Rosie's Blog

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

2011-03-15T01:23:00.000-07:00

Violinists

2010-12-05T14:06:00.000-08:00

Quick gestures drawn in Flash.

Ear Gnocchi

2010-11-21T17:06:00.000-08:00

A quick photoshop sketch from my point of view. I'll leave the image up to your interpretation. :)

Return to Malaysia

2010-11-16T05:02:00.000-08:00

This is from the booklet of sketches of people and memories in Malaysia (taking much artistic liberty of course), which I sold at APE. I'm hoping to add more to it and eventually sell a paperback version. I dedicated this to my family in Malaysia, and I hope none of them gets offended by my caricaturization of them. ;)

Dragons of Atlantis art dump

2010-11-08T16:17:00.001-08:00

I've disappeared for a while due to APE, and the massive undertaking that was Dragons of Atlantis, which was art directed by Kate, buildings art was illustrated by Chantrelle, and the animations were done by Hye Won ("Denny") and Sabrina. It the biggest feat done in the shortest amount of time for me, and I literally had to switch 180 degrees from the previous style I was working in. It took a long time for me to pick up helpful techniques in realistic concept art, rendering, and overall painting, and Kate and I were simultaneously trying to figure out which direction the style should go in (i.e. more rough and sharp shapes geared towards macho, or more anatomically correct yet universally appealing).

I love investing the time to learn a different style, new techniques, and develop an intuitive feel for the effect I'm trying to capture, but I still feel like I'm only 20% of where I want to be. It's hard to get good and quick at this stuff when you're basically just teaching yourself, though many friends have helped me along the way. I think that with practice, patience, the determination to understand and execute intelligently, I will become faster, better and looser. Overall, I am extremely grateful for the opportunities and challenges I've come across during my time at Wonderhill, and now Kabam (my company got acquired!).

Here's a good chunk of my work over the past few months, starting from the oldest at the top to the most current at the bottom.

***Humans ***

*** Dragons ***

***Anthropus ***

***Most Recent***

***Disclaimer***

Just to assure you that I'm not abandoning all fun and charm and cute for the sake of realism, here's a 5 minute doodle:

More character stuff!

2010-09-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

So while procrastinating on making APE-destined paraphernalia, I've been doing some more character sketches. I derived inspiration for the first pile of doodley musings from my near-obsession with Ragtime the Musical, and whenever I listen to the soundtrack for the 42nd consecutive time, my imagination starts to churn and toil in beautiful ways.

The second image has character designs for the thesis of my friend Caroline, who is studying 3D animation.

Call for Submissions - Purrcasso 2010

2010-09-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the poster, and Bill Robinson put the text in the middle. I put a lot of time and love into this piece, with the hope of inspiring artists to submit this year, and inspiring the general public to come to the auction. This is the fifth, and final year that the art auction will take place, so please submit whatever you can, be it a sketch, painting, or crafted piece (i.e. ceramics). I submitted a painting last year that sold for $200, and all the proceeds of the art sold went to the Berkeley Humane Society. In past years, many amazing artists have submitted beautiful pieces, some of which you can view online at the Purrcasso gallery and blog.

If you're interested in donating a piece, you can go here:

Art Submission Guidelines

and for more event info&updates, check out the blog!

The Berkeley Humane Society saves over 800 animals' lives each year, and this year an unfortunate tragedy happened. In May 2010, the shelter had a fire, and at least a dozen animals perished, with many more left homeless. They have received much support from the community since then, but they are still recovering and in need of help.

In the larger scope, around four million cats and dogs—about one every eight seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year. Often these animals are the offspring of family pets who are not spayed or neutered. Because shelters lack infinite space, money and time to care for strays, they are forced to euthanize unwanted animals. I advocate doing whatever you can to alleviate this issue, whether it be adopting shelter animals instead of buying pure breeds, spaying/neutering your pet, or donating to your local shelter.

Summer Doodles

2010-08-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

Here are a few recent speed paintings.

(character sketches while listening to the musical Ragtime.)

***

I am Human, hear me think.

***

Wait

***

Cafe quick study

***

And come this November, the Purcasso auction will be happening again. Bill Robinson, who is part of the event committee and also illustrated last year's auction poster, asked me to do the poster this year. I feel very honored and am having fun with the painting so far! Here is the latest progress (with some of my notes thrown in there):

Doodles

2010-07-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

Malaysia la!

2010-07-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

I just got back from 2 weeks of visiting family in Malaysia, and I plan on finishing a sketch diary about my trip by APEcon this year. In the meantime, here are sketches from more than a year ago for my thesis project. This project is also set in Malaysia, and will ultimately be presented in book form as a hypothetical pitch for a feature film. Stay tuned for updates on both of these projects!

Work from Wonderhill

2010-02-26T13:27:00.000-08:00

Many of you are probably wondering why I fell off the face of the earth and haven't updated my blog in so long. The real reason is laziness. The more romanticized reason is that I've been working ceaselessly at my job, learning how to animate, how to use flash, and how to design and build characters using vectors. It's been a blast, and I've learned A LOT while working as an artist and taking a year off from school. I do plan on finishing my Masters, but I'm definitely enjoying the challenges of the job as well.

Here's some of my sketches and final flash drawings from work: (i hope this should be enough until I post again next year!)

***

Edit: Here's some of the limited flash animation I've done so far. I hope this works. There's still a long way to go in learning, understanding, and getting better in animation, but lemme tell you, this stuff is FUN.... if you have the patience and endurance for it!

Sugarplum Fairy
Orange Bird
Green Bird
Jack Russell Terrier
Pony
Baby Penguin
Mouse
Jumping Monkey
Momma Bear
Papa Bear
Baby Bear
Redhead Fairy
Red Dress Fairy
Fiddler Crab
Lady Bug
Boiling Bunny (I swear this is for work!)
Lost Hippo

Hello World!

2009-10-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

How are you? Me? Oh I've been great! Some lows, and definitely more highs this past year 'n a half. I'm working at a game studio now, but don't worry, I'm gonna continue on with grad school part time. Hey I've gotta run now, but I promise to catch up with you soon! Until next time, check out some sketches for the 6 pieces I'm gonna paint (in gouache) for the Purrcasso charity event:

See you soon!

Sketches

2009-05-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent sketches from the past coupla weeks (markers and pencil):

Cafe quick paintings

2009-04-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of lightning quick paintings done at a cafe.

Whenever I find myself in a creative block and really tense, I see it as a cue from my mind/body to take a break. Sometimes the last thing you should do at this point is force yourself to work more, though if you're being lazy, that's the FIRST thing you should do! I find changing my work environment (i.e. from home to school, or school to home, or home/school to cafe, etc.) and randomly drawing from life to be pretty useful tricks to get the artistic juices flowing. If nothing else works, I go run and play outside in the sun.

What do you do to unwind?

___

Inspirational artist:

Emily Barrera

This talented lady is all about character, and fortunately for me I know her personally! Emily's work is unique and charming in storytelling and design, much like the artist herself!

