2013 - Sheridan College (Animation and Illustration) Hopefuls

[kamikazel33t]

Thank you so much mate, I just wanted to say I already have about six hand drawings (More if you include the ones not done for the portfolio but as a study) Should I post em now? I am also going to look up the book you suggested a long with Norling( I prefer the older books, heck I really feel like Bridgman although his books are intimidating helped through a lot of constructive figure drawings). I am just wondering though, am I allowed to use planes even though I also use basic shapes for hand construction because I've noticed a lot of people include the box sort of approach to drawing the hands. I combined the ball joint cylindrical method(found in Hogarth's books) with George Bridgman's plane method to constructing hands so far that is working best for me. For personal artwork(although it weighs the least and is the easiest) I am thinking of using surrealistic fine arts style of arts and I was wondering if that was alright? I am also wondering if any of you are on a second attempt to applying, and whether or not it is easy to pass the academic part of the application?

[Dunnstar]

A quick look at your sketchbook shows that you are gonna have to push really really hard for this.

If you want I can give you a pre critique if you post them up and I can better answer your question too.

[kamikazel33t]

Well here is the four I have made the other two I don't really think is worth the critique. Sorry if three of the drawings are weird looking because I had to artificially lower the brightness so you can see construction lines more easily. Btw sorry about that dunnstar I think you misunderstood the question, I was actually talking about highschool grades not about the actual portfolio. I already know I need some serious work since all I do everyday is draw. I was just wondering about the high school grades so I know how well to keep a balance between school and drawing(I draw in class at home whenever I get the chance too). I do have a GPA above 80(B-), so does that mean I am good?

[Dunnstar]

yeah, even if you didn't tell me I would've guessed you've been reading Burne Hogarth. Good books of course but one problem is he exaggerates the muscles and joints too much. You can really see it in your knuckles(first pic), far too big and "beefy" The thumb is also a wee bit long, its different from the fingers, its more fleshy and you should see some webbing when it extends. Also the pointer is the longest, that should show when extending all fingers. the nails aren't lining up with the knuckles (I can't think of a situation where they shouldn't)

I think an overall problem is you need to show the fleshyness of the hand as well as the edges. something I struggle with too. skin bunches up alot of places, keep an eye out and really try to capture pull and stretch of hands.

Keep it up though I'm seeing alot of progress!

Also I have no idea about the grades I'll ask em if I get the time.

[mamuraa]

Just came across this board today and I really see some great stuff! I'd really like to join in with the critiques and whatnot!
I hope to meet some of you this Saturday in Sheridan. I'm afraid school kicked me in the butt the last two weeks and I wasn't able to prepare anything to showcase this Saturday..

[OfficialLamp]

This is my second year applying for Sheridan's animation (fourth for other schools, good lord) and the academic admissions are not high. Basically, if you got a C+ or more in Math and English, along with the appropriate amount of credits, you'll be fine. It really is all about the portfolio.

I've had a re-do room sitting around near finished for awhile, I'll upload that later. Lately I've been doing bird studies and location sketches for my other application portfolio. I'll try and get an object drawing done by sunday.

[kawaiixdesu]

Just came across this board today and I really see some great stuff! I'd really like to join in with the critiques and whatnot!
I hope to meet some of you this Saturday in Sheridan. I'm afraid school kicked me in the butt the last two weeks and I wasn't able to prepare anything to showcase this Saturday..

Do you attend sheridan too? Schoolwork has been killing me too x_x I don't have anything prepared eihtier other than my old sketchbook and a few character and room drawings which might I add are a work in progress ugh LOL

Don't worry guys! Ill post eventually, school is really kicking my butt too

[mamuraa]

Do you attend sheridan too? Schoolwork has been killing me too x_x I don't have anything prepared eihtier other than my old sketchbook and a few character and room drawings which might I add are a work in progress ugh LOL

Don't worry guys! Ill post eventually, school is really kicking my butt too

No I'm not attending, going to apply this year I really need time to work on my portfolio, I only have life drawings so far and doodles on a sketchbook so that won't count..

