Sunday Sketch

So I was at the park today for my neice’s 3rd birthday.  I haven’t been to a family gathering in a long while because I usually have weekend classes.  But since it was a holiday weekend, there was no school and I wanted me some food.  Anyways, I also brought my sketchpad with me and decided to do some drawing while I was there.  It’s a good warmup before I really start crackin on some of my assignments later on tonight.  So enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.  Until then, cheers.

Burbank Sketch Up

Note to self: get out of the house and draw!  Last night I met up with some friends to do some sketching at Priscilla’s Gourmet Coffee Tea & Gifts in Burbank.  The more I sketch outside of the confines of my room, the more I get done.  At home, I just have way toom any distractions and hours will pass before I make a mark on a page.  I make it a point to never bring my laptop for these Friday sketch nights because the internet will distract me like crazy.  Anyways, here’s the product of last night’s drawing session.  Let me know what you guys think.  So enjoy?

First drawing of the night.

I saw Sanders drawing a fat guy, so I wanted to draw something fat as well.

Decided to give my creatures something other than a t-shirt.

One of the guys in the coffee shop looked like a surfer so I drew him as a surfer.

Towards the end of the night, drew the barista girl and head drawings of some other customers.

Stuff I’ve been meaning to post

Had to turn in an updated version of my demo reel for my projects class today @ Santa Monica College so I thought I would also update the portfolio page on the site.  These images are projects from some classes at the Concept Design Academy.  Both took way too long for my liking: I had a lot of anatomy issues in the creature design & was plagued by perspective for the vehicle.  I’m probably going to still work on these things some more, but I thought I made some substantial progress were they were worth posting.  Anyways, check out the portfolio page by clicking here: www.kidfrodo.com/portfolio. enjoy

The Cowardly Viking

In an attempt to grow as an artist, I felt that I needed to illustrate more narrative type pieces.  It also helps that I’ve been taking Mark McDonnell’s clothed figure quick sketch class @ LAAFA: it’s been forcing me to tell a story with the pose.  It’s one of those classes that’s hard and fun at the same time.  I’d also suggest buying his new book The Art and Feel of Making it Real as it elaborates on Walt Stanchfield’s gesture drawing notes.

Now back to my blog post.  This illustration consists of things that are lacking in my portfolio: storytelling, digital painting, environment. What better way to improve than trial by fire?

When I was in the thought process for this illustration, I wanted to come up with my own version the reluctant hero. In fact, I didn’t make him heroic at all: I made him more of a coward than anything else. My teacher suggested that I give him an oversized axe to compensate for his lack of courage, and I built upon it by giving him oversized horns as well.

I had a lot of fun with this piece because it was something totally new for me and I think it helped me get out of the creative funk I’ve been lately.  Anyways, for the 3-4 people who follow the site: let me know what you think.  cheers.

Link Em:
Mark McDonnell
The Art and Feel of Making it Real

Studio City Sketch Up

So last night, a couple of buddies and I decided to meet up in Studio city for some coffee shop drawing.  I realized that I get more drawing done when I’m not at home and plagued with distractions.   Also, being cooped up in a room all day can drive you crazy.

I got to the coffee shop about an hour earlier than everyone else since I have to account for my awful sense of direction.  So I spent the time waiting by drawing some of the people around.

Finally, my friends showed up and got our drawing session started.  I’ve been experimenting more with my quirky designs since it generates more of a response than my human characters.  I was experimenting with different shapes and sizes while trying to keep it within the same style.

After a while, some of my drawings started to turn to rubbish as I was hitting a design wall. So my buddy, Danny, suggested a more creative exercise in drawing: where you make random scribbles with a 30% tone marker and see what you can make from it and just draw. So here are some results of the exercise.

After that, I felt back in the zone and started working on a penguin design for a photographer friend of mine. Didn’t get much done after that as we got kicked out of the coffee shop because it was closing. But overall, the night was a success as I got a lot of drawing done.

So for the 3-4 people that read this: let me know what you guys think and until then. Cheers.