Check her out:

Emily's Blog

Kitties!

2009-04-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Phew! What a dry spell! Unfortunately I don't have as much to show for all this time as I'd like. During the semester I've been working away on my thesis idea (soon to be presented in May!), and you'll get a sneak peek in the next coupla weeks!

Meanwhile, here's a project from my "drawing for film" class:

New drawings for some familiar characters:

And a not-so-happy bear rug

Daily Sketches

2009-01-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

Alright, I'm gonna try to start doing this daily drawing thing inbetween being productive/lazy/sleep. It's good to exercise, so I hear.

I'll keep uploading sketches to this post until something bigger necessitates a new post!

Final Class Portfolios

2008-12-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

There is still some stuff (particularly some layouts) that are in progress. I'll post those later. :)

Waltz with Animation

2008-11-17T08:45:00.000-08:00

What an amazing weekend! I got to see some great animated features and shorts at the SF Int'l Animation Festival, and meet a couple of the directors. I also helped a friend with her film (when I wasn't shamelessly napping on set) for almost 6 hours, which let me look over the shoulder of a professional director of photography.

Movie still from "Sita Sings the Blues" by Nina Paley

On Thursday night I saw Sita Sings the Blues, and afterward got to talk to director Nina Paley a little bit. The story parallels her own heartbreak with an ancient tale in the Ramayana. My friend from India was sitting next to me, and we both loved the aesthetic and structure of the film's storytelling. However, she noted how "Sita" could be offensive to those deeply rooted in Indian culture and religion (which is why it's supposedly banned in India). The principal characters in the folk side of the story (Sita and King Rama) are revered as gods in Indian society, and the film seemingly trivializes and satirizes them not only in the context of a love story, but also to critique misogynist influence over conventional thought in India. Nina Paley defends her use of these deities by claiming not only freedom of speech, but also freedom of culture, as deep interest in the Ramayana is shared among other cultures and religions in addition to India. A FAQ/interview with Nina Paley can be found here.

Interestingly, the film also has big distribution barriers specifically due to music copyright infringement. Paley used prerecorded music of Annette Hanshaw without clearing the rights to use it, mainly because it would be too expensive for her smaller, independent project. You can read Nina Paley's thoughts on copyright laws vs. artistic freedom here. Being an artist myself, I am torn on this issue. However, I commend Paley for having the courage to defy an established system of copyright laws and beliefs for the greater goal of unlimited creative expression.

I think the Best of Annecy 2008 was overall much stronger in comparison to last year's compilation of shorts. My favorite pieces were the french sci-fi short Skhizein, and the chillingly beautiful The House of Small Cubes, which was made in Japan. I also saw Bill Plympton present his first feature "Idiots and Angels," and I got a free drawing from him!

Movie still from "Waltz with Bashir" directed by Ari Folman

Finally, I saw the animated documentary Waltz with Bashir. Wow. What a powerful, haunting, heart-string-ripping piece. The film rarely holds back on showing us the atrocities of war and the ironic shame of a people who had once endured a similar fate that they now exact upon their neighbors. Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman combines a beautiful soundtrack, cinematography, and a pseudo-realistic style to reflect the intensity and complexity of the story. The film penetrates and reveals the horrors of the war in Lebanon, specifically the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, using layers of personal accounts, documentary film, and televised interviews.

After discussing the movie with friends, one of them being from Syria, I question whether the film told the whole story (within the limits of time) of the Israeli army's involvement in the massacre, or if they chose a biased, Israeli-centric point of view that ultimately continues to rest direct responsibility for the massacres on a Lebanese group. It's well-known that the Israeli army (and government) allowed Lebanese Phalangists to massacre Palestinian refugees in these events, as the animosity between the two resident groups was notorious at the time. However, were Israeli soldiers also directly involved in the killings, or did they just watch on from a distance before taking initiative to stop the massacres, as the movie tries to portray? Were the film makers hesitant to fully admit the degree of Israel's responsibility for the events of the war, or does the film succeed in commenting on the fragmented nature of memory and truth, as no one is capable of fully realizing the truth about themselves, others, and the events of the past and present. Especially when compounded by post-traumatic stress.

I think that Ari Folman wants us to question the film. He wants us to question and research everything that leads up to these events, using both an open mind towards the bigger picture, as well as a critical, closer look towards everything that has influenced the conflicts from all sides. The pursuit of truth is manifested in his character in the film, who has no memory of his experience as a soldier in the war, except for a few flashbacks and a mysterious, recurring vision. After researching accounts from fellow veterans, commanding officers, victims, and public information, he comes to the realization of what he, the Israeli army, and government had done. Finally, a friend points out to him that much of Folman's guilt and pain surrounding this event is due to the irony of the Israeli soldier filling the shoes of the Nazi during the massacre.

I wish I were more capable of describing the film's beauty and the complex history that inspired it. Hopefully those who have yet to see it will one day get the opportunity to do so.

Meanwhile, watch this. It is both sad and awesome:

Designs & Research

2008-11-02T23:15:00.000-08:00

Creature concept sketches. I must note that the 6-legged, winged sheep-type creature near the top-right of this first page is not my idea. I was playing with Derek Thompson's cover illustration for one of his published sketch books.

Zoo sketches

Academy of Science sketches
(from taxidermy animals, photos, and skulls)

Resurfacing

2008-10-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

After much heckling from friends, I'm finally getting off my butt and posting! Here is my most recent work from my character design class, starting from concept to the (more or less) final design in the turnaround.

Before creating the characters, I quickly patched together some very rough story ideas. I wanted the setting to be somewhere in an ancient, pre-Islam, Middle Eastern civilization, such as Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Canaan or Phoenicia (I'm leaning more towards Canaan). Reigning the specific region in this story is a cruel, land and power-hungry tryant, making life increasingly difficult for the people under his rule. One victim of his reign is a boy orphaned by the recent war, who tries his best to survive in the rough alleys of the royal city. Although he is resilient and street-wise, his attitude toward life and distrust towards people are inversely tied. For him, both could not possibly be more terrible. That is, until he meets a mysterious old woman, and his life is changed forever.

***

King

***
Boy

***
Old Woman

***
Illustrations
(1. gouache, 2. color pencil, 3. marker and color pencil)

Studies:

***

P.S. I'm taking a break from digital for an indefinite time. Not only to give my wrist a break, but also to get better at & experiment with traditional media. It's pretty rewarding, but also frustrating! :)

Yarrr!!

2008-05-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

Beginning progress shots for my final painting for the Clothed Figure drawing studio. It's on 24x30" watercolor paper. Gonna try gouache, but might have to resort to acrylic, which is more plentiful and less expensive. Please excuse the atrocious picture quality.

This was taken at an angle, so his head/body is much larger here than in the actual drawing

And here's the (mostly) finished painting from before. Ended up throwing a little Medusa in there at the end.

