Dotted Shirts

Some random drawings I drew last year.

 

Drought

The animation industry is experiencing a bit of a drought right now after 5-6 years of plentiful work. I’m currently out of a job and facing the reality of having to apply to studios that don’t know me. It has been a long time since I have had to make a showreel or portfolio, so I’ve been going through my old work, which has been both validating and depressing. When I watch my storyboards I have an almost physical negative reaction, as if my body still remembers the punishing long hours it took to make them.

The drawings above are just mindless practice, getting used to the act of drawing again. Initially the drawings came quite easily and the process was borderline enjoyable, but my usual apathy soon returned and drawing has become an aimless chore again.

Eddie's Peace

I finished my current storyboard a day early, so I decided to doodle. Feeling rusty, even though I draw everyday for work.

 

I played The Outer Worlds earlier this year which was made by Obsidian, the studio that also made Fallout: New Vegas. It was pretty mediocre, but got me thinking about Fallout again. I don't know if I'll ever have the free time to play another big RPG, which is okay since there isn't anything new I'm interested in anyway.

Drawn in Storyboard Pro, coloured in PS.

VSPA

 Drawn in Storyboard Pro 6, coloured in PS.

Falling Is Flying

Trying not to be precious with linework. Drawn in Storyboard Pro 6, coloured in PS.

What A Shit-Show

 What a shit-show 2020-2021 have been. Besides living in a Covid-19 world with all it's stress and uncertainty, my mother passed away last year and my elderly father and medically vulnerable/declining youngest sister are currently living in an area of Sydney which is locked down due to high cases of Covid. I've been dealing with government beurocracy and trying to help manage my sister's care while at the same time my own health is declining and work has not slowed down one bit.

 

Just this past week I realized that my left eye can't really focus well anymore so I guess I wear glasses now. Earlier this year I was experiencing vertigo and had some tests done, one of which was my first eye exam ever. Turns out my left eye was a little weak, so I got some glasses which I only wore briefly before my vertigo returned. It's a good thing I bought them when I did as since then Sydney has been in lock down and I actually need them now.  

 

I haven't even thought about drawing for a long time, I've accepted the fact that I probably won't draw outside of work anymore. However, I finished my current storyboard a couple days early, so I drew the above image in Storyboard Pro today. I'm much fatter in real life.  

PJ

Watching: Lady Snowblood & Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance by Toshiya Fujita, The Wolf Man by George Waggner, The Phantom of the Opera by Rupert Julian, Irma La Douce and One, Two, Three by Billy Wilder, Hush... Hush Sweet Charlotte by Robert Aldrich,  The Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa, Bakumatsu Taiyôden by Yûzô Kawashima, The Leopard by Luchino Visconti, The Last Command by Josef von Sternberg, Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back by  D.A Pennebaker, The 10th Victim by Elio Petri, Giant by George Stevens, Too Much Johnson by Orson Welles, The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion by Shun'ya Itô, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 by Shun'ya Itô, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable by Shun'ya Itô, Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song by Yasuharu Hasebe, Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter by Yasuharu Hasebe, Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo by Toshiya Fujita, Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss by Yasuharu Hasebe, Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal by Yasuharu Hasebe, Stray Cat Rock: Beat ‘71 by Toshiya Fujita

Reading: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford, Diaboliad by Mikhail Bulgakov, The Vigilante by John Steinbeck, Gooseberries by Anton Chekov, The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin, The Body by Bill Bryson, Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz

Listening to: Josh Ritter - Fever Breaks, Metric - Art of Doubt, Dumb Angel - Broken Glass, Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Jeff Tweedy - Warmer 

Holiday Leftovers

 

The drawing above was 90% done in a giant Storyboard Pro file I use as a sketchbook at work, then re-inked in Photsoshop because exported SBPro bitmaps look a bit smeary. I've been using my week off from work to finish some sketches from this past year. So far for every two drawings I finish, only one is decent enough to post.

Not drawing in my off time this year gave me the opportunity to watch more movies, so the lists below are tiny part of a huge backlog of films, books and music I went through this year.  

Watching: Juliet of the Spirits by Federico Fellini, The Invisible Man by James Whale, The Uninvited by Lewis Allen, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Billy Wilder, Massacre Gun & Retaliation by Yasuharu Hasebe
Reading: The Borgias: The Hidden History by G.J Meyer, Titans of History by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Listening to: Camera Obscura - Desire Lines

What's In My Bag 2019

I always carry a leather satchel with me to hold all my daily knick-knacks. It's made from camel leather and is pretty beaten up.

