Back in the animation block. Can’t lie. It feels nice.
I started a bouncing ball animation, but ran out of paper.
Then I made a bouncing Triangle in TVPaint, But couldn’t figure out how to upload it to youtube.
So right now I’m just getting to grips with the stuff I used to do here.
Wish me luck
Also
Medieve Music is just the best
It’s been hard living without structure. I’m clearly not much of an artist. But it would be a lie to say I’ve done nothing. I have some character sheets (Which I will hopefully upload photos of soon) And I now have a finished script. One I could make a storyboard with. And hopefully I will.
But I’m having trouble organizing my sleep pattern. Hopefully. That too will be fixed soon.
Back at university. Not super happy about it. Not gonna lie.
Summer felt longer than two years. I don’t remember what I was doing when Lockdown started. I feel like I’ve forgotten everything I once knew. My passion for making art has dried up.
But like a bicycle with a rusty chain, I am slowly getting into motion. Even with eaks and creaking.
I have tried to do something over the summer. I had know idea was wanted for Constellation (A huge waste of time) and didn’t even know if something was expected for Field. So I focused in entirely on my Subject project.
It didn’t take me long to pick what I wanted to do. Even if it scared the hell out of me.
I would make an animation based on the 12 glass paintings that got me onto this course. An ambitious project even by my standards. But it seemed appropriate to go back to the pieces that got me here to begin with. it meant I wouldn’t have to spend large amounts of time deciding what to do (Or so I thought), and sadly I had reconnected with the hard emotions that had inspired it to begin with.
I started out by turning the narrative behind the paintings into a short story. Some may call this a decadent choice. But I feel this was very useful for blocking out the emotions I was dealing with and seeing how all the pieces fit together. Plus it meant I had a short story to show.
It was a long process. It would have been shorter. But I often found I could only write a few words a day given how painful the subject matter was. But in the end, it was done it helps a lot that I was able to dictate it to my mother. She claims it’s a good story. I think it maybe the worst ever written.
I was lucky enough over the summer to make a friend in a man called Andy. A veteran of filmmaking who’s worked on several documentaries. He helped me storyboard another project (On I’m not sure in hindsight is actually going to be relevant this year. I hate my life) And when I had the story ready Andy was nice enough to translate the story into script form (Something I will always be grateful for) and all I had to do was tweak it to my liking and make the narrative fit the medium of film more.
Well. Turns out that easier said than done. My story idea needed a lot of tweaking to work as a film. The dialogue was unnatural. Some scenes didn’t need to be there. and some things needed to be clearer. I’m still working on it. But I am making some progress.
In between that. I’ve been working on character designs. Something from all that drawing (and painting) I did last year must have stuck, as I have basic character designs for every character in the film! Even the ones of don’t move. I even have some character sheets. Bad sadly, rather than working on those. I’m writing this.
I’ve had a lot of trouble settling back into my old rhythem. But I hope I’ll manage. Wish me luck.
As I am currently obliged to give my thoughts on the autumn term constellation module again please allow me to be blunt. Autumn’s constellation module was a colossal waste of time. It wasn’t all terrible, the segment “how to we see the world” which discussed schemas and how our environment informs what we see was extremely illuminating, but the rest of it was rubbish. Most of it was not even focused on Art. I don’t care what word games you play, a pile of leaves in the woods is not Art. A protest in a shopping mall is not Art. People walking on a sand dune is not Art. ”But John?” I hear you say: “how do you define Art, then?” To which I respond: “I don’t. I reject your notion that social engineering or activism can be defined as Art through scientific sophistry. To try to define Art is to kill it, and to try make Art based on your definitions is to make rubbish and then to expect to be paid for it. Art is not a scientific law that can be studied, it is the moment of Zen when the archer releases the arrow. A good archer doesn’t need words to technically prove he has hit the target. That’s what the arrow is for. Just as a good archer is not defined by the words he uses, but by his work, so is an Artist. Even this is too strict and too concrete a definition to be of any actual use. Please never bother me with this again.”
As for the other things covered in term one, having made it clear that Art was , at best, a tangential interest, I have to say most of the course felt like soap boxing. A programme designed more for the indoctrination of liberal ideologies than to reach about self-expression. While I have no issues with environmentalism, or critiquing corporate culture, the fact that activist efforts to push these ideals were presented as Art (despite not being so) does reveal a clear agenda. “Art” representing a more conservative outlook was either not shown or simply does not exist. Either way, no modern Art that conflicted with the lecturers’ views was presented to us. Some of our reading material also had a heavy political bias. The essay “In Freefall” is little more than a sustained attack on Western Culture from a woman whose nation has plenty of blood on its own hands.
