Nikita - A new project

So today's post is a bit of a retrospective one. For the past few months I've dipped in and out of a personal project, probably only spending 4 or 5 days on it so far. I thought of this project when I started watching the second season of the CW show Nikita. I have been watching this show since it premiered and although CW shows have a rep of being for teens/young women and essentially being fan service for them (yes I'm talking about The Vampire Diaries), Nikita is one of the few that really stands alone. This show has come at a time that I began showing far more interest in how movies and TV shows are made, from cinematography to screenwriting and it excels in many of these aspects of film. The screenwriting is great, with interesting plots and twists planned well ahead and executed precisely. The acting is great with a cast that compliments each other and from what I've seen from the little behind the scenes footage, seem to be genuinely nice and improve each other's performances. But more than this the thing that strikes you when watching Nikita is the look of it. The action sequences are directed as perfectly as the intense dialogue and the use of visual effects and other post-production is subtle and aesthetically pleasing. As you can see, I've become a bit of a fanboy and this is only helped by the face that the bluray release is one of the nicest looking TV blurays in my collection. Anyway, rather than going on about it, here's the trailer and I recommend you watch the pilot episode and you'll see for yourself. And for anyone wondering, I've seen La Femme Nikita and it's plenty different, it is more of a complete reimagining than a remake.

Well now I'll actually get to the project I was talking about. I decided that, as I'm looking to improve my drawing skills and really push past where I currently am I decided to draw the cast. They're all very different and I've noticed that they all have very different facial structures so it'll give me some good all-round practice. First of all I drew Shane West. He's Michael, the main love interest of the titular character. More than this he works for the Initiative, the origanisation Nikita worked for. He's apparently also known for being in ER but I've only ever seen him in a couple of movies when he was a kid along with an early episode of Buffy. This drawing is not one of my favourites as I was out of practice with my old tablet and I do plan on going over it again soon:

After this character, I'd gotten a new graphics tablet and it was so more responsive so I decided to draw my next character (and my Twitter followers will probably already have seen this), actress Lyndsy Fonseca. She plays the young assassin Alex in the show and is also well known for playing Katie in Kickass and Ted's daughter in How I Met Your Mother among other roles:

This, I feel, was a great success and it only pushed me to do more drawings. I have found a nice digital painting style finally and so I started my next one; Devon Sawa. He was actually a secondary character in the first and second seasons but is being moved up to the main cast in the new season, plus he's a great guy who's tweeted me regarding the drawing and says he likes it (:D). He plays Owen, another division agent and has just recently got back into acting after a great career as a child/young adult actor. He played the human (well living) version of Casper in the 1995 film and has had other roles in many films I watched growing up, one of which was the first Final Destination film where her played the main character, Alex. This drawing proved a real issue as the only good reference image I could find had him staring off into the distance and I (clearly) had some trouble changing his eyes to look more forward. Although it's a lot better than the original.

well, other than this there's not much else to update on this project. I've started my next drawing, Dillon Casey who plays Sean in the show. I started it a while ago but I keep jumping between projects. I do want to get it finished by the end of the newest season at least as it premieres very soon. As you can see it's only just started but I'll upload it when it's all done

Been a busy day so far, got up early to watch my new Bluray edition of The Hunger Games before work and was so surprised how in depth the special features were. If you, like me, are interested in just about every aspect of film it's a must purchase even if you're not particularly bothered by the film itself. The 8-part making of seems to be around half an hour per part which is really unusual; you're lucky to get an hour of special features if any these days. Everything from casting and production design to screenwriting and direction is explored, I really recommend getting it. I still haven't managed to watch it all so that'll be what I'll be doing once I've finished this blog post. Aside from telling you what I've been spending all my hard earned money on I've also been working on my drawing a little more today (although there was only a couple of people on the train today) and I've also had some exciting news on the job front. I haven't actually applied yet, I've just found out about a great position in the company I work for that'd be perfect. To prepare for this job, well graduate scheme, and make myself as employable as possible I've decided to learn web design as it is one of the many things the job could entail. I saw an offer on Groupon that I'll be going for, which is a group of 37 webmaster courses including everything from design to coding and at the reasonable price of £99. I figure if I pay for it then I'll force myself to get the most out of it rather than just looking for web tutorials that I can send to the bottom of the never-ending pile of bookmarks I currently have to work through. Aside from that I've got a few more drawings that I did recently that I've yet to upload here. As I'm off tomorrow I'll probably do a couple of posts to show my latest projects. First of all, Jon Snow from HBO's Game of Thrones. Been a couple of months since I drew this one but I saw it again today and surprisingly I'm still quite happy with it:

Next we have a quick sketch I did of Sarah Michelle Gellar pulling a face. Doesn't look too much like her but it was more to try some exaggerated facial expressions, and it didn't take long:

Another couple of drawings I did of some members of the public while I was sat in Costa coffee waiting for the train:

Strangers on a Train

So it's been a while.. But I'm just gonna ignore that and great straight back into the swing of things. First of all; I'm a graduate! I recently finished university and got a First Class Masters Degree in animation. This is great news obviously but I'm not under any allusions; this is the time that I really have to push myself. I have a way to go before I can go up against those people applying for the jobs I want and seeing as I've never had a gap in my education, I'm currently working part time at Sky TV and spending the rest of my time working on my portfolio; VFX, animation, drawing, modelling and anything I can to find what I'm best at. Lately though I've made huge improvements in my drawing skills. I tend to have these big jumps when I take a lot of time to practice. This has been helped by the fact that I've been commuting to work in Sheffield from my parents' house (where I'm staying until I get a job confirmed in London) and the train journeys give me a lot of free time away (mostly) from the internet. Rather than sitting there bored and listening to music I've decided to spend most of my time drawing the people around me. It's great. There aren't any life drawing classes that are easily accessible so it's my free replacement of that and honestly, since I started the regular practice I've become so much better. I think the fact that I've also been reading up on anatomy, especially facial structure has really helped and I'm not making up characters that look much more unique and distinct. I thought I'd show you guys some of my latest drawings and see what you think. I'm gonna try to update from now on each day after I've drawn them so I can keep a record of how my skills are improving.

A few more observations

Since yesterday I've done a few more drawings. I'm now working my way up from the basics to make sure my knowledge of human anatomy is as strong as it can be. I started by doings some skull studies, first in the front view (which I haven't uploaded but may do soon) and also a side view which is here. I'm not too worried about getting everything absolutely perfect at the moment. I'm using this more as an exercise in ingraining the process of drawing an anatomically correct person in my mind as well as possible.



I also worked on some fleshed out variations on the skulls. Well, not particularly fleshed out but I wanted to make them a little more human. The one with the goggles and the mask was just me going a bit crazy but I think it looks pretty cool.





The last drawing was done on the bus ride home. Which was, by the way, one of the shakiest, bumpiest bus journeys I've ever been on. But I still managed to do a quick drawing of the only passenger who would stay still.



Well that's about it for today. I'm gonna do some more tonight so if all goes to plan I should have some more to show you by tomorrow.

An odd request (well a few)

Recently I've been dedicating a lot more time to drawing. It's my passion above all else so why not practice a little more. I tend to get random bursts if improvement in my drawing skills, although they generally come about when I actually sit down and draw a lot so maybe they're not so random. While sitting, bored at my summer job (which I have now finished forever!) I decided I'd ask some people for some requests. Crazy drawings that I could try to create and I definitely got my wish.

First of all came a request from my friend/a talented hotography student who wanted me to draw "a dinosaur in a top hat serving tea and cake to an owl in a waistcoat and a lion in a bowtie". This was not the best drawing of the lot but I was laughing while I drew it so I'll upload it anyway:



Next was a fairly specific request by flatmate/fellow Tweeter/blogger/animator Basil Baradaran (theinflamedtime.blogspot.com). And I quote, "A skydiving giraffe with Zach Galifianakis riding atop it like Major Kong riding the bomb in Dr Strangelove"
Now this was a fun one to draw. I had never drawn a giraffe OR Zach Galifianakis before so it would be a challenge. I roughed out a drawing of how it would look first and did a more detailed version afterwards:



And as I was uploading these to Twitter I started to get more and more requests. The next was by my University tutor Mel (www.melmation.com) "Doc and Marty smashing through the marshmallow man in the DeLorean while it's fighting with a dinosaur a-la King Kong". Now everyone loves a bit of 80's inspired Kaiju mayhem so I set to work and I think this was the most fun to be honest. Reminded me of old Power Rangers episodes so I used the set up of those big monster battles as inspiration:



Then we have a lovely request from a 3D artist Dave (@dave_A_davidson - http://renderpimp.com/wp/). Now I'm trying to remember this tweet because it was somehow deleted from Tweetlonger "A rabbit fishing at a lake with a few dragonflies, frogs and other things not made too cheesy. Some mushrooms and trees etc." It sounded like a nice drawing so I decided to really go for realism on this one and try out making a realistic composition:



