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🍉Mentorship Journal🍉 Kayla Hee / Summer 2020

Intro

My Alternative Internship was a self-guided Visual Development project which included weekly Zoom meetings with Piya Wannachaiwong for guidance and mentorship.

Software Requirements: Adobe Photoshop

6.7.20

Note: unless otherwise stated, when I use he I'm referring to Piya & when I use she I'm referring to Ray, my character

My Previous Work:

  • Good isometric drawings (top right corner), looks like something you would give to the modelers
  • Make sure you're really studying & looking at references because golf carts don't have doors
  • The difference between a snow cone truck & a golf cart is fridge size/storage, that mismatch is where the fun is, you get to solve the problem creatively, make sure you're taking into account where they will keep the snow cone syrup, ice, and cones, it is animation so if the Mythbusters tested it, it doesn't have to work, but you still want it to make sense
  • You have a tangent w/ the steering wheel on the golf cart & the cotton candy vehicle
  • The grass is too much in the line work for Ray's art shack, it takes away from the shack
  • Also, it's a tight, shallow space, you need a footprint, there needs to be room for people to live; the purpose of backgrounds is to give space to the characters, think of your art studio & incorporate elements of that

Tips & Tricks:

  • Need to use reference pictures when drawing anything & everything
  • Avoid tangents - when lines in the drawing line up & flatten the design
  • Everything you draw should be decision-based / Story is king in Animation
  • While creating, ask yourself questions like: is this a jerry-rigged golf cart? How does that work? What is my character's morning routine? Etc.
  • On the scale of realistic to cartoony, how zany do you want your show to be?
  • He wants me to retain the thinking out loud part / the process, not exactly what he said
  • Practicing w/ a big brush will help you focus on drawing basic shapes before the details
  • Sharpie test: use silhouettes to see if your designs are strong and clear & check if you can still feel what it is

References:

  • The Art of Tangled - an art book that includes great visual development and world building for the film Tangled, it includes a section where the artist was thinking about what it would be like for Rapunzel to get ready for bed, the audience doesn't see most of this work, but if the character is alive in your mind, it will be easier to make for the audience
  • The Art of Robots - another art book that has model packets & lots of machinery
Concentrate on making great work. Speed comes with experience and time."

Reflection:

I was really excited for this mentorship after this first meeting because I could immediately tell that Piya was one of those teachers who you could just listen to them talk and learn so much from.

6.14.20

Progress:

  • 1) My 1st Sketch of Ray's Cotton Candy Vehicle - my initial idea was for Ray to invent a dragster type vehicle for someone to drive around the island and sell cotton candy to everyone (like an ice cream truck) w/ the cotton candy machine in the center of the wheels
  • 2) Piya's Cotton Candy Draw-over - "it's a hilarious, cool idea," make sure your ellipses are correct, needs mechanical details / a power source like an engine, how slapdash it is depends on the personality of Ray, he went through his thought process while sketching: maybe Ray repurposed an old restaurant chair w/ a funny logo on it like Mc Heart Attack, maybe Ray would use a surfboard w/ a shark bite (that's why no one is using it anymore) for the vehicle floor
  • 3 & 4) My 1st Sketches of Ray's Mail Cart - my initial idea was to have Ray repurpose a run-down golf cart into a mail cart for the mailman w/ a button for them that when pressed, would slingshot the mail up, into the sunroof, & into their hands so they can deliver it
  • 5) Piya's Mail Sketch - it seems to neat for an explosion, maybe you could make a mail cannon or something that's fun, "I love the mail logo thingy on the front"
  • 6-9) My 1st Sketches of Ray's Popcorn Machine - one of my ideas was to have a bicycle with a popcorn machine on the back, but I wasn't pleased w/ that version, so I came up w/ the popcorn sculpture that Ray would make for her movie theater out of painted drift wood from the beach and shells that, when filled up w/ popcorn, would shoot individual popcorn buckets out of the middle
  • 10) Piya's Popcorn Sketch - Is this weighted & pops up when full? Is it an air cannon? Your drawings will be better if you know the basics of how a popcorn machine works (think of its heat capacity & how it's made), a popcorn machine is so much fun to see in action & look at, so maybe you can incorporate it into your design, "you're finding Ray's style as an inventor because she loves machines, she repurposes drift wood which is more artistic so that's good and she apparently loves fun explosions"

Tips & Tricks:

  • Your vehicles should probably have seatbelts since it's a children's show
  • If you're not familiar w/ something, google it. For example: google cotton candy guy to try to find someone who does that for a living so you can try to find out what they do, how & why? Do they have any little hacks or specific ways of doing things? This adds authenticity & believability
  • They say if you want to be a concept artist you have to be a genius because you have to know about & draw everything
  • Adding different views (Ie. view from back, front, etc.) will help you & the modeler you may hand this off to if you were in a studio
  • The inventions don't have to work in real life, but grounding them in real life will make them believable
  • More questions to ask yourself: why is Ray building this mail contraption? Is she repurposing junk to help people? To make their lives easier? Is everything okay on the island? Is it just for fun? Is the island cut off from humanity?
  • You have to have your own voice, with your intended audience, & what you care about
  • If you have $$, invest in classes rather than technology (unless technology is needed)
  • If you can meet your fav artists you really admire at conventions, do it
  • These are all suggestions, the final details are up to you, the point is not to follow exactly this, but to empower you w/ the thinking process & thinking about how to creatively solve problems, if you're solution is different than mine, that's great
As an artist, I want you to stay Kayla Hee."

