My blog is about the stuff I have done, whether it be drawings or events I have gone to. Life is about what you do with it and I'd like to share my adventures with you, share my opinions with you, and share my work with you. I'm a sharing kinda person, see.
There was an Animé Convention held at Southend Library today and it was their first one. I have never been to one of these before and have always longed to, so once I found out I finally had the opportunity I jumped at the chance.
The library held a variety of activities, such as an Art Workshop, Basic Japanese Language, How To Make Sushi, Film Screenings, Cosplay Competition etc. As you all know, I love art, so I took the Art Class!
My teacher was a professional Manga artist who went by the name of "Nana Li" (I assume she's Chinese) and she's a freelance illustrator who has a degree in Bio Engineering. I kid you not.
She's a very talented artist who has drawn for Shakespeare Manga "Twelfth Night" plus other things, and if you're into Art or feel the need to get in touch with her, this is her website, blogspot page and Twitter:
http://nanarealm.com
http://nanarealm.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/LiNana
I recorded practically the entire class for all you budding artists out there. You'll have to turn the volume right up to hear her though, I'm afraid.
As you will see in one of the videos, Nana asked me about DragonballZ characters and asked me to draw their sort of hairstyles on the board. I decided to draw Vegeta's hair since it's the easiest, as it's basically tall and spikey. She then asked me to draw Goku's which is a tad more complicated...but anyway. She basically said that this sort of hairstyle was an exception in Animé, as in most Animé's the hairstyles are more normal, i.e. not defying gravity, and that "DragonballZ type hair" is not what we would be studying. Haha!
Towards the end of the session, Nana Li held a competition. You had to draw a character that was a Ninja, but had to incorporate another theme to it, such as Vampire Ninja, School Girl Ninja etc. She said the winner would be based on creativity and originality, NOT technically.
Drawing with a dodgy pencil and no rubber is pretty difficult, I'll admit, but I somehow managed to draw a School Girl Ninja. It really wasn't my best effort (er, at all) but we only had about 20 minutes and it was basically the best I could come up with. I mean, Ninja and School Girl?? Kay...
(Funny moment of the day: Calum was drawing his picture and was really concentrating on the face. Nana Li said we had 7 minutes to go and Calum was like "No!! I have to draw the body yet!! OMG!!")
I wrote annontations next to my drawing so Nana could see why I chose them and that I actually put thought into it (although my notes are quite lame. Funny, but lame.)
SEEEEE???
Shocking.
Anyway, we handed our pieces in and we waited anxiously as Nana judged them. There were to be five winners and the five lucky ones would win one of her Artworks. I honestly thought (and still do) that my drawing was a bit poo and never expected to get called out, so when I did I was pretty amazed and was like "No way - REALLY?"
This is the Artwork I chose:
And this is one of the demonstrations Nana drew in class:
If you've been following me from the beginning you'll have known that I draw.
I'm a self-taught artist and I'm still learning. Heck - I don't know how to paint, so I stick to pencils, sometimes watercolour pencils (how do you use them? Not a clue, I make it up as I go along...) and sometimes chalk and charcoal.
I've also liked Britney since she released her first single "...Baby One More Time" and I've never actually drawn her, so I figured it was about time I did.
I used the colour and black and white image of this picture to copy:
These are my step by step pictures.
So the eyes were practically done, and I was pretty pleased with them.
Next was the lips, and as you can probably tell I had difficulty with the shape. Once I thought it was correct, I started to use my watercolour pencils (red and black) to try and give that "Dark Hollywood Glamour" feel to it, but it was disasterous. Trying to blend watercolour pencils before applying water is a very difficult thing to do...there were too many lines and just looked plain awful. I tried using the water on top to see if it would improve but it didn't improve at all, just looked messy.
I then used a normal colouring pencil that was of a berry colour to try and go over it a little bit (the black kinda took over a bit) and I thought my picture was completely tarnished.
I used Tippex to give the lips a shine to them, and used a red manga pen to go over it and give the lips some lines on the bottom lip.
And thank God as well, as I believe it saved my picture.
I also used watercolour pencils to colour in the eyes.
And the final piece...
It took me about 3 hours. I know it's not perfect, but hope you like it nonetheless.
Stop and think for a moment. Close your eyes.
