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

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