Monday, December 19, 2005

Sketchcrawl Dec. / Lasseter / cell phone blurs

God-diggity-damn! It's been a long time since i last posted.

Sketchcrawl Dec. was awesome. Lots of great artists. Illustrators, graphic designers, animators. Good people. Good sketching. And of course it's really nice to have Enrico take us out to the Museum of Natural History.

At the end of the day we went to Rafaella's (restaurant,) in greenwich village. They promptly kicked us out after an hour or so of sketching. Bitches.

Here are my sketches( In no particular order):




And this last pic was the massive exodus from the Museum of all the sketchcrawlers, crawling to a restaurant for lunch!



Last friday I went to see John Lasseter vice pres. creative of Pixar and director of Toy Story and Cars talk at the Museum of Modern Art. John's awesome. Such a down to earth person even though he's basically the creative head of probably the most cutting edge animation studio today.

And he said something that inspired me and made me very happy:

"Art inspires technology, technology inspires art."

And to anytime i've ever been questioning myself on what's funny he said to:

"Remember the first joke you laughed at."

Great words of wisdom.

Something I'd like to say about Pixar's latest movie Cars. Almost everyone I've talked to about watching any clip or teaser trailer of Cars, has said that they aren't very interested. That it doesn't really pique they're animated hearts, that it just doesn't look that great. And honestly I had felt the same way.

That is until John talked about why he decided to make Cars.

He said he had taken a cross country trip in a motor home with his family, and he remembered what it was like going on a trip when he was a kid and watching everything from the side of a window: telephone poles going by, lights bluring in the distance, the sun going down over the horizon.

When he said this was his inspiration for Cars, my heart immediately informed my brain that we needed to see this film.

The reason is because I know this exact feeling. That kind of distant awe and observation when driving with your family as a kid in the backseat, watching the world pass by in front of your eyes. It humbles you when you drive more than 2-3 hours in this country- to know that it is so massive and that you are only one tiny person in it.

And so I think Cars might be Pixar's most unique and undeniably American film to date because it will so succinctly capture the heart and vastness of America in the mode of transportation every american is familiar with, driving in an automobile.

So here is two bad photos of John Lasseter. Notice that he's so damned fast with his hand movements that he blurs. He's like a living inbetween:


About blurring. On a totally different subject- I was toying with the idea of starting up a seperate blog of only pictures from blurred cellphone images. They look so vivid and weird. Here are some I took with a digital camera. You too can capture neon ghosts.






Tell me what you think of these and the idea!
-Nels


Sunday, November 13, 2005

I <3 Sketchcrawl!

Today i went out for Sketchcrawl day to meet other sketchers at Washington Square Park in NYC. I met with some ol' buddies as well as new friends and sketched all damn day.

It was freking awesome! It was a beautiful day and the light poured over everything magnificently. In short- It was a great time and I can't wait to do this again. I really think drawing all day like this helped me a lot.

This was the first drawing I did. The morning was great because it was a clear and cool (tho a tad breezy) autumn day with marvelous light.

Theirs the fountain in the center of the park. Alisa and the other sketchers were to
the right of this.

After lunch at great sezechuan on st. marks place (yum) we went to Tompkins Square park where they were handing out bags of free popcorn which was super delicious. They actually had two of their mascots their that were chilling out bouncing around all happy and jubilant.

This was an ultra cool dude with a navy blue leather jacket with a black fur trim. I hate to say it, but he looked super hip with the cigarette.



And here's the center of Tompkins Square Park and the lonely trees in the center. Or not so lonely, their were some people to the left their chilling.
I love this pic, because we were dead center in a breakdancing show on the steps of union square. They just engulfed us by shouting out "SHOWTIME!" and drawing people closer and closer. All of them were amazing, and I was lucky I even caught this dude.
Alisa and Cynthea, drawing while I sketched them asap. It was the very last drawing I did.
And finally random faces I tried to capture at different times throughout the day.

Can't wait for the next sketchcrawl.

-Nels

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

So many projects so little time


Hi- new pic. Not enough hours in day. Need Coffee. erghhh....

