Some New Stuff

I haven't posted much lately, but here are some recent doodle pages I've done. There's some Popeye studies for a project, chimps and monkeys from my anthropology class and some quick gesture drawings from Union Square Park on Easter Sunday.

For the Birds Goes to the Dogs

Uh oh... here it comes...

This year, us second year animation students have been in the process of creating our own little animated films. & I, being one of those eager beaver animators, is completely ecstatic over the it. Back at the beginning of the semester, I was all set to get this production running at full throttle. I had my story down pat, my characters all designed & I was just about to start animating shots. Everything was going alright.

Then my heart nearly stopped.

Since my little heart scare back in February, I haven't felt quite the same. I've been considerably weaker, my sleeping & eating tracks have been knocked off kilter & I've become a bit more moody & emotional, which to me is very uncommon. I've even had a good amount of nightmares since I got out of the hospital. But worst of all, due to my lack of energy (emotional, mental & physical), I've neglected my little film (as well as some of my other projects for school). Work has slowed down to a crawl & I've actually gotten to the point where I've lost almost complete interest in it. Long story short, I won't be able to complete my film by the end of the school year. I'll be lucky if I get at least a minute out of the intended 2-3 minutes completed by then. 

I don't know what part of my heart hurts more, the physical or the metaphorical.

Yet, there's a little flame in me that still has emotional backing in this project, & I still want to go ahead & finish it, deadline or not. One of the few things that I could never let myself do is quit. I wouldn't be able to live it down if I did. So no matter what, even if I'm nearly struck dead by an act of some unspeakable force, I'm gonna finish this film. I've decided that I'm gonna make this a little summer project, something to keep my hands & mind busy the four months I'm away from school.

It was decided pretty late in the game that I was going to animate the whole thing in Flash. I already had about 3 or 4 scenes already animated on paper, ready to be shot. But when I began to think of all the trouble I'd have to go through to complete a shot, I had second thoughts. For a scene, each drawing would have to be 

1) animated & tested until it looks just right

2) cleaned up 

3) scanned into the computer

4) colored in Photoshop

5) composited into After Effects

& repeat until the whole film is complete. 

& for someone like me, who just happens to enjoy animating on ones, this would take an incomprehensible amount of time & effort to tackle. In Flash, you kill about 4 birds with one stone, all in one program. So, I threw al my completed scenes in the trash & started over.

For me, my use of Flash is a love-hate relationship. While you can accomplish basically the same exact things in Flash as you could traditionally drawing on paper, the program still doesn't suite me right. It almost feels like I'm cheating. Besides, I don't want to be solely attached to the computer. I want to have a thorough grounding in doing it the traditional way with good ol' pencil n' paper. Starting next year, I'm gonna stay as far away from the computer as I possibly can. 

But for now I got a film that needs finishing, so Flash is my last resort. & so far, I'm pretty satisfied with what I've animated. If I can spend at least 3 hours a day working on this cartoon, I may have something decent to show off. 'Til then, I'll be working my ass off (or at least whatever's left of it)

Earlier today, I animated in the Cintiq lab for about 5 hours straight. & of course, I had to have a doodle break:

It's almost like a sneak peek, but it's not. 

& so, I'm off to draw more doggies!

Ciao!

A Couple Pages of Doodles IIII

More doodles from beyond the grave. 

A Couple Pages of Doodles III

More doodles from deep in the Ruocco Vault:

Hurry, before they go back into the vault for another 7 years!

A Couple Pages of Doodles II

Here's some more doodles from the last few months:

A Couple Pages of Doodles

I had an 8-pound folder sitting on my animation table filled with about 500 sheets of half-crumpled printer paper with little "spare-time" sketches that I did over the past 2 months. After sorting through all of them, & weeding out the poor ones, I scanned about 140 keepers. I was thinking about doing another one of those giant setups with all the "good" doodles on them, but it's way too time consuming & I don't think anyone could stand looking at them for more than 30 seconds without their eyes crossing anyway.

