30-Day Drawing Challenge: Day 5

Took a short hiatus to work on a Father's Day card and to visit Cars Land at California Adventure (which was awesome, BTW).  We shall now attempt to return to our regularly scheduled program!

Day 5: Best Friend -

Well, I had to go with Tommy, obviously... I wouldn't have married him if he weren't my best friend!  We love to go on adventures together, usually out into nature like Sequoia or Yellowstone, or in this case one of the little canyons north of Malibu to try to catch the Quadrantids.  You know you've found a keeper if he's crazy enough to sit on the hood of the car with you in the middle of winter at 3am to watch for shooting stars.    It turned out Malibu wasn't quite far enough away from the city to avoid the light pollution (which you can see glowing out behind the mountain silhouettes, haha)

I was originally going to try to use a simple drawing style for the two figures, something like Pascal Campion does with his work.  I don't know why, but it does not seem to come naturally to me at all.  Simple design is deceptive!  It takes a great eye for line and flow and shape.  I guess I need to work on the basics a lot more.   Perhaps tomorrow?

Not too happy with the leg positions... I miss Vilppu's figure drawing class.  Maybe I will pick up some of his DVDs.

The interesting thing about this challenge is that it gets me thinking about what my strengths and weaknesses are.  As I try different techniques, I start to figure out what areas I want to delve more deeply into, to try to explore and hone further.  I think this gets back to my earlier blog post about style - it's difficult to develop a style if you don't first know what you want.  Must keep drawing and discovering more about myself!

30-Day Drawing Challenge: Day 4

Day 4 and we're on to "Favorite Place." The choice was easy for me, but picking my favorite part of Disneyland is almost impossible!  So many amazing things to do and see.  I think what I love the most is discovering all the little details that the casual visitor completely misses.  For example, the Evil Queen who occasionally peeks out from behind her curtains, surveying Fantasyland. Even more ominous at night time. :)

I pulled out my pastel pencils for this experiment on black paper.  I'm pretty much a newb when it comes to using this medium.  I love looking at concept art books and seeing all the beautiful pastel artwork.  I know I'll never be as good as them, since I focus the majority of my creativity on animation.  Still, it's fun to play around with.

I am so lucky to have a husband who shares my love of the "Happiest Place On Earth."  For us that title is especially true, since he proposed to me on the ride right across from the Queen's lookout, Peter Pan!

Got black pastel all over my hands while making those window beams.  I love art :D

30-Day Drawing Challenge: Day 3

Day 3: Favorite Food -

My mom's side of the family came to the U.S. after WWII; prior to the Japanese occupation they lived in Hong Kong.  Before that my ancestors came from Macau, which was a Portuguese colony with Chinese inhabitants.  We have mostly Portuguese genes, but culturally feel closer to our Chinese roots.

Because of that, dim sum is a big family tradition; we go out for holidays, birthdays, whatever. When we were little, my sister, my cousin Jas and I would giggle at the funny Cantonese names for each dish that our parents and grandparents would use to order. Instead of "char siu bao," we would say "char siu POW!!"  Ha gow became "hot cow."

Wacom and Photoshop for this one.  I also pulled out my handy dandy special effects reference guide, "Elemental Magic" by Joseph Gilland.  SOOOOO much good stuff in there.  I flipped to the chapter on liquids for ideas on how to do the soy sauce bursting out of Kikko Man's head.

30-Day Drawing Challenge: Day 2

Day 2 is "favorite animal." I had a little trouble deciding between the Okapi and a funky bird called the Hoatzin.  They're both fascinating creatures!  The Hoatzin chicks actually have claws on their wings and remind me of Archaeopteryx, which is freakin' cool.  I'd love to travel to South America and see them hanging out on the riverbanks.

The Okapi are just as strange and wonderful - with those awesome stripes on their hindquarters, they look like a cross between a zebra and a horse.  But they are actually most closely related to the giraffe, which you can see from the shape of their head and that long tongue.

I went with my traditional fallback of sketchbook and ballpoint pen for these.  Of all the tools I've tried when going on location to sketch, the ballpoint pen seems the most useful to me. They don't need sharpening, you can get light or heavy marks with pressure, the ink is permanent so it doesn't smear on the pages when you're done, and they're cheap so if you lose one out of your backpack or pocket, it's no big deal.  I suppose they're not very "professional," but I like them.

30-Day Drawing Challenge: Day 1

My friend Michelle started doing the "30-Day Drawing Challenge" a while back, and I thought it was a really cool idea.  Didn't have time to start it myself until after my iAnimate classes were done, but now that they are, it's time to draw!

Day 1 is "Draw Yourself." Kind of a toughie for me.  I'm pretty self-conscious when it comes to staring at myself in a mirror or taking photos, etc. So I opted for a simplified portrait and focused on the things that I like to think define me as a whole: my interests, hobbies, stuff I've done, and of course the shirts I wear.  I could start a whole blog just about my t-shirts and what they say about me. :)

So for those who may not know me so well, the first three outfits should be pretty self-explanatory: I like video games, I like making art, and I like taking pictures. The fourth outfit with the snazzy green helmet is reminiscent of the typical work gear from my trip to Costa Rica with folks from Playstation and Habitat for Humanity. Finally, the dress is the old uniform from the UCLA and Angeles Chorales, which I used to be a part of before my work got too hectic.  I think I've sung Handel's Messiah at least 5 times with them.