DiY Studio 4°C Template

I found a storyboard from Tekkonkenkreet last night and really wanted to have one of these babies for myself. I doubt if the any Japanese anime studios give or sell any of their storyboard templates so, this is probably the closest most of us will get to having actual sheets of Japanese storyboard templates. (I've been thinking about getting a Flashkit.com account to upload these .fla files so you can use them instead of only printing the templates. There are a few drawbacks to using Flash as a storyboarding software. And, I may explain in a later post about those issues.)

 

The two boxes above the actual template are place holders for the Title, Date and, Studio. Here's the original image I copied to create this document.

Before I leave for Christmas I may post some storyboards here using this template. Also, it may have to be tweaked a bit since I didn't print it out to see if it will be a workable document. After I finish this post I've gotta get back on the grind.

An Old Storyboard Sequence

This is an old storyboard sequence I played around with after creating this template. Unfortunately, I didn't have a story to tell. Just wanted to sketch something and see what this would look like. Later, I'll post some polished boards. I gotta get back on the grind. I gotta stay in the cave. Ttyl! : )

Farewell Saturday Morning Cartoons

A week ago I didn't make time to write this post. Now I have. When I was growing up cartoons had a very special place in my heart and still do. During the 80s Saturday morning cartoons were a great source of inspiration for me. Without them and the cartoons I watched every weekday after school I wouldn't have imagined becoming an artist or an animator. I remember getting up early on Saturday mornings to watch Kids Are People Too which is a live action show that a host would interview famous celebrities. One celebrity was one of the girls who starred on The Facts of Life; Lisa Whelchel. The Shirt Tales was a favorite of mine. Mighty Orbots is still a great animated series even though it only had 13 episodes aired. Around the time that cartoon was on the air Galaxy High and Kidd Video were airing other NBC and ABC. Back then we only had three major stations and VCRs had just recently hit the market. So reruns were a luxury not taken lightly. Also, during this time one of my favorite cartoons aired on NBC 11:30 am but, was unfortunately preempted for sports much of the time. Jem and the Holograms helped me through a really dark part of my life back in the day. Being a young teenage boy it was not a cartoon I could tell my friends about but, I did watch it when I could. Unfortunately, I never bought the dolls or the music but, I did enjoy the cartoon. (To this day, I still can't get my best friend of over thirty years to watch Jem and the Holograms. lol!) More recently in the 90s Cyber 6 was aired on Fox Kids. This is the cartoon I got my sign on name from. Do some research for it and you'll know why it's such a great show. To understand why Cyber 6 masquerades as a guy by day you'll have to read the comics. For a while now, I've been wanting to give a more detailed explanation of my sign on name choice. That might happen around this time next week. I may do some kind of tribute to these incredible cartoons and a few others. It depends. I've got to start my professional career soon. My personal time is split between learning more about my craft and researching more stuff.


I wrote this post as a result of reading LeSean Thomas's post about this subject. 
http://leseanthomas.tumblr.com/day/2014/10/05/

Kidd Video
http://www.youtube.com/user/toolbot
The first episode of Kidd Video.
http://youtu.be/M79wBnPPzPM?list=PL664CC39E5FCD416C

I apologize for any bad language before you listen to the interviews.

Jem and the Holograms 
Interviews - Christy Marx Truly Outrageous Edition
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU1ZFyoDA8Q

Jem: The Movie = Disaster in the making?!
http://youtu.be/yySmwH4WrRY
I've just heard the entire audio of this vlog post by Ruby Danger and visited the IMDB page and official site of Jem and the Holograms movie which is set for a 2016 release date. Christy Marx didn't write the script or was a consultant for the movie. So, in m opinion this movie will suck. Here's the link for the movie. http://jemthemovie.com/ If you'd like to see the Jem and the Holograms series you can buy it on Amazon. My sister bought this for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. Watching the entire series brought back a lot of good and not so good memories but, I'm glad I've got this box set. http://www.amazon.com/Jem-Holograms-Truly-Outrageous-Complete/dp/B005BUA1CG/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1413272076&sr=1-1&keywords=jem+and+the+holograms

Here's the IMDB dot Com page for the Jem and the Holograms movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3614530/?ref_=nv_sr_1

And here's the official site for Jem and the Holograms movie.
http://jemthemovie.com/

Cyber Six
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersix
 

An Update of Sorts

I've been drawing more than usual recently. The life drawing sessions I attend are going great. Unfortunately, I can't be there tomorrow but, I plan to attend next week. The pregnant model will be posing for us. She's a great model so I look forward to drawing from her then. I would like to introduce some dramatic lighting during the session if I may. I read something about using hard back lighting and soft fill light to light the set of Bladerunner. It would be nice if Ron Doucet would post something about the compositions, lighting, and visual tempo of the movie Amelie but, with much more detail. It's another favorite film of mine.