References & Resources:

  • Mickey Mouse (Shorts) on Disney+ - Croissant de Triomphe is the first episode of Season 1 where Mickey rides a scooter around France to find croissants for Minnie, love the way they handle water, the lines are colored
  • Mythbusters - a good show to watch to see the science
  • Pumpkin Chunkin' - a good show to watch to see cool inventions for throwing pumpkins
  • Mark Rober - used to work for NASA, made an obstacle course for squirrels & playing card firing machine
  • Rube Goldberg - YouTube videos, complicated machines that do a lot of work to do 1 simple thing
  • NY Comic Con - have technology demos, always super crowded so go on Thursday
  • Animation expos: Lightbox & CTN
  • Artists to learn from - James Gurney & Nathan Fox
  • Schoolism classes - Bobby Chiu, an amazing resource to keep growing & learning

Reflection:

It was difficult to think of these inventions at first, but I got my sketchbook, put some music on, and reminded myself that Ray would be having fun, so I should too. I got into a good flow of work once I put myself into Ray's head. This second meeting was really helpful because Piya explained why he was suggesting things; so it wasn't a critique of this is what I like, and this is what I don't like. I knew that this mentorship was going to help me grow as an artist because Piya also encouraged me to stick to my artistic vision and not to draw things that he would like.

6.19.20 & 6.22.20

Progress:

  • 1, 3 & 4-7) My Plein Air Sketches of Fortescue Houses - I wanted to draw Ray's house & I thought a good place to start was sketching actual houses in Fortescue in person
  • 2) Piya's Beach House Draw-over - 6 has no personality, it's boring, 4 is a bit big, 1 is his fav. because it has the most personality. Think of a face when thinking of a building or house: you want the front to be the focus, which you already have going here, make sure the roof has a downward slope so the rainfall rolls off, it makes sense that it's on stilts to prevent flooding at the shore, questions to ask yourself: was her house passed down for generations in the family? Is there a highway right next to it now? Maybe it used to be nice, but now it's run down & Ray grew up w/ the junkyard right next to her house? These look like normal houses not Ray's houses so build up from these & ask yourself: how can you make this Ray's house? does she have a surfboard w/ her name on the side? Is junk piled up under her house? Does she drive? What is her car? A pickup truck? Jeep? Does it have more junk in it? Does she have her name on her car? (that depends on how ostentatious she is) What is the biggest car in her driveway? (The biggest truck I have in my driveway is my grandfather's forest fire truck🤣🤣) This reinforces the story & helps the audience know your story & character, all of these ideas are assumptions so I can change it to fit Ray & the story if need be
  • 8 & 9) My 2nd Sketches of Ray's Popcorn Machine - the top left of 8 is a classic popcorn machine that has slots built around it w/ popcorn buckets in each one that, when full, pop out & the top has a sign made out of drift wood from the beach, the bottom right of 8 includes the popcorn machine in the middle w/ the same slots as the last one, but it's a cylinder w/ a film reel painted on the outside edge, it has robot legs to walk right up to someone who wants popcorn & it has a sculpture of a popcorn bucket w/ popcorn on the top, this version even has a smiley face on the popcorn bucket, 9 is my idea of having one of these machines on a track in the ground at a drive-in movie theater so it can ride around to customers who want popcorn
  • 8 & 9) Piya's Critique - likes the robot spider legs, fav. is the conveyor belt around the machine in the middle, machine wise, the quadrupedal legs (how robots walk) are creme de la creme, if Ray is a super genius that's fine, but if not you need to rethink, he can see the fun, thought of the supermarket robots, maybe combine that w/ a popcorn machine, that would be relatable to people (welcome to the animation world of do it all over again)

Tip & Tricks:

  • Everything you do, ask yourself what can I do to reinforce the story?
  • Watch good movies & observe how they do it
  • I wasn't thinking of that when I originally drew the shack, but that's okay because it's good to start w/ the bones & then develop it
  • Sometimes the character tells you what they want as you're drawing
  • Don't be overwhelmed, trying to get me to start thinking about these things & get in that mindset, not trying to intimidate me
  • You need to get inside of Ray's head, you want to know what her ways of thinking are, the more you know about real life examples (meaning people like her who build/invent things like that), the better
  • Watch people doing creative things in different ways than yourself, like w/ hammers, etc. & find the commonalities between the 2, the undercurrent is the same
  • Perspective check: always make sure you're perspective is correct
  • A day in the life of Ray: Is her alarm clock customized? Does she have a digital one? An old one w/ gears? A cell phone? What does she eat for breakfast? Lunch? Does she have a day job? Does she like it, love it, hate it? Does she daydream of making her inventions? Is she in high school? Does her family support her? What's the town's personality?
  • More questions to ask yourself (the more info. you have the better): What is your series about? Audience? Is it just for girls? Messages? What you're hoping to tell the audience? What do you hope the audience gets out of it? Is it for pure fun? Are you going to talk about deep stuff? Writing all of this out might help you
  • I said I feel like it looks whimsical in my head, but on paper it's realistic: if there's a disconnect between your head & the paper, draw as much as you can, sketching is thinking & processing ideas in your head so practicing will help you improve & solve that issue, you need pencil mileage
  • You need to know just as much about your world as you do your chars., because the world is a char.
  • If you want to write, that might help you figure out your story: pick any episode and come up w/ a basic story & plot
  • The more info. & drawings I can give the better so there's less of a disconnect between the story in his head & the story in my head
  • No plan survives contact w/ reality
Don't be overwhelmed."

