Saturday, October 30, 2010

more oldies

a few more old sketches from the past spring/summer:

all these were inspired by a young businesswoman who got on the bus i was riding in -


and these were done at the museum, which had a lovely and surprisingly comprehensive Degas sculptures exhibit:

Friday, October 29, 2010

Ye Olde Doodles

Some sketch-dumping from the past year - gotta let it out sometime :)

In June i visited an amazing glass art exhibition in Litvak Gallery. One of the world-class artists featured was Dante Marioni. His imaginative vases look like something straight out of a modern cartoon, or Disney's Hercules - I absolutely LOVE them!

So i had to sketch them... and turn their shapes and curves into creatures and ladies -


well, it still needs some work, hopefully ill get back to it soon.

more curvy sketches:


and some drawings based on these photos of Marylin and Bette i found on this lovely photo blog:


That's it for tonight ;)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

How to Train Your... Pillow?

I just watched "How to Train Your Dragon" 3 times in the past two days!! i'm so happy to own the DVDs, I have to share my feelings... in pillow-form:

Ok, this is a spur of the moment thing, this could use some work.

but i just enjoyed this film so much! I went to see it in theaters with no expectations, and i was so happily surprised! i don't remember the last time a movie made me feel like a kid again. sigh...

Monday, October 25, 2010

Paintings without paint - hooray!

More retro-updates! now meshed together with recent updates.

This is the first painting assignment, where we:
1. develop an exterior layout into three different tonals
2. pick one tonal of the three and develop it into three different color versions
3. pick one color study of the three and go to a final big version with it.

Luckily for brush-o-phobic me, no actual painting had to be involved, just a traditional medium.



i went for color pencils:


final:


... Fast-forwarding one year (during which no painting took place on my end :P), here's the 2010 version of the same assignment.
This time Mike was kind enough to let me develop each tonal into one color study, instead of picking one tonal and coloring it in three variations:

(the big shape in the left lower corner is a tree top! too bad it looks like stylized flames about to devour the poor chair, table and entire scene whole..)




Instead of going back to the comfort zone of color pencils, i tried an ink wash for the first time, to set the tones, and went over that with the pencils afterward:


I found the ink gave the scene a slightly more somber, toned-down atmosphere:


yay! ok, on to the next project...

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Story Time 1.0

Retrospective update time!

As some of you may know, i started second year of animation back in fall 2009, but shortly after had to take time off unfortunately. i got to do pretty much only one assignment per class.
It was far from ideal, but I'm back and doing it again, full throttle!

Now with that year behind me, i feel free to update whatever decent work i had done back then.
So today i'll share the final boards for the Nursery Rhyme assignment from Storyboarding class.
At the beginning of school we are assigned two nursery rhymes and start developing them into short stories with original characters. We go to full boards with one rhyme, and this is the result:

(Excerpt from original rhyme by Heinrich Hoffman):
Where is Philip, where is he?
Fairly covered up you see!
Cloth and all are lying on him;
He has pulled down all upon him.
What a terrible to-do!
Dishes, glasses, snapped in two!
Here a knife, and there a fork!
Philip, this is cruel work.
Table all so bare, and ah!
Poor Papa, and poor Mamma
Look quite cross, and wonder how
They shall have their dinner now.













Starting out with beat boards (major story points illustrated on few cards), it was a bit different, since the portrait was just in the background and not a main driving force of the story.
With thanks to helpful input from Nancy Beiman, our teacher, and some friends, a lot changed between the original and final, but that's what i like about story-telling/boarding :)

Hope you enjoyed!

Got meself an original signed Emslie!

Following the long tradition of drawing all second year students' caricatures, our wonderful character design teacher, Pete Emslie, was kind enough to draw mine:


After a year long wait (and a bit of dread) - I'm really happy with the result :)
Thanks, Pete!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Last pillows for now, i promise!

