New Hand Puppet Rough 1

It's that time of year again...last year I did an armadillo hand puppet to show students how to use blue pencils to sketch with instead of doing a tracing paper transfer. Since last year's item was more of a hard surface with regards to form I wanted to do something a bit hairier to work without a lot of burnishing. It also helped students in dealing with the creative process...

This is the second major process drawing the students are doing because we have been focusing on observation drawing the first 9 weeks. Students are through the brainstorming stage and dealing again with thumbnails. They vast majority of problems tends to be a lack of pushing through thumbnails and using it as a tool to help come up with creative solutions.I call it drawing with intent vs. drawing to fulfill an obligation. So instead of drawing, say a rabbit, 20 different ways with variations on eyes, ears, nose, muzzle, head, etc...I will get 20 rabbits drawn exactly the same with a hat thrown on...

Once they get through the thumbnails we move on to 3 or 4 mini-roughs to get a good solid idea followed by a full-scale rough. Then the final product...

Dragon Dump

My net buddy and fellow artist Steve always does sketchbook dumps...now that I put dragon dump down I have come to a realization that will always make me look at that in a different context...

Rules for the dragons...15-20 minutes per sketch...one a day until work catches up with me...and since it is political season...I refuse to endorse the quality of any of the sketches...

IF: Racing

"Every time they drive by it sends my heart racing...but I'm not sure for which reason..."

How To Train Your Dragon contest... : (

Whilst watching Cartoon Network the other night they released a promo for How To Train Your Dragon DVD release...and announced there would be a contest to create your own dragon...the winner will be chosen and have their dragon used in cartoon...

#1. How To Train Your Dragon was probably the best movie I saw all summer of the 5 or so I went to...

#2. The contest is limited to those between the ages of 4 and 12...which makes me sad...I may not artistically have had a shot before but I'm definitely not passing for a 12 year old. So if you have a kid that hits that area have at it...

#3. They reserve the right to change and adapt the dragon created for their specifications and purposes because 'animation is tough'...I've seen some contests with that type of disclaimer before and the artist's original work is completely dismantled...so imagine Billy or Suzie getting picked and watching the episode and waiting for their dragon to appear...only to find out they saw their dragon but it didn't look anything like what they designed...

#4. James Gurney talked about doing a poster contest at the age of 13 and he was disqualified because they didn't believe he did it...so if you have a superstar artist is that a pitfall?

#5. I decided to do some dragons anyway...I received a new sketchbook from CCAD during their presentation so I'm going to fill it up with dragons...which means I have 4 sketchbooks going in different directions...and then there is the one I lost...at the park...when someone took it while I was playing with my kids...sketchy come home...so I'm going to do a dragon a day...until I get bored...

#6. Professional development for my job means that I get to actually do some stuff with this...sculpy...and Illustrator...and Photoshop...once I get it approved by our "Committee"...

IF: Spooky

I usually hate for work to pull a double duty...being the elitist I am and all...but with four million meetings and a lot of grading I had to bow to the pressure. I got tired (again) of seeing the kids have all the fun in class...we were working on an assignment involving making maquettes and I wanted to play too. So I did. I'm hopefully going to get a chance to photograph the student work and will include a link to it too...many turned out very well for only the second attempt at sculpy and I'm excited to see how things progress for them.

I had only worked in sculpy once before myself while making a very rough item to do some light work. I enjoyed the problem solving that went along with working in a pretty new medium...Our next stab will be making another head and then a fully body detailed maquette.

IF: What Lies Beneath? Claws

I actually kind of like this one...I'm going to change the snake to a stuffed one and slap it in Freehand or Illustrator and see what happens...of course I still have to finish the turtle and fish from way back when...