189. 36. 2.

Greetings internet folk.

I find myself feeling the need to once again apologize for such a prolonged absence.  But you see the thing is that all of the work I have recently been doing (there has been a LOT of it) is work that I plan to use for my working portfolio.  The internet is in fact very useful in helping me to broadcast myself and my work to far greater audiences than ever before possible, but it is also, unfortunately, the home and lurking place of less than trustworthy people.  So you see, I just don't feel comfortable posting my best work here at the moment.  Once I have everything I need in order and good to go I promise there will come a time when I can finally flood this place with all of the pieces that I am especially proud of.  Until then you will all just have to be satisfied with my occasional doodles and ramblings.

Moving on.

So maybe by now you have all spent a good amount of time wondering what the heck the title of this post is all about, and maybe some of you think you might have even figured it out.
Well you probably haven't.
Those numbers refer to the most recent project(s) that I have been engrossed in which just so happens to be films!  That's right, I have finally made my first short film.  It's very short and very rough but I am extremely pleased with the results considering it was my first ever time experimenting with stop-motion.  But wait.  Sydni, didn't you say that you wanted to do traditional animation?  Why yes, that is correct.  But here's the deal;  this IS traditional.  In fact it's about as traditional as you can possibly get.  For my first film I decided to work with stop-motion (it's essentially the same thing as working frame-by-frame.  Most people are more familiar with it in the form of claymation) because it allowed me to work with my all-time favorite medium: charcoal.

 The whole thing was done entirely in charcoal, which brings us to our first number: 189.

My first film had a grand total of 189 frames, all hand drawn by yours truly and then dumped into Final Cut Pro for editing.  I had actually drawn more than that but because I wasn't happy with where the film was going at the time I decided to cut some of those frames and replace them (good decision).  I realize that this sounds amazingly tedious and labor-intensive for a project that ended up being all of exactly one minute long, but I must tell you all that it was extremely satisfying to see the finished result.  I can't wait to get started on my next film!

This brings us to the second number: 36.

36 is the current number of frames that I have drawn out for for my second short film.  I have absolutely no clue how many frames or how long the whole thing will end up being once it's done.  I just figure that when it's done I'll know, and that will be that.

So that's where the number 2 comes in.  So far I will have made (or as it is currently, "making") 2 short films.  This is all extremely exciting for me.  I just need to keep the momentum going!!

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRTTTT!!!!








ps.  for anyone wondering, no I did not use 189 sheets of paper.  I did all of the frames/stills on one sheet of toned paper using additive and subtractive methods (eraser, chamois, ect.)

pps.  the reason my writing sounds so bizarre and for the crazy run-on sentences is because we recently read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in my English class.  It's one of my favorite books ever and Shelley's writing style is clearly way too influential on me.

Red-ish Pink Hair

Well this semester is indeed shaping up to be a busy one.  Please don't be too crushed by my lack of updates in the coming weeks.  Priorities and all that I'm afraid.

But for now perhaps I can try to appease you all with a small doodle I did some time ago.

This time around I tried experimenting with that more chalky-looking brush that a lot of digital illustrators seem to be so fond of.  If you are interested in using it as well go here since this nice gentleman was kind enough to put a tutorial online. 

The past few doodles I did used the same brush but I messed with the settings a little for those.

Sorry if the "nudity" is surprising but then again I'm kind of an artist.  You should have seen this coming.

ps.  Man those proportions are awful.

Love that Fresh, New Semester Smell

Ah yes, the new semester has begun.

While some people look towards the spring with feelings of apprehension or dread, I look to it with feelings of excitement and optimism.  Since I'm only taking one studio course this semester my workload will (hopefully) be considerably less time-consuming and that means more time for personal stuff!

I must admit though, my studio class is a "film as art" thing and it's kind of freaking me out a little.  I am excited to learn more about using the necessary editing programs like Final Cut and After Effects, but the actual filming projects themselves are just so out of my comfort zone!  I mean, I've NEVER filmed anything before.  I don't even have a video camera (something that will change after this weekend.  Ugh).  So this is quite literally uncharted territory for me here.  But I know that in the end it will be a good experience for me.  One of the things I love so much about art is how incredibly broad it actually is, so learning about an entirely new facet of it will make me that much more of a well-rounded artist :)
Not to mention the fact that I think the actual experience of being behind the camera and being entirely responsible for every aspect of the filming process will contribute a lot to any future animated films I may want to work on!  As far as animation goes I have a pretty good grasp on the traditional drawing requirements and I'm learning more and more about the programs I need to be familiar with, but quite frankly I know close to nothing about actual filming.  This semester is definitely going to be beneficial when it comes to learning more about the different processes, terminology and techniques involved in creating the aesthetics and story-telling aspects of film.

Yes indeedy, so far the outlook for the new semester is as bright and shiny as I could have hoped for!

I hope things are going smoothly for all of you fellow students out there as well.  Let's all do our best!

