48hr Film Festival

So, we've been participating in the Greensboro 48hr film festival every year for the past 3 years. we do it with the same family every year, the fantastic Chabon family, who absolutely make it a joy. a lot of people find the 48hr very stressful, but they manage to make it this giant rush of creative fun. I love it so much!

This year, we drew the comedy genre, and they asked me to animate a short snippet for their short. now, by the rules of the 48hr nothing in your short can be pre-made. so yesterday I sat down for 12 and a half hours working on animating a 24 second short. omg it was SO FUN! I wasn't sure if it would be done, but it is, and wow - did I learn a lot! 12 and a half hours of (almost) straight animation! well, I did pause to eat and paint a baby doll's head, but that's about it.

first off I finally used my newer animation program that I hadn't attempted a project in yet, so I didn't really know the program. but I got used to it pretty fast out of necessity. nothing helps you learn a program faster then when you need to get something done for a deadline! they also gave me a lot of creative freedom, I got free reign with character concept and design, as well as the actual script for the animation part. all they asked me to stick to was "Campy parody of an anti-tattoo PSA". and my goodness, did I have fun with that! even managed to sneak in a guest appearance of a (slightly more buff then normal) Arty!

I did all of the animation without knowing what kind of narration they are going to put over it, as they decided to do the narration according to what I animated. so I'm seriously excited to hear what they are going to come up with!

I seriously can't wait for the screening on wednesday! this is the first time my animation will be featured on the big screen. I'm pretty nervous really. the animation itself is not something I would normally publish - I had no time for clean-up work at all, so the lines are a bit sketchy and the motions are choppy.
but I had fun, and learned a whole lot, and that's what the 48hr film festival is ultimately about for me.

what's funny is thanks to this, I have an Animation Director credit on my resume...
Also I did end up having an assistant animator for 3 frames, as my friend Ryan wanted to try his hand at it. so I let him do a couple 'tweens. what's great is now he's really excited and wants to learn how to draw better so he can learn to animate! I hope he does, I could use more people who actually want to do the work in my production company.

I'll be uploading the finished project after the screening on Wednesday, as I want the short to remain a surprise. you don't see much animation in the 48hr, but I'm hoping to change that in coming years. if I can get a team of animators together, maybe I'll even have my own group one year.

thoughts at 3am

I've been bad, haven't updated in so long.

but I've been drawing. though perhaps not as oft as I should be.

what happens is I end up working a show (theatre) and stop all art-making processes during tech week. then I take a day off after tech week to recoup, and play video games. then I get completely involved in video games and end up using all my spare time playing games instead of drawing as I should use it.

I've seriously got to get back into the habit. did a bit better today, managed to keep myself mostly off the games and did some gesture exercises and form studies. but geez, am I rusty.

In other news, I've started ATCs!

This is Otto the Octopus, he's my first ATC, though he got traded third. Acrylic and Pen on Bristol.

Next up is "Dancing at Dawn", the second card I made, and first to be traded. Watercolor & Ink on Bristol

 The birdie pic there is titled "We are Family", and was my third card drawn. Watercolor & Ink on Bristol. Second to be traded.

That bumbler over there is called "Bumbler", and is up for sale. Watercolor & Ink on Bristol. 2.5" x 3.5"

"Dragonfly Dreams" there, also up for sale. Watercolor & Ink on Bristol. 2.5" x 3.5"

Followed shortly by "Pride", a WIP that I've yet to finish.

 This one is titled "My Sister" and is based on my sister's regalia. Ink on Bristol. up for sale as well.

