tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-214531512024-03-19T02:06:16.483-07:00an·i·ma·tion (n.) The state of being aliveericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-92048769389573139302013-12-16T01:44:00.001-08:002013-12-16T01:44:16.393-08:00Gaudete! (3rd Week of Advent)
So... my grand plan to do a completed piece every day during Advent has quickly fallen apart. What with holiday parties, Christmas shopping, the usual laundry and errands, plus the rapid temperature drop in the evenings, it's often difficult to set myself down for a solid block of time and create art. Drawing with stiff, cold hands can get frustrating! Of course, the Law &ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-50968880005047186892013-12-12T01:28:00.002-08:002013-12-12T01:28:59.042-08:00ArtRage watercolor experimentsOkay, so... I've had an idea in my head for the next Advent painting, but I spent too much time fooling around with ArtRage and watching tutorial videos on how to use the watercolor tools, so the painting will have to wait once more. As disappointing as it is (for me personally) not to consistently have a new painting every day, I'm learning a lot about techniques both in software and in "ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-72439619732077583562013-12-10T01:38:00.003-08:002013-12-10T01:40:04.977-08:00Advent! Dec 9
Continuing the contrasty dark trees/light snow motif this evening. I saw some cool photos of frozen streams and decided to tackle one myself. I wasn't too happy with the color choice for yesterday's deer, so I toned down the saturation a bit for today's painting. I may go back and adjust the other one at some point later.
When I was growing up, we had a big family group thatericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-71507533088891154702013-12-09T01:28:00.000-08:002013-12-09T01:28:09.555-08:00Advent! Dec 8
I didn't get a chance to do a painting for December 7th, since Tommy and I had tickets to see Miyazaki's last film, "The Wind Rises," immediately prior to a friend's holiday party, which lasted until the wee hours! The Wind Rises was amazing, as usual, but definitely a less light-hearted affair than some of his other films like Ponyo or Totoro.
Anyway, I borrowed quite heavily from ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-76120171535864647282013-12-07T01:02:00.000-08:002013-12-07T01:02:51.617-08:00Advent! Dec 6
Working with several tools today - oil brush, watercolor brush, palette knife and eraser. The palette knife in particular can create some interesting effects (such as the background texture). Not exactly sure how that setting is supposed to imitate a knife on canvas, but then again I've never used a real one.
I'm kind of improvising a little story as I go along each day. Originally I'd ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-15748451968030247742013-12-06T01:30:00.000-08:002013-12-06T01:30:25.063-08:00Advent Dec 5
Our church uses blue for the season of Advent instead of purple, to help distinguish it from Lent. The color blue is often also associated with Mary, which makes it especially appropriate during this time.
Little chickadee is keeping a bit warmer inside the chapel. :)ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-19472398176879350082013-12-05T01:09:00.001-08:002013-12-05T01:09:18.349-08:00Advent! Dec 4
I thought I'd open up ArtRage today and see how rusty my "paint" skills had gotten. I had been rather happy with how the cover of my mom's storybook turned out using the oil paints in AR. This quick paint came out so-so... need to work on color palettes, brushes, and lighting. Still pretty fun though! I think I'll keep using ArtRage this month.ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-34352979352330049162013-12-04T01:47:00.001-08:002013-12-04T01:47:18.944-08:00Happy Advent!
I love Advent calendars. There's something so fun about opening up a little window each day to see what surprise is inside. I'm a couple days late, but this year I'm thinking of doing a little sketch Advent calendar and see what happens...
So here's your first surprise! My snowman's head came out a little lopsided so I added a little chickadee friend for her. :)
ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-19113185389397167482013-11-16T00:03:00.003-08:002013-11-16T00:07:09.614-08:0011 Second Club!Oh hey, I have a blog or something! Let's update it, shall we?
Mostly just been doing work stuff at Sony, which I can't really talk about because NDA and all that fun stuff. But back in August I had some free time, so I entered the 11 Second Club again to see if I'd improved since the last time (man, it would be sad if I hadn't gotten any better, wouldn't it?).
Good news, I've improved! &ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-605810966819494992013-07-30T01:23:00.002-07:002013-07-30T01:25:22.747-07:00Lightspeed!
