More character?

Character Design for myself is really a love hate relationship. It takes me a long time to get something I enjoy and even then I never feel like I have pegged a character. It usually end up with me giving up and accepting the point I have come to with the drawing I have done. I am still looking for a character here, and I think this is better then my previous attempts. Animating the run Below was fun, but I don't feel like the character is there yet, so I continue drawing until I find something that works for me.

Sticky note drawings galore I will keep trying to post . I need to start fooling around with color.

/ Wrists

Sometimes when I dont feel like drawing cartoons, I try to do some figure drawing using the anatomy I have in my memory. I know some referance would sure come in handy but when im drawing on sticky notes at my desk while Harmony is in the middle of one of its freeze ups, I am not aloud that luxury.

Derek Hess is a big inspiration to me. His sketchs are so alive, and the lines he uses in them are very bold and confident. I do not yet have grasp of what it takes to put lines like that down on paper, so I find myself over drawing a lot of the time. Its still fun and I love drawing in regular bic pen since it forces you to work light and delicate and really build up a drawing like your scuplting in a 2D world. It also means no going back, I cant tell you how many sticky ntoes a day I throw away. Anyway here are some Emo drawings I have done in the last little bit.

Ahhh Classical animation. This is culmination of Sat, I did this on my animation disc without back lighting, and only shot it once in the wee hours of the morning. I get so lost in the details and structure I miss out on the big picture sometimes, the over all action of things and of course the timing. I was going to do this on my computer roughing it out in flash, which of course is much easier seeing as hour you get to scrub through your work as soon as your draw it. However, the 200 dollars I spent on a "Tooya pro" brand tablet has been ill spent. The pen has a insane amount of lag when I am using it, so much so it makes drawing a decent line near impossible. I have tried all diffirent types of solutions from changing the bettery in the pen, to deleting and reinstalling drivers and programs I even hooke up my friends Wacom tablet, and that works like a dream. So I think i'm going to send the tablet back saying its defective and if I get another one that is the same way then I will have wasted 200 bucks on nothing. But untill then I reserve my judgments for the products of Tooya. But so far not so good. This all brings me back to the reason why I ended up animating a run cycle classically today. I think Tomorrow I may attempt a Take or something with the same character. The run needs timing changes all over the palce im not so sure I want to make all those changes. Anyway my rant is over All in all I am happy with the way it turned out considering the circumstances.

-DAN-

Some large looms on the horizon

Well I have been through a lot in the last couple of months, but I think I finally have my head on straight again. I am feeling the need to create, and this time its not for any other reason then the process itself. These are some quick sketchs for a character thats in progress. This little guy has evolved a far way from the first couple I did (wich arn't posted). Still trying to find more pleasing shapes as im not the best character designer it takes me longer then some to get something down I enjoy. The idea is that this little guy will be leading to something bigger, soon maybe a couple pencil tests and then later a film. The goal is to have it submitted to the Ottawa Film Fest of 09 but we will see. I remain cautious as I have a bad track record for finishing things. but I do feel this time will be different. I'm about to sit down and start a pencil test, I will post that later, but since it has been so long since I posted on a regular basis, I would assume my blog has lost all traffic. Which is ok, creation for its own sake is what makes it worth wild. Untill next post.

PS. if there anyone that is reading this that can give me some advice on how to spiffy up my blog page I would really appreciate that. Email me. or add my contact on MSN