Influence Map

Doing the rounds on Deviant Art at the moment is the notion of doing an influence map of the artists that inspire you. I recommend doing one, it's good fun and a nice trip down memory lane. Though, I admit looking through all my Disney reference was kind of depressing as my dream was to work for them...and I didn't get there. Write ups are comming, they take a while- keep checking back :)

1. Bruce Timm- Originator of the Warner Brothers Batman Animated style, Bruce Timm is heavilly influence by the work of Jack Kirby but is a true original. The two things I love the most about him are the fluid quality of his inking line and his marker sketches in colour. Do you know how good you have to be to colour in marker? His skills are off the chart. I hate him.

2.Glen Keane-  Is a supervising animator with Walt Disney studios and when I was at college studying animation was pretty much my all time hero. I love the energy in his drawing, a lot of animation drawing can be quite tight and technical but his is the polar opposite. The Art of Disney's Tarzan is above my desk and I still read it all the time...I don't quite know what to say about him except that his talent is sickening. When I was finding animation difficult I'd look at his drawing and it would remind me to persevere. 

3. Star Wars- Being born in 1978 I am a Star Wars baby. I've specifically shown Empire Strikes back as it was my favorite movie and also one of the first movies I saw in the cinema (I remember my Dad having to read the title sequence because I couldn't read). When I was younger I wanted to build space ships for movies like Star Wars when I grew up. It hasn't been bettered, all the design work in the Star Wars originals is stunning and hasn't dated in 30 years. Empire still looks more impressive than most modern sci fi movies, including the terrible prequels.



4. Disney-


5. Darwyn Cooke-

6. John Singer Sargent-


7. Andrea Del Sarto-


8. Aliens-

9. Paul Felix-


10. John Watkiss-

Don't Stand Directly In Front of the Model

A slightly unsuccessful life drawing session this week, though I think mostly due to feeling ill than the usual artistic reasons. I had a problem this week in that everyone turned up early and booked their spot on the quick pose floor- so no quick poses- darn.

I decided to go for a long pose and set up pretty much directly in front of the model. I had an inkling this was a bad idea but it got worse once the model was set up and posed. At home I've been enjoying drawing twisting torsos and dynamic poses but today....completely flat pose and it kicked my butt back to 800 BC. Of course if I had the abiltity I could twist the drawing a bit to make it more interesting but I'm still focused on getting a fairly accurate drawing on the canvas so I'm not there yet. Pelvis and torso where straight as an arrow and at my particular angle quite a few of the landmarks where hidden by cloth. Eventually I will make these up out of my head when I can't see them but at the moment that really threw me.

Oh yes and I got my leg muscles mixed up, I thought I was looking at tensor when I was looking at the Satorius; that's odd I thought, how it doesn't connect to the trocanter...em that would be because it's not remotely the right bloody muscle you dimwit.

The drawing below is from the week before. It's not the best drawing in the world but it does have something that I'm trying to get into my work. In true me style it was done in the last 15 minutes of the 4 hour day after struggling quite a bit. I figured out I wasn't enjoying how pastel handled on my cartridge pad so I switched to newsprint and...there it was. I do seem to get quite badly affected by the materials I use, sometimes it just doesn't feel right and it all goes downhill. My thought process is a lot better now though, I constantly think about what I'm doing, I know what I'm looking for, I don't always get it right but it's in there and it's getting easier gradually. In the beginning I just drew without knowing what I was doing.