School and Sketches

Some sketches from the beginning of school. Mostly, I animate all day...sometimes I go to other classes. When that happens, I draw people--you know, to stay loose for animating.
With any luck I'll be able to put up some stuff from the film I'm working on soon. For now, on to the sketches! Hope you enjoy!

A military dude from a Japanese class.

Ben Jensen is a super stud (see above).
Some dudette from a class I'm in.


When I doodle in Japanese class, sometimes I try different things like this below. Perhaps this is because I'm paying more attention to the analysis of syntax and morphology, which takes my mind off the technical aspects of drawing and allows my brush to wander. Anyway, I thought this one was pretty fun.

Also, I found an acorn today. It had a cool shell thingy too. Below, I've attempted to diagram the acorn cycle (like the water cycle, but only with acorns). PS, if you're wondering why the girl below has too many eyes, it's because I messed up, but I still liked the drawring...which is okay. sometimes we mess up.

While we're at it

This was a sketch that began, I think, in January and then promptly got lost somewhere inside my computer. While I was doing some spring cleaning (I know I'm a little late), I found it and finished it.
If you're curious, it happens to be of a professor of mine, Darl Larsen, who (among other things) teaches a History of Animation course at Brigham Young University (where I attend school). We had a running contest wherein every week a number of students would decide on a topic and draw Darl according to the confines we set. The image above is from "Cap'n Darl" week; I will spare you the results of "Darl-ene" week. If you're really curious (and of a steady constitution), you can ask Jake.
Okay. Now I'm really off for vacation...seriously. Before we miss our flight.
Be well!

Pre-vacation

Our family is off to do a little summer vacationing in Washington to visit my wife's parents. But before we go, I thought I'd leave a few sketches and the like--in case you wanted new stuff to look at until we get back. I'm scheduled to go backpacking with my father in law for a few days, but apparently Seattle area is having record heat right now so it will hardly be a respite from Utah. Oh well, I'm excited to see some new terrain and, with any luck, do some wilderness sketching while we're out.
Have a great week, everyone, and be safe!

Everything is an Experiment

Dear Everyone,
Please pardon the paucity of postings in the recent past. I've been busy with work and animating (but mostly work)--which is good, because I'm trying to make sure I don't have to work during the school year.
I notice it's been about a month since I posted last, so I'm posting highlights from last month's sketchbookery. Think of it as an apology with a gift. Can we kiss and make up?
(In lieu of posting a million individual images, I've put a lot of little sketches into larger compositions--just click on any of the images below to magnify and get a better look.)
Thanks for stopping by!

Sketches In and Out of the Dark

So, back in April, I participated in an art show at the University of Utah. While the show itself was a marginal success (more a show about technology than art, really), I did have the chance to sketch some cool faces from the crowd while sitting on a post-show question-and-answer panel.
Here are some of the faces from those couple of weekends:





Also in April (every April, as a matter of fact), the LDS church holds a general conference during which leaders speak on various gospel-related topics. This year's was the 178th Annual General Conference, since the conferences have been going ever since 1830 (well, we take breaks...they don't happen all year round). Pretty cool, huh. Below are some sketches made while watching conference (which is broadcast by satellite and over the internet).

Something that was interesting for me was making these sketches almost in the complete dark. I could see the screen, which was several hundred feet away, but I could barely see my own paper--leading to an interesting method of scrawling out shapes and chunks of value. I guess drawing in the dark probably isn't really good for your eyes, but it was a cool chance to try a different way of seeing things (by not seeing them, I guess). Plus the results are mostly a surprise, since you can't really see what's going on while you're drawing--talk about a sketch adventure! Below are some of the more intelligible images that were created using this method. Hope you enjoy! And I promise to be better about posting a little more frequently...(these are from April...oops).

Finally Some Sketches!

So, if any of you have been thinking what I have (and I know you probably have), you're wondering whether it's even okay to call a blog sketch adventure and post so few sketches lately.
You'd be right in thinking this.
So, here are a bunch of sketches of Sawyer, who grows increasingly fun to draw as he ages and figures out how to get into more stuff. These sketches were done in pen when I should have been helping my wife, Allison, with our crazy baby. The simple color was done with ye olde photoeshoppe when I should have been working on my film.
But, I wanted to share some sketches, so I hope you enjoy this little tangent as much as I did!
Back with more sketches soon.

A Contest!

So, as everyone knows, with today's computers you can do basically anything. As we saw in the recent blockbuster sensation The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, computers can make Brad Pitt look like an old man or a baby.
Given these incredible leaps in technology, I've contacted Digital Domain (the effects house responsible for the amazing computer graphics that allow us to know what Brad Pitt will look like in 30 years) and they have agreed to produce a feature length film about our son Sawyer's first year of life.
It's a really fortunate multimillion dollar deal that basically guarantees that I will be able to draw cartoons for the rest of my life, since I obviously won't be worrying about money any more.
The only really tricky part now is that we have to settle on an actor who will portray Sawyer in the film. This is where you come in--place your votes in the comments section (a special bonus prize to anyone who can name all of the candidates, spelling their names correctly)!

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Of course, you know, I realize that many of the potential stars of this film are either long since passed, or on their way out (or in and out of jail), but you're forgetting one thing:

Computers can do anything.

Now cast your vote...because the one thing computers can't do is win this contest.

What Might have been...

Here are a handful of sketches and designs that I haven't posted, in all the flurry over the last several months that we've so lovingly called "Izzy." They are design explorations, that ended up not being chosen for finals...but they were valuable, because they helped us get where we needed to go.
Anyway, have a look. Hope you enjoy!













And above, some quick screen grabs of the models that our tech team is putting together.
For now, time for bed...
Soon, some new sketches--hopefully.

Izzy Learns a Life Lesson

Hopscotch from Anthony Holden on Vimeo.

Some more animation tests for our senior film.