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!

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.



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. 

Scene 28 Roughs & The Importance of Practice Drawings

Curious why I haven't posted in awhile?

It's because this scene is KICKING MY ASS!

Argh!

I've tried about 5 different approaches to Honey's performance in this scene. Either they didn't fit with the action or I couldn't draw it well. I'll spare you all of the rejected drawings. :-)

At one point, I thought I had it figured out!

Then I looked at it again and wasn't liking it. My rule for this film is that I have to be comfortable with each scene's progress before continuing. If I have any reservations, I address them.

My biggest struggle was turning the head. What I discovered is that my construction of Honey's head was flawed from the beginning (yup, I'll be designing my next characters A LOT better!) Trying to animate a flawed design is a struggle.

Then I happened upon some animation instruction online from CartoonSmart. My exact problem of head turns was the exact same topic of one of their tutorials! I bought a collection of tutorials (at a great!) and used this new knowledge to re-think the scene.

Eventually, I settled on the action below. This is about half of the scene and it doesn't yet have the inbetweens for the latter part when she's digging in her shower cap:


This scene shows why I do the drawing practice every day instead of spending all of my limited time on animating. Although I use a mirror, I still would not have been able to draw the arm movement as quickly and as well as I did ("well" being relative, of course. It's well for my skill level.) if not for the practicing and studying (as I discussed in the previous post.)

It's not Glen Keane-quality but it's the best I can do at this time. I'll add a few inbetweens to smooth out some of the action and then proceed to the heart of the visual gag, her hand digging under the shower cap then pulling out a cell phone!

Back to Basics REVISION

I posted earlier about my need to return to drawing basics. After studying a lot of books and learning rudimentary anatomy, I see and feel the need to review some areas.

Initially, I intended to review the Andrew Loomis books, Burne Hogarth books and the Famous Artists courses. I started with Loomis's "Fun With a Pencil" but still felt that I wasn't getting what I needed.

Then I remembered John K's Animation School. Five years ago I rushed through his lessons and I doubt I got the full benefit. I'm returning to his lessons because I'm convinced that they're the one thing I need at this time to improve my cartooning and animation. Also, I completely agree with John K.'s position that Golden Age animation and cartooning was extremely superior to today's.

I grew up in the 1970's and fell in love with animation that looked like this:


I didn't know at the time why it appealed so much to me—emphasis on the word APPEAL, a topic John K. covers on his blog—but I knew that I believed that Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry were REAL.

It turns out that the reason I believed they were real is because of their CONSTRUCTION. All of those characters from the 40's and 50's were drawn round and solid.

How are cartoons from the 1960's to today made? Flat and angular. For example:


I acknowledge that my skills are not even close to the person/people who drew the above or anyone else working in the animation industry today. I'm simply pointing out an aesthetic difference between the cartoons that made me fall madly in love with animation and the cartoons today which I find unpleasant and find impossible to watch (i.e., Family Guy). And I think John K. would agree with me that the characters above are missing some animation fundamentals that were often present in Golden Age animation. In the characters above from the series The Awesomes, I don't see dynamic lines of action; solid, 3-dimensional drawing to give weight; large eyes to allow for expressiveness; and overall appeal. 

I did some quick research and discovered that almost ALL American tv animation looks like this, flat and angular. Completely absent are roundness and solidity. 

And that's exactly why I'm going to work hard to draw the "old-fashioned" way. Not only do I think it looks infinitely better, but it will be a way to distinguish my work from all the others.

If you want to improve your cartooning and animation skills, I HIGHLY recommend that you click the link above for John K.'s Animation School. I'm convinced that if you follow his lessons carefully, your work will reach the next level in a short period.


Back to Basics

Back to basics is what I've done in the last week.

It was clear that despite my improvement, I still don't possess the skills to realize my animation vision without a lot of mental breakdowns, cursing, throwing of personal items and punching of hard objects.

After nearly breaking my drawing hand as the result of one of these breakdowns, I decided that the better approach was to return to some of the books I'd already studied.

And this time, study them slower and more carefully.

This means I'll be reviewing all of the Loomis books I have (Fun With a Pencil, Figure Drawing for All It's Worth, Creative Illustration, Successful Drawing and Drawing the Head and Hands. I don't have his last, The Eye of the Painter probably because it's selling on Amazon for $365…used. I already spent $100 on Creative Illustration and I heard his books will finally be reprinted so I'll wait until then.)

After Loomis, I'll return to the Hogarth books (Dynamic Anatomy, Drawing the Human Head, Drawing Dynamic Hands and Dynamic Figure Drawing. I didn't like his approach in Dynamic Light and Shadow and Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery. Maybe it was too dynamic for me.) then the Famous Artist Course, Famous Artist Cartoon Course and Hale's Drawing Lessons from the Masters.

I've limited my list of studies to these because they were the most helpful the first time around. Vilppu's, Bridgman's and Eisner's books didn't speak to me as much as the others.

And after a brief departure from gesture drawing, I decided to return to that, too. Every figure drawing class I've heard of starts with gesture so I think it's something with which I should continue.

Some back-to-basics drawings:

Drawing from Loomis' Fun With a Pencil book.

Gesture drawings from photos.