The next is another go at "Dancing at Dawn", trying to refine the design. Up for sale. Watercolor & Ink on Bristol. 2.5" x 3.5"

 Ah, here's "My Brother", an ink interpretation of his regalia. Also up for sale. Ink on Bristol, 3.5" x 2.5"

Then finally for now is "Becca's Colors" a simple Hummingbird based on my sister's regalia hair ties.

so as you can see, I wasn't lying when I said I had been drawing. but I also wasn't lying when I said I haven't been drawing enough.

in other news, I've been studying James Gurney, and his book "Color & Light".
I absolutely ADORE this book. You see, I've only recently began exploring Color Theory. (I've never had a lesson, ever.) but I've been finding it difficult in application. I think I'm starting to understand more though, thanks to his book.
James Gurney, you're my hero!


Well, this post is beginning to feel rather long, so I'll leave you for now. More updates to come sooner then the last time, promise!

~*Elizabeth

Gestures and Teapots

I have been drawing quite a bit, venturing into realism and such.

tonight I attempted 30-second gesture sketches for the first time ever, here's the results.

I'm addicted! I used Posemaniac's generator; http://www.posemaniacs.com/thirtysecond

after that, I totally WAS going to attempt a still life of a teapot, but then didn't quite make it...
drew this for my sister, who switches from being a Monkey Girl to a Little Teapot... so just for her, A Little Monkey Teapot.

got some weird shading going on, but not bad for a little 20min study I think. I'm happy with it at least. ^_^

Going to aim to do at least 10 minutes of Gesture drawing daily for a while, hopefully. :)

Crayon Melt Painting + Tutorial Video

 

SO. MUCH. FUN.

seriously, this is one of the most fun techniques I've ever tried. sure, it's not 'fine' art, but it's still awesome.

 

Materials Used:

Crayola Crayons

Hair Dryer

Exacto Knife

Blue Painter's Tape

Easel

Plastic Bags

Glue Gun

What I Learned:

-how to manipulate melted wax

-Friendship really IS Magic.

A couple of exercises

here's a few exercises I've tried recently for fun and practice. didn't follow any guide, I was just bored and so made up games for myself.

Character building from a simple starter shape, seen top-center. all 3 characters were made with that starter shape. very fun and challenging.  how many different characters can you make?

without having a reference, I tried to draw as many different types of cups as I could think of. also attempted to keep them all in perspective, which is definatly something I need to work on. very fun exercise, I plan on doing more with different subjects in the future.

I had my sister pose briefly (20 seconds) and then drew an amorphous character pose study with roughly the proportions of my character Arty, which I then turned into a value study. not entirely happy with the anatomy or values of the facial planes, but I do plan on pursuing variations on this pose for an Arty painting.

Sketches

some watercolor sketches I've done over the past month.

a random Giraffe scribbled while waiting for a show that I was working to start.

when my friend, Austin, saw the giraffe, he really wanted me to color it in many different colors, but since I had already done most of the coloring, I promised I'd draw him a special multi-colored giraffe just for him. :)

a random bottle that was on a random table in a random establishment I randomly happened to be at.

cloud shape exercise, just for fun. ignore the boring green blob at the bottom.

Pretty tree! total accident.

I was practicing mixing different browns with my watercolor set, and since I had the colors mixed I decided

to sketch something with them. this is what came of that.

the leaves were so much fun. what I did was drop tiny droplettes of paint, then tap on them with my finger. it gave a beautifully random, soft effect.

another tree. before I discovered the trick to soft-looking leaves. I think trees are my favorite thing to sketch with watercolors.

the original of this is tiny. tiny tiny. less then 1in x 1in. but I liked it, and wanted to preserve it, so here it is. :)

Materials used:

Cheap sketchbook

Niji Waterbrush

Small round brush

Watercolor pencils

Watercolor travel kit (small square dry watercolors)

What I Learned:

-more control with my paints and brushes.

-how to give the impression of leaves without taking away from the tree.

-more about cloud shapes

-how to mix organic browns with primary colors.

-a lot about mixing colors.

Art Block

for the past week I've felt like I'm backsliding into Art Block again.

what is your favorite way to work out an art block?

I think I may try playing with some crayons later, maybe the colors and carefree nature of the crayon can loosen me up.