Saturday, January 21, 2012

It All Started with a Mouse Remastered

It All Started with a Mouse
After taking Digital Coloring and Lettering last quarter I had decided that I would go back into old drawings that I had colored and redo them. I want all of my color pages, covers, and pin-ups to follow all of the technical aspects of Digital Coloring. It All Started with a Mouse was the first to get redone. Aside for the line art there is absolutely no black in this drawing, as it should be.

I had wanted to stay true to the original, but there are some slight changes. There is now a shadow in the forest area, and I added some color holds, but not many. The most obvious color hold is the sun/the Looney Tunes logo, and I would love to know what you think about it. Because the logo was representing the sun for this piece I decided to use the color hold to make it look like it's shining down on them. The other two color holds are the magic from Tinkerbelle's wand and the beeping light on Rosie's head, and the latter is the toughest one to see.

"It's Transparent"

My Kitchen in Two-Point Perspective
I am taking Environments, Props, and Structures this quarter at SCAD-Atlanta, and our first project was to draw two real interiors in two point perspective. We had to draw each interior twice, but at different angles, and so a total of four drawings. This is my kitchen, and it was the first drawing that I did. I thought that it would be the easiest part of the room, but it took me a whole day to finish this drawing. Partly because I did something that it doesn't look like anyone else in my class did...I didn't crop anything, and instead I used the whole 11x17 page to draw this.

I can laugh about this now, but at the time this was being critiqued I really didn't have a sense of humor about it. On Thursday when this was being critiqued my professor, Nolan Woodard asked me what kind of glass is that in the bookcase. I have no idea, still don't, and I told him that, but I added that "it's transparent." It was a moment where I wish that I could just suck those words back into my mouth because of how ridiculous it sounded. "It's Transparent." Thank you, Captain Obvious. I knew that there was some laughter from the class, but honestly, I ignored them since I didn't want to see any raised eyebrows. So I was a bit upset with myself for that ridiculous answer, but thanks to some friends and my mom I can now join in on the laughter. Later I would ask my mom if she knew what type of glass that's in the bookcase without telling her the story, and guess what she said? "It's transparent." 


Another Angle of my Kitchen
I must admit that I got sick of the kitchen after finish this drawing especially the chairs with that diamond shape, but this angle was the reason why I chose the kitchen in the first place. The way the room juts out in the corner makes the room very interesting. When it comes to perspective I am very, very picky. The first constructive criticism that I had ever given on deviantart was about someone's perspective being way off. However, I cannot deny that the one object in this room that jumps out at you is the fan. Fans are murder to draw in perspective, and I had actually drawn a fan in The Doo Family Portrait, but I couldn't work out the perspective on it that I deleted some of the blades in order to make it work. After taking this class I've learned that just because it's a two-point perspective drawing doesn't mean that it only has two vanishing points. It can have more than two. The two-point perspective merely means that an object goes to two vanishing points. I thought maybe I could finally get a fan drawn correctly with this new found knowledge, but it didn't work out. That one blade that was facing me was the one that gave me fits.


My Living Room in Two-Point Perspective
 
By the time I got to work on the living room I had already seen some of the work that my class was doing, and I noticed that they weren't using the whole paper as their picture plane. Instead they had put panel border on theirs. So that's what I decided to do on my living room. Of all the rooms in my house this room has the most character, and it's defining feature is that niche, but this room was challenging because of the furniture arrangement. There were a lot of nonparallel lines that my horizon line was just filled with vanishing points.


Another Angle of my Kitchen
 This was the last of the interior drawings, and each drawing took me a whole day to draw minus the hours I was in class.

Aside from my...ridiculous answer the critique went rather well.

Final Thoughts

I am presently writing two scripts, one for Visual Storytelling I and the other for Environments, and both are the final projects. I have decided to get away from my dark storylines and actually write two lighthearted stories. I don't want to trap myself into being known as the artist who only writes dark stuff. My early works were extremely light, and there were so many lighthearted stories that I got sick of them, which led to writing darker material. It's time to bring that light part of me back out. Both could be considered a slice of life type story. Also I am on my last page of the Vampire Mouse mini comic, and despite having a lot of work to do this quarter I will try to finish that page that way I can get the comic into the post production phase before the deadline for it's release in April. Until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody!