Breaking bad habits

Recently I've been working on breaking some bad habits that drawing "in park " caricatures have given me. There's a lot of helpful habits you can learn by drawing caricatures, but just as many bad ones if your not careful. One of them is structure, another is porportion, and another is laziness . There's more I'm sure. So now that I'm not drawing caricatures everyday a lot of these problems are arising in my other artwork. I find myself trying to avoid drawing certain things because I know I'll have a hard time drawing it (which fits with the 3 bad habits listed above). So among other things I'm taking life drawing classes to combat those evil doers in my degrated eye. I have'nt taken a life drawing class in about 4 years so needless to say I was a lil rusty when I started 2 weeks ago. These first 3 drawings are from the first week. The first 2 are 10 minute drawings and the 3rd is a 20 minute drawing.


After the first week I knew I had to do more than just practice 3 hours a week in class . So I dusted off Glen Vilppu's book and got to work. Glen Vilppu was an old school disney animator (worked on Bambi) who now teaches figure drawing. His approach is very clear and simply broken down. You can get a book for yourself here . I practiced drawing shapes and anatomy for about a half hour a night. These next 3 pictures are from the second week after the practice. Two 10 minuntes,and a 20 min sketch. I felt a difference in this session, I was laying down shapes and lines more confidently . I think they're better than the first week . The model never had he face turned my way, maybe I smelled... I think I still have a ways to go, and I'll document my progress here.

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I'm not sure what order this text will be placed in with the pictures but the waitress is from a trip to friday's during the con. The girl with the cup was at a cool quiet coffee shop talking as if she was on a jet landing strip to a man that cared not of what she had to say.




These are a couple of upstanding citizens I saw in Burger King a couple months ago. I didn't even come close to making that pose as dynamic as he was actually sitting.

The Reyes and Spike Lee

All these sketches are from the last couple months. I've been busy with a lot of different projects. A couple of the projects I'm not allowed to post anything from them, and the other is pretty dull so enjoy these. I'm working primarily from home now but ironically I have less time to draw for myself. I guess it just always feels like I'm at work. Being cooped up in the house all day everyday I'm turninig into a Howard Hughs recluse type. Well except for the millions of dollars and hollywood starletts.

Snakes, CGI's last conquest?

So I was watching Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes the other night. There was a story about a guy who was bitten by a snake and was paralysed. The whole story took place around doctors thinking he was dead and getting ready to perform an autopsy while the guy was aware of everything going on but could do nothing. A very frightening idea indeed, but when they showed the snake it was very obvious it was computer animated. I kind of brushed off its crudness to it being just a mini series on television, but then I remembered the trailer for Snakes on a Plane where the snakes looked just as bad (if not worse in some shots). I went on to realize that just about every snake I've seen (in movies, commercials, television) since CGI became prevelant in movies looked like garbage. They all look like they're made of plastic and have a certain glimmer to them that you wouldnt see on live snakes. Also I think the actual animation of the snake can never be as smooth as the snakes movement itself (or maybe the animation is too smooth). They always seem to stand out in any scene they are in . So why is this? Why after about 12 or 13 years of CGI in movies everything else looks nearly flawless while all snakes look like they were modeled, rendered and animated in 1993?

I am not a computer animator so I call out to you that are, to answer this question. Why do all 3d snakes suck no matter the budget and no matter the year? Maybe the trailer for "Snakes on a Plane" was rushed out and the effects weren't complete. Maybe it will come out to rave reviews of how realistic and scary the snakes look and all my confusions will be put to rest by Sam Jackson and his crew.

people people people

I have'nt had time to do a lot of finished pictures between work and other projects, but I do manage to keep sketching the wierdos around me.

The Salty Ol Sea Dog

Anne's new boy friend.