Where my patience with the course ran out was the segment “who is other?” the reading for which was little more than a checklist of modern identity politics talking points, presenting women, non-whites and non-heterosexuals as victims by the mere act of existing. Anyone who is straight, white and male is automatically living a life of luxury. This I genuinely do object to on an ideological level. I won’t turn this into a debate, but I feel that I have been quite successfully “othered” for most of my life despite, if not in some cases because of, being straight, white and male. The proposed reading didn’t even seem to attempt to talk about Art using the loosest interpretation of that word. Thankfully on the day of the lecture I was ill and could not attend, which is good because I fear I would have lost my temper. The University system in the west is in some quarters seen as a joke, little more than a liberal indoctrination ground and money scam. This isn’t the first time the system has managed to live up to that stereotype. During my foundation year one of our lecturers used his position firstly to decry the supposed patriarchy and secondly to make us watch Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, and never got round to talking about Art.
But the system can be better than this. Most of the Art teachers I have had have been sincere and qualified. The animation staff here at Cardiff Met are a fine group, but it seems constellation could be renamed “indoctrination”. I would like to point out one of the segments questioning what our responsibility as Artists to the wider world is seemed only to exist to encourage the idea that we should be activists first and Artists – third perhaps.
If my arguments make no impact, perhaps the staff should consider whether they would have approved if rather than showing us “an Inconvenient Truth” our foundation leader had instead read aloud from “The Art of the Deal” . Using your platform as an Art teacher to push personal politics is dishonest, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum.
I will say, though, the segment “What About Pleasure?” while still built on the idea that I dislike, that Art needs to be justified, did give me some interesting things to think about. The comparison between the two types of pleasure defined by Nietzsche has stuck with me.
Constellation in the spring term has been trying. Despite all my efforts I wasn’t able to get my head around the proposed research method, using the online articles catalogue. I was eventually allowed to study via printed books, which suited me better. I can honestly say I’ve never put this much effort into reading in my life, but I fear I burned out rather quickly. I hope what I have acquired will prove to be enough. At the least, I was able to read about subjects that interested me, which was a nice change. I don’t really feel the unstructured environment (exacerbated later by the pandemic) is the best in which to study. They seem to want you to study in a particular way, show your workings in a particular way, and come to conclusions in a particular way, but they don’t tell you this. It feels like being asked to build a house when you have no knowledge of masonry, and not even knowing what sort of house the client wants. Building blindly and just hoping that what you make will satisfy. I still say this time would be better spent just letting me make animation.
Here are studios in the UK and Ireland i could work for
1: Cartoon Saloon
2: BluBlu Studios
3: TopLine films
4: The Animation Guys
5: Aardman animation
Why? The first four do 2 animation. Aardman because I respect them and I have a little experience with claymation.
I could offer them the skills of being willing to work for money
To achieve these goals I’d need to be good at animation and be better at working with people.
I’ll gain further experience by doing more work.
Field and Constellation are useless. The main extracurricular experience I can offer is somehow still being alive against all logic.
Done.
I’ve been thinking about ideas. Ideas are strange things. We think of them as solid, immutable things that we get totally. Something a lot like this
That once Leonardo had the image of the flying machine in his head he’d be able to see it clearly as we see it here. And once he had the idea it would stay like that forever. But it’s not like that. Ideas aren’t fixed. They’re never fixed. I’ve become very aware of this making my own animated projects. I’ll take notes for what I want to do in the future. Then days or even weeks later I’ll look at my notes and have no idea why I chose to write that down or it that way. But I’ll stick to the plan and normally it will work out fine I went into this is in excruciating detail in a previous post, ‘Making Art” https://johnhawk.art.blog/2019/11/06/making-art/
But let me make a new proposition.
Ideas don’t just fade over time. They start decomposing the second they are conceived. They have a half-life.
A Half-life is a term in physics referring to the period an object remains radioactive. Normally an isotope or some other object that generates radiation rather than simply receives it (At least if I remember right). It’s also the name of the best video game ever made. But that’s another story. A half-life is so named because from the second the object has been made radioactive that radioactive state starts decaying. It’s like heat. Heat goes away. A stone doesn’t vanish unless something makes it. But radiation only exists for so long.
