Holy Cow

I chose to design the cow, Milky White, as one of my assignments for Jack and the Beanstalk. I thought it would be quite simple. After all, how different can a cow be from a horse? And I'm quite familiar with drawing those, from all my training as a ten-year-old girl. Alas. Cows are like horses the same way bunnies are like cats. And much more difficult. Here is my attempt.

PS. I sort of graduated this weekend! I have pictures if not a diploma to prove it. And I was offered an internship for the summer at Disney Interactive/ Avalanche studios here in Salt Lake. I'm pretty excited.

Self-Portrait

Final assignment for head painting. I painted it in photoshop, but from a mirror, not a photo. It's amazing how much more effective painting from life is, though less convenient. I'd done another digital study earlier in the day, but from a photo. It was a fight the whole way and the results were not so great.

So I guess my professors really know what they're talking about.

Wanna buy some... magic beans?

You've come to the right spot.





Props are surprisingly fun to design. I would really love to do more of it.

Jack's House

I think it's done? Sometimes I have a hard time letting go.

Jack and the Beanstalk

I've been taking a class this semester from the amazing Jake Parker. In it we've been doing visual development for Jack in the Beanstalk, aiming for a classic Disney style.

Here's my Jack:



And some development sketches for his face:



I painted an entire version of the painting above to completion before stepping back and realizing that I had neglected to think about the personality of the character throughout the process. I had gotten so caught up in thinking about the technical aspects, I forgot to make story my first priority. Upon realizing this, I scrapped the other image and re-painted the above. I am a thousand times happier with this one.

I'm learning more and more how necessary it is to be willing to sacrifice a painting. If it isn't right, it isn't right, no matter how much time I've spent on it. If it doesn't solve the problem that's been given me, it's not a successful piece. I can't be afraid to start over or sacrifice parts of an image I might like in order to make it stronger as a whole. This has been a frustrating lesson to learn. But always more satisfying in the long run.

And while I cursed myself at the time for not correcting my mistake earlier on, I learned a lot in painting the first version. So I guess I can't say it was useless time spent.

It's a learning process, this art thing. There aren't any secret answers or shortcuts... or magic beans. Just a lot of working at it.

Head Painting

I've really enjoyed my head-painitng class this semester. No surprise, you know how I feel about painting. Here are some of my favorite studies. Each was done from life, in under three hours.








You will not see the earliest attempts up here, but I think I've really improved. Though... I should probably paint some guys at some point.