Sketchbook Round up 3

Well, it's been a while. It's been hard to find time for much of anyting these days but I managed to find time to still fill up a sketchbook for the month of April. On the other hand I have'nt had the time to scan and post anything. So now I have all these unscanned sketches in one sketchbook and I'm already half way through the next book. So here's everything I never got around to posting for for the Brian Morante April 2006 sketchbook.
This is a sketch I did with those musician sketches earlier in the month. I think thats a young Phil Specter (music producer who killed his wife) and a young Dana Ross (i think) laboring over a record
More left over musician sketches -the Steely Dan guy
Some people from magazines. I think that's Marcia Gay Harden on the left and the guy from law and order on top. It looks like I snuck in a Clint Eastwood face as well.
A stay on the Queen Mary over my B-day weekend produced these sketches. Lash and I went to the bar on the boat and watched this hispanic Elvis guy sing. That's him there, with a flexible waitress who gave the better performance.
Grandpa heads
Random Girl
Drinky Dog and Sober the cat......I don't know
Inspired by the Preston Blair book Hetaher gave me before she left. I think this is one of the first things in that sketchbook.
Bear

Bill
Brocolli

You know what time it is!

Time to eat sanwhiches!
I gots me some new markers...just testing them out a bit.

lanky kid

Sorry for the lack of posts for anyone who cares. Between work and more work I haven't had much time to sketch. And when I do get time I use it to update my comic blog. Even though it looks like more people are checkin out this blog, so says the counter.
Anyways I saw this kid at work today so I threw down a few lines to represent him and later at home I drew him up all nice and junk. He was that age where he's not a kid but still on the cusp of being a teenager. A very akward age indeed. With lanky limbs, a shirt that's too big, pants too short, and hat and shoes too big. Make sure you keep that shirt tucked inand the pants hiked up, kid. The ladies like a good tucked in shirt!

Quick character designs

I had to do about 12 or 13 character designs for a super secret project, these are a couple of my favorite from the group(and not so secret anymore). I did them all in one night so they're not perfect, but they're kind of fun, and got the point across. I also just picked up a book on character design called "Creating Characters with Personality" by Tom Bancroft. I had seen the book on the shelf for a couple months but avoided the book because of the title. I thought it was another Christopher Hart book or a C.H. wannabe. But I flipped through it and the drawings were great. The guy who wrote it is a designer for disney and right off the bat wants you to pay attention to the theories of design instead of his style or any style. But the book has examples of how different artist would design the same character. They have J. Scott Cambell, Butch Hartman, Jack Davis, and more. I had been looking for a book on character design for about a year and a half, and as the author of this book points out- THERE ARE NONE!. There's chapters on the subject but no books. So anyone interested in character design for animation, comics, comic strips, whatever go get that there book.

Superman Returns

It's spring so that means Superman Returns is just around the corner. www.Superherohype.com posted a few new pics from the movie. I couldn't help but sketch a few of them.
Brandon "eyebrows" Routhe as Clark Kent/Superman. From what I've seen he looks like a great Clark Kent, and he has an uncanny resemblance to Christopher Reevs.
Not 100% sure about Brandon Routhe as Superman, he seems a bit slight to me. He's got the hieghth though. I'm sure I'll be sold within the context of the movie.
Lex Luther played by Kevin" bulbous face" Spacey. Spacey rocks, especially as bad guys.
Lois Lane played by Kate "forehead" Bosworth. Shes peeerty and looks a little too soft to be Lois, but we'll see. I actually hate people who nitpick these kinds of things in big movies like this(so sorry for doing it through this post). I put full trust into Bryan Singer and the fact that he knows exactly what he's doing. All signs point to this movie rocking my socks.

Oh my Goth!

I saw this girl last week at work and ran home immediatley to draw her. I forgot to add her standard issue Jack Skeleington purse.

Musicians are fun to draw

I drew these out of Rolling Stone and some from Spin. With the exception of the second to last page I have no idea who anyone is. I just saw a lot of intresting faces and started drawing. I usually draw till about 3am. Thats what I was planning to do last night when I drew these, until I look over and we had all lost an hour. It was almost 4am, yikes!

Sketchbook Roundup 2

Well its been about a month from the last sketchbook round up. Now I'm a month wiser and have one more completed sketchbook to put up on my shelf. Like I said in the last round up, these are all random sketches and warmups from my sketchbook of the last month. When I get stuck and can't think of anything to draw, I draw from magazines. I pick out intresting faces or expressions or poses. After filling a few pages of refrenced sketches my wheels are spinning and I can get going again. The new Premier magazine has the 100 greatest performances of all time. So they have a lot of pictures of big stars in their iconic rolls. Great for caricatures or just refrence.