Reece Upton

I am extremely proud that I did manage to finish it by the deadline, there were moments were I didn’t believe I could, but I pushed through and feel like it is quite a graceful sequence. 

I beleive I have acheived a nice line of action and rythm with the dance, I know I could have added a bit more detail in the middle and used more creativity, but with time restrcition I stuck close to the source material and refined it as best as I could.

I really wish time had permitted me to do the tonal values and shadows on this final piece, but overall I am happier with the construction and realism of the final animation, but do feel the previous piece seemed better because of those core shadows.

I did however really love how I tried to show tonal values and shadows, but knew I needed to clean it up and move him around, which I did.

The next part of Assessment two was to show a character lifting a heavy object, expressing weight and exposing muscles. My main source of inspiration and help was this image above, which I used as the ground work for my piece.

I kept it to the simple loomis head construction because I didn’t want to get stuck into details and lost in the motion of the animation. If time had permitted I would have loved to come back and fully flesh it out further. 

I decided to do a really rough, simple head turn to start with before I begin the proper head turn. Mainly because I am still struggling to understand head construction, let alone figure out how a head turns in a cartoon style. This rough start allowed me examine how eyes blink, and the pendulum motion of the head turning.

I did some rough skecthes to practice the Loomis method of head construction, this strategy helped me undersatnd not only the anatomy of a head but how to draw it easier. I also learnt that my issue previously was when I drew a circle I tried drawing the features within the circle, instead of realising that this only makes up part of the head, the Loomis method taught me how to construct heads properly.

At the end of my final class, I focused heavily on learning core shadows and getting a real sense of depth, trying to making the drawing pop out the page. Even though I was unable to completly form the model, I beleive the parts I focused on, do show a good sense of shadows and depth, I think more time could be have used with blending the shadows better.

In this life drawing class I really wanted to enhance my gestural drawing, I feel like I got some nice curves and a real sense of rythm and movement at last. I contstantly say in my head, what is infront, what is improtant and I feel that has helped me greatly with gesture drawing.

The image on the right is a 30 min pose, I feel like I understand construction, however, proportions is where I am struggling, I can’t seem to understand how big or small certain parts need to be comapred to other areas, making my drawing a little uneven.

First day of life drawing, I feel more confident with using pencil, but I enjoy experimenting with charcoal. I beleive I am getting a good grasp on body structure, but the head is still very difficult to draw and understand.

For the second assessment in Drawing For Animation 2, we are tasked with another series of exercises which include life drawing, head turn and weight lifting, as well as a 6 second dance sequence.

Also a screen shot of some of the quick sketches I did to understand my flour sack and how it moved including squash and stretch.

One thing I wish I could understand, Is how to slow everything down, I feel like all my animations are moving too fast, but I am not sure.

I feel my lines are a bit cleaner, and I have a natural walk happening, especially with the legs… the arms could do with a bit more refinement and maybe a bit more movement with the head. Overall I feel I am improving and starting to understand body movement and becoming more observant.

I think I need to pay more attention to the actual body structure and getting that correct before animating, I could also focus on the body and head movements closer.