As I'm pretty much done this semester, this will be my last art/work dump for a bit. This semester has been a mix of good & bad. I've learned quite a bit and feel I've gotten better in some areas, but alas I still feel I need to improve a lot to be up to par with what the programme demands. Definitely something I want to work on over my winter break.

This is my Christmas card for the year; It's a lino print I carved a few weeks back. I still haven't gotten the whole 'printing' process mastered, so I keep having lots of little 'speckles' in each print.


My final assignment in 'literature' was to illustrate a scene from The Yellow Wallpaper.
This assignment was familiar, as I've done this before. However that was 3 years ago and it was absolutely dreadful. If you're into bad art, you can see it here.


For my last layout assignment, we were to take five sequential scenes from our storyboard/leica and build these boards into proper layouts.



This project also overlapped into painting, where we took one of these layouts and painted it. Watercolour pencils, watercolours, markers & Photoshop.


The beatboards were also another painting assignment. Watercolours, watercolour pencils, markers & a hell of a lot of Photoshop.


Over the semester we were required to keep a sketchbook of caricatures. We were allowed to draw from video, so, I drew a lot of my favourite people from television. There are some friends & family mixed in here, but there are definitely more Doctor Who people.



This is the end result for that storyboard I posted the beat boards & character line up for (IT KEEPS HAPPENING). A lot got changed since then & I'm unsure how I feel about it. It definitely keeps the integrity to my morbid personality.


To end this off, this is the final animation I did for the semester. It was a character's expression change whilst interacting with something/someone. I chose to use my old character 'Hecate' & have her with a spider.



That's all for now. I have a few more assignments to finish up & I'll be heading home for the next three weeks. See you in the new year.

Cheers
-Max

I've been meaning to update here, but the last few weeks have been really rough (with lots of assignments & life).

Not really art related, but last Tuesday I got the opportunity of a lifetime: to attend Tim Burton's masterclass in Toronto! It was being held to promote/commemorate the Tim Burton art exhibit at the TIFF building, so they invited several animation colleges to attend. I've been majorly inspired by Burton for the past ten years, so there was no way I'd pass up this chance!

I even managed to get tickets in his actual lecture (instead of watching it in the overflow live-feed theatre) because I signed up early enough! So I sat for 2hrs, about 100 feet away, listening to Tim Burton talk about animation, Hollywood, and whatnot. It was beyond words!

Lawlzy, Me & Aunt Jamila

Back to posting art...

Here is my latest character design assignment; it was to draw a boy & girl in the assigned expressions from the waist up. They had to be based on caricatures we've done over the semester- it was an exercise in breaking away from 'generic' characters.

I was an idiot and put this off. Wish I would have given myself more time. Some bits I like, others I'd love to have fixed.

Transgender Day of Remembrance.

This is a cause very close to my heart. I wish I could have gone to pay my respects at one of the events being held worldwide. Official site.

I'll try & update with some school work next week.

-Max

During reading week, I bought a set of watercolours & I really wanted to try them out. It was close to Halloween, so I drew some skeletons having a party (definitely my favourite subject matter). It turned out alright, I actually still like it!


These are my contrasting characters for my last project in character design. I chose to do Jack the Ripper & one of the prostitutes he murdered, Dark Annie. This assignment had a lot of fun points... but some bits made me want to bash my head against a desk. Overall it was a great learning experience.... You can really tell I was watching WAYYY too much Sweeney Todd (the 1982 broadway recording)- kind of regret that.



For my current storyboard project we were given the prompt "It keeps happening!". Somehow I construed that to a story where a kid's cat keeps getting killed. I have no idea. I love cats. This is my character line up & beat boards.


Last weekend I slacked off and decided I'd carve lino (for printmaking) instead of doing assignments. I made a plague doctor :D


Finally, here's one of my longer studies from the Royal Winter Fair. I really need to improve on drawing animals. I say that every time...

Cheers
-Max

I made it to reading week! That means I'm halfway done the fall semester. I'm so thankful for these breaks, I'm not sure I could function without them.

To end off the first half of this semester, here is an art dump of things I've doodled or done for coursework.

Here's a new doodle in •the sad days•.


I haven't posted my first painting assignment. Probably because I wasn't happy with it at all. I actually liked the lineart and original sketch, but alas, my marker-work is still lacking. Still learning!


