Ten Hours At Cartoon College

Well I'm back from CalArts, and my head is still spinning. What an experience. Phone the school as much as you want, and read all the blogs in the world. It doesn't even give you the tip of the iceberg. You have to GO THERE.

I spent so much time planning it all out to a "T", but there was only so much I could plan, and only so many appointments I could make, which was frustrating. It seemed like a sort of unwillingness from the school to let me get the most of my one day there. But I realized after the first ten minutes on campus just how lax everything is. Just how layed back and, "meh", life is there. I'd imagine the faculty allows such freedom to the students so they can unwind from the pressures of their films and how hard they push themselves with their actual work. Either way, it broke the ice for me right away, as I was a little nervous of what to expect when I first got there.

I was nervous because I was told to just walk around and ask people for feedback, which seemed kind of random and intrusive to a shy nerd from the great white north such as myself. To the contrary, EVERYONE said yes. EVERYONE was cool. I got so much feedback that I have no doubt in my mind what I have to do now. It's just a matter of doing it well enough to get accepted.

The only bummer was that I forgot two of the caricatures that my friends John, and Sean drew of me (hilarious), and I had to leave early the beat rush hour and catch my flight. So I missed the guest speaker, which was my hero, Ben Ballistreri, of newfound, "Seaweed" fame. Oh well, if I get accepted, I'm sure I'll see him again sometime.

I could go on forever about it, but I'm still digesting the whole experience. I don't know what's to come for me, but I know that my day at CalArts will play a big part in it. It has nothing to do with the school itself. It's all about the people in it.

More Color, Caine

For the last five months I've been labouring intensely over a portfolio I'm preparing for an application to Cal Arts. Well tonight I'm heading down there to check out the school for myself. After all this work, I still don't have a solid idea of what they are looking for, and the direction I should head in with my portfolio as the deadline approaches. So my goal is to come back with a new direction, and I should have ample time (I plan on sending off my portfolio halfway through December) to crank out some new work in the next two months. This application is the primary reason behind my recent experimentation with color. Here's some recent color work; the majority of this is from last night's gesture class.










And I haven't forgotten about the Acting In Film series. Click here for part three of the high quality downloads. I've also added a gadget on the side bar with quick links to these downloads. I realize a lot of people come here purely for these downloads, so I wouldn't want you to have to scroll through old posts.

Color and Experimentation

Part of working day and night on a portfolio involves pushing yourself into uncharted territory. This allows you to become a better and more well rounded artist. I'm currently going to life drawing at least five days a week. I scoured the city for all the classes it has to offer (I actually have to make a phone call after this post because I think I tracked down another class). When I first started going to these classes, I was shy and intimidated. I was also blown away by what a few people were producing. But now it doesn't impress me at all. Why? Because it has been about 4 months and they are still drawing the same way with the same paper and mediums. They don't experiment, so of course what they're doing looks good. They've basically mastered it, and have no desire to move on. Who knows how long they were doing the same thing before I showed up.

It's just plain boring to me to stick with the same medium for so long. Those people aren't going to grow as artists until they try new things and really test themselves. They'll just keep plateauing until they eventually think there's nothing left for them, or they don't need to go to life drawing. I use a different medium on a different kind of paper almost everytime I go now, and I'm absolutely loving the crap I'm churning out. Why? Because every once in a while I'll produce something I really like, and I add it to the portfolio. In the end I'll have a highly diverse portfolio (I hope).

Here's a couple drawings from August I did using charcoal and Letraset markers (On sale for $1 each!):




A weird combination, but I liked the result (for the most part). Up until about a month ago, Color was one territory I had yet to explore when it came to life drawing. I dove head first into pastels, conte, chalk, colored pencils, and markers. I'm thinking of trying water color soon.

I'll be dedicating a few of my classes every week exclusively to color, so hopefully over the next few months, I'll be able to come up with something good enough to post. Here's one I did with India Ink and Pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes paper:

Sharpie Gestures

Some gestures from a couple months ago.

Acting in Film 2

Continuing the posting of the Acting in Film series, here is part two in full resolution glory!

Click here to download (approx 100MB)