Fine! I'm obsessed!
But while i was at home, i got so many pillow figurine ideas, and i knew i wouldn't be able to execute them throughout the school year. Fimo takes commitment, plus it slowly but surely dries...

So the last piece i manage to scramble up and finish last-minute are these newly-weds, a joyous after-party gift to my most recently married friends, Dana & Arbel !


Though i know D&A won't need a gold chain to keep them together, it was a nice suggestion from my mom, and i added the hearts.
Unfortunately, haven't nailed the delicate Fimo sculpting/baking conditions yet, so when they come out of the oven the pieces sometimes have little cuts and dots in them, so my apologies - since the groom's tux looks dirty and the bride looks like she's been terribly slashed! (with the power of true love, they see past each other's flaws..?)



I'm kind of proud of this little metallic corset "ribbon" i made for the bridal dress:

The Devil is in the details :)

and for dessert, an example of what I do when flipping through interior design magazines:

Monday, August 23, 2010

Working Pillows

Contrary to common belief, pillows can be career-oriented:


Dr. Ploo here was made and dedicated to Mishka, who just completed his first year of Med school!


An inspiration to future Dr. Mish, here is Dr. Ploo with his very own cabinet of med books and glow-in-the-dark medicine/poison bottles.
We agreed that each year Mishka completes, Dr. Ploo will get more accessories until he has his very own clinic and office !


More amazing, intelligent and altruistic friends! This tiny Doc is dedicated to Anna, who is now in the middle of her successful medical studies and will soon be taking off to Cambridge for a year to complete a Poli-Sci MA!!


These are her accessories: teacup for England, Globe for Poli-Sci studies, and syringe for Med school :)

Good luck, Docs!


More career options include Architecture! This one is for my dad :)

Pencil and ruler always at the ready, (glow-in-the-dark) building plans rolled and wrapped, plus hard-hat for on-site tours - pillow-safety first!


Ok, this one isn't really about a job, it's just a Brazilian pillow (or "pillão" in the native tongue!)
- for Mom!


Sharpener for scale, with jolly maracas

and last one, Sir Pillowingtonshireham the First - who you already know - only I noticed lately that he had actually been standing next to a British phone booth (aka tin box for tea) all this time, and it just seemed appropriate:


Toodle pip!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Here Come the Brides

Yay - more "Simchas" on my humble blog!
I've spent most of July working on wedding invitations for two of my friends, brides-to-be, who have always been awesome, and also lucky in finding their "other halves". So now we have four wonderful people, making for two amazing couples :)

This "commission adventure" was trying and exhausting, but also inspiring, fulfilling and a true learning experience. Plus, it's always fun to see satisfied clients, especially knowing them personally (and getting invited, too!).

So we start with Ela and Meir, who are getting married tomorrow (!!) -
lots of ideas had been raised, explored, tried, changed and canceled (most of which revolve around their beloved dog, Pasho):


As you can see, we went for the purple idea at the end, not forgetting Pasho, but also the happy couple itself:

Front

... and back

The gifts for the guests in their wedding will be lovely jars of homemade jam, so I also designed the stickers for the jars, which gave Pasho another chance to get center-stage:

some suggestions^

Final sticker design


Moving on to the eternal Dana and Arbel, who, after lots of easily-rejected ideas, went for the opening card:

Front

Inside

Back (it's a pilot thing)


See the magic trick? It's the same good old Dana and Arbel, only on this particular day they're more fantastically dressed :)

The animator in me wanted to do an entire (small) flipbook as an invitation, showing their abridged history together (they know each other from infancy!), but budget and logistics forced it out of the question. Oh well, two years ago i was commissioned to make them a comic of their life story, which is proudly hanging in their living room :)

~ Good luck to all the happy couples in their joined lives and their celebrations, spreading the love and all that jazz!! ~


UPDATE:
here are some official photos of the happy couples -
they look gorgeous! but do they look anything like the invitations?

Ela & Meir:


Thanks for orchestrating this one, Ela!

Dana & Arbel: