Happy holidays!

A card for a faraway friend. ♥ Someone gave me a gorgeous new travel watercolor set, so I might add more here in the next few days.

OH BY THE WAY I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL. I cannot tell you how relaxed I feel right now.



Added! This one's for a family with an adorable new puppy. I'm pretty sure, based on experience (love you, Eva and Darraugh), that this is what would happen if Lucy ever met our husky.



And, finally, an incredibly accurate portrait of my father.

What is a huskiroo?

About a year ago, I dreamed that I had my very own Siberian husky-kangaroo hybrid. I rode it to class, bypassing ordinary sidewalk-dwellers with grace and speed. I reveled in our freedom, my huskiroo's soft fur rippling around me as the wind rushed past.

When class was over, the huskiroo was gone.

You might remember that last year, my life drawing class was assigned to invent a creature. Well, it's happened again. This time, in honor of a distant, sweet memory, I give unto you an image of one of the noblest carnivores our time has never known:

The huskiroo.








As a side note - sorry for the image quality; the originals are huge. If I manage to grab better pictures on a gloriously bright day, rest assured that these will be replaced.

One down, one to go!

...the Intermediate piece! Hopefully, it will have music before too long. Finding composers is a tricky business with which I am not very familiar, but I've been given some pointers (and handy e-mail addresses). I'm crossing my fingers here.

Also, you might or might not notice a handful of kinks (like, say, sudden changes in color); I spotted them shortly after uploading the video and promptly sent them to their rooms with no dessert. Don't worry, they'll grow up to be outstanding individuals.

(Edit: It is off Youtube, but residing on my portfolio website. WITH MUSIC.)

Life drawing!

This semester, I opted to take another life drawing course. It never gets old! I feel like, as the years go on, my grasp of proportion is slowly beginning to resemble more of a firm handshake than the limp fish I started with. Thank goodness.

Sadly, the first drawing is 11x14, and we all know I do not have that kind of crazy scanning power.

In other news, I have (basically) finished rough animation on the advanced piece. ON TO INKS AND COLORS! YEAAAAAH!

Animation progress!

As the rough animation of my thesis nears completion (and only a week off schedule!), it is also my sacred mission to finish the dang intermediate piece already. It's been a busy last semester. In lieu of sketchbook pieces, I thought I'd share some of the more recent intermediate stuff.

What's it about? Well, there's this little green guy who passes by a fish pond every day. He adores them, and they love him (mostly because he brings them food). One morning, Green approaches the fish pond as usual - but there's someone there already! And - horror of horrors - the fish can't even tell the difference. This will not do!

Green wages a feeding war with the intruder, determined that the fish should choose his side once and for all...

Enjoying the outdoors!

My schedule's nice this year; I've been seducing little pockets of time into my sketchbook from all over the place. What have we got here?










TAKEI♥OKA FOREVER~! (b-but not in that way)

And finally, below, we have scenes from Block Island and the Amtrak station in New London. Behold the mighty two-page spread!

Vacation!

Well, my awesome summer vacation came and went! My family and I enjoyed a relaxing, refreshing, and very sunny week-and-a-half in North Carolina. Here, have sketches and things!

Our Siberian husky, while sweet and fun to be around, has a problem with cars. He sees that we're packing for a trip, and makes it very clear that he does not intend to be left behind. But once he's in the car... man, oh man.



Left: my dearest darlingest wake-me-when-the-afternoon-comes sister. ♥ Right: my mom, me, and then my dad's that little Santa dude in the bottom right.



Komi!



There was a pond near our place inhabited by turtles. They were adorable, except for the man-eater.

...He was pretty cute too.



Girls in magazines! Creative liberties taken!



Guess I should get back to work, huh? :(

Summer outings!

Let's pretend this isn't a true story.

Below: Connecticut!

Computer things!

As a change of pace, let's look at some things I've done in Photoshop recently! They were both guilty escapes from my main charge this summer: finishing that dang intermediate animation already. Getting closer every day, though.







He's looking at YOU.

Summer life drawing!

Every time I go, I feel like I've learned something! Here's what went down last night:

One-minute poses.



Two-minute poses.



Thr- nah, five-minute poses.






A five-minute pose (I like this one), and then the ten-minute poses start.

e




This time around, I was paying attention to how the shoulder and torso interact. Sometimes I can't figure it out on my own. :(

Summer!

Well, it's been a while. I've been trying to finish up the old intermediate project (fishes!). Thankfully, there have been good rain showers. I feel less guilty about ignoring Mr. Sun.

Anyway, here, let's see what I've been up to lately:

A church right near campus. Very quiet.



Some friends were playing Punch Out and Left 4 Dead. It's fun to watch!



And then we picnicked in Central Park for Memorial Day, joining throngs of sunbathers and dogwalkers.




Also, the protagonist of a story I'm slowly dreaming up. Awkward arm, but I'm fairly happy with the perspective. I don't experiment as much as I should.

NNNNOOOOO

So, uh, I saw the new X-Men movie!

Wolverine's beard continues to fascinate me.

Lip sync!

The last Action Analysis II exercise. It's not completely fleshed out, but I'm still very happy with it.



...I don't think I'll be listening to the Macarena again any time soon. Good grief!

Today's full-color post brought to you by the letter P!

And the watercolors return, with a vengeance!

One of these people is Jeff Nimoy, because I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Also, at the bottom, Zip and Can! They are pretty cool dudes.

fly on!

Action analysis homework: "A character attempts to fly." I kind of rushed through it, but I'm still happy with the results. I feel like my ideas are getting a bit more solid each time I do this. Wooo!

Fifty posts!

It's so nice to have a watercolor-friendly sketchbook again. And scanner-friendly, too, for the most part! I'm so easily pleased. It's ridiculous.

To kick things off: we have my sister (unusually large here - while she is tall, she is no behemoth), mother, and two random subway people.

SUBMIT

Sketchbook bits, and also something you might recognize from a few posts back. I'm experimenting with colors and finding them unusual. For some reason, the kid reminds me of Michael Cera.

hello!

Taking the occasional break from homework. I thought I'd try a non-cartoony me for a change.

Just in case it seems out of character, I will let you in on a secret: that there is a Pikachu shirt hiding under the sweater. CHUUUUUU