Rad how to

cheap tricks #1

2012-01-27T14:37:00.000-08:00

I've learned a lot of short hands for boarding. I thought I should start posting some of them.

Torso

2012-01-25T21:04:00.000-08:00

Did a little torso demo.

Motivarti

2011-11-28T09:47:00.001-08:00

Hey folks in the LA area. I'm doing a mentorship program through Motivarti. Be sure to check it out, there is a great roster of mentors through the program.

"Rad How to" book

2011-11-21T10:46:00.001-08:00

Hey folks out there! So I want to make a book by comicon with all new tutorials and examples from my own work. Here is an example of how it would look. if this is something you would like to see, please leave a comment. I want to get a gage of how many people would want this. thanks!

2011-10-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

there are probably a million ways to start a drawing, here are a few things I start with. The photos were taken by Mucha as reference for his paintings.

Figure invention class notes

2011-10-04T10:56:00.001-07:00

Here is a small sampling of the notes for my figure invention class:

Rhythm

2011-10-03T09:39:00.001-07:00

Using "S" curves to show corners

2011-09-30T10:17:00.001-07:00

interlocking

2011-09-29T09:42:00.001-07:00

Life drawing notes

2011-09-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

For my life drawing class, we start with shape slowly measuring out the placement of things using straight lines. Then we deal with form in this manner.

Fall Enrollment for CDA

2011-09-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

I"ll be teaching Figure invention and Story development this term at CDA. You can sign up now here

Story class lecture

2011-08-01T10:30:00.001-07:00

Here are some really general story notes from my storyboarding class (Note, this is the structure for most animated films, characters like James Bond don't have a need, just a want. Ususally the kill the bad guy):

Gesture drawing demo

2011-07-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

Here are two demos for my Figure invention class. For three of the weeks, I bring in a costumed model for gesture drawing. I try to get people to add a background and some sort of story. I feel like if you get in the habit of doing that, it elevates your drawings to something more. even if you are doing just character design or just doodling.

quick sketching

2011-06-28T15:04:00.001-07:00

Can you tell what I'm boarding on:

Class 4 demo

2011-06-28T00:36:00.001-07:00

and my notes from story class. this really won't make sense without the lecture.

Class 3 demo

2011-06-21T19:38:00.001-07:00

Class 2 demo

2011-06-13T23:52:00.001-07:00

Again, probably doesn't make too much sense without the lecture:

class lecture

2011-06-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

These probably won't make any sense if you weren't in the class, but here is a copy of the demo from last night's figure invention class.

from "Peter Pan"

from "Peter Pan"

from "cat's don't dance"

Preview schedule

2011-04-29T11:37:00.001-07:00

The preview schedule is up for next term at CDA

Classes at CDA

2011-04-22T10:57:00.001-07:00

Just finished up another term at CDA. I'll be teaching again this summer. The story class will be switching to Sunday nights.

Figure Invention:

Story Development:

Learning to draw

2011-04-07T15:58:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd post part of a discussion I had with someone today. My friend at work was asking me how to "learn" how to draw. My suggestion was to start with a character where you can clearly see the construction. I told him to spend a month or so every day just drawing one character. Something like the examples below:

Later, artist found clever graphic ways to hide the construction, but if you've learned the earlier style, you can find it under the surface. That's why I recommended not starting with something like this. It's harder to find the construction.

Hollywood

2011-03-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

So, I've just been posting photos, but here are a few drawings from this Saturday. We went to Hollywood Blvd.

Farmer's Market

2011-03-14T23:31:00.000-07:00

Little Tokyo

2011-03-08T10:27:00.001-08:00

We had some super talented artist this week. Christie Tseng's sketchbook is quite possibly the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Makes me want to draw more Anime!!!
Ian's stuff is always sick as well! And of course Dan the man, who is currently updating his blog. C'mon Dan!

