Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is probably one of the most convincingly insane characters I’ve ever seen. I shudder to think that his voice wasn’t enhanced somehow to make it more creepy.

I love original movies, anything different will at least get my attention and respect, if not my praise. I was a little unsure about the ending, but I really enjoyed this film.

If you’re looking for something good and different to see this winter, check out No Country For Old Men.

Color and Design is a fun class, and even though I’m very new to painting, I can’t complain about spending hours mixing for the right hues, and values for an assignment. It really trains the eye. This has been my perspective for the majority of this semester, and I’m loving it.

I haven’t had time to look through all the extra features from the new Jungle Book DVD, so I don’t know if these are or are not included on it, but here’s a few model sheet from the production I had in a folder on my computer. I specifically like the Shere Khan ones myself.

Simply incredible.

Pinocchio is one of the few Disney DVDs I still don’t have. I know, I know, I’m on it. Here’s some great storyboard art of the film. I must study this film more. Especially after reading Seward St opinion that it’s the greatest animated film of all time. Something tells me I’ll be doing a Pinocchio study sesh soon. I’ve also been trying to track down this book forever. If you know of any copies anywhere, please message me!

This post is waaaay over due, seeing as I’m halfway into my new semester. Last semester I took my first full figure drawing class here at AAU (For those interested this was FND-112). Here’s the progress from my second ever drawing class.

The first module focussed on quick gestures, as did the next few, though the progression was such that we focussed on breaking the figure down into simple shapes, using measurements, mid-lines, and more techniques to define the drawings. Here’s some of my work from the first modules.

After we had covered the basics, we moved onto form and exaggeration. I’ve always had problems with proportion and balance, which is evident here. I did, however, improve on these weaknesses by the end of the course, as you’ll see.

By Module 6 we had moved onto longer poses with more complex gestures. These gestures gave me a real learning curve for gesture and foreshortening. I learned a lot here.

In Modules 7 and 8 we studied the classics and imitated them. We also studied the male torso, leg and arm anatomies, and completed a still life of a Bernini sculpture.

In module 9 we focussed on the specific components of the head. One by one we studied the ear, eye, mouth, and nose, and their proportions on the face. We then completed a still life of someone we knew. Mine was not completed because I was freaking out! I did hand this in and get a B though

In module 10 and 11 we studied hands and feet. I had a really hard time with these, especially feet, and I look forward to my next crack at them!

Yes these are my feet, and they are this attractive in real person too!

In module 12 we revisited the quick gesture, using what we had learned so far to have another
crack at them.

Finally, modules 14 and 15 focused on the long still life study. These were my first long studies of over 30 minutes ever. When I look at these I’m happy because I made a lot of improvements over the course of fifteen weeks, especially in proportion and sensitivity of application, but there’s still so much room for improvement, and I look forward to intermediate figure drawing later in my studies, and my first anatomy and animation classes next semester!

I saw Bee Movie the night before last, and I thought it was pretty entertaining. My anticipation for this film had been growing for weeks prior to seeing it due to the ingenious marketing on the part of Jerry Seinfeld. If you still have not seen all the live action promos for this movie, I suggest you check them out now. They’re hilarious.

I expected the movie to be mildly funny, but I was pleasantly surprised at just how funny it actually was. The voice casting was excellent, and the adult humor was wicked. I really recommend this movie to everyone, not just animators. If you’re looking for amazing animation, wait for Wal-E. There’s some good parts here and there as far as animation goes, but for the most part it’s as I expected, half decent.

They also showed the trailer for Kung Fu Panda, which my buddy Ben Willis is hard at work on (Haven’t heard from you in a while bud, are you alive?) . I am so super excited about seeing this film now; it has the same zany animation style that Madagascar had, which I simply loved. Paying homage to Warner Bros. animation style always goes over well in my opinion

Back from a lengthy hiatus. It’s amazing that even though I’m busy in school obtaining a degree in animation, how out of the animation world I feel I’ve gotten. Part of staying in it, is reading all these amazing blogs and staying in tune with what’s going on, which I haven’t been doing. Recently, however, I’ve started checking out my favorite blogs, reading Cartoon Brew, checking out CG Talk, and I actually opened Maya a few times

All these liberal art classes have made me rusty in a lot of areas, so I’m going to try and get back into what animation is to me on a regular basis. Here’s some Sargent to hold you over until then. He’s sure is amazing, ain’t he?