Summer Vacation?

Wow! Almost a month since the last post. I knew there would be a drop off once my class ended. My animation class really pushed me to be creative more often and, without that structure, I tend to drift.

But that isn't to say I haven't done anything creative for the past month. No, I have a summer job teaching kids cartooning at a local college.  The college where I was taking my animation course opens up their campuses during the summer months for 6 weeks to give the young kids an opportunity to take some summer school classes to keep fresh and to do some fun things during the summer. I applied for the gig months ago and I, along with another student in my animation class, got the jobs to be co-instructors.

It is something new for me. I have not taught before other than as a supervisor to other employees but I have a tougher group this time: Kids!!



Actually, most of them are surprisingly very good. It is a good area in the suburbs and the kids seem to have some parents teaching them good manners and how to be pleasant. Some of the names really throw us with such a large population of East Indian-Americans but, once I learn how to properly say it, many of them are quite beautiful.

I am liking the job though. I knew I'd have to do things like projecting my voice to be louder since I'm usually a quiet guy or taking charge of the room, being the lead, and getting the kids to focus and not chat too much. For the most part, I think we are doing good with that.

(I know. I should REALLY be bringing my sketchbook 

with me rather than using a binder paper notebook)

The biggest challenge is what we thought we would run into early on: lack of time. Really, the 6 weeks are broken into two 3-week sessions of 3 different one hour classes three times a week. So, when you break it down, we only have 9 hours with each class. Between the age (4th graders to 9th graders), we really are not going to have enough time to turn them into masters artists. But my goal was to teach them a few things and yet have enough time to draw and have fun. Sometimes we really run into a time crunch though but have adjusted to allow more drawing and creativity later in the schedule.



Here is how my colleague and I have broken down those nine sessions:

Day One: Introduction to Cartooning. Basic Head and Face constructions. Then how to bend those rules for a unique cartoon character.

Day Two: Facial Expressions & How to Draw an Anime Head. Hairstyles. How to show different emotions using different facial elements. The Anime/Manga style is very popular with the kids.

(Bad cell phone photo of facial emotions. I really liked the one on the right)

Day Three: Hands, Bodies, and Age and how to show emotion through those body elements. By far, this is the driest day, the least interesting, and the day we are the most pressed for time.

(Bad cell phone photo of body type emotions)

Day Four: How to Draw Established Characters from TV and Movies. We give them a demo on how to draw one (Bart Simpson) and then they get to pick their own favorite and draw it using a grid system. By far, the BEST day of the 9. Kids were coming back the next day to do 2nd and 3rd drawings at home.

Day Five: Animals Day. How to Draw Animals. Cats. Dogs. Sea Creatures. We do a quick demo on How to Draw a Cartoon Lion's Head and a Horse's Head.

(I found some great instructional demos online by another cartoonist 

on how to get some animal drawings through simple constructions.)

Day Six: How to Draw Creatures. Established ones from Myth and then creating their own. We do a Demo on How to Draw a Baby Dragon.

(My Baby Dragon. This was my colleague's idea and 

she took the lead but I still wanted to practice)

Day Seven: How to do Backgrounds. Word Balloons. And other Comic Elements. Explanation of the Final Project: a Comic Book Cover or Movie Poster. Start character sheets.

Day Eight: Continue character sheets: Students start drawing at least three characters to their final project: A Protagonist, an Antagonist, and a Sidekick. At least one of those has to be an animal or creature. Students can choose to draw an established character but only 1. Must have a background and a logo. Start cover.

Day Nine: Finish Cover. Watch a cartoon. Parents can visit.


We've already done the first session and the first week of the 2nd. The plan seems to be working and we adjust as need be. We've had some really nice parents and kids thank us and tell us they enjoyed it. One girl gave us thank you origamis. A couple other girls gave us their own drawings.

Character Designs

Here's a character design for a super hero. This guy's made out of rock.

Superheroes in Spaaaaaaaaace.....

This was me going into my typical super hero comic book drawing mode. The guy doesn't have a name and the face and pose are a little dopey but I just wanted to play with some Kirby krackle and draw a bunch of rocks.

Heads

I posted these drawings before but they look pretty good all lined up together.