Here's a few random pages to gaze upon:

Rhapsody in Blue (Doodles)

Rhapsody in Blue Doodles by ~FantasiaMan on deviantART

To see the image, click on the link above & click on the image to enlarge it a little bit. To see the image at close to its intended size so you can see each doodle up close, click the "Download" button on the left side. It may take a minute or two for the page to load, but hopefully it will be worth the wait for you.

My Sketchbook from September

Besides doing my assignments for SVA, the one thing I've been wanting to do was post my long overdo sketchbook drawings from September up here. I finally had the time & energy to do it, but I did something a wee bit different this time around.

Instead of posting each page individually, I scanned each page into Photoshop, lassoed, copied & pasted what I thought were my "satisfactory" drawings all onto one page. Doesn't sound too bad right? Well... you'll see for yourself.

Since the file is WAY to big to post on Blogger, I posted it on the next best place: deviantART. To see the image, click on the link below & click on the image to enlarge it a little bit. To see the image at close to it's intended size so you can see each doodle up close, click the "Download" button on the left side. It may take a minute or two for the page to load, but hopefully it will be worth the wait for you.

MJR's September Sketchbook by ~FantasiaMan on deviantART

Some Cintiq Doodles...

While in the computer lab over at the SVA animation studio, I doodled on one of the school's brand new Cintiqs to pass the time. Here's a select few of the probably 50-60 random drawings I did in that hour. 

Have I really improved?...

While down in Florida to visit my grandparents last month, they took out & showed me some old drawings I did when I was little. I must've drawn these when I was around 4 or 5, shortly before I decided to pursue a career in cartoons & animation. 

The big question is.... have I really improved?

(click to enlarge to "Dumbo" size)

Sorry I haven't posted much in a while, but "Back to School" time can be very strenuous sometimes. Everybody's busy doing their class assignments that there's barely any time to even sleep, let along blog. Even Toon Platoon has taken a brief unofficial hiatus! But don't worry, I've got posts all written & ready to be put up here, from new artwork to classwork to Richard Williams. Expect to see new goodies within the next week. 

"I'll teach your grandmother to SUCK EGGS!..."

I was a bit bored yesterday, so I drew some of my favorite expressions & poses from my favorite episode of Ren & Stimpy: "Stimpy's Invention". No matter how many times I watch it, half the time I'm laughing out loud & the other half I'm watching in awe at the animation & the variety of crazy takes Ren makes throughout the cartoon. Thanks, John K!

Some of the poses aren't "pushed" enough & are a bit off, but I rushed so it was inevitable.

Comic-Con Sketches: Part 2

I'm back from my second trip this week, so let's get back to where I left off, shall we?

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The top part of this page (7/25/08) was done at the Newgrounds Party. The girl who I gave a rebop to (check the photo post 2 posts back) asked my friend Chris if he could draw an owl. I tried drawing one too, just to see what I could do. The Randy-like bird in the middle is a character I designed last Halloween & drew here for old times sake. I might plan on having it appear in a comic or something sometime in the near future.

The lower part of the page (7/27/08) was done when I was beginning to run out of room in my sketchbook & I drew on incomplete pages. That day I happened to attend a signing for Ben Balistreri's new book SEAWEED. I just finished reading my copy of the book & wanted to try drawing Capt. Seaweed myself (which I rushed to draw & failed miserably). I'll go into more detail about SEAWEED in my next post, but while your at it, check out Ben's blog using the link on the right.

I drew this page on he last day of the convention when I was basically wrapping up. I bought a whole lot of books, figures & swag, & the top image basically illustrates what I had to go through the next day when I brought all my crap to the UPS store to ship it home.

The bottom image reflects on what happened a few days prior: On Friday, when I first met up with Chris Zito, he had this 13-16 year old kid following him around. For about 2 hours, this kid followed us like a stalker throughout the whole entire convention center. As far as I know, the kid crossed paths with Chris at the Newgrounds booth earlier that day, overheard who he was & decided to follow him around. He gave off this real creepy vibe, & Chris & I felt really awkward, like he was a vulture circling overhead or something. We finally lost the kid (probably lost our trail through the crowds & shuffle of the Con), but his eerie stalker vibe didn't go away for a little while after. We needed a mental shower to wash off the negative aura he gave off.

