Language of Animation Project 1

Ok. The time has finally come! I started school Last week and I've got projects starting up left and right. This is my fist project in my Language of Animation class and the only one worth showing so far.

The assignment was to create a completely original character and draw and color him in two different action poses. The poses and colors are to identify his back story (which we will write later on in the quarter and eventually story board) I drew a few different characters and here are two clean ones.

Attempts 1

^This was a fun pose to draw- really had to remember my perspective and shapes.^

This guy was one of my favorite set of sketches but when I finished him I didn't like him. I found out colored pencils and I don't like each other and need to get to know each other a little better before we try and finish something together. I also thought the pose was too suggestive- but hey that could've worked for the character... oh well

Attempts2

^After a few more sketches I drew these guys up and think that a really fun story lies behind them.I'm not really sure what that story is yet but It'll come to me. I haven't decided on the colors yet but I know I'll be using digital this time. yep^

So this was a fun pose to draw too! I like the lumbering...ness of the big guy (probably need to thin of a name, huh?) I think he'll be a protector. and the boy will be secretly amazing at something.

"Be careful computers eat energy...like transformers they too are more than meets the eye."

Philly the Kid and all he stands for to me

So this past year has been one of enlightenment. I have had so many artists and styles brought to my attention that interest me way more than the traditional realist style I've been trying to perfect. I'm ok at realism when it comes to figure drawing; I would go as far as to say that the human body is my best and favorite subject. But real is real and unless I want to put some story behind my characters (which is always necessary) they all stay pretty much the same. So I figured out I wanted to create a style that was a bit more than just realistic. I wanted to put realism into the unreal, and fantastic. Not to shock or amaze my audience but to just show them what I wanted to have as my own style. Not that it's different or not influenced by other artists and art I see and like but just to say- hey this is what I do, this is what I like, take it or leave it.

Anyway Some really big influences on my artistic direction have been professionals that work constantly and have a unique style that catches my brain! Lesean Thomas- for one- is an American animator/ illustrator working in Korea in animation (the first ever by the way) he's also working on a creator owned graphic novel called Cannon Busters and his main character "Philly the Kid" has been plastered all over the internet and my walls and my mind since I saw the first concepts of em when my buddy Anton showed them to me. So I finally did a fan pic of him and put him up on D.A. and wouldn't you know it he saw it and liked it and I feeeaaakked oouuutt a bit. So ya this post is basically me bragging and confessing my fanboy-dom for his work. It is such an honor to even be noticed by a professional in my preferred career choice let alone one I think so highly of. Anywho here's the pic of his original character.

Philly the Kid

I took reference from Lesean Thomas' stuff on his blog and D.A. gallery plus I have the only issue of Cannon Busters 0' that I've seen which has some pretty sweet concepts from an artist named Corey(yy) Lewis- who has also had a huge impact on me.

check out Lesean's blog to the right 

Recent Stuff

So I just got my scanner back and have a few pieces to show everybody.

I have very little explanation for this. I guess I was just bored.

So this guy is eating ramen and gets interrupted by a would-be robber. and then gets really angry because he got startled and had to spit out his ramen... thats it.

Sagat

I used a variety of gray sharpies to get the look I wanted.

Ryu

Ya...  get on Street Fighter kicks quite a bit. This was a fun pencil sketch.

"Eat carefully or risk disturbing your bowels."

Dreams and Characters... in my Dreams

Lately I've been working on a project with a friend. This project is very important to me but I'm only designing the characters for it. This is one of many we have come up with; can't say too much about him now but I can tell you he may be working as a Yakuza hitshark. 

This is kind of a teaser of a much larger image I used as a concept piece.

This is more of a detail piece... I actually just wanted to draw him decked out in samurai gear.

So anyway I figured every time I posted something I ought to say something profound or groundbreaking in some way. But then I thought about myself and realized that I don't think about profound or groundbreaking things too often so I guess I'll leave with this question:

" In times of great distress the Power Rangers call Chuck Norris. Does popcorn float in lava?"

Lines and Colors

A commission for my friend Anton 

He wanted to be a Street Fighter. 05/2010

A random redesign of Blanka 

05/2010

A redesign of Leatherhead

06/2010

A fun attempt at designing Monkey King

04/2010

This is the process I use for coloring. I learned it from a very helpful link posted by the amazing Jeff 'Chamba' Cruz.http://lastscionz.deviantart.com/ Thanks a million for posting it!

04/2010

These were all finished in PS.CS3 with an Intuos3 tablet.