[kamikazel33t]

yeah, even if you didn't tell me I would've guessed you've been reading Burne Hogarth. Good books of course but one problem is he exaggerates the muscles and joints too much. You can really see it in your knuckles(first pic), far too big and "beefy" The thumb is also a wee bit long, its different from the fingers, its more fleshy and you should see some webbing when it extends. Also the pointer is the longest, that should show when extending all fingers. the nails aren't lining up with the knuckles (I can't think of a situation where they shouldn't)

I think an overall problem is you need to show the fleshyness of the hand as well as the edges. something I struggle with too. skin bunches up alot of places, keep an eye out and really try to capture pull and stretch of hands.

Keep it up though I'm seeing alot of progress!

Also I have no idea about the grades I'll ask em if I get the time.

Thanks you so so much for the critique I would not have noticed these things if it weren't for your critique , I was delusional enough to think that the only problem was line quality. I think that actually may be the way to capture fleshyness, by showing a big contrast in line quality from where the bone touches the surface(lighter lines?) and to the fleshy parts(heavier lines?) emphasizing on overlapping skin. I think a possible remedy to help could be a pure hand still life(no constructions, just pure draw what you see) could help.
Yeah, Hogarth I guess was a wee bit too exaggerated I especially don't really how he constructs the finger tips closer to the joints funny thing is that it was way to tempting to use spheres for the joints and what is also funny is that I did not copy down and dissect his drawings, I just sifted through the book, weird.

@OfficialLamp Hey, thanks for the response. It is a great relief to me since I am a B student in math and an A student in English(me love my literature ), I've taken a Look at your portfolio and seeing it reminds me how tough the competition is because your portfolio was good. Have you figured out why they did not score you well on the room drawing and character drawing? I just wanted to ask as well Do they take a sort of bias with more appealing characters, because to me it seems you can have any sort of character as long as you rotate it properly and give it a good line of action at the action pose. You reminded me that I should not be neglecting animal studies, the annoying thing is that the place I reside in is mostly urban(Heck it was founded on a desert) so I mostly try to visit the rabbits at my local pet store yet they keep moving, this is no excuse for neglecting to learn how to draw them theoretically though. Thanks again for the info and for the unintentional reminder to study more on animal drawing.

@mamuraa I think Kawaiixdesu was referring to whether you attend Art Fundamentals or not. It would be great to have you join the group, along with that I think it would be awesome for you to create a sketchbook and track your progress as an artist. It really helps motivate me to keep going as I can keep track with how much work I did in a day.

[denaliah]

Here is my storyboard rough so far, I'm not concerned with line quality yet mostly structure and perspective, sense of mass, etc.
Critique away!
http://s263.beta.photobucket.com/use...tml?sort=6&o=0 (password: 123456)

BTW: About figure drawings: Does sheridan only give good marks to people with conte on newsprint drawings? I did a lot of mine with blue pencil on 8.5 x 11 I'm not sure if that will hurt me.

[OfficialLamp]

@kamikazel33t - Even urban places have animals around. Desert towns must have birds if not anything else. Any duck ponds? Where I live there's a big lagoon downtown with ducks, swans, seagulls, turtles, raccoons, and squirrels. The trick with drawing animals is quick gesture. They are going to move, you can't stop that. Record the gesture down fast and then observe the animal in other positions to build on your gesture.

And yes, the competition is massive. I was thinking earlier today about how the minimum score was 3.06. That means, in order to get in, a person needs at least one 4. I didn't receive a single one. A person could have gotten 3s across the board and still be rejected.
Realizing this makes me think of the situation as more of a game. And every game has ways of tipping the advantage. I purpose, that we should work most on our worst area and our strongest one. If we only focus on the bottom numbers we may be able to raise them a couple notches, but without those amazing 4s we don't have a chance. Turn that 3 into a 4 (arguably the hardest to do) and that 1 into a 3 and I think our portfolios might inch above the rest.

