More Sketches

This blog was originally intended to showcase my digital art and my non digital art was intended to be seen on a different blog. Unfortunately, I've forgotten the name of that blog and I'm not sure if my old sign on name and password will still work for it. Oh well.
Still practicing with the pen brushes. My skill with the pen bushes is not exactly where I want it to be but, it's not where it was a week ago. More sketches coming soon. :)

Animation Visual Library - an archive of reference materials for anatomy, models, and character/creature/costume design

I found this resource via the Flooby Nooby site. (Check my "Sites to See" section of my blog to access Floobynooby.blogspot.com.) Here's a huge collection of tutorials on mostly anything a character animator should need to get started in animation and graphic novels too. Here's the link.
http://www.pinterest.com/characterdesigh/

Now, I have some really great art to study and get inspired by. I'll be busy with some pretty amazing work for the next few weeks. Next year, I should have a personal project underway. It's a graphic novel and, I'm still writing the story. Although, its still in the planning stages it will get done hopefully by Spring. Sorry, I will not post any art from it here until its finnished and ready to post as a Web Comic.

I Have A Dream

This is a very motivational video. I really needed to hear this. When Brad Bird won an Oscar for the animated movie The Incredibles I tearfully said, "Me too. Me Too!" Today is the day I make the change that needs begin with me to create the kind of future I want no, need to see. I've had this dream of being an animation director since early childhood. Now many years later, I've almost forgotten how to get there. So many people are so much more talented than me. There's so much I don't know already but, that's okay. I will do what's necessary to get to where I've got to go. I will imagine myself living my dream each day until that dream is accomplished. Thank you lil sis for rekindling the fire. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-jwWYX7Jlo
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This is something I found in the column to the right of the video above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYKsbld6LII
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This is just for inspiration purposes and gettin' hyped up! Hahaha!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuoBRVrkYqY
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z4Kft47kBM
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Just Some Sketches... Still Playing Around with the Pen Brushes

This was drawn and inked this evening. I've had some time to practice with these pen brushes and they are very nice. Unfortunately, I still need more practice with them before my line work looks anything like what I want it to. If only they had been available when I was a kid.

All artwork in this post is © 2013 Eric R. Watson.

I'm still getting used to inking with these pen brushes from Jetpens.com. The brush pens I use are very similar to the one pictured below. They're great for sketching and inking your artwork. And, they're not very expensive. Only $8.25. Also, I suggest you buy the Pentel Brush Pen Cartridge - Black Ink for $2.50. http://www.jetpens.com/

I'll post more art soon.

A Seemingly Short Excursion to the Grocery Store

A seemingly short excursion to the grocery store turned out to be a day long stay which I wasn't altogether unprepared for. You see, I brought along some things to do in case I couldn't draw people as they shopped. I had my trusty brush pens to draw gestures of people and mecha pencils to draw cartoon facial expressions if too many people figured out what I was doing. No, they don't transform. They're the mechanical variety instead of the mere old school wooden ones. I need to get back into using the wooden pencils when I want a more rendered look in my art. Unfortunately, I didn't draw any gestures with the pen brushes. The sketch pad I used for this foray into sketching on the fly is not ideal for this kind of thing. The ink doesn't dry as fast as I would like so, I spent a lot of time out and about today. Here's a drawing I did.

And, here's some cartooning I drew as I waited for the ink to dry. Some of the grocery store's staff complimented me on my art. Which I am thankful for but, I've got to get my skills up to where they should be now. My art has been on hiatus for way too many years and I should be much better and faster than I am now. Practice makes perfect. So, I'll eventually get to the level of draftsmanship I want to achieve.

More to come soon. I've been thinking about drawing revamped versions of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Urusei Yatsura - 'Lum, Those Obnoxious Aliens' for those of you who are not in the know. I also want to draw some art of some of my favorite 80s and 90s cartoons.

Also, here's a hairstyle I drew for "she who will remain nameless on this blog" from a horror movie I rented a while ago and she refuses to wear it. The haircut in the movie looks cooler than cool but, I didn't do it justice in these drawings. For some reason, I can't remember the title of the movie. Oh well. Enjoy the artwork. It's all freehand done with Adobe Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. This latter part of the post was drawn several months ago.

(All artwork in this post is Copyright 2013 Eric R. Watson.)

Some Sketches From 11-12-13.

Here's a sketch I did after work yesterday on receipt paper. I hope you like it. More to come soon. :)

A Few of the 30 Day Challenge Paintings.

 It was hard to sit still to paint this one as I've not painted anything in a long time.

 I've been drawing a lot of cartoon facial expressions so, this one was a joy to paint.

 As you can see I was just having fun with this one.

 This bears no likeness at all to the actress I painted this from. I'll rework it. If not, I'll do it over again.

 I like this color combination. :-)

 A fish hiding behind a rock.

This last one is about an anime character and a mech shrouded in shadow. The second one and last two are my personal favorites.

These are a few of my favorite paintings I'm working on for my 30 Day Challenge. Maybe, I'll post more in about a week or so. I'm using Colors DS in a Nintendo DS Lite. All artwork is copyrighted by me,  Eric R. Watson.

A Long Awaited Post.

Lately, I've been drawing a lot of cartoon facial expressions. The first one I drew on receipt paper at a restaurant. The other three are from my second cartoon expressions sketchbook. Jack Hamm's book on 'Cartooning the Head and Figure' is what I used to draw them. All artwork in this post is copyrighted by me, Eric R. Watson.

There's more cartooning and Colors DS paintings to come. :-)

30 Day Challenge: Well, Sort Of

Recently, a close friend of mine called me out on some things that she feels needs to change about my character. And, as a result of seeing a TED video about a computer programmer who decided to take a 30 Day Challenge to change something about his life in 30 days has inspired me to do the same.  I found it on Pixelovely.com while looking for photo reference to draw from. I will only talk about the artistic portion of this challenge not the more personal things she and I spoke about. I’ve had an issue with not being all that good at painting so this is a challenge for me to create three paintings a day for the next 30+ days starting today. I’ll post my work here. For about a week and half, I slacked off because of my work schedule and lack of real discipline. As a result of this, I’ll paint 143 paintings on my Nintendo DS using Colors DS over the course of 41 days. This is starting from about two weeks ago when I first announced the challenge to my friend and, not from today. Technically, I know close to nothing about how to effectively use color. I can paint but, to make a painting sing like some of the great artwork I’ve seen online is a different story altogether. I need to study and practice. That’s where this challenge comes into play. I finished my first painting this morning and plan to do more as the day goes on.

http://artists.pixelovely.com/30-day-challenge/

Also, I saw a video by Steven Silver that has inspired me to do great things not only with my art but, with life in general. He says, “What I am worrying about? What can I do about it? Here is what I’m going to do. When I am going to start doing it? What is the problem? What caused the problem? And, how do I find a solution to the problem?” The advice Stephen gives in the podcast is valuable not only for artists but, for anyone.

There is more. Watch the video. J

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOIp6Gckvgo