Legion

I painted a Stormtrooper helmet for Star Wars Day! Nowhere near as imaginative as a lot of the others you'll see but it was fun to create a Yoda camouflage. Thanks to Jeffrey Jon Pidgeon for the pix. More info here

City Life

Characters and dialogue snatched while tramping the streets of North Beach and the Mission

Leeloo

A Gesture Class model recently turned up wearing the 'bandage' outfit from the Fifth Element! She even had an orange wig and really looked the part.  She had been part of a stage version of the film and re-enacted the story in her mind as she posed.  It really helped give authenticity to her poses and the 'bracelet' nature of the outfit turned out to be perfect short-hand to define volume.  It was a really fun session.  I don't usually add colour to gesture sketches but I felt the orange hair and white outfit needed highlighting.

1. Thirty second warm ups

2. One minute poses

3. One minute poses

4. One minute poses

More Incredibles gestures

We had a model recently who was a perfect fit for some Frozone poses (plus some Mr. Incredible's too)

Wise Guys

These hoods need names . . .

Latest from the Gesture Lab

A selection of some of the characters I've been work shopping lately in gesture class.  It's interesting which characters emerge from the subconscious on each session. Sometimes they're inspired by the body type of the model or by a film I may have watched recently. After 3 years of regular gesture class I've now built a mental library of characters that I can choose from very quickly under the brief time limits we have. These are all between 30 seconds-1 minute poses.

Around Christmas we had a stocky, middle-aged male model who naturally became Santa Claus

Often models, male or female, will hit poses that I can't resist turning into Gollum

When the news of a sequel to 'The Incredibles' was announced I couldn't resist drawing Mr Incredible in that day's class.  We had the Michael Giacchino score playing and a model with the perfect physique. I've never drawn the character before so I need the practice!

Of course Frozone had to make an appearance too!

'Mr Smee'

Drawing San Francisco

Sketching around town . . .

 Film shoot in North Beach with fake snow

 

On Grant Avenue, Chinatown

 Mission Dolores cemetary

16th street

 Japantown

18th Street diner

Shoeshine booth on Market St.

Drawing in a Mission dive bar with JSG, Melodie & Matt Cruickshank. Crookie did a finger drawing of an artist painting outside the window.

Zero Friends Movie Night!

San Francisco artist Ben Walker organizes unique drawing events all over the city-the last one I attended was the 'Bizarro: Drawing with the WRONG hand' event.  Last Friday Ben invited a bunch of us to Haight Ashbury artspace & clothing store Zero Friends to spend an evening drawing from a movie.  We all brought a dvd of our choice and put them together in a bag, then one was chosen at random to play and inspire our sketching.  You have to move fast when drawing from a 'live' movie!  It helped that I did a little bit of work storyboarding on this film so I was familiar with the character designs.

Sketch Dailies

I can't keep up with Sketch Dailies but couldn't resist some of the themes.  A lot of the work being done for that site is very impressive-keep it up folks!

Framing the Future

BAICFF

I helped out Pixar Storyman Jim Capobianco with the poster art for his annual Bay Area International Children's Film Festival.  I'll be doing a drawing workshop for kids that weekend exploring the space center and sketching.  I hope to see some of the great animated shorts Jim has lined up too.  Click this link to see the line up

Drawing with FORCE!

Late last year we had a guest drawing instructor come into Pixar- Mike Mattesi-who specializes in dynamic drawing and did a 10 week course.  I only caught the last 2 sessions but it was refreshing to pause the Walt Stanchfield 'story' driven gesture class and let loose with some more muscular sketches.  I haven't worked this big and bold in several years- dirty charcoal & thick markers on newsprint!

Around the same time Glen Keane visited the studio to deliver an inspirational lecture on tapping into creativity by thinking like a child and ensuring 'play' is present in the work environment.  His impassioned and sincere speech was extremely motivating, and seeing him animate 'live' is magical!
He flipped through a sketchbook he had kept while visiting France last summer and found a sketch of a young girl carrying a baby while walking across a playground.  Glen took this as his jumping off point and animated her across the page- straight ahead-dealing with the weight distribution as he went.  He said viewers won't SEE the weight changes but they'll FEEL it.  The point of focus will be in the eyes-we look for the connection between the girl and the baby and how their gaze meets at that close distance.