Then finally, an actor/writer from Twitter (again) asked if I could draw a picture for some inspiration for a screenplay he is writing. A story about a guy who sees himself as a superhero (can't give details). He wanted an image of himself drawn heroically with ripped muscles etc. I found it quite a strange and funny one to draw. The proportion is slightly off but it's not too bad. Anyway, here it is. I'd appreicate any comments/criticisms you can give me :)

A very short story

As I work mainly on my own in either a gift shop or ice cream stall in my summer job, I have a lot of free time between customers and unlike people who just stand there, I have to make the most of it or I'll go mad. So far I've read Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, a good chunk of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (I'm not an atheist but not hugely religious either so it's interesting to hear all the arguments), a biography on the incredibly talented Joss Whedon and most of the Grimm Fairy Tales (been meaning to reread a lot of them lately and some I've never actually read). But another thing I've been doing is trying to get back into writing. I decided, as an exercise to get me back into the swing of things, I'd write about the first thing I thought about. This freewriting practice has really helped and I've been so much more creative since I started so I'd definitely recommend it, even if you're not a writer.

Here's what I came up with if you feel like reading:

In a park just like any other you've seen; an expanse of green grass covering the ground beneath, within a fence of green trees with a sole green bench sat at the edge of it. On this green bench was a woman, clearly a young mother with her hair loosely tied back and a stain of unknown origin on her otherwise clean shirt. She sat by a big pile of various bits and pieces any mother tends to carry around with her; bottles of various liquids and a change of clothes were only a couple of the items at her disposal and on her lap lay a "Big Book of Fairy Tales". She had just finished reading one of them to her child and was now using it as something to lean on, exhausted, yet still smiling with adoration at her little princess.

The child was no older than two or three yet was running around with the greatest of ease. She had clearly set her heart on catching the little bird that had landed a few feet away from her, a magpie that didn't fear the child but actually seemed to have no problem playing along. First they looked at each other and as the little girl began to step forward the bird moved a little through the freshly cut grass with a piece of discarded bread still in its beak. Then stopped. The little girl went running after it with the steps almost as tiny as the magpie's. As she grew close, stopping just short of it, again it made its way through the grass almost teasing her.

Her mother smiled more broadly as the little girl spun around to see her mother, pigtails following and she saw the child's bemused yet gleeful face looking towards her. They shared a chuckle and so she span around again to chase the bird, who was now hopping away. The chasing, stopping, laughing and a chasing again went on for a few minutes and although the child could carry of running forever, the mother knew the inevitable was coming. The bird has eaten the bread and grown tired of being chased by this pink frilly menace and with one flap of its wings took off. The little girl turned to her mother, seemingly for some kind of approval. Hesitant for a moment, she eventually gave her daughter the nod she was looking for along with a cheerful thumbs up and with that, the little girl took off once again, this time soaring through the air after her feathery friend. The mother smiled, thinking to herself, "You have to let them spread their wings sooner or later"

I'd really appreciate any comment you have as I could do with the pointers. I barely have time to sit down lately with 9 hour shifts at work and exercise when I get in but I'll try to do some more blog updates with other short stories soon. For now, I better get some sleep, one more day and I have two days off work. Woo :)

Batman and yet more modelling/texturing

Been very busy of late what with work, exercise, 3D Modelling etc. and now Taekwondo (which is pretty awesome) so I've not got loads of 3D work done but I have managed to model and almost texture something half decent.

I've been watching a lot of Nikita yesterday, which is one of the best shows I've seen in ages. I seriously recommend watching it if you're not already. Anyway, I wanted to do a quick model and get it textured for some practice so I took some inspiration from the spy show by making a part of an upscale hosue/mansion. I know it may not seemed linked, but I liked the look of the houses these diplomats or heads of corporations meet that always seem to be robbed/have an assasination attempt happen there. I'm going to keep building onto it so I can make a nice scene and possibly even do a bit of an animation set there if I can make some appropriate characters. Here is my progress on it, I started last night and worked till around 1am then finished modelling and started the texturing this morning/afternoon. It's far from finished but I'm quite happy with the results so far. Comments would really be appreciated along with any ideas you might have on things to include in the scene, it'll help me a lot.



I'm off to bed now as I'm at work again in the morning. I'll try to do another blog post, along with some more of this 3DS Max work and update you on it tomorrow.

Oh and just because I feel like it's my duty as an animator and a comic fan to share this:

I give you the trailer for the Batman Year One animation. Can't wait to see it

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