When someone says the word "Disney", what films come into your head?
Go ahead, and be honest.
I'll be honest with you. Whenever I think of Disney, I think of classics such as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Bambi", "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty", "The Little Mermaid", "The Lion King", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast" etc.
You know, those really old cartoons that were all hand made. Look at all the disney films we have now. They've completely changed and mainly because they've merged with Pixar. Now, I have nothing against films such as "Toy Story", "A Bugs Life", "Finding Nemo", "Up" and whatever else they've made, but in my opinion it does feel like that these Disney films aren't necessarily about storylines and the messages that go with it, but impressive animation to get "bums on seats" or "box office smash". Especially with all the 3D films that keep coming out. I work at a cinema, and I remember when 3D came out for the first time when I worked there. To me, it felt like a one off and a special occassion, but then it kept coming back, and coming back, and coming back again.
To be honest I got used to it, but then I watched some Animé films and the making of them, and these Animé films are made by hand.
Why did they choose to make everything computerised? What's wrong with handmade drawings? Nothing. That's what made Disney, and in my opinion it shouldn't be forgotten.
Storylines, characters and musical compositions should be strong enough to attract an audience, it shouldn't need all the flashy effects. I mean, for goodness sake, imagine Dumbo in 3D. We don't need 3D. Sure, it's impressive, but films should be good on their own, and while I appreciate all the hardwork that goes into all these computerised effects, what about the talented hands?
What I love about old school animation is the art. You don't get art like it anymore and I think it's sad.
I studied Art and Design: Fine Art for a year in my first year of college when I was just 16, and I was into cartoons and fairies and pretty things. My teacher slated my work and said it wasn't art (to which I replied "You're an ART teacher, isn't everything supposed to be Art?" and he did not reply) and he ended up giving me an E at the end of the year. But whatever, he was a dick. These videos which I'm about to show you shows Disney showcasing just how amazing their Art is and how incredible the detail is, and how much hardwork they put into it. They are truly beautiful videos and I implore you to watch them. What I love about the first video is that when you see the sketch animation it flashes between nearly completed versions and barely started versions. You really get the feel of how much goes into it and how hard it is. You start to appreciate the movies you used to watch when you were little a lot more.
Is this not one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen? I watched it in awe.
This next video shows you the making of Snow White, Walt Disney's first full length feature (my eyebrows were raised when the narrator kept addressing the female artists as "pretty girls", but that's a different topic).
You just don't get films like these anymore and I really wish they were created more often. I can't really describe why.
Another thing about Disney is the music. What happened to all those amazing songs? When I was younger we used to have those Disney "Sing-a-long" tapes. Drawing was my first love, then dancing, and then singing. I remember my sister and I singing to "A Whole New World" (I always got the male part, thanks sis) and it was Disney that made me want to sing, really. I treasured those songs as a kid.
This Disney film which I'm about to talk about is one of those films that tends to get overlooked. Even I forget about it sometimes but in fact, strangely, it's one of my favourites. It has a brilliant storyline that actually gets you to think, and has different shades of characters which helps enable the viewer to see things in a different perspective and it also has a fantastic soundtrack.
The film I'm talking about is called "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".
The musical producer of this film is none other than the amazing Stephen Schwartz, the brilliant mind behind the music for "Wicked". (Okay, so Alan Menken did Hunchback of Notre Dame, too) but I definitely think that there is a difference, musically, between this film and other Disney creations.
This is the opening of The Hunbackback of Notre Dame, sung fantastically by a talented man named Paul Kandel, who plays the gypsy puppeteer Clopin. (I have to say, I love the scene where Clopin goes '"Stop!" Cried the archdeacon' because the animation flashes between Clopin and the Archdeacon. It's very well done.)
Another thing I realised is that, when I was little(er), I thought the gargoyles were just there for amusement. I mean, talking stone gargoyles? Totally unrealistic, but when I watched it again recently I began to understand that these gargoyles were actually there to narrate Quasimodo's thoughts. Seriously. Watch the film and you'll get what I mean.
My favourite song from this film is called "Hellfire" because it's a really dark song that, I guess, only adults will get the true nature of the meaning behind this song. When I was younger I understood that he was a man who fell in love with Esmerelda and hated how he couldn't control these emotions, but this was before I discovered the birds and the bees! I watched this film last week (I think), and my eyes were wide open, because I just couldn't believe how dark, sinister and lustful it was. It was a bit "whoa", to be honest, because you really get to understand Frollo's torture and passion. I absolutely adore how you can see him battling his demons, the way they're represented in red-hooded Grim Reaper like creatures and how he runs up and down in confusion and despair, blaming it all on her. You can really feel the venom. It's possibly one of the best scenes in Disney history because it's so powerful. The best two lines in this song, in my opinion, are "This burning desire is turning me to sin" and "He made the devil so much stronger than the man." The amazing thing about Disney is that when you watch them as a kid you view it in an innocent way, but the film is so good that you remember it. Then, when you're older and you think about it, you realise certain bits that you never noticed when you were a child, because you've grown up and understood life a little bit more. A child will never understand Frollo's emotions, but an adult can and possibly relate.
Honestly. Watch this scene and be marvelled.
Another song I love from a Disney film is "I'll Make A Man Out of You" from Mulan. It's sung by Donny Osmond (I know, right? Crazy) and again, I love the lyrics and the music. I just Wikipedia'd the film and am amazed that a critic claimed the songs as unmemorable. Outrageous! "Reflection" is beautiful and "I'll Make A Man" is so powerful. "I'll Make A Man" has an army sound to it and even has army type insults included in the lyrics ("You're the saddest bunch I ever met...You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot, and you haven't got a clue") but towards the end it becomes really uplifting and inspiring. It's just absolutely brilliant and I had the song on repeat in my room. (Yes, I have a Disney CD, so what?)
I love the chorus "(Be a man) You must swift as a coursing river. (Be a man) With all the force of a great Typhoon. (Be a man) With all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon." because they incorporated those Oriental metaphors and elements into the song. I know they kinda had to because the movie is based in China, but you really get a feel of that culture (and if it wasn't for the Disney film "Hercules", I wouldn't be into Greek Mythology.)
Anyway. Watch this video. I adore the climax.
Now do you see? The new Disney/Pixar films are so bland in comparison. It's these films listed above that made Disney what it is today, and they should not be forgotten.
For this project we are doing for Mika, I didn't intend on drawing for his song "Blue Eyes", but found myself increasingly thinking about it and wondering what to do for it. My mind wandered to the images I saw in his EP book and tried to draw inspiration from them, but found nothing.
I was at work one day, when I decided to grab a bit of till paper, a ballpoint pen, and doodle (I tend to do this quite often). This is what I ended up drawing.
This piece became my blueprint and started to work on the actual piece a couple of days later. The pictures in Mika's EP show pictures of a girl with an intricate jungle-like background (and other various pictures, too) but I couldn't come up with any full length pictures of my own, so I just decided to focus on the eyes instead. They are the windows to your soul, after all, and can speak much more than words sometimes.
As suggested by another artist I know, I tried to use "The Grid". This is where you get the drawing you want and place a grid over it, and then draw a grid on the paper. You then use the guidelines to create your picture. I wanted to use my own eyes in this picture:
However, the printed picture was in A4 and the paper that I wanted to draw on was A3. It was difficult, an absolute mess and a total nightmare so I scrapped it. I won't even show you the picture of it. That's when I decided I should do freehand all the way! I don't use A4 paper anymore.
However, instead of doing realistic eyes, I chose to do Animé eyes. I figured that an upset toon is easier to look at than an upset real person, but still decided to use greyscale with a splash of colour. This is the first draft.
I like the realistic shading mixed with the cartoon-like features. One thing I didn't like was that I shaded the nostril too prominently, and it made her face seem chubby (or is that just me?) and mixed too much realism with the cartoon-like effects. I used watercolours for the eyes and the hair, and even for the big black outlines, but sometimes I also used a black Manga Pen.
I decided to give this woman red hair because I see the character "Blue Eyes" as someone who used to be strong but became broken, as suggested by the lyrics "Your heart is broken to your surprise". The red hair represents her strong and unique character, but the blue, watery eyes suggest a damaged soul.
This is the final piece.
I decided to do the background completely black and hide a lot of her face because then it's like she's drowning/being swallowed into her own despair. Plus it also concentrates on the eyes, which is what I wanted. I wrote the lyrics on the side because it's like there's a tiny voice - whether it be hers or someone else - trying to get through to her.
I quite like this piece. It's deep. In my opinion anyway :-)
I promised myself I would draw a picture inspired by the Mika song "We Are Golden" but struggled to conjure up any imagery. And I'm talking weeks here: figuring out how to interpret this song into a drawing took a mighty long time.
Just a few short days ago my house was filled with boredom, so I decided to stick on Mika's first concert DVD and also brought his second DVD into the living room so I could watch them both in order (Yeah, I really wasn't busy that day). I was flicking through the booklet that came with his second DVD and my eyes stopped at this picture.
I had always wanted to draw this picture but for some reason just never did. Now I had a reason to. "We Are Golden" is about giving yourself value and realising you have worth, and what I love about that picture is that Mika is wearing a golden mask, but on his head and not on his face. To me, it says that he doesn't really need to wear a mask to prove how golden he is, because that's what he really is.
So I started drawing! This is the first draft, and the mouth is completely dodgy lol.
I really like this next picture because of the intense shading. Of course there was still a lot more work to do, but it was also my first time using pencils of different thickness and it was turning out rather well.
It was at this stage where the picture began to look more like Mika! More detail plus the afro-fied hair which um...wasn't entirely meant to happen. Sorry Meeks.
I shouldn't brag, but I love the mouth detail. However, there's something about this picture that doesn't quite seem...Mika like. It just doesn't entirely look like him and I can't understand why. Sort of hated doing the shirt.
Starting to see a pattern yet? Greyscale face with a splash of colour. Looks more like Mika in this picture I think. I used charcoal for the hair. Still afro-fied though.
Okay, so the mask isn't great. What was difficult about the mask was that I had a gold colouring pencil, but it was light and wouldn't stand out well enough against the dark hair, and I had a gold permanent marker pen but was too bold, so I decided to mash them together to create light and shade. It could have gone a lot better if I had the right stuff. Oh well, it's done now. I also put gold glitter eyeliner over the top to add sparkle (No really, I did.)
By the time I got to this part I was really tired (it was late at night and I was doing this for 5-6 hours straight) and I couldn't bring myself to do the mask by his face. So, like a lazy person, I disguised it and wrote the word "Golden" inside it. So far this is the final piece. The shading doesn't look so intense next to all the colours and the charcoal, so I may have to work on that more when I have inspiration/when I can be bothered. But here it is so far and I'm quite proud of it.
Similarly with "Lady Jane" (see post below) the lyrics in this Mika song provoke a lot of imagery. The song - on a first listen - does sound rather amusing but once you read the lyrics you see how dark and sad they actually are. The 1940's inspired Disney music also gives it an uplifting feel with the odd little chimes here and there and the up and down piano notes.
This is Mika singing Toy Boy live for the first time. You can hear the audience laughing at the playful lyrics and Mika putting expression into the song as he's singing it. The song is about a toy who loves his owner - who happens to be a boy - but his mother becoming worried about the two getting attached, so she throws the toy away and destroys it. When you watch the video and listen to the song you could think that the lyrics are silly, but see them written down and you'll begin to understand how depressing the song actually is.
(Thank you to FmBm2 / Nono for the video)
I drew my interpretation of Toy Boy with certain lyrics as the inspiration. These lyrics are:
"She's the meanest hag that there's ever been; pulled out my insides with an old safety pin. I'm the sorest sight, now I feel like trash: Clothes are made of rags and they don't even match. So she dressed me up as the man she loved, then threw me in a box when she had had enough. Now the light of day I no longer see - she stuck her voodoo pins where my eyes used to be. Accidentally tragic...victim of her black magic."
I haven't been able to draw my own drawings without copying something for several years, so I decided to give it a go again as I had the image in my head and knew exactly what I wanted.
This was the first draft.
One thing that irritated me was that, in my head, the gothic handwriting seemed like such a good idea but on paper it was quite difficult to read. It says "Accidentally tragic" and thought the gothic writing suited well with the song's emotion and also a nice contrast against the Disney sounding soundtrack (although, come to think of it, a lot of Disney's earlier films were actually quite sad).
