Fountain Demonstration

Posted on by Thor

One of my online Elite Animation Academy students loves to draw horses. For one class we looked at statues of horses to see how sculptors interpreted the musculature. We had already done anatomical sketches that showed insertion points of muscles and I wanted to show how different artists interpreted the musculature.

I stressed the importance of drawing on the inside of the horse even more that drawing the outside edges. This sculptor used many flowing S Curves which I threw down with quick abandon. My student took longer to put down the line wk, so I played with color and value as well.

I have fun doing these quick studies because they are not part of any important final work. I can just play and hopefully inspire the student to do the same.

What I often see from students are what I call Cookie cutter drawings, which stiffly interpret the outer edge of a subject with a single hard edged line.

I exaggerate the flowing lines in my drawings to try and inspire the students to add more flow to their work as well. This isn’t something that is learned in one lesson, I stress the point over and over until it starts to take root.

Renter

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I did a sketch as a demo for a student at Elite Animation Academy. The lesson on that day was One and two point perspective. The objective was for the student to simply sketch the room they happened to be in.

On this day I worked from my bedroom since I want to be sure my roommate has plenty of privacy and doesn’t need to overhear my students.

This was before I for a noise cancelling headset which allows me to listen to my students crystal clear without anyone else hearing.

This sketch was completed after I had finished building a bed frame which allows me to store art storage crates three high. Most all of the stored art now fits under the bed. The princess and the pea bed has risen even higher. Now the top of the mattress almost reaches the bottom of family history photos and one framed sketch that was once part of a solo exhibit. I actually altered the earlier sketch when I started painting to select the new room layout.

I just ordered a large metal storage rack which will be used to store frames and unframed art. I saw a YouTube video that showed how to create a spider web which supports the paintings and kept them from leaning over too far. When I get that set up a whole lot of framed art will come out of m closet and the corner of this room. The metal storage unit is on casters so it can be rolled around. It should be easy to move once I find a studio that I want to call home. For now, I rent month by month.

Rubberband Headset

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I was having trouble connecting to one of my students via Zoom. The student texted me to let me know he was having trouble getting on as well. I tied connecting with a personal meeting ID but that failed as well.

Back at Elite Animation Academy, Todd West thought it might be an issue with a new server that was set up. Ultimately through trial and error we found that the problem was with Zoom itself. Over 44,000 costumers were blocked out.

My student and I usually sketch together on Zoom and he has the option to see my sketch in progress. We decided to simply stay connected by phone and then share our sketches when they were complete via email.

This work around was fine but I couldn’t sketch and hold my iPhone at the same time. I decided to tie together a bunch of rubber bands and rubber band the iPhone to my ear. At first the rubber band set up was too tight and it felt like my skull might pop. Then I tied in a few more rubber bands to make it more comfortable.

This was a low tech solution to a high tech problem. The class went off without a hitch. By the time my next student got online, the Zoom connectivity issue had been resolved.

Flower Animation

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Every afternoon except Sundays I am online teaching students for Elite Animation Academy. Today was the last class for a student and this is the character she wanted to animate. I thought I should share an example of the types of scenes we work on. this must be a character from a video game my student plays. The assignment integrates squash and stretch, fast and slow movements incorporating slow in and slow out, arcs, a change of expression and a blink and creating a cycle. The flower pedals incorporate drag and some follow through. As simple as the assignment looks it incorporated quite a few of the 12 major animation principles.  I like to follow the student’s interests which means I get introduced to a whole lot of characters and culture I wouldn’t otherwise get exposed too.

Since this was a final project, I wanted the student to push the scene to a more final look by using color and a background. The reference the student showed me had the simple grey background so I went with that. I enjoy teaching animation online. I go over the same 12 principles each time but each student inspires me to push each assignment in a new direction to match their interests.

This is a bit of a departure from my sharing my illustrative journalism work, but every afternoon when most events are beginning, I am in my studio online teaching a student. This student wanted to include an audio clip with her animation in Procreate, but the program doesn’t have an audio feature. I use a program called Callipeg and it does allow for audio clips, so with more ambitious students I sometimes have a short dialogue clip to work on. By short, I mean one word, like “no!” which could be finished in one two hour class.

Crealde Table Cloth Sketching

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6 months into the pandemic I was teaching an Urban Sketching course at Crealde School of Art on Sundays. Tables in the room were arranged in tight rows, but I would spread then out into an open circular layout just before class to allow for some social distancing. Masks were required at this point.

My mantra from the very first class is to “fill the page.”  I also want to encourage the students to draw from the hips, trough the shoulders and then to the hand rather than dainty lines put down with wrist or finger movement. To encourage this, I covered each table with white paper tablecloths which become the sketch that needed to be completed. The sketch above was also done on one of these large sheets of paper. You can see the ripped edges on the left and right. I painted the scene much later digitally.

The Crealde Urban Sketching course will start up again in the Spring. I am teaching 6 days a week for Elite Animation Academy and they have a course called “Sketching People Places and Things” which very much like the Urban Sketching course. There are virtual classes for adults now and I have students from as far away ad Borneo!

Three Point Launch Demo

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This was a demo for one of my Elite Animation Academy online students.We had already covered one pint and two point perspective and this was a lesson in three point perspective.

