Imaginism Workshop: Happy Endings and Farewells

Today was the last day of the one month Imaginism Workshop in Montreal. It's hard to believe how fast a month can go buy and how much  information can be stuffed into your brain during that month. Not only did I gain new artistic skills, but also knowledge of the industry, perspectives on character design, a new sense of appeal, a caffeine addiction, and what feels like 15 pounds. Damn you ,Thierry and your burgers. Damn you.

Oh, and new friends from all over and all that jazz too.

We decided to take a break from painting (not really), and go visit Old Montreal. We drew passers by for a while in front of the Basilica.

Rita, Tao, and Paul in front of the Basilica Fountain.

The Basilica

All in all, old Montreal is a really cool place. We didn't get a chance to explore even a fraction off it either; it's so big! I hope to come back some time.

There were also some awesome Street Performers.

And these guys

When we got back, T and I had an epic discussion about character design and concept art the pretty much melted my brain. The fallout was that I had to entirely rework my onion character to the extent that I started from the Initial Study phase all over again. If you're going to do it,  do it right. Right?

Imaginism Workshop Day 24: Life Sketching and Poutine with Stephen Silver.

Today Stephen Silver graciously gave us a morning lecture about the art industry, character design, his life, our life, and just about everything in between. It was very very cool. I think it's going to be difficult to go back to the real world and my regular job after spending so much time on art and meeting so many motivated and successful people.

After that, Stephen wanted to see what all the fuss was about concerning some dish in Canada called "Pooh-Teen." See? I bet Stephen Silver reads my blog too.

So, we went to our favourite poutine shack, but my body couldn't handle any more starch/cheese/gravy stomach bombs, so I opted out and did a handful of caricatures of the patrons while we ate.

When we got back, T showed us about the next step in our Acrylic under-painting. Picking out the highlights.

Since my piece is set almost entirely in the light, I could skip this step and move into color. At this point, words cannot express my new found appreciation for digital painting. I think longingly back to my time spent with the color picker and the opacity control. *sigh*

And lastly Franklin the Duck returned. Though, I think our duck dinner left an impression because he brought along his crew Mafioso style. They were quite menacing so we GTFO.

Imaginism Workshop Day 12: Flat Tires, Fast foods, and Drawing Nudes.

Today started off well. I got a flat tire on my morning bike ride about 7 miles out. I guess those Continental Gator Hardshells were worth every penny. So, my bike Flo and I had nice relaxing (long) walk home.

A man and his bike - Happiness

However, the weather looked like something out of movie. The lighting on the quiet neighbouring farms was so nice that I had to stop for a minute and take it all in. 

Unfortunately, the picture doesn't quite do it justice.

During class, he reviewed the essence of spheres and the various ways that they reflect light. Our homework for the weekend is to graduate to cylinders and combinations of shapes, which I'll post when I'm finished. Upon my special request, T gave us extra home work for decomposing Bouguereau's nudes into boxes. Have I mentioned that Thierry love boxes?

T's example

We also went out to the food festival. The first Friday of every months a ton of food trucks in Montreal gather near the old Olympic stadium and people come from all around.

This is my first experience with Canadian Dollars.
They're made of plastic, AND they're see through!
If I didn't know any better, I'd say they weren't actually  money.

This is the old Olympic Stadium

The Food Festival was packed. Tao and I waited in line for 50 minutes to get a cup of Vietnamese noodles! I gave up on waiting, because we were going to miss our movie, but Tao persisted. And so, noodles were had. Thank you Tao.

The crowd at the food truck festival. Rumour has it that there
was a truck selling $80 Poutine!

While we waited, Tao and I got some life drawing in from the people in the crowd. 

Lastly, we saw Maleficent. It was pretty, but the story fell a bit flat for me. Angelina Jolie's new cheek bones screamed at me for the whole movie.

Mighty Good 5/2/2014

Here are my sketches from this week. The place was a little empty because of graduation, and everyone had their back to me strangely enough. I've also noticed that I'm begging to be able to tell whether someone will make a good or bad character just by looking at them.

Last week I talked about a sketch that I did, and then ruin during the inking phase. I redrew it tonight, and I'm happy with the out come. Let me know what you think.

Inking gone wild

A bit more restraint on the second go-round

Mighty Good Sketching 4/26/14: Control those line weights!

This week I had one simple goal, control my line weights. Here's why.

I drew this guy last week and loved it instantly. I liked the shapes. I liked the flow. I liked the expression. Then I totally screwed up the inking. The more I tried to fix, the more it got away from me. When all the dust cleared, it was mess. After I finish the personal project that I'm doing now, I'll revisit this sketch and ink it correctly.

I broke several rules of sketching people with my drawings this week, but I was more delicate with my line weights (with and exception or two). So, I'll call today a success.