Does that make sense to anyone but me?

[MichySoong]

Hi! I'm a first year animation student.

For the figure drawing comment, I'm pretty sure conte is the preferred medium (on newsprint) since that's all we use throughout the term.
I know graphite is also acceptable because I used graphite on newsprint for my entrance portfolio!

Good luck you guys!
Also! Hi Jody c: I hope you're doing well. I never see you around school, haha!

[kamikazel33t]

@kamikazel33t - Even urban places have animals around. Desert towns must have birds if not anything else. Any duck ponds? Where I live there's a big lagoon downtown with ducks, swans, seagulls, turtles, raccoons, and squirrels. The trick with drawing animals is quick gesture. They are going to move, you can't stop that. Record the gesture down fast and then observe the animal in other positions to build on your gesture.

And yes, the competition is massive. I was thinking earlier today about how the minimum score was 3.06. That means, in order to get in, a person needs at least one 4. I didn't receive a single one. A person could have gotten 3s across the board and still be rejected.
Realizing this makes me think of the situation as more of a game. And every game has ways of tipping the advantage. I purpose, that we should work most on our worst area and our strongest one. If we only focus on the bottom numbers we may be able to raise them a couple notches, but without those amazing 4s we don't have a chance. Turn that 3 into a 4 (arguably the hardest to do) and that 1 into a 3 and I think our portfolios might inch above the rest.

Does that make sense to anyone but me?

We do have a zoo, but it is really annoying to go to because it is really far away I do have a pet store near by which is by walking distance and the rabbits are in cages although I can't really see their full figure because parts of the cage block parts of their body and sometimes they just look like a giant ball of fur since they are quite chubby so every time I draw the gesture it. Now that you mentioned ducks, I also remember a small park nearby within walking distance with a lake and ducks in it but I am not sure if the ducks are still there because there were issues where kids used harm the ducks as well as ducks getting run over and it has been years.

That is true and that completely makes sense I was thinking that way too. I also realize by placebo effect it is better to aim for everything to be don't settle with a score before you get it that way you only know that the sky is the limit and you keep working harder.


I am just wondering, how many drawings do you guys push out a day and for how many hours do you work on drawing a day?
I think I am doing for over a little over 8 hours a day and on weekends about 16 hours a day. I am asking this question to see whether I need to work harder or not because currently while I am approaching the standard for hand drawing I still have a long way and I need to work on the rest of the other stuff. I heard from a person on deviantart known as Jermmgirl on the matter of whether they correct certain things harder and whether all things are weighed the same and this is the response I got

"Its not like one section is worth more than the other, since they are all marked out of 4, but I think Life Drawing section is the one they mark the hardest (true in first year too), then layout and story is the second hardest and then character is the easiest (in my opinion)."

Although I am not sure if what she said about things being marked with the same weight is true because I found the rubrics of the portfolio scoring somewhere in an old archive here in this forum, I will attach it as well because I think it might be useful information.

@MichySoong Darn so I have to use graphite or conte? is it similair to the pencil in how it works or would it require training, also there is one massive disadvantage for me where there are no life drawing classes as I live in a Muslim country so they are strict with this sort of stuff but I was wondering if I can get away with using a photo but implementing concepts of life drawing on it so I really focus on form?

[kawaiixdesu]

Hi! I'm a first year animation student.

For the figure drawing comment, I'm pretty sure conte is the preferred medium (on newsprint) since that's all we use throughout the term.
I know graphite is also acceptable because I used graphite on newsprint for my entrance portfolio!

Good luck you guys!
Also! Hi Jody c: I hope you're doing well. I never see you around school, haha!

Hello Michelle! I hope you are also well. How is the program? I see you all the time because of the pikachu on your neck so I know its you but youre so shy xD

[Dunnstar]

Woah lots of comments.

@denialah:
Looking good, feels abit stiff with some of the movements, see if you can exaggerate.

