Venice Beach Art Wall

A couple of weekends ago, I rode down to Venice Beach to draw.  I found a nice spot to sit and watch the graffiti guys working on the Art Wall.

History Channel!

The History Channel has some new programs we've been enjoying at home.  Here are a couple of characters from 'Pawn Stars' and 'Pickers'

Ludwig and his elephant

Getty People

After a long Christmas break, the quest continues, as I try to dust the cobwebs off. Here are some people that held still long enough for me to draw them. The highlight of the day was the guy wearing heels and carrying his wife's purse.

Hand Gestures at the CTN-X

I attended the CTN-X animation expo this weekend. With all of the great panel discussions going on, it was a perfect time to draw and watch the hand gestures of the different speakers. it seems most people have similar hand/arm movements, but the subtle differences in the tension in the fingers reveal the unique personalities.

Football Sunday

They didn't broadcast the Colts game here on the west coast, so I was stuck watching a couple of teams that I didn't have much interest in. So I started drawing...

Disney Animation Boot Camp

Not long before March 25, 2002, when Disney announced they were cutting their 2D animation department, they had a 2D Animation Boot Camp for new talent. This is not to be taken lightly. Disney put the recruits up in a dorm in Monterey, CA. They were taught by some of the Disney greats, including Walt Stanchfield. A co-worker of mine was selected to be one of these new talents back in 1997 when he was in college. He shared with me his stories and his official boot camp binder.

Pretty damn cool.

This is a huge binder, loaded with great advice and techniques for beginning animation artists. I can't imagine how cool this might have been to be a part of. This is the same year Disney put out Hercules. This is also 5 years before they gave 2D the axe and 10 years before they resurrected it from the dead again. I don't have the time to scan the whole thing (though I wish I could), but I wanted to at least scan a small sample to share with any of the animation fans out there.



I have no idea if they still do this sort of thing for their new3D animators, but I doubt it.

Oil Pumps

Costco Folks

Airplane wing of the 737

I'm becoming more familiar with this guy

Waiting for an oil change

Two things you may run into on the sidewalks of LA

guy waiting

people

people at the laundromat, and a wheel

people at the OSH outdoor store

Painting

I have lots to learn, but I'm enjoying the process. He was inspired by a bad guy in a 70's James Bond film that I caught on TV the other night.

Drawing

Comic Con!

I had the pleasure of attending Comic Con this last weekend. I didn't know what to expect, but within 10 minutes of entering the convention center doors, I met Bill Plympton and got an autographed copy of his Dog Days DVD. Needless to say, it was very cool. I got to meet a lot of VERY talented artists and even some famous folks. Here are some of the nice artists who signed my sketchbooks

Bill Plympton

Ronnie Del Carmen

John Kricfalusi

Kei Acedera

Bobby Chiu

So it turns out that the monkey animation test I did, got me the job! But....I can't put it up on my blog, nor anything I'm working on for awhile. The project is hush hush for now, but I assure you it has been a lot of fun to work on. Here are a couple o f people waiting for their food at a restaurant up the street.

sketch update

Some of these are from a nearby coffee shop, where I was sitting there looking around for someone to draw and realized that I had sat down across from Michael Strahan. Unfortunately, he was a quick mover and didn't stick around long enough for me to get a sketch of him. Though there were some good candidates that day; birds, young people, old people, people carrying boxes, shopping bags, etc...
I find it a lot easier to draw people here in LA than anywhere else. Most people have on the 'big city blinders' and don't pay much attention to the people around them. I think it's an adaptation to being surrounded by people, everywhere, all day. Whatever the reason, it makes it easier to draw them because they don't notice, or care. There are definitely a lot of interesting looking people here, and you don't have to go far to see them. I can walk outside my door and draw the cleaning lady or walk outside my building and draw people walking their dogs or the building painters across the street, Or the mechanics on the corner....
With all of this at my disposal, I guess I should be drawing more!

Next Post:
I did an animation test recently for a job with a cool monkey rig built in flash. It was a lot of fun, it should be up in a few days.

girls

some new stuff