I submit that ideas also have a half-life. That once they are brought into existence they start decaying immediately. This is why note taking matters obviously. But even the best notes will only give you 98% of what was there. The human mind is always in the process of losing information. You probably don’t remember what you had for lunch yesterday. But you can be reminded. If you were shown a photo of yourself eating lunch two days ago it would come back to you and you’d go “Oh yeah. That! It was a little undercooked that day”. As it is with memories. So it is with ideas. You may have a thought that seemed amazing. Lose it. And then it comes back later. Almost certainly not exactly the same. But pretty close. Far better than nothing. But in time, that idea will mutate and decay down into nothing. Just as some memories do seem to seep into the ether, like when you’re shown a photograph from years ago and can’t remember the story behind it, many of your ideas will vanish into the void if not looked after or recorded. But even so they will mutate and change. The remembrance changing things and the notes being a very, very imperfect hook.
In time it is the hook you are remembering. Not the idea.
And the hook in itself will mutate the idea. You never truly have the same idea twice.
But that’s a simple point to make. Not that different to what I mentioned in my “Making Art” Journal.
No. I bring this up to show that ideas, concepts if you will, cannot be art. Or at least cannot be experienced as art.
If an idea starts decaying the second it is convinced then any gap between its inception and note-taking is time in which the idea has started warping and decaying. No presentation of
I was motivated to start thinking about this when painting over drawings I’d made. Even though I made the drawings and they were right in front of me the second I had painted over them I was already forgetting what the drawing looked like. Only able to make an approximation of the original. Sometimes a good approximation, but an imperfect recreation nonetheless. Given I can spend a long time getting the details right this is very annoying. It’s fascinating if terrifying just how ephemeral ideas are. Even when they are ideas or ideas about things that we spent ages creating.
Given the transians of ideas it is tempting to say that there are no real ideas. Only many idea fragments that come in such speed that they seem continuous, like frames in a film.
Maybe they exist as a whole somewhere in the subconscious. But we still only get bits of them per millisecond.
There’s a lot that could be taken away from this. But for me the biggest one is I think I may have disproven the validity of conceptual art.
Hear me out. The point of conceptual art is that the thing in the museum is not the artwork. It idea it point to is. But if I am right ideas cannot be art.
Firstly because the original idea the that artist had that first inspired it will have decayed and been replaced by hooks and stand-ins many times over. And that possibly there was no real first idea at all.
And given ideas cannot be transferred person-to-person the stand-in is all the viewer will ever observe. The artwork, if it ever existed at all. Must die with the artist.
This has been quite the ride. Went I started this I was feeling very unsure in every sense of the word. A week prior I’d had a nasty cycling accident that had left me shaken and disturbed. All I could do was think about the accident and wondering how it would affect my life going forwards. But you have to keep going. And having just had my first successful project in years in Painting 101 I believed I could at least do this in theory. What scared me most was less the volume of the work as much as the unfamiliarity of it. I had no Idea how to split the story up into pages and then panels. With no guides or help I decided to follow my instincts and divided the process up. Starting by writing up the story, breaking it up into pages, then turning each point on the page into a panel.
As for what I’ve learned over these past few weeks. Well. Obviously panel placement and breaking narrative. But I also had to learn how to draw quickly and succinctly. Getting the minimum amount of drawing done to get the information across. I had to learn what I could convey in single drawings and what had to be told through text. Interestingly, it was mostly transitions.
I found I learned a lot about drawing expressions. Something that has been the bane of my existence. In this project there were moments where it was almost easy.
I learned that laying out panels is an almost musical exercise. Based around picking a “Rhythm” and hitting “Beats” in it.
My appreciation for people who do this monthly has sky rocketed.
I learned a fair bit about how much detail can be suggested by simple colours. How the style of the lettering and speech bubbles can help you get the tone you want.
If it matters, I’ve learned a lot about the anatomy of rabbits, and how to convey human emotions via a rabbit’s face and ways they can semi-realistically move. Maybe those skills can be passed on to drawings of other animals? And I’ve learned I really like drawing horror stuff.
I don’t know that I can say that any part of this was easy. It was a struggle all the way. Things that went well were how my work got better and faster with each week. At first I thought the lettering was going to kill me. But that actually did get easier. And some things like pages 18 and 20 came out way better than they had any right to.