-Nels

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Brooklyn Handball

This image has been in my head for at least a year or two now and i finally spit it out and into the comp.

A web comic that will be coming soon... inspired by so many things. Too many thoughts to type them all down right now. Just happy I'm finally letting myself tell this story now.

-Nels

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Dorkdom



Man its good to work! Getting that paycheck feels good! Finishing that project feels great! Working with awesome creative individuals is incredible!

But not being able to draw..........baddddddddddd!

So I'm going to post a lil pic that is my tribute to dorkdom.

CILLIAN STEELHEAD BITCHES!!!!

-Nels

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

TV Caricatures


A cool little excercise to do when its not possible to go outside and draw is to just watch tv and try to capture people you see there. It emulates life enough that you're forced to draw as fast as possible. Mine aren't that great but there are still one or two neat one on this page. Lots of fun.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Handy Skull head


So I got two lil drawings up.

Just practicing some hands, which one can never practice enough. They're hard, but nothing next to feet. I wonder if artists from countries where soccer is the major sport can draw feet better?

And then i drew a skull head. Why? Because.

I've been sculpting some maquettes for an upcoming film me and my significant other have just finished storyboarding. Funny thing about sculpting is that if you both sculpt and draw, it's amazing to find out how well they compliment each other.

I feel like my drawings get better anytime i try to sculpt something. I guess it's the switching from 3-d to 2-d physically that helps each technique to sort of pull the other along.

-Nels

Saturday, August 13, 2005

mysterious characters


So i didn't post friday, which means i didn't even draw!!! It shan't happen again, but since i started working it has become so much harder.

I'll post 2 drawings tonight, and this will be the first. I was watching one of my favorite shows, The Tick by Ben Edlund. Great show, though the animation can be wonky sometimes. To me it just kind of adds to the weird silliness of the whole thing.

So i drew this detective looking dude, who came out of nowhere (or subconciously from watching The Tick.)

I really like it, particularly because he's reminds me of this supernatural detective story i wrote in H.S. that was not very serious and had kind of the same silly feel as The Tick only the whole theme was supernatural instead of superheroic.

Maybe i'm gonna start writing with him again..?

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Good to be in love


Cheesy as it is, it's true!

And sometime that person you love gets you through crap that would've been a pain in the ass to get through yourself.

They also give you cute mushy little pictures to draw like this one! Also partly inspired by Hooverphonic's "Eden."

-Nels

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Girls girls girls....

So I actually drew a pic for the blog today! YAY for me!

As many animators do, I love the work of Gil Elvgren who is famous for his perky pin-ups, as well as the delicious females that Shane Glines creates. I'm also a big fan of Lynne Naylor who worked on Samurai Jack amongst other countless awesome animation projects.

They're just a few of the many animation artists who draw very inspiring and incredible pin-ups of gorgeous gals (amongst other wonderful works.) Women are just so beautiful- so go figure!

The girl i drew to the side is me trying my humble hand at drawing a pretty chick. I was listening the Donnas when i drew it, so that's why she's a rocker.

What's hard about drawing stylish and cartoony girls is trying to create the gal with your style. My style isn't really there yet. People have told me otherwise- but i just don't think i'm consistent enough.

One blogger and awesome character designer who inspired me to make this blog to sort of motivate myself into drawing more is Katie Rice. Her drawings are awesome- though her blog is often about how she wants to draw a certain way more. They're so great anyway!!!

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

My lazy ass needs to draw more




BOOM! I said it.

How can I call myself an artist when i don't draw everyday? Well this blog is going to be a weapon against boredom and distraction.

I've been inspired by friends and other artists who have blogs. Not that anyone's going to want to check this out, but i figure it'll be a great place to struggle against the frustration that comes with trying to be a better artist and animator.

What's horrible is that i have a cintiq- which for anyone who doesn't know is a computer monitor that you can draw onto. It's sick, and while i use it, i could be using it more often, and i intend to, so that's another reason this blog will kick ass for me.

One of the blog's I've been inspired by is Bonnie Branson who's a good buddy o' mine. Here's a lil' pic i drew for her going away. She moving to boston- she'll be missed.

-Nels