Creative

I had such a creative weekend/week so far!

Here's what I've been up to

BUNNY BUNNY! BUNNY BUNNY!

This was a 3D wooden puzzle that Martyn got me for my Birthday. I decided, instead of having it just the wood, to paint each piece before hand. I laid them out as best I could, and guessed the relationships of the colours a bit. I was really happy with how it turned out.

And then, for aaaages, I had some MDF, ready to make my own canvas boards, and THEN for another amount of ages-ness, I had all the other materials to complete. Finally I got to make them. It's soooo simple to do, and really satisfying, I can't wait to paint them all. I made 15 in total, it was a bit of a juggling act in our small room.

Here they are drying away

And here they are finished! I ended up using copydex instead of PVA to hold down the backs, but I think I'm going to have to go over those with PVA, as the copydex still feels a tad tacky. 

I'm so happy I got to do some relatively random creative things this weekend, as well as see Dawn of the Dead for the first time, what a brilliant film. 

What did you get up to? How did you get inspired? If you didn't, why not dedicate an evening or sometime of the weekend to just indulge in something really creative and fun. 

Happy 5th of November! 

Wiggles and Doodles

I've been thinking a lot about drawing recently after seeing a post about a book* by Tom Bancroft, which I promptly ordered with my addicted to books trigger finger. It made me think about the teachers and classes I've been apart of since I was young, and how one is influenced by these people.

At the start of the book there's a brilliant introduction, by Tom and a foreword by Adam Hughes;  they both talk about the passing of knowledge down from their mentors to them, and from them to us. It's an enlightening few pages, and definitely worth buying the book, just for that advice alone.

I've been lucky enough to have found a couple of people, so far, that have really influenced my work and only afterwards do I realise how much they have helped. If you have that kind of relationship with someone at work, home, school, or wherever you may be, then definitely don't take them for granted. You might not realise it right now, but they may be a huge influence over your whole career.

I also believe negative experiences are a necessity, as they teach us what not to do, how to approach things later, how to be better, and to spur us into the positive!

I've also (somehow) managed to be on the other end of the spectrum (a little bit). I used to run an extra life drawing class at university, as part of a society, where each of us would help the other members with our stronger discipline. For example, there were lighters teaching the rest of us what they knew about lighting, and then riggers, modelers, matte painters and so forth. I'm mentioning this because, if you have this opportunity, grab it by the horns, as learning as a group, and sharing the knowledge you have, only helps you to understand it even more!

Anyway, time to stop babbling, I just wanted to mention a few things that I had picked up along the way (in no particular order, unless stated :P)

1. No one line is a bad line.
     - Always learn from your mistakes and triumphs, I also keep a back log of my old work, it's a useful    reference to see how far you have come.

2. Comparing - Negative Space
      - This I started to notice in life drawing and portrait classes. My mentors would always be telling me to compare the distance between the heels of the feet, the elbow to elbow, the top of the ear to the eye, and this can also be employed using negative space exercises. Both of these can make you see proportions in a totally different light, it's a bit like looking at a drawing upside down and noticing something that sticks out.

3. Reference
     - From a young age my Dad tried to convince me this isn't cheating, and it really isn't! There's no way you can create things without some kind of influence, or my favourite word inspiration. This also relates to animation, there's so many things you might end up animating, you always have to study first.

4. Look where the line is going
    - Now this line was from a book I read (I think) but i'm not sure which one. I'll be sure to reference it as soon as I find it. Instead of finding the line, whilst you draw, have a look where you imagine it might end up, rather then just diving in and hoping for the best. It's a really interesting exercise, let me know how you find it.

5. Feeling, questions and shape
    - This was mainly drummed into me at Alex Woo's crash course gesture lecture. As the life model stood there, he'd ask what is this pose to you, what is it saying, how do you feel, what's the story? Shape was also equally as important, as everything is really just made up of shapes, and different shapes can really portray different feelings. When I hear someone say "ooh I can't do hands, they are so hard", (I've said it to myself in the past too) I now tend to think that is just a mind set, as they are just another shape, made up of other shapes. I suggest that pick a subject you think may be harder then another and concentrate on it for a month or two, you see them in a whole new light!

6. Anatomy
   - This clearly is studied in most fine art courses and probably more prominent for modelers (super detail wise). But recently I took part in a sculpture workshop, where we built up the human anatomy from the inside out, we studied all the bones and how the muscles linked together and where they sat. I didn't realise how much it would effect my drawing, but after the course had finished I coincidentally went to a life drawing class, and I suddenly could see why a certain muscle was in a certain place, and what it was doing, and it made much more sense how the body was holding itself, it was a massive eye opener. I completely recommend a anatomy sculpture class, plus it's really fun!

7. Practice
  - Theory is great, it is great to research the greats, and different techniques, but ultimately you need to practice as often as possible. Try even just setting aside 10 minutes a day to do a little doodle, maybe on your commute or at lunch time. Practice, practice, practice!

