May 15, 2013

Anonymous asked: hi elsa! this is a little random, but i remember a long time ago you posted a picture of this awesome sherlock shirt you made so that people could identify you at a con or something, i don't really remember exactly what it was for...but anyway i remember it was a really cool shirt and i couldn't find the original post where you explained how you made it, do you think you could direct me to it? (ps i love your work!)

AhHH I think I deleted that :( But I could explain it to you! I basically cut out a template out of cardstock or any kind of thick paper and I laid that over a plain solid color shirt and I took water mixed with about 1/3 bleach and I put that in a spray bottle and I sprayed the area on and around the template. I just mist lightly and wait 5-10 minutes for the fabric to bleach and if I want it to look lighter I lightly spray over it again. Over saturating an area with bleach can result in holes in the shirt after a few washes. Different dyes in the shirt will affect the color of the fabric after you bleach it. You can have two similar blue shirts bought from different stores that end up with different results so you can buy test shirts to play around with or you can just go in an be surprised :) This is the result of what you would end up with but this one is not one of my shirts http://i.imgur.com/EISzn.jpg

OH and I forgot to mention one important thing. Place a newspaper inside of the shirt or an old towel so that the bleach on the front of the shirt won’t soak through and stain the back.

6:55pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwl3qEv_
(Notes: 2)
  
May 15, 2013

doodlepugs asked: Hello! I loved your work since DA- you are truly an inspiration. <3 I am an aspiring animator and I wanted to ask if you had any advice for those looking to go into the 2-D traditional field? Thank you very much and I look forward to seeing more of your lovely work!

As most people know there aren’t a lot of traditional animation positions left in feature animation studios, at least the US, but I don’t think that should discourage anyone from wanting to learn traditional animation. There are a ton of other skills set that traditional animation can teach you. You would definitely get something out of it and even if you don’t end up being an animator those skills are still applicable to other things like story and design. 3D animation is definitely a direction that most studios are going towards but there are still a ton of people that I work/worked with who came from a traditional animation background. It wouldn’t hurt to give 3D animation a shot, there’s a real need for 3D animators but if you can do both 2D and 3D you’ll be really valuable because you can think in terms of design and space.

6:24pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwl3ZvNx
April 16, 2013
19 Reasons Your Online Portfolio Gets Barely Any Visits | Red Lemon Club: Ideas for Fruitful Creatives

There is definitely truth to this.

9:19pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwisqCm_
(Notes: 17)
  
Filed under: portfolio art portfolio 
April 8, 2013

@swahilidictionary: Oops! Fixed it.

@Anon1: Sorry not taking requests.

@Anon2: Yes I will be at San Diego Comic-Con this July but just as an attendee. I’ll be there all 4 days.

@gretchenfaye: Omg yeah can that happen? How do we make this happen?

@Anon3: My first opportunity with the Disney company was with Disney Publishing and I got in contact with them when my college invited them for a recruitment meeting. I had one freelance work experience before I worked with them.

@Anon4: I actually don’t really know of any? If anyone knows of any and know if it’s a good course let me know.

@Anon5: I’m not and have never been an animator.

@Anon6: I draw my poses with lines of action and I group shapes accordingly. Soft curves helps with fluidity also.

@Anon7: No definitely not. Some people don’t even break into the animation industry until their 30s or 40s but it’s usually because they pursued something else and got picked up by a studio because they were good at they were already doing. So long as you keep drawing you will get better. Never feel your work is inadequate or unworthy, every step is an improvement and your work will always be changing. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get into animation during or right after college, there is a lot of competition out there and you just look at that as “how can I get better?” and “what can I do to make myself distinguishable?” You will learn and grow from it and there will always be opportunities for you to try again.

12:31am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwiBJpd0
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: swahilidictionary gretchenfaye 
April 5, 2013
Black,White and Grey: My thoughts on Animation...

drawrstubbs:

The “Artist”,Animation and the Self


I’m going to start this by identifying the “Artist.” Everyone, when they came into this world was born to have an urge to create and explore. The five senses( if one is blessed enough to have them all) were on high alert, everything became vivid, colors…

9:06pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwh-Ucl3
(Notes: 197)
  
December 30, 2012
@littlewhitewings: I used a china marker on animation paper that I got from work. Thank you :) @teefanee: So far all the artists I know at the studio have had some sort of art training whether it was at a college or online courses. I have met artists from other feature animation studios that have never stepped foot into an art college or even taken art classes before. They are just crazy butt talented. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s a bad idea to go to an art school because you learn a lot from the professors who have worked or are currently working in the industry. If you feel like you can benefit and learn more from going to an art school then you can definitely consider it. If your work is strong and you don&#8217;t have an art school listed on your resume I don&#8217;t think a studio would turn you away just for that reason. @omnomsenzubean: Gaaah no problem your work is so good!!!!!!!!!!!! @imogenpassing: oh gosh thank you! &lt;3

@littlewhitewings: I used a china marker on animation paper that I got from work. Thank you :)

@teefanee: So far all the artists I know at the studio have had some sort of art training whether it was at a college or online courses. I have met artists from other feature animation studios that have never stepped foot into an art college or even taken art classes before. They are just crazy butt talented. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to go to an art school because you learn a lot from the professors who have worked or are currently working in the industry. If you feel like you can benefit and learn more from going to an art school then you can definitely consider it. If your work is strong and you don’t have an art school listed on your resume I don’t think a studio would turn you away just for that reason.

@omnomsenzubean: Gaaah no problem your work is so good!!!!!!!!!!!!

@imogenpassing: oh gosh thank you! <3

1:20am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwaWH-ns
Filed under: littlewhitewings teefanee omnomsenzubean imogenpassing school drawing tools 
December 1, 2012
@Anon1: Gosh, Anon thanks! I will! @flavershamm: I should put this in my FAQ cause I do get it a lot lol. I&#8217;ve also gotten a few questions from people who thought I studied animation in college but I didn&#8217;t, my school didn&#8217;t have an actual animation program just a few classes here and there and a motion design department. I studied illustration and I took figure drawing classes, background painting, color theory, environments, vis dev and character. All those classes were great but I learned the most from my peers and from looking at artists online. I wouldn&#8217;t be where I am now if I only relied on what school has taught me. @pan-kit: That was an article written by Brenda Chapman who was an artist at Disney, Dreamworks, Pixar and now at Lucasfilm. What she meant by that is when you submit a portfolio with a lot of different focuses it&#8217;s easy to lose track of what you&#8217;re aiming for. If you want to be a modeler, make a modeling portfolio. If you want to be a character artist, make a character portfolio. Sometimes people will put a lot of different things in their portfolio to show that they can do it all but it can get confusing. Some people have interest in different focuses and that&#8217;s fine but separate the portfolios. If you like doing both story and vis dev then keep them separate, don&#8217;t combine the two into one book. If you&#8217;re making a character portfolio but you so happen to also know how to model a character in cg then that&#8217;s fine to put in your book because it&#8217;s a character focused portfolio. Be specific. @lilaym: Don&#8217;t compare your art to other peoples. It&#8217;s hard not and I used to do it and it made me feel like crap every night and I would just cry myself to sleep /true story. If drawing is not your strong point there are other ways to get your artistic ideas across. I have friends who don&#8217;t consider themselves great draftsman artists but they&#8217;re great at  cg animation, lighting, modeling, story or layout. Sure drawing seems like the easiest thing to do but it also takes a lot of practice to get better at it. If you&#8217;re really passionate about storytelling and animation there are other ways to get your story and ideas across. Look up to artists you admire and use them as inspiration to be just as great but in your own unique way. @Anon2: I don&#8217;t know of many online illustration classes, there are tutorials I guess if you want to learn about painting or figure drawing. There are concept art classes online too but that&#8217;s as much as I know.