During a break at the Con, I took out my sketchbook again & drew to pass the time.

Since everybody (including my family & friends) knows me as the "Bird Guy" or "The Guy Who Draws Birds All the Time", I tried to break away from the birds for a few minutes & tried to draw something else. After drawing a real sloppy beaver (middle of page) I couldn't help sketching at least one bird. I started off with one (the turkey), then another (the Big Bird-esque on on the left) & before I knew it the page was fulla birds again! At least I tried to draw some different looking styled birds, like the two on the top left.

I don't know why, but I can't help drawing birds. For some reason, birds are very interesting & fun to draw, probably because there's such a wide variety of 'em. Size, shape, color... they're all very unique. There seems to be an unlimited amount of bird species to draw or cobble together. Same with fish, too.

When I run out of ideas, I just like to take one drawing & run with it 'til it reaches complete & utter chaos. That's what happened with the John Dilworth looking birds up at the top of this page. At points, I do go a bit nuts with my drawings, & I usually like to take a few liberties & risks in my sketches. This is a perfect example of the aftermath of combining these things & just running with them.

Back in my hotel room, I had another 3 hour drawing session. Out of the 15-20 pages I drew, only a few I considered worthy to put up. Like I said before, after reading SEAWEED, I was compelled to draw stuff based off it, including pelicans, fish & other sea life. The pelican boxer seems to pop up a lot in this sketchbook, & the one devilishly grinning one above it to the left looks a bit too much like a feathery version of ZigZag from the Thief & the Cobbler.

To me, octopi are also really fun to draw, but the 8 tentacles do get out of hand after a while. Sure, squids have 2 less tentacles, but they never seem as fun to draw as an octopus. It's all it the head too. An octopus looks like it's wearing an X-tra large Rastafarian hat.

Ah... another doodle page. God these make me smile....

Another thing I like about jumbled doodle pages like this is that it's almost like a game of I Spy. What & where is this drawing, & why is it here? Where else will you find a demented cat, a Bloody Mary, woman's bare lower half, a dripping chicken tongue & a duck punching the daylights out of something all in one place?

Don't try looking for Waldo though. I've checked, he ain't here.

On my last full day of the trip, when the Comic-Con was finally over & everyone was gone, I took a little ride over to Balboa Park to visit the San Diego Zoo. What a place! I wish I brought a small folding chair so I could sit & draw the animals all day!

While I tried to draw these animals as realistically as possible, they all ended up looking like crap to me. It could be because I find it hard & uncomfortable to draw while standing up.... it could be the heat of the sun bearing down, making me rush to go into the shade.....it could be the people crossing my path or crowding around my immediate area.... I don't know for sure.

While a few drawings came out alright, like the peacocks, the horn bill & the panther, the rest of them are junkie to me. Hopefully next time I go there I'll have studied up & improved to the point where those things don't affect me anymore. 'Til then, practice, practice, practice.

After I got back from the zoo, I ordered a pizza & drew for a few more hours again. I've been practicing on posing & exaggerating poses. There's noting worse than really weak posing, especially in comics. While I usually sketch (& sometimes ink) very sketchy & sloppy, I always try to put energy & "oomph" into my work.

Since I didn't have "free" access to the internet, I later sat down for about 10 minutes at one of the pay-computers in the hotel lobby. After checking my mail & looking over my main site stops, I checked John Sanford's Chippy & Loopus to see if there was anything new. In his newest comic, he snuck Ogo & Mr. Stuffings from Chris Sanders' Kiskaloo in the background of one of he panels. Later on, when I went back up to my room, I drew my own interpretation of that scene, but with not only Kiskaloo characters, but also from SEAWEED. You can spot them on the left near the middle of the page.

When I fill up a page, I usually only ink the drawings I think are "inkable" or good enough to be inked. Some drawings look really good in pencil, so I keep them that way & don't mess with them anymore. One small yet permanent black line can ruin a whole drawing, so I try to avoid it when I feel I need to.