Concepts for Anthem

2008-05-03T23:09:00.001-07:00

Time to beat this dead horse even deader! I've been working on the Anthem story for my storyboarding class, and made a good amount of changes. For those who've seen the original boards, you'll see that one of these changes is the character designs.

Some quick stage designs. Don't know which one yet, I'm leaning more toward the top middle and bottom three.

I put together a rough, soundless animatic of the whole story, and am also working on a colorscript. Hopefully will have this done in a coupla weeks!

Poot Post

2008-04-21T18:48:00.001-07:00

Can't put up as much stuff as I'd hoped. But HERE'S what I can offer:

One of my big assignments for clothed figure class is to draw/paint a character from the past, present, or future. I started with a few thumbnails, and a classmate and I ran off to take reference photos from there. I was pretty excited to dress up in the civil war uniform actually, because one of my favorite indie comics is "Rose and Isabel" by story guru Ted Mathot. I'd like to think I was channeling a bit of Rose then.

Despite the fun w/ the soldier and caveman, I think I'm gonna go with the reclining dress pose, using oil paint on illustration board. The lighting and folds in the drapery are clearest in that photo. Progress so far: (in the 3rd one, I painted digitally over the photo of the painting)

Also, here's the work in prog of my pops:

and some in-class drawings, ranging from 5 minutes to several-hours-long poses:

School vs. Rosie's Room

2008-03-12T03:02:00.000-07:00

Room: -31
School: Infinity+2

Next week's spring break, so hopefully some cool stuff will be showin up in this dump! Meanwhile, back to getting my ass kicked by drawing from life & photo reference.

Storyboards

2008-03-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

Here are some boards from a class I'm in. Using a simple dialogue and a theme (i.e. "Jungle Adventure") provided by the teacher, we had to come up with our own scenarios. I roughed out as many small thumbnails as my brain + time would allow, playing with staging, composition, and continuity. Then I expanded my favorite ones, arranged them, and further edited any areas that could be clearer or more continuous. Finally, I expanded my final rough draft of thumbs and cleaned them up, adding more subtleties to the backgrounds and acting. Working in rough thumbnails is still kinda new to me, but once I get it down I know this process will be so much quicker!

Drawn and shaded in Photoshop.

Une petite poste

2008-02-11T01:19:00.000-08:00

I don't expect to make many grand, colorful posts this semester, since I'll be focusing more on the fundamentals of drawing and storyboarding/telling for a while. Also will be cleaning up my portfolio while trying to come up with new boards and stories. As well as working on other folks' group projects. Nevertheless, here are some character doodles (roughs and slightly cleaned up) for one of my own stories I'm working on.

Another Latie

2008-01-03T02:42:00.000-08:00

Can't fall asleep, again, so I shall update. Unfortunately I didn't get as much done I would've liked so far, but here's some of my work. Some pieces are more finished and others in progress. I had a great first semester, and even though I scrambled at the end, I think I gained a lot of knowledge and skills. Learned lots about story structure (I'll post the revised storyboards eventually) from my storyboarding class, such as differences between linear, three-act, and concept-driven stories. In my Drawing from Imagination course (aka perspective bootcamp), I practiced new techniques that helped solve complex drawing problems in different types of perspective, and painstakingly learned how to plot shadows in perspective. It was a very technical class with no room for stylization, but it taught me the importance of structure when drawing from imagination, independent of direct reference. Even though I may rely more on intuition in most of my work, rather than technical accuracy, my process will at least be more informed with the underlying principles of perspective, and thus enhance my more stylized work. Yay for formal training!

Finally, I know I really pushed myself with the visual development class. Nicolas was an awesome teacher, the assignments were incredibly interesting (who doesn't love concept art?), and the inspiration was constantly flowing. I just wish that I had developed a more streamlined process throughout the class, so I could get more done in the end. For our final project we had to render a dynamic beat board (see previous post for progress) in which some/all of our characters interacted. At first the ideas and process flowed smoothly and quickly, from thumbnail to basic layout. However, I could not decide which time of day to settle on for the scene, and my teacher said all 3 lightings/colors worked. So instead of narrowing it to one option, I decided to render two different color/lighting versions of the scene. And it was that last 10% of tweaking that seemed to drag on forever, especially when indulging in details. I don't know if this sort of workflow is common in the industry, but I'm definitely going to have to work on speed, time management, and drawing priorities for future projects. Less is more, they always say.

Ricardo Tracy
Concepts for final project in Viz Dev class

Drawing from Imagination
First drawing was from the beginning of the semester, while the colored drawing was the final assignment and is still in progress

Oh! And please check out a bunch of my friends' group project for the Academy Fall Animation Festival:

Freaker's Ball

I am very excited and honored to be working with a bunch of these folks for their next short, which will be an homage to film noir.

Late night posting

2007-12-05T00:26:00.000-08:00

Needed a break from working. Here's some in-progress stuff from a couple of classes. None of it is finished, and some will end up being more developed than others. The one with the most development so far is one of the final projects. If I have time, I hope to develop/finish the very last image depicting a fight scene.

Those first two line drawings need a lot of reworking on what's already there, but I want to flesh those out later, possibly to (digitally) painted pieces.

...enough type, more sleep.

Thought bubbles...

2007-11-16T15:06:00.000-08:00

A quick lil' post before the big one.

Work I admire:

Robert Richardson(cinematographer, found on Ted Mathot's blog)
Vittorio Storaro(cinematographer, with very expensive book)
Bruno Delbonnel (cinematographer)
Juanjo Guarnido (comic illustrator)

And the final designs (more or less) of two characters:

P.S.: I'm in love!

Doodlage

2007-11-08T01:17:00.001-08:00

Stuff from classes. Until I think of of more to say (or at least until I get more sleep), I'll let the drawings speak for themselves:

Project 1

2007-10-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

Done! So this assignment was a background design, and after going through the linework, value sketches, and color keys, I tweaked and edited where I thought the composition, color, and lighting could be pushed. The two main influences for me during this process were Disney's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" Art of book, and Hans Bacher. Also gonna start referencing Tadahiro Uesugi's style of background.

Finally, more character development for this same project. The villain character will eventually be posted up as well. Right now I'm just exploring different styles for the characters, and trying to push them into better more appealing/interesting designs. (For the hero, I referenced lotsa Marlon Brando photos and an Al Hirschfeld caricature of Brando)

Updaties...

2007-10-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Art events happenin' on November 4th:

SketchCrawl #16

Purr-Casso

Lately I've been doing a lot of figure modeling for classes at Academy. In other words I pose for the classes, sometimes nude, and am drawn/painted by the students. It's a really unique feeling, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to experience a different perspective on drawing. When you're modeling, you try your best to push your pose (which those in animation know too well), so it helps you appreciate the physical aspect of drawing a pose by actually living it. And being nude isn't as scary as it sounds. It's a pretty liberating experience, completely exposed and doing these crazy poses in a room full of strangers. It can be quite meditative as you focus all your mental energy on whatever you're looking at, while concentrating your physical energy on holding and balancing the pose. Once you get over the nudity/stage fright thing, the biggest challenges are 1.) balance, 2.) not falling asleep, and 3.) thinking of interesting poses.

