Sunday, March 17, 2013

BEST. WEEKEND. EVER!! (To date...)

I've had my mind blown several times over! And I can't type fast enough to write about it! It was Oz Comic Con in Adelaide this weekend. The two draw cards for me were David Yardin and Jon Sommariva, but I met more great artists. I bought signed prints from most of the people I sought advice from, so I'm really happy that I now have a memento, which will hopefully trigger great knowledge and skills when I see them! My favourite part: watching David Yardin sketch. He is my favourite. Day 1 terrific people: David Yardin, Jon Sommariva, JASON PALMER! I'd never heard of Jason Palmer, but his work is gorgeous and he trained under Drew Struzen. He was on a panel with Queensland comic artist Stewart McKenny, and I have to say that it is so refreshing to hear from people who feel that they have busted their butts to get somewhere. He's a really funny guy. I spoke to him after and he recommended some great books, and artist's to look at. He also looked at my sketchbook and told me to keep doing what I was doing and increasing my drawing mileage. So I shall. Day 2 terrific people: David Yardin, Jon Sommariva, Matthew Clark, and Nicola Scott. Matthew Clark was probably the most interesting person to listen to on the weekend for me. I went into his panel with my sketchbook thinking I would be able to sketch and listen at the same time. No chance. I was completely engrossed in what he was talking about. What I took from that was that he is a pretty recent artist in that he has been in the industry for about 15 years (I think he said) so everything that he was talking about is relatively current with how you would go about getting into the industry. Best piece of advice: Set realistic goals - eg by a certain age I will have achieved this. Actually it resonated with me because in his early twenties he was telling people that he was going to be a comic artist, but wasn't doing it, so he set out to be what he said. Similar to me, I've always said that I would be an animator and I'm still not there... Gotta set my realistic goals!!! Plus I just found his story very interesting. He also looked at my sketch book and told me to stay in touch - which is very encouraging when you know that they want you to succeed. That's generally what I got from everybody - they are so encouraging and want you to succeed - like a big push to go live your dreams. Nicola Scott was very intimidating and I was scared to talk to her and I don't know why. It might have been because I didn't really feel that I knew enough, as I haven't followed her work, but today I wished that I had spoken to her sooner because she is lovely. I asked her if she got approached alot by women purely because she was a woman in comics and she was so informative. I can relate to her because she said that in her twenties she was pursuing acting and at about 28 decided to give comics a shot because that's what she'd always wanted to do: draw Super heroes. So with tunnel vision she went after it. She went to the USA, approached the studios, dressed down/set some rules for herself (meaning do not sleep with anyone and be purely professional) and she succeeded. She impressed the importance of deciding exactly what she wanted to do, and set that as her target. She doesn't even really use social media because when she works, SHE WORKS! With everything that I've been told I really want to apply this. These people give great advice, but if you don't do anything with it, you lose credibility with the professionals that took the time to speak to you. I'm not going to waste this. Jon and Matthew told me to set up my Deviant art page so I'm also going to set this up... I post my stuff all the time in the hopes that I will improve and that people will watch me do it - part of why I've set up this blog - I hope I get so good and that this will offer inspiration to others on the same path. Now I have to get to work on making this happen. Bye!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Life drawing Thursday 14th March 2013

It's been a night of experimentation at life drawing tonight.... Glad I got to be time keeper though! Overall I'm pretty happy with tonight's sketches. I keep beating myself up about not drawing enough... and here I am on the internet for over an hour looking at shhhhhiizzzle. I need to get my ass into gear, and I'm going to bed any minute now........

Monday, March 11, 2013

An inspirational weekend...

I've had a really incredible weekend, time has flown, and I'm scared that if I don't write about it I might just forget it. It started Friday night at Makoto Koji's birthday. I really admire her for her animation aspirations, plus she's a great friend. She's one of the only girls I know who is an Animator, so finding a female animator is pretty rare. I got to hear her goals for animation and I always get advice from her anyway. She told me about Annecy International animation festival, which gave me another idea that I would like to go there in the near future. On Saturday, I was very privelaged to be in the first waacking workshop in Adelaide, taught by Lashaun Price. I really don't have the words to spell just how amazing it was. He was the most entertaining teacher and performer I've seen in a while, so I was laughing for much of the class, and he really gave us a detailed class on the basics and foundations of waacking from shoulder exercises and where the power is meant to come from/what back muscles you should be using to prevent injury, using your imagination in posing, hand positions and good form. In the Urban choreography class, for one, it was so much fun and felt great, he's a very talented and creative choreographer, and two, he really pushed everyone to give it everything, endure the scorching heat of the studio to perform it well and get the choreography in our bodies. The part that really resonated with me was when he was talking about levels in the shapes we were making, he said not to 'cheat on your dancing'. The time we have when we dance is sacred, it's a gift from God that not everyone is able to do so we should do the best we can and give it everything we have. Treat it like a marriage - you don't cheat on your partner, you honour and respect it, so in dancing you do everything properly and physically prepare and condition yourself, your body for dancing. Your body is your temple, your tool for expression so you need to look after it too. I felt this really hit the nail on the head because every time I leave a class, I feel liberated, it is a spiritual experience for me in a way, like you're giving yourself to something much bigger then you. When I feel like I've nailed a class, I am on top of the world. It is so rewarding. So I'd really like to think of dancing as a sacred practice for me. I really do love it, I'm very passionate about dancing as much as I am about Animation and Art. It's more than just a hobby. I got great personal feedback from him too. Two weeks ago I did Candice Brown's workshop (she's another LA choreographer), and her feedback was that although she loved my energy, focus and confidence, I needed to work on picking up the smaller details and timing issues, so I approached Lashaun's workshop with this in mind. I had achieved the timing and levels with Lashaun (he said when he gave me corrections I fixed them and worked really hard at getting the choreography and movement) but I needed to make sure I was very precise with the shapes that my arms were making because if I don't I won't be as strong and it can look quite gangly. You should be able to take a picture and get clear shapes on every pose so this is my new goal. At the end we got quite a detailed history of waacking and some other styles of hip hop such as voguing, and as I really didn't know any of it, it was fascinating. Overall it was such a privelege and joy to be a part of the workshop. I definitely want to do Lashaun's class at the end of the year and I've now got some new moves to add in to my freestyling and choreography, which just adds even more value. It's been a wonderful weekend.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Drawings...

Life drawing tonight... I don't know what to say other than it was awesome! I love this model, great muscle tone and poses! (The last one is just sketching though... No reference used)