Since I had so much fun with the Father's Day diorama, I thought I'd try a little more photography magic for Tommy's birthday card, this time with a couple of his toys. This time, Photoshop was used sparingly, only for a little color correction, wire removal, and addition of the thruster glow on the X-wing. The streaky star lightspeed effect was done in camera! And if you'reericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-7027438525562561282013-06-16T07:35:00.002-07:002013-06-16T07:35:21.669-07:00Father's Day diorama
Thought I'd try something a little different for this year's Father's Day card - a blend of traditional mixed media and Photoshop detailing. Overall I'm fairly happy with how it turned out, and considering it was a pretty rushed job, I think I can do much better next time I go this route. Making proper armatures, for one thing. The littlest fox kept tipping over backwardsericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-74293630834311685712013-04-08T01:59:00.001-07:002013-04-08T01:59:12.730-07:00Batman's birthday party
Cranked this one out for a friend's b-day. I experimented a little with custom Photoshop brushes trying to make it look less digital. I think I still prefer ArtRage to PS for that kind of style, but maybe I just haven't found the right brush settings yet. I realized when I printed this one that the brush texture looks more like a printer error than canvas. This is one ofericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-12386966027291114492013-01-02T03:15:00.002-08:002013-01-03T19:48:27.591-08:00Searching for the ever-elusive electronic sketchbook
I've been waiting a long time for someone to make the perfect tablet that I can take on the road, one that could actually replace a good old-fashioned sketchbook. I know artists are quite a niche market, but surely there are enough of us out there that there's some demand for this sort of thing? WACOM and Adobe seem to do alright for themselves by catering to us creative types.
ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-38624115085224462602012-12-02T23:47:00.001-08:002013-01-02T01:09:00.216-08:00A rather involved birthday presentMy mom turned 60 this year and I spent the better part of 2 months on a gift for her that I'd had in mind for a while. A long time ago she wrote a children's story and I've wanted to illustrate it. So what better incentive to get off my lazy butt and draw? Of course, my timing could have been better... crunch at Sony is wearing me down. But it was nice to come home, even ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-80769619402607467112012-12-01T15:17:00.002-08:002012-12-01T15:23:27.266-08:00How important is the face?I just saw this interesting article on NPR about human facial expressions and how they can be misleading if taken out of context of the body pose:
http://www.npr.org/2012/11/30/166184008/victory-or-defeat-emotions-arent-all-in-the-face
Check out this picture from the article:
Can you tell who is happy and who is upset?
As an animator I spend a lot of time tweaking a character's facial rig ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-16062253363949122992012-09-24T15:13:00.000-07:002012-09-24T15:14:48.476-07:00Instant feelingsI've been chuckling over various Tumblrs and blog posts lately, the ones that just collect a bunch of random animated GIFs to represent how the author reacted to certain things (news, a celebrity faux pas, a silly forum comment, etc.). I find them fascinating because they are able to convey a feeling in just a few seconds. I want to start studying GIFs more and analyze what it is about particularericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-12264219652241595052012-07-17T01:54:00.000-07:002012-07-17T02:19:51.152-07:0030-Day Drawing Challenge: Day 8
Day 8 is "favorite animated character." I could rattle off my top 20 list easily, but in terms of which character had the most profound influence on me as a budding animator, I'd have to go with Timon.
When The Lion King came out, I was 13 years old and I'd already known for about 10 of them that I wanted to be an animator. Something about Timon's squashy/stretchy body and face really ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-2703344314261483402012-07-12T01:08:00.000-07:002012-07-12T01:08:29.150-07:0030-Day Drawing Challenge: Day 7
Day 7 is our favorite word. This one conjures up so many different and wonderful images in my brain...
Adventure on the Atari 2600 was one of the very first video games I ever played. The graphics were so rudimentary that we couldn't really tell what some things were without the instruction book. Keys and castles were easy enough, but... was that a dragon or a duck? Do you ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-62723181240826958822012-07-01T03:25:00.003-07:002012-07-01T03:34:21.456-07:0030-Day Drawing Challenge: Day 6
"The enemy's gate is down."
Day 6 is my favorite character from a book that hasn't been made into a movie yet. This is soon to change, since Ender's Game is finally being adapted to film after many years of development shenanigans. I figured I'd better draw some fanart now before all the images in my head get warped by the movie. That is, if I decide to see it instead of ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-51303529794097032302012-06-22T01:12:00.001-07:002012-06-22T01:18:01.061-07:0030-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 ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-44907606662845902752012-06-14T23:37:00.000-07:002012-06-15T00:03:25.169-07:0030-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 ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-29422338900729885902012-06-14T01:56:00.000-07:002012-06-14T23:42:46.604-07:0030-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 ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-48733162038016974452012-06-12T23:43:00.001-07:002012-06-14T23:40:33.499-07:0030-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 ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-43327908334883160852012-06-12T23:26:00.001-07:002012-06-12T23:26:30.277-07:0030-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, ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21453151.post-27563787049964299392012-03-11T15:39:00.000-07:002012-03-11T15:39:46.270-07:00Getty SketchingI brought my sketchbook to the Getty yesterday and tried out my rusty quicksketch skills while waiting for my friend to arrive. These were some people waiting in line for the tram (click for larger image):
And a slightly longer study of one of the busts in a gallery:
It felt good to be putting pen to paper again. Clicking a mouse doesn't make me feel like much of an artist, at ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10387605190002948203noreply@blogger.com4