All of this was challenging. I think the long stretches of constant drawing was the hardest part. That was when I was getting the least amount of work done. Though page nine with its huge volume of text almost made me despair. That was the hump part.
I’m not sure if any of this is going to translate over into my animation work. Obviously any improvements to my drawing and storytelling skills is a win. And if I am not better at drawing expressions and animals that can only make my life better. But as far as changing my outlook on making animation? Probably not. The best thing this modal has done for me is reawaken my love of drawing and give me some confidence I can improve as an artist. And that I can make the steps I need to take to do so.
It’s also reawakened my love of horror fiction. And it was a great way for me to express the trauma from my accident in narrative form. For both these things I’m very grateful.
Thanks.
This week has been odd. When the week started I didn’t think I’d be able to draw anything. But strangely, it started getting a little easier. On one day I went into a manic phase and did five pages! From this I can conclude two things. Firstly, the stop-start nature of comics is not so disconcerting that I can’t get into a flow. And secondly I do better in with comics when I find the story exciting. I guess that makes sense.
I wish I knew how to get into this creative grove on demand. I think it has something to do with setting myself goals. If I say I work until so much time has passed or I’ve done a certain amount of work. Clearly just letting myself do whatever until quitting time is not the optimal method for me.
But yes I have made progress. 19 pages are done and I will do page 20 soon. Sadly I probably won’t have time to colour it. Certainly not all of it that’s for sure.
Right now I’m doing the lettering. And oh God I had no idea how hard this would be. I’d forgotten how slow I am at writing. And I’ve written so much text! If I ever write another comic I will be more sparse with the dialogue. But at least if I get all the lettering done I will have a readable comic. It will have hit the minimum it needs. But I want to do more. I want to add colour. Clean up the borders and gutters. And maybe do a front and back cover. I’ll just have to see what happens.
For research this week I’ve been reading The Wolverton Bible. A beautifully drawn Bible done in dark black and white drawings. It’s not impacted what I’ve made. I’m a bit to deep in for new ideas. But it has been a joy to read and It’s helped keep me inspired.
As of today. I have all the lettering done! It was amazing. I had five pages to letter and one to draw and letter and I did it all with barely any breaks. I even did a cover for the comic.
I’m amazed. While I didn’t do all I wanted to I have done all I HAVE to do. And again, that feels good. I have a readable comic. Not a great comic. Or a comic with good art. But it is a 20 page comic that is perfectly readable. More than I was afraid I could do. It’s not the victory I wanted. But it is a victory of sorts.
Here are three of my favourite pages
So I can use my remaining days to try to improve comic where I can. I might even get a few pages coloured.
I think the reason I had this breakthrough was to do with the near deadline. But not because of pressure. I didn’t feel under pressure today. I knew I had time to do the work I needed.
I think it’s because I had a defined time to get the work in. That’s what helps. Today just flew by.
There are things I’d like to do and there are things I should be doing. Granted that’s a given in life. Last night I played Silent Hill 2 when I could have been studying drawing techniques. But there are things I want to do that I know would be good for me, even if they get in the way of things that I should be doing.
Like going to the gym for instance. I’ve been going to the gym at my apartment complex. And for once I don’t feel awful after doing that. I want to keep doing it, and keep doing it until I’m healthy again. But I don’t just want to do it at home either. There is gym here on campus and I want to use it here two. I’ve signed up and had an induction. And one thing that is very clear to me is I don’t have time for the massive work out that has been suggested for me. At most I can do it once week, IF it’s a lighter week. I may be able to cram in some shorter sessions. But again, once, maybe twice a week at most. Time is precious.
There are other things I could do to get healthier. My diet could be better. I could eat less junk food and drink less awful drinks, that’s a given. But I could also eat healthier meals too. There is a salad bar here in campus. I know in theory salad is better for you than Pizza and popcorn chicken, though I’m not sure how much I trust any of the food on this campus, let alone after I’ve covered the salad in oils and vinegars. But if nothing else it might help me gain a taste for salads and figure out what I do and don’t like. On this note. I should also look into what might make a healthier diet as a whole. I’m wondering if it might be a good idea to have one day a week where I am vegetarian and another where I am vegan. It would certainly be good for the planet and my karma if I eat less meat. And if it helps my health so much the better. I’m even wondering if it would be good to fast one day a week? My bank account would certainly appreciate it. Again. I should probably talk to a professional about this. And I really should spend more time chewing when eating. Obviously changes to my food intake aren’t going to change my use of time, much. But it’s all part of the bigger picture.