As for using conte.. i would defintely recommend it, conte and that large newspaper pad will improve the quality of your drawing, just because of the space, the ability to quickly gesture and the instinctual line quality.

@kamikazel33t

I'm getting about 3hours a day on average, one life drawing session a week and maybe a sunday off for "fun drawings" as I call em. I don't know if you should get rid of construction lines, they want to see them afterall.

@officalamp
Lol, ducks or birds, I mean I live in the city, we don't have any "ducks or birds" maybe pigeons if I can track em down. sure as hell there isn't any park for bird watching. I'll prob just head to a pet shop.

@mamuraa

I'll be there at the portfolio day, I have a few things done, not too much. I've already talked to like 7 people who are going to be there, I have feeling its going to be a very long line.

[mamuraa]

@kamikazel33t If that's the case then no, I'm not taking Art Fundamentals either. I'm thinking of making a blog as well, when I have the time I'll set one up this weekend.

@Dunnstar what type of pieces will you bring? life drawing, room drawing, animals, at least one for each category? And yeah, I'm sure the lines are going to be pretty long so you should go early. Good luck!

The whole thread is such a wake up call for me, I really need to put in more hours for drawing every day.

[Nickels]

Woah lots of comments.

@denialah:
Looking good, feels abit stiff with some of the movements, see if you can exaggerate.

As for using conte.. i would defintely recommend it, conte and that large newspaper pad will improve the quality of your drawing, just because of the space, the ability to quickly gesture and the instinctual line quality.

@kamikazel33t

I'm getting about 3hours a day on average, one life drawing session a week and maybe a sunday off for "fun drawings" as I call em. I don't know if you should get rid of construction lines, they want to see them afterall.

@officalamp
Lol, ducks or birds, I mean I live in the city, we don't have any "ducks or birds" maybe pigeons if I can track em down. sure as hell there isn't any park for bird watching. I'll prob just head to a pet shop.

@mamuraa

I'll be there at the portfolio day, I have a few things done, not too much. I've already talked to like 7 people who are going to be there, I have feeling its going to be a very long line.

Whats portfolio day? Do I have to go?

[kamikazel33t]

@Dunnstar I could clearly understand that construction lines are necessary for the portfolio hands but I was talking more about studies where you use more of the contour method so you can study the lines of the hands you would normally place on top of the construct and that constant practice of that will ensure that you will be able to learn how to create fleshy hands with construction. Right now I am studying how the lines overlap each other in the bunched flesh around the hand along with the webbing of the hand.

I am thinking of suggesting a little friendly competition might help but nothing destructive like sabotage or withholding information or anything which will harm us all in the end. I was thinking we try to one up each other in certain parts of the portfolio where we each try to better than the last person who posted a portfolio drawing and each time a one up attempted the person would have to offer a critique to the last person to explain why they can do much better. I hope this does not sound like a lame unrealistic idea .

[Dunnstar]

Nickels: Portfolio day is a day where sheridan faculty members take a look at your portfolio and give you advice. it's also open house so they are running tours and showing the equipment. No admission decisions are handed out so obviously it is not necessary.

Kamikazel33t: Well for contouring I don't see anything wrong with skipping construction lines, thats what it means right. If linework is an issue, might as well zero on it. And I know I used the word fleshy but it keeps reminding me of well fat, what i mean is, theres alot of skin, its not so much "fat" but its not tighly against the skeleton either. I hope I didn't confuse you.

As for your competition, who isn't doing that in their minds already? (lol) I'm trying to one up denaliah and Offical Lamp and I hope they are doing the same.

[kamikazel33t]

@Dunnstar I guess that is true, I am trying to go and kick my drawing practices into hardcore mode and one-up all of you and try to improve as fast as I can. Lol, because of that my parents were hesitant in buying me a new sketchpad since I filled up my 50 page A4 sketchpad in just a week so they later expect me to go back to drawing on random lined paper I find at home rather than using a sketchpad except for finalized drawings. Should I just ask for printing paper instead? or instead should I check out newsprint? are they cheaper than sketching paper? I am actually going to an art store in the morning, so let me get this straight, I need a blue color eraseable pencil(any substitutes if I don't find any because the only art store closest to me other than a bookstore is more for people into fine arts), newsprint paper, conte or graphite pencil(or just pure graphite or conte?), clean A4 sketch paper(we use European measurements here), and a pencil set(pencils of various softness). Is that all I really need?