Saturday sketch sessions

2011-03-03T09:58:00.000-08:00

So, I'll be doing these every Saturday for the rest of the term at CDA,(the next 6 weeks). To find out where we are going to meet up, just hit me up on Facebook.

Anthony Holden, Nate Villanueva, and Francesco Castelli came out and did some awesome drawings!

Outdoor sketching sessions

2011-02-21T23:16:00.000-08:00

I'm starting up another outdoor sketching session Saturdays 2-5.

Change of venue due to rain:

Meeting at the Glendale Galleria indoor mall

Base and surface forms

2011-02-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

Arm tips

2011-02-07T11:45:00.001-08:00

I find it really helpful to learn anatomy and structure even if you are going to draw very stylized. Here is a silly drawing of batman that I did, but you can see some of the stuff I was thinking about.

Figure invention class

2011-01-27T14:20:00.000-08:00

Edit: class full

There are 4 spots left in my figure invention class. It's basically a class on every thing I go over on this blog. The main focus is not designing your own characters, but learning how to take established characters and break them down and be able to rotate them and put them in your own poses. We start with simple characters and work our way up to more complicated characters by the end of the term. I try not to teach a specific style of drawing, but more concepts that can be applied to any style.

Story boards

2011-01-25T17:43:00.000-08:00

I posted some of these on my other blog, but I figured I'd post one here. This is what I teach in my story class.

CDA

2010-12-30T13:32:00.001-08:00

I'll be teaching storyboarding and drawing again at CDA.

Enrollment Start Date & Schedule Release = Jan. 4th, 2011
First day of Spring Term = Feb. 5th, 2011

inking demo

2010-12-19T13:51:00.000-08:00

I do a lot of little demos in class. I usually just throw them out, or give them to students if they ask. But how cool is this, one of my students, Alex, framed my inking demo that I gave him.

Figure invention class

2010-12-16T16:28:00.000-08:00

Well, figure invention class just wrapped up at CDA. It was a fun class, thanks to everyone who took it. I'll be teaching it again next term. I'm the guy in the middle with the tan sweatshirt. And Anthony is screen left of me in the blue sweatshirt. He was nice enough to come in and do an in class demo!

Straight vs curve

2010-12-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

Here are some examples of how i use this. I even use it across different objects like the girls curved figure and the straight mirror.

Drawing from memory

2010-12-09T14:54:00.001-08:00

Dave P did a nice post on observational drawing. I've been doing a lot of memory drawings lately. it's kind of fun. My buddy Anthony rides his bike to work and takes a visual snapshot of what he sees and then draws it later.I was also talking to another friend at work Chris who tries to draw things from his memory for his paintings. if he puts a truck in his painting, it's one he remembers. it's a cool trick to get more mood into your work. here are a few of them.

What you see vs what you know

2010-11-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

I've been posting a lot of quick sketches and gesture drawings. I've been going out on Saturdays if anyone is in the LA area and wants to join, hit me up on facebook. I usually post where we go. anyways, there is a difference between copying what you see, like in a long pose, and modifying a memorized version of things in a quicksketch. the best way to explain it would be in facial features. I have a set of memorized eyes, noses, ears, etc. I don't copy the person in front of me, but say they have a large or small nose, I draw my memorized nose small or big. I also try to push any ideas I might see further. The reason I do this is, sometimes the person is riding by on a bike, or moving and you want to catch a quick pose, so it's good to not be looking at them for the stuff, but just the pose. Then you can glance once, get the gesture and then just sit and draw your drawing

Visit to Cal Arts

2010-11-09T10:18:00.000-08:00

I recently went to visit cal arts and talk a little. Here are some photos. What an awesome school. People just hanging out in the hallways playing music. Art all over the walls, and I don't mean just drawings, but people just going nuts and trying to create art. It's a very inspiring environment and all the students are really motivated. Personally I think anyone can learn to draw by just studying, but to be able to have a creative environment like that is something that you just have to see.