1. Quill A4 Sketchbook - I've probably been using the same type of sketchbook for over 15 years
2. Notebook - Never really use it, but always have it
3. Parker Jotter Ballpoint Pen - Stainless steel and slippery
4. Pencil Case - Just a couple pencils and an eraser
5. Leatherman Skeletool - for opening packages
6. Reusable Shopping Bag
7. Moisturiser
8. Hand Sanitiser - I only use it during flu season. I got sick 3 times this year
9. Lip Balm - Half melted
10. Tissues
11. Rayban New Wayfarer
12. Ziplock Bag - with comb, bandaids and dental stuff
13. Plastic Water Bottle - I'll buy a bottle of water then reuse the bottle for months
14. Camera Insert - Keeps my camera safe, but also my water bottle and sunglasses separated
15. Fujifilm X E3 - Almost never use it. I put it in a leather half case because the grip was peeling
16. Extra Lens  - I usually carry one small lens and one big lens
17. Lenspen - To clean camera lenses
18. Extra Camera Battery
19. Extra SD Card
20. Lens Cloth
21. Samsung SSD with USB 3 cable- just in case
22. Ibuprofen - I always get headaches, especially in summer

Watching: Battles Without Honor and Humanity by Kinji Fukasaku, Charade by Stanley Donen, Laura by Otto Preminger, Throne of Blood, Rashomon, Yojimbo & Sanjuro by Akira Kurosawa, If.... by Lindsey Anderson, Marriage Italian Style & Yesterday, Today and Tommorow by Vittorio De Sica
Reading: The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
Listening to: Offa Rex - The Queen of Hearts

Hiatus

It has been a long time since I last updated this blog. The reason for that was simple: I stopped drawing.

Occasionally I would sketch something at the end of the work day while waiting for my bus, but nothing got finished and the longer I went without drawing my own stuff, the more okay I was with it. Drawing has been a constant in my life since I was a child but after 14 years of drawing professionally, I have very little enthusiasm left for it. 

Maybe things will change in 2020. Maybe it won't

Watching: Cold War by Pawel Pawlikowsi, A Man For All Seasons by Fred Zinnemann, Witness for the Prosecution by Billy Wilder, Wild River by Elia Kazan, Red River by Howard Hawks, Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick, The Sword of Doom by Kihachi Okamoto, The Mummy by Karl Freund
Reading: The Plague by Albert Camus
Listening to: Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial

Window Watcher

I've been very lax with drawing my own stuff this month. The series I worked on wrapped in December and I've been doing storyboards for a couple different shows since.

After work I stay in the studio and watch movies, churning though my backlog of blu rays. I shortened the list below to under half the actual number in the interest of brevity. It's definitely the best part of my day, but as a result I haven't been as productive with personal work. The drawing above was done in a frenzy and now my hands hurt.

Watching: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane by Robert Aldrich, La Notte & Red Desert by Michelangelo Antonioni, Cleopatra & No Way Out by Joseph L Mankiewicz, Gilda by Charles Vidor, The Red Turtle by Michael Dudok de Wit
Reading: The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig
Listening to: Mandolin Orange - Tides of a Teardrop

Moving Forward, Looking Back

My apartment doesn't have air-conditioning so I spent almost the entirety of my Christmas break at the studio. Most days I was alone, and uproductive, just trying to shake off the rust that I had accumulated by not drawing for five days.

During the night I rewatched La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2 and thought about the films I loved. I thought about wide angle lenses and gorgeous black and white cinematography. I thought about how empty my own work feels and how storyboarding for t.v has changed my own storytelling sensibility in a way that I find boring and predictable.

Well, this year I want to attempt to change how and what I draw in my own time. I want the films I love to be an inspiration. I'm sure I'll default back to drawing boring drawings of girls in cute outfits, but it's worth a try. 

Re-Watching: La Dolce Vita & 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini, The Trial by Orson Welles, Casablanca by Michael Curtiz
Reading: Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly
Listening to: Death Cab for Cutie - Thank You For Today

Periodic Tweaking

I started this drawing around March/April but got hung up with hair shadows so I put it on the back-burner.

Wanting to avoid my predictable old palette, I went against my instinct and made her a brunette even though I had planned for the girl to be a blonde. She initially had wings and a halo, but after months of periodic tweaking, I decided to make a drastic change so got rid of them, drew a weird background and considered it "finished".

