Happy 2012!

Well, it's a new year, which hopefully will mean some more art improvement. Here's some stuff I did in December and also today. I'm starting to play around with colors and different Photoshop brushes right now, it's been pretty fun to experiment.


First off, one of my favorite shows ever, BBC's Sherlock is back, so I've drawing been some stuff from that (particularly Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother).






Some waif kids I did after I saw Hugo.



My parents' pets. I printed and laminated them to turn them into Christmas ornaments for a tiny Christmas tree.


A punk doing his punk thing.


Well, there's another update from me! Hurrah! Let's see if I can keep doing this in 2012 :)

And once more, a blog post!

I've got to start remembering I have a blogspot blog and posting on it more regularly...

More sketches! From the summer until around now.

Drawings from my class with Rad at Concept Design Academy! My character Charlotte, a Victorian era detective:


Some mini comics of me:

(I'm really allergic to cats)

(also I have a "drinking problem". My tea totally missed my mouth, went straight to that area of my pants.)

Something totally nerdy but a drawing meme where you draw one of your favorite characters in the outfit you were wearing at the time...so I draw the Eleventh Doctor from Doctor Who in mine:



Some drawings I did while vacationing in Japan a couple years ago (I may have posted them on this blog before?), but I decided to go back and rework them. I guess a recurring theme was hot babes eating food. Maybe I'll actually finish them sometime!




Hopefully I'll try to keep more on top of this in 2012! :)

Well, I am seriously the worst at keeping up my sketch blog. I have pretty much been going in and out of art block these past few months. Also finally gave myself a new blog url/name update!

I'm currently aking another class at Concept Design Academy, this time with Rad Sechrist.

But enough text, here's a couple drawings of my character, Blaze:





Hopefully I'll get out of my funk soon and be prolific like I once was!

Wow, again a huge posting gap.

I don't have much of an excuse for not posting except that I've been working full time for a couple months now. I'm JUST starting to get back into drawing. I seem to fail at keeping a public drawing blog though :[. I post my art way too many places...deviantart, a couple different LiveJournals, roughs on twitter...sometime I should just consolidate.

What I'd LIKE to have happen:
-update my personal site (my gosh I haven't added any new art or updated the layout in aaaages)
-get off my butt and sell the sketchbook I've already put together

(I have the digital files all ready. But I need to print several copies and get a long-armed stapler so I can put the books together)
-start a webcomic

Oh yeah. Also. Maybe thinking of either re-naming this blog or moving it somewhere else. But I shall see. Bahh I am WAY too ambitious sometimes!

Observation sketches

Just finished my semester of character design classes at Concept Design Academy! I am going to try to be better about updating this blog. I'm going to make a few posts today of some of the things I drew while I was taking classes (or maybe spread them out over a couple of days).

First, some observation sketches! We were supposed to observe people and animals but design and stylize the figures, not just copy directly from life. These are not nearly all of the drawings I did, Just a selection.

From the first couple weeks, drawings of my pets and at the zoo (and a few people):



And these were a little later in the semester:


Next up: progress of the animal character design assignment!

Well I certainly haven't updated here in a while!

I had my first Intro to Character Design class last night at Concept Design Academy. Needless to say I am SUPER inspired right now (and have been this whole week, actually). My teacher, David Colman, is really freaking awesome and talented. He's SO good at animals, it makes me really want to try harder with them.

We did drawings last night based on the costumed model who came to pose for us (dressed like a mafia/mob guy). So it wasn't figure drawing from life, it was figure drawing BASED off life. We had to take the poses a bit further and have them be inspired by what was going on. It was tough, but super good practice.

And this morning, I woke up and drew my cat, who was sleeping on my bed in a really cute pose. We have to draw 10 pages for homework, so at least I got a couple out of drawing my animals today. But I'll need to make a trip to Costco, Walmart, or a mall and draw all the ridiculous people there.

Some things I know I need to work on:
-making my poses more dynamic
-working on rhythm and shapes
-...hands and feet (which always seeems to be the case)

Inspiration has also come from reading the tips on Rad How To. I haven't even studied everything there is on that blog, but I will try to study a little bit of it every day (and also from the ever-growing collection of art books i've been acquiring lately)

I'll certainly have lots to share during the process of taking this class. Guess that's all for now. Sorry there's no fun visuals with this post :P

More Character Development Sketches

Wow, it really has been far too long since I posted anything. I blame it on my scanner/Photoshop, they kept crashing whenever I was doing huge amounts of scanning.

This is more stuff from my character design class at Animation Academy.

Female character turnaround



Expressions, one of my favorite things to draw~



Poses!



Some random doodles, mostly practicing female bodies. And a few sketches of one character in particular I was trying to develop.



Well, hopefully I'll try to update this more often instead of letting it sit idly for months! There's a bit more stuff to scan, but I didn't want to risk it with my finicky scanner. So that's all for now :) Need to get back into working on my portfolio!

Some character development

Here are some things from the class I'm taking at the Animation Academy! Finished my first turnaround so I thought I'd share the process of creating the design for this character.

Some of the many many heads I had to draw. Drew 3 or 4 pages of variations (well, this and another character) before deciding on the final one. These are just the majority of them.


Turnaround of the chosen head.

Body shapes. Also several pages of these were done.

Body turnaround. 3/4 back is tough to do! Also need to fix the arms on the back view, they're a bit too long.


I'm really enjoying this class. I'm learning a lot, it's forcing me to draw more and think about things a bit differently, and also to experiment with shapes more. I still need to learn to go further/push it more but I am getting there.


Also, some more Star Trek things, just for the heck of it!

Drawings of Geeky Things

Sooo I saw both the Wolverine movie and the new Star Trek movie. Wolverine was just hilarious, Star Trek was AMAZING. I've been watching the original series a lot lately.

Here are some stupid Wolverine drawings!


This is basically my interpretation of the whole movie. SCREAMING AND BUTT.


A couple more. Ignore the left doodle that is obviously not Wolverine. Notice how I'm using the Origins version of his hair, not his crazy devil horn hair (well, guess I tried that in the little one)...because I don't really know how it looks. No reference, woo!


Now, some Star Trek drawings!


The ones in purple are based off The Naked Time episode. The pencil ones were drawn while slightly under the influence of 3 glasses of wine.


Aaaand bad Spock. Inspired by the wonderful Bad Spock blog

Look at all that yellowy paper. You can really tell I've converted to the church of Moleskine lately.


By the way, character design class at The Animation Academy is going well. I'm learning a whole lot! Eventually I'll make a post with all my progress. Maybe once I'm done with one of my characters before we move on to the next one!

Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't

Here's what I got out of going to Drawing Club last night. The costumed model was a FEMME FATAL~! 40's-style Noir I'd say.

2 sets compiled according to the pose lengths

(I mostly just liked the lying down pose, even if it is a little wonky in the shoulder area)



My sessions keep getting a little better every time. But what I need to remind myself is to GO FURTHER and not always draw JUST what I see. That one with the happy face next to it has a lot more life to it because I exaggerated a bit. I also want my drawings to feel less STIFF. They're getting to be less stiff but I want them even more loose and fluid without being too sketchy.
At least with those poses, I started to get the hang of drawing high heels and the shoes at different angles last night. Woo!


Lots of uploading this week. I am pleased with this. Now if only people actually read this :)

Zoonimals

I went to the zoo yesterday, with Victor, and decided to get a membership so I can go there and draw a lot. I decided to scan the drawings from last time I went to the zoo (about 2 weeks ago) and compare them with this time.

Last time (I really wasn't pleased with any of them):


Yesterday:


Nice to see some improvement there (not that those are the greatest drawings either)! It helps to stay at one place for a while and just keep drawing the animals even if they move. It's all about learning about how they work and figuring things out. Fun, but kind of tiring for your brain.

Tonight I'll be at Drawing Club again. Just gotta keep on going!

Also, I think I am starting to realize why people are so addicted to Moleskine sketchbooks...ahhh I will have to buy another when my current one is done.

Groups of things!

Since I went to Animation Night at the Animation Academy yesterday (I'll be starting class there next week!), I scanned some more things to add to my portfolio. Hello to those I met, if you happen to see this!


People and animal doodles.


Some costumed figures done at Drawing Club.


Ninjas ninjas ninjas!


My portfolio right now isn't what I'd like it to be. I just need to keep drawing. It's good to go places like the zoo and Drawing Club. But what I'd really like is a personal project to work towards. I suppose I've always got my comic that has been in the back of my mind for almost a couple years now, but it needs a lot of work in so many areas. I'm sure I'l find something eventually, but until then, practice practice practice.

Also, I'm learning how to animate in Flash for this freelance project I'm working on, and it's pretty fun! Maybe I can try to put a few shots here once the project is done. I'm not sure if we are allowed to post any work for now, but as soon as I know I am allowed to, I will.

People and Animals

Again, another gap in my posting. 4 months this time? Yeesh! I am working on a freelance animation project in the meantime, so at least I've got that to keep me going!

Here is a small bit of the stuff I've been up to over the last few months. Been getting art blocks on and off, which isn't great, but sometimes it happens.

My dog, Shippo (a Pomeranian), dressed as a viking war dog. Considering doing a series of dog drawings like this (aka, little known facts about dog breeds)


Me and a few of my favorite things. Would like to finish this sometime.


Zombie kitten

Valentine's Day thing with a zombie and a cat-type beast of some sort.


Based off MGMT lyrics from the song "Electric Feel"


Some unfinished mechanic chick. Might develop this character more someday.


Another post soon-ish! I just haven't been motivated to scan things lately.

About time for another update!

Poor neglected sketch blog! It's been a month since my last update? Really? Well here's one, even if it's small!

Drawings are from older to newer.



Just some Sir Pinkstruttle expressions.


aaand jacomo, who I never seem to draw the same way (this is his beast form and he's also got his beast-kid form. Ahhh complicated)



Also some nerdy Apollo Justice fanart, because I cannot get enough of this game and I love these two characters. Poor Klavier (on the right) is a total rock star and would never dress preppy. This is why he is mad at Apollo for forcing him


I certainly hope that it won't be a month until my next update, but you never know!

New layout and a few colored doodles

So first off, new layout and some new finished art over at my domain: http://lauren-blakely.com

And a few doodles (they're colored, but they're not going on my main site):

More Sir Pinkstruttle. I need to keep doing more of these marker drawings on that paper, they are fun!

Another self portrait. With new sparkly Photoshop brushes!

I make fun of Zac Efron because I'm mean.

Aaand that's all for now.