2011 Goals Update

Well I know it's been a few weeks now since my first post for the year, so I'm giving and update on my short term goal number one of getting my studio up and running. I have my file cabinet cleaned up and should be able to get it from my dad's house this weekend and get the art table taken apart and brought over as well. I have straighten up the office getting boxes and bins out that don't belong. I still need to buy some cheap wood boards to get the closet turned into a proper and organized art supply closet. I will most likely take from my CTN Network trip saves to make this happen as I now know it will cost me one thousand to make the trip and this is very doable. Pulse I'll have my first goal done and off of my mind.

It feels good to be able to type these things out and have a clear in black and white idea of what I want and how I'm going to get it. More art to post been busy sketching too.



Enjoy!

Happy New Year

Well it"s another new year for the old blog. I have limited myself to six new Year resolutions with three being short term goals. When these three are completed then I'll make new ones. The long therm goals will being worked on during the WHOLE year. I plan on making progress reports at the end of each month for these so that I am able to see how far I am to completing these three long term goals by the end of this year and if i have to carry them over into next year.


Short Term Goals  

1: Organize and setup office for animation and graphic design.

2: Take Stephen Silvers Character Design class.

3: Start classes at RVC for Graphic design and Web design.



Long Term Goals

1: Save up for the Creative Talent Network conference in November, This I plan on attending by myself

2: Visit my Family in PA this summer with my wife and son.

3:  Save up for IAnimate.net animation classes, it's far cheaper then Animation Mentor right now and a far more practical goal to be completed.

Goals one and two can be achieved this year and will be, goal three will take a little bit more time due to the fact that My second short term goal requires money and I want this to be completed first. We will see if i make the trip to PA with the family or not. I am making sure that for this year each month is devoted to making my goal of becoming an animator is achieved first, then my family. anything else will be last on my list. I say this because last year was devoted to my home and family. It's now been a full year since we moved in and major projects HAD to be addressed but this is over now and I know I can become an animator by changing old habits and attitudes that have kept me form showing my true potential. The past few months from last year I had been working on the attitude and bad habits and plan on keeping even more vigil on changing my old ways. To a new year and completing goals.

Enjoy!

Finished Finally

Finished my flying cat picture that I started for a daily sketch for Sketcholics.com

Enjoy!

Brush pen

Tonight I spent the evening with my Faber-Castell pitt ink pens. These two are the ones i liked the most and if you want you can check out my sketchbook to see the doodles.

Enjoy!

11-29-10

New page from my sketchbook. I plan on cleaning it up in photoshop later but for now here is the sketch. I used a carmine red colerase pencil. I love the smoothness of the colerase pencils and how much variation from light to dark you can get with them. I'm glad that prismacolor decided to keep the line after buying out colerase pencils.

Enjoy!

Photoshop sketch fix

My dad gave me his CS3 adobe package when he updated to five so I have been using my old artwork to learn how to use the software by playing with the tools. Here I fixed the left eye from being low and flat to putting some perspective on it. using the clone tool and perspective edit.

Let me know what you think.


Enjoy!

Flying Cate Update

This is where I am at right now on the flying cat drawing. Been doing a lot of redrawing from the first post.http://kevinmcleod1975.blogspot.com/2010/09/wip.html I have been learning a lot about composition and the importance to quickly make small thumbnails first to feel out the flow of the illustration.

Enjoy!

Facebook Caricature

Yeah new post! This is from a face book Friends photos. The Freinds shall remain nameless cause this sucks. The line of the eyes is ALL WRONG but hey I drew something and as Walt Stanchfield ALWAYS said to get better in drawing, DRAW DRAW DRAW! 

Enjoy!

WIP

This is a sketch from the daily sketch marathon from sketchoholic.com/Talent/member/my_contest_items.php?ContestID=824sketcholic.com. I have to get some sleep but wanted to post something on the blog. I'm waiting to hear if i have been accepted into Animation Mentor or not for the Winter term. So to show I'm worthy I need to get drawing and post more. Stay tuned for the finished colors.

New Sketch Book

Got a new sketchbook on Sunday and have been having fun filling up it's pages. The first one is my wife's cousin Alitza, we where at my wife's other cousin's wife's birthday bash. The boy on the tractor is Collin and it's a photo of him from my phone. I was all over the place with it and really don't want to draw from photos anymore. The other one is from work and I was sketching parts of the building at work and people outside waiting for their car to get out of impound. The last one is a day old memory sketch of a hawk I saw at work. I'm proud of this one for it shows I'm getting better at making marks with a pen.

Enjoy!

Cowboy WIP

Tools of the Trade

I have been trying different media to draw with lately. I have been using brush ink pens, sumi brushes and ink, hell I have even been using my sons crayons to draw with and I noticed that I would have poor results and not really enjoy the experience. Today while at work it was put all into perspective for me. I was having trouble getting a engine up and running by putting on the serpentine belt back on a trailblazer when a coworker idly said "You NEED the Right tool for the right job" and this got me thinking on how I try to use my different drawing tools. I try drawing with brush pens expecting to get the same control and result I would if i was using a pencil and this was a a-ah moment for me because you can't use a different tool and expected to get the same result that you do from say a hammer hammering a nail but instead you use a screwdriver. so That said I starting looking at artist that I admire, namely Scott Morse and how he uses the brush pen. From his art book Scrap Mettle he makes up shapes of black and white and doesn't focus on detail because that's not what a brush pen is for. I mean yes you can get great detail out of it if your say Mort Drucker but not for someone that is just starting out using the tool. So I'm going to keep on trying and not worry about the details or expect to get the same results I would using a pencil. Night all

Dino Steed

I did this one over the weekend and I had fun building it up just using shapes to see what I could make. I might revisit this one and color it and add a rider to go with it.

Enjoy!

sumi brushes

I spent the weekend using a set of sumi bamboo brushes and ink. I had fun with it and was surprised why I don't use them more. I always have this sense of dread, when creating art that I forget it's only for me. I choose if I want to show someone or not. So here are three pieces I did. My goal was to tell a story with one picture. I think the cat tells the best story. Oh my scanner really didn't do the color of these justice.

 

  

 

Enjoy!

Finished walk cycle

Well i finished the in-between's for my 12 step walk cycle. The head looks too bouncy but the speed of the legs looks good. Any comments or critiques are appreciated.







Enjoy!

Muddy

Over at Illustration Fridays the topic was muddy, having a two year old boy. This was what came to mind. I drew the ruff and the clean up by hand on paper then colored it in photoshop. I'm not happy with the coloring but it will have to do. I know I'll get better with more practice.

Enjoy!

Sketched this while my son played in his room. I like to try and catch him in the moment, unaware he is being watched by me. It's those moments that seem to be the best sketches.

Enjoy!

Groundhog Part Deux

Fixed the pic by adding his left arm and changed the background. My art director (my lovely wife) says it's much better now and offered some suggestions on color as well.

Enjoy!

Groundhog day (little late)

had this thought on groundhog day and how people were bumped that there would be six more weeks of winter, well there is always six more weeks. any-who
EDIT:I realized yesterday that I forgot to draw the ground-hog's left arm. It's been bothering me so I'll probably fix this part and only this part in an effort to become a better artist. I want to simply come up with an idea and then execute without constantly going over it again and again to make it perfect. I'll achive better results by just drawing each day. :EDIT

Enjoy!

Digital Doodling 2-2-10

Spent a few minutes playing with coral painter and my tablet. Decided to pick a word and draw it, the first word i thought of was monster and this is what I came up with.

Enjoy!