THUMBS, THUMBS THUMBS: Been so busy, have not had time to paint! So! Late night, in order to get away from the computer, I sketch. What would LePardine look like? She is a tense savage so I was playing with body calligraphy and attitude. Years ago, when I worked at Disney Feature Film as a clean up artist, I would stay late on Fridays to see the pencil tests on the Scene Machine and study the drawings and animation. When I first came into Animation, I was trained as an Illustrator, pushed to give a fine line, a finished illustration; I loved the clean line. After cleaning up rough lines from the animators, I really fell in love with the rough line. So much energy and emotion come from the rough; in a good rough, everything should be there: the attitude, the personality, and of course the action. A bad clean up artist will suck the life out of a drawing, a really good clean up artist will "plus" it out. A black and white animated scene is just gorgeous to look at. With Glen Keane's drawings, he would search for the right line, playing, experimenting and it would be the clean up artist to pick the line that would read the best. Lots of energy in his drawings. With an animator like Sergio Pablos, his lines were so clean, when I would do the clean up on Delbert Doppler, most of the drawings were so perfect, I felt like a 5th wheel~this guy knew
exactly what he wanted and left no room for anyone's intepretation. Some of the most amazing figure work I saw was when I studied the animation tests for Tarzan. Incredible exaggeration with anatomy with the figure. And color~color will kill a small percentage of how the character reads as opposed to how the rough black and white drawings reads. I was on the big crew of Milo from the film
Atlantis. There was a scene where Milo figures out how to get a floating vehicle to work. In the black and white pencil test, Kita was in the background, having just explained how she had tried everything to get it to work, and the subtle expression on her face when Milo casually got it to work was just amazing. The look of being stunned, just blown away was somewhat covered up with the color. Didn't read as much as the test. Animator Randy Haycock did a superb job of an emotion that was so understated with just the right timed pause, it took my breath away. It all starts with the Thumbnails, do lots of them. It will increase your speed, make you think, give you varieties of drawings for the same concept pose.
THUMBS, THUMBS THUMBS: Been so busy, have not had time to paint! So! Late night, in order to get away from the computer, I sketch. What would LePardine look like? She is a tense savage so I was playing with body calligraphy and attitude. Years ago, when I worked at Disney Feature Film as a clean up artist, I would stay late on Fridays to see the pencil tests on the Scene Machine and study the drawings and animation. When I first came into Animation, I was trained as an Illustrator, pushed to give a fine line, a finished illustration; I loved the clean line. After cleaning up rough lines from the animators, I really fell in love with the rough line. So much energy and emotion come from the rough; in a good rough, everything should be there: the attitude, the personality, and of course the action. A bad clean up artist will suck the life out of a drawing, a really good clean up artist will "plus" it out. A black and white animated scene is just gorgeous to look at. With Glen Keane's drawings, he would search for the right line, playing, experimenting and it would be the clean up artist to pick the line that would read the best. Lots of energy in his drawings. With an animator like Sergio Pablos, his lines were so clean, when I would do the clean up on Delbert Doppler, most of the drawings were so perfect, I felt like a 5th wheel~this guy knew exactly what he wanted and left no room for anyone's intepretation. Some of the most amazing figure work I saw was when I studied the animation tests for Tarzan. Incredible exaggeration with anatomy with the figure. And color~color will kill a small percentage of how the character reads as opposed to how the rough black and white drawings reads. I was on the big crew of Milo from the film Atlantis. There was a scene where Milo figures out how to get a floating vehicle to work. In the black and white pencil test, Kita was in the background, having just explained how she had tried everything to get it to work, and the subtle expression on her face when Milo casually got it to work was just amazing. The look of being stunned, just blown away was somewhat covered up with the color. Didn't read as much as the test. Animator Randy Haycock did a superb job of an emotion that was so understated with just the right timed pause, it took my breath away. It all starts with the Thumbnails, do lots of them. It will increase your speed, make you think, give you varieties of drawings for the same concept pose.
2 comments:
Really nice gestures and facial expressions. I especially like the little bits of exaggeration you did with the features of the face.
It sounds like you've has some great experiences as a clean up artist. I'm a little jealous. lol.
Thank you, Ian! I was always told at Feature Film that the industry goes in cycles~The Sword in the Stone almost killed the animation dept, but later they came out with Little Mermaid, then Lion King and jump started the business again. Roy Disney refused the kill the original dept which brought Disney it's fame and recognition. We are already being oversaturated with CGI films and I myself have no desire to see any more. I believe when the timing is right, 2d animation will open to a new generation who will find it exciting and cutting edge again. There will probably be a film which will make a ton of money and start the industry rolling again. In the meantime, you can keep building your traditional skills, challenging yourself with figure, animal and drawings of children~if these are solid, you will always impress art directors of other industries because these subjects are universal to a portfolio. So keep that pencil moving~line up those ducks and be ready for the opportunities that will present themselves when you least expect it~and good luck! Kimberly
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