Sketch-A-Scene #2

Here's Sketch-A-Scene #2...

"GET BAAAACK... I MEAN IT, I'LL SHOOT!!!"

-M-

Sketch-A-Scene

Hey all here's a new exercise I've decided to give myself, titled, 'Sketch-A-Scene'... The main objective here being to capture a story, attitude & general emotions of a scene in a simple line drawing/ sketch... Think of it as though a film has been 'paused' in mid scene. I think this is a great exercise for every artist/ animator.

"ummm... JUST HAAANGE OOOON... I'LL GO FIND HELP!!!"

For animation, it'll help push the strength of your 'keyframes', & hold the structure/ guide-path of your animation together... Plus the stronger the 'key drawing', the more you'll believe what your character's going through, thus putting you right there in the scene also... & that's when you start making weird sound effects with your mouth, & contorting your face like a mad-man.

Betty: "... Darling, have you been drinking aga..."
Howard: "DAMMIT BETTY, I SAW IT WITH MY OWN TWO EYES!!!"

Give this exercise a go! You can even try it whilst watching a film, pausing it on dramatic scene, where for example, a character is in a rage, possibly threatening someone with a raised fist, or something (you know?).
Throw a little written dialogue in it & see if it reads & looks believable.

Anyways, hope this is helpful to someone out there. I'll be doing this for the next few weeks, so love to see what you guys come up with also!

Sketch page...

-M-

Movie Night Doodles...

Hi folks! Here are some sketches done over the past week. I've just started a new A5 sketchbook & dedicated to sketching whilst watching classic movies... Most of these were done whilst watching the 1955 classic, "Daddy Long Legs" staring Fred Astaire & the lovely Lesley Caron. A very charming, fun & entertaining film if you haven't seen it. Here's the trailer: http://bit.ly/KX4EFH

 

 

 

 

-M-

Sketch-ercise #66 #67

Hi guys! Sorry for these sporadic posts these past few weeks; work's kinda heating up now, so organisational skills are ferociously being tested! I'll try to get back to the "dailies" as much as I can...

On another note, I now have a LiveStream Channel! I've done one or two streams just to "test the waters" etc, but I'll now officially be Streaming during some of my sessions, so please do come join me for a doodle; you'll get to meet some of the other guys who sketch with me, interact via the instant messenger chatroom + listen in on some of the crazy topics that get brought up... this week I learnt more about rats than I ever wanted to know... (((shudders)))... Tune in at http://www.livestream.com/maximajination...

Here's this week's Sketchercise sessions I had time to do...

"Fear"

"Love"

Oh, btw IT'S SNOWING here in ol' London Town (pretty much same timing as last year)...  I'm off out to declare war on local youths! (wish me luck)

-M-

Sketch-ercise #62 #63 #64 #65

Last week's Sketch-ercise sessions... Theme: "Performance, Acting, Emotion & Believability". As with anything, I kinda started off not so great, but felt myself loosening up towards the last few session of the week. For those new to my sketch-blog [or this theme I'm working on], a little while ago, I started feeling as though I really needed to work more on "expressions"... expressions, as in, facial expression, body language/ the general level of performance I gave characters whilst illustrating; [you can check out the full description of the theme here]... So for the past couple weeks, I've been doing a series of character in-situs, head shots & eyes/ mouth expression studies...

It's actually been a lot tougher than I thought... but in a good way... I've had to admit to/ come face to face with weaknesses I've had, & avoided for far too long... Found myself having to go back to basics to really try to grasp an understanding of this theme. As well as just trying to build my knowledge of human "expression" & "emotion", I've also been trying to apply it stylistically to the way [at this moment], I draw...




Well, that's all the time I have to make this post
but I'll continue my explanation/ findings on the next.
Have a great week folks!

-M-

Sketch-ercise #59 #60 #61

Some of last weeks Sketch-ercise sessions...

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Sketch-ercise #58

Friday the 13th January's Sketch-ercise...

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Sketch-ercise #57

Thursday 12th of January's Sketch-ercise session...

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Sketch-ercise #56

Wednesday 11th January's Sketch-ercise...

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Sketch-ercise #53

Thursday 1st December 2011's Sketch-ercise....... P'KOOW!!!

-M-

Sketch-ercise #52

Wednesday 30th Nov's Sketch-ercise........ BRAKKA!!!

Poitier & Stewart...

-M-

Sketch-ercise #51

Here's Tuesday 29th Nov's Sketch-ercise... So the theme for that week was "Performance, Acting, Emotion & Believability", but forgot to mention I had chosen to explore this through characters in situ of being shot... "why?"... I guess I felt it'd be a good challenge. Have you every really watched people in movies [particularly 80's/ early 90's action movies] get shot...? more specifically, by a machine gun...? it's kinda like some sort of interpretive "tribal dance"... almost "ballet" when in slowmotion or over-acted, as this re-edited epic clip from "Commando" so exquisitely shows [skip to 1:15 to see Arnie "Matrix" unleash a 100x ultra combo on Benetts ass]. I've always wondered whether stunt-men have training workshops on this sort of thing; like how to convincingly move their bodies to accent the impact of bullet hits etc...

Anyways, I digress, but that's pretty much my reasoning for choosing this as a concept for my theme... to explore the physics of how the body might move & react in this situation; & convincingly capture pain/ emotion in facial expressions & body language.


Here's my other favourite "Ren & Stimpy" scene; this time for the performance given to little Anthony's Dad. I love the slow pace of it & the little personality traits/ gestures given him that really sell his character as this traditional hard-working, authoritarian dad. Watch this opening scene where he has them up against the wall, then skip to 1:40 where he has them trapped in... the DEN!!!

A few more Silver Screen greats.

















-M-

Sketch-ercise #50

Hi guys! Here's Monday 28th Nov's Sketch-ercise... "What delightful theme could this possibly be" I hear you ask? Well, for a little while now, I've been feeling like I need to work more on the "Performance, Acting, Emotion & Believability" of my characters/ general design... I've never felt I've fully understood the laws & intricacies of these key subjects, so over the next few weeks, I'll be looking into them further as the basis for my themes...

I really believe, like actors, characters [creature or human] should convey a strong/ clear sense of emotion & expression relating to whatever situation they're in or personality you've given them. I think it's safe to say, anyone can draw a circle, add a few lines to create an angry, sad or "smiley face" & have pretty much everyone in the world recognise it as one of those generically basic emotions; but to capture the little things... subtleties... or those, what I call "sub expressions" like cautious, weary, ashamed, snide, anxious etc, again, like acting, they need time & lots practice to make them truly convincing... and so the study begins!

I've always been a huge John K fan, & I remember listening to this interview one day where he was explaining how there are many more expressions that can & should be explored using those basic happy, sad, angry, tired etc emotions... Over at 'Spumco' [early 90's], when "Ren & Stimpy" was in full swing, he'd always encourage his team of animators to really push the variety of expressions... Although in this case, the "Ren & Stimpy" style of expression & acting focused on hyper exaggeration, but the true principles of "Performance, Acting, Emotion & Believability" was very much applied... Here's one of my favourite "psycho Ren" scenes, where Ren looses it with his Austrian cousin "Sven" & as usual, Stimpy too; the performance given to Ren in this is brilliant!

Something also worth checking out when you have the time is this "Label" compiled list of blog post by John of all things under "Acting"... This is a GOLDMINE for any animator or illustrator out there; some seriously informative stuff worth noting/ practicing.

Lastly, here are two of my all time favourite actors, Charlton Heston & Kirk Douglas... BELIEVE ME, I could spend another hour on here, writing on what I love about both! But alas, it's already like 4am here in London, so I'd better retire now.

Well I hope I haven't bored you too much with my thoughts, ramblings & run-on sentences folks.

Later!

-M-

Speed paint #41

Monday's Sketch-ercise... Hi folks, so things are getting pretty busy at the studio I'm currently working at, so my posts may become a little more sporadic... Meet 'Joe'... He enjoys nice walks through the park, urinating on park benches/ many other indecent things to do in public. He also has an [as yet] unexplained obsession for Canned Tuna... * shrugs shoulders*

Check out last week's pieces...

Oh PS: This weeks theme? ROMANTIC COMEDY... yep!

-M-

Speed paint #39

Here's Thursday's Sketch-ercise...
Guess who just got back from a long, hard day at the peanut factory?
Introducing Mr Reece O'Neal... [father]

CHARACTER PROFILE:
Reece is the epitome of the stereotypical 50's dad. I'd group him in the white-collar worker category as he works as one of the higher execs at a large peanut production factory. Reece loves his wife and kids & works hard to provide for them. Due to his poor childhood & disciplined upbringing, he's a man who appreciates the little things in life & believes in good moral/ family values... He's by no means the toughest guy on the block, but he's a real family man. Never goes a day without somehow slipping into a conversation, "Yes sir, I think America is the greatest country in the world" [homage quote].

Of all members of the O'Neal family, Reece is the most obliviously deluded of Viktor's ambiguous personality & grim intentions, & therefore the most important but toughest person Jimmy has to convince. And it's this delusional nature that's what keeps the story going each episode.

REFERENCE IMAGES:

***All work featured here, illustrated or written [unless otherwise stated] is under the copyright & ownership of 
Maxwell. A. Oginni. All rights resereved 2011***

-M-

Speed paint #20

Today's Sketch-ercise... Had a bit of an odd request on this one... sorry Ant, couldn't help making him look this sinister.

***DISCLAIMER***
SMOKING KILLS!!!... I DO NOT SMOKE... NOR DO I CONDONE IT... <--- click ; )

-M-

Speed paint #19

Here's this morning's warm-up. Photoshop doing weird things this morning [randomly messing with my colours each time I'd adjust a layers hierarchy]; managed to tame her just enough to get this out at least...

-M-