I'll just leave these here......

My character expression sheet from Character Design. This was my last assignment in the class and hopefully I do well. Used Thomas.

My final test/exam/assignment in storyboarding is to storyboard a scenario given to us. A character is carrying a small box, finds a bigger box, struggles with the bigger box, leaves with the smaller one. Being bitten by the Holiday bug (for the first time in a long, long while. I'm no fan of Christmas), I decided to do a child with a present.

We had to do a model sheet for this character and do all the rough storyboarding in a week (Yikes!). Then we have to bring that in and in two hours (in class) produce a real storyboard. That's why the character is so simple, so I can easily draw him 20 times in the timeframe. :)

Finally, here are my bones. I /LOVE/ bones. So this assignment was really enjoyable for me. Some people love drawing animals, some like drawing people... and for some inexplicable reason, I love drawing skeletons and bones. Honestly, if I could make a living out of it, I totally would draw bones for the rest of my life.

That's all for now. I have a few more assignments to finish.

Cheers!
-Max

My first painting assignment is done! :D
I was to paint the same picture in four different variations.

1. Flat B&W
2. Shading B&W
3. Shading and Lighting B&W
4. Monochromatic

I've never painted with gouache and have very, very limited experience with painting in general so it's quite crap.

5'' by 7''. Winsor & Newton Designer Gouache on Arches 140lb cold-press watercolour paper.

I call it "Failure In Gouache Parts One Through Four".


Welp, I have the same attitude for all my assignments right now: I can only get better.
Hopefully by the end of the semester I'll have improved ten-fold.

Cheers,
-Max

I've finished my first animation assignment for class.
It's very simple- a rubber ball, a bowling ball, a balloon & a pendulum.

There's probably a million little mistakes (especially with timing), but it was due today so it had to get done.

OLD SCHOOL ANIMATION PAPER & PEGBARS & MAGIC.
Only digital was done in post to compile this for you.

Unfortunately it's a bit hard to see because Blogger re-sized it to be quite small. SQUINT.*

*If you do not wish to squint, it can be seen on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suGGAYyemzI

Music in clip is Creating "Governing Dynamics" from the soundtrack of 'A Beautiful Mind' by James Horner. Everything else is done by myself.

Next animation assignment is due in four weeks and it's an S & C curve.

Now I'm off to finish painting and do some layout. This week is breaking my new-found-pleasant disposition. :C

Loving school at the moment.
Hopefully I keep this positivity throughout the year. :)

I finished the Digital Tools slide. It wasn't for a grade, but it's not bad. If I had more time, there's some stuff I'd tweak.

I also finished my character rotation. It's due this Wednesday, which means I may still fiddle with the crap that's bugging me.


One of my next assignments is to do a series of four surreal-ish landscape paintings in gouache. It's almost Halloween, so I sketched a spooky pumpkin patch thumbnail. The design (for the final paintings) has been redone in some places, but it remains the same concept.


Last Friday was my life drawing class and we had the most FANTASTIC model. He was fun and actually into it. I find when the model's into the posing, I draw better. The week prior, our model sucked and I couldn't draw anything decent.

As usual, Conte on newsprint. I blurred the out the really rubbish faces I doodled. Trust me, they were that bad.

Most are 1 or 3 minutes. I know some of the proportions are off (*cough*the hand in the first one *cough*) and the hands are almost allll wrong, but I'm really trying to capture gestures at the moment. :D


That's all for now. Expect some actual ANIMATIONS next week!

Cheers
-Max

One of the main incentives of updating this blog is so I can share my school drawings with my parents. They're paying the ridiculous fees to send me to this fancy school, I might as well keep them up-to-date. Love them.

It's also easier because my mum can't seem to type in the direct URLS to the drawings. She at least bookmarked this page.

Animation!

I'm currently working with traditional animation tools to create my first assignment. Animation paper, how retro.

The first portion is a rubber ball, a bowling ball, and a balloon falling/floating through an environment. It's a study in TIMING (how many frames per second, relative to the subject. ie; more frames = slower, less =faster).

This is a quick PS mock-up of the background for that part of the assignment. The crate says "human organs", how morbid.

The second part is to animate a pendulum. Clocks seemed so cliche, so this is my attempt to find some level of originality (let's face it, 1000s of people have done this assignment before, they've probably done EVERYTHING).

In the final piece it'll be a spider hanging from Intra Mortis Thomas' eye socket. This is just a digital line test. I really HATE how wasteful traditional line tests are, but I still have to do them... :(


Remember that name slate for digital tools?
Well, it dawned on me today how RUBBISH it really is. So in a cloud of sadness, I decided to redo 90% of it.

F*ck simplicity. Seriously, I'm in a competitive program, I have the time. I'm going to do it nice and proper. Added Squelette D'Ombres Thomas and an Aetasatis Thomas. The bar in the background will probably be a Victorian speedpaint background.