I should now bring up that really you shouldn’t sit in one place for hours at an time. It’s very bad for your health, or so I’ve heard. Really if you want to be healthier you should get a standing desk. But That’s not going to be easy here, certainly at short notice. But one way to deal with the issue of sitting is to get up at least once an hour, do some stretches and some exercises, maybe some jumping jacks. That’s apparently the right thing to do.
I should also take the stairs rather than the lift when going to art block. Not that that’s easy. But that’s the job.
Now lets talk about the things that if I pursue them will cut into my time quite a bit.
Firstly there are some stretches and neck exercises I need to do for my neck. My neck posture is frankly awful. I’ve been trying to not let it slop forwards for the past few weeks and on the first few days my neck was so weak I couldn’t work at all. I’ve found a useful video with stretches and exercises for my neck. To make the muscles in it stronger and to give it better posture. But all together they take at least ten minutes. And the video says I really should do them every day. Three times a day to be precise. Trying to improve my neck posture has also led to me try to improve my back and sitting posture. I’m sure there are exercises I could do to improve those too. But I want to see a professional first. For now I’m happy just actually sitting in chairs the way they are meant to be sat in. And sadly even that takes it out of me. I’d like if possible to get in some sitting just sitting correctly without a chair now and then. I I can get my back muscles stronger then that’s much better.
I don’t want to get horrendous back pain when I’m older. And probably the best thing I can do is try to prevent it now while I’m young-ish. I certainly don’t want to be only able to use a standing desk like morgan. So I must see a physiotherapist when I can.
Speaking of stretches. My last therapist gave me a pair of exercises that I’ve been neglecting pretty much since I got them. One is a breathing exercise and the other is a muscle exercise. Both are meant to relieve tension and I’m meant do both twice a day. In a garden if possible. Speaking of which, I really should go out doors more often. I’ve heard (Yes I know there’s a lot of hearsay in this. I’m not a health expert.) That a few hours in nature can do wonders for your physical and emotional health for weeks. And I’d like to feel the grass beneath my feet and breath cleaner air every now and then.
The book of silence recommends going for regular walks. Where I’d go I don’t know. Maybe Cardiff Castle park.
I’d also like to get back into the habit of life drawing. My best teacher insisted you should get in at least an hour’s life drawing everyday. And it is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it is. And I really should be going to life drawing classes as well. i now know there are night classes here, but you have to sign up for them at the start of term unfortunately. I guess I’ll have to look for them elsewhere.
Keeping on the theme of artistry. I haven’t given up on trying to learn have to do digital hand drawn animation. In fact I’ve been working a little at it almost every day. I’ve made a bouncing ball and a walk cycle already. And oh god it feels good to be animating again. It feels fun. Specially as I’m not putting much pressure on myself. Just animarting for the sake of it. It’s nice. And I will get better at this.
To try to learn more about digital drawing I’ve also been fiddling with DevaintART’s Muro tool. It’s a program a bit like Microsoft Paint, bit a bit more advanced. It has has things like layers and opacity filters. I hope doing this will not only help me get better at digial drawing, but act as a stepping stone to making real digital art that I could make money off some day. If i get the hang of Muro I may finally get the hang of things like Photoshop in time. So far I’ve just been making abstracts, just trying to get the hand of tools, like what I did with MS paint in my Tween years. And oh god has it felt wonderful to be doing it again. I haven’t enjoyed making art like this in years. Maybe I should make on abstract every day?
My artist ambitions don’t end there though! I want to write more. I recently wrote a short story and brought it to completion. Something I’d never done for myself before. If I can do it once. I can do it again. Plus there are some stories I started but never finished, and I want to finish them now.
And I want to develop my spiritual side more. I’d like to get some silent prayer in my day. Apparently whether prayerful or not you should try to get some silence in every day.
But not just that. I want to read and meditate on the scriptures. I want to say the liturgies. I want to really learn to be a Christian.
So. In brief I want to
Go to the gym more. On and off of campus
Eat more healthy foods. Maybe going vegetarian, vegan, and fasting for one day a week respectively
Chew my food more.
Walk using the stairs when in the art block.
Do neck stretches (daily)
Do back exercises at some point
Do the exercises set for me by my therapist (daily)
Do exercises to break up the monotony of sitting
Practice proper sitting without a chair
See a physiotherapist when I can
Go outside into nature every now and then and breath in the better air
Feel the grass beneath my feet.
