Meeting with Sherrie

Now I'm meeting with Sherrie on a weekly basis, which I think is really gonna help me to focus on my work. At least that's my hope.

This week week went over everything I have created for The Tuner, and I was absolutely convinced, I was even close to producing the amount of work I need to be creating. But, very surprisingly, Sherrie said I was right on track, and actually ahead of the curve in some spots. Baffling. Truly.

I showed her the LIST I had made, and we nixed some stuff and simplified a lot of others. I was feeling like it's a bit more manageable, until I asked the dreaded question of when it was due. After doing the math, and backing up the schedule int he timeframe I have left….. I will not stop working for the next ten weeks. Which is all I have to produced 15 full paintings, character renders, prop designs, maquettes,  while also working on my portfolio for internships over the summer, finding a par-time job in the city, working on my other classes (one of which is with a Pixar Art Director whom I would very much like to impress), and you know, eating and sleeping if there's time.

Oh boy!

I think the thing that will help most with this process is to plan out every week, and every day down to detail for I need to accomplish to get it done. Duh!

So…... here we go!

WEEK 2 - Drawing for Film

We turned in our rough value beats for our stories, this week.

Up until the night before, I had decided to work on a story called The Wreck of the Zephyr….. which was a charming little starry about flying sailboats. But it never really felt like it would take off (ha!).

And then I met with Sherrie on Wednesday, and she pointe it out…. the story doesn't necessarily have a natural marketability. It's a tough sell for mass appeal. Which is something that I need to always be thinking about; Both, in general, but especially for my portfolio. I need to prove to studios that I have the ability to create art for mass appeal stories, and create characters that appeal to all generations, and will therefore, inevitably, make those studios very happy financially.

With this is mind, I went home and decided to throw away everything I had worked on for the last couple days and start over. This was at 11PM, the night before the assignment was due. And it felt great. It felt right.

I decided to work on a German folktale called The Musicians of Bremen. Sherrie actually mentioned it, and it sparked my interest. I think it'll a fun little project, that I have a feeling will get very big fast. Ugh.

In class, Anthony liked the idea. Which was incredibly rewarding. A very gifted Art Director responded positively to my work. What?! He obviously had thoughts. And the fact that the print was unforgivably dark, did not help in reading the panels. But overall he felt it was a good start.

This week I'll be focusing on designing the characters a bit more, creating an isometric drawing of the robber's house, and rethinking some of the boards with this new research and development.

WEEK 2 - Quick Studies

This week we kept working on quick paintings of the 3/4 figure. I made some breakthroughs this week, which was nice. I still don't feel like I'm in charge of the values and colors that go on the canvas…. it's more like, "Oh, I guess that's what the color is gonna be." When I look at Craig's work, though, every color and value looks like it was intentional and therefore "correct."

Craig talked about how painting is drawing. Painting is about shape, drawing is about line….. but you draw just as much while you paint. They're not mutually exclusive.

We have to always be thinking about:
- proportion (measurements and relationships)
- gesture (angles)
- foreshortening
- drawing

We worked on establishing a strong 2-Value Statement. Nothing boldly new to me…. but how he did it was s simplified….. amazing!
Find the lightest light, the darkest dark, and the most colorful color. If the most colorful is either the lightest or the darkest, change one of them, so you have three areas to work on. Then, start with the shadow block in of all three areas. Then find the light sides in relation to their respective darks, and in relation to the other light areas.

Don't worry about colors…. focus on values. Colors will come later.
Always leave room to go lighter or darker in every areas. That's where you get the depth in the painting.

Dark colors will naturally have less contrast between the shadow and light side. So simply block in the area as a unified shape. Don't worry about finding that subtle balance. The focal point will usually have more contrast anyway. But for dark colors (especially blacks), it's the shape that describes everything. The posture, the movement…. it's all int he shape.

WEEK 2 - Professional Practices

This week we discussed the importance of the first impression, and more specifically, the almighty Cover Letter. Gil showed a couple examples of great cover letters, and a couple of bad ones.

In term sod the first impression, the basics:
- good, solid handshake
- proper eye contact
- confidence in body posture and speaking voice
- smiling
- speaking up

The cover letter is your first professional impression. It should sell you as an asset for the studio you're applying to. You introduce yourself with a BANG! Be specific, skill-focused, clear, purposeful, and most important, yourself. You have to convince the reader that YOU and you alone are the perfect person for the job, mostly by expressing proper enthusiasm for job.
And speller and grammar are paramount!

