Sequential Reactions...

From my 'Sketch-A-Scene' study last week, here's a page of sequential reactions I was exploring, & decided to colour up... I wouldn't quite call these 'keyframes' to flow in an animated sequence; more just a study on sequential expressions, focusing specifically on the facial features & body-language alone to tell the story.

-M-

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-

Day #03...

Ok, here's day 03's WIP. Threw in the guy's shirt & tie, & fleshed out the "broad"'s hair, outfit & a little work on her legs... So far, really pleased with the shape it's taking.

My palette hasn't quite been an exact match of my colour study, but at the same time it hasn't deviated so far as to mess up values etc... One thing I've found that has surprisingly been more helpful than I had anticipated in making this transition from digital to traditional, has been my understanding of painting in Adobe Photoshop... I work with a very painterly technique/ look in PS; from the way I blend my colours, to adjusting the wetness, load, mix & flow sliders in order to simulate techniques used when painting traditionally... & I can definitely say it really has helped! I'll save going into the details for now since I'm not actually finished, but I think it's more to do with the fact that working digitally frees you up to make mistakes quicker, knowing you have the luxury of easily correcting them... Depending on your process of painting in PS, I really believe this helps you learn faster & become bolder in your decisions, paint stokes & mark-making.

In terms of anything else, I'd say the biggest battle I have is with the drying time of the paint. I'm using acrylics, & though I suppose this could be a good thing, in forcing me to work faster/ make quicker decisions, at this stage it's drying a little too fast for me... [Note to self: "pick up paint retarder before moving onto the background"...  Let me know what you guys think!

Fig:01

Fig:02

Fig:03
I forget what gave me the idea to throw this in [most probably accidentally
getting a dot of white paint on the dress], but I decided to give the girl's dress
a little more detail & texture by adding lighter values as dots, to suggest
the dress being made of some sort of sequence fabric. 

Fig:04
A little more work to do on her hair...

My palette at the end of this session...

-M-

Day #02...

Hey folks! So here's where I'm at at day 02... Spent just over an hour on this today between other work. Worked mainly on the guy's suit-jacket, his hair & tidied up his face a little more.

-M-

Colour study...

Here's a rough colour study I worked up yesterday... Realised the girl just seemed a little too generic with no real story behind her... at first I actually saw her as maybe some sort of ballet dancer who had just been visited by an obsessed fan; but then kinda wanted it to be a little more darker than that, so threw in a pair of playboy bunny ears on her & a more interesting story just seemed to pop out!

In fact, would be great to know how you guys interpret this scenario... Once I've finished the piece then I'll explain what I saw too. Also, I couldn't quite decide on which of these two versions to go for; the only difference being the sort-of over-exposed hot spot in the second image where the light source is closest... I quite liked the idea of them being illuminated from below/ just off screen; as is the trademark lighting style in the noir genre, of which I'm huge fan.

Feel free to drop comments below, love to know what you think ;)

Fig: 01

Fig: 02

-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-

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-

Random 'Hero' themed sketch...

Unfinished, but just a quick piece... I'll complete it over the weekend ; )

'Everyman' ©Maxwell. A. Oginni 2011

-M-

Random 'Horror' themed sketch...

'Night Prowler' ©Maxwell. A. Oginni 2011

-M-