Draw Rabbit, Draw! (A Sketchbook)

[Alice Herring]

Greetings! I'm exited to be here and to be a part of a creative community. :)

This will hopefully be a regular journey of development and study. My goal is to try and post at least once a week, and manage a variety of exercises.

Too keep myself honest, here's what I'm planning:

gesture drawings
anatomical studies
composition studies/shot lists from films
exploratory thumbnails
short animation tests
and at some point, working with tone and color. (scary.)

For now, I have some simple gesture drawings done with pen inside a palm sized notebook. I've even left in the unsuccessful doodles.

I have also included a ball bounce. One of the things I hope to do is to deepen my understanding of animation principles. Since it's been a long while since I've animated anything I figured it'd be best to start from the beginning.

EDIT: oh. it won't preview the .mov? alas. I'll have to get a youtube account. I will continue to attach a .mov, since that format allows for frame by frame whereas youtube and vimeo do not.

EDIT II: For those of you that drop by my sketchbook, if you would like to comment I would prefer a critique. The supportive comments are nice but that's not why I'm trying to be a part of this community. I may not agree with your critique (and keep in mind my background is in animation, so that will slant my work) but I DO want to hear it. ESPECIALLY if I have done something confusing or unclear. Draw overs are always welcome. Some of what I will be doing uses inventive anatomy - and I will screw it up. Heck, I even make fun of myself when I do that. ;) But you know, I learn what I don't know. So then I can go out and learn it.

[Alice Herring]

Today I've included a few composition studies from an animated film.

Then I finally downloaded a demo version of Painter and tried to paint a sphere. (Man that is not easy!)

of course, I then got carried away sketching a face. In retrospect, I probably should have used some sort of reference, but oh well! I'll take this as a learning process.

[Nestoronfire]

Looks like you're off to a good start. One thing though, i look at your list of things you wanna do and it seems pretty big. Don't try to do everything at once

[Alice Herring]

Nestoronfire: Thanks for the response!

And I'm...not exactly doing everything at *once* ;)

Big update! I was experimenting with ball bounces to see how certain spacing affected the timing. Which...most of you don't care about, but I found it interesting. Done over a couple of nights.

Youtube stuff first:


ball bounce using inbetweens. stretches are placed where a traditional inbetween would go. All drawings are on twos.


an additional stretch on either side of the squash are used - but they and the squash are only exposed for one frame. Everything else is on twos.


The first stretch is placed higher than usual. (frame 17.) Everything is on twos.


same spacing as above, but the stretches and squash are back to only being exposed for one frame each.


This one I did something a little different. The first few drawings of the downward motion and the last few drawings of the upwards motion are spaced with traditional inbetweens, while the others are spaced in thirds. A 'high' stretch on frame 17. The two stretches and one squash are on ones - everything else is exposed for two frames.


Same as above, just experimenting with the spacing of the downward stretch.


This time the downward stretch is almost touching the ground plane where the squash happens.


Some experimentation to make the ball feel like more than just gravity is acting upon it.


more experimentation. I gave this one more inbetweens at the top.

and now for some gestures! The ones on paper with a live model are still in the trunk of my car. (And..I'm not sure what kind of permission I need for that sort of thing?)

So these are from an online site, using painter.

The last image is me making crap up from memory and mocking my mistakes :)

[Liberty]

Your lines are so beautiful. Can`t wait for moar.

[Alice Herring]

Ha Ha!

I have an UPDATE!

Trying to see if I can paint (in black and white) from memory the planes/volumes of the face.

Parts are still hinky, but I think I'm getting better. (there were three other versions that never made it to the posting stage.)

I'd also just found out I'd remembered a color thing incorrectly in regards to skintone..no WONDER I was struggling so much! (I kept thinking the most saturated colors are in the shadows, and it must have been right because I read it somewhere! I'd just remembered it wrong. I was linked to the same site, and it says the most saturated area is the transition between the highlight and the shadow! hmmm. what does that make the midtone?)

[Alice Herring]

Starting a painting study using one of Leyendecker's studies. I'm starting with value first, then eventually color.

I've included the original.

Time so far: 5 hours

Yeah, I know it seems like a lot of time - but I'm also trying to analyze the decisions made while trying to correct errors I'm making at the same time. Means for slow going.

[Alice Herring]

Originally I was thinking about joining the CHOW, but...with everything I'm doing I don't really have time at this point, and I'd rather not stress myself out over it. :)

So here were some of the exploratory sketches.

[dave117]

The way you've memorised anatomy is pretty amazing - very expressive and will look even better when you start animating characters

[Alice Herring]

Thanks Dave!

Although I still have far to go. Life Drawing last night was an exercise in frustration! :)

I hadn't planned on drawing tonight, but it didn't quite work out that way.


