Annie - Animation Short Film - GOBELINS

As we wind down 2019 and get ready to launch into the new year (2020 - Can you believe it??!!) — I thought I'd share an animation that features a 2d looking style that I really respond to.

Annie - is a 2013 Animation Short Film put out by France's GOBELINS - School of Image — and features highly stylized characters and backgrounds.

The colors are vibrant and lean towards Adjacent and Analogous Color Harmony (purple/blue, green/blue/yellow, red/orange/yellow, etc) — while using contrasting colors (yellow/blue, orange/green-blue, etc) to highlight text/speech and so on.

Screen Grab From The Video Below

With almost anything from GOBELINS - the production ,animation, sound and music are all top-notch.

Best of all IMO — it tells a tale that most of us hopeless romantics can relate to.

From it's video description:

"Robin's girlfriend, Annie, leaves him because he can't express his feelings for her. With the help of his dog, he's prepared to do anything to get her back"

Enjoy!



Thanks for stopping by.

See you again soon.....

AMAZING Digital Speed Painting - Marc Brunet

Video Below

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When I studied art history and took several drawing/painting courses a few years ago—it was interesting to hear about famous artists traveling from one city to another to study work by other masters.

Because of the great costs involved with travel—I must admit I was a little jealous that I wouldn't be able to follow in their footsteps .

Even though it was only 10 to 15 years ago—the internet was more in its infancy—and it was more difficult to find tutorials, speed-paintings, and large scale master-werks to study back then.

What a difference a few years have made.......

Just today, I watched an amazing time-lapse of Marc Brunet painting his piece, 'The Titan's Tomb."

Marc really has a great understanding of human anatomy, composition, and lighting—and although most of it goes by very quickly—I learned a ton from watching it.

A Screen Grab From The Video Below

It's like being able to stand at a master's elbow—and see them create a painting from early concepts to completion!

So check it out for yourself if you have a sec—and be prepared to be amazed.

☺

Please be advised:  This video contains artistic renderings of nude figures.
 





Thanks for stopping by.

See you again soon......................

Great Niece And Nephews Coloring My Sketches

Hi!

Not long ago I was sketching in a local coffee house and a young woman seated near me and I started chatting. Our conversation turned to what I was working on—and when I showed her that day's drawing and a few others she commented that they looked like they would be great for a coloring book—something that had occurred to me as well.

A bit later, I spoke with my niece who has three young kids—and asked if it would be OK to print-out some of my sketches and send them to her for her kids to color.

She agreed—so I printed out 3 copies each of a bunch of my recent drawings and sent them off to her (along with a box of crayons and colored-pencils).  A few days later, she let me know through an email she had received my package and included some sweet photos of her kids.

It made me very happy to hear that my great niece and nephews are enjoying what I sent—and with their momma's permission—I'll share a pic of her kids coloring three different drawings from the group I sent.

The Three B's Making Artistic Magic On Their Great Uncle's Sketches

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Thanks as always for stopping by!

See you again soon.......

God Bless!

4-8-19 - Three New Sketchbook Drawings

Hi!

Recently, I've stopped going out to eat at restaurants, and am limiting my coffee in-take—simply because both are too expensive and WAY too fattening (at least way I like my coffee anyway).

So I've found some coffee houses that I can hang out in without feeling like a free-loader and have been frequenting them just to sketch.

As I've written here numerous times—going out to sketch allows me to get out of the man-cave and opens the door to some very interesting and engaging interactions with peeps who venture over to see what I'm up to.

I've also felt very Blessed lately—and have been enjoying my work and creative efforts more than ever. 

Anywho—let's get to some new draw'rings an' a few woids about creatin' them.

: )

'Yee-HAH! ' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^  'Yee-Hah' practically drew itself.

As I OFTEN do—I started by scribbling some light lines on the page and immediately "saw" the cow-poke doing some rope tricks "in" them.

The hardest part about completing this was just refining everything.

Wish all my creative efforts happened this easily!

'Wayfarers' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^  This one happened fairly quickly/easily as well.

I'd just watched Disney's 1940 tour de force animation Pinocchio—and still had the image of Jiminey Cricket dancing around in my noodle—and that no doubt influenced the wardrobe for this guy.

Somewhere along the way it seemed appropriate (and funny) to me to add the bunny being towed on the skateboard.

BTW—I'm not sure why the dood is wearing a skull-cap—but it was an early idea—and when I tried to turn it into a hat of some other kind it wasn't working at all.  So it remains without any significance or meaning intended by it for me.  Although perhaps like me—he's on a sojourn for truth and still has vestiges from the old days and ways.

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Bonus:  As I was putting the final touches on this sketch—a VERY attractive, smiling young lady stopped as she passed where I was sitting and said she really liked this sketch—and she asked if I was an illustrator and how long I'd been at it, etc.

Did I mention going out to sketch beats sitting at home in the man-cave?

; )

'The One Who Rides The White Horse' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^ The quote in this image is from an excellent and moving documentary called "Furious Love."   (see a short video trailer below)

In it, film-maker Darren Wilson captures Christian missionaries going all around the world to preach the good news to various people—from LARGE out-door gatherings—to one-on-one encounters.

Many were affected and changed by the Gospel message they heard—including a young girl in Africa who was set free from demonic possession.

I was struck by some of the comments otherwise ordinary folks gave in the video about the transformation God had made or was making in their lives.

In one case—a Christian team went to a New Age Festival and set up a booth to simply offer prayer to anyone who was interested.

Some attendees were unhappy about seeing Christians there—but a number of others did stop and ask for prayer.

One young man approached them and asked who their "medium" was—and they said that they followed Jesus and that's who they were praying to.

He agreed to have them pray and as they did he clearly began having an experience with God—and he said the words quoted in the image above.

In the book of Revelation 19 it describes Jesus returning to the earth seated on a while horse with a sword coming out of his mouth—and the Word of God is called the "sword" in many scriptures—so I believe he was indeed experiencing the power of our risen Lord and soon returning Savior.

What he said made a deep impression on me and I incorporated it into this drawing that I drew right after watching the documentary.

Here's the trailer for it.



It's a very good documentary and I highly recommend it!

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BTW—A friend gave me three instructional books authored by Will Eisner—the creator and illustrator of "The Shadow" and other very popular graphic novels and comics from the late 1930's through the 1970's—although he continued publishing his illustrative novels and speaking until his death in 2005.

Those books succinctly encapsulate techniques, tools, and tricks of the trade involving illustration and storytelling and I thought about Eisner's advice and style while creating the last image as well.

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Well—that'll do it for today—but I'm already working on a lot of new art I plan to post soon.

Thanks for stoppin' by.

See you again soon..........

New Drawings! March 22, 2019

Hi!

In my last post I shared about getting a nasty infection to a wound and seeing the Doctor about it.

I'm happy to report that after taking nearly all the antibiotic I was given—it looks like the infection is GONE—thank you Jesus!!

: )

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I still managed to get a couple of drawings done while I was recovering and will share two with ya today.

'The Claim '- Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^  I had so much fun creating this one.  I'd said another quick prayer before starting it but REALLY struggled to get going.

I'd drawn something (can't remember now what it was) and added a couple of mushrooms as part of a background for it.

I worked and worked in that direction and finally gave up and erased EVERYTHING < fortunately the sketchbook paper I use is VERY forgiving and takes a lot of abuse : )

After a break and with a clear head I set out again to sketch something I'd be more satisfied with.

The idea for the mushrooms was still percolatin' in my noggin'—so I quickly redrew the two larger ones—and then on a whim—drew the little prospector guy peeking around the one to the left.

I had some sweeping lines left over from experimenting with some other ideas—and at first tried drawing a big ol' monster type character—creeping up on the little dood—making it fill up most of the page to the left.

Nope!  That wasn't working at all for me.

Then—as I scribbled other ideas—it occurred to me to add a mine entrance (and one off in the distance) and some wee pals for our little friend—and finally everything started to feel right.

The last step was adding the focus of their attention—two claim-jumping varmints on either side of the page.

: )

'TWEET' 2 - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved

 ^ ^ ^  If you visited my March 2, 2019 Post—this one may look familiar.

It was originally scanned and shared to this blog straight out of my sketchbook—and although I liked some aspects of it—there were some things about it that bothered me.

Here's a look at that original sketch.  See the larger version in my March 2 Post.

'TWEET' - Original Sketch (Small)
Copyright-2019 - Jephyr - All-Rights-Reserved

Anywho—while I was recuperatin'—I took the scan into computer drawing software—rolled up my sleeves—and started sketching away at it (aided by my trusty Wacom Tablet Interface!).

As you might note—I altered the background the most (and added a couple of feathered friends)—and also sketched darker values into the entire image.

Over-all, I ended up being happy with the changes and feel it improved on the original idea.

Hope you'll agree.