@Anon1: Gosh, Anon thanks! I will!

@flavershamm: I should put this in my FAQ cause I do get it a lot lol. I’ve also gotten a few questions from people who thought I studied animation in college but I didn’t, my school didn’t have an actual animation program just a few classes here and there and a motion design department. I studied illustration and I took figure drawing classes, background painting, color theory, environments, vis dev and character. All those classes were great but I learned the most from my peers and from looking at artists online. I wouldn’t be where I am now if I only relied on what school has taught me.

@pan-kit: That was an article written by Brenda Chapman who was an artist at Disney, Dreamworks, Pixar and now at Lucasfilm. What she meant by that is when you submit a portfolio with a lot of different focuses it’s easy to lose track of what you’re aiming for. If you want to be a modeler, make a modeling portfolio. If you want to be a character artist, make a character portfolio. Sometimes people will put a lot of different things in their portfolio to show that they can do it all but it can get confusing. Some people have interest in different focuses and that’s fine but separate the portfolios. If you like doing both story and vis dev then keep them separate, don’t combine the two into one book. If you’re making a character portfolio but you so happen to also know how to model a character in cg then that’s fine to put in your book because it’s a character focused portfolio. Be specific.

@lilaym: Don’t compare your art to other peoples. It’s hard not and I used to do it and it made me feel like crap every night and I would just cry myself to sleep /true story. If drawing is not your strong point there are other ways to get your artistic ideas across. I have friends who don’t consider themselves great draftsman artists but they’re great at  cg animation, lighting, modeling, story or layout. Sure drawing seems like the easiest thing to do but it also takes a lot of practice to get better at it. If you’re really passionate about storytelling and animation there are other ways to get your story and ideas across. Look up to artists you admire and use them as inspiration to be just as great but in your own unique way.

@Anon2: I don’t know of many online illustration classes, there are tutorials I guess if you want to learn about painting or figure drawing. There are concept art classes online too but that’s as much as I know.

4:26pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwYS3aQN
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: flavershamm pan-kit lilaym 
November 3, 2012
Okay time for questions related to Disney! I&#8217;m answering these based on my opinions and experiences and not through the opinions of The Walt Disney Company. @Anon1: Yeah I wouldn&#8217;t really put their copyright characters into your portfolios, there are probably a few issues there including legal. However, if you&#8217;re doing your own adaptation of one of their stories it&#8217;s fine. So long as the scenes and characters don&#8217;t resemble too closely to their animated film version.  @Anon2: I improved my skills by drawing as much as I can, learning from others, observing and getting as much as I could out of my classes. I got into Disney through hard work, determination, perseverance and the skills I acquired through my whole existence. @Emilierayne: Ooh I just answered a questions a bit similar to this and I recommend online courses because I&#8217;ve seen success stories come out of it. Here&#8217;s the link. @Amardiyah: I took foundation classes in the beginning like figure drawing and later on I took visual development, environment painting, background for animation, character design, storyboard, color theory, graphic design for illustration, dynamic sketching and a couple other illustration classes. If your school has classes on film and storytelling I would recommend taking those as well. @refrigerator-art: Character Design is probably the most wanted position but also the hardest to get into at a feature animation studio. Everybody is competing for it, even professionals who&#8217;ve worked in the industry for years so chances are they will give the job to them rather than to someone who just graduated college or doesn&#8217;t have as much experience. Being a character designer for games, tv animation or non-feature films is a little easier to break into but still requires skills. It&#8217;s good to also be versatile in other skills like prop design, storyboarding, background or animation. Of course, your portfolio shouldn&#8217;t be a mash of every single thing you can do, but put your focused field as 70% of your portfolio and the rest is other things you&#8217;re good at and enjoy doing. You can start small and make your way up to a character design position, a lot of great character designers today didn&#8217;t even start off as character designers, they were just really great illustrators or animators and later ended up in character design. I hope that didn&#8217;t scare you away from being a character designer haha, If that&#8217;s what you want to do then go for it! Apply anywhere you can for character design or even just as a concept artist or art intern even if the position isn&#8217;t currently open. Go to comic-conventions and animation expos and network and let recruiters and other artists know what you&#8217;re interested in and how you can get into the field. I did a lot of that haha.

