Pinflux sketches, or 'that guy with the goggles'. APRIL UPDATE!

[Pinflux]

Wow, I just had an amazing week in Wellington at the Marama workshop. I've only (barely) lurked on the boards until now, keeping tabs on a few threads. Now that I've met so many awesome people I feel I have to jump in here a bit more seriously.

Highlights from the workshop -

• The Massive Black guys. All totally down to earth people, more than willing to chat about art and anything else, and with mindblowing skillz to boot. I have to be honest and say I hadn't even heard of most of these guys before I arrived, but now am a giant fan of them all.
• Life drawing! I haven't been able to go to any in about a year so it was wonderful getting back into it again, even if I had to use A4 paper. The models were amazing, and diligently held their poses.
• Jason Manley's colour theory talk. It totally blew my mind - I learned far more than should be possible in that small period of time. Now to look for it in the art (and life) around me...
• Poring through Wes Burt's sketchbooks. The tonal strength in his sketchbooks makes grown men weep (I've seen it)!
• Watching Whit paint digitally from life. Nuff said... Was great talking to him as well.
• Winning Thunderdome! The comp rules were to draw a self portrait, and I somehow managed to pull a first! The other entries were simply fantastic, so I was surprised and ecstatic to win. The loot was a painting easel signed by the guys, a brilliant portrait done by Carl Dobsky at the workshop, a few t-shirts and a couple of Massive Black DVD's. Cheers guys!

Pics of my entry and the prizes -










A bit about me - I live in Auckland, New Zealand. I graduated animation school two years ago, and have since started a small animation studio called Rhubarb Zoo with my good friend Dane Jacobs. You can check out our stuff here - www.rhubarbzoo.com, our basic goal is to produce our own creative work, and maybe convince a few people that animation isn't just for kids along the way. At the moment we're cooking up the story for a serialised web series that we'll be releasing once a month once preproduction is finished, but that's a good two years away.

I love to draw/paint and really badly want to improve my work. So far I've only really done colours digitally, and am about to jump into learning to use acrylics. I have miles to go with everything, but especially colour, tone subtlety and backgrounds at this moment. Please crit away on what you guys think I should be working on, and I'll start adding my two cents to the other threads. You should also jump in if I met you at the workshop to let me know who you are (I'm in the unusual situation of having to put an alias to a face rather than the other way around)

Here's a random assortment of stuff I've done from the last year to start the thread off (starting with a few pages from my portfolio), but you can find a bunch more on my blog http://pinfluxsketches.blogspot.com/ -
















I actually won my ticket to the workshop with this piece on the NZCGI forum in New Zealand, interpreting the concept of 'time' with this illustration - I wouldn't have been able to come otherwise!
















And finally some stuff from reference -











That's all for now... see you guys around!

[Max Challie]

Hey Jeremy!

It's hilarious how you won the ticket, then won the grand prize for the Thunderdome!

"Luck is for those without skill. I'm very lucky."
And you're very skilled. Some sweet work here, I'm particularly in love with your portfolio cover, your winning entry for the ticket and this thing, which reminds me so darn much of bengal!!

[Pinflux]

Study Buddy - Speedpainting from reference

Something I've been doing for the last month is a wonderful speedpaint scheme someone (I can't remember who I'm afraid) named 'Study Buddy' - I've uploaded a Photoshop template here that you should all download.

Here's an example, the last one I filled out (with reference pics compiled by Flaskpost) -




How to use the study buddy -

1) Pair up with someone who has the time and will be committed to doing the studies on a timeframe. You'll need a total of a little over two hours a week to finish one buddy.

2) Fill the template with cool reference pictures for your buddy to speedpaint. Art, photography, movie stills - anything interesting. Paste all of the reference pictures into the 'references' section of the photoshop file and resize appropriately. Feel free to crop the images as you see fit. Of course, this stuff will be someone else's work, so don't try to take any ownership or treat the results as anything other than simple studies.

3) Shift the circles under the 'circles' folder to the appropriate letter. Hold down the shift button and slide up or down on each. The four options are Mass, Palette, Detail and Composition.

Mass - concentrate on the form of the subject - whether it be through linework or light.

Palette - Attempt to replicate the colour scheme of the subject.

Detail - Focus on a single part of the subject and paint it in detail. For example you may try to render only the hair of your subject.

Composition - Using block colours, try to match the exact composition of your subject.

4) Fill out the names and set the date for a week from now. Flatten into a jpeg and send it to your buddy, then get them to send you theirs.

5) Get painting! You have a 10 minute time limit per image, so think big when you are painting and don't get too close. I like to mask off the area around where I am painting to make it easier. Get em done all at once or break it down and do a couple per day. I also like to drag the finished image over the top of the original at the end to help figure out what I did right and wrong.

6) Once the week is over send the result back to your friend as a jpeg and start the process again!



At the risk of oversaturating this post with lists, here are some reasons why this method works -

• You're accountable to someone else. It's a lot harder to let laziness kick in and ignore your studies when you owe them to someone else within a timeframe!
• You'll never know what you'll have to draw! Not only is the element of mystery exciting, but you'll improve in areas you wouldn't have otherwise as your buddy will choose reference shots you may not have.
• It's fun! The 10 minute limit might seem daunting at first, but once you settle in you'll discover it's very refreshing flitting from subject to subject, trying to get across different things in the timeframe. Putting together your buddy's template and seeing the results is also really fun and rewarding.

Well, I hope some of you decide to start this thing up. I've only done four of them and I can already see a decent improvement in my speedpainting abilities! Enjoy!