I always try and convince my students to think a step beyond the basic lesson plan to create something unexpected. In this case the student had chosen to draw a tall skyscraper and I offered the possibility that it could be something other than a building.

Some students are bored by the mechanical nature of graphing out perspective, but I love teaching it and I use the premise in every sketch I do. Some students think it involves too much science and not enough fancy, so I throw some fancy into the mix as I teach it.

Right now I am waiting on about 20 different film festivals to accept or reject COVID Dystopia. I tend to post scenes from the film on this site when the film is about to be shown at a festival and when I suspect judges might check out the site for more information about the film. Since

I am in a holding pattern, I figured I would post more variety. I have started sketching rehearsals and shows again but I tech until 8pm many nights and have to schedule around my teaching schedule. I might get out to about 3 theater sketch opportunists a week. I have been sketching theaters where my film has been shown but that number is rather small.

This week I am pressing hard to refine next season’s Shakespeare posters but after that I am a tumbleweed looking for my next series of sketches to become obsessed about.

A trip to NYC several months ago got me excited about continuing my series of sketches of the 50 oldest churches in the city. I am looking at rents in Brooklyn and there are a few where the rent is less than I am paying here in Orlando. At this point, it doesn’t matter where I live and set up my studio. I really need to think about buying a place however since rent is just wasted money.

Egg

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I had an Elite Animation Academy student who wanted to learn how to draw realistic portraits. I picked a reference from the internet and we both sketched the face. I pointed out my basic premise of breaking the face into halves to get the general proportions right. My student got the general outlines in place and then didn’t know what to do next. This is true of many beginning art students, they get a few lines in place and freeze up. I suggested adding value.

For some reason this idea of value as opposed to line is often a bridge too far for students. I scribbled in some darks with the side of my digital pencil, but then advised my student to just paint an egg. We painted the egg one color and then added a highlight and shadows. I then copied the egg and simply slid in under the drawing I had already created. All that was needed then were a few brush strokes to define darks on lips and the nose.

I don’t know if the lesson hit the mark, but it was fun to find new ways to simplify the creative process.

Beluga Loose

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To encourage my Elite Animation Academy student to loosen up I abandoned the painting I was working on and instead did a quick 10 minute study where my primary goal was to make a mess and try and have fun. Color masses were thrown down with abandon and line was only thrown down at the bitter end.

Since I had no intention of pushing the painting to a final, I could just relax and encourage the student while I played. After seeing this mess, my student began a piece by just playing with brushes. A wave pattern brush was discovered and I was asked if using it was cheating. Nothing is cheating if it works, was my reply.

I stopped painting and watched my student work. I was pleased to see a wide variety of brushes being experimented with. Things progresses quickly until it came time to draw the people in the scene. Things ground to a halt. I did a quick demo to show gesture, the curve of a person’s back, rhythm and flow. It is a bit like explaining how to play jazz on a trumpet to someone who has never toughed the instrument.

Regardless we pushed forward with the goal of getting the sketch completed well enough so that we could put it aside and start another. Progress come from completing thousands of sketches rather than obsessing about any one piece. Accepting that there might be flaws and imperfections allows for far more acceptance, so long as it is not the worst thing ever created.  A sketch by definition is never complete.

Beluga Still Life

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I have a virtual student at Elite Animation Academy preparing a portfolio with specific requirements. One requirement is a still life. I asked my student to arrange a few objects, some large some small to paint. The beluga whale plush, acquired at a recent trip to an aquarium, became the subject along with several wooden tree sculptures.

I painted along with the student. I was attracted to the way the light illuminated the wall. My student an I both used lots of line work to construct the whale basic shape. However after several hours my student got frustrated, not knowing how to progress. The line work seemed to hinder progress as if painting the piece into a corner.

I stopped work on this to offer advice on how to loosen up the process. My student needed to transition for stiff to spontaneous. I suggested forgetting about the outside lines and just start playing with the digital brushes. That opened up the process making it play rather than a serious high stakes struggle.

Relaxing and having fun are the ultimate end goal. We started town that new track.

Beluga

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On Saturdays I have been teaching 8 hours of Elite Animation Academy private virtual classes. I always worry that my energy level might drop after the back to back zoom meetings. My final student of the day is preparing a portfolio for admission into a visual arts school. We were working on a still life and she was painting a stuffed Beluga whale she got on a recent vacation to an aquarium.

My student seemed to hit a brick wall with the still life since she felt it wasn’t painterly enough. Her usual way of creating art is to do detailed line art and then color it in. She felt this was making her piece stiff. We broke away from her still life and instead just started playing with brushes in Procreate.

She seemed to stop worrying about a final polished look and just started playing with the wide variety of brushes. She quickly blocked in a light blue field surrounded by dark blue. What emerged was a memory of her trip to the aquarium.

She paused when she had a head drawn on the page. I stepped n and gave her a quick example of how to use gesture lines to get the figure on the page. She quickly followed suit and drew the people into her sketch. While she worked, I blocked inn the water on my rough sketch and started painting the beluga whale in the tank. My sketch was a lesson in making a mess and hoping for the best. Control was surrendered for spontaneity. Is the sketch finished, heck no. Is it the best sketch I ever did, heck no, but it is also not the worst. On to the next.