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BTW—I prayed before starting 'TWEET' as well—and highly recommend the practice!

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Thanks for stopping by.

See you again soon!

Drawings Galore! Jephyr's August 2016 Sektchbook Dump! : )

Hello!

I've been going though my sketchbook and picking out a few of my drawings to add here.

I'll start with some "lighter" fare and then get on to some "darker" schtuffz below.

^ ^ ^  I'm still drawing a lot of wacky faces—and am still on the "hulking doods" kick too.

As I've mentioned before, I start a lot of drawings by scribbling on the page.

Then I usually erase a bit and then scribble some more.

As I repeat that process, I'm looking for shapes that jump out at me that "lead" me to interesting subjects and drawings that I might not come up with otherwise.

The guy above came about after I did a quick scribble.

After a bit I started to see this guys eyes and nose and then—when I saw the big ole mustachio—I KNEW I was on the way.


: P

^ ^ ^  One night I was sketching with a friend and this rapper, mallard-dood came flying out of a "scribble."

Get it?  Flying!

I'll be here all week.........

hahaha

I'll admit there's more than a little "Daffy Duck" influence on this one—but it was done without any references—so I'll just hafta blame all those years of watching TV when I was a kid!

^ ^ ^  Before anyone accuses me of sexism with the caption for the drawing above—I'll let you know what the inspiration was for it.

One night I was talking to a young woman and she asked me what I liked to do.

I told her I was all about art and photography—and then asked her what she liked to do.

She thought for a moment and said, "I like to shop and hang out with my friends."

The next day I drew "Karen" and added the caption thinking about the young woman from the night before.

^ ^ ^  I decided to call the little guy in the drawing above: Opie P.I.—figuring he'd be the most unlikely tough-guy, private detective you'd ever meet.

(Clearly, I entertain very easily!)

: D

^ ^ ^  I don't have a clue what part of my brain this guy came from—but I did have fun naming him.

" /

A friend gave me a book called "Art and the Bible" by Francis Schaeffer, and he writes about art having both "major and minor keys"—and that the Christian artist should be able to use both in their creations—and that ultimately an artist cannot be judged by a single work, but by the sum of all the work they create in their lifetime.

That spoke to my spirit and has freed me to create all kinds of light and dark subjects.

Since I plan to create a graphic novel about the "end of days"—and will need to populate it with all kinds of characters and creatures—for now I'm allowing my subconscious freedom to bring out a lot of different images.

In this post—I will admit my drawings lean towards darker themes however.

^ ^ ^  I'll let the captions above speak for this one—I call him "Spurtz!"

: )

^ ^ ^  Dunno why—but I've done several bird type creatures with a massive bill like the one on this guy.

It started as a scribble and I got the head done fairly quickly.

Then I struggle to get a body I liked.

I began with kind of a stocky, stubby, bulky body and kept trying and trying to re-work it to get something that "felt" right.

Finally I decided to give up on that direction and took an eraser to what I had on the body at that point—and once I did that, in fairly short order I came up with the elongated version you see above.

Since there is no "undo" in a sketchbook—I call that kind of eraser use a "bravery test"—after the late, and much loved painter Bob Ross who coined that expression.

^ ^ ^  Since it's a skull creature—I'll admit this one is similar to the one above.—but even when I go "dark" my work still (more often than not) winds up kinda "cartoony."

This "evil wild boar" look has also made appearances in other characters I've done as well.

This one also began life as a scribble sketch.

^ ^ ^  I'll end with this drawing.

Again—it began as another scribble—and I eventually ended up with this squat looking fellow.

Recently I saw a photo of a Hillary Clinton's minion—Webster Hubbell—and thought my character looked a lot like him—So I'm calling this one "Webster."

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Thanks as always for stopping by!

Please feel free to leave a comment and join my blog before you head out—and please close the door—I have the AC on.

: D

God Bless!

New Lion Pastel: "His Royal Highness"

Hi,

Last year I went to the Phoenix zoo and captured a great shot of the male lion they have there with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the new Canon 100-300mm L lens.

The lion's name is Kitambi and he is a regal beast indeed.

In the last few days I decided to give a go at creating a pastel drawing of him and thought I'd share what I've done so far.

It was done on grey paper and is approximately 18 x 24".

I'll still call this a work in progress and in fact have worked a bit on it since I made this post and will update with a final pic when it feeels done.

Work In Progress Pastel:  His Royal Highness - Copyright 2016

Thanks as always for stopping by!

See ya soon!