Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Thingies

Just a drawing.



This was a to a girlpal who tortured me over my love of pigmy marmosets . She would make little flash things of women in marmoset fur swallowing live mamosets coming off a converier belt. Posting recipes for cooking marmosets anything that would upset me . I put up this sketch of furry revenge.



Just a sketch of Betty Davis I did in marker. I hate marker , it takes away your freedom to make mistakes.



A lovely friend of mine went through an operation that didn't go perfectly and so I did her this card.



Oh , this was a character named Buber , I was going to use in Produken , Train of Death. I wanted something Mickey yet not. The film involved a lot of blood and terror.



This is just anotyher throw away design for a commercial that never got used.

26 comments:

SCOTT CAPLE said...

Dear TD,
hey, i'm responding to your comments over on my bspot...thanks for the visit.. yeah, thinking back to those heady days when we first got to disney; it gave me some steam and alot of good drawings were done by all. i kept copies of ALOT of stuff, but still getting into the blog thing so slow in posting. But give me time.
Now, going back to that barmaid...jeez, we were ambitious. Not sure about digging too far back, should be looking forward, but at our age glancing over the shoulder is inevitable.
But it is fun, and hell, we did the work... thanks for the peeks at your art and life.. one must keep living. Carpe diem and all that.

cheers,

scott

SCOTT CAPLE said...

Dear TD,
hey, i'm responding to your comments over on my bspot...thanks for the visit.. yeah, thinking back to those heady days when we first got to disney; it gave me some steam and alot of good drawings were done by all. i kept copies of ALOT of stuff, but still getting into the blog thing so slow in posting. But give me time.
Now, going back to that barmaid...jeez, we were ambitious. Not sure about digging too far back, should be looking forward, but at our age glancing over the shoulder is inevitable.
But it is fun, and hell, we did the work... thanks for the peeks at your art and life.. one must keep living. Carpe diem and all that.

cheers,

scott

TotalD said...

Oh a look back now and then is good Scott. Life moves on does it not ?

Unknown said...

I cannot describe how much that card cheered me up! Thank you, thank you so very much!

Greg Manwaring said...

man, those little cherubs are so damn adorable!!!

TotalD said...

You are welcome Sophia. I miss your posting in the group. S'fun.

TotalD said...

I love drawing little kids Mouse. Occasionally I will sit out by the park here and watch the parents try and teach their very little kids things like soccer =) It's unbelievably adorable to see these little muffins try and kick a ball around one third their size. Children are like adults with all the bad things missing. Total joy.

Douglas Ferreira said...

a really impressive animation portfolio you have total D!Do you own a studio??I am an animator myself,if you have some time pay a visit to my blog!Best wishes from Brazil!

TotalD said...

I love your blog Douglas. What is it with Brazilian animators , you are all just AWESOME. Every great commercial I come across turns out to be some animator from Brazil. Did you go to an art course down there ?


Well I run a studio from my home now. I am working on a feature that is about to be released as I get my section done or I would spend more time.

Douglas Ferreira said...

thanks very much for the answer and the kind words TotalD!!May I ask what great commercials you are talking about?and maybe some names of the brazilian aniamtor you know?Perhaps I know some of then!I took some drawing classes(2 hours per week during 2 years) when I was a teenager, nothing remotely as serious as "Call Arts" for example.On recent years, animation schools started to apear on this country,but when I started there was only drawing and illustration schools.I am also very glad that you enjoyed Asterix and the Vikings!I would like so much to work with A film again!the more I look into your blog,more impressive stuff I find!I will come back often!cheers!

SHANE PRIGMORE said...

D, These are awsome! I love that get well card so much! I love them all. And that tattoo design below is rad! I hope your Holidays have been merry!

Hobo Divine said...

hello Total D

Allen said...

Happy new Year
Hope you are doing well.
We are still alive in Hamilton, the not so great white north, its rained for 2 days and we lost all are snow :(

Best Wishes
Allen & Connie

Hobo Divine said...

Hello :)

SClaus said...

TotalD! Long time no see! I miss smoking with you on the balcony of DW during "El Dorado." I guess a lot has changed since then...I don't smoke anymore! ;0) Love the site--your posts and amazing art have really inspired me to get back to drawing even tho I'm in 3D now. Keep on keepin' on, look forward to the next post!

TTFN--Scott

TotalD said...

Thanks Scott, work and life just keep moving forward so I've had little time to post. I think I scanned like a hundred things or something like that so my scanning finger was tired. As soon as I have time I will go at it again. I'm glad someone finds it worth looking at. =)

Alexandre Augusto Ferreira said...

Hi TD.
I hope you read this comment.
I work in a commercial to Pascal Blais in animation studio here in Brasil 18 years ago,in 1990 year,with this characters in your blog:a car(with a newspaper in the couch)and a house-girl.The title was "Le Jardim" or something like that.
Would be possible is the same work???
I really appreciate your blog(amazing blog!!!)and your stuff is so great.
Congratulations.
Alex.

