Just a Tad

Rhino!

This started with a photo in a National Geographic newsletter by Otto Plantema, Buiten Beeld, Minden Pictures. There were also two birds perched behind his second horn. One had a red beak that would've been a neat point of interest for the painting but their feathers almost blended into the Rhino's skin. I figured I had enough to deal with and so simplified.

I was too timid to draw on the sketchbook page, which I know is stupid because it's a sketchbook, so I drew on a separate piece of paper, rubbed some pastel on the back, then transferred it to the book. In my defense, It's a bound sketchbook by Pentalic filled with heavy watercolor paper. Still, I know it was silly.  Maybe next time.

This time, I did a little pre-painting prep. The day before, I sealed the paper with Acryla gouache which is gouache that uses an acryilic binder instead of gum arabic. A layer of regular gouache can be activated with water, allowing for blending after the fact. It can also muddy the color of the layers you paint on top of it if you're not careful. Acryla gouache dries like acrylic paint. Once it's dried, it's done. I bought a tube of white, blue, yellow and red to mix an approximation of anything I need out of those. I just added random color shapes to five pages with no idea of what I'll eventually paint on them. Ultimately, the color was covered by my opaque paint but I did start off with lighter washes so maybe there's a little glow left. But by coating the paper, it didn't suck up the paint as fast as the raw pages did. This made the actual painting process better.

Here's where I stopped the first day. Why did I stop? Maybe I thought it was going well and I didn't want to mess it up. Maybe I just lost energy. I will say that I had returned to it in the evening and the lights in my office weren't bright enough to light my paper. For my birthday, I'm getting an LED light with an adjustable temperature setting that will definitely allow for night painting. Of course, I hope to actually paint outside again. Then again, there are no rhinos in my backyard.

You can see the warm glow behind the horns which is the underpainting showing through. Maybe there's more warmth to the face because of it. After I get through the random pages, I'll try to use it more thoughtfully. The rhino was standing in grass in the original photo, more straw colored than what I suggested here. I knew I'd be blurring this or changing it completely so I moved on.

I blocked in the main colors but the body could've used more variation. In the previous painting, I got the bark texture by random strokes and dry brush. I was thinking I should do the same here. If I had a painted page of gray to experiment on, I might've. Instead, I started adding details to give me some anchor points. It's a lack of confidence move for me. "If I can make the nostril work, I'll just move across the whole painting." Not the best logic. After that, I called it a day.

I ended up going with a darker background. I added some tall grass in the foreground for depth but had to tone them way down as they were the brightest objects on the painting. I used pastel pencils to add some color variation to the rhino's body. There are a hundred things to be picky about but overall, I'm happy with this. It was an enjoyable process and if I can paint a few more like this, my confidence will be in great shape to tackle painting outdoors, possibly in front of people... if they ever let us out again.

On the other hand, I really like the ear closest to us. The light and shadow are working great to give an illusion of light. Plus the underpainting is showing through in interesting ways. It shows there are goals I want to reach that are attainable.                                 - Tad

Charity artwork

I rarely update this blog. I continue to pay for it so the hellboy animated blog can be accessed since it's a log of the creation of two animated videos. But meanwhile, I continue to appear at conventions and, at this time of year, hold art auctions for charity.  If by some weird chance you follow me here and nowhere else. The first auction is almost over. I'll do a few other pieces soon.  Info on how to bid is on my Facebook page and Twitter account. Just search for my name.  -- Tad

Dusting Things Off

I haven't posted in a very long time. The usual reasons. The development material that I'm most interested in sharing is, by it's nature, legally unsharable since I'm using the characters of someone else. When I'm not in development I using my writing time, trying to come up with something to pitch.

    I'm currently directing three, now it looks like a possible six, 66minute action adventure videos based on a series of middle grade books. Again, can't talk about things in production because marketing a production is hard enough without staff posting random art.

    And of course, I'm lazy I'm constantly thinking I have nothing worth posting. But I realize that I post creative links to my Facebook page all the time. Links recommended by other artists. So I've decided to put that stuff here, not only as a source of cool information but as reminder that I should post here more often or just shut the place down. So here's a link that John Hoffman posted. John is a story artist up at PIXAR but just before he left he did design work for me on a possible Cartoon Network show.

http://www.aotg.com/index.php?page=murchrules

Animation often lags behind live action film techniques by several decades. Not so much the case with CG fims but when I started at Disney Features in the mid-seventies the film style was no different than what was done in Snow White. Actually, Snow's terrified run through the woods was more avant garde than anything from Jungle Book through Fox and the Hound. 

    In TV animation, the choice of camera angle slavishly follows Rules #5 and #6. Usually. There are times you WANT to confuse the audience momentarily as to where characters are in relation to each other and then reveal it a few shots later. Audiences like the mini-surprises that happen along the way, even the ones they barely notice.

   I remember that in the early days of Disney TV Animation, there was a standing rule that there could be no signage on buildings because the cartoons would be sold around the world. So you couldn't label a shoe store. This led to an establishing shot of shops with giant shoes out front because "You have to have an establishing shot so the audience knows where you are!" Maybe. But why can't that establishing shot be inside, you know - where the character is sitting in a chair surround by shoe displays? Less work for the layout and background department too.

That reminds me of a book I've recommended before. If you have any interest in storyboards, directing, comic books, illustration, in short, any creative art that uses visuals to communicate a mood or story, own this book. FRAMED INK is a beautiful book that is packed with dynamic compositions to use in your own work. Buy it in the usual places.

Jake Parker is another artist that I used in the development of a science fiction series that never sold. Oh, to have that Disney money to throw at cool artists again. Ah well. Anyway, I posted a link to Jake drawing a robot recently. I enjoy watching and listening to artists draw and Jake is a natural teacher.  But instead of reposting his recent robot sketch I'm ending with an older YouTube video that shows him drawing a lava monster.

 

So there you have it. My first post of 2015 about exploring the creative process. I'll try to make this happen more often and come up with some original content of my own.

                                                                                                                                --Tad