 However, I couldn't just let it go. Remembering that I had initially wanted the character to have a sleeve of tattoos, I drew them in and at the same time took the opportunity to revert the whole thing back to how I wanted it when first drawing it. Probably way too much thought and effort for such a simple drawing, but oh well.

Watching: Il Bidone by Federico Fellini, A New Leaf by Elaine May
Reading: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
Listening to: The Minus 5 - Dear December

Grey Ladies

More drawings sketched in Storyboard Pro and finished in Photoshop. I didn't draw for five days over Christmas and already feel rusty.

Watching: Fixed Bayonets! by Samuel Fuller, The Virgin Spring by Ingmar Bergman

Reading: Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) by Jeff Tweedy
Listening to: Boygenius - Boygenius EP

Bummer

The drawings above were done at work, either at the end of the night or on the weekend. Summer in Sydney is brutally hot and humid, so having a studio with air conditioning to hide in makes life so much better.

Watching: The Magnificent Ambersons by Orson Welles, The Bride of Frankenstein by James Whale, I Married A Witch by Rene Clair

Reading: Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig
Listening to: The War On Drugs - Lost in the Dream, Jeff Tweedy - WARM

No Days Off

I somehow managed to finish my storyboard 3 days early, but my luck being what it is, on my first day off I awoke early in the morning to the sounds of cranes and heavy machinery right outside my window. Scaffolding went up and all of a sudden I had construction workers looking into my apartment. Looks like I have 6 weeks of this to wake up to.

Also, the battery on my laptop has started to swell so I am hesitant to use it for too long. 

My solution? Spend all of my days off at work. I finally got Photoshop installed on my work computer, so I managed to do the doodles above and work on other drawings too. I don't really want to admit it, but I was way more productive at work than I would've been at home.   

Watching: The Philadelphia Story by George Cukor

Reading: 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
Listening to: Kurt Vile - Bottle It In

Fade-Away Stripes

It's been a while since I tried drawing a Coles Phillips-style fadeaway girl.

Sketched in Storyboard Pro, finished in Photoshop.

Watching: Isle of Dogs by Wes Anderson, Frankenstein by James Whale, Suddenly, Last Summer by Joseph Mankiewicz, Island of Lost Souls by Erle C. Kenton, Mildred Pierce by Michael Curtiz
Reading: The Complete Short Stories by J.G Ballard
Listening to: Cat Power - Wanderer, Milk Carton Kids - All the Things That I Did & All the Things That I Didn't Do, Elvis Costello - Look Now

Real Life Doesn't Have A Ctrl+Z

Another one that started in Storyboard Pro after a long-ass work day.

I haven't been able to draw for over a month, I get the odd day off here or there which I spend in front of my cintiq, but nothing seems to come out. In order to work my way around this art block I've started to dabble with inks, first with fountain pens, then with dipping nibs and most recently with a brush. I suspect that this is just an excuse to spend money and not really addressing the problem, especially since I seem to fuck up every second or third line and real life doesn't have a Ctrl+Z. 

 

Watching: His Girl Friday by Howard Hawks, Cat People by Jacques Tourneur, The Shape of Water by Guillermo Del Toro, Creature From the Black Lagoon by Jack Arnold

Reading: The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth, Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King & Owen King

Listening to: Songs Of Innocence & Songs of Experience by David Axelrod, Transatlanticism Demos by Death Cab for Cutie, Tender Offerings by First Aid Kit

Vector

 

I don't have Photoshop on my work computer, so I doodle quick sketches in Storyboard Pro. There is something about the basic no-frills brush I use and the ability to select/manipulate or delete lines that feels right. Both of the drawings above were sketched in Storyboard Pro and cleaned & coloured at home in Photoshop.

Watching: Dracula (1931) by Tod Browning, Lifeboat by Alfred Hitchcock

Reading: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Listening to: You Am I - Dress Me Slowly, Calexico - The Thread That Keeps us (Deluxe Edition)

Things Can Always Get Worse

It hasn't been a good July. I've been pretty disappointed with my work (both day job and personal) for some time and was on the verge of quitting my job when a family medical emergency suddenly came up and put my own meager problems into perspective.

Watching: Fedora by Billy Wilder, Suburbicon by George Clooney, Drunken Master by Woo-Ping Yuen
Reading: Nothing
Listening to: Something For Kate - Beautiful Sharks (Deluxe Edition)