TotalD said...

Yes , that would be the same commercial Alex. And by the way, I thought your work was terrific. Pascal sent it along for me to see and I was really pleased . Isn't it funny meeting on the web after 18 years ? I wonder how Pascal is doing.

Alexandre Augusto Ferreira said...

Hi TD.
Thanks for the visit and the gentle comment.
It's so cool!!Is the same commercial!
I add you in my links.I hope the people here meet your amazing work.
Alex.

Hobo Divine said...

Hello Total D,

Hope all is well, come by my blog I just finished a promo for Chuck (Gammage) I think you will like it very much.

Talk to you soon.

Hobo

Mike Frenette said...

haha, i nearly squirted milk out of my nose when I read the thing about marmosets............ the turnip stopped the milk.... don't worry; i'll prob sneeze it out later........ i hope its not big...

ummm anyways! awesome blog + drawings, i like reading what you say too, you're funny!!!

Hobo Divine said...

Hello Total D,

I remember (a while back you gave a few lectures on key drawings for animation) in this lecture we were to study some classic paintings done by Norman Rockwell.

And the question was "What are these characters feeling, and what was done in the paintings to express that?"

It was from this lecture I began to see, that various sections of the body and features were expressing 1 thing, sometimes in harmony sometimes in direct conflict to it's neighbouring feature.

I also realized that it was how (Rockwell) combined all of this made his paintings rich with emotion even though the actual shapes and positioning of his characters would repeat through out his work.

(by now I've either completely lost you or you know exactly what I'm talking about)
Anyway my question to you is would you care to talk a little bit about this or post something about this subject.

Your YouTube post of you drawing a cat standing is what inspired this query.

I think great artists were/are able to capture this,
regardless of style or medium.

I've seen examples of this in Marc Davis's Cruella De ville as well in some supporting characters in Rocky and Bullwinkle.

In the case of animation perhaps it's a bit easier for we have sound to play off of.

Where as in Norman Rockwell's drawings/paintings (perhaps) it was the relationship between the two characters or character and the object that created the tension or energy that recreates the sensation of that emotion.

I honestly don't know what causes this effect, but I was wondering if you would like you to shed some light on this subject. :)

Definitely that scene with Zak and Crysta "Unshrink me AND I MEAN NOW!" had this energy as well so you can't take that route of escape! Hee hee Hee

Inquisitively Yours.

Hobo

TotalD said...

It's late, I have the flu I think so I'll try not to babble. I agree , it is something you see through terrific animation from everywhere.

The original lecture was on character relationships in a composition and story telling Jamie . We have limited time in films to tell a story and what Rockwell did in one painting was what we try and do in one entire film . Every character and object has meaning and is part of the story in some way. You can look at any individual or object and they speak about who they are .

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/130/009_575-018~Norman-Rockwell-The-Roadblock-Posters.jpg

You theoretically could make a short from every one his paintings because everyone has character of their own. I have a number of Rockwell books and the first thing he would say is that he went through vast amounts of sketches before he even made the reference photo's he used to base his characters on. There were no random characters thrown in to fill space.

One of the studies Rockwell did for the painting Freedom of Speech from the" Four Freedoms" series.

http://www.illustration-house.com/bios/images/rockwell.jpg

The final painting, radically recomposed.

http://kempton.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/rockwell_freedom-of-speech.jpg

Even though the study has a strong sense of direction with the majority of the characters looking directly to the standing figure the strength of the central figure is lost in the composition. On the final the angle gives much stronger silhouette to the central figure, not only against the dark background but towering alone above the crowd.

Many of the choices you make in animation have to do with just this kind of understanding of the frame. If this were a class I would ask you to write as much as you could about the centeral figure.

To me he is a humble , soft spoke , strong , lower working class man , 40 years old , tanned by day labor, strong hands from heavy work His clothes are well worn and dirty from hard labour . Two children and a wife in a small town victorian style home . The Town Hall report rolled in his pocket tells you he has read what he could but it's not what he is talking about. He is not an intellectual , he is simple but honest person who speaks from the heart .

What I love about what Rockwell did is he took this simple man and had the people around him looking up and listening to him like he was a person of great importance. It shouldn't escape us that the ones most attentive people wear suits and ties , business men. As if the American right to freedom of speech was so powerful it elevated all Americans equally.

Ok brain cutting out ... babbling =)

Hobo Divine said...

Dear Total D,

Sorry to hear you have the flu.
Thank you very much for answering in such detail especially since you are under the weather.

May I post our Q & A on my blog?

Hobo

TotalD said...

Only if you correct the spelling mistakes :)

Hobo Divine said...

Okay, deel!

Thanks Total D!