Article on Gesture Drawing for ASIFA

My good buddy Win Leerasanthanah asked me to write an article on Gesture Drawing for ASIFA - The international association for film and animation.
Here goes:

Gesture drawing is a physical and mental experience, as real as the air we breathe. 

Figure drawing can be used to learn a multitude of things – forms, shapes, volume, perspective, anatomy, staging, composition, caricature, straights against curves, lighting and so many other ideas. Gesture drawing at its best is very subjective to the artist and should be treated as an outlet for immediate representation of your experience at that split second. It is about jotting down your reaction to the subject matter rather than copying what you see in front of you. Without that sincerity in expressing your experience, the drawings would be life-less and might not evoke the necessary emotion in the viewer.

Self-Expression versus Perfection

If you’re very much in control of the movement, by too much control you’re concerned about the execution. ” -Bruce Lee

One of the things that helped me realize the importance of self-expression was while listening to a Bruce Lee interview where he talks about martial arts: “If you’re very much in control of the movement, by too much control you’re concerned about the execution. ”


People who bought my sketchbook this year would have this original version in their books :)

Read more : 
http://www.asifa-south.com/2016/11/21/gesture-drawing-tutorial/

CTN Table T509

It's been an awesome time at CTN couple weeks back, thanks again to Disney for this wonderful opportunity. It really pushed me to make my first sketchbook for sale, and it was an amazing (but exhausting) experience, and the fact that people were interested in buying it was really encouraging.

This was a cropped piece I did for a full-environment earlier this month, which I thought was a good image for a cover page.

My table at CTN T-509 filled with prints, a Batman animation flipbook, the new sketchbook and a few batman bookmarks!

Thanks again to Matt Roberts and Kelsi Taglang and so many others at Disney!
More CTN pictures later! :) 

GOING TO CTN WOOT!!! as an exhibitor! Thank you DISNEY

This is such a wonderful gift that I certainly had not expected !! Thank you Disney!
I had been trying to gather funds to buy tickets for CTN this year and just got the news that Disney is offering me a free table and it's a true blessing.. I'm really honored to receive this.
Do come visit at Table 509 right next to the Disney booth! :)
See you soon!!

Back to life drawing

My experience at DreamWorks had been really great, I learned a lot the past many months and I noticed an overall change in how I look at things. It's always hard to keep that balance of digging deep for more knowledge but not losing things you already had in your drawings. I'm definitely trying out some new ideas in this piece which are different from my normal mode of drawing.

Character Design Internship @ DreamWorks Animation

This summer, I had the amazing opportunity to be a character design intern at DreamWorks Feature for the Creative Development and Design team in Glendale. It was quite a humbling experience and the best summer of my life, literally.. A really beautiful campus with lakes, ducks and greenery, hanging out with some of the best artists in the WORLD, topped with ice-cream and free food for everyone. I couldn't have asked for more. Having lunch with greats like Joe Moshier and Marcos Mateu Mestre was a dream I couldn't even afford to dream.
I made a lot of new friends, both interns and experienced artists, and learned a lot in the three months I was there. 
Got to spend some time with the amazing James Baxter and Kristof Serrand, such amazing and humble artists for even willing to spend time with me..and so many more including Simon Otto, Nico Marlet, Christophe Lautrette, Rodolphe Guenoden, Dean DeBlois,  POV, Dominique Louis, and so many many more. Many thanks to them for being patient with me.
I made some amazing friends who worked with me and in other departments - Courtney, Zilai, Celine Kim and Brian Wang, who gave me a great birthday treat too! Great times, would love to work with such amazing people again, hopefully soon!

When I saw a DreamWorks logo printed on my table, I simply had to use it to make up my name haha

The real moon right next to the DreamWorks moon in the same orientation. How many times can you see that? 

 the dancing fish that loved all the animated films from DreamWorks too

The real deal

 The first time I had the pho (pronounced fuh)

 

A birthday card from The great Jeffrey Katzenberg  

 Beautiful Dreamworks at night

 We got invited to the Academy of Motion Pictures Art and Sciences. AMPAS. Where they hand you the OSCARS. Well :O

With the Legend James Baxter. Many many thanks to him for all the help he gave me. Still unbelievable how humble he is.  

 Director extraordinaire Dean DeBlois agreed to spend some time with me looking over my work. Such an honor. Thanked him for making Lilo and Stitch. 

 The Einstein of Animation - Kristof Serrand - Subtle animation at its best. Learned so much from evening breaks with Kristof. 

 The CDD team with art directors Zoro Rodriguez and Joe Vance, my partner Courtney, production coordinator extraordinaire David Joyner, Melissa Kim, Mariko Yamashin and me

What a great ending to such a great internship. Mango Mousse cake from a place called Porto's. Loved it. 

 

Thank you DreamWorks for such a wonderful experience I won't forget for a long long time.

Tigsy

Loving Oil Painting

Quick Quicker - 45 min to 1 hour each. The hands one is 40 min

From last year for the children's book 'Bless'

Quick Oil Studies

Each one is 1.5 hours long. Maybe a few minutes more but all quick studies done in Oil.
Loving painting!

20 minute pastel life sketch

and a quick drawing

Character Design Challenge 'rs Spotlight

WHOA!! Super excited to see my name on the Character Design Challenger's Spotlight with giants like Uli Meyer , Julien Rossire and so many awesome artists!

http://characterdesignreferences.com/challengers-spotlight-1/

Thank you Auguste Dupin and Griz n Norm!

Working on a new character

Work published in Nancy Beiman's 'Animated Performance'

What a great gift for the New Year! I feel very lucky to have been able to contribute artwork and be a small part of the 2nd Edition of Animated Performance by my teacher from Sheridan, the incredible Nancy Beiman!


To the few people who might not know who Nancy is,
She has been an integral part of the 2nd Golden age of Disney Animation in the 90's and is one of the rarest talents who made it as a thriving artist being a woman in the 90s, when Animation was still dominated primarily by men.

Nancy is exceptionally sharp and nothing passes by her without catching her astute attention. If Frank and Ollie's The Illusion of Life ever missed anything, you'll find it in this book. Her analysis has helped me both as an artist as well as an effective conversationalist.


Go get your copy HERE on Amazon.

Google books link HERE.

24 hour film

So five of us had worked on a 24-hour film back in October 2015, which got picked up as one of the best five out of 105 teams. So we are selected into the second round happening in LA this summer 2016! Woo! Had so much fun.. taught us anything is possible in 24 hours..The topic we had was "What if technology was introduced at the beginning of mankind"
We had lots of fun pitching ideas for story and actually getting it done. I did a dance sequence and some character design work.

For January character design challenge - Roller Derby cat