Hands

2010-11-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

This week in class we are going over hands. here is just a tiny bit of what we will go over in class. These are just concepts, I don't actually draw this analytically and step by step. This is more what I think about. I don't think there is any one good way to draw, it's just whatever works for you.

Flour sack

2010-11-01T08:52:00.001-07:00

Legs

2010-10-26T13:38:00.001-07:00

Here is a tid bit of the leg stuff we went over in class. If you simplify most legs, they are just a tapering tube with a little gesture. Then you can add all the surface details to make them look like different styles.

Arms

2010-10-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

If you guys are still following along, we went over arms this week. Here is a break down of an Andrew Loomis arm. Don't get lost in the anatomy. Keep it simple.

More class notes

2010-10-17T17:46:00.001-07:00

Here are some more notes from class

Homework for Figure invention class

2010-10-12T10:09:00.001-07:00

For those of you following along at home, here is the second assignment for the figure invention class.

You can use the gestures to lead the eye around your image in a single illustration and around the page in a comic. as you add all your background elements in, you can put them along gestures that help lead the eye around. There are tons and tons of gestures all over your image, I only pointed out a few.

Notes for figure invention class

2010-10-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

I've been posting a lot of notes for the figure invention class on the class blog. Here is one of the pages.

picking forms

2010-10-07T14:40:00.001-07:00

This is a fun little exercise. For our first week of figure invention class, we went over drawing cartoon heads. I had the students break a cartoon head down into simple forms, but you can do it for anything. Try taking any object and breaking it down into simple forms. There are no right or wrong forms, but try to stick with just a ball and cylinder if you can, and a box if you feel like you have to. Try to break the same image down a few different ways. Then try to move the forms and draw the image from a new angle. As you get more advanced, you can start using more complex forms like a jelly bean shape, or more organic looking forms.

The key is not to try to connect them. Just float them next to each other. You can always connect and interlock them later.

Front vs. Back

2010-09-30T11:23:00.001-07:00

I can't wait for Figure invention class to start on Monday!!! Also, I'll be giving a talk at Art Center in Pasadena tonight from 7:30-8:30, so if you are a student there, come say hello.

Rocket girl

2010-09-28T16:13:00.001-07:00

cool classes

2010-09-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

I try to take a few classes every term. This term I'll be taking Landscape painting and Vis Com at CDA. I just got done taking Danny Galieote and Leighton Hickman. Both classes were awesome!

Drawing thought process

2010-09-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

Someone asked if I draw the construction every time I sit down to draw. Below you can see how I draw something and what I think about. I think more about the shape design and rhythm and then only use the construction if I get stuck. If you go straight to construction, it can make your drawing stiff. I go straight from this rough to the ink.

Body language

2010-09-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

As a board artist, you want to be able to communicate what the character is feeling. A lot of times it's the opposite of what he is saying. you can use body language to show this. For example watch the way people point their feet. If you walk up to two people and they point their feet towards you, they want you to join their group. If not, they want you to leave. A person will usually point their foot off in the direction they want to go in as well. Watch people talking. If one person is late for a meeting, he will point his foot off in that direction. Here is a good book on the subject: "What Every Body is saying." by Joe Navarro

Acting for storyboarding

2010-09-03T11:26:00.001-07:00

People can't hide their true emotions when they say one thing but feel another. Sometimes a little micro expression will come out as to how they truly feel. you can play with the subtlety in the corners of the mouth and the eyebrows.

Hair shell gap

2010-09-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

I like to leave a little gap between the hair and the construction of the skull. Again, you can break any rule, and some designs are purposely designed with the hair painted on flat to the head, but most of the time there is this little gap.

New term at CDA

2010-08-30T18:46:00.000-07:00

I'll be teaching a new class this term: "Figure invention for animation" as well as "Story Development for Animation" at CDA. Also, the awesome Shane Prigmore is teaching a workshop this term. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about the class. Enrollment starts Sept. 1st!

Creating habits

2010-08-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to post in a while because I've been busy at work. I got the chance to fly up to our northern studio, PDI, and work for a bit. There are some really talented board artist up there. But, I wanted to post something, so here goes.

Creating habits: If you want to learn how to do something, you have to create a habit. If you want to write, draw, paint, play the guitar, etc, it's not enough to decide that you want to practice. You have to create some sort of daily habit where you do it every single day. My daily habit is doing studies. Every morning before I start working, I pull out a dvd, usually animated, and do some studies. I also pull some books off my shelf at night, if I'm watching tv, and draw from those. That's my daily study habit. I don't really even think about it, I just like doing it every day. In fact, I can't draw out of my head if I don't warm up first by doing some studies. It's like I have to relearn how to draw every morning. It takes me at least an hour just to warm up. And the cool part is, you never stop learning. One day you practice hands, one day you practice poses, one day you practice, acting, composition, storyboarding, etc. You can never run out of stuff to learn.

Last Thursday class

2010-08-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

So, I taught two classes this term at Concept Design Academy. Monday and Thursday. Phil came for the last Monday class, and we were also lucky enough to get Jeff Snow and Dave Pimentel for the last Thursday night class. These two guys are so inspiring and I can't thank them enough. Everyone walked out of the class wanting to try 10 times harder and really get their portfolios to that next level.

Last night of story class

2010-08-10T09:27:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone who took the class! Here you can see guest speaker Phil Craven on the floor.

I teach this class at Concept Design Academy, if any of you want to sign up next term!

Email from Hasani Rodriguez Medina

2010-08-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

Here is an email from Hasani Rodriguez Medina

Knees

2010-07-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

Here is an email from Ivan (feel free to email me and ask specific questions):

Hi Rad,

I'm having trouble doing some knee (foot in general is challenging), wondering if you can do some sketch for doing some knees? I mean i'm intrigued how let's say Bruce Timm does his knees, what's the breakdown/consturction behind it.

Thank you!

Ivan

Toby shelton blog

2010-07-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

Toby Shelton is one of the best artist I know. I learned a ton from watching him draw and pestering him for drawing tips. You may have seen some of his model sheets that I've posted before, but now he has a blog. Go check it out.

Comic Con Demo

2010-07-20T14:43:00.001-07:00

I'll be doing a drawing demo at Comic Con this Saturday at the LAAFA booth at 11:00. Come by and say hello.

Even more construction

2010-07-09T17:38:00.000-07:00

Inmate construction

2010-07-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

More break downs

2010-07-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

I learned most of this from kevin Chen over at the concept design academy. his analytical figure drawing class is awesome! I just apply the same ideas to cartoons.

Drawing class

2010-07-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

There is still time to sign up for my drawing class at LAAFA. the class starts this Sunday 1:30 -4:30. Hope to see you there!

Shapes

2010-06-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

I didn't make this up, it's something that has been done in production design both in live action and animation for a long time. It's a lot of fun to play with. Here is how I used it in a recent comic.

squaring off

2010-06-27T16:33:00.001-07:00

sometimes it helps to square off your cylinders. Especially for 3/4 views and twisting figures. For more cartoony designs you can get away with round cylinders, but for more realistic designs this becomes more helpful.

Open House this Saturday at LAAFA

2010-06-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

Come draw this Saturday June 19th from 11am to 4pm at LAAFA. There will be free uninstructed workshops, various demos, food, wine raffles and more. I'll be there drawing if you want to ask me about the class I'm teaching.

How to move a character in space

2010-06-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

this is more of a conceptual idea than an actual step by step process. But I find it helpful when I can't quite figure out how to rotate characters in space. The key is to know the difference between a shape and a form. Forms have very clear closed off ends and are not ambiguous. they are easy to turn and rotate. Shapes on the other hand can be very ambiguous.

John K class

2010-06-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

John K, the creator of "Ren and Stimpy" is teaching a class. Someone told me they thought it was expensive, but personally, I think it is extremely cheap. Here is why. You could go to a really expensive art school and still never learn how to draw because it's really rare to find people who know how to draw. Most people "cheat" by drawing really sloppy or only learning the surface features and memorizing flat shapes, but don't really know what's going on under the surface. If you can be one of the very rare people who actually knows how to draw, then you will go much further than the people around you. If you take his class (assuming you study really hard), you can make that money back in 1 illustration job, or a few days of freelance.

Coat Hanger Method

2010-06-07T13:19:00.001-07:00

From Life drawing to cartooning

2010-06-02T13:03:00.001-07:00

The brochure is out now.

starting a character design

2010-05-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

A fun way to start a character design is to just make a shape and turn it into a character. It's like staring at the ceiling stucco and seeing a face in it.

Leading the eye

2010-05-27T00:55:00.000-07:00

Composition is like a big figure drawing. In anatomy, every line flows off to hook up with something else. You never have lines just floating by themselves. They all rhythmically tie together. You can use the same principles in a composition.

Drawing with pure shape

2010-05-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

sometimes it's fun to draw by just making cool shapes and not think about form.

"From Life Drawing to Cartooning" class at LAAFA

2010-05-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

I will be teaching a class on how to make the transition "from life drawing to cartooning", or drawing from your head, at LAAFA this summer on Sundays from 1:30-4:30. The summer term starts July 6th. This class will be extremely valuable for anyone who wants to be a storyboard, or comic book artist. Feel free to post any questions here.

Here is a link to the summer brochure

the ball and pear with shapes

2010-05-21T11:42:00.001-07:00

Once you understand the ball and pear, then you can try making cool shape designs.

Ball and pear

2010-05-20T10:35:00.001-07:00

The good old ball and pear. I love this style of drawing because it's easy to make things very fluid and flowing. You can always change the "surface" features to make it look more original, but it's good to know the classic basics that lay underneath.

More torso stuff

2010-05-13T23:10:00.001-07:00

Someone asked how to find the ribcage:

Torso

2010-05-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

I will be teaching a "From Figure Drawing to Cartoons" class this summer that will start in July. I'll let you know when you can sign up and I'm allowed to announce it. This is the type of stuff we will go over.

More cartoon head breakdowns

2010-05-10T13:38:00.001-07:00

There are a million ways to construct the head. Try mixing and matching as many different approaches as you can, and see what works for you. There is one thing that unifies all approaches. In the end, when you finally put your lines on top, you have to have good design principles.

Rescuers down under studies

2010-05-09T22:00:00.001-07:00

Finished background design

2010-05-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

So here is the final set. you can see how I changed the color around and modified the props. I never set anything in stone. There is always room for inspiration. I try to keep things very organic, in character design, comics, and storyboards. I also picked a down shot for this new location establishing shot because down shots are creepy and they are at a witches house. At the beginning of the comic, I used round shapes. The kids head and glasses are round. his desk, window, etc. Then the second kid shows up with triangles and a little bit of danger comes into the friendly round shapes. Here at the witches house, I tried to incorporate more triangles as the comic gets more dangerous.

new term at CDA

2010-05-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

You can sign up for my class now at Concept Design Academy. I also recommend taking my friend Leighton Hickman's landscape painting class.

Leyendecker head study

2010-04-30T17:02:00.001-07:00

Story class sign up

2010-04-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, if you want to take my story class, you can sign up Saturday, May 1st, 12AM PST (mid night)) at the concept design academy website.

Another head study

2010-04-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a Mead Schaeffer head study.

Master study class

2010-04-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

I'm sort of teaching a master study class at work. I say sort of teaching because I wanted to create more of an environment of excitement to learn together, myself included. Today we did master head studies and I did a little demo. I did this little demo back at my desk so if people want to follow along with the class at home.

Straight Lines

2010-04-27T10:14:00.001-07:00

These drawings were done at the Wednesday night figure drawing session at Gallery Nucleus. I was practicing something I learned in Paul Wee's class. He had us start with perfectly straight lines to get all the placement. For instance, you would draw a line from the head and follow it to see what else it hits. Much like this Andrew Loomis example

designing a set is hard

2010-04-22T17:54:00.000-07:00

It can be overwhelming to design an entire set. So, I start with one tiny little prop. In this case, I started by designing a few bottles. Then I designed a cabinet to put the bottles on, then I designed the wall and floors. I'll keep designing a few more props and then start designing more of the room. I'll post my progress.

Story class

2010-04-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of me with the story class at concept design academy that just finished up. We had some amazing talent in this class. Thanks to all of you guys.

Master studies

2010-04-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

Master studies are extremely important. I personally feel like an artist will never improve at figure drawing without doing master studies to see how other artist handle things. You will just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. Here is a study of one of my favorite figurative artist Dean Cornwell.

drawing from memory

2010-04-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

Alice studies

2010-04-07T14:33:00.001-07:00

Just thought I would post one of my afternoon studies. I just got "Alice in Wonderland". My favorite disney artists are Ward Kimball and Fred Moore. I love how everything is flowing, rhythmic, and appealing. There were other artist who were better animators, and even better draftsmen, but I don't think any of them had the appeal that Fred and Ward had.

quick storyboard drawing

2010-04-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

Everyone storyboards differently and there is no "correct" way of doing it. This is just my approach so that I can get my work done quickly and not worry about deadlines. This gives me the freedom to try lots of different things and not feel like I can't try something because it would take too long.

A question from Robert

2010-03-29T23:34:00.001-07:00

Robert asked, " I'm just in high school, and I was wondering what I could do to possibly prepare myself to become a storyboard artist."

Personally, I never went to school for it, but if I could go back in time, I definitely would have. It would have saved a lot of time and work, and it just sounds so awesome to be surrounded by students excited about art and animation. Art Center in Pasadena and Cal Arts are both great schools. If you are able to get into Gobelins in France, that is, in my opinion, the best school for animation in the world. Another good school is Sheridan in Canada. Other than schools, just study films and break them down shot by shot into storyboards. that's a really good way to learn. After you learn, studios have training programs where you can get in and learn on the job. TV also has something called a storyboard revisionist. You can basically just show up to any studio with a portfolio of storyboard samples and they will usually call you back and give you a test. Doing the test for the job is actually a great way to learn. I did several test for studios before I finally got a job. every test, I would take to someone in the industry and ask them to look at it and I would try to make less mistakes the next time. that is sort of how I learned to storyboard. Try it, make a storyboard portfolio and drop it off at Nickelodeon.

Making a pose better

2010-03-23T18:21:00.001-07:00

Someone asked about making a pose better. The biggest one for me is using the z axis. So many times all the parts will be straight up and down and don't go in or out. Adding a little head tilt also makes a huge difference.

Drawing from your head

2010-03-23T14:23:00.001-07:00

Here is another one. Someone asked about drawing from your head, or drawing people in action. I usually imagine what I will put down one piece at a time or imagine the arm in a new spot and decide if I want to move it. i can't quite imagine the entire pose clearly like some people do, but I'm working my way towards being able to do that. For quick sketch, or action poses from life, I try to remember 1 or 2 important things and make up the rest.

Balance

2010-03-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Here is something I posted on the art center blog. If you guys have specific questions, post them here, or on the art center blog and I'll try to do really quick explanations like this.

Simple cartoon pelvis

2010-03-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

Someone emailed me and had a question about drawing the pelvis of a character like mulan. This is how I draw a simple cartoon pelvis. In this case, I drew over an Andrew loomis drawing to show where it comes from anatomically.

shadows

2010-03-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

Start by getting a clear 2 value system. The edges of the value can be soft firm or hard. After that, you can add half tone, core shadows, and dark accents. The key to making your drawings look solid is to have the shadow pattern relate to the contour. Sometimes you can't even see the change in the contour, but because you see the change in the shadow patter, you know it has to be there, so you look for it and find something you didn't see before.