References:

  • Darkwing Duck - my reference for SunRay's is Fortescue, NJ, if you're a Jersey girl, you can go all out & be obvious about your ref. point, you can make it so close that locals recognize it in the show, in this show, Saint Canard is obviously San Francisco because it includes the Golden Gate Bridge
  • Are you going for a whimsical, zany, crazy style like Spongebob or a more realistic style like Lilo & Stitch?? Your work reminds me of Lilo & Stitch, so if that's what you're going for then you're good, but if not, you need to adjust
  • Adam Savage - the OG Mythbuster, watch his YouTube channel to get ideas & inspiration, 4 yrs. ago made a popcorn helmet that actually works
  • Golden Girls - the writing is incredible, if you're going to talk about divorce on a kid's show, you candors it, but it needs to be done well & right (it needs to be really well written)
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender - watch on Netflix, see what the best of the best do, has great and memorable characters and stories, Katara has unresolved family issues
  • Ren & Stimpy - adventures of a chihuahua & a cat

Reflection:

All of Piya's questions were extremely helpful because I felt like they helped me get out of my head and into Ray's more. Piya gave me a lot of references and ideas in this meeting, but he reminded me to not be overwhelmed because it's a lot of information and to do one thing at a time. That was really reassuring. I was also excited to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix to study it when I wasn't drawing.

6.28.20

Progress:

  • 1 & 2) My Plein Air Drawings of Fortescue - I knew I would be drawings versions of Ray's house this week, so I decided to start sketching houses/environments plein air to see what I could do w/ beach compositions
  • 1) Piya's Critique - 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3 have the best compositions, 1.3 is the most dynamic, the diagonal is off-balanced, follows rule of thirds (w/ horizon line), pleasing to the eye, implied boats are his fav. they look like words, but are swooping lines, they have a swish shape, they are free, moving, carry amazing info. & likeness, the curved lines are great contrast & offset to the straight pilings, I may think he's over crediting me for a happy accident w/ the lines in 1.3, that it was a fluke or by chance, but it wasn't an accident because I'm almost a senior & I've had years of drawing practice, 1.1 is a close second best because of the sparseness of details, lines communicate a lot, having a little amount of lines w/ great impact is best, 1.4 has pilings in the middle of the composition which is boring, the water & land carry the same weight, there's no pilings in the water to break it up, the dock in 1.6 is not as convincing as the dock in 1.3, to be firm & blunt 1.6 looks forced & like a lot of labor w/ less impact, but 1.6 is dynamic because of the straight lines of the dock against the curves of the water, 1.5 is the least compelling because it's not clear what you're looking at & your pencil weight is the same throughout & the composition is divided in 1/2
  • 2) Piya's Critique - 2.7 & 2.9 make him think of horror, 2.7 has a clear silhouette, 1 pt. perspective, head on, intimidating cyclops eye window, all straight pilings is creepy, having fewer w/ some curved & making the water lines more curved will soften it, 2.9 has claws, house looks like it's been cut in 1/2, 2.8 is friendly because it's still 1 pt. perspective, but it's slightly turned, it's cropped at the top & natural things overlap
  • 3) My Sketch of a Fortescue House - I sketched this normal "pre-Ray" house because as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted it as the base for one version of Ray's house
  • 4) My Sketch of a Fortescue House w/ its Environment - I sketched this house because it had a lot of objects in the yard & I wanted to start thinking about what I could add to Ray's house
  • 5) My 1st Version of Ray's House - I added a trampoline, steps to get to the twisty slide, seashells, lights, a surfboard (Piya's suggestion), tires Ray uses, a sidewalk w/ chalk designs, a swing & an ice cream machine
  • 6) Piya's Draw-over of Ray's House - concerned people may think 20 kids live here, but that doesn't mean you have to change it, always try to show the silhouette of what you're drawing, so put the slide at the edge of the house instead of the top, the twisty slide is like a construction site w/ chutes, it adds to inventive idea of Ray taking a bunch of stuff & piecing it together w/ chains or something to make something amazing, 5 & 7 are fun & they have a fantasy feel to them, but that's is good, go w/ it
  • 7) My 2nd Version of Ray's House - I used #3 house as a base for this design, I added Ray's touch w/ slide w/ confetti cannons attached to it, tires Ray uses, rope she uses, a swing, a surfboard (Piya's suggestion) & roller-skates
  • 7) Piya's Critique - 2 things on the roof look like Shrek in design terms, be careful of likeness, the slide has a big drop-off, it's really high so maybe lower it, "wow, these are dangerous," maybe put the car out front & place the tires on the front porch by the car
  • 8) My 2nd Sketches of Ray's Mail Cart - I wanted the mailman to be lazy & funny, so I thought Ray would invent a cart that the mailman can lay down in, has a sun roof to tan & has chutes that shoot out the mail to people's front porches so they wouldn't have to do it themselves because they want to be at the beach & get a tan all day
  • 8) Piya's Critique - it seems like a lot of work to not have to do any work, a lot of labor w/ less turn around, why doesn't he just deliver the mail himself & then go to the beach? it too much, too many things at once, is it an automatic start car? do you have to steer? imagine a fishing pole w/ a treat & a dog pulling it, scale is off because originally thought it was a shopping cart or a cart that serves food at a restaurant
  • 9) My 2nd Sketches of Ray's Cotton Candy Vehicle - I took Piya's last crit. into consideration & drew new versions of the cotton candy vehicles w/ diner chairs, a surfboard w/ a shark bite, huge tires, a landline as a steering wheel & I made sure to include parts of a dragster that are needed to make it work like an engine & an exhaust
  • 10) Piya's Critique - needs a 5 pt. harness for safety, does it have power steering vs. automatic steering, concerned w/ the set up/design, it still has to work, there needs to be a way for the driver to be steering & get the cotton candy on the stick to sell & serve, also, a dragster's purpose is to go fast (speed) & in a straight line, so how will that work w/ your purpose of selling cotton candy to kids? does it have to be a dragster? it's not the greatest vehicle for this purpose? maybe it could be a monster truck? penny farthing w/ big wheels? something else? Dune buggy? research a lot of different vehicles, likes these designs, they're fun & fresh, it's great that you have these this resolved