And if I'm going to go completely mad, I might as well add some furry little critter somewhere:
Everyone else is drawing them on theirs, so I figured a cute little mouse by my feet wouldn't hurt. HEAVILY inspired by Don Bluth. That man = genius.

Well, I have to get back to this stupid name slate. It's due in a week and I'm ridiculously slow.

Cheers!
-Max

Life drawing is definitely not my forte, I'm actually quite rubbish at it. Even though it was a requirement to for your admission portfolio, I've honestly /never/ done it properly... You know, naked guy/girl lounging around.

Well, I didn't expect to get right into naked people on my first day of Life Drawing at Sheridan.

Here are my best seven sketches of the day- I did about forty or so. I'm hoping to get better by the end of the semester! :D

I don't remember at what order I did them, so here they just are-
ALL UNDER 3 mins, Conte on huge newsprint:

[re-uploaded to BLOGGER because Photobucket has a problem with crudely drawn nudes. Stupidest policy is enforced, so they DELETE my drawings and replace it with an ugly, large "VIOLATED OUR TERMS" banner. Eugh.]

MY FIRST PROPER LIFE DRAWINGS EVER. SO BAD.



Some aren't that bad with the gestures, but I still have quite a ways to go.
Expect life drawing photographs on Fridays :D

-Max

I've really been enjoying my first few classes here at Sheridan. The animation program seems brilliant so far and think I'd have to create a whole new language to properly describe the epicness of this school.

As for drawing, there hasn't been much- but expect loads of doodles from in class. The instructors understand how much we doodle, so they turn a blind eye to most of it.

Here's the mock-up of a project for my Digital Tools class. We're supposed to draw a 'name slate' to be used on all future projects. I chose to draw myself, it fits. :)

Today, whilst in my Visual Concepts class, my prof Chris Walsh mentioned something about how the entire lecture hall was probably doodling little caricatures of him as he spoke. Well, I wasn't beforehand....


He seems like a really cool guy- Can't wait for more of his classes.

Well I'm off to do some homework. I need to go to the art store down the street tomorrow so I can buy some animation paper, a peg bar and some other necessities.

-Max

Tomorrow I move to Sheridan.
I'd be lying if I said wasn't at all nervous.

Whilst packing, I found the time to finish 'Eam Culpae II'. It's my last drawing of the summer- my last drawing pre-art school.

My airbrush did not want to cooperate on this, so I broke out the 'heavy artillery'. My brand new Copic airbrush where the air goes through a mini adapter... Worked much better, but the nibs were too dry. Long story, lots of frustration, but I'm done. Not entirely content with the outcome, but it's finished.

It's now framed beside the 'Jekyll & Hyde' piece. My mum insists on keeping my artwork and creating a 'wall' to me. How bloody embarrassing.

Take care!
-Max

So I think it'd be fair to say the function and steadiness in hands has significantly deteriorated over the last few weeks.

My biological father had some condition where his hands would not be steady, so much so that he had to quit working. I cannot do traditional ink work at the moment, at least without a lot of breaks and grief.

I'm mad and frustrated- considering I gave up everything to pursue a career completely dependent on the steadiness of my hands. Fuck.

I've been feeling rather lazy towards art as of late, hence why the blog has been so inactive. The picture from my last post has been finished for quite a while, so I'll start by introducing it.

"Dangerous Game" - Title comes from a song in Jekyll & Hyde. When I was airbrushing the background box, the post-it notes didn't cover the area properly, resulting in DARK RED EVERYWHERE D8. I spent hours dissolving as much of the red as possible (with a colourless blender) until it was a light pink- light enough to cover it with other markers.

Also figured out how to make 'transparency' (sorta).


Now I'm working on a new drawing- a remake of an old picture from 2007:

Eam Culpae • 2007

It was called"Eam Culpae", featuring Emily from Skeletal Requiem.

Here is the digital rough of the remake:

I like it so much more. There's much more detail and feels more "Ophelia-esc", like how it is intended in the story.

Now, if I could only get the enthusiasm to ink and colour it. :c

-Max

I've been working on a picture of Thomas & Olivia (Thomas is the protagonist in my novel, Skeletal Requiem, and Olivia is his wife). together. This time last year I was working on something similar- I guess mid-July is my Thom & Olivia time.

Original 'sketch' was drawn in Photoshop CS3- about six hours of doodling.
It was printed out and traced with my lightbox, onto A4 cardstock.

I've started mapping out the shading (in the same manner as I normally do).

That's as far as I've attempted. Colour might commence tomorrow, I'd just really hate to balls it up- but c'est la vie with traditional work.

-Max

Art course complete, transcript received, faxed copy to Sheridan, they sent confirmation back. I'm in their BAA animation program for goodsies now. Tuition and residence were also paid for- with lovely money from the bank D8.

