Fume Art & Muses

I often thank my lucky stars that artists are generally accepted by society. Because think about it.
We are (for the most part) emotionally raw beings. We must wear our hearts on our sleeves in order to truly see and feel the world around us. So we can internalize it and remember it and make something out of that. In order to be inspired we must feel. That's why Artist  Blocks suck.

But back to my original point, I am glad we are accepted... because if you stand back and think about it, we are beings who are for the most part incapable of processing intense emotions without the aid of visual/auditory media. I challenge you to find an artist that does not feel the need to create when they are experiencing intense emotions. I know it's how I work.

Feeling really sad? Angry? Happy? Remorseful? Whimsical? Reminiscent? ART.
Even being inspired by music or really gorgeous art, or some terrible/wonderful thing you saw or heard about. People can be really good inspirations too, dependent on their relationship with you. And what emotions they draw out the most.

I have found loss, sadness and helplessness usually drive me to draw a lot. They are emotions you can't really do much about usually, so I draw. It helps me disconnect and funnel my feels into my painting, instead of bottling them up and just being intensely unhappy. I feel like I'm doing the feelings justice, and feel a sense of productiveness, even if it's misleading.

I don't know what I'd do or who I'd be if I couldn't draw out bad feelings. Maybe I'd be a lot grumpier. Who knows. I just know it helps me stay on a happy even keel most of the time. For some reason giving bad feelings a look and face, it's like you're creating something beautiful out of terrible feelings. I guess that's it. Making the best of a terrible situation, haha!

So yes. I'm very glad that every artist is not committed for emotional processing difficulties or some twaddle. Or being emotionally unstable. Which would also be a copout, haha!

Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments, I'm interested to see what you think.

Here is some recent artworks, all but the last two I did today, it's been a fumey productive kind of day!

Umé the Wolf

Ceb the Demon-dog

Tentacle Kitsuné

FRUSTRATION DRAGON!

Pachyrhinosaurus Hearts <3 p="">

I'M FAMOOSE!

Nah, not really.
BUT!

I did win the Animation Division of the Fairbanks Film Festival!
I got a big trophy and prize and I felt very special :3

I even got interviewed and a piece written in the paper about me, which you can read here:

http://www.newsminer.com/features/latitude_65/article_4c03627c-6146-11e2-a2fd-001a4bcf6878.html

I'll have to look into which other film festivals I should apply to, I would love to see if Griz of Oz can get recognition elsewhere in the country- I know it is lacking visually in some areas, but I feel the animation and story is solid.

So who knows, I'll keep my fingers crossed :)

I need to go clamour and thank Eddie Rosas, for helping me come up with the story and characters in the first place, back in 2011.... Without him I don't know where I'd be. He is an awesome, awesome dude.

Animation Mentor Progress Reel Term 4

I know I never posted Term 3, shhhh..... :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND THE LAST 4 MONTHS OF SHENANIGANS!

I.... too much happened.

There was this cacophony of BFA thesis, Honor's Capstone thesis, my CGI modelling/rigging/animating job, AnimationMentor work, and commission work on the side...

And somewhere in there I am pretty sure I lost all my sanity.

But now I'm out on the other side and I don't know how I survived but I did and I'm very glad of that. 

So after the jump is a massive BALH;FIOEGHHH of images, from my BFA, from frustration and anxiety, from procrastination... (all of the above really).

I hope you enjoy. I'll be posting my BFA animation later.... (it's 2D and about 3.5 minutes long)

I'll try to post this in roughly chronological order as well.....

****** SHENANIGANS AFTER THE JUMP!*****

BE WARNED, THERE BE MANY MANY FILES!

Griz of Oz Gangnam Style

I was animating some loops whilst listening to PSY's song on repeat... and this is what happens. 

I blame it on a lack of sleep, hahaha! :D

Anyway, yeah, all animation is mine... all will be featured in my BFA short film coming out in November :)

I am very excited and nervous!

Sketchie sketchie

So everything is starting to crunch- BFA thesis is coming up quick, and I have not been puttg enough time into AM. Please wake me up when November ends :D
But, for some reason, little side projects help me stay sane. That and seeing real life people occasionally :D

So here is the poster pic for my BFA Animation Thesis this November:

I'm so excited, and so very nervous and scared of failure- not getting it finished in time.
Please goodness I hope I'll have it done.

So without further ado, I'll upload some more recent sanity-keeping sketches and get back to it, hahaa!

Tao Shu Tsin- don't think he'll get finished anytime soon, or even look the same. I wanna change his lower half to more snakey-dragon than anthropomorphic.

And change that stupid hand >(

Who can resist dapper porpoise? Noone, that's who.

IT'S FANCYPANTS FRIDAY, ee ee ee ee!

Ka'ev is Hebrew for 'hurt'. Had a bawwww day recently apparently.

So there's that :D

I have more piccies, some ink and pencil shenanigans, but I'll upload them at a later date.

Until then, remain sane my friends. ;)

How To Draw A Dream in 4 Easy Steps!!

So I had this crazy lucid dream a couple of weeks back from my way back from AM BBQ (which was AWESOME btw)

I dreamt I was drawing the drawing below- every detail, so I could remember it all. It was nuts- I've had dreams like it before, but I usually completely forget what I dreamed up by the time I wake up :O

So it was crazy to be able to wake up and still remember exactly what I had sketched out.

So I woke up on the plane... went OMG... and got it down on my laptop before I could forget any major details!

So that was the initial drawing- just a concept sketchy sketch of what I could remember. 

Next I worked on getting details worked out- fixed some anatomy mistakes also. (jellyarms!)

Bam! Final Lineart Foo!!

A white background is fine too :D

Base coat, then lock layer's transparent pixels (so I can't draw outside lines)

Started background too.

Colour base finished with details.

BAM! STRIPES!

Almost finished....

Yeayyy!! Finished image!

The Thai writing says "Fierce as a tiger/ Crafty as a fox"

No, I did not dream in Thai... I just remember that being the saying in my dream. :D

And that it was written in very elegant and curly writing- when I saw Thai, I aha'd.

So to recap,
Step 1: Have Dream.
Step 2: Wake the Heck Up.
Step 3: Scribble Down the Dream.
Step 4: Draw it More Until it Looks Good.

Hahahaa!