Tips & Tricks:

  • He has a friend who went to art school, he's known for drawing guns & he's known as the guy who draws guns, you have to decide what you want to do, what you love, draw that a lot, you'll be known for that as an artist, maybe you'll be known for drawing the beach since you love it so much
  • How are you going to apply that to animation? (referencing 1 & 2 above) These are obviously not your final backgrounds you'll turn in, animation looks are crazy, but it's something to think about, it is a meta (big) question
  • Artists do things consciously & unconsciously together, you never have full control & that's okay
  • The more you practice, the more these amazing things will show up (referring to 1.3 above)
  • I encourage you to continue drawing as much as possible
  • It's a good exercise to draw the same subject (for example, a house) w/ different camerawomen angles to capture different feelings
  • When designing, keep Ray in mind, think of ways to make it her house, imply that to audience throughout your designs
  • A lot of times things have distinct looks & architecture, look @ the details of them, make sure you take advantage of those iconic things that people will recognize, it's worth it to incorporate them, people have a soft spot for nostalgia (referring to the type of diner chair that twirls around in 9)
  • Do you feel overwhelmed? Don't feel overwhelmed, remember you're doing alone what should be done in teams w/ a lot of peoples, don't be intimidated, you're creating an entire world by yourself, it's the nature of what we do
  • Concept Artist / Visual Development Artist = IDEAS IDEAS IDEAS
  • The creative process is messy!!
  • We're not robots so it's okay
  • Whatever is in your head, get it done, even if that means drawing the character & then part of the building & back to the character or drawing the character & writing a script & then drawing buildings, you can do more than 1 thing @ a time, drawing helps writing & writing helps drawing, if you draw something & love it, add it to your script and vice versa, let them feed each other, don't force one into the other, if you feel like writing do that, if you feel like drawing do that, if you don't feel like doing one, don't force yourself to do it because you think you have to
  • The most important thing is that you put in the work to move everything forward like the quarter machine in the arcade @ the shore
  • ENJOY IT!!

References:

  • Fun fact: insurance goes up when you have a trampoline, they're hilariously dangerous, his friend had a trampoline right next to the gas line
  • Double check your references: make sure you know what, for example, a surfboard looks like & that you're not drawing it from memory
  • The 1st water park in NJ was created w/ no safety laws because it was built at a time when they were still new, so it was extremely dangerous, there are documentaries & videos of it
  • If it weren't for Covid-19, he'd tell me to go go-karting to feel what it's like & for research
  • Wallace & Gromit - a claymation, if you love dogs, you'll love this, they have a feature film too about a rabbit, it shows how to make things believable in cartoons, plus it's a good time w/ British accents & it's fun
  • Blue Sky's Robots - find a need, fill a need, they found a need, but didn't fill it, they started the conversation, but the movie didn't resolve it, they said it was a good idea, but didn't execute it
  • When everything reopens, go to book fairs, that's where he got Art of Cars 2 for $5
  • The Batman - contrasting curved lines & straight lines done well
😁 My 1st Art of Book 😁
Pg. 35 of The Art of Tangled: the pink, green, & blue lines are contrast, curves against straights, image from Cinderella, you mentally fill in the rest of the stairs, even the red chair has those signature shapes/curves
If you think about it, they published this book for the public. How many of us are artists trying to get into the industry? A few of us are trying to be professionals and they just gave us all of this information in a book. What an incredible gift to us artists!"
Read all of the text & notes to see how these amazing artists think, get in the masters' heads
Glen Keane created the story of Tangled based off of the 1800s painting of the woman on the swing: The Swing
My 2nd Art of Book

Reflection:

After Piya suggested in the first two meetings to buy some art books if I was interested in Visual Development, I decided to buy The Art of Tangled because he kept referencing the artwork and ideas in it and I wanted to know exactly what he was talking about. I also bought The Art of Ratatouille because it had been on my Book Wishlist for awhile and I decided I couldn't just buy one art book. I loved this week because I got to go to Fortescue with my grandma and best friend to draw. There's nothing better than going to the beach and drawing.

