New Addition

Hey guys - I've been swamped with work lately (did I say that?!?) and haven't been ... (can't beleive I'm swamped with work ...) - sorry - ahem - yeah, .. haven't had a chance to put something new up in a little bit.

This was a piece I did for a pitch. They weren't necessarily looking for the look just yet, but needed visuals of something to go along with the story idea.

I rarely do watercolors - in general, paint hates me but it's mainly because I don't visit very often. I should also add that the colors were manipulated here and there after it was scanned in.

Enjoy - Aaron

More Spidey

Here's another page of the ol' webhead. These pages were done primarily to send to Marvel as review. It seems they want to see three pages of action and two of interaction/dialogue-driven work. I'll post the rest soon. The theme I used was a storyline I have been working on for a little while now. More on that next time.

Enjoy - Aaron

Yikes! Has it been that long?!?

Hey there!



Yeah, it has been that long - I hang my head low. Seriously, though - I've had a pretty rough time since. I've lost both parents for one. That can be a serious strain on one's creativity. It can be a strain on one's sanity to be honest.



Well, I don't want to tangent to that - maybe later. For now, just want to let everyone know that I'm back and I'm going to try my darndest to update on some sort of a regular basis. I certainly have a good bunch of stuff to share with you.



The first little pic here is one of two pages I am working on for a submission to Marvel Comics. The idea here is that there is some entity masquerading as Sandman. Some entity, that is, who knows Spiderman's true identity. This first page is shown in the cleaned-up stage.



Enjoy - Aaron

I'm Baaaaaack!!!!

Hey guys!

It's been a while but I'm back and plan to post new sketches all the time. There'll be some FVH stuff for the fans and also other sketches as well. To start us off, here's a sketch of my girlfriend, Ellie. In case you're wondering, she did inspire the name (and some of the attitude) of my FVH character. We originally met in high school but parted ways when I graduated and just recently met again at a local coffee shop. Crazy, huh? She's such a sweety. Enjoy the sketch!

Aaron

For Olga Part 3

The reason for pencils instead of pens is that A) you can shape your line as you go and B) if you mess up on something, you can always go back and erase. Also, with the clean-up drawing being on its own sheet of paper, even if you completely screw it up, you always have your last step (rough drawing) to fall back on. Here's step two using the .7 pencil. Here's I've added in the bone shapes and a bit more definition. Notice how I left the inside line that joins the fingers of the open hand for the .7 line? It's secondary to the fingers so I decided to not use the .9 line on it.
Next is the .5 pencil which does the bulk of my work. Notice some of these lines in the example below are also thick. Thinner pencil line doesn't mean you have to use it on only thinner lines. I often use them to do thicker lines that I want to take care with and build the line up.

Last step is the .3 pencil. I use this mostly on the most delicate details of the composition and also for thicker lines that still dictate a certain amount of care. It sounds like a lot of work for a drawing, but in habit, it really takes no more time than differnt pens do and the advantage is that you can't mess up nearly as badly with pencil. When scanning, you often can't tell the difference in darknes either. Hope this helps you all with any problems you may have with line work. Give mechanical pencils and light-tables a try - I couldn't do my work, professional or otherwise, without them.

If any of you have other questions, be sure to write me directly at: aaron@squirrelworks.com I'll always get back to you and if it's a really fun question, I may do another tutorial like this one!

For Olga Part 2

Okay, here's the rough drawing - again, any pencil or pen will do.
I then take this to my light table (animator in me again) and do a structured treatment to this sketch on a new sheet of paper on top of the rough drawing, using my Colerase colored pencil. The main reason for the colored pencil at this stage is to set the color off from the original sketch - I'll be able to tell what's what. I am now concentrating on structure, balance and am also correcting any mistakes detail-wise. Notice I chose the lower hand study. I wanted to get a kind of Capcom Street Fighter feel and the lower hand sketch seemed more dynamic. Once I'm satisfied with it AND ONLY THEN, I'm ready to do the clean-up job on this drawing. Again, I use another new sheet of paper, one on top of the blue sketch (original rough sketch is removed to avoid confusion). When doing clean-up, I don't use pens as most people do - I use mechanical pencils. My arsenal consists of: a .9, .7, .5 and a .3 . The .9, being the broadest stroke is used for outlines and main shapes. I attack the drawing with this one first. See below.
Next entry concludes the tutorial.

For Olga

Hi all - I recently got a great questsion and I thought it'd be cool to cover as an entry. The question was regarding my drawn line technique and how I get it to look the way I do. Firstly, let's cover what I use. For my rough drawing, I use anything I can get ahold of: #2 pencil, #6 pencil, ball-point pen, whatever. This deserves no further discussion. The drawing pencils I use are actually the pencils used by animators: Colerase pencils. You can find them in art and graphics stores. I like the blue, indigo blue and scarlet red particularly. None of them are magic and suddenly transform you into the next Glen Keane, it's just a matter of choice. I like the colors of these and the feel of their grain. For all of those curious, those colors seem really smooth like a 6b pencil. Gravy-like. My eraser of choice is the pencil-type Sanford Pink Pearl. These are a God-send. If you're use to a pnecil in your hand, these things will seem like a entirely new art tool altogether. Here's a picture of the Colerase pencil and Pink Pearl eraser.
The other thing I strongly suggest is another animator's tool. It's called the eraser shield and looks like this.

This is used when you need to erase a very specific little area surrounded by art you'd rather not erase. Simply use a hole in the eraser shield that will correctly mask off the area around your boo-boo and erase. I know what you're thinking "That's great if my mistake looks just like one of those shapes!" But trust me, with a little practice, you can block out anything with this little bugger. It's paper thin metal ('probly aluminum) and costs about a buck! Get one get one get one.

Okay - now, we get on to my technique. I first start with a rough drawing, thinking about nothing but the composition and attitude. The structure comes later. Remain vigilant in your focus. The next entry will begin our tutorial.

More Theo

Not the cleverest title, huh? Oh well. Here are some more Theo sketches. This first was a test to see how she'd look next to John and it turned out to be a pretty nice drawing of her as well. Need to work on John's hair a little more, though!
She's a little manipulative and I think she enjoys the trouble that that sort of behavior stirs up. She also defends herself quickly and I think is rather quick to snap and make rash decisions too quickly. The first of the two below show her in a contemplative mood - I like the teeth together (drawn with the line across). The second is a quick retaliation at something said against her or something even inferred against her. I can now say that I'm happy with Theo. For those of yo familiar with 'The Haunting', I have come up with some first working designs for Nell (coming up soon) and am working on Luke now.