Doodle Book: Post 1

Dudes and Dudettes of Bloggerville,

Welcome to my doodle book! On the 31st of May, I committed to a daily doodle, with the idea in mind that I would be posting all of them here--the wins and the losses (since it seemed inevitable that there would be a little bit of both).

I like sitting down to a drawing and having no idea of what I want to make. I believe in doodling, in drawing for fun, in staring a drawing with no agenda, in letting a line or a shape tell me what it wants to be and then letting something happen. Be warned, fellow adventurers, this method doesn't yield consistent results (as you may note below). But it's liberating not to have to drive all the time. Some of the drawings below I don't even like, but I feel like I've made some cool discoveries and stumbled upon drawings that I wouldn't have made otherwise.

I'll keep posting all the pages until I fill up the whole sketchbook, and we'll see if this takes us someplace interesting (or regrettable). Only time and a little ink will tell!

*Also I've decided it would be cool to do a little raffle every time I make a Doodle Book post. So please leave comments below, and I'll select a name at random to send an original doodle to. Everyone likes free prizes, right? Comment away, and an experimental (and possibly failed) doodle could be making its way to you post haste! *

Anyways, I hadn't intended for this to get so long-winded. On to the doodles!

19 May and 29 May

31 May and 1 June

1 June (landscape)

1 June and 2 June

3 June

4 June

4 June

5 June

6 June and 7 June

7 June and 8 June

8 June

9 June

9 June (landscape)

10 June

11 June

12 June

13 June

14 June

14 June

Summer Summer Summer

First of all, can I just say that I'm glad I have such talented friends? I've been having so much fun making these little animated gifs, but I probably wouldn't have thought to do so if I hadn't first seen THIS, THIS, THIS, and THIS. Go BYU Animation.


Also, I'd like to mention how much I love happy accidents. When I was playing with the gif render settings in After Effects, cool stuff like this pixelation kept happening.




I suppose this is a more faithful reproduction of the original Flash swf file, with a little added grain from the compression.



Anyway, with a bit of luck, I hope I can find more free time to keep making some of these little do-dads 'cause they're pretty fun.

Summer responsibly, everyone!



And, for interested parties, a little playlist of some summery tunes...

Bike Advocacy

When left to my own devices, I think of things like this. If I've ever glossed over during a conversation with you, THIS may have been the very thing that was crossing my mind.




Playing around with some animated loops.



...and for those who like to bigify, full screen this (please).


Sketch Adventure Header from Anthony Holden on Vimeo.

Hits and Misses

Warning: this post is kind of a journey. You may want to get a drink before you sit down to read.


Several weeks ago now, we had an event at work called "Story Days," wherein all the story artists on campus attended lectures, pitched sequences from upcoming films, then drank too much and swore loudly at each other across the tables of a fancy restaurant.

It is my habit to avoid drinking and swearing, but I did enjoy the lectures very much. Guillermo Del Toro, Roger Deakins, and Dean DeBlois had some really insightful and inspiring things to say, so I'm really glad I got to attend.

Like most of you, probably, I doodle incessantly...especially when listening to people talk for long stretches. The following are what I thought to be fairly successful caricatures of


Roger Deakins

and Guillermo Del Toro, who on the day was wearing what appeared to be pajamas. The drawings themselves were quick and intuitive, made with a cheap Bic Round Stic ballpoint pen (tone added later by the inimitable Philip Craven).


Usually when a good doodle happens in my sketchbook, it is a complete accident (especially meeting doodles, since I'm thinking about what's being said and not thinking about the drawing...depending on how well the meeting is going).


These two rare successes were followed by my more comfortable friend and companion: ABJECT FAILURE...


No matter how I tried, for the life of me, I couldn't capture a likeness of Dean DeBlois. Below, you will find all of my failed attempts. The first bunch are in ballpoint, with the little guy in the middle on the bottom being the only attempt made during the lecture. After my initial failure, I turned to my trusty friend YouTube to provide me with some footage of Dean (I prefer video to still images when drawing people that I can't observe directly). More failure followed in both


ballpoint


and marker.
(photoshop coloring, ex post facto)



After a while (not so very long, really), I gave up and just started drawing Aquamans. Then, I couldn't stop drawing Aquamans during meetings for, like, a week after that. This has been known to happen to me from time to time.