This is our homework for the week…. To create our own cover letter.

WEEK 1 - Drawing for Film

This class is going to test me, for sure. Being able to work with Anthony Christov, an current Art Director at Pixar, is an amazing opportunity, and entirely daunting. He seems like  very relaxed, great-spirited guy…. but there is still a lot of pressure. Hopefully that will relax as we start working on assignments.

For the entire semester we'll be working on a short story of our choosing: Creating visual development for the story, developing characters, color script, thumbnails of the story beats, etc.

I'm excited, but also very much feeling overwhelmed at the thought of it.

WEEK 1 - Quick Studies

My second class with Craig Nelson….. couldn't be more excited. This class and Drawing for Film are the two classes I've wanted to take since my first semester…. so it's exciting, but I want to do good, so I don't feel like I wasted the opportunity to take them.

Craig went over what Quick Studies actually means. It's not what I thought it was: learning how to paint faster. Rather it's restricting yourself to the challenge of accomplishing a study within 25-60 minutes. What this does is force you to commit to your marks, make clear and quick decisions about value and color relationships, and forces you to edit and simplify. All things I desperately need to work on in my paintings.

Craig also talked about achieving an "economy of marks" to create the illusion of light and dimension on the flat canvas. Finally he talked about learning to leave things alone. It's okay to leave certain areas unfinished.

"If it's not good…. you blew 30 minutes. But you learned something" - Craig Nelson

Work UPDATE!

UPDATE!

I met with Sherrie today to she her the work I've been doing over the break.

She seemed to like it overall. Of course, she had many notes. And while I agree with most of them, I'm still left confused on the focus of my attention for my thesis. 

I feel like I'm still wandering a bit when it comes to what's really important for me to work the most on for the story.

I've given up on the fact that the "art of" book won't be the representative anthology that I want it to be, but now, I 'm more concerned with both: producing art that qualifies as thesis-worthy work, and also producing work that will bolster my portfolio and, hopefully, solidify my individual artistic voice.

I'm still learning a ton, every painting. I see my progress, but at the same time, I don't feel I've reached my full potential, and because of that, I'm still hazy on the direction I should take going forwards.

Hopefully, through taking Quick Studies with Craig, and Drawing for Film with Anthony, I will solidify my thinking, and what I learn in working for them, will bleed into my thesis work.

What I'm looking for is a fresh style, with character and confidence. I want the freshness and confidence of Ryan Lang, and the charm, richness and character of Dice Tsustumi and Robert Kondo.

I'm feel like I'm so close…. I just need to figure out how to harness that magic within my tools, and find the workflow that allows what I'm thinking of to find its way onto the canvas.

WEEK 1 - Professional Practices

This class is going to be an excellent answer to so many of my questions.

I absolutely need this kind of help. Focused attention on planning a career: knowing what to look for, where to look for it, and how to get.

Gil seems great, and super qualified in the filed he's teaching.

I look forward to hopefully solving a lot of "career-getting" questions in this class. Which is a good thing, because that's all I seem to be able to think about at the moment.

FINAL - Adv. Perspective

This class was both exactly how I expected it to be, and also much much harder. The best part about the class was painting subjects that I never thought I would ever be painting. Samurai, Egypt, Greek Myth….. never thought I would ever paint something like this.

It definitely pushed me to think about creating scenes, instead of just characters, or just environments. Telling stories is what's most important. And that has only been reinforced by this class and Joko's amazing lessons. He made perspective seem so easy. The way he broke it down was so basic and clear, and it was incredibly helpful. I'll definitely be taking the lessons I learn in this class and infusing them into EVERYTHING I do from now on.

The last couple of weeks of the class, I worked on my thesis project, and I felt like I accomplished a lot.

FINAL - Urban Landscape Painting

I really feel like I've learned a lot from this class. Craig is by far one of my favorite teachers I've had here at the Academy. His style and technique is exactly where I would like to be one day.

I started this semester with only minimal oil painting experience under my belt, but I feel like I've accomplished quite a bit from painting more and more, both on location, and in class. Being surrounded by Fine Arts majors helped tremendously, I think. They bring such  unique view on creating art, that I think has permeated more own process and overall workflow.

24"x36"

I've also noticed quite a difference in how I approach my digital work. I'm noticing more confidence, and my "knowledge" of color has definitely improved. But I still have a lot of work to do.

I plan to do a whole lot more painting in the future. I'm taking Quick Studies with Craig in the Spring.