Value Exercise

FOUR YEARS AGO (yikes!) I posted this about diving into watercolor painting.

Imagine how good my painting would be today if I'd actually stuck with painting then.

Sigh.
I'm trying not to dwell on "what if's." This is EXACTLY my point about pushing through the bad drawings/boring exercises. If we practice--every day--the skills which we want to improve so we can better communicate our ideas, in time we'll see the results of all of that effort. If only I'd known then what I know now...

Anyway, back to this post...

I've learned since by first steps into learning about color and watercolor painting is that I must first learn about VALUES, the levels of light and dark i.e., grays.

This is Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in color:

And what it looks like with the values only, no hues (colors) :

From what I've learned, there is no color without value. It's one of color's two primary components, the other component being chroma (the amount of brightness and dullness). Once we learn how to see and accurately determine values, we're one step closer to learning to paint, choose and use color.

Again, I stumbled upon this video called "Week 1: Master Studies - Noah's Art Camp" by artist Noah Bradley who has the instructional site Art Camp. This free video is an incredibly helpful, two hour and 21 minute tutorial about how to practice seeing values, composition and color.

Still from tutorial Master Studies painting values-Noah's Art Camp."

I expected to easily knock this exercise out. But once I sat down to do it, I couldn't even get the composition properly placed in the frame let alone analyze the values! Unfortunately I did my usual and tossed the exercise aside, annoyed with my lack of skill. But now I've decided to tackle it again, realizing that the ability to place the composition in the frame is a skill in itself and one worth learning. My future landscape drawings and paintings will depend on getting over this hump now.

These are my new attempts. I look forward to posting them regularly to note the progress (and yes, there WILL be PROGRESS!):

Instead of painting these exercises digitally as Noah does, I've decided to start simpler by using some Prismacolor 20%, 50% and 80% cool gray markers. Those are the only three tones I'm using in these exercises, basically a highlight, medium tone and shadow (Noah suggest not using more than four tones.) I chose those particular markers solely because Doug Chiang, artist and designer, uses them (click on "Studio Tips" on his site to see his tools. I misread his 70% marker for 80% but no biggie). If Chiang uses it, I'm going to use it!

 

These are my first attempts based on the painting "The Arch of Constantine Seen from the Colesseum": 

Clearly I was struggling with this exercise! But unlike my original attempts, I'm NOT giving up because I failed. I'm going to keep going until I no longer create failures. Notice how the pencil drawing on the right has a stronger sense of composition than the straight-ahead value studies.

Every day I get closer…

Copy from the Best

Practice drawings.

In this post from June, I talked about getting back to basics.

I noted the difference in drawing styles between the 1940's and today.

My personal preference is for the "old school" look: rounded characters, cartoony features, fully animated, richly painted backgrounds. Those are the qualities that made me fall in love with animation in the first place. And those of the qualities to which I aspire.

My first step in learning that 1940's look is to copy 1940's animation. Thank goodness for the Internet and YouTube! I discovered the Warner Bros. Private SNAFU cartoons (all available for download) and have been copying certain frames ever since.

John K's animation curriculum emphasizes copying model sheets. It was an excellent exercise that, however, quickly became boring and felt so much like a chore that I stopped doing it. NOT the desired effect. Since John K. said that the best model sheets were based on poses from the animation and not vice versa, it makes sense to simply copy frames from the finished animation. That way, you can see how every pose works. Often there'll be a pleasant surprise, which I show below.

I started with the cartoon below called "Coming!!! SNAFU!" which was directed by Chuck Jones:

Below is an example of the surprise poses I mentioned above. If I hadn't scrubbed through the animation frame-by-frame, I would've never seen that GIGANTIC hand that Snafu snaps to his head in salute at the 00:24.15 mark:

Surprisingly BIG ASS HAND at the 00:24.15 mark of "Coming!!! SNAFU!"

An important point about this exercise: I'm attacking several of my drawing weaknesses-- cartoony expressions and round, solid volumes. BUT since the animation and the drawing is so strong, I'm enjoying performing the exercise and actually look forward to doing it!

I additionally wanted to capture the amazing gestures of this character.

Eyes in perspective and round, solid forms.

More eyes in perspective and round, solid forms.

Second, I'm practicing the John K. advice of drawing the volumes and dividing lines (in blue) first before adding the features and details. Another important John K. lesson that I'm seeing in the film stills is the perspective of the eyes. To be correct--and look correct--the closer eye needs to be larger than the farther eye. That's something you absolutely do NOT see in today's tv animation:

No eyes in perspective here...

...or here...

...or here.

Why am I so adamant about learning the "old school" methods and why should you be, too? Aside from the aesthetic preference I have for them, if we're doing something that few or other people are doing, we'll stand out that much more.

Think about it…

Good Riddance to the Gatekeepers

Image courtesy of the © 2014 Boonsboro Bible Baptist Church

Most of the gatekeepers for the entertainment industry are gone. The internet has made the audience accessible to everyone. So how to navigate it? Here's a suggestion from Everett Bogue's defunct website Far Beyond the Stars now maintained by Marshall Jones Jr.

In the post "Minimalist business success: The obsolescence of gatekeepers," Bogue offers simple but necessary steps to jumping the gatekeepers.

Read and start jumping!

Succeed by Being Completely Unrealistic

Everett Bogue described himself as the following on his now defunct website, Far Beyond the Stars: "a cybernetic yogi supporting mindfulness in the future of human/technological evolution. I'm the author of and the upcoming Augmented Humanity. This blog is about existing in the modern age of augmented humanity." 

Although Bogue has moved on to other things, Scott Kostolni thankfully maintains the archive of Bogue's old site which is full of gems of life guidance and advice. One of my favorites is this piece about the importance of being unrealistic to achieve the success for which one is searching.

I'm beginning to think there's something to this whole "being unrealistic" thing since both Will Smith and Jaret Grossman have promoted it, too.

Am I "unrealistic" to expect to have any sort of career making films when I'm starting 20 years behind others and I'm currently 45-years-old?

Not according to those who have actually SUCCEEDED!

Numerous accomplishments were made by those who didn't take into account the "unrealistic" argument. 

Of course, one has to be logical about being unrealistic. It IS unrealistic for me to expect to become a professional American football player. That is clearly outside the realm of my abilities.

But making movies? That's TOTALLY within my realm of abilities! With the low cost of hardware, software and internet distribution, being a filmmaker today is completely realistic.

Forget about being "realistic" folks and just tell your stories!

Not Knowing Fundamentals is NOT a Style!

This post's headline is a quote from the terrific Raul Aguirre, Jr. This animator, director, writer, storyboard artist and painter is someone about whom I wanted to write a Shoutout Sunday post.

BUT since this dude brings it with EVERY podcast, I can't just sum up his HUGE influence and importance in one post! My Aguirre love affair requires more than that.

Unfortunately, I'm behind in my Man vs. Art podcasts so this reference is to an old podcast. It doesn't matter. Aguirre has so much to share and is so truthful that his opinions are timeless.

In Episode 88 from Jan. 6, 2014 (I know, I'm WAAAAY behind!), Aguirre shares his perspective in his inimitable style about what he considers the top art stories of 2013. After some great talk about Banksy, Picasso, George W. Bush and others, he gets into what I also consider to be an important topic, the difference between taste and quality.

This topic is especially important to me because as a black filmmaker, I've gotten into several online debates about the work of Tyler Perry. Aguirre reinforces my opinion of Perry's work by explaining the difference between taste and quality and the roles each plays in assessing a work.

My opinion is that Tyler Perry's movies lack craftsmanship which, as a filmmaker and film-lover, makes it impossible for me to support his work. Perry's movies are two hours of amateurish mistakes that—and this is the biggest problem—don't get better with each effort! How can someone direct like, 15 movies, and not improve their craft in some way?! I don't understand not improving in one's area of expertise nor do I respect it.

I stopped watching this abomination after about 20 minutes.

Which brings me to the second part of my Perry criticism: he makes films but he's not a film-lover. I have never heard Perry discuss his film influences. I've never heard Perry discuss his process. Therefore, I wasn't surprised when he recently said that he'd never heard of David Fincher (!) nor was familiar with his work when Fincher contacted Perry's agent. That's right, "filmmaker" Perry was COMPLETELY IGNORANT of the entire filmography of one of America's greatest contemporary film directors.

I rest my case.

But I understand why Perry's work is so popular: black people, especially black women, want to see themselves portrayed in a less stereotypical and more human manner and will therefore consume any piece of crap that allows us to see ourselves as we know ourselves.

Aguirre makes a similar argument with the Twilight series. By all objective criteria, the books and movies are failures. But they've been hugely popular because they appeal to people's taste. But appealing to taste doesn't mean the work has quality.

Aguirre reminded me and clarified for me WHY I'm spending the time to truly learn the art basics, building a strong foundation, learning anatomy and all the other tools of drawing, animation and storytelling: I want my stuff to be high quality. He explains exactly why I watch absolutely no animation on tv today. I can't stand that whole flat drawing "style" and ugly design that's popular now and it was refreshing to hear that a genuine professional like Aguirre feels the same way.

I want my storytelling to be strong. I want my drawing to be solid and accurate. I don't want my current lack of drawing skill and knowledge to be the "style" I pass off on people.

I want to be good; being mediocre will not suffice. I want to give people a reason to spend their time and money on my work.

Let's not just appeal to people's taste. Let's put in the creative sweat to make our work quality, too.

Figure Drawing Step Two: The Bean

 A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I posted what was to be the first of several Stan Prokopenko figure drawing how-to videos. I'm returning to it now because I think Proko's instruction is among the best out there.

To draw figures well, one should follow certain steps. The first is the gesture. The second is the bean.

In short, the bean is :

We have two forms, one for the rib cage and another for the hips. You can even just imagine a sock with two balls in it.. Whatever analogy you want to use. Basically we have two hard forms with a softer “skin” around them.

There's a lot more explanation and a video on Proko's site.

I purchased Proko's premium content of the figure drawing lessons. It's worth the price. You get extended, high-definition videos, reference poses and other helpful items. There's no way you won't learn something from this guy!

Scene 28 Clean Pencil Animation—Part 2

Got some more clean pencils done although the hands aren't drawn. That's a whole other challenge.

Essential Skill—Seeing Values

The previous post discussed Andrew Loomis's value lessons from his amazing book "Creative Illustration." Loomis's books, however, can be a little daunting, especially to the beginner.

In a continuing search for accessible ways to learn values, I stumbled upon the site Learning to See. Created by Paul, his goal is to help others improve their skills in the same effective way that he improved his skills. In his "About" section, he talks about being in art school in the 1980's and not learning how to draw and paint. Instead, his education was focused on conceptual and abstract art. This reminded me of being in college in the late 80's-early 90's where there was a discussion about whether or not art history majors should take studio classes. In Paul's case, since so little of his time was spent on learning the fundamentals, he was thrown out of the school!

I appreciate people like Paul who have acquired or improved a skill and now they want to dedicate their time to helping others improve theirs. He's an autodidact (like you and me!) and his before and after work clearly proves that he's in a position to instruct.

Sign up for the free value exercises and click around the rest of the site. You'll find something you can apply to your own work.

Andrew Loomis--4 Essential Properties of Tone from Creative Illustration book

Andrew Loomis's "Creative Illustration" is the most expensive book I've ever bought (although I think my 3-volume collection of The Zohar is close. I was feeling especially ambitious when I bought THAT!)

Out of all of the Loomis books I own, this one scared me the most. It felt more dense and serious than some of his other books and is the most extensive of the bunch. When I finally decided to crack it open (can't let that money go to waste!), I was glad I did. There's a lot of helpful information in this book. Download the pdf here.

Published in 1947, Loomis divides the book into five areas: Line, Tone, Color, Telling the Story and Creating Ideas.

Here's what Loomis says about tone:

Tone is the degree of value between white and black, the lightness or darkness of a value in relationship to other values. Every object has "local value" which can be brightened or darkened by light or the lack of it. The artist is interested only in the effect of light or darkness on the local value, NOT the local value itself.

The 4 essential properties of tone--

1. Intensity of Light in Relation to Shadow. The relationship between light and shadow completely depends upon the intensity of light.

2. Relationship of value to all adjacent tones. Values is like resizing, a proportional relationship must be maintained.

3. Identification of the quality of light. The kind and relationship of values determines the kind and quality of light.

4. Incorporation of the influence of reflected light. Everything upon which light shines also reflects light. Nearly all shadows contain some reflected light. If you neglect to show the reflected light in the shadow, you'll lose your form's solidity and it'll look "dead." Reflected light helps make things appear round, 3-D.

You only need 4 values with which to work: white, light gray, dark gray and black.

Loomis's analysis is deep. I'll post more of it in the future. 

Artistdaily.com for Great (Free!) Resources

Another helpful website upon which I've stumbled is Artistdaily.com. Lots of great information here including a large selection of FREE ebooks covering the basics of various drawing and painting topics. I've already downloaded 11 books covering topics of interest like the color wheel, drawing basics and basic anatomy. Currently, I'm going through the Drawing Basics book that includes drawing spheres, cubes and cylinders. You're sure to find something of use here!

Sucking is Part of the Process

A scene from my "Calls of the Wild."

In the fall of 2009 (OMG, was it THAT long ago?!), I spent 3 months learning about independent animation from Bill Plympton. I completed a 30 second film (see sidebar at right to view it) of which I was proud.

I was proud that I conceived, storyboarded, made an animatic, animated, colored, painted backgrounds, composited, added sound effects and music to a film in the required time (only half of the class made completed films). All of this was a first for me. The sacrifice was unprecedented for me, too. I didn't clean my apartment for 3 months (much to my mother's dismay.) I pulled one all-nighter and worked between 7-8 hours on the weekends to get it done.

But it appears that others weren't as impressed. My classmates voted a less-complete film ahead of mine. A former colleague didn't understand what was happening in the film. Two or three film festivals rejected it.

Guess what? None of this matters. As another, more gracious, former colleague said, "It's a good first effort." And he's right. I can't be expected to make a Pixar-level film on my FIRST TRY.

As children, we didn't fear failure and making mistakes. We recognized that we couldn't do something well until we tried it over and over again. Sadly, as adults, we develop the mindset that everything we do is to be perfect even when we're new to that activity.

A scene from my "Calls of the Wild."

THAT MAKES NO SENSE!

One only gets better with PRACTICE. Adults seem to only understand that concept when it comes to athletic pursuits. Otherwise, we think we're supposed to be experts on the first try. I think it has to do with the nature of work. We're not allowed to make mistakes at our jobs without being considered incompetent or putting our continued employment at risk. So we develop this "I must be perfect" mentality that is impossible to live up to and is detrimental to our development.

I've embraced Adult Toy Story as a "practice" film.

This is my first time doing lip sync.

It won't be perfect.

This is my first time making a 5 minute film, TEN TIMES LONGER than my last film, so it'll take TEN TIMES LONGER to make.

This is my first time working with a sound engineer.

This film won't be great like the work of the students at Gobelins or Cal Arts, but it'll be great for my skills at this particular time AND it'll be a huge improvement over my last film.

And the film after this one will be even better!

To Paint Great, Need to See Simply

Photo courtesy of Muddy Colors.

After reading this review at the Muddy Colors blog, I bought a copy of Graphic L.A. by Robh Ruppel, art director, concept artist and matte painter in the film and game industries.

Glad I did!

As someone who's been reluctant to dive into color and painting, this book was an eye-opener.

First, there's very little text. Although I usually like a lot of specific information, I quickly appreciated the sparse and succinct text. By describing his process in short, easy-to-remember blurbs, the lessons are easier to instill and recall.

Second, the art is FANTASTIC! This is a great introduction to Ruppel's work and it made me want to seek out more.

Ruppel has developed an excellent method for seeing values, depth and color and he shares the method with numerous examples of his process.

If you want to learn how to break down the complexity of reality into basic shapes, values and colors, get this book. You'll undoubtedly benefit from it.

Animate to Harmony: The Independent Animator's Guide to Toonboom

Flash—and now Toonboom—animator extraordinaire Adam Phillips recently published a book that I'm predicting will revolutionize how I and other independent animators use Toonboom Animate/Animate Pro/Harmony. It's called Animate to Harmony: The Independent Animator's Guide to Toonboom. I was so excited about getting this book that I accidentally ordered it twice! (yes, one is going back.)

Phillips is an Australian filmmaker and animator who, according to Wikipedia…has the online alias "Chluaid (pronounced 'Clyde'). His main body of animation work, for which he is best known, consists of flash animation compositions published on his website Bitey Castle and on the flash portal Newgrounds (there, as of March 2010, his movies have over 14 million views and he is one of the highest ranked artists). He is the creator of the Brackenwood series."

Adam Phillips Bitey Castle art.

Phillips knows his stuff. He's produced numerous tutorials and is a convert from Flash to Toonboom. This book is a compilation of his expertise. I've just cracked open the book as of this writing and already I'm liking how the book is presented. Phillips's approach is to take the reader/animator step-by-step from opening the program to creating a file to making an animation. It's easy to follow, there are lots of additional tips and tricks and a special link to download tutorial files.

If you're serious about using Toonboom Animate/Animate Pro/Harmony, I recommend this book despite having only read a few pages. Phillips is an experienced instructor (he's generously provided a free Toonboom Animate 2 video class) and I'm confident anyone who gets this book will benefit.

Animation Masterclass Coming to NYC!

