Last Day

Well, today is July 21, 2017. It's the last day I'm legally a child. Ha. Shows what they know. But if I'm being serious, I feel a kind of weight over the future that I know is there and yet I can't touch. I don't know if I've done a good job of portraying myself on this blog or if I just made myself seem constantly creative and faithful and fun. But today as I was thinking about it... all the dreams I have for the future are very hard to dream right now. Right now I don't feel super invigorated or absolutely hopeful for the future. I feel introspective and alone. How am I supposed to do the great things I want to do if I can't even find anyone except my God that cares about those same things? I don't want to express these feelings though dark or lonely images; I want to address them through images of beauty and fun.

To that end, these drawings are how I spent my evening. The first is an image that explores personality (grace and confidence) in a static image, and the second is basically supposed to be a drawing of myself if I were a cartoon rabbit. The first image is part of a larger project I hope to use in the far future, and the second is just something I wanted to do for fun. You may begin to grasp the connection between them. I like how they both turned out. I didn't leave myself enough space in the first image, and I'm sure her form isn't even close to being right or whatever. But I think she's pretty, and that's the point. I've drawn a few cartoon robots in my day and that came in handy. The second image turned out to sort of be a combination of the two main characters in Pixar's "Boundin'," which is kind of appropriate actually. "Boundin'" also might be my favorite Pixar short. I know this drawing is not as adorable as the duckling, but it's fun. All I know is, I prayed to God for help before I started drawing, and these pictures are what I drew. God's will be done. I will trust in You all the days of my life. I love You. Amen.

The Movement of a Dragon's Wing

This is perhaps the first time I've really gotten a line of action close to being right. I've tried to do it before, especially when imitating comics, but it's never really clicked until now. Part of what was great about this one is I could just trace the figure's leg straight from the line of action, and I had a reference for at what point her hair dipped and came back up. The elephant's line of action in the right-hand corner isn't as well done. I knew a scared line kind of hesitates and zaggs in one place, but I didn't quite leave myself enough space to communicate that with the elephant's back. And yes, that is a cartoon baby elephant with feet instead of just toes. It's complicated, but it makes sense in context. The dragon also has a less obvious action line for where I want it's back to arch, but that's more for my reference.

Obviously this image was experimenting with motion. It's a little odd, but I actually tried not to use motion lines (my normal technique) and just try to convey the motions of the figures though shape.

"Going Down," or "Not So Hidden Depth"

So the focus of this picture is creating a sense of depth. Nothing I haven't tried to do before, but his time I tried to used specific techniques to create the sense of depth. The rectangular hallway appears wider at the bottom of the picture than at the top. The two visible elevators are obviously of different sizes in the picture because one is closer. And that sense of depth allows the audience to judge that the tail in the foreground is actually very big on it's own, not just closer in perspective.

I think I will give a little more backstory to this picture. I don't know how obvious it is, but the two humanoid figures were actually arguing by the elevators before they both noticed something menacing sneak around the corner. This moment comes at the same time the young woman's elevator arrives and speaks "going down." As you might imagine, these words have a bit more meaning in the context of what they were arguing about and what they just saw, but I won't say exactly what.

The Shape of a Hero

Don't worry, I haven't gone cubist. Not even a little. That kind of style is a little beyond me right now. No, all the shapes in this picture are very important to the actual scene, not just for style. The small figure made mostly of triangles is made that way because they're very active. She isn't shaded in so that she's the first thing you see before the larger character in the foreground. The shadow behind her is meant to show that she's on equal level with the larger, more intimidating shadowy figure. The figure made of rectangles is that way to show how they're closed off but also tough and powerful. The larger triangle around the figure and her shadow highlights the angle of the action. The rectangle behind her is a wall. The circle around her is a spotlight. The triangle coming off the circle is the beam. Pretty simple actually.

So as you may have guessed, this image is focused on finding all the shapes of the scene, not just the characters. It's also about using those shapes to create a certain focus and effect.

Streetview

Remember that project I mentioned that I was really excited about? Well believe it or not, the next four pictures including this one are all from that project. I won't go into more detail, mostly I just wanted to share these images, not the idea behind them. One common theme you will notice is that I'm trying to use very simple shapes to convey the scenes. Just an experiment. This image actually turned out to be a combination of all the techniques I was practicing for the other three images. I kept coming back to this image to use what I'd learned. Anyway, this image probably has more meaning to me than is obvious. A lot of it is just a reminder of the kinds of things I want to do in the long game project. It's nowhere near close to the final image in my brain. God's will be done. Amen.

1 Samuel 17:34

Another drawing inspired by my youth group, only this time it actually pertains to the lesson we were learning. In the story of David and Goliath, David mentions protecting his sheep whenever they were carried off by lions or bears. One very smart guy in the group asked what geographical region you'd have to be in to encounter both bears and lions. Our youth leader suggested maybe it was mountain lions. I'm not sure if that's accurate or not, but I wanted to save the image in my head just in case. I've had an interest in doing an independent web animation series based off the Bible, because I learn best when both my hearing and sight are engaged in a story based way. I want people like me to be able to quote the Bible (or even ideas from the Bible) as easily as we quote our favorite movies and tv shows. To that end, I had already done a concept sketch of David that looks much like this one. So I already knew how to draw him.

Because this was during youth group, I drew David and all three animals from what I remembered about them. The drawing is in pen, and obviously I made David's arms way too big in proportion to his body the first time I drew them. I'm not crazy about how big the rest of his body is compared to his legs either. I suppose I've got the image of mountain lions in my head better than bears or sheep, because David and the lion are drawn much better than the other two figures. As you can see, the bear is at the edge of the scan and blurry, but I'm okay with that. It's not my best bear anyways.

Touch the Stars

 

These are a pair of drawings I did in Youth Group today. I'm feeling much less depressed than I was earlier. If I do anything surreal, I like it to be positive. I think I've had a fascination with the idea of actually touching tiny starts ever since I actually went on Mission Space in Epcot. All I know is that it keeps showing up in my art and writing. I pictured this girl in my head from the back, but then after the first picture I just had to do another one from the front. She draws inspiration from the origin story of Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy. It's a surprisingly emotional story for a Mario Game, which is probably why I was thinking about it while I was gloomerated. This girl's left arm looks a little weird zoomed in, but I like her expression.

Since I'm talking once again about my mood swings anyways, I guess I'll mention that I wish mainstream American culture didn't trivialize existential crises as much. And I mean all of the different kinds, whether they're teenagers' or mid-life or artists'. We all have that image of the moody, melodramatic teenager, but now that I'm actually going through the emotions... they still feel real even though I know they're irrational. So today I was kind of annoyed that existential outbursts are treated like jokes in most of the media I've seen. Eh, I'm probably being overly emotional about it. God will save me.