thebulfrog's book

[Flaskpost]

i think you tend to draw too long faces in your sp´s, or too long noses anyhow. try to think about that, the eyes should be almost in the middle of the face.
of course it varies from people to people, but its a good guideline.

keep it up man, stuff is looking good!

[Blahm]

haha sorry about assuming you were christian. Aside from anatomy a really good way to workout your 'eye' is to attempt a cast drawing. Just work on it for a couple hours a day or somthing. You would be suprised with the results. ITs also a great warmup in general.

[BrentM]

Awesome work. great studies

I was trying to draw from scratch and it is very tough. I decided to stick with anatomy studies over and over to get those to stick in my mind before trying to venture into drawing the figure from scratch and getting it wrong.

I really like that first SP it has good depth.

Keep up the hard work!

[bdfoster]

Red house is no more?!!?! Arrrghhh!!

::Moment of silence::

At least illustration will now rule Shaffer. (I always hated taking the bus to get to any of my 3D classes. It would suck to have to do it for VisCom too). I always thought Symposium was very hit or miss. Sometimes there were interesting people that really taught me nothing, but were interesting to listen to-- The designer the FedEx logo with the subliminal arrow, for example-- but often I felt combining the design people with the illustration people was just a little too inclusive to have as much merit as a more focused program. I also wish they could have gotten more people to do demos and whatnot-- I think Donato did one when I was there, and I know Dave DeVries did several, but many others did not...

Back to the SB-- the new post is interesting, The self portrait is the strongest piece out of all of them, followed closely by the shoulder studies. It really seems in these situations, where you've got reference but still allow some of your stylization to show through, is where your stuff shines. The gestures from your head seem to be lacking any underlying form--this one is a prime example of that....

Keep up the hard work. Looking forward to more...

[thebulfrog]

So the Syracuse Semester just finished up, which means I've graduated, so atleast until I get a job, I have a bit of free time and in the constant effort to improve I turn back to concept art. I've been away for too long, but I've been busy-make no mistake...the next few posts will mainly be catching up on some of the sketches of the last semester, but by the end of the week it should be all new stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to be true to the daily status I promised myself (which I kept during winter break, and now with summer should be able to keep again)

Some quick attempts at Watercolor that I was really happy with:





I should do more like this-was the first picture in what turned into a minute and a half animation:



Some figure drawing:





Very quick thumbnails that I liked:







These are me amusing myself in class. Beyond that, I haven't the slightest what they are:





To top it off, some pictures from photographs I've taken:





Those are afew sketches from the recent past. I dare say there are many, many more-but I probably won't bother scanning the others-Too many new things worth bothering with.

[thebulfrog]

While I'm at it, I figured I'd also show some of the illustrations from the last semester-get all this old (for me) stuff out of the way so I can move on, and hear advice on what needs to be worked on, who I should be looking at, etc. etc.

In chronological order (I think):

To be honest, I like the drawing more. I haven't rendered that much in...well...ever-the painting doesn't really try anything new for me -maybe the weird color choice


I'm really happy how these turned on, but it's not at all the direction I want to head in-takes too long, and isn't quite there-I should start integrating collage into my work again-I miss it-it's really where I started in art-making hoky (well, as I judge them now) photoshop pieces.



These two were done for the story "The Tell Tale Heart" - I did the first one, didn't really like it-began to redo it (the second piece) and then decided I'd stick with the first-the photoshoot ended up being only five shots long cause my batteries died on the sixth shot-was a shame, but fortunately the first five pictures weren't overly horrible.



Was losing my sanity in the midst of finals so took an hour or two to do a painting for the hell of it:



I think there's something in this style-will probably do a few more of these, and a bunch more of those watercolor quickies at the top of the previous post-They're not as good as some of my pencils, but they're closer than many of my paintings.


I think that should do it for now. Hopefully these next few weeks will show some massive improvements.

[JaneM]

Your drawings are all made in this very rough style, which I think is incredibly cool and inspiering. Some of the people drawn could need a little more anatomy study, but I see that you are working with that. Nice muscle studies! Not to mention the paintings! The portraits you did were all well made.
Thank you for sharing!

[thebulfrog]

Here are some figure paintings from model. These are the only exposure to oil paints that I've had (something I keep meaning to spend time on and fix) It's not really painting until it's done with oils. There's a lot of similarities between it and acrylic or watercolor or guache, but it's really its own ballpark. I like it-it really opens up what can be done...but then there's the smell....and the mess....don't worry-those aren't enough to completely deter me. I'll be using them again soon. These are by no means my best work, and I always left a bit frustrated, but here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Also, I was too lazy to scan them so I'm sorry about the low quality from my digital camera.

I'll try to do this in chronological order.

This first one I relied heavily on the lines purely because I had no idea what to do with the oil-this is among the first.



This is also one of the first-not sure why, but I ended up with the exact same color combination as the first one.



For the record she was actually wearing a pig mask.



Why, yes, this was done on the bottom of a pizza box cardboard that I had previously drawn a quick charcoal cartoony face on. Glad you asked.



I was pretty happy with how this turned out (until I looked around the room and saw a couple of the other paintings coming out...then I realized just how much work I still had to do)



Wasn't forced to use oils so I happily gave a shot at watercolors for this quickie.



Two days in a row with posts! This is exciting. Hopefully it will last past the weekend.

[thebulfrog]

About a week ago, I decided to get serious about doing Storyboards. My skills need mucho improvement on the whole cartooning side, and I'm working on it. I went about reverse engineering the opening sequence to a batman episode-none of the character, plot, ideas, compositions are mine-just the drawings, and even those are copied. I'll post some of my original (if more out of date) storyboards next...and I'm working on an original storyboard now-so that should be up next week.













Until tomorrow....

[thebulfrog]

There is no chance I'll have the time to update tomorrow-so let's just get this out of the way now, and prove that I can do more than copy. Saturday's also questionable, but expect a double portion Sunday if nothing is up on Saturday.

Here's the storyboard I did for "The Plant" There's a link to both the animation and the animatic in some post above. Here's some motivation to actually click on them. If you think I plan on linking to them again to save you the time, you, my friend, are crazy.


















These were done over the course of a week at the beginning of the school year-I suppose I've grown since then, but they still make me happy-took about a half hour a piece.

[mQe]

nice to see a different kind of paper, looks like sandpaper
Your drawngs has a wobbely feel to it, not sure if it's intended. It's as if someone but a ripple distortion in photoshop
Makes them kind of unique

[thebulfrog]

In my constant effort to put quantity over quality-here's the latest in me trying to catch up. These are snapped from a recent sketchbook, and I apologize again for the lousy quality-future posts I'll make sure things are better. I need to get myself a scanner...even a bad one-I thought just snapping shots with a camera would save me time...no-I had to edit in photoshop, bring them into the computer, and no matter what I do it will never look half as good as a scanner-so I'll find myself one.

First page of my new sketchbook:


Not sure


I've done better-




I had fun with these -





Yet, not the direction i want to go.

Some warm up sketches-






A few from looking at Bone




Figure Drawing-




Messing around in class-








So I'm trying to get a better feel for anatomy and the rhythm of the body, and let me tell you-it is very discouraging. I figure if I give it enough time, I'm bound to get it-but this whole doing things from my head and making it look realistic is just not working so far. I've been looking at Loomis for structure and Bridgeman when I really want the detail...this will take some time-

(There are many more of these sorts of pages, but let's wait until they're a bit more showable.)

[thebulfrog]

Scanners are my friend, I've decided. I did not draw today...alas....here's some stuff from yesterday, and the day before.

Drawing some friends on the couch across from me


Drawing the roomate


Old lady in awesome photograph (wish I could tell you who took it)


Same photographer


Again.


Back on the couch




Supposed to be John Singer Sergeant




I was just looking at all sorts of artists-


One last couch person


That about wraps that up. Scanners make life so much easier.

[thebulfrog]

I want to do more in this style...quick, fun, all that.

Golem:


Old Yeller:

[thebulfrog]

This has been a lazy week. First with Shavuot, then with Shabbos, then with vacation...I've had no motivation to do anything-I need to get back in the swing of things. I've been spending time looking for jobs and managed to push drawing aside. This is no good for my health. In order to draw I need motivation, like payment or a kick in the but, but in order to get that I need to get better at drawing....and then there's the pure love of it....all right, enough talk-here's some artwork. The posts with ten or more pieces probably won't be happening for a while. Alas to the inability to feed on anymore old work.

These next three don't get any explanation. You'll have to deal.







I keep meaning on focusing in, strengthening my line and learning anatomy...but I always end up just having fun loosely going from photographs-not concept art at all. I need to go back to the fundementals...

[thebulfrog]

Moved to New York, found a free apartment by way of cat sitting by running into a stranger at the Society of Illustrators Tuesday Figure Drawing and Jazz night, am juggling three jobs, all taking away from my time drawing...getting better at web design...but that really doesn't hold much sway for me...need to get into the swing of things in this city and get into the art scene...I've only been here a week-all is madness-once again have a scanner at hand, so more sketches to come...trying to draw for two hours a day on my commute, but not always succeeding....all is madness I say-and here's a couple pictures (I looked through my travel sketchbook, and honestly these turned out to be the only two worth showing...alas-there's plenty in my other books, and they'll be posted shortly.)...oh, and if you're noting my 10PM post time as apposed to the usual 3AM...and I imagine you're not-I've been juggling anywhere from three to six hours of sleep a night, woke up at 6 this morning, and it's looking like the same is in store for tommorow.The Job, you ask? I'm doing some stuff for davebias.org, some for oyhoo.com, and some for edit.com (yes, that last one amounts to a website mechanic-of this I fully admit)
In other news I'll be starting to go to AnimationMentor.com in September, and hopefully that will mean an unrighteaus amount of growing of my skill. While I wait till then the hope is to finish an animation in Maya-it's 2 months time with little free time of my own in a program I barely know (Maya)..but hey, it's worth a shot. Step 1(idea) is nearly finished-then going to gather a team of interested people in a similar situation, and hopefully will get it done.

Enough talk that no one reads....I still need to thank people for comments-I'm reading them, I am, need to respond-there were some good ones...but I read them a month ago, around the time that I last posted....so I'll save the feedback of the feedback for later....ooh! and my birthday's in a couple days....need to figure out what I'm doing-shouldn't have moved so close to it...


Washington Square-man jamming covers to Beatles and the like-some time with a drummer, two part harmony, another vocalist, and a crowd of dozens-a very chill scene.


While the pictures didn't come out so good for me, I did manage to find myself a free apartment for a month and a half-I do like the Society of Illustrators. (Oh, I applied for a job there, got called to the second round, and then got dumped for someone who had been hired in Museum Curation-probably a good choice on their part. I've since managed to find a job that pays 50% more, and takes a bit mroe skill...so all is not lost)

Anyhow, I need to start sketching more-I've been putting in about twelve hours a day of web design/backend work, and that isn't right at all. Well, I can say that I've only been doing this non-illustration/animation lifestyle thing for about two weeks now, so I'm not completely off the track yet. I'll find my way in time. I suppose the first step is getting some real talent.Oh! and I graduated from College(man, it has been a while)
There should be far fewer (unedited) words, and far more pictures in this post.
Oh, well...

[thebulfrog]

hm...experimentation-I like the way you think. I'm currently working my way up to get an animation done in Maya (my other three were in Lightwave)...trying new apporaches there-and doing a lot of web stuff that I dare say I could have never even imagined doing half a year ago...but I've been sticking with my trusty #2 for a bit too long now...I'm going to start messing with the sketches in photoshop a bit-seeing if I can try my hand at painting them....also, yeah-general experimentation...

These are entirely from my two hours a day on a Subway going to a from work (one hour there, and another back)-it's a good thing I love drawing so much, or I'd be forced to resort to Sodoku like half the rest of the train...oh, who am I kidding-I pick up that AM just like everyone else...bows head in shame...
Anyhow-here are a few-
Some preliminary sketches for the animation I'm working out "Ballad of Balls" (It's a working title)






Nothing better then staring at people:





Or having them stare at me...yep, I used the paint bucket....I suppose I could pull out my wacom as appose to the touch pad I'm using right now and actually care a little....

[thebulfrog]

Just finished scanning and uploading 40 images. I'm too tired to post them now, and too enthralled by this Aen Flux show that I' discovered yesterday for the first time....anyhow, I dedicated a week of my life to nothing but sketching (a few finished paintings, but mainly anatomy and the like) I probably drew for eight hours a day on average, and realized that if I continued at that rate I could be really, really good. I don't think I can continue at that pace-need to work and get finishes from time to time, so I'm stuck with only having at most three or four hours a day to draw and at least no time at all....alas....anyhow-here's the first four to wet the appetite, and when I get some time I'll continue the post with some better quality images-

Some anatomy studies (mainly looking at Bridgeman):

[thebulfrog]

anatomy study:



another, and messing around drawing a head:



more anatomy:

[thebulfrog]

How many posts does it take to get this on to another page? Loading this page pure madness-I'll update until I get onto a second page. I think I'm due.



(This one's terrible, let me have my fun and experiment...they'll get better)

[thebulfrog]

Slightly less crappy anatomy-I like the skinny guy.

[thebulfrog]

Looking at another artist's reference....I forget who's.....I'm sure I can dig it up if anyone really cares.

[thebulfrog]

Trying to make some characters...I've done worse....and it's marked improvement from my first posts.

[thebulfrog]

another fun little guy.

[thebulfrog]

Looking at Froud, the concept artist behind The Dark Crystal and The Labrynth....an incredible artist who you should definitely check out if you've never seen him.

[thebulfrog]

Another Froud fraud.

[thebulfrog]

That guy on the right is my own creation. I'm proud of him. That guy on the left is copying Froud again. Only after a few hours of copying Froud could I bring myself to a level of quality I wanted to get to.

[thebulfrog]

I imagined I could have stitched this with the pic above, but I'd rather post it twice. I really like this fellow of mine.

[thebulfrog]

Another Froud. He's good. So good.

[thebulfrog]

I don't think Froud ever drew this.