Into the Woods...

One of the most incredible and valuable aspects of this class was the necessity - not just the option, but necessity - to loosen the hell up! Of the millions of things I learned about myself, my style, my inspiration, and my process throughout the course, one thing I found interesting (or, rather, confounding) is that I am a walking artistic contradiction when it comes to character design. 

My brain will happily wander down any rabbit hole it happens upon and irresponsibly explore ideas until I have driven myself at least seven miles past my freeway exit. I have strategically placed sketchbooks and notebooks very un-strategically; I have provided myself the opportunity to write or draw my ideas willy-nilly nearly everywhere I happen to be. For the character of Ichabod, I drew inspiration from not simply a myriad of comedic film clips, but additionally from things like...doorknobs. I savor the process of exquisite character detail to the point of near Daniel Day-Lewis delusional immersion...and YET, when it comes time to release my mind to paper in a fury of Pollock-like expression, I never fail to sit quietly with my microscopic-tipped mechanical pencil hovering over an obsessively cleaned surface, looking for the perfect way to execute my first line, then erase it, then re-execute. 

I've been wound tighter than a Swiss time piece.

And I realized this translates to everything in my life. My mind is Fosse and the rest is Nureyev! Oy. What sort of psychological ink-blot delving hypnosis is required to undo the furrowed, purse-lipped expression of my right hand and bring my life-choreographer metaphor closer to something resembling Twyla?!

Oh...wait...what's that? Good Will Hunting-like therapy not required? Chris Sasaki, in twelve short weeks, you just saved me millions. 

Even in the beginning weeks of "experimentation" I found myself bringing to class my very reigned-in examples of crazy. Apparently I wasn't fooling anyone, at least not Chris. Goddamit, we were going to have FUN! Messy in-class exercises! NO pencils! Don't put your hair up for this, it's a perfectly good brush! If you want to fulfill your childhood dream, if you want to DO what you've wanted to DO since you were a kid, BE A GODDAM KID!

Just for the record, Chris is not a drill sergeant. The above were my internal mantra. That pencil wasn't coming out of my hand on its own, I had to slap it out.

So...below are the results of my progression from Goody Two-Shoes to drawing Floozy. I'm still practicing. I'm striving for Lili VonSchtupp-like looseness...

Ok...perhaps the magazine cutout
method didn't QUITE help loosen
me up technically, but it was a really
great way to think about shape
choices, texture, mood, and
simplistic ways to convey expression
and character!

Scaredy-pants Ichabod in the forest...thanks to a whole mess of ink!

This is where it got just plain goofy fun. Ne'er a pencil in sight! You can also see (perhaps) this is the point where Michael Richards' Kramer had been added to the mix of inspiration....playing with Mr. Bean, Kramer, and a mouse...yeehaw!

Just a few notes...playing with both the Headless Horseman and Ichabod.

Where There's an Ichabod...

 Surely there's a guy without a head....

Continuing in my reflection on the awesomest 12 weeks ever, I will show you the darker side of the first two weeks of Chris Sasaki's Advanced Character Design class at the Animation Collaborative. Chris assigned two characters for the course from Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 

Previously I posted some reference images and beginning sketches of my process in trying to get a feel for who Ichabod was. Irving paints a very detailed picture of Ichabod, both physically and in personality. It's was a challenge to not be literal or, worse, re-create Disney's Ichabod, who is essentially Irving's description come to life. We had to dig a little deeper and extract the most prominent characteristics from the self-serving schoolmaster and make every effort to allow those characteristics to aesthetically exude from his design.

The Headless Horseman was quite the opposite. Not only vague in description, he is vague to the very narrator of the story and the characters within! Is he the ghost of a Hessian soldier? An apparition that materialized from superstition? Or was he really the town bully, Brom Bones, disguised to play one final, fatal prank on poor Ichabod?

This is the Choose Your Own Adventure book-like part of character design....so much fun. I personally liked the idea of the Headless Horseman as a mysterious apparition. I felt it would be more fun to play with both in story and visually in animation. A number of cool ideas came about in experimenting: what if he were a hulking, solid figure that dissipates into a hovering mist, giving him speed through vaporization? Or an ominous figure that shatters into thousands of blackbirds in flight? The possibilities were endless! 

Anywho, here are some reference images and beginning sketches and experimentations of The Headless Horseman!

Some Reference:

Aaaand Some Fun:

The incredibly challenging-but-fun magazine cutout method in which I learned to somehow gluestick myself to...myself.

Some finger painting with charcoal dust on (ugh) an Anthropologie bag. Sue me.

And now for some REAL fun with ink, straws, and maybe just a WEE bit of wine induced inhibition...

YES!! I mean seriously...way too much fun. More to come!! Please feel free to comment or make suggestions as this is all part of my portfolio building process. Thanks, ya'll!