stevejjd's blog

2012-02-27T16:30:00.001+11:00

Arm Stydy

2012-02-21T18:17:00.001+11:00

2012-01-27T23:29:00.001+11:00

Anyone on this site

It is vital to understand the advice and lessons of the Masters, both old and new. Here are some case studies of great artists of today working in the visual story telling business.

George Miller - Dr D studios - "...what I would say to almost everybody is become multi skilled; become kind of a polymath. One of the things I have noticed is that the people who are endlessly curious about a wide range of things are the people who tend to be able to adapt much more quickly to this changing world of VFX....The more Renaissance like people are the more likely they can engage with an ever changing landscape. If I gave any advice its, learn as much as you can about everything."

Brad Bird - PIXAR - "There's this terrible thing that's happening, there is this talk that I can't stand, which is '2D is dead, the computer replaces all', and it's like, no it isn't dead any more than photography killed off drawing or painting...The problem is, a lot of these schools are closing down traditional art departments in favour of bringing in computers... "

Edwin Catmull - PIXAR - "...It's a horrible misconception, because a couple of the studios have decided that the reason they have failed is because the audience has lost their taste for 2D and they want 3D; it's a very poor excuse for why they forgot how to tell stories - The unfortunate consequence is that schools think the only thing they have to teach is the software, it's not wrong to learn the software but it is now substitute for learning art and learning how to see. The great thing about drawing is that you are training yourself to observe and see what's happening, it is the best training...Almost all of our animators were trained in 2D, it's still the best training ground ..."

Andrew Stanton - PIXAR - "...Go and study life, go and take sculpture classes, go and see theatre, watch movies, read books, learn to draw; go to the source....it's a tremendous asset to always put pencil to paper....frankly, software is always going to change, the big thing I learned at PIXAR is that the tools develop around how the artist thinks....spend most of your time enhancing your skills; that has nothing to do with what medium you use....as technology continues to change your not going to lose your job because you can keep moving those fundamental skills over to the next platform...."

John Lasseter- PIXAR - “Art challenges technology but technology inspires the art..."

Digital Sculpting Studies

2012-01-25T14:43:00.000+11:00

Digital Sculpture: Portrait Anatomy

2011-12-28T20:43:00.001+11:00

Degital Sculpture - Male Skull

2011-12-27T20:21:00.002+11:00

Digital Sculpting - Female Torso

2011-12-27T20:19:00.002+11:00

Digital Sculpting - Male Portrait

2011-12-27T20:15:00.001+11:00

Digital Sculpting: Male Torso Study

2011-12-27T20:10:00.001+11:00

Here is a study of a male torso

Drawing Portfolio - Sketchbook: Figures from Imagination

2011-12-27T16:57:00.000+11:00

Here is a mash-up from my sketchbook. I have drawn from observation so now I draw from imagination and memory. I try to maximise the understanding of gesture, form and anatomy. Its so important do draw the figure in various poses and perspectives. Despite anatomical maps and study plates, the human figure is viewable from any angle and incredibly dynamic, pose-able and changeable.

Schools teach students how to poly-model by copying reference plates that have a static figure staring back at them. I don't think this is effective at all. Rather we benefit from understanding the figure from the dynamism of life. The human body is animated even when its 'still' it's alive. A Life Model is more than arranged anatomy, we are looking at a living person full of life. A model has people he/she loves and they have goals and a unique sense of superpose and identity; they go about living. I think an artist needs to reach past technique to try and talk about who and what that person is like. I want to breathe life into my art; the problem is that its like catching lighting in a bottle.

Drawing Portfolio - Tonal drawings

2011-12-27T16:41:00.000+11:00

Tonal drawings are great, but not the end goal for me. I typically draw in a style that maximizes the understanding of form. Tonal drawings are essentially accurate mapping of tone (Like a black and white photo). This is a very popular and beautiful way to draw but the big drawback is that copying tones can result in overlooking Form. For a Digital Sculptor Form is the goal. Drawings that focus on modeling form and structure still use tone but in a different way that is controlled and maximises the explanation of the geometry (Like a sculptor).

Drawing Portfolio - Life Drawings: Seated figures

2011-12-27T16:23:00.000+11:00

Life Drawings of seated figures.

Drawing Portfolio - Life Drawings: Reclined figures

2011-12-27T16:11:00.004+11:00

These are some more life drawings; The figures are reclined and relaxed. I try to get the gesture and proportion first and them build in construction, like the perspective. I find that drawing is realy the art of doing many things at once and its doesn't really happen in a step by step timeline.

Drawing Portfolio - Life Drawings

2011-12-27T15:36:00.004+11:00

These are some drawings from Life. On the left is a quick gesture drawing, the middle one is a portrait of a girl and on the right is a gesture drawing of a seated man. Looking at life and saying what its like through drawing is essential to the development of a Digital Sculptor and is at the core of all my work.

Drawing Portfolio - Life Drawings: Male figures

2011-12-27T15:22:00.004+11:00

These are some quick gesture drawings from life drawing class. We are to place a strong emphasis on finding the major action/gesture in the pose. We do check proportions but only after we have described the major actions. What is the model doing? Squash, stretch, bend, twist, weight, pressure, flexed, relaxed, and so on. We draw "Verbs" not "Nouns"; we try get the action. This is good because we observe the model and try do draw what we see and what we know. The drawing is always changeable and does not have to be a perfect map of the model. We get to see how changeable the human figure is.

Drawing Portfolio - Cast Drawings

2011-12-27T14:49:00.006+11:00

These are life drawings of a Cast (statue) called "Flayed Man" The statue is designed to be tricky for students to draw. The type of drawing is called "Form drawing". The objective is to accuratly draw the 2D outside shape by focusing on big proportions and angles first. The 2D shape is then developed into 3D by finging the major plane breaks of the form (eg the planes that separate Front from Side). This way of drawing is important because you start to know anatomy by its shapes.