Just some more

So I'm finally starting to work with tone paper and white charcoal pencils which I haven't done in any class yet.

I'm really liking it.

Here's some drawings from the past couple of weeks from class:

I have to say this may be my best drawing I've ever done in class.




I was messing this one up so much. I just like the right leg.



This one wasn't tone paper, but I was pleased with how it turned out.

Progression and Stagnation

My skills as an illustrator are still mediocre. They are ever improving, but some things are much more tricky to get the hang of.
My proportions are good. There isn't much improvement I need to be a decent illustrator in terms of proportions. I am really starting to understand what to exaggerate when drawing and sketching for animation.
But my line quality still licks the sweat off the balls of the suck squirrel. Fortunately, my figure drawing class is really making me focus on this. It also makes me really focus on composition and placement.
But this is all with charcoal. Pencil or pen & ink? Who knows. I'm OK with a pencil, pen I still need work on.

In Class Drawings

Rushed the rendering

Needs more work on foreshortening




Drapery sucks on small testes




Too dark in back




Didn't finish the hands




The shading on the face was a bad idea




The drapery shading is awful




Ugh




That sure is a small head




The inner contours are total chicken scratch crap



So I know what I need to work on improving.
I have progressed very much in the last 2 years.
So in another 2 years all be more than decent.

Astronomy gets me pumped

I am taking an astronomy class this semester and might I say how awesome it is.

The teacher is so into it and it rubs off onto the students, especially me.

At the end of class I am always so jazzed - which is unfortunate because it ends at 9:50 pm and I have to wake up early the next morning for my 8:30 class but can't get to sleep til 2:00 am because I'm so pumped.


But the reason for this post is to express to people my new revelation.

While discussing stars and galaxies my brain momentarily comprehended the grandness of the universe. My brain only does this once a month or so.
It is such an awesome and humbling experience. For just a few seconds I am grasping the insignificance of our whole galaxy let alone our solar system or planet thus lives.

I call this brief phenomenon a Cognitive Orgasm or Brain Orgasm. I call it this because as I said it only lasts a couple of seconds and it takes some build up to get to it. I have to mull over the stars for some time before the "point of no return" if you will when it is inevitable that I will have one.
The other reason I call it this is because over some time I build up a lot of stress and anxiety over trivial matters, and then once I have a brain orgasm, I realize how lame it is for me to be tense. And all at once my worries melt away. It is a wonderful feeling.

It only happens to me when I'm thinking about astronomy or religion.
I encourage the lot of you to try and achieve one of these orgasms. I have never heard anyone talk about anything like this which (naturally) makes me feel like I'm the only one.

Let your brains be fucked by thought...

My Work Thus Far

So, the end of the school year and now to see how my work has turned out.

My drawing skills keep evolving and my patience and understanding is growing. I don't mind sitting down to draw for a long while anymore because now the end results aren't total shit.
But to be honest, I don't think I've ever put more than 6 hours on any 1 drawing.


This is my better stuff from my anatomy class. And it only makes sense that most of this was from the end of the year. I definitely know what I have to improve.

With this new found technique and knowledge, I now apply it to my own work.

A day in the life of me

Let me tell you about my yesterday.

I woke up early. I got ready for the day. I went to check out an apartment.
We like the apartment so we had to get it. We did much coordination, bartering, and planning to get the place but we got it.

It's a snazzy little joint in South Park, SF by AT&T Park.

Then I helped my friend with his stop-mo project constructing building miniatures. Then went to a meeting, then back to help my friend.

Then I went home and my friend made cupcakes that looked like penguins in our room.

This all ended by 4:00 am.

I was fucking exhausted.

In the last 3 weeks

In the last three weeks of school, I have been busier than ever, which is a good thing. I will be very busy for the remaining semester, and I hope to keep learning and improving at this same pace. I will be producing much more stuff in the next few months.

I have especially been focusing on my 2D animation class and my anatomy class.


Here are some examples:

My New Hobby

I inherited my brother's Canon 40D camera this Christmas.

I picked up photography in high school, but I had a point-and-shoot.

But now I have a good camera with a good lens so I'm taking lots of photos. Portraiture is my favorite style of photography.

This is my brother. He is reading some things about the camera. He was teaching me the ins and outs of it.

But this is the kind of thing that I wanna do.
Spontaneous and candid portraiture.

But it's hard to get people who don't mind having their picture taken. And you can't be sneaky about it when the camera is so big, so it's hard to take pictures secretly.


But that's the way it goes. And I'm gonna have lots of fun with my new hobby.

If you wanna see what I've done or keep up with my photos you can check out them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/keatontips/

Integrity

I just had a heart-to-heart with my folks. We talked about why they parented me the way they did.
I'm glad my parents raised me. They let me do what I want, and I'm a better person for it.

I also learned where I got my middle name from. My father named me after a man he knew only when he was 13 and 14. He owned and ran a clinical lab. When my dad worked their he was just supposed to clean test tubes and stuff, but Marshall Jeckers went out of his way to show my dad how to do blood tests and to take blood and everything that went on there.
My dad always remembered this.
My dad wrote Marshall Jeckers years later to tell him he was going to name his son after him. As you can imagine this had a huge impact on him.

Take time to let the people who have made an impact on your life that you appreciate everything they've done for you. They don't know they've done anything until you tell them so.

I know I have around twenty people to write.