Sunday 28 December 2008

Belated Christmas Greetings


I know it's a bit late but I had some problems with the internet. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is recharged for the New Year.

Sunday 7 December 2008

The Last Dragon


An Attempt to keep up posting. I've been a bit off on my game lately. Cant seem to draw anything I like. Hopefully I'll get over it soon.

And Again....
Wes

Sunday 23 November 2008

Quick Post


I've come to realise the reason I have not updated my Blog regularly is not because I'm busy but because of bad time management....Thats it. More posts soon

And Again....
Wes

PS thanks to all who commented last time. Catch up with u in the week.





Saturday 20 September 2008

Digi-Paint Practice




Posting again???? What’s going on? Well for the last week I’ve been ill with flu/Took Thursday and Friday off work. I’ve been too ill to do anything. Even watching DVDs was too much work. I woke up this morning feeling a lot better. I cleaned my space, did some washing, cooked and relaxed. Felt strong enough to colour up one of my work doodles based upon some advice given to me once again, by Kenny. I definitely have a now found respect for you painters out there. The girl in the green is my second attempt (lion o being the first). I have painted before, but in college, and it was pretty much a cel shading technique.

Anyway, with the green girl I sent it to Kenny for some advice and he emailed me back with notes and painted one of them (left pic with brown backing). Even though it’s just the head (and I’m guessing it took him about 10mins), already it looks a lot better than mine (DAMN YOU MR ANDERSON!!) He also gave me a link to a site with lots of helpful hints. I’m just trying to learn one thing at a time. I just have to be really observant. Not that I wasn’t before, but now I’m just adding to the things I’m currently observing. I think my mind is ready for it now. The approach I took with the girl in the red was to paint the values with black on a separate layer in Photoshop (top layer), multiply the line art (middle layer) and add hues (bottom layer). Once that was done, I merged the layers and continued on one layer. I’m quite please with my progress. I don’t like the picture much, but I like what I took from it. There are many approaches I want to try so I think it will take some time for me to find myself in this. Years in fact, but that’s what makes it exciting right? This is new territory for me so crits are welcome.

Thanks to all who commented or visited on my last post.

And Again....

Wes

PS: Does anyone know how to set up painter so that it responds to varying pen pressures? Default settings make it difficult, and I really would prefer to use painter to er.....paint! (Duh)

PPS: New link added, friend and colleague THE MIGHTY REZA!!!! :)

Sunday 7 September 2008

Hi My Name Is....




....Wesley Louis, I’m currently living in Scotland and working as an inbetweener. Thought I’d re-introduce myself as it’s has been so long since I’ve blogged.

It’s been so long I can’t even recall all the things I’ve been doing. I’m currently working on my project hoping to have all the animation done in the next couple of months. I don’t want to show anything till have a good portion finished. I’ve not done much drawing outside my project, these drawings are a few months old. I coloured in the Thundercat last night. It’s slightly different to my normal stuff. I really want to start applying colour in a different way. As you see, I’ve a lot to learn and the fact that it’s a bad drawing doesn’t help either. Either way Just want to thank Mr Anderson for the tutorials and advice really helps. I’m coming for more lessons Kenny!!

It’s been a lifelong dream to have one of my characters sculpted and it was realised a few weeks ago. I want to thank Robert Robinson another colleague and friend@ Ink. I really want to post photos as it looks amazing but not till I get more of my project done. In the meantime check out his website.

I’ve also added new links, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, sorry guys.


Ali Assaf

Carlos Meglia

Robert Robinson

Laurent Rossi

Maria Birmingham

Rob Birchall

Sehyun (to be updated)

Terry Wu

Tori Davis

Xin


Thanks to all who’ve left comments or simply browsed. I’ll catch up with everyone soon.

I’m really in the mood to draw now so while I can’t say when I’ll be posting again , I’ll try not to make the wait so long...don’t hold your breath though.....

And Again....

Wes



Sunday 8 June 2008

Random Sketches


Hi Everyone. Thanks for the comments and feed back for the last post. I feel soooo bad for not blogging (posting, commenting etc) more often. I have been really busy though working on that “thing” that I don’t want to talk about. Got a lot of work done, but still have a long way to go so my Blog is suffering at the moment. I’m going to London this week. I haven’t been home in about 5 months so it’ll be good to catch up with family, friends and to have a nice recharge. I’m also really looking forward to seeing the new talent coming from CSM London Animation Studio. They have their end of year show on the 20th. Anyway, here are some “random sketches” from the last month.

And Again....

Wes

PS: Kristian, Timbo, have pads and pencils at the ready, Im a comin to DRAAAWWWW!!!!!















Monday 19 May 2008

In Competition With....Myself?


Hi everyone. Just want to thank everyone for their comments on the last post. Lately I’ve been receiving comments about improvements in my work. Many times on this blog I’ve often whined about how bad my work is, or I request constructive criticism ( I still do) but I actually really appreciate the fact you guys can see me growing. It’s really encouraging and gives me a real charge so thanks you for that. Really.