This is my first layout assignment. I'm so dreadful at layout work. Perspective & I rarely get along. Hoping to improve this year though (must stay positive).


In my spare time I've been doodling monsters.

And as always, I'm doodling personal pieces in Photoshop. Not sure if I'll finish either, but they were good practice to break away from 'pen tool' lineart (much faster as well).



On my birthday, I was fortune enough to have my favourite life model for class. Ron is one of the best models in my opinion, he's just so much fun. Got some alright drawings done of him- might use a few in the portfolio I'm to assemble soon.

10 mins

30 sec

1min

2min

2min

5min

To finish this off, I finished my second animation this afternoon. I struggled with the 2 week deadline, and since it was my first attempt at character animation, it's pretty miserable. Oh well, learning experience. Need to keep remembering that. I'm here to learn, not do perfect work every time.

I'll make up for its crappiness with my next assignment (the walk run). I need to make it up to myself.

Now I'm off to rest up & draw more personal pieces. Real work starts next week.
Cheers,
-Max

Here's my lift & toss model sheets for my first character design project. We needed to do a rotation and three poses of the character lifting something heavy.

I chose to redesign Emily; I'm really thankful to have a library of characters created over the past five years- makes life easier.

Structure got killed by my scanner, but it's there. Blue col-erase & cleaned up in a 5B pencil. Not used to pencil clean up & I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm used to cleaning up in ink.



This is a quick doodle I did in character design class. Trying to explore facial structure more.


For life drawing we were to draw a horse from life. They actually brought in some horses, so it was pretty cool. I've never drawn horses & I really wish I had some prior experience. This is my best study, took about an hour.


The other night I started a new sketchbook.
I try to make sure all my sketchbooks have a 'theme'- whether it be the mood in which the drawings were conceived or the quality of the art. So, here are some of the first drawings in •the sad days•

The style is a little underdeveloped, but I like it.
Rapidograph pens filled with Windsor & Newton black ink.
First one was coloured with Lyra water-soluble pencils.
Black backgrounds were done with a dead prismacolour marker & white gel-pen accents.

Now I'm between classes & should get back to work. I need to finish so many more assignments before I take off for Thanksgiving.

Cheers
-Max

Here are some sketchbook doodles I did last night. I really need to get more comfortable with sketching on paper. These just kind of happened, I didn't think too much into them:


Here are some tonals I did for painting class. They're 3x5, done in Copic neutral grey markers. My prof seemed to like them- He likes the first one the best, so I'm going to continue with it for the rest of the assignment.


Here's a caricature I doodled of my twin sister. Did this mostly in layout class (I know, I'm a bad kid. Should be listening, not doodling!). This is the first caricature I've drawn & I need lots of practice. My character design class requires me to keep a sketchbook of caricatures over the semester.


Cheers!
-Max

Life Drawing Tuesdays

My goal this year is to get better at life drawing. I know I've improved a little bit since last September, but I have a long way to go. One of my biggest regrets is not taking proper life drawing sessions/classes before I arrived at Sheridan, it puts me at a huge disadvantage.

Oh well. Here are some 1 minute drawings from the past two sessions. 1 minute drawings are supposed to be quick and show the gesture, not get into all the little details of the pose.


Now this week we've moved onto muscle structure- drawing all the muscles underneath the model's skin. Kind of weird, never done it before, so here are my first two drawings to document process. 15 minute studies:


I better get back to doing storyboarding, animation, character design & painting... Yeah, my free time is pretty limited now.
Cheers~
-Max

The only reason I don't absolutely hate life drawing is that I can sometimes salvage one of the sketches I do.

Generally I'm embarrassingly bad when it comes to figure drawing (but I am getting better... I think), but every so often (like 1 in 200 drawings) I don't completely hate one. Here is an example using my latest drawing:

This is a drawing I did from a live model back in March/April. It's a five minute pose and it's probably one of my best all year (oh lordy, that's so sad to admit).


So I took a photo of it and reworked the concept & sketch in Photoshop CS4. I came up with this, a redesign of my characters "Dante & Milton".


Next step is clean up/inking it with the pen tool in Photoshop.


Then after a few hours of colouring, it's complete.


Now I guess I should get back to doing something more productive. I'm halfway through the first week of year 2 and I've promised myself I'm not going to slack off this year.

Cheers
-Max