Here are two really great and inspiring articles on Bladerunner. It's a very influential film.
http://floobynooby.blogspot.com/search/label/Bladerunner

 Today, I've begun making a list of directors I would like to create paintings or vector graphics of their likenesses to be finished sometime early next year. This idea has been in the back of my mind for a while now. As it is the list is about twenty-two directors long. I'll try to find some photos of Larry and Andy Wachowski before Larry became known as Lana. If possible, I'll post both paintings of Larry and Lana. There's a lot of photo researching I've got to do. The list is nowhere near being finished. There are some well known names and not so well known names in this list. I'll post it later after I've added more names to it.

I gotta go now. Ciao! : )

Jet Grind Radio Logo

Recently, I've been using Adobe Illustrator to create some vector art. And, I've been a very big fan of Jet Grind Radio and Jet Set Radio Future for some years now. In my humble opinion, JGR was the best game created for the Sega Dreamcast. It took me several months to beat the game. Then I met a five year old who told me he beat it over night. I felt kinda embarrassed to say the least. That was when I went to play the JSRF demo. Unfortunately, I've only played a demo of JSRF and not the actual game but, from what I've seen of a walkthrough on YouTube I'm impressed. That's because I don't own an Xbox system. I'm a Nintendo fan because of the home-brew painting app for the Nintendo DS Lite and it's successor that was totally overhauled to run on the Nintendo 3DS gaming system. I told a close friend of mine I would start painting about one hundred and twenty paintings on my DS in a month's time. That didn't happen but, I've started the ball rolling in that I've started using it to create some art with it again. Hopefully, I'll get an Xbox during Black Friday or for Christmas. I just finished this little hommage to Jet Grind Radio using Adobe Illustrator to trace it and Adobe Photoshop to decrease the resolution to 72ppi. Later, I may create some desktop backgrounds for my desktop and post low rez versions of them here. Looking and listening to those walkthroughs have brought back a lot of really great memories. : )

[DISCLAIMER: I've not listened to all the commentary of the videos I've embedded in this post. So, be advised there could be some bad language in them. I apologize in advance. I do not own any rights to Jet Grind Radio, Jet Set Radio Future or any of graphical designs created by their respective creators. Smilebit created both games for Sega. I'm not sure who owns these two intellectual properties now.]

Long Play Walk-throughs of Jet Grind Radio.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jet+grind+radio+walkthrough&lclk=long&filters=long





Long Play Walk-throughs of Jet Set Raio Future
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jet+set+radiofuture+walkthrough&lclk=long&filters=long


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwrXOTj8Tpw

I Plan to Post Something Tomorrow

I meant to post something before now but, I've been busy with work and other things. So, I plan to post something tomorrow. Last week, I painted digitally using my Nintendo 3DS during the life drawing session. Those paintings didn't come out so well. I may post them on my tumblr account but, not on the Colorlive website. I may take my digital video camera with me tomorrow to shoot some video outside and animate over it using Adobe Flash. Just a thought.

I posed a question to the group I draw with. (Pun intended.) My query was, "Would they like to make a book of our art and sell it online somewhere?" So far, I'm the only one enthusiastic about it. No one other than me thinks it would make money. This is a group of really great and talented artists I draw with. So, why wouldn't it sell? I think it will if we market it right.

Anywho, I've got to get something to eat and sketch. Ttyl. : )
 
http://colorslive.com/

Two of My Biggest Inspirations... Movies and Comics

When I was very young I remember going to the movies with my older brother and sister. We went to see a movie called Jaws. From the opening sequence to the point at which I fell asleep I was riveted to my seat with my eyes glued to the screen. As young as I was then I didn't really understand anything but, how terrifying the shark was in this movie. After the film my siblings woke me up and I couldn't get that scary shark out of my imagination. A child my age then should never have been allowed to see this movie. That was in 1975. Two years later, I saw what would be the best movie of my young life. The movie was Star Wars. And, it changed everything about how I see the world. My imagination was at once ablaze with sci-fi stories. During this time I voraciously read Marvel and DC comics daily. A few years later my best friend let me read his modest collection of Heavy Metal the Adult Fantasy Magazine and Epic Illustrated. I was introduced to a host of European comics artists and American underground comix artists who I've admired for years. Cool movies and cooler comics have inspired me to be a filmmaker. My chosen field of endeavor is animation.