7.5.20

Progress:

  • 1-2) My Plein Air Sketches of People & Nature in Fortescue
  • 3-5) My Life Drawing Sketches from Reference Pics - I wanted to draw Ray (a cartoon character), but I had no idea where to begin, so I started w/ life drawing
  • 6) Piya's Example of Ray - since she's in HS, she has a little bit of child & a little bit of adult in her, draw the head & spine 1st, the spine contains the energy, 4.3 is too straight & stiff, glasses hide the eyes, so they're normally not on main characters, islands are hot so maybe give Ray a tank top & flip flops, Q's: is Ray super girly or a tomboy? What is her fav. tool? A paintbrush? A hammer? Is she wearing an apron? Does she wear makeup? Bangs? Skirt? Summer dress? Earrings? Maybe her earrings are a nut? Is her hair up & out of the way? Down & out on the town? Maybe she has a ponytail that's a good mix of both? Is she really young & childish or developed?
  • 7) Piya's Caricature Example of Christina Carol (IG) - caricatures have exaggerated features, when drawing them, be selective about what you choose to exaggerate, pick what you want to emphasize the most, pick which ones you want everyone to notice/see, I want this 1 feature or these 2 features

Tips & Tricks:

  • If you want to make the change from realistic rendering to cartoon rendering, try it & make sure to pay attention to what you like because there's a difference between growing pains vs. not my cup of tea
  • You don't need anatomy to design effective cartoon characters, shapes form characters, instead of life drawing go straight to drawing the characters, simplify & push to extremes
  • Laughing is effective & impacts people
  • Be messy w/ it & see what happens
  • It's not helpful to type "artists" into Google, so look up personality types / characteristics or look @ people's pics on IG
  • At least 1 foot follows the direction of the nose, no idea what the science is behind it
  • The more you draw the more confident you will be, put the work into it as much as possible
  • Caricatures will help you, even going to peopleofwalmart.com or IG & drawing what you see might help because they're already zany
  • Successful cartooning is about observing people & being able to pick out what makes them them, spend time studying real people, right now my head has a limited vocabulary so that will help expand it
  • What can their clothing tell me about this character?
  • Have fun w/ drawing your characters

Resources:

  • Stephen Silver - British guy who designed Kim Possible, has a book, YouTube channel & IG, an excellent & passionate teacher who has the authority to teach me these things because he's done it for years

Reflection:

This week was a huge struggle. I wanted to draw Ray, but I've never drawn cartoon characters before, so I had no idea where to start. Piya's suggestions were helpful, but I think the problem wasn't just growing pains. The problem was: it wasn't for me, because I didn't enjoy the process as much as I did with Ray's inventions and house.

7.13.20

Progress:

  • 1-4) My Sketches of IG People
  • 9) My Sketches of Faces Using Shell Silhouettes
  • 5, 7 & 10-13) My Sketches of Ray's Face, Body & Hair - the words describing Ray say: name? Ray, sex? F, age? teen, around 14, appearance? super girly, tall & skinny, character's role or occupation? HS & inventor, char. live? island, char.'s personality? creative, energetic, char. attitude? bubbly, confident
  • 10) Piya's Critique - can't comprehend her feet
  • 11) Piya's Critique - when drawing braids, always draw the flow of the hair, then add detail, it's like construction, you build the scaffolding before the windows
  • 6) Piya's Draw-over - the one w/ the string in her hair is stiff, it's probably because you're drawing everything (the limbs) individually, you should draw them unified, start w/ the head, then the spine, then add the limbs, the head & the spine set the mood (they're the candlelight & romantic cheesy dinner), this type of spine w/ the chin up (in black) exudes confidence right off the bat
  • 8) Piya's Draw-over - the face he drew over was his fav., but it feels generic, it's a typical pretty girl, which is great, but Ray has personality, make Ray's skirt not too short since it's a program for kids obviously, maybe Ray has a name tag for fun? you want 14 year old girl to come across in your sketches
  • 15) My Sketches of Ray's Outfits
  • 14) My Sketches of Ray's Mom & Grandma
  • 14) Piya's Critique - #3 & #9 are his fav., the straight lines you used, but you still made it look like a woman, loves the spiky hourglass shape of #3, you could find this grandma in the middle of NYC, her silhouette is extremely recognizable, the design is distinct & iconic, maybe the grandma could have 80s fashion, headband? it looks like she has a workout bodysuit on right now, maybe her earrings reflect her hair, ears & noses are always huge on old people because they're the only things that keep growing, is she an active grandma? or a couch potato? explore ways you can bounce off the grandma's design & make the Mom just as recognizable, use the same shapes in her design, make the Mom have similar DNA as the grandma, same for Ray, head same shape, but maybe not so extreme, describe the Mom: grade school teacher, supportive of Ray, active like grandma, maybe give Mom sensible shoes for misbehaving kids
  • 17 & 18) My 3rd Sketches of Ray's Mail Cart - I decided to implement Piya's suggestion of a dog pulling the cart by casing a piece of bacon attached to a fishing pole w/ mail chute on the back to deliver mail faster w/ more fun, I drew the dog as a husky because I have a husky lab mix named Leo & I added fans because he'll probably get hot fast like Leo
  • 16) Piya's Mail Cart Draw-over - sees a chihuahua / really small dog pulling this, even though logically that wouldn't work, it fits w/ what you've done so far & your style, the fishing rod is attached to the cart weird, maybe you can use a rod holder, it attaches fishing rods to boats, the end of it needs a steering wheel for the driver so it has to be attached lower by the fans, the shooters need to be either twisty or straight, right now they're not sure what they want to be, the need to be assertive as to what they are w/ more movement, if you want to make a cute animated style dog, maybe have super big eyes & make everything else small so the head is huge & the body is small, dogs have a box as a base structure, you don't have to follow this exactly, this is really over the top, you can scale it back, but you get the idea

Tips & Tricks:

  • You hit this from many different angles, that's good
  • The main character needs to be relatable & have human qualities then you can go nuts w/ the other characters & have fun w/ them
  • You should have an idea of what you want the body to say before you start, use body language & expressions to portray that
  • The more you understand your characters internally, the more their physicality will reveal itself to you, you need to know more about them, fill out a character chart for the Mom, grandma & any other chars. like Ray's
  • What makes them angry about each other?
  • Is $$ tight for Ray? You may not mention it in the show, but you still want to know these things
  • Unite things before details
  • Quality over quantity - wants to push me to finish, but don't finish them for the sake of finishing them
You have to be excited; you have to love these designs or it'll be worthless."

