A Day in the Life...

I began assisting Karl for the recording of his in-class lectures. These will be hosted online for anyone is interested. The seminar I attended is called Story Beats: Drawing Character moments that show story sequence. And my... what a valuable class! :D

I was able to pop in and out of Woodbury between the seminar and night class to say Hi to former classmates and Deans during the Graphic Design 80th anniversary celebrations yesterday. Good to see Mr Bill Keeney, my former dean, who lives in the south of France now with his wife. What a life!

The official Imagineering Day session on Thursday (14 Oct) was packed! The only thing I got out of it was how big the company is. Too big! Ha ha...

Homework is pouring in... putting on my busker's hat and doing the juggling thing again!

Check out that Vinyl

Okie, so I'm not into dolls... I think. But because I was passing by the Disney Store yesterday in the city of Glendale, I popped in to check it out. The Disney Stores around aren't what it used to be. I remember more noise, more toys over flowing from the shelves, more sale items... everything has toned down a couple of notches.

But there was this one collection that caught my eyes! Basically, the toddler versions of the Disney Princesses designed by Glen Keane and Mark Henn - two veterans that have been animating Disney Animation for decades - especially the princesses.

My favourite one seems to be Rapunzel. Details right down to the freckles on her cheeks!

Baby steps

After class last Saturday noon, I popped by my alma mater for a visit. The school of Graphic Design is celebrating 80 years this coming Saturday, and have invited 80 Alumni to come give one piece of advice to current students. The session itself should take 80 minutes. I was asked months back even before I knew I was heading out here to prepare something. Since I have classes on that day in the morning and in the evening, I have prepared a one minute video for my segment.

On top of that, alumni were asked to submit their recent works for an exhibition. Four pieces of my current work has been selected. Can you spot it in the picture above? My first works exhibited in L.A.! :D

All my classes have begun and the homework along with it. A total of 30 hours I will clock excluding a couple of seminars here and there. It's going to be creatively intense!! Ah... now I remember what I missed in the last 15 years or so. :D

I finally bought a scanner. I had no choice. The classes need work to be blogged. It would have been absurd to pay a dollar for each scan as a service knowing I'd be scanning quite a load of stuff. Good thing is Target was offering an all-in-one (with wifi) for a low UDS39.99. How crazy is that? And also in perfect (Kairos) timing!! Why are quite a number of things here so economically priced?

So look out for my works online... soon.

Yo-ho Yo-ho...

This evening, I had my first character design class with David Colman. And into the second hour, out of nowhere pops John the Pirate. I painted him two weeks ago at the American Animation Institute. If there's a pirate related anything that calls for a model, John Tucker is your Buccaneer! If you have seen the book, Force: Character Design from Life Drawing, there he is on the cover! :D

A very professional model... in fact, because he knew we were going to do short poses, he brought with him his entire regalia in his treasure chest which includes a barrel of rum, pirate swords and replica guns, a spyglass, and oooh, did I mention a bag filled with pirate themes soundtracks??

And so that's why the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride at Disneyland has been down for weeks! Arrrrggggh...

FIgure Drawing 101

It's getting colder in the nights. Winter's fast approaching.

But during the day, it's very Mediterranean-like. Warm hot sun, virtually no perspiration. Or what seems like zero humidity. I appreciated intense sun today as I was feeling a little feverish.

Last Saturday, classes with master draughtsman, Glen Vilppu, started. Taking these classes from him and Karl really puts me back right in the very beginning. I am constantly re-learning and correcting my old drawing habits. Like Karl Gnass mentioned once in class, "You must encounter resistance in order to grow."

Did I mention how everyone here is so so so good at what they do?

That's Glen showing me his little secret weapon for his guerilla washes, made with love using a small empty Altoids container, some putty, gesso and a clip! :D