The smemster is coming to an end at DCAD, and the students are all working on their final two assignments, a storyboard and a comic. This years class is the best crop of young moldable minds I've had since I started teach, and that really makes it all worth while.
They pinned up the final storyboard roughs for critique, now they have to make the changes and clean em' up.
We also had our first few measurable snows this winter, or late fall.
This is a shot from the hallway outside my classroom.
My student Nathan has really come along well, he's woking very hard an his western comic, he even did two covers for it, here's one of them.
The last few weeks I've been turning him and the whole class onto Frazetta, Kubert and Toth, brining in books and comkcs from my collection. I've been really drilling them on layout and composition, use of blacks. I have them going to the library and doing art searches on Google as well. One class I was down there with nate to show him some Toth art and right away he started applying some of what we talked about to his work. Great to have students like this. Sixteen weeks is not a very long span of time to teach anyone the complex visual language odf storytelling , on top of solving many basic drawing issues like perspective. I feel just as we get warmed up, the semester is over.
On top of teaching I just finishined my development on our Nicalodeon project with Bill Wray, along with Jim Gomez. Now it's a waiting game to see what the muckety-mucks at Nic say. Go or no go...... It was a lot of very , very hard work, exhausting but highly creative..developing our own show. I'd love to show you all something, but I can't just yet.
While that has been churning on one table I have still been inking huge plies of scenes every week for Minoriteam along with help from Bonaia, my assistant. It's still great fun getting to "embellish" the kirby style. I just inked a bunch of T-Shirt designs, so I hope they'll remeber to send me one, a XX. this work looks to continue into next spring.
I continue to bang away on Fear Agent as well, doing finishes over Tony Moore's breakdowns, and I'm halfway through the current issue. So i am like a art robot with 8 arms, ink on this project, in this style, woosh, spin around and ink on something else in a completely different style..I'm the Stylemaster 5000!
FIGURE DRAWING
I still try and make it to the life drawing lab every week after class on Tuesdays. I am committed to continuing with it, but I am struggeling these past weeks and I am not happy with what I am doing. I think I am so tired after class, often having 3 hours sleep the nite before I teach, I am just not able to focus enough. I feel off my game, often like I am drawing 'drunk'. Without the Buzz of course. I will idealize in a second, I will blow porportions because of it, drawing what I know, not what I see,since I draw idealized figures out of my head all the time. I plan on doing more of this over the winter break, hiring a model and doing it privately.
My assistant Bonaia was there and posted some of her figure drawings on her blog as well.
BILL WRAY'S BlOG
My good friend and great cartoonist/artist Bill Wray has started his own blog which is all about his excursion as an emerging California painter, chock foull of his great paintings. Sure we know him from Big Blown Baby, Monroe in Mad, Hellboy Junior and of course Ren and Stimpy, but the last few years Bill has been moving into the Fine Art arena and is producing some fantastic work. I worry we'll eventually loose him to the world of Fine Art, but the artist must follow his muse. Bill has been really serious abou this and working hard as well an taking many lessons and seminars from several top painters in the field today such as Wang and Matt Smith, etc.
Go-Go Bill!
I already put him inmy favorites.
ReplyDeleteNathan's really kickin butt! Way to go!
ReplyDeletehahaha, way to go folks!! Need to correct the posture though...
ReplyDelete