Summer Sketches

This week i've been cooped up at my house with some mystery illness and no TV, so i finally decided i would get around to posting things that have sat on my hard-drive all summer long!

Yay.

Between dating a Cowboy and reading about the history of Mustangs in the American west, i wound up with a horse fixation (like i haven't had one since i was 4). My mother, also an artist, has always been able to draw horses phenomenally well, which, i think is the reason that any horses in animation or art that are poorly drawn just annoy the shit out of me. But, it turns out they're really hard to draw, so i tried some life sketches and non-life sketches to practice:

Then i broke up with the cowboy and had to find other things to draw...i think it's strange that poorly drawn giraffes and parrots don't bother me half as much? We watched the film Black Orpheus in my Latin American Art History class...i sort of wanted to draw all the characters in the film, but i never got further than a poor likeness of Eurydice, although the sketch itself makes me pretty happy. I also got a job at an exotic imports store...leading the the urge to draw some random chick riding what must be a pygmy giraffe.

I really need no explanation for cats. The tabby on the left is my Fiona, who just had a hurricane named after her...we always used to call her the little grey storm cloud.

New Markers, Hreav

Just some recent sketchbook stuff. Nothing all that impressive, they're more like little mental catnaps between projects and things.

I've been putting off dialing down Hreav's design for a while, but it seems like it's finally coming together.

Busy Bee

Looks like it's going to be a busy summer! Things are picking up at school and there might be a possibility of some freelance work, so for the occasion, i've started putting together a more streamlined web portfolio on carbonmade.com

I haven't gotten around to making it look all fancy yet, but at least now there's something to look at:

http://kholzmann.carbonmade.com

Piggy backs

I drew this in class today while people were pitching ideas for their thesis films, mostly out of guilt because I never draw these guys anymore.

So Sayo is riding around on Wolfe and making him uncomfortable. With his normal emotional spectrum I figure his expression is somewhere near very traumatized/upset.

A little note about his necklace: The bird skull necklace was part of his early design, and carries a specific function in the story. About a year ago, i was perusing some boutiques in Portland and came across an artist who makes jewelery from casts of various organic matter including twigs, teeth and a variety of skulls. The bird skull pendant i found was almost exactly like the one i'd drawn for wolfe...so after i saved up the money i went ahead and bought it.

I AM A HUGE DORK.

Weekly Drawing!

BEARS.


in other news, classes are going well. I'm in Stop Motion and Thesis 1 this time around for the art side. You'll probably see more russians as I work on my short thesis film about Varinka and Oskar. And for stop motion, i'm doing bears. Big fat ones.

coincidentally, the latter was the theme for this week on the weekly drawing group on facebook.

Look, it's awesome again

I hadn't realized this blog hadn't seen any sweet visual action since April 13th. Oops! Well, I've actually had a lot going on since then. I managed to get through finals, which is very exciting, but  sadly, my grandfather passed away as well, so i had to get back to Portland for the funeral. My mother said she put some of my artwork up on the bulletin board in his hospital room, which made him really happy, especially since it gave him a reason to talk to every doctor, nurse, anyone who came in his room. He was always a people person, so it was comforting for me to know I could at least be with him in that way, if i couldn't see him in person before he died.

I guess the good news is that now I have a bunch of stuff to put up. Here are some various layouts and background studies i did for my Siberian project:

The last four were rather fun, i did the black and white version first, and tried adding the color in photoshop using layers and blending modes. This technique definitely has it's pros and cons, but i really liked how the night color study came out.

And here is just some random sketchbook stuff, and life drawing. bowchickabowow.

That's all for now. I'll be posting a few animation samples up next, as soon as I figure out how to get them online. Also, there will probably be some more sketches and such up next week, after i go back to school and get to use some scanners. Check back soon!

just a little bit awkward

for a fun little exercise from http://design-a-character.deviantart.com/blog/31532325
i should really do more of these, they're great practice. I'm sure i could have pushed the designs a bit further, but i wasn't in the mood to think too hard.