As for animating characters - if only I had the time! :D

[TinyBird]

Liking what I see thus far. Look out for not going too "monotone" with your grayscale things, like the Leyendecker kid right now has the same value shirt, trousers and skin, so remember to pay attention to that when you keep refining the image

[Alice Herring]

OMG! Tinybird!

I about fell over laughing once I realized what you were saying. YOU'RE TOTALLY RIGHT! I can't believe I completely missed it!

Thanks! :D

I'll get back to working on it when I don't feel like I'm going to keel over after being awake for 20 minutes. :D

[Jazz]

Hi!! You have some really good figures going, and your loose sketches are animated to me. Very nice work!

[Dante Philippe]

awesome work * subscribed*

[Alice Herring]

Been sick and busy. Updated the Leyendecker study, and have a few sketches.

[Nezumi Works]

Really loving those sketches. Wish I could provide critique, but honestly you're way more advanced than I am down a similar path, so I'd probably be better served following your wake than giving you direction.

I can make a recommendation though, have you ever heard of a comic artist named Rodolphe Guenoden? Based on what I see here, I think you might like his stuff.

[Alice Herring]

Nezumi:

I TOTALLY HAVE. HE'S AWESOME! I've actually been out of school for a while, so it's just a matter of more practice. You'll get there!

[Nezumi Works]

Ugh, a LOT more practice. There are so many areas I'm desperately weak in. Keeping at it, though.

[Thyname]

It's looking nice! what site did you use for those gestures back in post 4? they are very dynamic and interesting

-evan

[wooden mango]

Really nice stuff! Your gesture drawings have so much motion to them. I love it!

[Alice Herring]

Nezumi:

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..! :D

Thyname: thank you! I used http://www.pixelovely.com/tools/gesture.html . :)

Mango: Thanks! :D

and I have an update. mwaha.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

i like youre figure drawings and gestures, theyre very clear and simple =)
keep posting more!

[Alice Herring]

thanks rumpenstiltzkin!

This is going to be a huge image dump - some life drawing from a class in the beginning of the year. I had..mixed success with the digital camera.

Anyway, haven't been as busy here as I originally anticipated, simply because I ended up in another class - this one for animation. Talk about something that takes a lot of time!

Hopefully sometime in the next week or so I'll get my animal sketches in too.

I'm up for any critique anyone wants to give - just a forewarning about the 'unfinished' life drawings - after doing the initial lay-in, because of the short time the instructor advised us to focus on developing the tone in one area.

Of course, sometimes I completely stuffed the initial lay-in, but it happens! The poses range in time from 1 minute, to the longest at 25 minutes. On rough sketch paper. (I am so going back to smooth newsprint!)

Now we'll see how many images at once a single post can take

[RyanRyan]

Whooaaaaa. Sweet action.

[Alice Herring]

Thanks RyanRyan!

Working on another JC Leyendecker study, painting a greyscale version using Photoshop. Trying to pay attention to the underlying construction, and how he turns the forms.

[Lightship69]

HI matey

I love the book and especially the greyscale study above its brilliant mate thanks for posting it up.

thanks for all the advice and posts in the WIP section too, its always useful and helpful

[TeamFox]

Great work. I wish you had numbered your animations of the balls and didn't have the background. Its very distracting because all the action is blocked.
Any way you can adjust the animation so it is to the left or right of the Flip book watermark?
On your latest Leyendecker are you going for exact copy?
Your skin value seems to be a lot lighter than his/hers. The jaw line could be a little more subtle, right now it seems to have a clench to it. The eyelashes are highlighted with a darker value on his. I don't mean to knit-pick. I think it is great and I know these are things that we don't notice while working because we are so involved. (BTW, I am not a pro in art in any sense so please take what I say with a grain of salt).

[FightingSeraph]

Those gesture drawings are excellent, but I have to agree with Team Fox on those animation tests. That watermark is very distracting and makes it hard to follow the animation. In addition, I would like for you to try the following:
-Perspective
-Physical colors (Colored Pencils, Markers, Pastels, and paint)
-Mechanical design

[Strato]

Hi rabbit.

The background in animation is really showing through, especially on your gestures. I kinda wish there was more than figures in here (though I realize that takes up the greater majority of your priorities.) Environment studies would probably help with your desire to do exploratory thumbnails, in addition to perspective as was suggested above.

[BlightedArt]

I wish I could watch those animation videos, player seems to be unresponsive for me at the moment, will try again later.

Your gestures are looking great, though some of the contours in your image-referenced studies are slightly off angle, though your form is definitely still there. Do you often mirror-flip your image while you work? It's a really handy way to get a fresher view on what you're doing and observing, and makes mistakes you hadn't noticed before a lot easier to see. Keep up the good work.