I have no idea where the summer went, but I go back to Sheridan on Saturday. It's mixed feelings. On one hand, I'm really excited to be back with my friends & our shenanigans, but on the other I'm dreading all the work.

Oh well, I'm going to try my hardest to improve this year!

So, here is my last sketch dump of the summer:

Here's a sketch I did a few weeks ago. It started as a gesture doodle in my sketchbook & then I worked on it in Photoshop.

These are some doodles I did back in May I believe. Lyrics on the first one are from Street Spirit (Fade Out) by Radiohead.


Some sketchbook pages from August 31st & September 1st. 2am is my favourite time to draw on 'autopilot', meaning my hand moves and I don't think.


That's all for now, I guess I'm just disappointed I didn't do more drawings over the summer. More to come when I start getting swamped with assignments!

Cheers,
-Max

I finally finished the drawing I've been working on. Some bits still bug me, but not much I can do about it at this point. My markers haven't been used in a few months and I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to work with them as well now.

This is my characters Chris & Lord Edgar Milton. He strangles Chris after he blackmails him.


I wasn't going to do this meme, but my since Lawlzy was making one, I changed my mind. The premise is that you list your artistic influences. It's definitely not as easy as it seems.

(From left to right, top to bottom. No real order though.)

1. Nikki Stavin - I've followed her art for several years. I'm especially fond of her style from 2005. The earth-tones and crosshatching are gorgeous.

2. Kaitlyn Ritter - Another artist I've followed for a while. Her character design is beautiful.

3. Victorian Period - This goes without saying. 90% of my original work takes place in this period. Something about the dark, grungy & filthiness of it makes me love it.

4. William Shakespeare - The title of this blog is even a quote from Hamlet.

5. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - I read this novella when I was a kid & again when I was finishing secondary school. I've never loved a story so much.

6. Walt Disney Feature Animation - I grew up during the Disney Renaissance and was spoiled with so many good films. They inspired me enough to want to be an animator.

7. Dia De Los Muertos - It's definitely my second favourite holiday (after Halloween of course). The art style associated with it inspires me so.

8. Jack the Ripper - I guess the fact that he was never found makes him so intriguing to write about.

9. Edward Gorey - Ever since I was little I've adored his inking style.

10. Soundtracks/Musicals - These are the main six I listen to while drawing.

11. Plague Doctors - Their costumes & the morbidity behind them...

12. Stanley Donwood - His work for the albums 'kid A' & 'Amnesiac' are my favourite pieces of his.

That's all for now,
Cheers!

-Max

I haven't abandoned this blog! I've just been on holiday in the UK for the past month & haven't really drawn much.

Here are some random doodles & misc to fill the void of finished pieces.

I have this drawing mostly inked now, but I'm not sure if it'll get finished. This is just a screencap of the finished photoshop sketch. I don't know where I put the inked drawing. I drew it so long ago that I've lost most interest in it.

This was just a doodle from my 'bad sketchbook' that I decided to finish. Self-portrait, how I've pretty much been all summer.


On my flight back to Canada, I managed to doodle some more backwards cat.

Just a quick & silly doodle in Photoshop.

And finally, here's a piece I've been working on seriously over the last few days. It was inked with a 00 Rapidograph pen (I inherited a set from my cousin- OMFG) full of Windsor & Newton black india ink. The BG is a watercolour wash & I'm in the middle of colouring it with Copic markers.


That's all for now, hopefully I'll update this place again before I head back to school! I can't believe I'm going to be in second year of the animation programme already!

Cheers,
-Max

Since I left school I really haven't felt like drawing. Drawing constantly for 8 months really burnt me out (not a good sign at all). I've also been recovering from surgery, so drawing hasn't been my top priority. However I do try to scribble a bit in an old sketchbook every day, just to keep some skills.

Anyway, I have managed to draw some things, so I'll drop them off here.

This is currently being inked on my animation desk (and has been 'in progress' for several weeks now). It's my character Thomas, no real surprise there.

This is some fanart I did for K. Ritter, who is a fantastic artist. She creates some really interesting & well-constructed characters.
This is a piece I really started working on this afternoon. These characters I don't really draw enough. Yes, the rough pumpkins were reused from an old painting I did for school- I probably won't redraw them, I'm lazy.
I'm really feeling like I've improved a bit since September; Sheridan has taught me lots of good skills that I'm really happy with. Hopefully I'll continue to improve over the next three years!

Cheers
-Max

This post will be tying up the loose ends from first year. I'm done, I'm home and all is going well. I managed to complete first year without going completely mental and only having a few break downs.

Here is my final painting project. It's a COPIC marker BG with a character on a cel overlay. The cel was painted with acrylica gouache. I worked really hard on this, trying to re-familiarize myself with my markers (I didn't get to use them all year for anything serious)- Yeah, I got a 60-something (as usual. FML.). Oh well, at least I like it.