I haven’t been drawing much lately. Just been a bit stuck, especially with the life stuff. I realised a few days ago that I’m always trying to top my last post, to do something better. I think that’s why the gaps between posts are getting bigger and bigger. While I’m all about growing and getting better, I think I’m forgetting to enjoy what I do. It’s supposed to be fun (that’s what I meant about attitude Ken) so this post is probably some of my weaker life studies, but I’m not waiting till I have some better ones. I’m rusty but, I had fun drawing them and using ink washes. It was cool being in borders, with good company, a big cookie and a cup of Hot Chocolate. I’ll post again real soon now that I’m having fun...

And Again....

Wes



PS: I responded to everyones comments on the last post so er....check the comments.

















Wednesday 7 May 2008

What shall I post?


Hi everyone. Many thanks for the comments and feedback for the last post. Much appreciated

I haven’t posted in a while, not because I didn't want to, but haven’t done anything I liked lately. Guess I’m being a bit too picky about what I show these days which is silly. Anyway, I've been quite busy doing some personal stuff which I won’t post anything about, and won’t talk about again till (if) I finish. As a result no more huge posts, but hopefully I'll post more often (yeah right).

The only exciting thing to have happened in terms of this art thing is a collaboration with the not so talented Kenneth “Nethken” Anderson...opps did I say not so talented?? LOL. Just kidding Ken, I have much respect for my colleague and friend. I’ve learnt a lot from him, not just in terms of technique but attitude. Anyway, this pic is a result of a 2min sketch by moi and then 2 days rendering by Ken. I honestly don’t feel I can take credit for this, but it was nice to see what could be done from one of my simple sketches. Basically, we were making fun of Ken and the amount of women he draws wielding swords. Chris Halls drew a pic (by the way chris, I decline your characters tempting offer, not my type lol), and I responded to his pic with a simple sketch to show him what a real woman with a sword looks like LOL.. Ken was inspired and the rest is history.


Now, it might be made into a 3D animatable model. I look back and think “All this from a 2 minute sketch???” We’ll see what happens. The rest are some random sketches.

And Again....

Wes

PS: I was generously rewarded by the minds behind El Grande for my promotion efforts last post. Click here. By the way guys I hope yo realise I didn’t do the shout out for rewards, I believe in what your doing and am excited by things to come. Keep going.












Wednesday 16 April 2008

El Grande is coming to cleanse the world.....

It’s been a while since I last posted, forgive me, started gym couple of weeks ago and I was really exhausted every time I finished work. The positive benefits of increased energy are starting to kick in now so I’m taking advantage. Before I go, please can you take the time to visit The El Grande Blog. A graphic Novel being created by fellow bloggers Elio Guevara and Joe Karg. Awesome concept work, beautiful style which is tangible and fresh. I really admire these guys for avoiding Photoshop and just keeping real and raw. They’ve been working on it for about a year and a half now and probably won’t be finished till early next year. I can’t wait good luck guys, (not that I think you need it) you have my full support and undivided attention. :)

Sample page from El Grande

So what else have I been up to? Not much. I watched an interesting documentary last week. The Human Camera on Channel 5. It was about the extraordinary works and mind of Stephen Wiltshire. Hopefully the link to his site will explain more, but in short, he has the ability to look at detailed buildings for a short time draw or paint in an accurate but “artistic way” At the aged of three, he was diagnosed as autistic. His ability can be compared to a photographic memory but he does make creative choices in his work so regardless of his memory, in my mind he’s an artist. It got me thinking about memory and how we use our memories as artists. When I do observational drawing, I always try...”try” to draw what I see. I rarely go back and try to finish the drawing. If the subject moves from the pose, I stop. I’m wondering now, If I look at something and remember it, then draw it, is it still observational drawing? Does Stephen draw from observation? My process is (like many others I’m sure) , I look at the subject, then look down at the paper to make a mark. I believe it is at this point I’m using my memory to make that mark before I look up again. Stephen however seems to do the looking in one block, the remembering in another, and then the drawing. What I’m interested in is expanding that window for when my memory has to come into play especially for action poses. Now I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do what Stephen does, but if I can only retain an image for 2 seconds, surely I can expand it to 10 or 20. I was at a rugby match on Sunday and froze because I wasn’t sure how to go about capturing the poses. This thing of,” am I cheating” got in the way. Once again, I’ve imposed another ridiculous rule on myself, which hopefully will be remedied in future drawings. Did anyone else see the documentary. What are your thoughts?

Anyway last couple weeks have been doodles at work, and some observational drawings edited in Photoshop to make things look more interesting. Thanks everyone for the comments last post. I found it really informative. Honesty amongst us helps us grow.

And Again....

Wes