Finally, here's a book release I'm -really- looking forward to:

Dream Worlds, by Hans Bacher. I'm in love with this man's art, blog, ideas, and incessant wealth of references to good composition and color. He has been one of my main inspirations ever since learning about him last year.

Color studies

2007-10-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

Color studies for one of my bg designs. I'm learning -so much- in this class (as well as the other ones), and right now we're learning how to reinforce the focal point in our composition with color and value/atmospheric perspective. It's great to have professors who know their stuff!

Perception (Comic #1)

2007-10-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

Sketch Dump

2007-09-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

I figured I should stick somethin' up one of these days.

Women in Western Art

2007-09-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

Check out this cool vid:

http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/62379/detail/

There should be a Women of Color vid as well (or at least more diverse vid), but this vid is awesome in and of itself.

1st Day of School!

2007-09-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

And it was fucking awesome. Love the friends made so far, and the first class was really good! So excited I can barely sleep these days...

Art Censorship in the Mission

2007-09-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

A touchy issue has stirred up in the Mission district, where a Latino youth organization called HOMEY has painted a mural on 24th and Capp St depicting themes of racial/cultural unity, diversity, struggle, and self-determination. The controversy is between the young artists and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) plus the Anti-Defamation League. The issue focuses on one part of the mural depicting Arabic people breaking through a wall (implied/assumed as the Israeli West Bank barrier), on which "Iraq" and "Palestine" are written, as well as other countries and locations in plight around the world. One of these people bears a flag saying "Our Mission: Self-Determination for ALL!", further illustrating the themes of resistance and breaking down barriers. You can read about the issue in more detail here:

http://www.araborganizing.org/mural
http://www.local-impact.org/learn54.html
http://peoplesartnet.org/updates/070821Homeymural/index.html
http://jewishmuralsupport.wordpress.com/2007/09/

Personally, after reading the letter from the JCRC, it's hard for me to pick a side so easily. My knee-jerk reaction was to rally to the muralists' defense, for the sake of artistic freedom of expression as well as my own opinions regarding Israel's "security" barrier. I felt that the painting was relevant to the rest of the mural, and that it was done somewhat respectfully, since the identity of the wall is not overtly designated (except the shape of the hole in the wall is that of Israel).

However, I can see where Jewish people might feel targeted, considering there is no depiction of their historic struggles in the entire mural to fully justify and balance the Arabic people's representation. Also, as the authors of the JCRC letter pointed out, the insertion of the Arabic breaking through the implied Israeli barrier stands out from the rest of the mural, which was originally supposed to represent “the current lives of young people in the neighborhood, growing from rebelliousness into organized consciousness, guided by shared ancient roots and traditions.”

I can understand why the artists wanted to insert the Arabic (pretty much Palestinian), but I can also see the JCRC's point when they argue that "the Israeli-Palestinian conflict segment of the mural depicts a scene some 6,000 miles away from the Mission neighborhood... this imagery victimizes Jewish members of the Mission neighborhood for whom the security barrier has prevented the loss of lives of family and friends in Israel. Further, this segment of the mural isolates the Jewish community in the Mission by raising barriers to inter-ethnic and inter-religious understanding."

So obviously the artist for this segment of the mural tapped an extremely sensitive political, cultural, and religious vein here. I hope the artist did plenty of research before acting on this decision, and was fully aware of the consequences that come about from showing just one side of the struggle between these two cultures. I'm also aware of how the JCRC conveniently left out the part about the human rights violations towards Palestinians and their supporters by Israel's (and the U.S.'s) foreign and military policies. They also left out how the history of and foreign countries' involvement in Israel itself cultivated the anger, pain, and resistance of Palestinians for so many years.

So there ya have it. I'm unable to completely sympathize with both sides, since despite bringing up valid cases, neither is able (or willing) to present the other side of the coin. The artist did not acknowledge the suffering and self-determination of the Jewish people but instead focused on one group, while in their letter the JCRC expressed much bias for the Jewish community, the Israeli state, and tried to justify the controversial (and internationally protested) West Bank wall. If anything, this seems a smaller, local analogy to what's going on in the Middle East.

However, at the end of the day I still think the painting should stay unaltered. Yes, it only presents one point of view, but the controversy around it can bring enlightened discussion. This way, people learn to see eye to eye a little better. So I vote for keeping the segment.

Monsoon Post

2007-09-05T00:07:00.000-07:00

So the past few months of blogging have been a barren wasteland of neglect, and after spending endless summer days as a sloth, I am ready to get back into it. Grad school's about to start, and the only other obligations awaiting will be the part-time hostessing at Plump Jack restaurant. I'm both excited and nervous, unsure of how to approach art school / art life. I realize more and more how tough it is to work in this industry ('specially if you want to work for a highly competitive studio), and you can't afford to lose confidence. Just gotta push through, and strive for excellence all around.

One of the main things that's been on my mind lately is what I want to do with animation. If I try to work at a big, mainstream studio like Pixar, I will no doubt lose some freedom in expressing what I think is important, such as themes of political and social change. However at the same time, I don't want to alienate the general audience by trying to cater to the cinematic tastes of a small group (i.e. the film/art elite). So how does one balance the two? Like a friend once said in an interview, animation is a potentially powerful tool that isn't taken as seriously as it should be in this society (or even in the world still). Take for example Ratatouille, which I feel is one of the most (if not -the- most) mature animated features America has produced. It took its message seriously, did not dumb itself down for audiences, and presented itself not just as light entertainment, but a work of art in film. However, compare its sales to Shrek the 3rd, and although revenue does not necessarily reflect a film's quality, it does reflect the society's interest and demand. By attendance and revenue alone, exhausted sequels and mind-numbing Hollywood regurgitations are still preferred in today's theaters. But then again, there are probably a lot more factors that go into all of this, including the degradation of theater-going experience in the first place.

However, I do have faith in the American (and world) audiences. I have faith that the previously independent, or at least less-mainstream film (including animation!) movement will gain more recognition and actually have an impact as a vehicle for social introspection/change, while these films reciprocate this relationship by striving still to perfect the art of entertainment. By entertainment I don't mean slick special effects flicks coupled with insincere plots and even less sincere acting, but rather something that you remember because of the emotional impact it left on you. I have faith that audiences will expect more from film makers.

Then again, I am a young idealist and have not yet fully experienced that desperation to find a job, any job, to hold me over. I just hope these principles don't change, but only get stronger as I get older. While I go to Academy, I'm going to make sure I grip strongly onto the social and political issues around me, as well as stay true to all the golden knowledge I had the privilege of gaining from my friends in the industry. I know enough people that give a damn, and I'm going to try my hardest not to let them (and especially myself!) down.