For my final layout assignment, we were to do a diagonal panned background. Of course I misunderstood most of the directions and tried to vomit it out the night before... But I learned where I went wrong and my prof was really awesome about it.


Now here are some animations I haven't posted here:

Firstly, an animal walk cycle. I can't draw animals very well so this was a pain. Oh well, got an 88 on it.




Here is my flour sack animation, interacting with a puddle. Out of stupidity, I put it off until the day before and shat this out. There's problems I'd love to fix, but oh well.



Finally, here is a fun animation done in Animate Pro during digital tools. There were some bugs with the software, so the patches misaligned. It was excused because of the circumstances (the technical difficulties).



That's all for now; I'm off to sleep for the next week or so.

Cheers!
-Max

I've added a Twitter feed to this page. Dunno why it took me so long to do so, I'll just write it off as being lazy. It means I had to unlock my tweets, so now the world can read my rambling stupidity. Oh well, wasn't that what Twitter was invented for?

Anyways, the workload is really intense at the moment, so my updates are rather sporadic.

Here is that blue Col-Erase doodle I was working on in the last update. I finished it, but it's a little too 'anime' for my liking.

Here's a quick (10min) doodle I did for my sister. She was originally going to use it in a type poster, but changed ideas.
This is a reproduction background from Disney's "Mickey's Christmas Carol" I did for painting class. We were to take an existing animation BG and copy it completely. It's been a while since I watched this, but I believe it's outside Fezzywig's party.


Here's a random page in my sketchbook I did a few weeks back during layout. Prof was going on about style, so I doodled in pen.


That's all for now. There's so much work left to do before the year's over and I only have two more weeks to do it. Hopefully I'll post more though.

Cheers!
-Max

I've been trying to justify a posting here, but I guess it's just an excuse to not do anything productive. 'Suppose I just like keeping an archive of the drawings I've done; it works well as a timeline to improvement.

S0, here are some sketches I've done over the weekend. They are just that, sketches. They're rough and shite. Mostly Col-Erase but some are pen.

This is pretty much every page in my sketchbook. Nothing real, just scribbling for the hell of it.


I doodle a lot when I can't be bothered to do actual work; Here's a (mentally disabled) Hand-Turkey I drew yesterday while talking on Skype to my sister.
Figure/life drawing is kicking my arse right now. Here's some practice I did Saturday night. It's from a photograph. 15mins.


I'll probably finish this sketch throughout the week. I hate how impossible Col-Erase is to actually ERASE. The real drawing is done in a light blue, so it's not really that messy, I just fiddled in Photoshop so the lines were visible.


Drew this one while talking to my mum on the phone. I re-used the head in the banner for this website on this. Pen & white ink. There's stuff I'd love to change, however, that's the nature of pen: you can't.



That's all from me. I'm off to doodle some more.
-Max

Last week I was on reading week and got quite a bit done.

Here is a painting assignment I did of a still life. We could use whatever media we wanted so I decided to use my watercolour cake set that was ridiculously cheap. It's intended for children or something, but I like it alright.

I find watercolours easier to use that gouache- I'd much rather be able to use them instead.


This is a birthday present I did for my mum. It's a caricature portrait of our pets. Watercolours & Copic markers. Each is 4x6'' and I framed them all nice in a faux-antique frame. She loved it.


Now this is a bit of fanart I did for Doctor Who. It started off as a painting, but I managed to balls it up so badly that I had no choice but to redo it. At least digitally I had the opportunity to play around with some new effects/techniques.

Rendering Gallifrey & Earth (the planets) in the background was really fun. I didn't know how simple it would be to create something like that without the aid of clipart.



And I'll leave off with a rough sketch from a project I'm currently working on. It's for character design!Cheers!
-Max

I have two new animations to post!

This was a learning exercise in ToonBoom Animate Pro. We took the Pink Panther walk that we previously animated and coloured it within the software. The multiplane (it's very slight, so the dimension isn't over-obvious) background was done in Photoshop. SUPER MARIO WORLD THEME.



Now this animation killed my soul. I'm dead emotionally. It could be way better, but alas, I ran out of time and drive. It's a head rotation of Kuzco from the Emperor's New Groove. He also grows ears, meows, and changes expression.





Cheers
-Max

I'm short for time, so I'll just leave these here.
I have to start my storyboarding and animation assignments which are due next week. Totally swamped and trying to keep some composure.

This is a marker piece I've been chipping away at for the past few weeks. Not getting too far on it.



Here's my character design sequence I did. It's crap, I can't draw animals- hopefully I'll get better this semester. It's animated for your convenience. Click to embiggen.


That's all from me.

Cheers!
Max