References:

  • The Loud House - can't use the same formula / visual language for Ray because they're kids and she's 14
  • The Art of Up! - Carl is a square & he stands taller at the end because he's getting his youth back
  • Iconic grandmas - Simpsons' Marge or National Lampoon's Christmas' grandma
  • Drawing #11 has a Rosie the Riveter feel & gives Ray the utility of getting her hair out of her face so she can work, the handkerchief in her hair gives her personality
  • Update: I'm almost done watching the 2nd season of Avatar: The Last Airbender - S2:E15 where they lost Appa won awards w/ Animal Rights people, the creators based each element on a different form of fighting, you can tell they understand deeply, which is good because you never want to understand something shallowly when drawing it, the universe they created was very much alive in their minds, you can tell they put a lot of care, love & belief into the show, artists who say well it's my work so I can do what I want use that as an excuse to be lazy
A book I bought from Amazon (Piya suggested to follow the book, especially how it says to start w/ a cube on an angle when drawing chars., that will help your drawing look 3D instead of 2D)
Another book I bought from Amazon

Reflection:

This week, I decided to give characters one more shot before I went back to drawing what I loved. I bought some Piya's suggested books to help, but I was still struggling. I started to draw more sketches of Ray's mail cart and when I dreaded going back to designing characters, I knew I would be finalizing Ray's house designs next week. That was so relieving.

7.19.20

Progress:

  • 1-4) My Process of Ray's House from Sketch to Line Work
  • 5) My Color Keys of Ray's House
  • 5) Piya's Note- "the color keys look like cute, funny faces"
  • 6) My Color Block of Ray's House
  • 7) Piya's Critique - why didn't you use your line work in the final version? it's your creative decision, consider adding it because you spent all that time on it & it has a lot of charm, if you want to use it, but don't want it harsh, you can change the color & reduce the opacity of the lines, the slide is hard to read, adding your line work will add more definition to the tube
  • 8) My Finished Ray's House
  • 9) Piya's Critique - work on your readability, be careful here & there, using the gradient tool on the slide will add depth & needed dark areas, the tires don't read as tires, adding the black insides will help

Photoshop Tips & Tricks:

  • Comm. click the layer thumbnail, then a hand w/ a dotted box will show up OR clipping masks OR preserved transparency (the checkerboard button under layer modes) - use whatever works best for you
  • Gradient tool - helps quickly render something, Foreground to Background, Foreground to Transparent, etc. click & drag to use
  • Tolerance - how much area it allows you to select, 5 is a little area, 80 allows more area, helps w/ trying to select subtle gradients w/ the magic wand tool (or another selection tool)
  • How to make a custom brush: you can use any shape as a brush head, 1. Edit, Define Brush Preset..., name, okay, your brush should be in Brush Settings now, adjust to desired settings, 2. click 3 lines, New Brush Preset...., name, uncheck Include Tool Settings (it means you can only use this as a brush, so unchecked means you can use it as a brush & an eraser), okay
  • 2 ways to turn on pressure sensitivity: check Shape Dynamics, Control: Pen Pressure OR use Pressure for Size button to the L of the Symmetry (butterfly) button @ the top
  • The trick is to use Photoshop to look like you're not using Photoshop
  • Photoshop is a huge program & there’s 500 ways to do it w/ tools evolving & new ones coming out, he's teaching what he knows, it’s a personal thing, everyone is different, I should use whatever works for me

References & Resources:

  • 101 Dalmations - animation style, love the character & texture, old-school so be careful you work doesn't become outdated when studying this & implementing certain aspects into your design, that's just one idea
  • Simone Giertz YouTube - maybe not exactly what you want, but it might give you ideas & help w/ your thought process
  • Chris Oatley classes
  • Clip Studio Pro - look into using, good for inking, helps keep the artist's sanity

Reflection:

This process was so much fun. I loved every part of it. I was eager to dive into Photoshop and to see another artist's (Piya's) way of using Photoshop, but it was extremely frustrating to only have access to my MacBook Pro which can only run Photoshop for a few hours at a time, if that. It was also infuriating to draw on my Huion because I couldn't draw directly on the screen, but I produced great work despite those difficulties.

7.28.20

Progress:

  • 1 & 3) My 3rd Sketches of Ray's Cotton Candy Vehicle - I explored the Piya's idea of a monster truck delivering cotton candy & I explored my original idea more, thinking about how it would look if the cotton candy machine was on top of the wheels instead of inside them, if I used a go-kart instead of a dragster & if I just attached 1 cotton candy machine on the back of the vehicle & added an umbrella for shade from the hot island sun
  • 2) My 3rd Sketches of Ray's Popcorn Machine - I explored the Piya's idea of a supermarket robot turned into a popcorn machine which made me think of 5.3: a stationary popcorn machine that has the same mechanism as 5.2 & has a sign on the top w/ sculptures of pieces of popcorn attached sporadically to make it look like the popcorn machine exploded & it's raining poporn
  • 4) My Photoshop Sketches of Ray's Mail Cart
  • 4) Piya's Critique - "I really like the dog & the bacon," maybe there's stickers & details like that on this & even the cotton candy vehicle
  • 5) My Photoshop Sketches of Ray's Popcorn Machine
  • 6) Piya's Critique - you can finish 1 of each vehicle w/ color, it's a good idea to number the drawings on the page, it's more clean & organized when working on a team, to communicate where the popcorn comes out of you can draw a popcorn bucket sitting in one of the slots & add stray popcorn or 2 because popcorn is a mess (think about how popcorn is always on the floor at the movie theater), maybe the fill popcorn bucket pops out a little before launching
  • 7) My Photoshop Sketches of Ray's Cotton Candy Vehicle
  • 8) Piya's Critique - the surfboard's tapering is a little off, the edges are more rounded, check your reference pics of surfboards

Photoshop Tips & Tricks:

  • Comm. L - Levels (darkens pencil in scanned drawings)
  • Comm. U - Hue/Saturation slider
  • Layer Modes - #1 rule is it always affects the layer(s) below it, Normal: go-to, uses this as much as possible, (fam. of dark is Darken to Darker Color) Multiply: makes things darker, use for shadows, uses the most, likes the transparency (fam. of light is Lighten to Lighter ColorScreen: makes things lighter, used for highlights, more transparent than a normal layer, retention of detail, uses the most, Color Dodge: makes painting overly hot, sometimes too much, best when used in small amounts, can be used fir magic & special effects, Overlay: is your painting dull? this will give it a punch!!, affects colors & values, pushes contrast, exaggerates colors, lights & darks are both strong, Soft Light: if your painting has too many colors, this will calm it down, it's a unifier, affects value, has a reserved nature, it doesn't scream @ you, Color: affects colors, not values

Resources:

  • Ross Tran - YouTube, makes $1 million on Patreon every month, Color Dodge is his thing

Reflection:

I loved this week too. One of my favorite things to do is to come up with one idea and to keep expanding it, building upon it, and altering it to come up with different versions of the design. I think I might even like it more than rendering the final versions. I'm glad Piya took the time to explain layer modes because it cleared up a lot of confusion I had with what they are and what they do.

8.3.20

Progress:

  • 1) My Color Keys of Ray's Popcorn Machine
  • 2) My Final Colored Version of Ray's Popcorn Machine
  • 3) Piya's Critique - the black outlines are harsh, lighten 'em up, to fix: select the portion of the line work w/ the lasso, comm. U for a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer, that will give you the light & fluffy feeling that you want, suggestion for foliage or anything that is in a pile: leave gaps, it gives it space & airiness w/ all the popcorn, place highlights on top of the line work so it appears more real, draw the same highlights on the other side of the door, consider how the legs will work, add a joint(s), add shadows to add dimension, consider cast shadows on the legs
  • 4) My Color Keys of Ray's Mail Cart
  • 5) Piya's Critique - these are all cool colors, they're too safe, the point of color keys is to play w/ color & go crazy so you come up w/ better ideas you wouldn't have thought of otherwise, if Ray is scavenging for materials, they will be all different colors, another idea is having a monster of a dog
  • 6) My Final Colored Version of Ray's Mail Cart
  • 7) Piya's Critique - to believability to the mail guns, make it chaotic because that's real life, as humans we naturally make patterns, you have to fight that & you have to deliberately break them, add overlap w/ the letters, add variety by showing the backs of letters & maybe add boxes
  • 8) My Color Keys of Ray's Cotton Candy Vehicle
  • 8) Piya's Critique - "these color studies are fun, I love all of them," the color keys are almost better than the color because you can feel the movement and it's fun, you need to figure out how to incorporate the fun into the line work & how to bring the life from the color keys into the color because you obviously can't turn in the color studies, the red one feels the safest out of all of them, his fav. is the teal & purple-pink one because it's high contrast & has that island feel w/ the rich dark purple & pastel light teal, those 2 colors just work, they're split analogous colors so they harmonize well
  • 9) My Final Colored Version of Ray's Cotton Candy Vehicle
  • 10) Piya's Critique - the steering column lines up w/ the surfboard edge, it flattens everything because the eye thinks they're the same plane, to fix this address it boldly, be obvious about it, don't just fix it w/ a sliver of a line, lighten the color in the wheels to up the contrast, add clarity & make it pop, normally there are 2 exhaust pipes, add the shadow of the steering column & wheel on the surfboard & seat, move the steering wheel up because when you place yourself in the seat you might need more room, add holes to the cotton candy like the popcorn, you could use the Clouder brush for the cotton candy

Advice:

  • To help you decide what to do for your Senior Thesis ask yourself some questions - what is your dream job? what are you goals? have they changed since the beginning of this mentorship? are they the same? what does your ideal portfolio look like? was is it full of in your dreams? how can you showcase your strengths? how can you steer their eye away from your weaknesses?
  • Comparison is not helpful, remember you're on your own journey
  • Some people ask - do you think I can make a successful career out of this? It's not anyone else's place to say if you will succeed because no one has that power over you
  • It goes to those who want it, not always the most talented

Photoshop Tips & Tricks:

  • You can draw a nice pencil drawing then scan it, upload it & paint over it
  • Comm. E - flattens the image
  • Comm. H - hides the marching ants but keeps the selection
  • How many layers you use depends on the necessities of the job & what works for you: he knows a director in animation who uses 100s of layers, labels like crazy, everything has to be extremely clear so when you give it to another artist to work on they aren't confused, whereas he uses 8 layers because a million layers doesn't help him
  • Shift comm. C & comm. V - copies flattened layers

References & Resources:

  • Ryan Church - Art Director @ ILM, known for Star Wars concept art, 3 layers is a ton of layers for him, it's too much, he paints & then flattens everything into 1 layer & continues, he has a painterly/sketchy style
  • Peter de Sève - drew The New Yorker magazine covers, in animation you know him as the designer of Ice Age characters like Scrat

Color Theory:

  • Complementary: colors opposite on the color wheel ie. red & green, classic Christmas colors, this pair is vibrant, excites, energetic, they can get garish too saturated, using 1 saturated & 1 less saturated makes them look good
  • Split complimentary: colors that make a triangle on the color wheel ie. red & yellow & blue, how? red & green are complementary and analogous of green is yellow & blue
  • Analogous: colors next to each other on the color wheel ie. purple & blue, they look good together
  • Split analogous: colors w/ 1 color in between them in the color wheel ie. teal & purple

Reflection:

It was difficult to figure out how to render the finalized designs, but that's part of the learning process. My favorite part was coloring Ray's cotton candy vehicle because I had been working on that design since February in my Marketing & Business Development class. It was so exciting. I was bouncing-off-the-walls excited.

8.13.20

Progress:

  • 1-6) My Color Keys for the Environment around Ray's House - I started w/ 1 & kept adjusting the colors as I saw fit
  • 7) My 1st Version of the Environment around Ray's House
  • 8) Piya's Critique - make sure what you're painting supports your look & the advanced tool/computer doesn't make the determination for you, you light source is distinct, show the trunk then the top in the back tree shadow, add some stylization, add holes / small shapes to break up the shapes in the tree & add brown branches underneath, add a grass line because the grass is on top of the driveway, add a similar dark line to the sidewalk to make it pop, adding these small things will add weight & impact, the further away a shadow gets, the blurrier it is & it gets sharp the closer it is, you got rid of the fence which shows off the distinct roof shape, if you wanted to add a fence the white one is better because it adds detail w/o muddling, the dark purple roof against the white fence works, "the bright colors are very nice & your colors are good," when you something feels off, it's informative to use as an artist, you have distinct shapes in the thumbnails, but when you zoom in you lose it, you rely too much on the brush, use the lasso tool to add & subtract, animated style in general has a clear idea of shapes, so that will help a lot
  • 9) Piya's Critique - photo texture how to

Advice:

  • Your work needs to be something you want to do even when you don't feel like it
  • 2D has come back in interesting ways in the industry - no one predicted Netflix, but they are hiring so many creators right now
  • Take control of where you go this semester as much as possible
  • In the Animation industry, sometimes the modelers will build a background & send an all gray screenshot to the concept artist & they will paint color on top using local color, lighting, rim lighting, etc.
  • Even though you don't want to be an animator, you can use what you learn from your 3D Animation class to help your work in the production line, that will make their jobs easier later in the production line
  • You're not done when you graduate, you have a lot more to go - your education is continuous
  • You set up the Zoom meetings, remembered the date & times of the meetings, you were in time w/ uploaded work to review, you were professional & that makes or breaks careers
  • The only reason an art director will not want to work w/ someone again is because of lack of professionalism, if your work isn't up to industry standard then they'll say work on it & show me again
  • If you have any questions like how do I do this or anything, feel free to email me

Photoshop Tips & Tricks:

  • Photo texture how to: bring photo into Photoshop by dragging it in, move it to the desired location, comm. T if needed, Edit, Transform, Distort..., if needed, make it an Overlay layer, select background, magic wand, select, inverse, select layer mask, color black, comm. D, can manipulate if needed, comm. U for Saturation adjustments or comm. L for Levels
  • Comm. T Quick Keys: Scale - normal or hold shift, Rotate - outside the point, Skew - comm. option, Distort - comm. shift, Perspective - comm. option shift
  • Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur - takes the edge off, uses the most
  • Uses Motion Blur & Radial Blur sometimes
You can draw with the Lasso Tool to create shape."

References & Resources:

  • Rembrandt's The Mill - to support your painting put light vs. light and/or dark vs. dark, to stand out & make an impact & add contrast use light vs. dark and/or dark vs. light, this painting shows all of them: L is dark against dark, R is light against light, Top is light against dark, Bottom is dark against light, Top & Bottom is high contrast, L & R is low contrast to help w/ visuals
  • Advanced Lighting course w/ Sam Nielson - he works @ Avalanche Studios, drew the Disney infinity figures in video games before it closed, they weren't kidding when they said advanced lighting
  • Create a Reference folder for yourself, compile all of your pics. into one place ies. textures, bricks, concrete, forest, island....

Reflection:

I'm glad I decided to compete a background for my last week because that aided in my decision to complete more backgrounds for SunRay's for my Senior Thesis. I was so sad that I had to end this mentorship because it was the first time in my college career that I got to create and learn more about something I was eager to dive into. There were definitely lots of struggles, but I loved all of it and I was happy I got to work with and learn from Piya.

Created By
Kayla Hee
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