On the last day before I left my hotel for the airport, I went down to breakfast & drew while I waited for my eggs & toast to come out. Like many diners or restaurants, they had a muted flat-screen TV over the counter, playing ESPN, NASCAR or Fox News. After watching the sports highlights, I drew the trio performing various sports. The boxing & golf ones came out alright, but the soccer & basketball ones I feel are a bit too weak. My food came out halfway through the hockey drawing, so I never finished it.

After a quick taxi ride & a long spiel through security at the airport, I finally settled down at my gate & took out my sketchbook again. Like I did at JFK, I drew the people sitting around me at the terminal, only this time I also tried to caricature the people a bit too. I only saw the balding man with the glasses from the back, so when I caricatured him I winged his face.

While I was drawing, the Chino Hills quake occurred. While the shock supposedly could be felt as far south as I was at the time, I didn't feel even the slightest bump or vibration. The most frequently-asked question I got when I got back to New York was if I felt it or not.

Once I got on the plane, I only had about 3-4 pages left in the book, so I drew sparingly throughout the 4 hour flight. When I did draw, I tried to time things out right & take a bit more time in my drawing. The dragons took me about 5-6 minutes to draw & ink each, while the sailor pelican took about 10 because of the complexity of the wheel.

By that time, my last Size 1 Ink Pen was nearly dried out, so I switched to the Brush pen, which unfortunately had a frayed edge. I hate it when the pen tips become frayed, it makes double lines & prevents me from drawing smooth, thin lines. I gotta practice pulling my lines down & not inking them upward. It's like brushing a dog or cat the wrong way, it's just not good.

Eitherway, I dealt with what I had. My last few drawings were quickly drawn, but retained the spontaneity I really like to keep.

My last drawing on the trip was done when I was really in the mood for some ice cream. I love Steve-O's expression at the bottom. That chocolate's never gonna come out.

Well, that's that.

Coming up soon: My Comic-Con Swagtacular!!!!

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Some drawings from my camping trip.

Comic-Con Sketches: Part 1

Yesterday, I wanted to post images from my sketchbook, but I couldn't scan the images because the metal rings on the sketchbook prevented me from scanning the pages correctly. Since I didn't want to rip the pages out of my sketchbook just to scan them, I did the next best thing: took photos of them with my handy dandy digital camera.

Since I have over 30 images to post, I'm gonna split this into two parts to make things easier. Here we go:

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The airport terminal is one of those perfect places to draw people. I spent about 3-5 minutes sketching until they announced to board the airplane. Interrupted again...

On the plane, I waited until we taxied out to the runway. Minutes passed, & we didn't move an inch. I finally took out my sketchpad when they announced that it would be another hour 'til we even left the terminal. I drew this out of frustration, much to the amusement of the passengers next to me.

We finally took off an hour later. When I didn't feel like watching George Carlin specials on my iPod or eating Terra Blues & ginger ale, I drew. The big-nosed caveman was actually a character I came up with a few weeks ago, the design based off my old man. I think I'll call him 'Chim'.

Ever listen to music on headphones, & the music starts to go a little silent, so you turn the volume up a little bit higher, then when you least suspect it the music suddenly goes 'BOOM' & you nearly go into cardiac arrest?... Well, that happened to me halfway through my flight. I bet my neighbor thought I was goin' into cardiac arrest too.

I was listening to Rolling Stones on my iPod, so I was inspired to draw Steve-O as Keith Richards (but not as fugly). I threw in some 70's looking backup players for kicks & giggles.

I finally got to San Diego. Sunny, dry & beautiful! I skipped preview night to settle down & grab a bite to eat at a local diner.

I've noticed that I've been drawing Randy a lot more lately, definitely for the better. He's starting to sneak into the spotlight a bit more each day. The 'bust' of him on the top left is probably my most perfect drawing of him ever, perfect proportions! The tough boxing pelican is a character who'll be appearing in my next comic story, which I'm currently writing& will hopefully get to once I finish the soup story. One of my favorite doodles on the trip was the 30's toon Randy. The 3 fingered gloves cinch it.

