Cars!?

I went and saw Cars. On opening night. It was awesome, very slow-paced and relaxed. No bad guy. My only complaint(s) would be that once the story was set up, it was really predictable, and also there were only two girls in the whole film. I'm not counting the rattly old model-a and the Twins, because they're just marginal marginal support characters (as opposed to just marginal, like Flo, or just support like Sally). My point being I liked it a LOT, and I don't even really like cars and can't for the life of me draw them.

But I was leafing through the Art of Cars book at the bookstore about a week ago, and aside from a billion awesome drawings and development stuff, there was a little blurb about the guy who came to Pixar to teach everyone to draw cars. He said something about drawing cars as organic shapes, not to block them in in perspective and then try to make the car fit the perspective.

So I tried it...



And then here's some messing around with color. I need to push it more.

Monster face - digital coloring, continued

Still smashing myself up against the wall that is color. This is a full-body drawing, one which hopefully will end up in the sketchbook that I will HOPEFULLY manage to get together in time for San Diego. There's some crap that needs to be fixed on his belly, but that's only because I need to sit down and figure out what the shapes on the belly are so that they can be properly shaded and colored, instead of the random smooshy blurry mess that it has devolved to.

I have a lot of trouble with color and finished drawings (this one qualifies for both, which is amazing), partly because I never have the picture in my head before I do it. I don't think in pictures, and it's really hard to force myself to. It takes a lot of concentration, and my drawings are invariably better for it, but if I'm just sitting there sketching all my ideas are in words. Like "oh this guy is riding, and there's a tiger chasing him," or something like that. I build the story in my head before I start drawing, but I build the drawing entirely on the paper.

Every artist (and most other people) I've talked to about this has said that they think in pictures, which is why (for the non-artists) they're so frustrated about drawing. They have a perfect picture in their head, but they just can't get it onto the paper.

Do you think in pictures, or words? Or maybe smells... ("I want to draw a lavender scent with just a hint of oregano...")

Unhealthy fascination with squirrels...

This squirrel here was supposed to have a guy on his back, but the painting was too small and the guy ended up being too much of a pain to pose and paint and make look like anything at all. So it's just a squirrel, planning on jumping onto a twig that is WAY too small for him. Stupid squirrel.

I'm unhappy with plenty of things in this picture, but it's not TERRIBLE, and the best way to learn is by doing...

Ha ha. Painting.

Horse face! Small part of a larger painting that I was fiddling around with, but I'm a total noob to real digital painting and unfortunately it kind of sucked. Every once in a while it clicks and I temporarily understand the values/hues/saturations thing, but mostly it's horrible.

Something to work on, right?

One month later...

So much of art is how you approach it. So much of anything, really, is how you approach it. I tried skateboarding a while back, because although I didn't really have the requisite physical coordination, everyone else sure did look awesome skating around and stuff. I approached it carefully, overanalyzing and going really really slow on the skateboard, because I didn't want to fall off or look like a dork... nevermind that's what I did.

I went down to CalArts to visit and crash the job fair in May, and I talked to my friend Roongrit, who had been there for the two years after I'd dropped out. He said it was really interesting and frustrating seeing everyones' work at the job fair, because the artists whose work was the best, whose work was attracting prospective employers like fangirls to Johnny Depp, most of those were the people who didn't need to support themselves, and didn't agonize over everything. They just sat down and drew and drew and drew, drew whatever they felt like and if they got something interesting they went and drew that, not worrying over whether it would ever sell or not. On the other hand, in the portfolios of the people who were really broke, who were work-studying or working other places, who had to work to eat, their work was targeted towards the employers and so it just all looked the same.
It was interesting, and kind of sad. The people with the surplus of time get the options, and the people who are pulling themselves along by their teeth (on asphalt), they budget their time so that when they sit down to draw, they absolutely MUST TURN OUT A PORTFOLIO PIECE or their portfolio will be EMPTY and they will never get a job.

Figuring out how to keep it interesting, keep it fun, and not kill myself over whether it's a portfolio piece or not has made me a lot more relaxed this past year... mostly.

Here's a quick coloring job. I saw Guy Davis's drawings in the BPRD books, and the way Dave Stewart colored it makes me want to learn my stuff and start coloring.



Anyone going to San Diego Comicon? I'll be down there, hopefully if everything works out, with some sketchbooks (not the kind that I draw in, the kind that already HAVE my drawings IN them).