Quick portrait drawings from earlier in the semester....

Extra Sketchbook Drawings

Now that my animation class is over, I've been neglecting my art blog. It has been two weeks since the last post. That was to be expected. But I do have some pages of art of me just doodling and drawing in the book. Nothing for an assignment, just me keeping the drawing skills going and filling every page in the book.

Best Rapture Ever!!

(Detail of Frank Cho's figure drawing sketch)

So how did you spend the Rapture that was suppose to happen yesterday? I spent the day meeting up with my friend Trevor as we ventured over to the BIG WOW! COMICFEST in San Jose.

After taking a year off and re-branding it's self with a new name, the con formerly known as Super Con returned in much the same way it had in previous years. The con doesn't get much foot traffic, the masquerade only had 12 contestants (shortest masquerade/30 minutes), and the media guests tend to be uninspiring. However, what the con does excel in is top of the line artists as one of the con's owners, Steve Morger, uses his connections to roll in some great names. Part of the enticement for these artists is a visit after the con at a local winery and I have to think their travel and room might be getting paid for since it doesn't seem like much money is being made for them with the lack of people. But it is a great chance to talk to the artists who would normally be swamped in San Diego in July for Comic-Con.

One thing the convention did do right this year was some of the panels. Taking advantage of the stellar artists line up, Adam Hughes was tapped to give a demo on his use of Copic markers. Master artist of the female form Frank Cho was also given a panel for a figure drawing session. And THAT, my friends, is how I spent my Saturday afternoon post Rapture!!  :)

(My angle of the model)

About 1.5 - 2 hours were set aside for the panel where Frank would draw and talk about his process for drawing the human figure. But the audience was also invited to draw with Frank and the last 30 minutes was given to Frank critiquing several of the drawings.

(Frank Cho sketches our model, Ivania Turner)

A nice long one hour sitting pose was chosen. I wasn't use to such a long pose so I dived on in and did a quick sketch before moving up to the longer sketch.

Our model was a baker from Lancaster, California, Ivy, who dressed up as Ms. Marvel. Her body type was very curvaceous, the classic Frank Cho woman! She was a good model and sat for the one hour with very little movement.

(Artist Frank Cho & model Ivy as Ms. Marvel)

Adding to the challenge was the angle, sitting slightly up as her chair was placed on top of a table. Having been pushed to draw quicker, I probably should have slowed down and got my contour drawing down better but spend most of that hour rendering and shading. I was lucky enough to get a crit by Frank and, for the most part, he liked the drawing, but we both agreed that the contour lines got lost in the shading.

(My drawing of Ivy)

In all, I enjoyed this type of panel and I hope they do more in the future and perhaps utilize the strengths of this con by having many of the great artists teach and do some demos.  Perhaps this con could grow into more of a seminar with artists such as Mark Schultz and Dan Brereton giving drawing and painting demos for other artists eager to learn?

(Frank Cho hard at work)

With my creative juices still flowing, I busted out the sketchbook after dinner and did some drawing of the Gordon Biersch crowd while a band was playing in the courtyard.

(Sketching at the Gordon Biersch restaurant)

A good day of music, food, shopping, comics, and art. What better way to spend a rapture???

(Frank Cho's drawing of Ivy)

Captain Noback

Assignment: In a group project with three other students, come up with some character model sheets for a hero and a villain. But those model sheets are sketched from our character construction using.......Mr. Potato Heads!!

Here is the model sheet for our hero, Captain Noback.....

Here is the model sheet for the villain, Dirk the Enslaver....

The next stage was to choose one model sheet to work from for all four of us and then for each student to make 12 drawings pieced together with the other student's 12 drawings to form a full animation. It really is guerilla animation as we slapped together the mini story to be told over just a few seconds.

Here is my 12 drawings including a 13th that I'd like to add. I may have tried to do too much in the 12 and should have animated less movement over the 12 for a smoother animation. Regardless, I think this is more of a slap-N-dash project. For my segment, I was to have the character turn and acknowledge that he has a hole in his back (hence the name "Noback"). Without any eyes, it was tough to draw the character looking and acting surprised so I tried to show it through the body language.....