've always felt that a lot of classes only cover composition as it applies to the specific piece being critiqued due to time constraints, so I wanted to focus on really understanding the design principles that create interesting and compelling compositions.

This class won't be a heavily digital class as no painting is required, and quite honestly, very minimal value as well. By removing the need to render or light, I felt that I could really focus on the elements that form the composition - namely shape, line, rhythm, proportion, style, gesture etc to name a few.

If you know of anyone who could benefit from such an introductory course, please visit LAAFA's website for more information or to enroll:

http://www.laafa.org