After lunner (lunch/dinner), I went back to my hotel room & sketched the rest of the evening. I love to draw Steve-O with the disgruntled unibrow look. 85% of my drawings have at least one of them on each page. I like to make each one a bit different though, so I don't get into too much of a rut (which explains the rabid one on the lower left). You'll also notice a bootleg Pink Panther & the half-done Inspector I gave up on.

I also tried to draw my manly mug, looking in the mirror above the hotel room desk. After doing the top three sketches, I just went crazy, drawing myself in all kinds of styles: pointy-chined (like I usually do), like a duck, a happy face, Butch Hartman-esque, like an AIM smiley, like Popeye, like Peanuts, like a 30's cartoon & like a UPA character.

I continued a bit on the top, drawin' me like a puppet & a chibi anime character, then took a rest from it. The rest is just random crap that flew into my head while I was drawin' them.

God, I love pages like this one...Near the end of my trip, I was running out of room in my sketchbook, so I went back & drew over pages I thought were lacking or just scrap. This page is just a jumble of random doodles, which definitely catches one's eyes when they flip through the book. I probably filled up this page in about 15 minutes.

My first day at the Con, I met up with some friends & acquaintances at the Newgrounds/Behemoth booth. This page is just filled with drawings & signatures by people I met/knew there, including Chris Zito on the top left, Chris "Kirbopher" Niosi at middle left, Kira (Rina-Chan) at middle right, EgoRaptor (creator of the Metal Gear Awesome series) in the middle & Andrew Dickman bottom right. Sadly, I wish I got the other guys names written down next to their drawings, since I can't quite read their handwriting. Maybe somebody out there'll help me out.

Later that day, I took a breather from the Con & sat upstairs to rest my legs. A perfect opportunity to sketch! Earlier that day, I had my first visit over to Chris Sanders' booth & picked up a copy of his Kiskaloo book, along with a bunch of other stuff. I got my friend Chris Zito into Kiskaloo & we were both trying to draw Ogo as best as we could. The thing about Chris Sanders' style is that it's very difficult to replicate, especially when your a novice like me. The simple yet difficult design of the characters & the quality of the line work is what really throws me off. Still, I try.

You may also notice Steve-O pretending to be the "West Guy" from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack at the top right. "Weeeeeeesssssssssssssssttt!"

While resting, I also drew fanboys, nerds & tired ol' me. I threw out my shoulder from carrying 50+ pounds of swag (left) & I was spending money like an oil tycoon (right). The drawing at the bottom was not drawn by me, it was drawn by an acquaintance (I can't recall his name) at the Newgrounds booth later on.

Later that night, I went to the Newgrounds/Behemoth party with the majority of my friends & fellow Newgrounders. Throughout the night, when I wasn't playing Xbox, Mario Kart or eating tacos, I scribbled in my sketchbook to pass the time. The next page ain't really that special, except for my interpretation of Chris Zito top right & Kira (Rina-Chan) bottom right. She signed her name next to it.

While chattin' & shootin' the breeze with the guys, I drew quick caricatures (or at least attempts at caricatures) of the people surrounding me. Some are a little realistic, while some are downright wacky (which I prefer to do).

The king of the party was the Castle Crashers video game, which caught plenty of eyes, ears & eager game-playing hands at the Con. At the party, the game was projected onto the wall, & controllers were passed around the party to those who wanted to play a few rounds. I drew one of the CC knights with a bazooka for fun.

The only thing I'm really "known" for in the Newgrounds community is my part in NIN10Doh!. I was surprised to find that a lot of people really enjoyed my segment, & a select few even asked me to draw a Topi or Ice Climber for them in their books. I'm not used to people asking ME to sign THEIR sketchbooks, so it was a real surreal moment for me. Those were the moments I felt really proud of my work. Sure it's a sin to feel proud of oneself, but what the hell, it felt good.

During the last few moments of my night, me & Chris Zito had a bit of a sketch-off. We ended up drawing Ogo again. God, he's hard to draw...

Well, that concludes part 1. I hope you enjoyed them!

I'll be gone for the rest of the weekend 'cause I'm goin' camping with my cousins for a few days. I'll finish posting my drawings once I get back (probably some time Monday)