The Incredible Hulk Transformation

The Incredible Hulk Transformation_Inked

I have not kept it from any of you that I am not that big of a fan of the Hulk, but I must say that I did enjoy drawing him. After finishing the inking portion of this drawing, I couldn't stop staring at him. I actually kept him out of my portfolio for a few days just to stare at him. I would have to say that this was the best inking job that I've done so far. I was finally able to keep what I as the penciler had in mind for the drawing in the first place, to display the emotions that Banner was going through during the transformation - agony, despair, and anger. My only hope is that I'll be able to do the same when the time comes to color it this fall.

SCAD 411



SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society Table

SCAD-Atlanta was holding a SCAD 411 on Friday, June 24, 2011, and it was where prospective students and their families tour the school. SCAD wanted different majors and clubs to be represented especially the clubs. They acted as if the event couldn't be held without the clubs. I've been rather disappointed about the turnout that the SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society has had during the 2010-2011 year, and even though it is still up in the air whether I'll be attending the meetings for the start of the 2011-2012 year I was determined to make sure that we have better turn out. Therefore, I agreed to be the sole representative of the SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society. This was the third time that I've represented the Animation Society, and the first time didn't go so well although it was good enough for me to represent them again later, but I didn't get the accepted students excited enough to attend the meetings. Most of them wanted me for my knowledge of the school and animation, not the club. The second time was similar although I was not the lone representative, but the crowds at our table were small. I remembered when I first joined the Animation Society in the Fall of 2009 that the crowds were huge at that table, and I wanted to bring that back. Therefore, I decided to give things away to each student that visited my table, and so I made eighty-one SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society magnets with three different designs, making it twenty-seven magnets for each design. Each design was based upon the posters that will be seen throughout the campus advertising the meetings during the quarter. However, I still needed to entice them to come over to the table, and so I made...close to a hundred sugar cookies with an American Flag design on them. 

My plan worked beautifully! My table was extremely popular, and I think that I got people interested in what I was saying. It did get a little tiresome repeating the same information over and over again, but that's the break when you're trying to get people interested in your club. Unfortunately I did not get rid of all the cookies, which I so desperately wanted to do since there were close to a hundred of them. I wish that I had brought a bowl with me that I wouldn't have minded getting rid of because there was this one girl who was just crazy about the cookies that she just kept coming back for them. She even came back when I was packing everything up. I didn't get rid of all the magnets either, but that's okay. I can save them for the upcoming Club Fair when the Fall Quarter begins, and I can also give them to fellow members of the Animation Society. All in all, however, it was a huge success. It's a shame that I have a previous engagement on July 1st otherwise I would be there for the final SCAD 411.



Animation Society Magnet

 My table was next to the Scotch Tape Sculpture Club, and the club basically makes sculptures out of Scotch tape. It's a weird club. The representative of the club, who will remain nameless, comes over to my table near the end of the event, and he picks up one of the magnets - the one shown above - and asks me who made it. I should've known better than to think that he was going to compliment it, but I still replied that I had made it. He puts the magnet down and says that he doesn't like it, but he never tells me why or what about it he didn't like. I wasn't sure did he not like the design or did he not like the magnet itself. I don't mind if someone doesn't like my work, but at least tell me why. I can't improve on my work if I don't know which area of it should be improved upon. However, I have come to the conclusion that I don't care what he says because my audience is more important to me. That magnet was the second most popular one, and that says more about the design than what some Scotch Tape sculptor says!

Way Behind the Curve

My mom has been suffering from a hernia and ulcers in recent months, and it was believed that she was going to be needing surgery to repair the hernia. She would have had to stay in the hospital for at least six days to recover, which was devastating to her, but she decided that if she was going to spend days lying on her back then she might as well do something that she had always wanted to do. She wanted to read Harry Potter. She and I both decided to read Harry Potter at the same time, and we would have a small book club - more reliable than the ones she tried starting in the neighborhood. Fortunately the doctors decided to give the hernia another month to heal, and so she won't be having the surgery anytime soon, but we still went ahead with reading the first two Harry Potter books. We were way behind the curve, but the first book was great, and the second book is great so far. 

I don't know about my mom, but I think that after I'm done with Harry Potter I will read The Chronicles of Narnia. I got the sixth book of Narnia when I attended the Engaged Art Show during the Spring Quarter, but I've never read the first five books. So I'm going to start in the beginning before I read the sixth book.

Final Thoughts

Tomorrow is July 1st, and it's my brother, DJ Wright's birthday. Happy 31st Birthday, DJ!

After I've finished reading the second Harry Potter book I'll get started on drawing The Doo Family Portrait. Until next time, this is Billy Wright, wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody!  

I Am a "Big Foot" Artist!

The Incredible Hulk Transformation_Penciled

I must say that when I set out to work on the Incredible Hulk I was a bit nervous about it because I would be considered a "Big Foot" artist while the Hulk/Dr. Banner are in the "Little Foot" category. For those of you who are unfamiliar with those terms, as I used to be until I did my research on Neal Adams, let me explain. Artists who draw really cartoony are considered "Big Foot" artists, and I suppose it comes from the idea that cartoon characters have big feet although I can name off a few characters whose feet aren't that big, but that's the general idea. If you wanted to draw a realistic mouse, you wouldn't use Mickey Mouse as your reference. Artists who draw realistically are considered "Little Foot" artists. One could argue that the Hulk is a "Big Foot" character because there is no man on earth who looks like him, but the mere definition of "Little Foot" means drawing anatomically realistic, which the Hulk is. I learned to draw by watching cartoons like Batman, the Animated Series, and animators have to drop the details found in realism to make it easier to animate, something that comics don't have to worry about. It has been tough for me to get out of that mindset. I want to be a "Little Foot" artist, but my work still leans heavily towards the "Big Foot" style no matter how much I try to change it. 

So when approaching this drawing of the Hulk I was nervous for that reason, but like, It All Started with a Mouse, I didn't want to do injustice to a character that people love, I don't particularly like him, but some people do. However, I completely surprised myself on this one. I think that it came out perfectly. It doesn't top It All Started with a Mouse, but I pretty much knew that that would be a tough piece to top.

When I approach a fanart drawing I want the most up to date photo reference that I can find on the character, and the Hulk's references were perfect although I had to use two because one reference only had him from his head down to his torso, forcing me to find a reference for his legs. Dr. Banner, on the other hand, was a different story. I did not like the references that I found on him, as most of the references shot him from a far, making it useless to use. I briefly thought about drawing Bill Bixby, but I am not that great at drawing real people, and so I discarded that idea. Instead I decided to use the reference of Banner from the only Hulk comic book that I have, which was a reissue of the first Hulk comic when the creature used to be grey instead of green. So this drawing has a little bit of now and a little bit of yesterday, which I think makes the drawing even better. Next up, inking the composition.

Final Thoughts

Originally my next project was going to be a fanart drawing with a DC Comics character, the Riddler, but I've decided to postpone that drawing. Instead I am going to work on The Doo Family Portrait, which will feature Scooby-Doo's entire family including the two members who are dead. I've already begun finding the photo references for each character, and a lot of the references are going to make things difficult for me since a lot of the references only show the head, forcing me to figure out the rest of the body. Aw, well, those are the breaks.

This Friday, I am going to be the lone representative of the SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society at a SCAD-Atlanta event for prospective students and their families. I am making magnets for the event to give away to each person who visits my table. There is no way that the incoming class can say that they never knew that the Animation Society existed. Not if I can help it. This will perhaps be the last job that I do for the Animation Society within everybody's eyesight because unless my Wednesday class time changes from 8 PM to 5 PM or earlier I won't be back to the Animation Society although I still plan to do my part to help them, mainly with my posters.

That's pretty much it for this week. I don't know when I'll be back to post the inked version of the Hulk, but until then, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody!

ASIFA-Atlanta's Roll Yer Own 2011

Last week I was informed that my Vampire Mouse animated short was selected to premiere at ASIFA-Atlanta's Roll Yer Own, an independent animation screening. It was a huge event. I knew, however, that I wasn't going to win, but that's not what art is really about. It is just an honor to be recognized by my peers as having made a worthwhile animation. That goes for any art exhibition actually. As great as it would be to win or even place, an artist should just be fortunate that they were chosen to be displayed at all. That's exactly how I was feeling on Friday, June 10th when I headed over to this warehouse that makes and ships coffee to places like Whole Foods. My mom went with me, and this was the first time that she had ever seen my work displayed in public, which was a huge thrill for her. The first time that my work ever got displayed was at an art show three years ago, but she came down with a migraine hours before the show.

I joked about it when we arrived that it felt like this was the underground of animation because we were screening this films in a warehouse. It was a nice looking warehouse, but it was still a warehouse. A strange place to screen films, animated or not. Though when the films began rolling a little after 7 PM the films were so...weird and disgusting that my joking statement may not have been too far off. My film was the second film shown, and I was under the impression that I had given my friend and Vice President of ASIFA-Atlanta, Allyssa Lewis the silent version of the film. I did give her permission to add sound to it if it would increase the chances of it getting selected, but it had to be creepy. The sound was creepy all right because it was the sound version that I had created. I don't know how it happened, but she didn't know that I had sent her the silent version and instead pulled the sound version from my Facebook page. It's just as well because the sound version is way, way better. There were some laughs at the end and applause, which was good, but not enough to insure victory, which again, I didn't care about. I learned that there were more people other than my mom and me who liked that film, and that's what counts. Allyssa would tell me later that the panel who were choosing the films liked that my film was done in the traditional, hand drawing method. I think that my film was the only hand drawing method. There were some 2D films, but they were done primarily in Adobe Flash. I will not touch Flash since we didn't exactly get along well when we were first introduced. Stinkin' code!

As for the rest of the films that shown...well, let's put it this way, there were only two good films that were shown that night. The Vampire Mouse Transformation and SCAD-Atlanta's Jaguar McGuire and His Cat were the best films, and the rest sucked. It's not to say that there weren't some well done animations because there were, but they were either too long like Lost and Found or too gruesome like the one where a beast massacres a bunch of bullies. The latter could have been great if the kid that the bullies were picking on had transformed into the beast, and the bullies ran away screaming, but instead the artist chose the beast to come out of the bushes to help the kid by slaughtering the bullies in the most gruesome ways imaginable. Lost and Found's problem was that it was too long, but the thing was that they had one idea and several artists working to interpret that idea in a variety of ways. The rest of the films were weirdly disturbing especially the stop motion animated film that looked like two penises having sex with each other. My mom thought they looked like two rear ends having sex, but it's disturbing no matter what you saw in it. What frightens me is that there were some films that didn't make the cut. If these twenty or so films were the best, I can't imagine what those that were left on the cutting room floor looked like.

My mom and I left shortly after 9 PM, not knowing who had won, but we had a pretty good guess. There was a lot of applause for the last film that was shown even though it was terrible in my opinion, but apparently everybody else found talking clouds and one cloud being turned into cotton candy appealing. I don't see it. Still, to hammer the one point again, it was just an honor to be selected, and there were some people who liked my film. That's all I want.

Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again




The Defining Moment_Colored

 I finished coloring The Defining Moment last week, and I think that it looks a whole lot more gruesome in color than it did in black and white. Of course, after watching some of those animated films, this scene does seem rather tame. It hasn't really received any positive reaction on Deviantart, and in fact one person who had been "watching me" dropped me. Apparently he liked my work when it was all light and cartoony, but when I show off the darker side of my work, he's offended and drops me. Truthfully...I don't care. I don't care about the watching. I am more interested in the views and who has added it to the favorites.

Another Transformation



The Incredible Hulk Transformation

After working on The Defining Moment, it was time to get back to work on more fanart. While working on It All Started with a Mouse I had several ideas for future projects including the two panoramic drawings featuring DC and Marvel heroes and villains, but one of the early ideas was this one. It features Dr. Bruce Banner transforming, sort of, into the Hulk, and it's one of the few drawings that doesn't have a background to speak of. It will just be red behind the figures. It's interesting that I would do the Hulk because frankly, I don't like him as a character because it would be a tough character to write a story for since he's really not a hero. He's a victim, like a werewolf. I think that it would be better if the stories were written to focus more on Banner than the Hulk, like the television show with Bill Bixby. Still, I enjoy drawing transformations, and if I could figure out how to do it I wouldn't mind trying to animate the Hulk's transformation.

The pencil drawing is pretty much done although I may go over it with a graphite pencil before starting the inking. I'll ink like I did The Defining Moment, over transparent vellum paper that way I can place the penciled piece in my portfolio.

Final Thoughts

It was fourteen years ago this very day, June 15th, that I began my hobby that eventually turned into a possible career in drawing my first comic book story. It was a rather bad attempt at a comic book, and if you looked at it now, you would have never guessed that I was the one who had drawn it. It was just a starting point to my artistic career.

Well, until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody!   

The Defining Moment

The Defining Moment_Inked

I finished penciling and inking The Defining Moment, and I would have shown you all the penciled piece, but I was kind of on a tight deadline that I couldn't do so. As I had said in the previous entry, the final piece was going to be different from what was sketched in the thumbnail. It actually came out better. This drawing was created to go along with my presentation on Neal Adams that I gave for my Survey of Sequential class. The drawing was optional for the presentation, but if we did provide a drawing then we had to implement something that we learned from the artist. I've learned so many things from Neal Adams, and unfortunately none of them could be implemented into this drawing. However, I did learn that he inks all of his stuff with a Pentel marker and a Pilot pen. That's what I did here. It was an interesting experience, and one that I probably wouldn't ever do again. I'm still trying to get used to inking with a pen and brush.

Unfortunately I don't know what my class thought of this drawing except for one classmate who thought that it looked great. I have a bunch of opinions from people outside of my class, but only one from the inside.

Neal Adams, The Comic Book Maverick

The Neal Adams Collage

I created this collage of Neal Adams' artwork for the presentation that I gave on him, it was the title sequence for the visual aid. I gave my presentation on Neal Adams on Tuesday, May 31, 2011, and I was the last presenter that day. I didn't exactly choose to be last, it just sort of happened that way. I wrote a fantastic presentation, and I was hoping to give one, but at the time, I didn't feel like I did. In fact, I felt that I did terrible.  I had to deviate from the plan due to time restraints, and that's never a good thing. I suck at improvisation before an audience. Not only did I feel that I did horrible, but the fact that I saw three of my classmates fell fast asleep didn't help matters. I know that this was an 8 AM class and on the final week of school, but it was still discouraging to see them asleep. 

So I left the class grumbling at myself for how rotten the presentation was and after setting up such a great one, too. I heard from one classmate, the same one who had liked my drawing, say that she believed that Prof. Chris Schweizer liked my presentation. I wondered how she could tell when she was sitting behind him, but truth to be told, I was sitting in front of him and couldn't tell. However, on the final day of class, he kind of made a mention that he thought that it was good when he asked me to email him the PDF of the Neal Adams visual aid, something that I don't think that he asked for of anybody else. But it wasn't until I went up to Charlotte this weekend for the Heroes Comic Convention did I know for certain. He told me how great of a presentation it was, and he said that it was the best presentation that was ever given in the Survey class. He added that I would make a great teacher. Whoa. I probably should never listen to myself when I think that I've done terrible. 

Ironically, Neal Adams was at that convention. I've had the opportunity to meet him before at last year's Dragon Con, but since I had just done a presentation on him this year was a bit more meaningful. It was great to meet him again, and I told him that I had done a presentation on him and what the professor had said about it. Mr. Adams said, "You are wise beyond your years." Wow! It was an unforgettable Heroes Con to be sure.

Heroes Con

The last time that I had been to Heroes Con was in 2009 when I met the legendary Dick Giordano, who was a huge influence on my artwork, and it was his last Heroes as he would pass away a year later. I didn't go last year, but I had wanted to go back eventually. However, I couldn't afford a hotel. That was the main reason for not planning on going this year until I read that my friend, Lisa Tolbert was looking to set up a group to go up to Heroes Con. The group would be staying in the same hotel room and split the hotel payment. I could do that. Not only did I get into the group, but I also agreed to drive three to four people up to Charlotte. 

There were eleven of us cramped into a little hotel room, and we had every reason to get on each other's nerves, but we managed to work it all out. There was a conflict, but it got resolved peacefully. All in all, it was a blast. It was the best comic convention that I've been to, and it was the best time that I've had since coming to SCAD. I got to stay with some friends, met Neal Adams and Marvel colorist Laura Martin, a wandering drunk complimented my artwork, and Prof. Nolan Woodard told me to be prepared to be kicked in the butt when he heard that I would be taking his coloring class in the fall. What more can you ask for, what more? If the opportunity ever presented itself, I would love to do it again. In fact, it was a shame that it had to end so soon.

Final Thoughts

The spring quarter is over, and eventually I will give my overall take on the quarter, but right now I can say that it was a success. I got all A's in my classes, which included acing the 20th Century Art final exam. I haven't aced a final exam since my first quarter when I did it with 2D Design, but 20th Century is more impressive since there were more questions.

Last summer I had created an animated short called The Vampire Mouse Transformation Animation, where my Vampire Mouse transforms into a bat and flies around the screen before transforming back into a vampire. It took me the entire summer to complete. Under the recommendation of Allyssa Lewis, the former president of the SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society, I entered it into Roll Yer Own, an independent animation screening, and my animation was selected to premiere tomorrow night at 7 PM. 

In the next entry I'll talk about my experience at the premiere of my film, and I'll also premiere the colored version of The Defining Moment. Until then, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody.