Finally found my long lost inspiration

A few days ago, I had a talk with Stephen Silver over skype, which was pretty life changing. 

For many years I have struggled with drawing humans, maybe because we all know what a human is supposed to look like. And if we can't recreate that from memory, we get discouraged. I always drew animals cause I enjoyed the shape and form, and I sort of connected with them easier than people. 

Stephen told me that I easily could do the same with humans. What suprised me the most was when he said he didn't really know anatomy. I said "what?" really confused. I thought you HAD to know all the muscles and bones in order to be a successful character designer. But that wasn't the case. Only the shape and form would do, as long as you at least knew the basics of the human body.

 I got so relieved hearing that.

Then a thought stuck me; I don't know animal anatomy either! I don't know the names of the muscles or bones or what even drives the animals. I only observed their shape and had some fun with them. Then Stephen gave me the difficult task of drawing humans only, for 2 weeks. And I took that very seriously. 

So that's exactly what I am going to do!

Portefolio 2014

This week we are going to create a portefolio as our assignment at school, and upload it online. 

This features some of the recent work I have done at Noroff.

The player on here is very small...just click the youtube button to watch it directly on YT for bigger size.

Multiple goal syndrome...?

I noticed that I have issues with overcoming too many ideas. I want to do everything, and I feel a constant pressure about knowing everything because of my age. For some reason I get nervous about people going further than me at a younger age. When I see someone who's younger than me doing way better in drawing I usually curl up and whimper about it. Some days I want to become the master of light and colors , other days it's about pespective or semi-realism. I have to learn everything otherwise I won't be happy with myself.

That's what I think at least, but I notice that I am way better off with making characters on a white background than a semi realistic looking scenery with loads of details. I see artists like Nico Marlet and wondering if he did very detailed work like the ones I ahve in mind before he started making characters. 

His work have been inspiring me alot lately and I want to focus more on characters than everything else. 

But as a freelance illustrator I have to know more than how to draw characters, I need backgrounds for the pictures I'm drawing. I am not creative enough to find my own method, because I don't like experimenting unless I know it's taking me somewhere.

I don't know whether it's because of my state of health (some ADD issues that stops me from having a workflow) and other things. I am going to take online courses during 2015-2016 after school is finished, hoping I can evolve my knowledge of art, light, color and perspective so I'll feel more satisfied and confident with my own art.

I'm going to "fight" these thoughts untill then, just doodling and studying various things from real life and taking inspiration from my surroundings hoping it will broaden my mind a little. I am very unpatient without guidance so still life painting is quite difficult for me. I guess it's back to drawing animals and pokemon again to keep myself going!

A nodlecart from Pandaria! Time to draw something new...

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.