Outfit 01

Guess who got a new outfit today ;D

So I follow/creep on a lot of internet art blogs and one thing that seems popular is for people to draw themselves in some of their fave outfits or clothes.  Well I think that's a cute idea and it's a great way to make yourself draw even when you're not feeling particularly inspired that day, so why not?!  

I'm still working on figuring out just how I prefer to draw on the computer.  It's fun to experiment!

ps.  I wish I could wear my hair this way everyday

Drawing digitally is hard.

Gotta keep on practicing!!

The New Year Wears Yellow

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I must say, I am pretty excited to welcome 2011.  But at the same time I think I can confidently say that, by and by 2010 was a good year for me.  I managed to successfully complete my first year of college and sophomore year is most definitely off to a good start!  My grades were great, I made some fun new friends, and most important of all I was accepted into the Individualized Major Program as an Animation and Storyboarding major!!!  I know that most of the traffic that comes here is from Facebook and so this probably isn't anything new to most people, but gosh darn it it's a big deal!  I can now pursue my passion and not have to worry about whether or not I'll actually receive a relevant diploma at the end of my 4 years.  It felt amazing to finally hear those much sought-after words of approval and welcome after working so hard on my overall application process.  I hope to continue to ride this wave all the way into the new year and the new semester :)

So I mentioned at the end of my last post that I had gotten a fun new "toy" for my computer for Christmas. Well it just so happens that I got a brand new Wacom Intuos 4 tablet!!!  For those of you who have no idea what that means, allow me to link you here so that you may educate yourselves.
It was a hefty gift to be sure but goodness it's worth it!  I am predominantly a traditional artist (and most likely always will be), and while having a reliable and solid grasp of traditional skills is always important it is clear that my intended profession continues to move in a more and more digital direction.  This tablet will allow me to improve on my digital painting and drawing skills, and also make drawing directly into programs like Flash a WHOLE lot easier.  While I know that it is not the tools that make the artist, it certainly doesn't hurt to have a few nice things here and there to make your life a little easier, right?
Now since it's the new year and all and I have been playing around and trying to get a feel for using my tablet for the last few days, I figured now would be a perfect time to post an awesome, new years themed picture!  Well I spent basically the entire evening wracking my little brain for something to draw and ended up scrapping at least half a dozen different sketches in the process.  In the end this was all I could come up with:

It's simple and easy and apparently all I could manage today.  I can't say if it's really what I consider to be my "style", but it is a style that I enjoy and is fun to draw.  Figuring out what my own unique "style" is, a plight/goal for all artists, will certainly be one of my main focuses in the new year.  That among a million other things!  

I really do hope that all of you out there have had a wonderful year and were able to bring in 2011 amongst friends and/or family :)  Let's all do our best to make it a good one!!

ps.  fun fact:  purple is my fave color.  I bet you thought it was yellow didn't you?  I'm so tricky.

pps.  apparently here in blogspot world time is like, 3 hours behind the midwest.  I assure you though, it was... is?... was 2011 when I posted this.  Just sayin'!

Plasterrr

Well hey there!

I said before that I wasn't planning on posting until after finals and everything and by golly, I MEANT it.  I managed to survive and turn in all my final projects on time and show up to my exams and apparently pass them, so I have to say I'm pretty pleased with myself.  This past semester was a doozy to be sure, but all things considered I got a lot of work done that I was happy with and I think that's something to be proud of :)
Now that the holiday is done (I hope everyone out there had a wonderful time!) and things are calming down a bit I finally have time to sit and make a new post!  Ohmygosh yaaaayyyy!!

So here it is, project 5, the final assignment I had for my 3D media class.  For this one all we had to do was create 3 separate, abstract plaster sculptures.  There could be an overarching theme to them if we wanted so that they functioned as a set, or they could be totally independent pieces, it didn't matter.  For me, I started out with a sort of theme as my initial inspiration/starting point, but in the end the pieces sort of took on a life of their own.

We had to cast the blocks of plaster ourselves and then using a hammer and chisel (and other filing and sculpting tools) we pretty much could do whatever we wanted here.  Let me tell you, it really gave me a whole new appreciation for the old-school masters who sculpted this way.  I mean seriously, I can't even begin to IMAGINE working on the scale or at the same level of precision that they did.  Truly amazing.

Sculpture 1

 Sculpture 2

Sculpture 3

The complete "set"

Just in case anyone was wondering, the way we got the plaster to appear so smooth and shiny was due to hours and hours of sanding followed by several coats of a mixture of water and ivory soap that we used to buff them at the very end.  This shiny look wasn't mandatory at all, nor was the sanding.  Some people chose to leave their chisel marks or to only buff up certain parts of their sculptures.  It was all up to the artist and what look they were aiming for.  Obviously I chose to sand and shine all 3 of my pieces.

I hope everyone continues to enjoy or has enjoyed their holiday break!  It's always so nice to have the time off to rest up and be lazy for a little bit :)  Stay safe and warm!

ps.  I got an awesome new 'toy' for my computer for Christmas, so you can expect to see some new work showing up in the near future.  Ohboyohboyohboy!