This guys is a bit boring. One of my goals for next week is to introduce a story for each drawing.

Shame on you Dave. Never draw just a bust!

I love this guys hair. It was everywhere, suddenly......all at once.

Also, T minus 4 weeks and counting until I'm off to Montreal for the Schoolism Live Workshop!

Mighty Good Sketches 4/19/14

Here's the sketches from this week's session of life drawing at mighty good coffee.

Mighty Good Sketching! 4/12/14

As always, here are my life sketches from this weeks session at mighty good.

When I started doing this, it was a struggle to get out there. It seemed like there were a million other more important things to do on a Saturday morning than "doodle" some people at a random cafe. However, it's become one of the highlights of my week over the past two months. 

I've been tossing the idea around in my head, and I'd like to start getting a consistent sketch group together. I've gained a significant increase in confidence by making this my ritual, and I'd love to share the experience. So, here's the official call to action. If you like to draw, eat delicious scones, or creep on total strangers, come join me at Mighty Good coffee from 10 am -Noon on Saturdays. Let's make this a thing. 

This guys computer was way too small for him. 

I've noticed that most of the people that I get to draw have really tired/ drawn/ stressed out expressions. This guy caught my eye. I don't know what he was reading, but he was tickled pink.

Mighty Good Sketching 4/5/14

My apologies for the late update everyone!

Here are my sketches from this week's life drawing at mighty good. Nothing too special happened this session. Though, I did try a cinnamon scone instead of a cherry one. That was earth shattering in it's own way. Though, I suspect less interesting to you.

This guy was a bit strange. He sat like this with that sneer for 10 minutes. I don't know why, but I think he has the tortured soul of a true artist. Or a broken arm......and no health insurance. 

This second sketch might not seem like a big deal, but it was a major milestone for me. This is a regular that I see every week, and every week I try to draw him. This is the very first time that I feel that I've successfully captured his character. I have dubbed him turtle man in my head.

Secondly, Noah Bradley put out the first lecture of his art camp class on youtube for free. It clocks in at a whopping 2.5 hours and is well worth the time it takes to watch it!

Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQfF-P70V2Q

Life Drawing at Mighty Good: Are you really sucking more than usual today?

Have you ever had one of those days where everything you draw just isn't that good? It doesn't necessarily suck, but it's just not up to snuff. Maybe it happens at the best possible time. Like when you're drawing in front of you friends, or even better, in front of a bunch of curious strangers. It's so tempting to say "I swear I'm good! Or at least, better than this!"

I had a day like that yesterday. It got me thinking about something I had heard in Chris Oatley's ArtCast ( http://chrisoatley.com/category/podcasts/ ). Chris Mentioned that students and new budding artists seem to be more afraid of or even paralyzed by failure. 

I admit that I'm guilty of this. It took me a year to get around to drawing a 3 page teaser for my comic idea. All because I knew that if I started right then it wouldn't be good. There is so much to learn right?! I have at least 10 great books about the best way to layout your panels, and another 3 about proper story telling. Oh yeah, then there's that great podcast about character development. Wouldn't it be hasty, or even irresponsible of me to start before I learn all I can about it first?

I think this mindset is a product of two things.

First- There are two types of artistic growth that are necessary to "level up." The first is an increase in skill....duh. Ok, that's a little obvious, but the second is the ability to discern when something is right or wrong. This is analogous to a chef refining his/her palette to detect when flavor of their meal isn't quite there yet. Maybe the soup needs some more salt and a bay-leaf. Or, a musician's ability to detect when they're flat or sharp, or slightly out of time. Artists go through the exact same process. I think the ability to dissect your work is necessary to consistently improve and deliver. The feeling I was having was do to growth in the second type of learning that exceeded my skill in the first.

Second- The internet. Yes, let's blame everything on the internet. My dog sheds everywhere. That's the internet's fault too.

I think that the fear that Chris mentions is a vicious cycle between these two things. The internet is so accessible and chalk full of tutorials that we can research art forever without putting pencil to page. This, in turn, increases our ability to discern good art way above our ability to make it. We'll start a piece and immediately think that it's terrible. So what do we do? Go straight back to the internet, because we haven't learned enough yet to attempt the piece that we started. 

Around and around we go.

So, what should I do to beat this thing? Well, I went to the internet. (Irony noted). Everything I found told me to just do the damn thing no matter what it is. Turn my internal editor off. (He's an ass hole anyway). Looking at art on the internet only increases that second type or skill. Putting pen to paper will increase the first one.

So, here are my life drawings from yesterday. Not perfect, but at least they're done. 

I also have the first page of pencils finished for my comic. I'll throw those up later today and prove that I'm not a total hypocrite. At least, not all of the time.