Anyway, these may or may not be relevant to you, but I thought I'd share them nonetheless. I hope they were useful. Maybe you can share your won list of tips you've picked up along the way? ....For now, you can get your face stuck into some great links, courses and books:

LINK DUMP:

My friend wrote a piece here about Drawn to Life (a must have!) on Splinebomb.com: http://www.splinebomb.com/book-review-drawn-life-walt-stanchfield/

An interesting article in setting up your own art education for 10K

Searching for the perfect pose
How to draw lively loses SPONGEBOB!
Character Design boards
Perfect Posing
Eye direction
Expanding your mental toolbox
http://markpudleiner.blogspot.com.es/2012/12/dragons-lair-2-john-pomeroy-drawings.html
http://pinterest.com/backtohell/reference-for-animation/
http://pinterest.com/cristinadandu/animation/
Dynamic Poses - a great source of reference if you can't make Life Drawing class this week

London courses/groups:
- The sculpture class tutor I had: Patricia Barker, and there's a class on soon!
- Candid arts life drawing
- Adrian Dutton life drawing
Online:
Storyboarding for $10!! by Leo Matsuda - a story artist and Walt Disney Studios

Great drawing/anatomy books:
*Character Mentor
Force
Drawn to Life Vol 1 & Vol 2
The Figure in Motion


Remember to always keep inspired.

Drudgery-shmudgery.

I'm sure everyone has felt deflated, unmotivated, in a creative rut or whatever you decide to name it (and if you haven't, well....then....neeeeerrr), so I decided to make this post on some of the top tips I have found whilst I have be scouring the internet for solutions....

(In no particular order)

Top Tip #1 - Just start scribbling. 

"Just start scribbling. The first draft is never your last draft. Nothing you write is by accident." Taken from this article.

If i've ever tried to help someone with how to start learning to draw, I usually tell them a couple of things to get going: 1. Start with the cheapest rubbishy paper and lots of it, 2. don't through any of the rubbish away. 

When I used to run life drawing classes for a social club at University, I started off with a warm up session to start with (like most of the life drawing classes I had ever attended). So people could scribble on the page, get warmed up, have a play, using the medium of their choice. 

I tried to encrouage the people that felt less confident to just make some random scribbles and scew up the first page a bit, so then the paper is ruined and anything after they produced on that page would only be better. It was basically an exercise to help them forget about a big gaping white blank canvas in front of them. They always looked like a rabbit caught in headlights when they first started. But the most rewarding thing was I saw this technique help them gain much more confdence in their ability and not worry about what they put down on the page. I read somewhere once, "well, are you really going to frame it and hang it in your hall?" - and this really made me stop caring about making mistakes in my drawings, if anything, mistakes are what you want, as you can only learn from them! I think this is important to apply to everything, just do it, you learn from doing. 

Top Tip #2 - Find Your Slogan 

I like this first tip from this website. I've para-phrased it below:  

Your slogan doesn't have to be a long meaningful deep poem or anything like that. Aristotle has a brilliant way of looking at things:

"We are what we repeatedly do"

He also links to someones struggle with motivation, be sure to give it a quick read and have a look at the comments too.

"If you say to yourself “I am what I repeatedly do” and then you ask yourself “What do I repeatedly to every single day? What does my average day look like?”, it really makes you face reality."

I don't believe it's critical or something you should stress about if you don't have your own, but I personally love the idea of it developing eventually, even if it's a feeling, rather then words. But I definitely think Aristotle is right, if you practise everyday, youll become what they want to be. You're own "slogan" might come to you as you progress in you career, hobby or whatever it may be. For me, in most recent months (hence the blog) is "Remeber to get inspired".

Top Tip #3 - last but not least "Start small. Really small" 
taken from this website

Sometimes the night before you've had that feeling, "tomorrow is going to be sooo productive, i'm going to get up adn do this and this and this" adn then you wake up, and you don't feel like it much. Or you feel like you've come to a dead end in something.

Come at it again from a different angle and start really small. I notoiced recently (if i've found myself in a procastinating whole) I can rick my mind back into my work. I'll start with somethign really tiny I can complete. Then before I know it i'm in full swing and a few hours have disappeared.

"If you are having a hard time getting started, it may be because you’re thinking too big. If you want to exercise, for example, you may be thinking that you have to do these intense workouts 5 days a week. No — instead, do small, tiny, baby steps. Want to wake up early? Don’t think about waking at 5 a.m. Instead, think about waking 10 minutes earlier for a week. That’s all. Baby steps."

Anyway, I hope these little tips help you with some motivational bugs I've come across along the way, there's sooo many tips on the internet it's untrue, so it's impossible to note them all.

....and here's some inspirational videos for your viewing pleasure ;)