Working with wonderful people

I seem to have neglected this blog for a few weeks. When I got back from the Lakes I had around two weeks of intense work with the wonderful charity Muslim Aid - www.muslimaid.org
During my time with the charity the earthquake/tsunami and volcanic eruption in Indonesia took place, for which I created a quick 30 second appeal advert for a few TV channels and online.
Other videos I edited together came from Pakistan in recent weeks. It shows how bad a lot of the life is out there still with wheat farms being destroyed and stories of cattle and whole houses being washed away. But it also showed how much help all the donated money is doing. Seeing the delighted faces of villagers as boxes of water purifiers arrive, or the Muslim Aid hospital based in a really hard to get to area was lovely to see.

The below video is an interview with a Doctor based in the Muslim Aid hospital.

The Lakes of Cumbria

April 2010

Earlier this year myself and my girlfriend camped up in the Lake district of England, at that time there was snow on the mountain tops, blue skies and just enough of a coming summer to keep us warm. I hadn't been there since I was a child and it was the first time I could truly appreciate the beauty there.
The photo to the right is Derwent Water in early April.


We both said we should go back in the Autumn to experience the change in colour, and explore more lakes in the area.

Buttermere

There was a chill in the air different to the one before, which was on it's way out. This time the air was biting at every available piece of skin on show. The blue reflected on the water less warm than earlier and where snow once lay on top, sharp jagged rocks cut into the heavens.

Cave at Rydal

We managed to get out to less tourist type places, and experienced the quiet beauty of Buttermere, where we saw small numbers of people, mostly locals racing dogs across the hills for two- three hours.

Rydal was even less populated. Being a small lake it didn't seem like much at first, peaceful and tranquil, only to reveal an incredible cave like the gaping mouth of a dragon slain years ago.

Aira Force

Amongst other wonders, the more known Aira Force near Ullswater for example was spectacular, the light at times hitting the water and creating the rainbow it is known for.

We also travelled up to the landmark recognised on the front of the Derwent water colour pencils tin, Ashness bridge. Small it may be, but it holds a hypnotizing power, with the stream of water leading all the way down to the lake in the distance.

Ashness bridge

We were a little early to witness the dramatic change of colour we were expecting, but what we witnessed was as before, nothing short of wonderful. I hope to go again next year, perhaps we'll be mad enough to go when it is covered in snow.

Super-professional nude models

These two characters are some of my flat mates who agreed to be my life drawing nudes. They were extremely relaxed for the whole time and never once moved!
The eye drops were on the side of the bed and is a separate drawing, although on here it looks huge next to Butter and Mushroom. Practice practice practice.

It's worth mentioning that I came across 'Future boy Conan' the other day and now have the whole series. A fantastic animation and story. If you love his other films as I do, it's a must see.

More life drawing

Yet more life drawing. I found it harder this time for some reason, due to some crazy days recently and tiredness I guess I found it interesting how the guy running the life drawing this time was asking people to do 'blind drawing', which is also mentioned in the book - drawing but not looking at the paper.

Another interesting thing I've found recently is that my memory has increased dramatically. I've been learning Mandarin for the past year, and only since drawing have I started remembering whole sentences and hard words, could this be linked? Possible!

Another drawing

Hello! Here's another quick upside down drawing. This time it's Pablo Picasso's 'Child with Dove'. Again, I have messed up the sizes of things and she's ended up a little squashed, still not to bad though.

Squashed drawings

Well, moving along into the next chapter, the book asks for us to draw Pablo Picasso's 'Portrait of Igor Stravinsky' upside down. Not labelling what we see and limiting ourselves, but rather seeing lines and shapes, in the hope that the Right side of the brain takes control over the Left, allowing for more creativity.

The result was not bad, but not right either. It started fine, but somewhere along the way I made parts bigger, making other areas squashed. Parts of it, like other students drawings mentioned in the book, were great. The cross over of the legs for example came out well I think. The head though, well what can I say, it looks as if Igor hasn't eaten in months! I believe I drew in the wrong order, and having re-read the instructions If I had drawn line, adjacent line, and so on, it would have turned out less squashed.

Lesson one - 3 drawings

I finally got around to drawing the first three tasks in my book 'Learning to draw on the right side of the brain'.
It involved drawing 1) my self portrait 2) my hand 3) someone from memory.
The first, my own picture, was hard. The finished product looks like someone from a criminal suspect flyer, but I think in some ways it does resemble me. The hair I still have no idea what to do with and things aren't the right sizes. By the end of the book hopefully it'll be better.
The second drawing, my hand wasn't to bad. The picture isn't perfect, but it's OK. I messed up the darkness of the shadow shades around the hand near the end, and have no idea how to shade in the top of the hand.
The third, drawing a person from memory, was the hardest. I tried to draw my dad. I hope he can forgive me for this truly bad picture (In the future I swear I'll make a better one  Dad!) One thing I found interesting, was that even though I rushed it out, I found myself shading under the nose and on the lips the same way I did on my self portrait. It also seems that not only do I need to improve my drawing, but also my spelling. It's Awful with out the 'e' haha.
Good stuff!

Life drawing class 3

Here be my life drawings from class three last week. I'm fairly pleased again at my results, especially as the model kept moving herself. The appearance and disappearance of breasts in her movement made me wonder what my final pictures would look like, thankfully not to bad. 

I read the first chapter of 'Drawing on the right side of the brain' the other day and find it very interesting. I haven't had the time to draw the tasks involved as work and other things have kept me, but in the coming days I will, and of course, share I shall with all you lovely people.

Swimming styles

I've always enjoyed swimming. There's something about water that I find quite magical, the way it can change shape and bend light, and when I look out upon oceans and seas my heart races a little when I comprehend that sheer size of what lies in front of me. 

Swimming is the nearest thing I can think of that is so close to flying, at least for something as heavy as me anyway.  Swimming as close to the sea bed or pool floor as I can for half a minute or so, as sun beams shoot through from above, utter bliss.

Recently I've been watching other swimmers in the local pool, each length swimming behind a different person. Every individual swam differently. There was a woman who never moved her arms, but kicked her legs twice for each breast stroke. Another man arced downwards in a 'U' shape  after every stroke before kicking himself to the surface. Others swam with little or lots of leg pounding on a freestyle, another with arms alone and no leg movement. Kicks that created no bubbles and others that made it impossible to see. It's something I've only noticed recently and now can't stop. I find myself wanting to see how these people walked, ran, ate, wondering if there would be a link between the swim and other activities. 

I found myself trying to copy these people as I swam behind them, and virtually every time I found it incredibly difficult. We all learn to swim, but all do it differently, how wonderful.

Animating walks

I've been reading 'The animators survival kit' for a few weeks now, picking it up when I can. Currently I'm about half way through the book, and find it to be a superb guide. I thought it would be time to try animating a walk, which some say is the hardest thing to animate. My skills with a wacom tablet are far from sexy, and I hope they improve a bit over time, but here you'll find my first two attempts at a walk.

Landscapes of a lady

And so I returned to the class after two weeks. It was insanely busy in the room today, and having arrived with just seconds remaining before the doors slammed shut, I found a sneaky chair in the far corner and settled in. Today the model was different, big bushy hair dominating her figure.
The two hours passed quickly, with the man behind me sighing depressingly every 30 seconds, my own personal air con, his nose playing a flute solo to a similarly morose tune with every breath out. I blanked the sound out and struggled to concentrate at first, not able to measure, but by the end I had this (picture right) which I am happy with.
The variety of styles again tonight was incredible. Some with paints, others with ink only. I'm looking forward to the next time.

Busy busy busy

Work has taken hold of me for the past few days, so I've had little time to do any kind of drawing.
I have been reading where I can and that has been excellent. I find myself watching peoples walks and poses everywhere I go now.

Below is a short film I wrote and directed last year. Far from perfect, but I'm happy with it :)

A little here and there

I was busy with other work for most of today, so I didn't get much done for my animation dream.
A friend of mine who is also attempting to become an animator too (over in China), suggested a book to me called 'The new Drawing on the right side of the brain'. It involves looking and not labelling when viewing something, a view I've heard mentioned by spiritual teachers for an outlook on life. So I purchased it.
Another find online was this website - http://www.11secondclub.com/
It holds a monthly competition for character design. It sounds like a brilliant challenge for my first animation. A new dialogue of sound will be released in four days time.

Exciting stuff!

Life drawing lesson one

So I attended the first life drawing class in six years tonight. It was fantastic!
The location reminded me so much of my old art college back in Doncaster, and I was happy to see the room crowded with eager faces.
As I expected, my drawings were fairly poor to begin with, but after a few handy words from the teacher I improved a bit, and by my last drawing of the night I was quite happy with the result.
I'm going to try to make this a weekly thing.

My girlfriend described the drawing to the right as being like a sack of Potatoes haha.

I'm happiest with my final drawing of the evening below.

Day one

Hello there, my name is Matt, and I hope to become an animator of some kind or other.
I have enjoyed drawing from a young age, and although my skills are not that great, I hope that over the coming months I'll improve a bit, and that it'll show here.
I expect it to be insanely hard. The bits I've done so far have been, but a sense of extreme calmness and aliveness comes out when I do it.
I have a rough story for my first animation, and pretty much all my ideas are animations wanting to be made.

I did a quick test last week, animating over a couple of afternoons to ease myself into it. The software I'm using is called Toonboom studio, and although my first test is far from perfect, I'm fairly happy with it.



I'm also reading 'The Animators survival kit' by Richard Williams, which is both easy and educational to read. A brilliant book to get if you are interested in this like me.

I'm off to a life drawing class later, the first one in over six years. I'll try to post a few on here if I can.