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.

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.

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.

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.