[Dunnstar]

For Life drawings, newspad, conte, and maybe a conte pencil with kneeding eraser. (I heard tuff stuff was good too, never tried)

newspad is awful for drawing, the way the pencil glides across it, ICKY!

For sketching, a sketchbook ones with rings (if you can con your parents into it) if not printing paper is fine as well, and get Prismacolor eraseabled coloured pencils (get light blue,)
if not, any will do really, prismacolor is just really good. I've been using it and geez the lead doesn't break, the eraser on the end is fantastic, its high quality stuff and cost only 69c.


In my opinion I'd actually just get a pack of hb pencils, the various softness penciles are overrated, you wont be shading too much in Animation, but if you must, I really can't help you with that, I don't use various softness.

[kamikazel33t]

Thanks, I was wondering about softer pencils because I've noticed people having really dark lines for the lines which go above the construction and no matter how hard I apply pressure I could never get the same shade so I assumed they got a 4b pencil or something along the lines of that. I am allowed to get another sketchpad the issue is not trying to finish it so early or at least getting something really affordable with tons of pages because my last sketchpad had the best price to page ratio and all I got was 50 A4 pages for $10 so imagine me spending that much a week. Could any color pencil act as a substitute for what you suggested in case I can't find color erasable pencils because they normally sell colored pencils in groups and I have not seen the Prisma brand around my country so I guess they probably won't sell it at the store I am going to.

[OfficialLamp]

Thanks, I was wondering about softer pencils because I've noticed people having really dark lines for the lines which go above the construction and no matter how hard I apply pressure I could never get the same shade so I assumed they got a 4b pencil or something along the lines of that. I am allowed to get another sketchpad the issue is not trying to finish it so early or at least getting something really affordable with tons of pages because my last sketchpad had the best price to page ratio and all I got was 50 A4 pages for $10 so imagine me spending that much a week. Could any color pencil act as a substitute for what you suggested in case I can't find color erasable pencils because they normally sell colored pencils in groups and I have not seen the Prisma brand around my country so I guess they probably won't sell it at the store I am going to.

That is some damn expensive paper! If you're just sketching then newsprint is fine, don't worry so much about materials. You'll be mailing in your portfolio (as you are not local to Toronto), so it's all going to be scanned anyways. For my daily drawing, I have a large $3 pad of newsprint, grease pencil, blue pencils, and HB pencil. Sometimes I'll draw on printer paper. There's no need to break the bank for practice (hint: you'll be shaving up a lot of trees by the time you're done school).

Just avoid lined paper, haha.

[Dunnstar]

regular coloured pencils just wont erase as well but should still work pretty decently.

[denaliah]

wat time does portfolio day end? I'm not sure I'll make it since i have work on sat.

[chronosylum]

Here's a little food for thought when it comes to the scoring. Bear with me, I'm going to ramble a bit:

Despite the fact that some sections seem like they should be more important than others, how they determine your final mark for any given section (be it line quality, story etc.) is simply the average of all the sections. There's no weight when calculating your final score. With that said, because some categories have a lot of marks to average out, it's much less of an impact on your final mark if you get a few low score there. For example, almost every section has a mark for Line Quality. That means that even if you somehow got a 1 in line quality for, say, life drawing, if you get 3's and 4's in line quality elsewhere, that single 1 will not take your mark down too much. On the other hand, certain sections like Story only has two marks. That means that if you get any Story mark lower than a 3, it could take your score down significantly. For example, in my portfolio, I scored a 3 and a 4 in Story, averaging to a 3.5 in that section. The impact of that single Story mark took my portfolio from a potential 3.91 score to 3.87. For my score, that didn't really matter, but for those with portfolios with marks that are on the edge, that one mark could make the difference between getting in or falling just below the acceptance line. Another example would be if you got one 3 in Story and your other mark was a 2, the average for that whole section would be 2.5. So consider the unevenness of the weight of marks in scoring when concerned about which sections to focus on.

