AAwwwlll the people! Oh so many people...Blur? anyone?

ANYWAY!

Actually that does have relevance. a) I'm a 90s kid. b) look! FACES!

I liked this Seminar. The one Kathy did....sorry Derrick but she won this week :P

She taught us a bit of face construction, and yeah you can read it in a book, (I already had, in fact I had taken out over the summer and last term the very book she had brought into the seminar) but it is always easier to learn from a person. A book, for all it's qualities can't come and look around at what you're doing and give you feedback.

So yeah these were my practice doodles from the seminar. I might use a couple actually. I like John Clease and Adolf Hitler's love child down in the bottom right.

It was useful anyway as I think I'm well on the way with my creature character,

and my next step is the child character. Who is...looking suspiciously like Russell from UP.

This first idea (doodled slyly in the break in the seminar I might add) is actually a product of several occurrences;

Firstly; I had previously the night before (last night) been watching the South Park episode 2018 - Prehistoric Man, in which Eric Cartman emulates the late Steve Irwin (who was finding angry animals and then "sticking my thumb up it's butt" to make them even angrier).

Secondly; Tom, who was wearing an Indiana Jones style hat mentioned the Rugrats.

Thirdly; Kathy just showed us some slides of concept art from the 2009 Disney Pixar film, UP.

This has all congealed together into Tommy (from the Rugrats) sort of face, Steve Irwin's / Crocodile Dundee's hat and clothing, and Russell's (from UP) podgey body and overall shape.

In a previously mentioned blog I said my setting was "new towns, e.g. Milton Keynes" and that I had found a couple of towns were 'garden cities' which is were I though maybe the child character could discover the creature character.

Can you guess what it is yet? (sorry...Australian mode)

CRIKEY! (double sorry)

Actually...you know what. sod you Australia we won the Ashes again...NER! NER! NER!

anyway.

This is why I think I shall be going down this route of apparel for the child. He's an adventurous little blighter and he likes to think he's Steve Irwin or Indian Jones. Also, Indiana Jones was a professor right? So that ties in with the Open University theme when the child comes to teach the creature in a loveable '2+2 is...uh?...' way.

This is just me trying to decide and sketching out 4-legged body ideas for the creature. They have a habit of looking like Pokemon for some reason?

Yeah I know....he's still stuck in his shell! N'AWWHHH! Chirp! Chirp! Or does he just look stupid?

Playing with some watercolour and gouche on...apparently, Charmander? (some pokemon character) or Spyro? (Some playstation dragon game) He's not either! he's...! well, I haven't named him yet. Or given him very distinctive arms...or any wings, should he have wings? I might give him some hair too. Anyway, this was more about seeing what the paint would do, especially since I invested in some high quality watercolours in tubes. FANCY. And don't worry Mum it only came to £30, and that included fine brushes.

Anyway I have to live up to the watercolour bit, as my Gran (my Mum's mother) was a keen watercolourist, and I think she was in the RWS (Royal Watercolour Society) but I'm not sure, but she defiantly learnt and was mentored a bit by Michael Bernard who was/is a member of the RWS and also quite a successful artist, and my Mum even has a few of his paintings so hopefully I can honour this rich watercolour family history with ... my... er...dragon...

No I actually will be doing some environments and setting designs soon. And the concept art a few weeks down the road so wait here to see something spectacular.

So on to life drawing. Not much to say except the floor was opened to discussion, which was good, it's a life drawing democracy! There was a lot of dispute as to do 20 minutes or 10 minutes for a pose. And I thought, well, why don't you do it for 20 minutes, then either draw 2...or 1? But the counter argument to this is a model can do more extravagant poses if he only has to hold them for 10 minutes, as opposed to 20. But to be perfectly honest I'll draw whatever for however long. It's all good practice.

This was 10 minutes; charcoal.

Also 10 minutes; Ink and black wax crayon.

5x 2 minutes; Blue wax crayon. Tried to draw them as a series, getting bigger then smaller again.

Same as above.

Again 5x 2minutes but this time, I just drew the hands. I usually do one series now were I only draw the hands, because, I'm not that great at hands, and I like hands, so I want to be good at drawing hands! Also hands are quite important to Animation. Gesture and all that.

I think the morning's seminar was still rich in my mind. This was 10 minutes with graphite stick.

Reaaaach for the sky! This was one of the 40 second ones. Messed around a bit with the perspective.

The 40 second page. nneeooowww.

Another 40 second one, accidently made it quite convincing.

Another experiment! Has it worked? I quite like it, but then again, it was my idea. So, feel free to judge it on your own terms. I drew purely the tone (because obviously his legs and left arm don't look like that)

10 minutes - graphite stick and eraser.