Summer Camp 2009

I taught animation at a summer camp for the 92nd St Y this past summer. One of the lessons was drawing characters and exploring the developing process. For my examples I had the kids (ages 5-11) draw some well known figures to get the hang of it and warm up. Many of the kids enjoyed the process but some did not. Many of them crumpled the paper, ripped it up, threw it out, etc. Well, I couldnt let them go to waste - I fetched them out of the trash, collected them, and compiled them into sequences. Here they are;
"Sponge Blob" 2009

(For Higher Quality)
and...
"Mickey Mice" 2009

(For Higher Quality)
Occasionally you will see my drawings in both of which I drew upside down - but often times the kids were making way better Sponge Bobs than the ones on TV even. WHY DONT THEY HIRE KIDS TO MAKE KIDS SHOWS?! IDIOTS! Anyways, I plan on using these somewhere at some point.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

As colored by a 4 year old.

Applying the Lesson

Watching a child paint really opens up your eyes to the whole process of layering and coordination. A short time ago I started a drawing and allowed my foster son to finish it the way he pleased. Having never held a paint brush before his hand was weak and brush sloppy - he struggled to stay in the lines as he chose an area to fill in. His general knowledge of "fill in the space" was there but the operation was not. I found this very fascinating and attempted to apply it to my own process.

I side more with realism but struggle with applying color to that idea appropriately. So I agree more with filling it in and calling it a day. What I noticed watching my son was that he had the same goal - to fill in the space one way or another - layering sloppy brush strokes till it was done. I noticed the amount of texture this had created and discovered that when mixing it with different types of papers and inks it creates a lot more texture more natural to real life. In this case I am using DIAZO blueprint paper that turns color pretty much with any addition of moisture. By mixing inks, paints, water, and ammonia I got this effect - which is in some ways closer to where I wanna head which is towards WYETH but on a PICASSO level.

(note) this is being used for a test for a new illustrated/comic piece.
- Also take a look at the inspiration that came from watching a 1 and a half year old paint - http://vimeo.com/6414107

Line by Line

"Chucky Dancing"
This is a line by line with a 2 year old, 5 year old, and a 23 year old.
What I observed to be very interesting is that the 2 year old had a very broad and uncontrolled addition to the piece - she was not thinking about shape, form, or position and it created shapes and forms in a position in the context as a whole. I was a very heavy on the hand close and detailed addition - not leaving much of an area - and the 5 year old was somewhere in the middle - seeing the picture as a whole - adding simple details the other two of us missed - for example the ears - the hair on the head - the lower jaw and teeth - and the right eye brow.

Collaborating with people who are way more knowledgable about art than yourself...

These are collaborations with my foster son, Will (age 5).

I started by drawing images thinking he would like to color them in - turns out he was all for collaborating on them.
This ones called, "The Gate" - I had to show him what a ferris wheel was - he had never seen one before - or at least that he remembered - He was fascinated by it. He started all the pieces with a red china marker followed by black charcoal and then some paint - I kept all the steps the same throughout.

"Happy Faced Train" He was very concerned with the train tracks continuing off the front of the page - also there had to be two trees behind the train. I think theres also a floating train above the one I drew - a sort of out of body experience I suppose.

"Man in Monsters Stomach" This paper was different from the others - it was watercolor paper compared to a bristol type previously - it was a drawing I pulled out of my scrap drawer - the only one to be very different from the others - which he was used to seeing - he treated this very simply and slowly drew two verticle lines down the sides and tells me that hes in a stomach - I suggested coloring the sides black and he enjoyed smudging the charcoal out with his finger

"A House, Big House" This he was attempting to copy one of my drawings I was working on for a job - He wanted to add in wheels and trees and grass. It turned a pretty nicely rendered house into a boarded up abandoned house.

"Dog House, Give Me Back My Bone Please" - I believe this is the first time he tried to draw a dog - and he studied our dog Charlie for some time before making his choices as to how to structure it. The human was the first attempt - and when he felt he "messed up" he quickly changed it into the human - then trying again to capture the dog.

Heres some more:

"Hi Sea" - I was asked to draw the monkey - he supplied the house, the ball to play with up top, the food over the left shoulder, the kitchen to the left of the tail and "a nice blue rug" underneath.

"House Feet" - This one is obvious - with snow.

"Table Chair" - It has a variety of different foods on top including but not limited to bread, beans and hotdogs, and birthday cake.

"Kitty Box" - Each cat has its own food dish and home but share a litter box that is nailed to the ground and a chair in the right corner.

Story Board (Detailed), Backgrounds

These are story boards of a short story adaptation for a short film pitch - Included are some of the directors sketches of which I translated into the following...

Trying hard to make up for time wasted in college - relearning perspective/backgrounds - Used crow-quill and some ink washes.
One should always keep in mind where the light source is and the weight of your line based on the make of an object and its action.

*Update - The pitch has been denied by the author - "The storyboards were fantastic. The only problem is that I am developing !@#$% for TV at the moment, and also that Ben Stiller's company is working on !@#$%."

Working with nibs

Nibs - wonderful - also working with a little ink wash.