Wednesday, April 27, 2011

hand acting


So, I meant to post this last month when I scanned it but didn't get to it in those crazy weeks of putting together a portfolio/reel/website. I completely forgot about this until today when we had presentations in Albritton's class again.

These were done at the end of last semester during art history. Everyone had to present on an artist. I decided to sketch peoples hands as they presented and found out some interesting things. Of course people all act differently and thus use their hands in different ways, but it's pretty amazing once you actually start to actively pay attention to it. Most people had very distinct patterns of convention that emerged. The drawings aren't pretty and they weren't supposed to be, they were mostly just to denote things. Here are those sketches and transcribed/added notes.


Vani frequently opened and closed her hands. When making a particular point she'd have her hands open, often with the fingers tensed, splayed, and pointing out with the wrists tensed and bent as well.


Jen was next and much quieter with her hands. She tended to keep her fingers together and hands half closed in a cup like fashion. When she did open her hands, she'd have weak hand poses with the fingers relaxed, partially bent, and still mostly together.


Sean tended to keep his fingers together too. When he would spread his fingers apart they would rarely stay apart for very long at all and even then tended to cluster together in small groups, or "stack" as I wrote. Even when his hands were open the would usually face inward, and his hands remained "cupped" like this for most of the time, returning back to that type of position after any broad gesture. Watching his cupped hands and closeness of fingers reminded me of webbed feet or fins. Also, sometimes before he made a point he would tensely tap his fingers together as a unit. It was a pretty interesting anticipation.


Rob's sole defining gesture what that whenever he would step back from the computer to say something he would spread his arms and open his hands. Every time he made any sort of gesture it was that, with only the slightest variations. His hand/arm gesture very clearly and loudly stated "I am talking", just in case you failed to hear him.


Rocky pretty much kept his hand glued to the laptop track pad while the other stayed at his side. If he did gesture with that hand it stayed in the same space, the wrist barely moving. His presentation was also on an artist from the New Leipzig School of Painting, a group of artists definitely worth checking out.


Jeffry had one of the most interesting acting patterns. He would do a fair amount of hand gestures and stuff but in between those he was always holding or touching something. He's hold his other hand, his necklace, the edge of the table, mess with his pocket, etc. His hands always had to be somewhere.


Lastly, here's a little bit of a revelation I had during one of the presentations (replace screen with painting, and you have the original gist of it). Sure it sounds kind of cheesy, but it's pretty true. Everything is about audience participation in one way or another - otherwise they wouldn't care.

Friday, April 22, 2011

if - bicycle


Steep hills are scary.


No mailroom inventory => find stuff and put it together time.

This particular incident features a torn discarded priority mail box, discarded bubble wrap (rain cloud), a used pink package slip, gouache, a paper clip, and an animal cracker (horse, pony, or similar ungulate). Oh, and photoshop too.

For Ilustration Friday, topic: bicycle.

Friday, April 15, 2011

some figure

I realized I didn't have much "structural" figure drawing for my portfolio, except for stuff from freshman year. To remedy this situation I headed over to fews for the night. I got the model's back a lot and finished poses quickly and ended up drawing the other guys there quite a bit. Those mega copic markers are serious fun.







Sunday, April 10, 2011

if - bottled



diptych on scrap wood. Left is acrylic gouache on transparencies, glued. Right is silver spray paint, ink, acrylic gouache, photographs that were taken and then lacquer transfered onto paper, and a picture of a wolf from a children's book.

For Illustration Friday, topic: bottled.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

lipsync!



Turned this in just the other day after working on it since January.
Maya/Renderman for Maya/Photoshop/Nuke.
Responsible for Everything.
(:

Saturday, April 2, 2011

back lots




Two paintings from the back lot behind whole foods. It was surprisingly nice painting back there. It was so stark in places but the lines of the place were never really straight and it was a really nice place to observe light. I like the turn these took. I used only the palette knife on them and was able to keep my colors a lot cleaner and edges sharper as a result. They were painted in the morning hours, one class session each.