In the meantime, I've been reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom," which Danielle lent me. It takes me a little longer to read autobiographies (no matter how inspiring and well-written), so I'm not burning through it as quickly as the George R. R. Martin series. However, from what I've read so far, it is definitely living up to the high praise from Danielle. In addition to the fact that Mr. Mandela is an amazing human being, this autobiography is a great read for anyone who has their heart in the right place, but doesn't yet know how to approach making that next step towards educating oneself and taking initiative. Mandela was naturally intelligent and hard-working, but the fact that he didn't start to realize his priorities of social justice until his twenties, and his retelling of how he evolved to that point, is really inspiring. I highly recommend it so far, for -anyone-.

Alright, enough rambling! Now for some house cleaning and doodle/WIP dumping:

Brienne of Tarth, from George R. R. Martin's series "A Song of Ice and Fire"

Ev heatin' up NYC with his badassery.

Doodles from out Tarth adventures

More doodles from out Tarth adventures

Scenes/shots from one of the Animatrix shorts, copied/translated into boards

Mom

2007-07-30T17:07:00.000-07:00

Why? Because I had to take a break from all that productivity!

And who better to pick than one person I know who loves dancing the most.

Roleplaying

2007-07-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

So I role played ("RP'ed") for the first time with a bunch of friends, and although I was eager to play before, I never knew how fun it could be! It's best if you're playing with a bunch of equally eager friends, especially if you have a great Game Master! What's really cool about it is that you have to rely on your imagination to play, which is great for anyone in the creative field. Lots of people kept scribbling out images in their heads as we played. Everyone should try it! Here's my character:

Her name is Brianna. She's a Sun Priestess!

I look forward to the second round this Monday!

Discovery

2007-07-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

I drew on an old piece ("Jungle") to submit to Illustration Friday. Check that site out!

Style Exploration

2007-07-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

Artists whose styles I'm trying to experiment w/:

Ted Mathot
Lou Romano
Scott Morse
Walt Stanchfield
Mary Blair
(will add more later)

Ultimately, I'm trying to find ways to improve not only the overall appeal of my illustrations/sketches/etc., but also the efficiency of them. I want to be able tell a lot with as few extraneous lines, details, and visual distractions as possible. It's not just speed I'm going for, it's clarity, it's appeal, and it's believability. And if anything, to at least have fun leaving my comfort zone!

Here's an existing character I decided to practice on:

Character (c) Namco Bandai, MonolithSoft.

Who needs sleep?

2007-07-12T05:46:00.000-07:00

So, more and more it sounds like the art college thing is happenin'. I talked to Mandrews today and, as usual, got a head-full of amazing storyboard/life advice. So far I had researched 3 schools:

Academy of Art
CalArts
Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art

Mark gave a strong pitch for CalArts, not only because he did their character animation program, but because it he knows the program would offer a lot of great story and animation classes taught by professionals currently in the industry, as well as push me to produce my own short film each year (...which is insane!) It also has a great environment for artists to form close relationships, and have access to other programs such as the film directing, theater, photography, etc. programs. The only problem is the expensive tuition (about $27k a year for tuition alone). However, if I really want to go, which I do, and I keep on top of financial aid options and deadlines, which I am already doing, then I'm willing to take the risk. This is for my life, and no one else!

In the meantime, I've kinda scared myself into a drawing revival/insecurity panic attack, and have been producing copious doodles. Those will be scanned in as soon as I figure out how to return to a normal sleeping schedule...zzz...

Little doodlage for a rough story idea.

The two principal characters.

Back!

2007-07-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I got back actually. A few weeks of pure lazy bliss!

New stuff and life progress and job conquests shall soon ensue, and much more frequently!

Oh, and...

The Final Stretch

2007-04-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

So one more week before the art show. One more week left to finish the storyboard, turn it into an animatic in After Effects. One more week of -hell-. There's been tons of support all around from everyone, and I really, really appreciate it. I don't know if I could've gotten this far without it! Danielle, Tiffany, and I are really kicking our own asses to make each of our projects great, and I look forward to when we all get to show it. Meanwhile, I'll continue to drop stacks of event flyers all around the city, hoping to get enough interest from all over. (last Tuesday I got a huge free box of condoms/lubricant from a community center in exchange for them letting me leave a stack of flyers there... had to use both arms to carry it)

Last week we did some fundraising on my University's campus. Danielle and I drew portraits, Tiffany did Polynesian dancing, another student did some crazy yoga/gymnastic tricks, and in the end we attracted folks of different ages and raised lotsa money!

Oh, and I decided to switch back to a biology major and hold off graduation for another couple of years, since art was way more stressful than I'd bargained for. Just thought I'd let you guys know!

Round 4.5

2007-04-24T04:33:00.000-07:00

After hearing feedback from friends concerning the ending/2nd character, I drew an alternate version of the recent boards. I really liked the idea of an old man in the beginning, except now he's actually the girl's grandfather, thus making his association with her more clearly explained.

Round 4

2007-04-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

I Cut the boy out and replaced him with an intimidating thug; also tried cleaning up the shots, relying much more on camera movement/acting. I'm still figuring out what to do with the ending. I don't want it to be too dialog heavy, making it short and sweet but still getting the point across (she did a brave thing, she failed, but someone she least expected appreciated the courage it took to try).So I'll continue to think out ideas for the ending, but am still trying to see how to make certain points of the story more believable (the embarrassment when she's late to class and when she forgets the words, and the ending). I have a feeling a lot of that will also do w/ the pacing, which I'm going to try out in Aftereffects or Motion.

Finally, these boards will be presented on May 6 at a tri-artist art show. I invite everyone who is able to come to attend this. Here's the info:

A huge thanks goes to USF's Visual Arts department, which is hosting the event and funding most of it. If it weren't for the dedication of the faculty and staff, the event wouldn't be happening. A special thanks goes to Pamela Blotner, who has been driving each of us to put on this show and get out there in the art world.

Speed Paint 1

2007-04-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

Round 3! Fight!

2007-04-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

Joanne Do

Ted Mathot said in one of his posts: "This is one of the brutal tasks that I've learned to accept from being a storyboard artist -- not being afraid to tear down your drawings if they don't suit the story, especially when they're ones you're fond of. "

I keep hearing this from every storyboard artist I've talked to / looked up, and I see that over and over again in my own experience as I'm beginning to learn the art of storyboarding. For me, it wasn't just the drawings, or whole sets of drawings that I'd hate to cut, but whole story ideas and characters as well. It seems such a bittersweet dynamic that always keeps you on your toes!

But it's a great feeling when you finally overcome a story challenge to the best of your ability, and are more than satisfied with it (compared to past attempts at the same problem). I don't think I've reached that point yet regarding the more difficult obstacles in my story, but every victory and failure is an equally valuable learning experience, and I am endlessly thankful to Mark for his guidance and support. It takes a lot of humility to realize how much you don't know, how much you need to improve, and how hard you need to work your ass off to improve. But I'm slowly learning that it also takes that confidence in yourself to effectively apply that growing knowledge in practice.