Okay time for questions related to Disney! I’m answering these based on my opinions and experiences and not through the opinions of The Walt Disney Company.

@Anon1: Yeah I wouldn’t really put their copyright characters into your portfolios, there are probably a few issues there including legal. However, if you’re doing your own adaptation of one of their stories it’s fine. So long as the scenes and characters don’t resemble too closely to their animated film version. 

@Anon2: I improved my skills by drawing as much as I can, learning from others, observing and getting as much as I could out of my classes. I got into Disney through hard work, determination, perseverance and the skills I acquired through my whole existence.

@Emilierayne: Ooh I just answered a questions a bit similar to this and I recommend online courses because I’ve seen success stories come out of it. Here’s the link.

@Amardiyah: I took foundation classes in the beginning like figure drawing and later on I took visual development, environment painting, background for animation, character design, storyboard, color theory, graphic design for illustration, dynamic sketching and a couple other illustration classes. If your school has classes on film and storytelling I would recommend taking those as well.

@refrigerator-art: Character Design is probably the most wanted position but also the hardest to get into at a feature animation studio. Everybody is competing for it, even professionals who’ve worked in the industry for years so chances are they will give the job to them rather than to someone who just graduated college or doesn’t have as much experience. Being a character designer for games, tv animation or non-feature films is a little easier to break into but still requires skills. It’s good to also be versatile in other skills like prop design, storyboarding, background or animation. Of course, your portfolio shouldn’t be a mash of every single thing you can do, but put your focused field as 70% of your portfolio and the rest is other things you’re good at and enjoy doing. You can start small and make your way up to a character design position, a lot of great character designers today didn’t even start off as character designers, they were just really great illustrators or animators and later ended up in character design. I hope that didn’t scare you away from being a character designer haha, If that’s what you want to do then go for it! Apply anywhere you can for character design or even just as a concept artist or art intern even if the position isn’t currently open. Go to comic-conventions and animation expos and network and let recruiters and other artists know what you’re interested in and how you can get into the field. I did a lot of that haha.

8:16pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwWYX1jE
(Notes: 8)
  
Filed under: emilierayne art advice work school Amardiyah refrigerator-art character design animation 
November 3, 2012
@Anon 1: If art is what you really want to do then pursue it 100%. If the only thing stopping you is that you can&#8217;t go to an art school then maybe you don&#8217;t want it bad enough. You don&#8217;t have to go to a big animation school to become an animator. One of my friends at Disney went to an art institute in his state and took some online art classes and he was able to become an animator on Rio, Ice Age 4 and now Wreck-it-Ralph. Another friend who&#8217;s training with me studied through online classes as well. Going to a big art school doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean you will get the job you want after you graduate. You need to work hard, learn on your own and get to know people/network. Online classes are popular these days and I know a lot of people who&#8217;ve taken them who&#8217;ve gotten into Disney so it&#8217;s something you can consider. Here are a few sites that provide online courses for animation and concept art. ianimate CGMA Schoolism Animation Mentor Gnomon @Anon2: Haha oh this was a month ago, you can tell how good I am at answering questions when I get them&#8230;Anyway, I met him at a gallery show in Los Angeles and he was super nice and one of the most amazing human beings I&#8217;ve ever met. @Anon3: Not at the moment. @Anon4: Same answer as above, just don&#8217;t have the time :\

@Anon 1: If art is what you really want to do then pursue it 100%. If the only thing stopping you is that you can’t go to an art school then maybe you don’t want it bad enough. You don’t have to go to a big animation school to become an animator. One of my friends at Disney went to an art institute in his state and took some online art classes and he was able to become an animator on Rio, Ice Age 4 and now Wreck-it-Ralph. Another friend who’s training with me studied through online classes as well. Going to a big art school doesn’t necessarily mean you will get the job you want after you graduate. You need to work hard, learn on your own and get to know people/network. Online classes are popular these days and I know a lot of people who’ve taken them who’ve gotten into Disney so it’s something you can consider. Here are a few sites that provide online courses for animation and concept art.

@Anon2: Haha oh this was a month ago, you can tell how good I am at answering questions when I get them…Anyway, I met him at a gallery show in Los Angeles and he was super nice and one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever met.

@Anon3: Not at the moment.

@Anon4: Same answer as above, just don’t have the time :\

7:30pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwWYKiZ7
(Notes: 5)
  
Filed under: school art advice 
September 9, 2012
astrangebohemian: I actually don&#8217;t know? I just call it MollyxIrene or IrenexMolly. I would like to know if there&#8217;s a ship title for them though :) Anon: No I just stick to cons around Southern California. katiewoodger: Oh why thank you!  Anon2: As of right now I&#8217;m not selling them. But if you&#8217;d really like a print you can message me off anon and we can discuss it. lazulina: I really like using the col-erase prisma colored pencils, watercolor and brush pen. roxyryoko: I use Grumbacher watercolor. For flesh tone I use naple yellow, however I&#8217;ve bought two Grumbacher naple yellows that were completely different colors. I don&#8217;t know if they changed it back but I always use some red or oranges with the yellow for a more flesh color. Arches watercolor paper is the best I&#8217;ve used but it&#8217;s more pricey and the paper is more unforgiving than other watercolor paper so your mistakes are more permanent. sociopathic-italian-grandmas: I try to figure out their personality first. Are they shy or outgoing? What type of hairstyles and clothing would a shy person wear? What are their interests? Do they like video games or to quietly read all day? Having a voice actor in mind for your character can help too. The character can be as complicated as you want to make them but keep their design simple.  Anon3: Is it more difficult for foreigners to work at Disney? I don&#8217;t think it would be. Unless you don&#8217;t speak any english at all I don&#8217;t see why it would be difficult. I have friends here who are from other countries who have work and student visas and they&#8217;re working at big animation studios. So long as you have the skills that the studio is looking for and you can communicate well enough with them it shouldn&#8217;t be a problem. And to answer your question on what program I use to color I use photoshop.

astrangebohemian: I actually don’t know? I just call it MollyxIrene or IrenexMolly. I would like to know if there’s a ship title for them though :)

Anon: No I just stick to cons around Southern California.

katiewoodger: Oh why thank you! 

Anon2: As of right now I’m not selling them. But if you’d really like a print you can message me off anon and we can discuss it.

lazulina: I really like using the col-erase prisma colored pencils, watercolor and brush pen.

roxyryoko: I use Grumbacher watercolor. For flesh tone I use naple yellow, however I’ve bought two Grumbacher naple yellows that were completely different colors. I don’t know if they changed it back but I always use some red or oranges with the yellow for a more flesh color. Arches watercolor paper is the best I’ve used but it’s more pricey and the paper is more unforgiving than other watercolor paper so your mistakes are more permanent.

sociopathic-italian-grandmas: I try to figure out their personality first. Are they shy or outgoing? What type of hairstyles and clothing would a shy person wear? What are their interests? Do they like video games or to quietly read all day? Having a voice actor in mind for your character can help too. The character can be as complicated as you want to make them but keep their design simple. 

Anon3: Is it more difficult for foreigners to work at Disney? I don’t think it would be. Unless you don’t speak any english at all I don’t see why it would be difficult. I have friends here who are from other countries who have work and student visas and they’re working at big animation studios. So long as you have the skills that the studio is looking for and you can communicate well enough with them it shouldn’t be a problem. And to answer your question on what program I use to color I use photoshop.

7:17pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2ujAwT5g7Tl
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: astrangebohemian katiewoodger sociopathic-italian-grandmas roxyryoko lazulina drawing tools