Recent work

I've been wanting to post my recent work from Vision 21 ever since before the trip to Michigan.
But I did a few sketches while I was away. You'd think that I would have more sketches because I was traveling across the country and I got to see all kinds of things.
But not really :P
I couldn't bring myself to draw the same endless landscapes that would roll on by the car for 8 hours.
Even while I was on the plane to Michigan, I could only see about 5 or 6 people and draw them. But it was still fun and I've included them. I like how the guy who was reading the book had his toes latched on to the seat in front of him.

I have an instructor at Vision 21 who has been helping me a lot with taking the first steps of character animation and giving me a taste of what it's about. He has been assigning me small homework assignments such as: give emotion to a sausage, give emotion to a cat, etc. The sausage was definitely a challenge because I didn't want to use the little signs that indicated emotion. So I tried my best and it was really fun. I think I will name the sausage Antoine. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with more emotions for Antoine if I can think of more.
I also did a few drawings of a cat. The cat was also very fun and it's still a work in progress. I know I can think of more emotions!
I was told to keep the drawings very simple, which really works.



This portrait was done in my sketchbook with oil. I've never done figure painting before, so I would I would try my hand at a portrait. I used a girl from one of my magazines. I actually used the oil paint to kind of "scrub" in her features and such. I wanted a more rugged and dirty look. Perhaps it was because I was very into the zombie game that I was playing... (and still am)
:) I think I would like to experiment more with figure painting.

This is the painting that I've been working on at Vision 21. It's not quite done but I'm glad to see where it's going. I used oil paint on illustration board which was the worst mistake I've ever made :P
I wanted to try something different, but I forgot that the oil will get soaked up by the board. Bad bad idea...
That's why in the picture, some areas are shinier than others because of the multiple layers.
But, it's not so bad.
My instructor who has been guiding me through this painting also likes figure painting. His work is awesome and I wish I can share it on this blog, but he keeps all his work in his digital camera...
The arms on the person in the painting were painted with many small strokes and colors. This technique was taught to me by my instructor because that's his specialty, using a lot of complex colors to give form and texture to the figure. I really like the technique and would like to use it in my future paintings.


This is another figure drawing that I would like to finish. I didn't have enough time because I was using pastel pencil. I have a few unfinished works from Vision 21 that I hope I can finish.
I'm still experimenting with figure drawing by heading down a more abstract road.




Also, I wanted to introduce Daisy. Daisy is a Labrador who is very intelligent and fun. She belongs to my cousins. I included these pictures of Daisy because I hope that one day, I can capture the emotion and personality of dogs in character animation. Animals are so silly, but are inspiring :)

Ok, enough blahblah. I'll include more drawings next time, and some Chinese paintings too!