So I met with Mark last Friday, and we went over the 3rd set of storyboards:

In this 3rd round of boards there are some problems that pop out immediately, the first being the excessive cutting. This is where the confidence factor needs to come in and help me exercise economy and meaning of shots. For example, there are some shots that have storytelling potential (i.e., close up of Miss Do when she gets caught coming in late to class), but instead of connecting story ideas with camera movement and acting, I would inexplicably worry about the audience's impatience too much and cut to entirely new, "more dynamic" shots with different angles/p.o.v.'s. The result is a mess of visually unrelated shots that don't flow well together, and it would take too long and too much $$ to actually shoot the scene. Therefore my challenge with that is to tell the story in as few new shots as possible (economy), so when a new shot finally comes up its impact is clear and powerful (meaning).

A second, more specific problem is the character that validates what the girl's going through and reiterates the point of the whole story, which is that the girl had the courage to at least try this task that she initially didn't want to do, and that is admirable within itself. First it was the old veteran, but he didn't really seem to fit in the story. He came out of nowhere, and his role in the story was kind of shallow.

Now there's the boy on which Do has a crush. His character was meant to give her motivation for raising her hand in class (she raises her hand to impress him, after seeing him raise his hand), and then comment on her bravery at the end of the story (validation). However, the current presentation of there relationship is not strong or clear enough to make an impact, and I would have to change a lot of the story and set up to put more focus on him. And the main point of the story would be lost. I'm therefore learning that it's really important to effectively set up a character, so that he is meaningful to the protagonist and to the point of the story.

So there are some huge issues that I'm still struggling with, but nothing I can't tackle eventually! Stay tuned for round 4!

Another sleepless night...

2007-03-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

Life Update

2007-03-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

I'm so very behind on everything - I blame school! (I'll miss the convenient excuse of being a student after I graduate...)

Storyboards are still in progress and behind schedule, but they will be up soon. The comic idea has obviously gone out the window for now, but not forever.

Finally, I want to share a powerful article from SFgate.com. It's about the murder of a promising teen in the city's violence-stricken Bayview/Hunter's Point district:

Antwanisha Morgan

A personal, interpretive illustration will soon follow in this post.

Tina Faces

2007-03-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

Join the BattleCry

2007-03-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

Luce... you're my hero. I want to be a stalker just like you!

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Christians. Some of my closest friends are Christian.

...it's just that crazy cult people should not be allowed to communicate with anyone younger than 18.

Goals, Fanart, and Photos

2007-02-28T17:35:00.000-08:00

The third round of boards is on the way. In the meantime, I'll be working on stuff to submit to the senior showcase at my school by this Friday... which means I gotta act fast and whip something up before then.

Also, Ev had suggested that I try posting a comic or short boards for an idea at least once every week. Starting next Monday, I'll start doin' that for this blog (in addition to posting other stuff).

Secondly, here's a fan illustration of Mr. Bee, a character invented by Tina Vaziri:

Finally, over the past weekend I went to see the screening of a documentary that my good friend Tiffany Sanchez directed and produced (I helped a little bit with the cinematography). In the documentary 4 residents of the Sunrise Retirement Home were interviewed, as well as one of the retirement home staff. In short, it was a biography of 5 people's lives. Since the screening was on the same night as the Academy Awards, we decided to dress up for our event, which incidentally had its own red carpet!

And here is one of my closest friends (who incidentally is also my boss), John:

Storyboards Round 2

2007-02-14T04:14:00.000-08:00

A day late, dollar short and whatnot. I'm pretty glad to be done with this second round of boards, and though I know a lot still needs to be changed/improved, I think the story flows a lot better in this version, and I was able to understand/apply more visual techniques (with tons of help from Mandrews and friends!)

I can't wait to move on to Round 3! And I really can't wait to pitch all of this!

Any observations, comments, concerns? Let me know what you think!

Quick Break

2007-02-12T18:25:00.000-08:00

I don't know how universal this is, but as I near the end of my boards, the progress and struggle to finish get harder and slower.

I will have those boards up by tomorrow.

Also, this was posted in Ian's blog, but I want to pass it on here as well:

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Graduation Speech

It's nothing more than Steve Job's commencement speech for Stanford University's 2005 graduating class, and nothing less than inspirational for me. Whether or not you agree w/ Jobs' or his company's practices, this speech itself is well-worth reading. I want to think that in some small, indirect, yet meaningful (to me) way, my short story can relate to this life story.

I look forward to tonight's final stretch!

Almost there...

2007-02-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

I gotta lot of great feedback from Mark and everyone else, so I'm laboring away with the boards. If I don't get them up by tomorrow or Monday, they'll be up by sometime Tuesday!

Meanwhile, a nice exchange of MSN messenger doodles between Ev and me:

And documentation of the Wii party @ Ev's:

...poor, poor Veronica!

Also, some concept sketches for the girl in my short:

I'm playing w/ her design so that she's not -too- awkward/nerdy (someone brought up that issue), if that makes sense. I think I'm gonna go for the striped shirt + tights + boots.

Art Dumpz

2007-02-01T23:20:00.000-08:00

While waiting to hear from Mandrews about them storyboards tomorrow, I'll post some old and new stuff.

"Princess," fanart of a friend's webcomic called "Emerald Winter." Character (c) Jamie Jennings

"9" from Shane Acker's short film "9". Characters (c) Shane Acker.

Storyboards

2007-01-22T16:50:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I had a huge boost of productive inspiration, wrote a rough script for the story I want to develop, and boarded it:

If anyone has any suggestions/critiques/parts they thought were strong, please let me know! :)

Art Dump

2007-01-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some sketches/drawings for a collaboration project with a friend. She is writing a young adult/children's story, and I'm helping her w/ imagery.

Soon I will post progress on my short film for the mentorship.

Shameless Promotion

2007-01-04T01:37:00.000-08:00

The end of vacation makes me sad.

Check out this interactive art blog that several friends and I have started:

Theme Sketch

It'd be awesome for more folks to join, or at least appreciate/watch the submissions. Read the blog's first post if you're interested. :)

"The Alley Musicians" from the film "The Nightmare Before Christmas", (c) Touchstone Pictures

Doodle Dump 2

2006-12-15T23:45:00.000-08:00

Here is the second batch of drawings from the exercise:

I'm finding that, while playing with the composition/lighting/etc. among each set of three (though changes are still pretty subtle), I begin to think differently about how the emotion of a piece can change dramatically from drawing to drawing. For instance, a friend pointed out that in the set where people are throwing their fists into the air in protest, each frame seems to give the crowd a different intention. To him, the first and last frames show more of a standard protest, while the middle drawing depicts a mob. It's really cool to see responses like this, which show how powerful the arrangement of elements in a scene can be, even when subtle. I'm going to look further into the psychological side of cinematography with Bruce Block's "The Visual Story."

Even though I'm experimenting within each trio of drawings, and ultimately hoping to make the third drawing (memory/imagination) the most powerful, it's kinda become a hit or miss. Sometimes the first drawing is more effective than the other two in terms of what idea I'm trying to convey, and other times all three drawings turn out equally boring for me (i.e. girl w/ brown jacket looking at menu). I think that the third image works well when I let loose with my imagination, and stop trying to memorize what was drawn the first two times; like when I take my impression of a character or scene and stick it in a different, yet believable setting.