Just something to consider. This was one of the things that worried me a lot when I was doing portfolio. And it highlights the errors of the way that Sheridan marks these portfolios...

[denaliah]

Woah lots of comments.

@denialah:
Looking good, feels abit stiff with some of the movements, see if you can exaggerate.

As for using conte.. i would defintely recommend it, conte and that large newspaper pad will improve the quality of your drawing, just because of the space, the ability to quickly gesture and the instinctual line quality.

@kamikazel33t

I'm getting about 3hours a day on average, one life drawing session a week and maybe a sunday off for "fun drawings" as I call em. I don't know if you should get rid of construction lines, they want to see them afterall.

@officalamp
Lol, ducks or birds, I mean I live in the city, we don't have any "ducks or birds" maybe pigeons if I can track em down. sure as hell there isn't any park for bird watching. I'll prob just head to a pet shop.

@mamuraa

I'll be there at the portfolio day, I have a few things done, not too much. I've already talked to like 7 people who are going to be there, I have feeling its going to be a very long line.

ok thanks, can you tell what is going on in story?

[Jipai]

@kamikazel33t - Even urban places have animals around. Desert towns must have birds if not anything else. Any duck ponds? Where I live there's a big lagoon downtown with ducks, swans, seagulls, turtles, raccoons, and squirrels. The trick with drawing animals is quick gesture. They are going to move, you can't stop that. Record the gesture down fast and then observe the animal in other positions to build on your gesture.

And yes, the competition is massive. I was thinking earlier today about how the minimum score was 3.06. That means, in order to get in, a person needs at least one 4. I didn't receive a single one. A person could have gotten 3s across the board and still be rejected.
Realizing this makes me think of the situation as more of a game. And every game has ways of tipping the advantage. I purpose, that we should work most on our worst area and our strongest one. If we only focus on the bottom numbers we may be able to raise them a couple notches, but without those amazing 4s we don't have a chance. Turn that 3 into a 4 (arguably the hardest to do) and that 1 into a 3 and I think our portfolios might inch above the rest.

Does that make sense to anyone but me?

Ahh I agree with you! I scored best in my hand drawings so I have been focusing on what I scored lower more. But like you said I sould bring the 3 I scored for my hand drawings to a 4 which will be very hard.
And hi guys I'm aiming for the Illustration program this year. I mainly lurk because I'm very shy lol. ><

[Dunnstar]

Welcome Jipai. I wish you much luck. Illustration program is getting more competitive each year.

@denaliah: Yes, she finds a drum and breaks it. you can improve on the drawing by showing a larger swing when she hits its and see if you can sell it being a drum abit more. I didn't figure it out until the very last panel. Oh and portfolio day ends at 3pm.

[Dunnstar]

And yes, the competition is massive. I was thinking earlier today about how the minimum score was 3.06. That means, in order to get in, a person needs at least one 4. I didn't receive a single one. A person could have gotten 3s across the board and still be rejected.
Realizing this makes me think of the situation as more of a game. And every game has ways of tipping the advantage. I purpose, that we should work most on our worst area and our strongest one. If we only focus on the bottom numbers we may be able to raise them a couple notches, but without those amazing 4s we don't have a chance. Turn that 3 into a 4 (arguably the hardest to do) and that 1 into a 3 and I think our portfolios might inch above the rest.

Does that make sense to anyone but me?

This makes alot of sense. I've been throwing a considerable amount of energy into my weakest area but I haven't even touched my strongest. Maybe its time I focus abit on it? Though I think it'll be absolute suicide to ignore the character design section, that section can make and break you.