A couple of months ago my manger called me to come into his office before going home. I thought I was in trouble so, instead of doing so I started a conversation with one of my regular customers and forgot all about my managers request. The next time he and I worked together he gave me a black package. The contents of which are a plague and a booklet detailing what I could order for free for my dedication of service for five years at this company. I wanted one thing above all the other cool stuff that was offered. And, that one thing is a digital video camera.

I've always wanted to create something with video and now is my chance to do so. Of course, this hardware is not top of the line stuff neither is the video editing software that comes with it. You can't beat free! Later, I may get a better camera but, for now this is it. I am planning a trip to the zoo and the botanical gardens. I may upload the video online. I'm not sure if I will or not. Enough of the tangent, back to the gist!

I've been thinking about creating a stop motion short film but, didn't have a camera. Now I do. So, I'll try my hand at it.  Unfortunately, it was not designed for creating frame by frame animation. Where there's a will, there's a way.

OKAY! 
THE PLAN!

• Write a cool script.
• Storyboard sequences.
• Shoot video. Lots of video.
• Edit said video.
• Post cool short film online for the world to see!
• Rinse and repeat.

Although on a more serious note, I do plan to shoot some 720p HD video with this little inexpensive video camera. Yeah, I know. That's as high as the resolution gets. Not the best but, it's still pretty good.

Scheduling Conflicts with My Two Non Creative Jobs Have Given Me Less Time to Work on My Storyboards

The scheduling conflicts of my two non creative jobs are preventing me from finishing the storyboards I had planned to post this weekend. At the moment I'm still working on the rough boards that are helping me to figure out what direction I want to take the visual narrative in. In order to show my visual thought process, I'm still planning on posting both the rough  and the finished boards here on this blog. Only the finished boards will be posted on my DeviantArt account which is my professional website for now. Someday, I may create a web presence for myself. Today is not that day.

On a lighter note. I'm learning and growing more as an artist. When I get around to it, I'll post my life drawing session sketches to my tumblr along with some other things that I've wanted to post.

Soon, I'll start using a weekly planner to plan my time so I can get tasks done on schedule. There are promises I've made to a close friend of mine I would like to keep. I've got to manage my time wisely enough to do everything that needs to be done in order to be more efficient.

No More Life Drawing Session Sketches for this Blog

This is where the life drawing sessions take place. In the basement of a museum. I wanted to post this image a while ago but, I didn't know how to get photos off my phone. And, after I found out I didn't upload this one when I should have.

For a while now, I’ve been debating over whether or not to get a tumblr or an Instagram account.  During the life drawing session today, the decision was made to start a Tumblr account. I believe a close friend of mine feels uncomfortable viewing my blog because of the life drawing sketches I’ve posted here. She doesn’t agree with drawing from live nude models. So, I’ll no longer post them here on this blog. Instead I would like you to check out my tumblr account for any further life drawing posts. 

There are not a whole lot of sketches this time around. I wasn’t really into it today as I was last week. The model today was great but, I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to draw. So, during the third hour of the first session I went to another museum to look at some art. I think I’ll do this again. Also, I’d like to eat at a particular restaurant down the street while there. I may take some photos but, probably won’t upload them anywhere.

If you’re interested in viewing my life drawing sketches here’s the link:  http://bleu-footprints.tumblr.com/ (The actual link.)

At the moment of typing this, I've not posted anything there yet. I may do it tomorrow as I'll have more time after work to do so.

I Bought a New Sketchbook

As a result of seeing "Victoria's Cal Arts Sketchbook Video" I decided to buy a sketchbook too. This will be used for watercolor and pen and ink drawings that I'm not planing on showing anyone. Much of what I draw is cartooning or life drawing so this will be just doodles of whatever I imagine and would like to commit to paper. This sketchbook is made by a company named Copelle. Maybe sometime next month I might buy the one Victoria displayed in her video. It looks cool. :)

If you're interested, here's the link: http://www.pentalic.com/journals/traveler-sketch.asp

(To best the view this video, click once to start it and double click it to go into full screen mode.)

Life Drawing Session: WAS PRETTY DARN COOL

For starters, the model was excellent. She posed very well and she’s friendly and approachable. I look forward to working with her again in August. Here are some drawings I did of her.