In other words, when I actually try to have fun with it!

Doodle Dump

2006-12-11T17:10:00.000-08:00

Sketch Crawl this past Saturday was really fun! It rained later in the day, but that ended up enhancing the experience as all the crawlers huddled into the Zoo's main restaurant. There we exchanged sketchbooks and drew humans instead of other zoo critters. I'll post up my stuff from that soon.

Meanwhile here are the sketch assignments I've been doing for my mentorship. Each subject is drawn three times: the 1st being a direct reference, the 2nd I reference the first drawing, and the 3rd is drawn from memory w/o reference. The point of the exercise is to learn how to "see," how to draw the whole gesture quickly while learning to compose the picture well. The second goal is to feel comfortable drawing anything and everything, from architecture to difficult shots in movies.

Reference: "The Iron Giant"

Reference: Ronnie Del Carmen's drawing titled "Door".

And here's some other recent paintings:

"Tilden Park," pastels.

...Finally,

Kiwi

My boyfriend showed this to me recently. It's an ongoing occurence that I should find out and actually see awesome things much later in my life. However, I'm still glad to have seen this, and for those who haven't yet heard of "Kiwi!", click that play button!

Sketchcrawl

2006-12-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah!

The Iron Giant

2006-12-04T01:41:00.000-08:00

So I just watched the I.G. last night for the first time, and I loved it.

I'm sure there are so many more great animated features out there. "Watership Down" is another one that I've heard of, so I really wanna see that too.

Pre-marital/Pre-30 year old Sex is B.A.D.

2006-11-29T12:35:00.000-08:00

Sex Will Make You Go Blind

I love this guy's articles. He's a bit on the ranting extremely liberal side, but I like that about him. :P

Doodles

2006-11-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

School's a bitch right now... but at least I happen to be sitting next to a scanner!

Various sketches of my boyfriend, and a bee.

Progress on what's currently clunking around in my head.

23!

2006-11-21T14:42:00.000-08:00

I can't wait 'til I turn 42, so I can say some obscure Hitchiker's Guide quote.

Here is a b-day present from Everett:

He is just bucketsful of awesome!

And my Thanksgiving gift to you all:

A Skeksis turkey!!

Sweet Mother of GOD.

2006-11-18T00:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bebLZfd1Ulc&NR

Bite it in half.

Life

2006-11-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

As the internship for Pixar nears its end (officially on December 7th), and I must still look forward to one more semester of school, I have started thinking seriously about life after graduation. More specifically, I am looking into graduate school in art. Here are the two main schools that I want to go to:

Acadamy of Art University in San Francisco, CA

and

CalArts in Valencia, CA

If I were to go to CalArts, I would probably go into character animation. However, I know that Acadamy has a great Illustration program.

On a side note, here is an article about an awesome cause going on in SF; and the more I think about it, the more I feel that internet access should be a right, not a privelege

SFGate Article on the formerly homeless

Captain Planet

2006-11-02T01:15:00.000-08:00

I used to watch this show a lot as a kid, more for the entertainment rather than the educational value. However, the other day I came upon Ted Turner's site:

Captain Planet

And I realized how ambitious this cartoon was. I can't remember how developed the characters and story were, but using the cartoon as an effective medium for education, for promoting a powerful message, is amazing. In addition to environmentalism, it also touched on other issues such as cultural diversity, nonviolence, self-empowerment and collective change. Although the show was actually kind of cheesy, its determined exposure of these issues is definitely worthy of respect. My hat's off to Mr. Turner.

Practice w/ Styles

2006-10-31T01:04:00.000-08:00

I started and finished the forest piece today... it sure took me a while! Here I was trying to fiddle with the styles of Mary Blair, who I'm growing more fond of, and Eric Carle. I'm going to try to experiment with them more in future paintings.

The tunnel piece is sort of an old one, but I figured I might as well stick it up. I love doing landscape/scenery/environment paintings, but I have very little grasp on perspective and lighting... which means I need more practice!

Animation

2006-10-30T12:28:00.001-08:00

Woot, finally managed to make sort of an attempt at animating! It's really short and crude, but with more practice and learning of techniques, hopefully I can eventually get some super skills!

Click here!

Sick

2006-10-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

Blah...

2006-10-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

I've got nothing really, except for this little thing:

I always get inspired by the Blue Sky Studios Challenge blog; they come up with some pretty clever stuff.

My personal project has been put on hold, and will hopefully pick up more steam once school, work, and Pixar let up.

Art dump and detours

2006-10-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

The pastel pieces are from various locations: Lone Mountain (USFCA), Pixar, Tilden Park, and Orinda. The doodles were made on the set of Violet.

ALSO - this sounds like fun:

http://www.museumtix.com/venue/program.asp?pvt=p649&vid=649&pid=3920263&code=

I'm thinking Saturday's a good day.

Stuff...

2006-10-02T00:12:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out how to stick a title on my posts.

I've got a good number of stuff to upload, from Sketchcrawl sketchlings to various doodles of cast/crew/director for PU's short film, Violet.

In the meantime!

2006-09-23T00:45:00.000-07:00

2006-09-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Gonna try to carve this dog out more, make 'im more 3-d

2006-09-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

For anyone who believes in fun:

Enrico Casarosa wrote:

"So ... I have details for the meeting on Saturday September 23rd here in San Francisco for the 11th World Wide SketchCrawl !

The plan is to take the ferry from the city (Embarcadero Ferry Building) to Sausalito. We are all meeting at 11am at the Peet's Coffee in the ferry Building.

Here:
Ferry Building Map

And then take the 12:00 Ferry to Sausalito.
Should be a fun day of drawing.

Also, if you have any friends around the world who you think might want to know about SketchCrawl, here's a rough write up I did for it:

- World Wide SketchCrawl -
Drawing Marathons from Around the World

To all interested. The 11th World Wide SketchCrawl is September 23rd 2006 ! (details for the SanFrancisco Chapter will follow)

But what is a "SketchCrawl"?
In short, roughly every 3 months we put a call out to people around the world to join in, put pen to paper on a given day for as long as they can (be it 20 minutes or 8 hours). Drawing, sketching, journaling about their day and what's around them. For a day, slow down, look around you, see ... and draw and write. Record your day. No specific level of skill is expected ! Anyone is welcome. We've had kids and parents having a great time together!

How to participate.
We set up a forum where to seek and organize meetings with artists from your area. You can participate in SketchCrawl on your own or with a group of friends. I usually meet groups of artists in San Francisco, where I live. The forums and the Flickr SketchCrawl group also serve as gathering and sharing place after the drawing marathon day. The idea behind this is to get the great feeling of drawing with and at the same time as peoples from all walks of life and from all corners of the world; and ultimately sharing the day's sketches and photos on Flickr and the SketchCrawl forums, to see places and details from corners of the world we might not see at all in our life time !

