Pursuing my productivity #1

On the hunt for improved productivity and creativity, I did some self-studies for a few hours. I got my medium sized mirror and started drawing my feet and arms. For some reason I never thought of doing this before! I have been waiting for an oppertunity to learn anatomy and do gesture/observational drawings of humans and I forgot that I am a human being myself. 

An hour or two probbaly flew away doing these while watching The Animators Survival Kit DvD's in the background...while also listening to music. 

Later on I started listening to Mists of Pandaria soundtracks on youtube which filled me in this chinese Kung Fu Panda art mood again. Then this came out as a result and now my entire body is aching and I have a burn wound on my finger from the tablet screen...

Ready to study!

These finally came in the mail. Accidentaly bought two of the R.W one....no harm done except to my wallet! I have been longing for some animation studying for some time, but I just can't study everything at the moment. Where do I even begin, and which book first? Sometimes I buy books I'm never going to read right away. I need to change that.

One thing I did mange to do, was to get up and out to the light rail. And draw people. I figured I needed to stop being laxy and try to pursue my thoughts and ideas more. I guess the 3 hours at the aquarium started it all. I might also get my own art class in 2015 or early 2016, and I don't feel good enough to teach even though the standards in my town is pretty low when it comes to teaching art.... 

I wore some dark Ozzy Osbourne glasses so people wouldn't see me staring at them while drawing. I managed to do a few pages during the short hour on the ligh rail. It was amazing to see how my style changed drastically from capturing a face for a few seconds. Everyone had a personality, everyone had their own features...everyone was different. It was fun to see how individual each detail was. Everything from eyelids to the nose ridge.

I'm definately going to do way more life studies when the weather gets better. 

Improving a image from the day before

Sometimes when I finish something, it looks incredibly off the day after. So last week I drew this Kung Fu Panda inspired cat/tiger girl with promarkers. I noticed the day after that absolutely everything was off. It had no sense of anatomy, movement or perspective. It was very lopsided, and I felt even embarassed to have put it out everywhere on my websites.

So I decided to redo the whole thing digitally. 

The image I did with promarkers...I'm just cringing by now. 

I did some heavy fix-ups with the new version. Included some actual perspective so nothing would float awkwardly. I proceeded to add flat color and shades untill I decided to try draw it linelessly, which is basicly my weak spot. I have a hard time with light and colors, so working these two together to shape something is difficult, so this was a simplistic image.

So this is the final image just 2 hours later. It really pays off looking at something twice. 

You are your own worst critic!

Animal study at the aquarium of Bergen. I have been forcing myself to actually get out from ym apartment and study something for weeks, and this sunday I finally did it. I walked up to the aquarium, sat down by a green iguana, and started drawing. I had never been outside much, drawing things in the streets because of my anxiety. But there was a zen-moment between me and the pencil as I sketched down the animals in front of me. I somehow managed to shut out the screaming kids and sizzling water from the tanks, and 3 hours went as I just kepr on moving trough the tanks drawing all the species I could.

My hand started to hurt alot 2 hours in... I kept going however, cause I was short on time. The aquarium closed at 16. I was never a fan of drawing fish, cause I found them boring. And I knew I was wrong, cause once I got one fish down, another one shortly came after and each of them cacked me up. There were so many shapes, species, faces, expressions on each one of them, it was hard to keep a straight face while drawing. The one that really made me smile was the Pacu. They had this chubby smile on their face with wide set eyes. And then there were the angry looking piranha, and a giant one who had a scar on his/her (??) face. I named her Olgara or something. She seemed old...

I didn't get to draw every specie I wanted cause the aquarium was officially closed when Imade it to the biggest tanks. So I had to rush a few species and run out. The most magical moment of this study was how connected I felt to the animals. The seals, iguana, crocodiles, fish... some of them swam up to my moving hand and stood still in the tank so I could draw them. I was listening to the soundtrack from Finding Nemo and I swear it almost made me cry. 

I'm totally going to do more studies like these again, it taught me alot!