The first four drawings are quick one and half minute gestures. I absolutely love gesture drawing. It lets me get the real essence of the pose down very quickly and clearly. I imagine myself feeling what the model feels not only in weight distribution but, also emotionally.  Empathy is a key to understanding the underlying psychology of a pose. At some point, I may use charcoal and watercolor to create these wonderful images. For now, I’ll continue to use a fountain pen.

Last night, I woke up around 4 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I lay in bed trying to sleep.  An hour or so later, I got up and started getting ready for the session. Maybe I should have counted sheep or something. A few drawings that I omitted from this post because they were not working out like I had hoped were drawn but, not posted. I had capped my pen to rest my eyes. Some twenty or so minutes later I woke up to find the model has changed her pose. And, one of the artists in the room told me after I had asked, "Yes, you were snoring." That all happened before the following sketch.

The previous sketch was not up to par so I started again on the same pose. Although I had wanted this sketch to have more detail; it came out better than I had expected. By this time I was just getting warmed up.

The grandmother of one of the artists told me about an exhibit nearby that I went to see today. And, it was great! I asked the receptionist why wasn’t this artist more widely known and his response was, “Most of his work is in private collections.” That’s a shame. I hope to buy some art books of his work from the museum gift shop before the exhibit ends in September.

WiP - Detailing the Eyes and Shadow Area of the Nose

Unfortunately, I can't spend a lot of time on these WiPs in one sitting because of my work schedules. So, here is another work in progress.

Eventually, all the little imperfections will be painted over and it will look better than it does now. After I've taken this into a very high level detail I will colorize it. Also, there's no photo reference used for this painting.

More WiP Goodness

A few more hours and I should be done with this.

Posting Another WiP

I couldn't sleep so I decided to continue painting this. Sometime today, I might post another WiP. I'll make time to work on it.

As Promised: Another WiP of My Painting

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to sit and paint for twenty hours or so until this is done. There's two non creative jobs I have to attend to so the bills can be paid. I plan to post this painting bit by bit until it's done. I may work on it more tonight after work and post more of it then.

Just a Head's Up for My Next Post

By tomorrow afternoon, I plan to update one or both of the two Works in Progress paintings I've recently posted. Usually, I start in color to paint my artwork. This time around I decided to do it differently. I'm taking my time and painting them in grey-scale to get a better feel for the shading of each image. That way it's easier to understand how the tones relate to one another. The images above are preliminary sketches that I'm still working on in Adobe Photoshop. Also, the images below are screen grabs from my computer monitor.

Yes, Another Life Drawing Post

Today, I went to a life drawing session. While there I met a young teenage girl who wants to be a professional artist and designer. Her art looks great. And, I look forward to seeing her again next week. Here are some links for you. All of these links are artist related links.

•   http://bleu-rain.blogspot.com/2012/06/art-books-links-to-how-to-paint.html
• http://www.characterdesigns.com/ (NSFW)
• http://www.posemaniacs.com/       (NSFW)
• http://www.posespace.com/           (NSFW)
• http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/      (NSFW)

 Free Artbooks - Andrew Loomis and, George Bridgeman.

•  http://processjunkie.blogspot.com/2007/09/best-figure-drawing-books-ever.html
• http://floobynooby.blogspot.com/search/label/Download%20Goodies

Please, get these books. They will help you. And, you will thank me for this later. The floobynooby link is really for animators like me but, you can get something out of it as well. : )

Another WiP (Work in Progress)

Here's something I'm working on at the moment.

This is without photo reference.

Long Overdue Life Drawing Post

Here’s some more life drawing sketches.  The first two are from the previous post’s session. 

I’m really enjoying these life drawing sessions. Drawing from live nude models is taking me out of my comfort zone. In the past, I’ve drawn mostly women in life drawing sessions and when a girl from college agreed to pose for me. In the early nineties, one man had posed in a life drawing class I took on the West Coast in the US but, until recently that was about it for male models. Now, it seems we mostly have male models available. 

I prefer drawing with a ballpoint pen rather than a pencil. That's why I've got so many drawings in that medium.

Believe it not, I actually get bored drawing the nude form. Sometimes, I get to a point where I can’t draw something the way it looks in front of me and I give up. That’s when I have to kick myself the butt and remember why I’m doing this in the first place. I want to give my characters an authentic realism that only comes from drawing from life. And, the following quote comes to mind as well. "Prolific people don’t wait to be moved, they begin the work, and the work moves them to create more." ~ Jonathon Kastner.