I used watercolours for the hair to make it blend nicely and used normal colouring pencils for the face (though this was mainly because I only have so many watercolours). The blue wavy lines are actually exaggerated Animé tears to give a comical feel to it even though the message portrayed by the rest of image shows otherwise. I made the mouth stitched up because it is reminiscent of Shruken Heads (see here: http://oddrodney.com/images/shrunken_head.jpg). It gives a sense of torture and pain in my opinion.
I decided to give him colourful clothes to give a sense of flamboyancy and a (once) happy character.
This is the final piece. I do quite like this piece, but it's not my favourite.
Okay so basically I'm a big fan of Mika and he released an EP earlier this year. It consisted of 4 songs and the EP was titled "Songs For Sorrow". Mika contacted several artists and asked them to draw interpretations of his lyrics, and on the MFC (Mika Fan Club) we are doing the same thing and giving it to him.
I have been drawing since I could probably hold a pencil, and it is because of MIKA that my artistic skills have progressed greatly. I still can't make a masterpiece, but they're not exactly shabby either, in my opinion. I put a lot of hardwork and dedication into my drawings and you always know you've done a good job on something if you can't stop staring at it, or listening to it, whatever it may be.
I wanted to showcase my drawings because I am really proud of them and hope you like them too!
His song "Lady Jane" provokes a lot of imagery, as it's a tale that could easily be a replica of those tales people used to talk to each other about years ago. That's how Disney got their stories you know, and it wasn't always pleasant!
It's basically a story about a woman who had everything apart from love, and when she finally met the man she wanted he followed her to the sea and, while Lady Jane was able to walk on water, the man drowned. In order to save her lover, Lady Jane cut off her feet and turned into a fish to search for him, but she never found him. Eventually she was caught and eaten, while her lover below was still looking for her.
I imagined Lady Jane to be quite young and have striking features. Like an English Rose, if you will. I visualised her looking over her shoulders with her eyes looking right at you, as if she's enticing you in, with her long wavy locks embracing her face. The more I thought about this picture the more I realised I actually had a picture like it. This is a picture of me in April 2009.
This picture became my blueprint, if you will. I started to copy the hair and the face shape in pencil on an A3 sheet of paper.
Some artists get the picture they want to copy, put a grid over the top, then draw a grid on paper and then draw the picture by using these guidelines.
I don't. My work is completely freehand. That's by choice and also because I don't draw on A4. I like to make my pictures big.
One of the many things that I cannot do is paint. It's pretty much impossible for me. Whenever I do a face I shade with pencils which I do rather like, as it gives a sort of elegance and classic feel to the drawing. However, I believe that colour can give a lot of body and life in a drawing so I tend to colour in the main features. These usually consist of just the eyes, but with Lady Jane I also coloured in the hair and her lips.
I coloured in the eyes to make them more striking and piercing. I coloured in the lips to make them more sensual and enticing, and I also coloured in her hair to give a bit more life and to make it her main feature, something that you would imagine Lady Jane would take pride in. I gave her purple hair because it gave an unrealistic/characterisation effect next to the humanistic face. I quite like how they combine. Plus whenever I hear the song, I always imagine the colours purple or a deep blue. I think purple hair suits her (Or me! O.O) quite nicely. Plus I think the colour goes well with her despair and hopelessness, it represents her emotions.
I used watercolour pencils to colour in and it was my very first time using them. There are various ways you can use them - for this I decided to colour in what needed colouring in, and then wetted a paint brush and brushed water over it (but only a little bit). It made the colours blend a bit more which looks a lot nicer than the rough lines normal colouring pencils can give.
After that, I added charcoal to the background to make her stand out more against the paper.
I then used white chalk to doodle mystical shapes in the background to give a more mysterious effect and blended it in with the charcoal so it didn't look too bold and draw the attention away from Lady Jane.
This is actually the finished picture.
Here it is also in black and white, and a close up.
It's one of my favourite pieces and I won't lie; I adore it. Sure it's not perfect, and people probably could have done better, but this drawing was a turning point for me. It was the first time I used something different and I'm less afraid of trying something new.
Thank you very much for reading and for the comments if anyone chooses to leave any. I will read them all and will try to respond if I can. If you are going to criticise, please do it constructively rather than in an attacking manner. Feel free to write your name in case I actually know you. :-)
