No Country For Old Men

Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is probably one of the most convincingly insane characters I've ever seen. I shudder to think that his voice wasn't enhanced somehow to make it more creepy.

I love original movies, anything different will at least get my attention and respect, if not my praise. I was a little unsure about the ending, but I really enjoyed this film.

If you're looking for something good and different to see this winter, check out No Country For Old Men.

Composing Pictures - Part Deux

I've been extremely busy lately, but I managed to put aside some time to scan in the second chapter from Composing Pictures. This chapter is not as dry as the first, so if you found the first one kind of boring, Graham kind of gets the ball rolling here. You can tell by reading this chapter that the following chapters will be even better. Enjoy.














P.S - This is a big book, so some of the scans reflect the difficulty I had scanning them. This is a lot of work when you're busy, so I hope you can all be patient for the next chapters. :)

Gouache

Color and Design is a fun class, and even though I'm very new to painting, I can't complain about spending hours mixing for the right hues, and values for an assignment. It really trains the eye. This has been my perspective for the majority of this semester, and I'm loving it.

Stare

Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare. Pry. Listen. Eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.
-Walker Evans

Kind of makes sense doesn't it? And yet we were all taught NOT to do this as a child. Think of what we missed.

American Gangster

What an incredible film. I saw this last night, and I urge you to see it. It's so full of drama and suspense. It's one of those edge of your seat pictures. I wasn't distracted by the glossy reflection of the movie in the bald guy's head in front of me this time, I couldn't be, I was fixed on the screen. (By the way that happened during Bee Movie).

I also had no idea that Cuba Gooding Jr was in this film either. I think he played an excellent role as Nicky Barnes, another notorious drug lord of the time. I only became aware of Nicky Barnes recently as there is another movie, a documentary type film about him, entitled, "Mr Untouchable" that is coming out soon.

I think I'll be checking out that film shortly as well. Am I the only one that is fascinated by the sheer amount of corruption there is in the world? I don't want to come across naive, I was aware of these facts before watching movies like American Gangster, and I was always raised to be careful who I trust, but movies that reveal details about another world so well just captivate me. Perhaps that's the essence of film making, bringing the audience into that world, and engaging them. Well, American Gangster achieved that for me. :)

The Art of the Jungle Book

I haven't had time to look through all the extra features from the new Jungle Book DVD, so I don't know if these are or are not included on it, but here's a few model sheet from the production I had in a folder on my computer. I specifically like the Shere Khan ones myself.

The Art of Mulan

Signed, limited edition, Art of Mulan book. I bid, I lost. It ended up going for over $300, too rich for a lowly animation student. Maybe when I'm pulling industry dollaz.

More Sargent

Simply incredible.

Pinocchio Goodies

Pinocchio is one of the few Disney DVDs I still don't have. I know, I know, I'm on it. Here's some great storyboard art of the film. I must study this film more. Especially after reading Seward St opinion that it's the greatest animated film of all time. Something tells me I'll be doing a Pinocchio study sesh soon. I've also been trying to track down this book forever. If you know of any copies anywhere, please message me!

First Seven Pages

So I couldn't wait to post these. I read the first few sections last night and scanned them. I suppose my enthusiasm for scanning this bulky book will diminish, and these posts will not be frequent, but I will get it all up here eventually.

The first parts are very basic, most of it feels like common sense, but so do a lot of the principles of animation. And we all know how hard it is to incorporate them successfully into our work. Time and time again I've been told to revisit the basics, the fundamentals often, because they're the hardest to master. So here's the first seven pages from Don Graham's, "Composing Pictures".

If time permits I will post the next section sometime in the next week. Enjoy!

Composing Pictures

It's finally arrived. I've been trying to get a hold of this book for what seems like forever. I've been the second highest bidder in many an auction. I simply can't wait to dig in, and I won't.

Since this book is so rare, and so recommended among animators, I always said that if I got my hands on it, I would share the knowledge. I don't know why nobody has, but as this book is out of print, I don't think it's fair to hold out on people. So as I read I'll scan and post pages from this magnificent book. Unless I receive a request from someone not to.

For now here's a Brave Little Toaster model sheet. :)

Spring 07 Figure Drawing

This post is waaaay over due, seeing as I'm halfway into my new semester. Last semester I took my first full figure drawing class here at AAU (For those interested this was FND-112). Here's the progress from my second ever drawing class.

The first module focussed on quick gestures, as did the next few, though the progression was such that we focussed on breaking the figure down into simple shapes, using measurements, mid-lines, and more techniques to define the drawings. Here's some of my work from the first modules.

After we had covered the basics, we moved onto form and exaggeration. I've always had problems with proportion and balance, which is evident here. I did, however, improve on these weaknesses by the end of the course, as you'll see. :)

By Module 6 we had moved onto longer poses with more complex gestures. These gestures gave me a real learning curve for gesture and foreshortening. I learned a lot here.

In Modules 7 and 8 we studied the classics and imitated them. We also studied the male torso, leg and arm anatomies, and completed a still life of a Bernini sculpture.

In module 9 we focussed on the specific components of the head. One by one we studied the ear, eye, mouth, and nose, and their proportions on the face. We then completed a still life of someone we knew. Mine was not completed because I was freaking out! I did hand this in and get a B though ;)

In module 10 and 11 we studied hands and feet. I had a really hard time with these, especially feet, and I look forward to my next crack at them!

Yes these are my feet, and they are this attractive in real person too!

In module 12 we revisited the quick gesture, using what we had learned so far to have another crack at them.

Finally, modules 14 and 15 focused on the long still life study. These were my first long studies of over 30 minutes ever. When I look at these I'm happy because I made a lot of improvements over the course of fifteen weeks, especially in proportion and sensitivity of application, but there's still so much room for improvement, and I look forward to intermediate figure drawing later in my studies, and my first anatomy and animation classes next semester!