Character Walk!!

Hi Guys!

I've been having a BLAST in my animation class. And honestly, after this assignment (and the bear walk), I'm leaning more and more toward becoming an animator. I enjoy the performance and attitude I get to express through a character... it's super fun!

I also had a lot of fun shooting reference for this. Thought I'd share me acting like a jolly, plump man :) It's pretty silly, and my favorite take is the last one where I decide to go all out...

More Grizzlies!

Here's some grizzly bears from the zoo that I've drawn for my animation class (114). Basically we had to pick one animal from the zoo to study for about 6 weeks and every week a bunch of drawings were due. Throughout that time my teacher would go over animal movements and structure with the class so we could all improve and feel less timid. The animal I picked was the GRIZZLY BEAR!

It's safe to say that when I first started drawing grizzlies, I was confused. I hadn't ever drawn them before and they don't ever stay still. Something I eventually did was go to the zoo and fill as many pages with quick gestures. Then I'd go home, analyze them and add structure/form. That's where the Joe Weatherly book was super handy. In class, I'd ask Jeff Jackson, my teacher, to draw over my drawings that weren't working and that really helped me. Overall, I had a great experience drawing and learning about the grizzlies and can't wait to go back.

I made a Grizzly Bear WALK!!!

It's true!!! I can't believe it either. This is the first walk I've ever done... and it was a quadruped... YIKES!!!!!!!!! My brain pretty much exploded into a million bits, but luckily it was restored with some new-found knowledge! YAY!!!

I thought I'd show the process...

(I'm not sure how to loop these videos so if you're able to that would be the best way to watch them)

This was my very first attempt I did at the beginning of class- As you can I'm very confused:

With a lot of help from Jeff Jackson (my teacher), this is what I ended up at the end of class.... I had a huge Ah-Ha moment at the end of this class when I learned about Contact-Hit/Down-Pass-Lift/Up-Contact...

Then I went home and kept working and working and this is the final Bear Walk I turned in:

While I still see many places to improve... I'm really proud of the way this came out. I can honestly say I never thought I could do it and it feels awesome to prove myself wrong :)

It goes to show.... if I can do it... ANYONE can!

More to come!

Still not in love with digital painting... but I'm getting there. I miss the tactile quality of traditional painting. Something cool about digital painting though is that it's so easy to start... just open the program and BOOM you're ready.

 Lately, I've been feeling pretty burnt out so looking at pinterest for inspiration helps. I save photos/artwork I love and do master copy's in photoshop. Doing these are cool ways to try out brushes.