Go on walks when I can
Get in one hour of life drawing a day
Go to life drawing classes when I can.#
Make digital animation when I can and learn how to use TV paint
Make digital art in Muro (Daily?)
Really start writing (Daily?)
Silent prayer (Daily)
Reading scripture (Daily)
Other religious practises (Daily?)
How am I going to find time to do all this in one week? Let alone in one day? Well it’s tempting to just say “I don’t have time” and only do the work I have to do. That’s what I have been doing for the past year and half. But strange as this sounds, I want to live in the future less. I want to learn things that I need to now. I want to start making art rather than just studying to make art. And I want to become a better and more accomplished person.
If anyone can help me with these ambitions, please do.
Last week I was feeling pretty depressed. I didn’t want to draw at all. In fact I spent a good amount of time trying to think of things I could do that weren’t drawing. It doesn’t help that I’m going through a phase were I’m thinking a lot about all the other things I could be doing. Like going to the gym and such.
But by Wednesday I was able to at least start drawing again. It was very strange. My emotions would sawy all over the place. Feeling awful and useless one second and feeling on top of the world the next. Then the next moment I’d feel to tired to do anything. All I can say is I there are clearly things I like about making comics. It does give a feeling of accomplishment. And when I did a panel that was meant to be scary or disturbing I have a great deal of fun. I doubt any of it is actually scary or disturbing. i just really enjoy drawing it.
My speed does seem to have picked up a little. But still not enough. Strangely, on Friday I brought in a large number of of snacks with me while I worked. And it increased the amount I worked to a frightening degree. As long as I felt compelled to stay in my chair because I was eating as well as drawing the amount of work I did went through the roof. This tells me two things. Firstly, even though I have trouble with the stop and start nature of comic drawing it is a barrier I can get past. And I can still work for longer periods, I just need to figure out how. I’m fairly sure that while the food helped make this breakthrough it is not indispensable (For the sake of my weight I hope not). It is most likely a magic feather of sorts. Something that helped me tap into something that is already in me. I just need to figure out how to tap into it on it’s own.
For research this week i read the new volume of Beasts of Burden. One of my favourite comic book series and a pretty big influence on the project I’m making now. It’s a horror comic about town dogs fighting supernatural evil. I decided to look at the animals expressions to see how the artists convey human emotion on animals faces. It seems not that much needs to change. Just some tweaks to the eyes and mouths do it (Though I’m having trouble identifying what those tweaks are). Another thing I noticed is even thought most of these animals had no eyebrows the artists would often use little tricks to imply eyebrows even when there weren’t any, because Eyebrows add a lot to how we humans see expression,
I also looked at the backgrounds to get some ideas on how to do nature scenes. To my surprise I found the backgrounds in Beasts of Burden where very simple. Often made of just one or two shades of green with a tiny number extra splashes or lines of other shades of green to indicate texture or change. And maybe some extra gradients of light or dark to draw our attention to the main thing in the panel. Where there was grass and trees the artists would use two totally separate shade of green so there was no mistaking them. Ans Skies would often have as much white as blue. Even if the sky was clear. To keep the sky from being oppressive and taking to much attention I think. I’ll try to put all of this to use when colouring this comic.
Another thing I did that has already helped is I printed out several pictures of rabbit is different poses. Rabbit heads. and even rabbit skeletons and skulls. And now my rabbits are actually starting to look like rabbits. I’m building an idea in my head of what a rabbit should look like. It’s amazing how much visual reference helps.
And I don’t want to jinx it. But I think I’m getting better at drawing expressions.
What used to be the worst part about drawing for me, something I hated so much I made my first animation with faceless characters to save heartache, is kinda starting to come naturally to me. As often as not I find the expression I’ve drawn conveys the right emotion I want it to, and looks good enough that I don’t want to change it. At least in this early stage of the comic.
If I can get good, or at least ok at drawing expressions, something I thought would never happen. What else can I improve?
Another thing I realise I enjoy, much to my suprise, is posing. I find rabbits are really good for dramatic action and fighting. And it feels great getting a across the emotions and ideas of the scene with just how the characters are moving, posed, and positioned. Here also is something I think can be nurtured into something that might make me a better and more engaged artist.
Let’s hope this stuff helps.
John's Learning Journal 