Artwise, nothing really has been happening. My hands have been getting worse and worse, so doing traditional inkwork is verging impossible (without me taking long breaks between sessions- whilst completing very little in those periods). I'd really like to keep up with this traditional art streak, going back to digital just seems so wrong at the moment.

I finished some concept art about a week ago- I'm so terrible at posting finished pieces here.

I've also been pushing myself to draw outside my little 'original character bubble'. Fanart never appears in my galleries because, truthfully, I can't really draw it. Well, I can, but it always looks so off- especially with real people. I need to remedy this, swiftly!

For practice, here's Anthony Head playing "Nathan Wallace/Repo Man" from REPO! The Genetic Opera.
Background is some of my favourite quotes from the film 8D.

-Max

The Jekyll & Hyde piece was finished last week and it absolutely destroyed me. Working for five days straight with that thing always on my mind. But I got it done, and that's all that mattered.

My mark was 4+, which is congruent to 95-100%. The marking scheme for that course was so vague and strange.

Now I'm working on concept art for a short film I'd like to animate:

Traditional inking is a pain in the neck, but I love trying to fix all the 'irreversible' mistakes ;).

-Max

I'm currently in the middle of a really bothersome art-block, where I cannot seem to draw anything by obscure (rubbish) doodles.

But since it's been quite a few weeks since my last post here, I'll drop some off:

I couldn't sleep the other night, So I decided to doodle 'Alvin & the Chipmunks'- I have no idea why... 15mins, pen & copics.
Last night I was experimenting with style and wondered if I could still draw the style I used back in 2007. Well, apparently I can, but it looks better now than it did back then- Haha. Thomas in that style. 10 mins, mechanical pencil.
Now, this is an update on the finished sketch for my 'Jekyll & Hyde' piece.


Oh mah gawd, I love how it turned out. I just hope it looks that nice, if not nicer, when it's on the illustration board with markers.

That's all for now-

-Max

For the class I am taking, we are required to do a final project. It can be almost anything and has no limitations or theme. We will have one week to finish it and most of it has to be done in class.

I have decided to start sketching it now, because I doubt I can finish a large traditional project in one week. I'm slow. Shaddap. I really doubt doing a digital sketch breaks any of the rules, but meh.

Here is 20 or so hours of sketching thusfar:

It will be inked with Copic multiliners 0.03 (black) and 0.05 (colours)- then coloured with copic markers. The piece will be 11''x14'' on illustration board.

The picture of Jekyll drinking is a variation of an old drawing I never finished. This thing is taking me FOR-BLOODY-EVER.

I'll keep you posted on this.

-Max

NOTE: Squelette.net is now expired and I will no longer be paying for it to stay alive. If you link to it, please change your links to: http://peasantslave.blogspot.com/ - which is right here :)

I got a COPIC Airbrush on the weekend and it is absolutely amazing. Definitely intend on buying one of the bigger systems in the future. My only complaint is that the original (square) markers seem to fit in the airgrip the best (without having to fiddle and align the marker nib)- and I only have a few of them -A-; .

So, to test my new toy out, I've drawn the following:

The backgrounds were done with the airbrush. I used green painter's tape (and the waste from my hole punch) to mask the figures, create boundaries and make effects.

Eugh, need more aircans! D60 only holds 7-8mins of air, and that's most certainly not enough. ;)

-Max

I apologize for not being around for a few weeks- I've been drawing, but not much is really worth sharing.

As terms of my conditional offer of admission to Sheridan, I have to get the senor-level visual arts credit that I didn't take when I was in secondary school. So, I spend my days at the Adult Education Centre, working to get the credit.

It's a LOT of fun and excellent practice for Sheridan.

Here's some of the gesture drawings I did today (of my teacher). Done in Col-Erase- 30 seconds each (with the exception of the first, which was 10 seconds).

Drawing YMCA & 'I'm A Little Tea Pot' is so hilarious.

-Max

I usually have someone 'beta' my lineart before I start colouring them. This way, if there's any extremely noticeable flaws, I can change them before it becomes more difficult.

Regrettably, I didn't have anyone look over the lineart of my latest picture and decided to have it beta'd when it was 99% complete.

Not the smartest move, as fixing it was a lot of work (opposed to just changing lines).

Here's the drawing at the moment:

I know there are still flaws in the anatomy, but right now I don't have the zeal to fix them. Of course I'll try to fix it up before it's 'done' and posted officially online :)

PS: I'm disliking Photobucket's new system where it asks for tags on pictures after uploading them. >:c

I've been struggling with shading lately, so to remedy this, I make mock-ups.
Just a simple photocopy with Col-Erase sketching out where light should be.

It's actually rather helpful.

Cel-Shading this time? Perhaps.

Here's a drawing I've been working on for the last few hours:


Yes, it IS yet another self portrait in profile (Fuck, I do seem to draw a lot of myself- I swear that I'm not narcissistic!)- But it's kind of special-- with someone special.

I haven't drawn us together in two years.

Inspired by a conversation about standing in the rain.