Birthday Rock n' Roll Darren!

27th Dec 2013

Finally I can upload this coz I just gifted it to my friend Darren for his birthday! Hope he liked it! It was so much fun painting this one. I took reference from his profile pictures like a creepy stalker for his character and his epiphone guitar. Everything else comes from knowing him! XD Done in 5 wee hours of the morning!

done on Painttool SAI
You can listen to his music HERE

Day 34 - Speedpainting of my house corner

23rd Dec 2013

Another study. I clicked the snap today coz there was a lot happening there in terms of lighting. I tried the setting the values right first and then adding colors of the same value/tone. It kind of worked out but I didn't use the exact same values while converting to color. 

                B/W                                                  Colored                                       Original
 
Speedpainting under 60 mins
Points awarded: 100
Yay!!

Also here's a VERY helpful link on values and color studies from this VERY helpful blog called Muddy colors. I found it very useful and thought-provoking to how see things as artists. Shared by Alok the awesome.

Day 33 - Fashion Illustration #01

23rd Dec 2013


So yeah one of the things most people don't know about me is that I love fashion, and I love people who can really drape themselves up. I decided to do this for fun, took bout 3-4 hours. Wish I had a better sense of color. I tried exploring with some forms and colors and textures, but the textures didn't go as much. Cheers!

Day 32 - Kate Beckett 'Speedpaint'

21st Dec '13

Only 10 days till new years and I still have to make a lot of resolutions! I finally got my ass to paint 'speedpainting' of kate beckett from Castle! I love her character, and I tried really hard to get the likeness right. It looked kinda okay until the sketch stage but then it just went haywire during the painting.

Also I tried really hard to do it under 30 mins, but the first 15 mins went into the setup and the sketch, and then it even exceeded 1 hr. :(

 Reference:

 Beckett Speedpaint
Total time taken: 2hrs
Points awarded: 50

Painttool SAI, Sherlock and Shagun!

17th Dec 2013


Well after SOOO long I made some 'artwork' and not practice unfinished drawings. One of my favorite deviantartists named Barukuri said she uses painttool SAI to paint her artworks, so I decided to download the trial and mess around with it. This is an absolutely GREAT software for painting. There are only a few presets and brushes and textures, but they're absolutely wonderful!! And it's got the same shortcuts as photoshop, but things are def. a little different. The colors and the brushes just look amazing! I didn't spend too much time on it, but I came up with this..

The resolution isn't great because I hadn't planned an artwork when I started. I just wanted to paint something fresh and it turned out to be this! It's actually inspired from the BBC Sherlock. I can't wait for Season 3! I'm so glad I did something for myself, and I started a new beautiful software today! XD XD

On the sidelines, I noticed I just got 111 followers! In India that's a lucky number, it's called 'Shagun', which means giving more than a hundered (more happiness than desired); generally a sum of 111 is given as a gift during weddings and other celebrations. It's hard to translate it. So thanks guys!

xxx

Day 31 - Proko Bean Torso

30 Nov 2013

Spent some 40 minutes practicing the bean after watching Stan Proko's lesson on simplifying the torso using the bean! It makes so much sense, and I really needed to get this right. My basics feel so weak right now! :'( But I'm getting a really good idea of how the torso twists, leans, turns and forshortens. Proko's videos are absolutely great!

Proko: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0660Fuih7qo
Gesture drawing tool: http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/

The Mailbox update!

5th Nov '13

So far my film 'The Mailbox' has been selected and screened at Chitrakatha '13 and it was a wonderful experience! I guess it's my first screening outside my comfort zone (MIT) and after it got over, it got a lot of cheering and hoots from the crowd, which I presume was mainly MITians. I saw all the flaws all over again. Something about the projector or the burned copy made it look much more florescent and saturated than I'd like. :( It was quite disappointing honestly, and after seeing all the other wonderful shorts from different countries, I felt my film had no place to be there.

That night I didn't ask anyone about anything. I shook a few friendly hands, and that was that. The next day I showed it to a really awesome faculty and friend there, Priyankar Gupta. I got some really good criticism and feedback from him and Dawameren Imchen (faculty) who was on the selection committee there. I recently I sent it to Prosenjit sir and Vaibhav sir, and they gave me some good inputs as well, so I hate it less now. ;)

After that I soon sent it to Asifa India, and it's been shortlisted for screening there as well! So I've decided to invest in a festival run. I did make a lot of mistakes with this film, and it's definitely not my best, but it's the first and it should get a viewing at least for the 1.5 years of blood and sweat that I poured into it.

I hope you guys get to see it asap! I'm really eager to hear all your criticism and feedback, but I cannot put it online during the festival run. Here're some screenshots and two posters.

Storyboard Quickies

4th Nov 2013

Wish I'd spend more time on my boards. This one's about Akshay's homophobia. More episodes to come on NashikTimes.

This next one is when I was hopping off trains to make it to Ahmedabad in one piece, trying to continuously call Alok with low battery.  I think it could become a Vodafone advert. -__-

Incomplete concept sketches

4th Nov 2013

Some of the first sketches inaugurating the new sketchbook! <3 p="">

I thought I should start with a dream of a beautiful home, a comfortable cane swing, a good book,
 and a dog by a window.

Tried to sketch a good in mad love, but Akshay said it doesn't come through coz she's not facing her phone. I guess he's right. 

A traditional stereotypical sketch of what is Indian. This was the result of attending a beautiful panel discussion on 'What is Indian?'.

Made up an imaginary character called 'The Himalayan Kuqua'! :D Seems cute enough to hug!

Akshay's 'aur kya chahiye' moment. Headphones and a good book. Couldn't survive without him in Nashik.

That's the end of this sketchstream! Until next time. Cheers!

Sketchbook Scans - October!

4th November 2013
Hello!! After forever I have been able to come home and scan all my october sketches! It's been the most diffucult and challenging month I think I've had yet. I have been working at a nice studio called Regh Animation and Design in a small town called Nashik in Maharashtra. There's been so much happening that I get no time to make full fledged art, but I've been trying really hard to keep up the pace with my sketching and gesture drawing. So here're some pages from the October sketchbook. Bought a new awesome book when I attended Chitrakatha at NID, Ahmedabad!

As usual it's one of the best Indian Animation Festivals I've attended. It was a great collab and we got to hear many big names from India and the world talk about their work and their approach to art. My film was also shortlisted for screening there! I got some great genuine feedback from a lot of artists and animators, and I'm gonna strive to not repeat the mistakes in the coming films. I was honestly thrilled, but I wish Alok's beautiful film had gotten some love too! It's absolutely painstakingly beautiful and meaningful. Alright so here're the sketchy updates.

gestures done at Nashik Road station before leaving for Ahmedabad.

sketched in the NID Auditorium while listening to this awesome simplistic animator named 'Francois Chalet'. Some great work!

Poor Rhutu had lost his sketchbook somewhere. I guess that's where his mind was. I tried to convince him to go search for it, but he insisted he'd stay till the end of the talk. It was a conversation in sketches. The second drawing belongs to him.

Rhutu replies in sketches again. The second drawing is his. His sketchbook gives people complexes. o_O

More fun stuff. Clothes are interesting me a lot lately.

My weird cool version of Santa.

Coming Soon!!

24th Sept 2013

ALRIGHT!! The wait is FINALLY OVER!

I have been SO busy struggling with finishing up this project and wrapping up all the lose ends that I totally forgot to update the blog.
So yes! The Mailbox is finally READY FOR A FESTIVAL RUN!

I still wish there was a cooler way to compress files without losing out on so much quality, but I think I got a pretty decent output. I've had no help at all with post production, and so - I learnt a TON of things on my own, the hard way, and a bunch of softwares as well (that too with a suck snailnet). Also I find now that I could have done more justice to the story and to the animation, but giving the pressing deadlines, motivation issues and lack of guidance towards the end, I decided to correct my flaws in the coming shortfilms that I dream of making!

Now enough with the complaining! I hope you guys love this film as much as I enjoyed making it, and learning from it! I hope it's something fresh for you, and that it gives you something, even if for a short while.

It's still not available for public viewing, but it's 'COMING SOON'!! ;) ;) (Now I get how much fun this is for the fim-makers and distributers)

With this message, I commence to make this blog - PUBLIC. O__o
Cheers and lots of love! <3 p="">

More inspiration, news, and updates!

30th August 2013

Soooo! All you fellow bloggers, artists and film makers! Here's another dose of crazy inspiration!! <3 p="">



Cory Loftis
Visual Dev. artist at Walt Disney - his work is SO JUICY!! So much humor, personality, and life! Beautiful handwork, coloring and compositions! A major inspiration to suffice for another 3 weeks!

Rachel Saunders/Barukurri
Illustrator and painter. Although she's British, her work looks very eastern, and makes me want to watch all the Miyazaki movies (including the ones I've already drooled over) again and again!
Her drawing is so beautiful and soft, and her characters are lovable at the least! Beautiful colors and inspiring characters!

 

After seeing this, I think you guys should be interested in participating and giving this a shot! It's a mind-blowing opportunity to go for an all-expense-paid-trip to Burbank CA for CTNXpo!!!!!
Hells yeah! The deadline is Oct. 1st. Here are the DETAILS.

Lastly some updates. I have been trying to make a living out of freelancing to fund my own film. I've been working with Doodle Monkey, a company started by some close friends, and I'm using a great site called PeoplePerHour which is for freelancers and people who want to avail their services. Unfortunately it's one of those projects that is confidential and that I can't put up here. :'( Check it out. It's been taxing, fun, and interesting.That's all for now. Film is almost done, sound is left, and my awesome new laptop is finally here to help me finish it! Things are finally looking up!

Cheers and love!! <3 br="">  

Day 30 - Sherlock (BBC)

24th Aug 2013

Got tired of lazing around. I decided to channel my frustration into painting. Since I recently started watching the amazing BBC Sherlock, here it is!! Enjoy!

Learned a ton about lighting the face. :) Also tried a new brush!


1.5 hours speedpaint
PS CS5

Your weekly inspiration - Stephen McCranie

http://doodlealley.com/

This will suffice your whole week's inspiration needs.

Stephen McCranie's work is full of momentum, simplicity, interest, advice, imagination, curiosity, inspiration, hope, life and art! Enjoy every panel of it. I can't stress on how much you'll be missing out on if you don't see and absorb this.

Cheers and love!

Sketchbook pages

19th August 2012


So I've been more than inconsistent with the blog past few days. I have been so busy with the film, a few freelance projects and personal work that I cannot manage my time well.Now I'm on a short break. This weekend I went off to Pune again - my sister is getting married! So we tried to finish all the shopping in one go (although obviously not possible). I have taken to writing as well in these times of uncertainty, and my sketchbook pages are being used as well. Here're some of the sketches that I didn't upload due to lack of time and patience. More to come, and I intend to color those.

Cheers!