On December 6-7, 2014, Pixar Animator Michal Makarewicz will lead an Animation Demo and Lecture Masterclass in Manhattan. Thanks to the Animation Collaborative and ASIFA-East for giving their members a $20 discount on this class. It's a rare opportunity for us on the east coast to have a major animation studio host a class.

Here's Makarewicz's bio:
Directing Animator, Pixar Animation Studios
Michal joined Pixar Animation Studios in early 2003, where has been an animator on The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up (Supervising Animator on the Up DVD short: "Dug’s Special Mission"), Toy Story 3, Brave, and a Directing Animator on Cars 2. Most recently he was a Supervising Animator on “Toy Story of Terror.” In 2008, he was awarded an Annie for “Outstanding Charcter Animation in a Feature Production” by the International Animated Film Society for his work on Ratatouille. In addition to his work at Pixar, Michal has been teaching animation since 2005. He has contributed lectures as well as taught classes at the online school, Animation Mentor, and instructed classes at California College of the Arts and the Academy of Art University.

I'm signed up and ready to learn how to improve my work. I'll provide a review of the class in December after I've had time to process the information.

Let's Give Ourselves a Break!

Man, I used to love this show!

I took a break from drawing practice because I felt that I was floundering, that progress wasn't being made…

…until I recently opened a completed sketchpad.

I saw these:

And LIKED them! After not looking at this stuff for awhile, returning to it made me see that there's some character in the line work and improvement in the execution.

It's not great…

…but it's not TERRIBLE either!

My goal is not to be Glen Keane or Robert Valley. I'll always be 20 years behind those guys. But what I can do is make personal improvement.

All that matters is that are skills improve from the day before. That's it.

Bugs Bunny and Friends to the Rescue!

Image courtesy of www.heart.co.uk

To practice or not to practice, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler to focus solely on completing the animated film or to take time from the film to improve my drawing skills.

This was my dilemma, feeling that the drawing practice I was doing wasn’t producing results, wasn’t moving me forward. I decided to stop it completely and devote all of my free time to just animating.

BUT now I’m rethinking that strategy. Optimally, I should be practicing drawing every day. The question I’m constantly plagued with is WHAT to practice.

To answer that question, I had to ask another, “In what way do I want to draw?” 

The answer is: classic Warner Brothers cartoons.

Classic Warner Bros. cartoons are the reason why I decided to become an animator at age seven. Bugs Bunny et. al. are the epitome of funny animated cartoon characters.

I want to draw like THAT!

In order to draw like those guys, I need to study what they did. I dabbled a little in this in the past by following the John K. curriculum which includes copying model sheets. But copying model sheets became boring. And since John K. said that the best model sheets are based on poses from the actual animation, I decided to draw from the actual animation.

I’m starting with a Private Snafu short and focusing on the gesture and the expressions, areas in which I need to improve. Now I look forward to practicing instead of dreading it. I appreciate that not all practice is supposed to be fun (studying anatomy can often be tedious) but until my skills improve, I need to keep it fun for motivation purposes.

But am I fairly evaluating myself by insisting that my skills have NOT improved? Maybe I am getting better! More on that tomorrow.

Scene 28 Clean Pencil Animation

This has been a BEAST of a scene (which explains my long absence from blogging) but slowly and steadily, it's getting closer to completion. I will NOT be beaten!

Here's some animation with clean pencil drawings:

 

A Blow to Hand-Drawn Animation

This is deeply lamentable. The imagination of Hayao Miyazaki and the team at Studio Ghibli will be sorely missed in the animation universe.

My Miyazaki favorite will always be Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. 

Finding the Right Expression—Scene 28

One of my goals for this film is specific, significant acting. I want each character to truly behave as though they were actually alive and experiencing that moment.

The scene on which I’m currently working, Sc. 28, is one of the few in which Honey has a variety of emotions and movements. For this segment of the scene, I wanted to show Honey struggling to pull a cell phone out from under her shower cap.

When I sat down to animate, I realized that I didn’t have a clear idea of her expression. And cartoon expressions is one of my (many) weak areas. 

Instead of using random trial and error to find the proper expression, I pulled some samples of expressions that I’ve collected:

Used courtesy of Jerel Dye ©2013-2014

Courtesy of John K. 

Courtesy of John K. 

Kirk Douglas in "Paths of Glory."
  

Nale & art ©2007 Sarah Shaw

Based on these examples, I spent some time searching for the best expression for Honey:

I’m happy with the ones I’ve indicated in red so I’m now ready to start animating with those expressions. The next step is to accurately animate Honey’s struggle to pull the phone from under her cap. I’ll share the roughs for that when they’re ready.