I realized that part of what sent me on this journey is a personal failing of mine: I'm impatient. As I mentioned previously, I find myself drawing in ink almost exclusively. For better or for worse, this means a lot of quick drawings that don't get fussed with. If I don't like the way something is going, I'll usually just start another drawing...or turn the current drawing into something irreversibly silly (this is a common fix for me).

I suppose I should wrap this all up with some kind of resolution. I don't want to be stuck in a rut, so I suppose I'll try my hand at some pencil drawing...I tried it out a few weeks ago, and met with mixed results. Let's see if there are things I can learn from getting a little fussy with drawings. See you on the other side of this experiement.

Chit for Chat

My son writes the best dialogue.

Making a Mark

A Friday afternoon sketch.

I don't know whether it's my impatience or what, but I draw almost exclusively with pens when I'm not working digitally (more on this later). Last night, while refilling a reservoir brush pen, I found some cartridges for my long-neglected Pilot Parallel Calligraphy pen. So, I pulled it out of retirement and was reminded of how much fun it is to draw with. I decided on this cool electric blue cartridge, and the first bit of the drawing shows darker because of the remnants of the previous navy cartridge that was in there from months ago.


Maybe I'll make some more drawings with it soon, instead of letting it sit around unused for several months in a row... :)

Holdens: IN SPACE!

Happy Mother's Day to my dear wife, who requested this post.


Incidentally, I happen to have a few extra prints of this left over from the gift that I gave my wife, so if it wouldn't weird you out to have a picture of my family hanging up in your house, I can give away 8X10 prints to the first 3 people who want em.

Male Bonding: Part Two

Part one, here.

Brothers

Saw these dudes crossing the street on my way home from work.

Man, I can't stay away from that orange, can I?

Friday

Dave P's Monday Noon Gesture Emporium

Cures what ails ya.

Sketches posted at the behest of my pal, Jenny.

Pen and marker on some old book (Historical Anthology of Music), tone added in ye old photo-shoppe.

Brainstorm Sketch: the story room

So, this is what the inside of our story room looks like (I'm nearing the end of a Cachet landscape sketchbook, which I love for looooong drawings like this one).

I've been fortunate to be on the story team of a movie called Me and My Shadow at work for the last several months (and hopefully more to come). It's a great opportunity to work with fabulously talented people, and I've been learning a lot from them: Shane Prigmore (not pictured here, since he was sitting behind me to the left), Dave Pimentel, Ben Balistreri, Elaine Bogan, and our director Mark Dindal. Also in this sketch--Scott Sakamoto and Nick Fletcher.

More sketches and comics to come soon.

Male Bonding

I'm ready for your lightsaber jokes.

Meeting Doodle

Now that we have two kids, I find I have less and less time to draw in my sketchbook when I'm with my family. I sketched this guy during a meeting at work yesterday.

Just in One of Those Moods

A little update from the Holden house.

I used to hate it when people wouldn't post for weeks at a time...and now I am that person.
Sorry!!

Things at work have been super busy. I haven't checked my google reader in several weeks either (which explains why I haven't been commenting on your blogs, dear readers). Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon!

Bike Hippo

For Will.



click images to bigify

Late Christmas

Painted this little watercolor for my father-in-law as a Christmas gift.

And here's the swatch that I tested in, like, 5 minutes beforehand. One day I'll be able to figure out more complex color relationships, but that is another battle for another time.

Zoo Sketches

Finally got to get out and do some sketching in the bright sunshine! Yesterday I went to the zoo with friend and coworker Dave Derrick who teaches an animal drawing class here at DreamWorks. It's extra fun to go with Dave because he's super knowledgeable about all sorts of animals--it felt like having the director's commentary playing while watching a favorite movie.
Saw a magnificent Asian bull elephant, some chimpanzees, a couple of gorillas, and even a Cecil.

Friday Bonus Sketch!

Warm-down sketch.

Weekend responsibly, everyone!