Monday, March 30, 2009

Feebas

I've re-addicted myself to Pokemon, and I can't stop it from consuming my life all over again. It's terrible. On the plus side, I'm breeding and trading pokemon like a fiend, and I just played over 170 hours total. Oh... wait.

But to prove that I'm still drawing, here are some sketches of Mari, but in a more... western(?) style.



Also, bonus!self portrait lineart.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Animurls



'nuff said. I need to go to a zoo.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Off focus

Like every Japanese stereotype, I always carry my camera in my bag just in case the opportunity arises for a nice picture with my friends. I also enjoy taking pictures of things I find pretty that might in some way feed into my drawings. I figure I post some here, just so I can vary up the content of this blog. These are images I took myself, which is why they're so... snapshot. But still, I like finding inspiration on my own.

I have a whole bunch of these though, so I'm going to start off with a "Vintage-esque architecture" theme.




Not necessarily vintage, but vintage looking. (It's a Sephora store. I love shopping in New York <3)



Another New York snapshot of a building with some old advertising left on it. There's something about old directly-on-building ads that I love so much. Savannah has a few too, and I adore it.



Again, not necessarily vintage, but there's something so "Amityville" about that sign. I feel like we should be in vintage sundresses with wide-rimmed hats, sunbathing while Jaws lurks in the water.



If you ignore the girl in the picture, you will see that the sidewalk is all brick and torn up from the roots of bushes overflowing from nearby gardens and years of general wear. There's something so Beatrix Potter about this area, I love it. This is in the Historic District of downtown Savannah, so I count it as "vintage".

Popsicle cupcake

A drawing I whipped up for my always-in-limbo website. I love bright colors.


Thursday, March 26, 2009

Rerun

This is another overlap post with my Digicel blog, but I've been putting up sketches here as well so I feel weird not putting up the final model sheet.



Here she is, my strong jawed, wig-loving Queen of France. She's one of two main characters (and by main I mean only) for my Digicel final assignment, which is a short film done in Flash. I'm completely stoked for this, can you tell? XD

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Roboko

A quick doodle of a fighting-robot girl. Her name is Roboko. May or may not be colored later... >_>;;


Anime

I overlooked my blog yesterday in favor of my Digicel production blog, which completely wrecked my "post once a day" streak. Since school's started I don't have a lot of new sketches to show, and even if I do they're generally Digicel related so it's going up on that blog. Charapoo's Place will stay active and exciting though, I promise.

So today I've been thinking a lot about influences, specifically relating to character design. As part of an assignment I had to collect some images from artists who are good reference for character design. I immediately picked up artists like Chris Sanders, Jamie Hewlett, John K, etc. The weird thing is, I never even looked at western (non-anime) artists up until maybe a year or two ago, and now they're my main focus. In an effort to find a style that lends itself better to western animation, I'm looking at western artists.

I think I just want to take a moment to reflect on the biggest influences to my art, and remember why it appealed to me so much. I want to evolve as an artist but I also don't want to lose my roots, and I'm sometimes afraid I am.







Tanemura Arina is without a doubt my biggest influence, and what really got me drawing seriously. Like most shoujo styles, unique facial and body structure is replaced by a standard "attractive" template, but that's what I enjoy. Immense detail is put in the linework, the clothing design, etc, and her colors are subdued but effective.




I can't even express how much influence CLAMP circa Cardcaptor Sakura had on my drawings. The soft colors and cutesy expressions were one thing, but the detail in the character's costumes, etc ust blew me away.





Art from Honey and Clover by Umino Chika. She was definitely a later influence for me, but big nonetheless. Her use of colors is so appealing, and all her lines are sketchy but deliberate.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Self Portrait

Huge forehead is HUUUUUGE! Also, I'm exploring new styles to help me in my animation studies.

Schrek?

I started a production blog for my new DigiCel class, and one of our required entries is to make note of some animations that inspire us. I thought this was an interesting topic since I tend to look for inspiration elsewhere, like movies, music, what I see in real life, etc. I like taking something that isn't animated and turning it into something of my own that is. While I do look at animated films for inspiration, I don't do it as much as I should. I need to work on that.

Having said all that, I went to youtube and looked up some examples of animations that incorporate elements I find important, whether it be storytelling or visual. Here's what I came up with:


I can't talk about animations I look to for inspiration without mentioning anime. I grew up with it, and it's influenced me more than I can say. Anime can be limited in animation, but it focuses on aesthetic and design elements, which I find very important.





Dramatic storytelling isn't something I see often in mainstream American animation. To be marketable, films tend to be family friendly, simple in plot, and humorous. While the film itself wasn't a total success in this area, I still remember the chills I got watching this scene; it was dramatic, dark, mature, and different.



And for artsy film's sake, here is a part of this year's Oscar winner:



Again, this is film has a mature, heartfelt story with a strong visual style. It was successful without necessarily conforming to the Disney formula.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Development

I hoped to have a model sheet ready by today, but there are still a few things about Marie Antoinette's face that I wanted to push/ figure out, so I'm still at the sketching stage. Almost, almost...

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Oh noes!

It's Saturday, which means I only have one more day of sweet, sweet, Spring Break left. I had so much I wanted to accomplish this week, and I didn't even get half of it done >A<;;; Although I did come up with ideas for my senior film and my flash short, so I guess I can't complain. Hopefully I'll have some new model sheets to show by the end of tomorrow, but until then I'm going to put up another WIP:



she's the one that goes in the dingy lair I posted yesterday; as you can tell, I have a lot more work to do.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Flap flap flapping (my albatross wings)

I've finally resumed coloring this. It's been a good couple weeks since I really sat down and colored a background, and I feel rusty already. Nonetheless, here is a progress shot:

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Blobbular

I sat in a cafe last night with my boyfriend, sketching out character designs. A big thing I'm working on is stepping away from my manga comfort zone, and coming up with characters that are unique and identifiable, not just "pretty". I want characters that are "appealing", but not just "cute". My only problem is, after years of drawing this:



it's really hard to vary up jawlines, noses, etc without losing sight of whether what you're drawing is "unique" and "appealing" or just plain ugly. I'm also finding it hard breaking free of old habits: I find myself still playing relatively safe, not really deviating from the usual. So my boyfriend gave me an exercise to help me out: drawing amorphous blobs and placing faces on them as if they were 3D. I'm still having a hard time making my faces less flat, but the result was exciting:



There's something so liberating about just experimenting on paper. It's refreshing to be able to draw just to see how crazy you can get instead of caring about impressing anyone else. I'm rediscovering drawing, and it feels great.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Ho hum

Nothing impressive, just a set of quick color studies for Marie Antoinette's dresses. Ho hummmm.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Rococo

Inspiration dump, Marie Antoinette/ Rococo France edition!






Fragonard <3



This shot is the essence of what I try to capture in my girly drawings: sexy, cute, and very classy.



Adorable 18th century French fashion: cute, feminine, but meant to seduce.



Glamorous princess fashion, Versailles luxury, and CAKES!! <3 <3 <3

Monday, March 16, 2009

Marie Antoinette!

I just watched the Coppola movie last night, and I don't care what anyone says; I still love the heck out of it <3 Sure, the storytelling might be a bit weak, but OHGODLOOKATTHEPRETTYTHINGS!!! I wish I could've been born a princess at Versailles... Before the revolution, that is. The movie also confirmed that I will take the Baroque and Rococo Art class as my last art history elective. God I love this stuff.

So anyways, here are some really quick doodles I did while watching the movie and brainstorming some short film ideas.





I need to go to a bookstore and buy a Rococo artbook NOW. O_O

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Lazy Day

Apparently the weather hates us and plans on staying cloudy and gross for most of the break. Noooo! Whatever will happen to my beach and park plans??

Here's a sketch I did a few weeks ago; there's enough wrong with it, but there's also enough I like about it to post it, so here you go (>w0)b

Friday, March 13, 2009

Hip hip

The grades are starting to trickle in for the final assignments for our respective classes, and I always get really nervous because once you get your final you pretty much know your grade for the quarter. It's make or break, baby. Having said that, I just got my grade back for my 3D Character Animation II final, and I'm ecstatic. I started out with a really "meh" grade for my first assignment, so I'm glad I was able to turn things around. You know, a bit.



The characters I used are terrible for expressions, and the staging is less than stellar. But who cares, I'M DONE.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Mysterious underground

Weather wasn't as gloriously spring-like as yesterday, but I still managed to have ice-cream in a cute retro parlor with one of my favorite professors and friends, so all is well. There was also some Smash Brother-ing and pizza eating to celebrate the official end of the quarter, so all in all I am satisfied. Tomorrow's supposed to rain though, so I guess I'll be getting some quality coloring time in.

This is a big piece I've been putting a lot of time into:



I got a fair way into coloring this, but while I was moving this file around on my computer I managed to delete it, bringing me back beautifully to square one. I haven't touched it since. ;_; I think I'll start again tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Nia finished

I'm sitting in a cafe drinking taro bubble tea, eating peanut butter vegan pie, and coloring pictures. No homework, no assignments, no class. BLISS.




This is that Nia picture I uploaded earlier in complete form. The background is lame, but I feel like pumping out a few quick colors. Hopefully it looks like it goes with the Yoko drawing.

Spring Time

Not only was today the last day of the quarter, but the weather was super nice. It actually feels like spring, which I appreciate since the winter was especially cold this year. I feel like doing some spring-ish pictures now. In the meantime, have some Honey and Clover fanart.




I can't wait to hang out in the park all break. It will be LUXURIOUS.

Winter Quarter...

... has officially ended. Hurray! \(^0^)/ This was a long and hard quarter for some reason, but now it's done. To celebrate, here's my 2d Character Animation final. Hurray!



It's nothing spectacular and it could use a few fixes, but at this point I'm pretty satisfied with it. Go me! \(^0^)/

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Mari

Here's a sketch of my doomed (to go nowhere) character Mari:



Old sketch is old (over a year, I think...), but I never really had a place to show this one off, which is sad since I still really like it. And any drawing of mine that I enjoy a month later is a success.

She's made a long journey from this:



to this:



(These drawings are huge. Click at own risk)

Get the ball rolling...

Here are a couple of Gurren Lagann sketches just to get this thing going:


This here be Yoko. I luff ma sexy ladies. <3




Aaaand Nia. Obviously she's not done yet. Once finals are over, I'm gonna fix her up with a fancy (quick) background :3

Deliciously first post

It took me long enough, but I think I finally have a blog that I can use to dump my sketches every now and then and keep a record of my important (or not-so) musings. Mainly the sketches, though, because musings can seem dated after a short while. So yes, sketches 'n' stuff. Keep an eye out, this could get awesome.