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-

"SketchCrawl" (January 21st 2012)

Hi all. So last weekend I took part in my first "Sketchcrawl"... for those not familiar with the event (as I was till a couple weeks ago) hop over to the official site for more info... Basically though, it's a specific set of dates throughout the year where groups of artists all around the world, in their various cities, venture outdoors (off their computers) & sketch for an entire day! Last Saturday was the first "Crawl" of 2012. The group I joined collectively decided to visit the British museum. If you haven't been in a while or never have (period), you MUST go visit!

I had a great time & met a bunch of very cool/ super talented people... in fact, I had such a great time I only ended up with these few sketches due to talking too much... Here's to a fun day out

BTW: If you're a london based artist (professional or hobbyist), come join up with this Sketchgroup I've just recently become a part of over on FaceBook.

-M-

Sketch-ercise #59 #60 #61

Some of last weeks Sketch-ercise sessions...

-M-

Sketch-ercise #58

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

-M-

Sketch-ercise #57

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

-M-

Sketch-ercise #56

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

-M-

Sketch-ercise #55

So here's the first warm-up Sketch-ercise session of 2012... Still working in the theme of, "Performance, Acting, Emotion & Believability"; this week I decided we'd go back to basics & simply work on head-shots, as opposed to full-body... Bit of a rough start, but hopefully things'll pick up over the week.

-M-

Sketch-ercise #54

Hi guys. So here was the final Sketch-ercise session of 2011... As it was Christmas week, I decided the theme should be a "fun doodle" for each member of the group to do for one another. Here are two I did of Nathan & Chuchuan... Chuchuan only just joined up that week I think; he's a 21yr old graphic designer from Venezuela, who's hoping to transition from graphics into concept design for the animation industry. Hop over to his blog, say "hi" & show some support if you get a few minutes. Great to have have you on board Chuchuan!

Nathan

Chuchuan

-M-

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-

Sketch-ercise #49

Here's Thursday 24th Nov's Sketch-ercise... I did & still do like the design of this guy but, can you guess the head/ face was the last thing I had time to throw in? Cop-out...? ummm, probably.

-M-

Sketch-ercise #48

Hey folks! Still snacking away on Christmas left-overs...? Yeah, me too!

Here's Wednesday 23rd Nov's Sketch-ercise... Meet Gas-Bot6 AKA "Mustard Mouth". A WWI chemical warfare unit- who's air-tight helmet wasn't quite thought through enough during design stage... Doh!

-M-

Speed paint #47

Here's Tuesday 22nd September's Sketch-ercise... Meet the Pin-stabber bot 2000... He likes to stab things.

"ch ch chaaa... ch ch cha cha chaahhh..." [inside joke- Nathan]

-M-