[JesArt]

I like, I really likes, the study buddy is very neat, I might have to try that sometimes, keep em coming, my friend.

[Kaffinated]

Great stuff man. Grats on the thunderdome prize , goggles guy.

[neacser]

dude neat stuff man keep it up whooopa!

[Flaskpost]

aaah, hey mister J! great to see you on CA my friend!
that is a mighty impressive first post, you know i´m a fan!

i hope you keep this baby updated, brother!

[Hybrid_75]

awesome sketches, loved the self portrait. Well deserved prize. that study buddy thing looks great! good to see you on here!

[Jamie Romoser]

Very inspiring and also very refeshing, i will have to try out the speed paint looks like tons of fun. Cheers

[Gail_Blitzy]

Amazing stuff, I love your referance drawings! Downloaded your "study buddy" and will deffonately give it a try!

[stoph]

i expect you to keep this updated and regular (or i'll steal your goggles..)

[Pinflux]

Max: Heh yeah, I almost feel bad for it! Almost...

JesArt: Thanks man, and please do! It's a surefire path to improvement

Kaffinated: Thanks for that dude

neacser: Heh cheers buddy

Flaskpost: Hello my friend! Of course I will!

Hybrid_75: Thanks heaps! Bully someone into doing the study with you dude, you won't regret it

OmertA: Thanks so much - and you should!

Gail_Blitzy: Thanks - did you do the study buddy with anyone yet?

stoph: Of course dude! (and you wouldn't dare)

New for this week - one coloured piece (painted onto the lines in one of the sketches above) and tonnes of sketches from the MB workshop...



I started a sketchbook at the same time as Vodka and Jeff Lai in a sort of competition, which never really came to anything as we completely forgot to compare how far we got before I left Wellington. It probably made me draw a bit more than I would have otherwise, at the least. A bunch of the stuff in these pages are observational drawings.




Went to Welly Zoo one glorious day before the workshop had started. I put sunblock everywhere but the two tiny gaps of skin in the recesses of my receding hairline right above my goggles. Looked a bit weird up there for the rest of the week.




I had a blast looking through Vodka's sketches one night after the workshop and had to rip a bunch of stuff out, modifying slightly to my own style.



I managed to do a fair bit of life drawing at the workshop itself. It's all quickish stuff, I've never done life drawing with A4 paper before so it all felt a bit small.






Lastly some 1 minute gesture drawings.

More sketches post-Wellington -


The boy the the hat and the two girls on the right are from reference in the first sketch, and the three girls in the second page are too.


I tasked myself with the lofty goal of redesigning 40k's Space Marines, until my drawings veered wildly from the source material and then I got bored and drew something else - namely studies in form! I read a bit of Michael D. Mattesi's book on Force, and decided to follow his lead and draw from reference, not sketching in the shadows in but instead following the models form with the pencil. Mixed results, but it was certainly fun and I wanna do some more.





And finally a girls face, again from reference.




Holy cow, was that too much? I hope some of you have started using the study buddy, I wanna see some of your results and improvements!

[kidult]

Great work man and so jealous of your prizes! well done and keep it up!

[insane lemur]

well pinflux, you're much better than me so no crits! I love your work and your open attitude to exploration. That makes you unstoppable!

[Kronos]

Beautiful stuff my friend. I just had a moment of jealousy . your figures are so alive and full of personality, i'm sure it comes from the animation background, but i'd just like you to know it shows and really makes your work special

keep it coming!

[Equality72521]

absolutely beautiful sketches and finish works,

5 stars!!!

*bookmarked*

[septomin]

This is so awesome. I've gotta take a closer look at these later.

[Flaskpost]

fuck yeah man! beautiful figure studies! *****
you´re going places, brother!

[openanewworld]

hello I remember your protrait you beat my ass off haha, great stuffs man, I so enjoy your energetic life drawing so much power, and your animation skill is great too, that painting of a guy's upper torso is top to me, amazing work keep posting more your stuffs here welcome to CA by the way!!!

[HunterKiller_]

J, mah man!
You certainly started with a bang. 5 stars already! Lemme add to that.

I haven't seen some of these sketches. The red pencil figures are sweet.

Peace out.

P.S. You gotta lemme try that magic canvas sometime.

[JellevdVegt]

super nice man, just smooth like butter.. or somethin

[daveneale]

woah, super cool sketchbook-really dig your style-your characters have a great mix of stylization and anatomical accuracy for me, will be checking back for sure!

[JailHouseRock2]

Hay Jeremy, and welcome to CA!

Dude REALLY liking your skecthes and love the paintings, great colour and light.

Great stuff mate, and btw which animation school did you go to?

peace

matt,

[Call0ps]

welcome to CA.org, beautiful work with lots of personality. hope you keep it updated
*subscribed*

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

Oh my god what a little tasty thing you got here, loving it as we speak great illustrations, loving the colours, and you have a strong strong style that has the potential to go even further

-E

[ikuru]

wowww u have a lot of things going here mr, love the line and color.

[MyOrangeHat]

Wow I'm really in love with your lines. Nice stuff!

[Katrina]

Oh wow, I really like your life drawings. They look all smooth and natural

[zhonked]

Fantastic stuff! I can see why you won all those competitions I really like the study buddy template you put up! I'll be looking for one soon, but if not, I'll be a total loser and study buddy myself Subscribed and eagerly awaiting your next update!

[Nubb]

Great stuff followed by greater stuff. A pleasure to watch and follow