The history of it.
We put out a call for the first World Wide SkethCrawl on November 21st 2004, we've done 10 drawing marathons since and people from all over the world have joined in and shared their drawings. On one occasion we also raised funds for the Pakistani Earthquake relief effort. And we plan to seek more of this kind of opportunities in the future. There's nothing like sharing drawing and also make a small difference in the world.

The SketchCrawl blog.
We have a communal SketchCrawl blog for which we are looking for contributors. We are very happy to accept posts from anyone who might want to contribute sketches or thoughts about drawing, materials and inspiration. One more space to share.
http://sketchcrawl.com/blog

The organizers.
I started SketchCrawl in 2004 and have organized and spread the word about SketchCrawling since. I am currently a storyboard artist at Pixar Animation Studios. I've worked in the industry for more than ten years and been publishing comics and artbooks in my spare time. Ronnie del Carmen is a legend in the animation industry, currently a Head of Story at Pixar, he has worked for the Batman Animated show, Dreamworks animation and many others amazing projects.

So take this chance to dust off that old sketchbook of yours or take the wrapper off that nice new Moleskine you bought. Saturday September 23rd is around the corner, obviously the more the merrier. So feel free to spread the word in any way you can. That's what is amazing about the internet. We've also tried and spread the word in another few ways: we have made t-shirts and stickers.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/casarosa/sets/72157594270875661/
If you plan to have a big group of "crawlers" shoot me an email, I'll be happy to send some stickers.

Many thanks for your time !

Enrico Casarosa

Here's a few Links to SketchCrawl information on the web.

Sketchawhat ?
http://www.sketchcrawl.com/blog/?page_id=3

The first SketchCrawl I tried in the summer of 2004.
http://enricocasarosa.com/sketchcrawl.html

The first World Wide SketchCrawl on November 2004.
http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=5

The Flickr SketchCrawl group
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sketchcrawl/

The SketchCrawl forums where you can see past and current SketchCrawls.
http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum

2006-09-19T01:54:00.000-07:00

Heeding Everett's advice, I played w/ the dog character a bit more, and discovered an opening/background scenario for the canine, sort of explaining how/why it is that he's running free in the city:

2006-09-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

A brief review of Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9:

It was bizarre. And long. Nevertheless, the film and music were beautiful. Very heavy with symbolism, about which I'm not too sure how I feel yet. Some metaphors were completely obscure, others were a little more decipherable, and there were definite motifs throughout the film (and exhibit) that helped to anchor the flow of events. The ultimate motif of the piece, as well as all of Barney's previous work, is the image of the "field," which is an oval bisected by a bar. It is manifested in several forms, from a seal on a gift-wrapped package, to a large vat of petroleum jelly on the deck of a Japanese whaling ship. In each case, the bar is deliberately removed from the oval by human hands, which in part (or in whole) represents a creature's struggle and ultimate triumph in removing the restraint (bar) from the body (oval). This was probably the most well-executed metaphor throughout the film.

One huge aesthetic downfall for the film was the occasional, though blatant use of CG. It was very distracting for me, but then again, I tend to be very critical of distinct CG-live action mixtures. Would I recommend watching this, if you ever happen to be near the next exhibit (its San Francisco visit ends today)? Yes.

DRAWING TIME!

(reference)

2006-09-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

New book in the mail!

The Illusion of Life

Currently reading Canemaker's Paper Dreams, which is an amazing experience so far.

I'm also gonna check out the buzz about the Barney exhibit/film tomorrow @ SFMOMA @ 2:00. I'll post thoughts on that later! :)

Some insomnia doodles:

(ignore the horrible attempt at perspective)

Finally, here's some wikipedia knowledge. I'm aware that wikipedia may not be the most accurate resource out there, but it's nevertheless a great read:

Degenerate Art

2006-09-13T00:33:00.000-07:00

Now is when I really want to be a little turtle in a huge shell, and tuck myself away in my boney home and visit ALL of the new art links and read all of the new art books for an indefinite amount of time...

Yeah, that really didn't make much sense. Nevertheless, much self-education ahead! Just got two more books in the mail:

Walt Disney's Nine Old Men
Paper Dreams

Most art links in this blog courtesy of Randy Berett and Everett Downing.

2006-09-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

I didn't get nearly as far as I intended to get over the weekend, but here are the last frames that will go into my portfolio, though I will continue to expand and ultimately refine this after I print out the first draft:

A relatively quick character concept:

And also, if anyone is looking to get great new art books, I just got these two in the mail:
D'artiste: Concept Art
and
D'artiste: Matte Painting
The styles may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the autobiographies of each artist, their techniques, and their own tutorials are amazing reads, and quite educational for any serious artist out there.

2006-09-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

Here's what I got so far for my story project. I'm really feeling this one the more I think about it, so I'm pretty happy with my plans so far:

"It would best suit you, little one, to always be afraid of dogs-"

"They are nasty, dirty, mean beasts that wouldn't think twice about gobbling you whole! Do you understand?"

"Yes Mama."

2006-09-09T01:26:00.000-07:00

The re-opening party at the Super 7 comic/toy store was really fun, as well as enlightening. I purchased two anthologies of comics drawn by Pixar folk, and I also got some awesome advice from an animator, Everett. What he told me had never crossed my mind before, though it made a ridiculous amount of sense: go through your favorite movies, freeze interesting scenes, and draw them for practice. This not only helps to build my speed in transcribing visual information, but also to understand what about the composition of that particular scene makes it effective, at least in my mind.

So, here are some scenes from the very beginning of Moulin Rouge that I sketched in photoshop:

They probably don't make too much sense in my renditions now, but I hope more practice will alleviate that in the future.

For Danielle and Jake:

2006-09-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

Aw man...

Infamous nature show host Steve Irwin died.

That sucks. Not surprising, but still sucks.

2006-09-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

Headaches suck.

Doodles:

And a practice painting:

I tried to copy Velasquez's Pablo de Valladolid

2006-08-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

A continuation of the last series of story panels. I really don't know where I'm going with this, but I like the brain exercise!

And another doodle. I'm currently reading Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, and of all the characters/symbolisms so far, Madame Defarge stands out the most in my mind.

2006-08-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

The start of a short story, as well as the genesis of my ambition's manifestation. I wonder where I'll end up on the other face of progress...

Much much much grateful thanks to Nick Sung for the direction and advice!

And daily observational doodle:

2006-08-25T00:43:00.000-07:00

1 RHCP concert down, one more to go! I squealed like a baby when I saw Flea then Anthony come on stage. They're still sexy as ever!

2006-08-23T23:19:00.000-07:00

Daily doodles that I intend to make a habit of exercising:

While I was watching See No Evil, Hear No Evil

She's got some 'tude!

2006-08-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Woot!

2006-08-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

Whoot! First day @ Pixar! Let's see how this lowly intern fares...

Meanwhile, I'll post some recent stuff done in an oekaki program (a free step up from MSPaint):