Drawing a Wolfman, jack!

I like drawing creatures and I especially enjoy drawing werewolves. The other day in the Visual Development class I had a chance to work on a demonstration while students were doing their assignments. The idea was to focus on textures and rendering techniques as well as the concept.

Here's a 3 stage sampling of the demo. First we start with a sketch using good ol' Col-erase blue pencil...

Then we progress by building up the darker tones and line through the use of a graphite pencil...

Lastly we top it off with fine point black line pen to further bolster darks and linework giving the composition a finished touch...

If you're working the image comprehensively then you should be able to stop at just about anywhere in the creative process and still give it a feeling of completion. That's the lesson for today! Thanks for checking in.

While we're waiting - Some class demos

Getting some new pages prepped for the next chapter of the Montgomery Thump story I've been featuring lately. Why not take advantage of this window to show some recent images I've created while helping out students in the Character Design 1 class at my school The Animation Academy in Burbank, California.

This was a head rotation demo I did as an exercise in developing strong production skills. I asked the class for an idea and they came up with a little girl in the 1960s. I asked them how long they thought it would take for me to complete a standard 5 pose rotation. One student guessed 45 minutes. This as as far as I got in 43 minutes while being interrupted three times to help some of them with their own assignments.

A couple of days later another student was having trouble visualizing their character in a dimensional rotation. So I took it upon myself to show her how a very simple graphic character can be pivoted to describe form.

This past week I drew for students in helping them understand how character concept design is approached. Here's a few samples of what I came up with along a single simplified theme.

Always enjoy the opportunity of creating while in the company of artists who are willing to learn and looking to have fun in an educational environment.

Special Project - April 1 2014 - What to expect

Hello again everybody!

Ready to rock?

In just a couple of days I'll begin the process of publication of the project's content. Here's what you can expect to experience.

This will be the launch of a character based franchise. A property that's been in development for many moons and whose time has come. You can expect to see an online comic / storybook. Chapters will be published thrice every two weeks. For example, on Monday and Thursday one week, on Wednesday the next and alternating that way as we build up from there.

There's a good deal of content that will take you into a special story. Characters you've never seen before and a narrative that is unusual. 

Here's what you can do to help this become even more special than it is. Help to promote it if you would please, through your own channels, networks and connections. Let's turn this into a creative experience that changes the way things are done. We can build an original worldwide franchise just by having fun.

If the website isn't ready by Tuesday I'll be publishing on my blog and then continue there once it's operational. In any case, publication will commence here with a great community I'm happy to interact with. 

Thank you friends! 

I'll be back on April 1 as we begin the journey!

Keep Creating!

Charles Zembillas

March 29 2014

Burbank California

USA    

Project on target for April 1 2014

Hello there all you cool people! We're on schedule for launch by April 1 next week. Only 7 days away! Thanks once again for hanging around for all this time while I worked on getting this special project ready for publication.

I'm excited that it's at this point and relieved that I'll finally be able to share it. It's been a long and winding road as the song goes. You'll get the full story of how the project came to be once it's up and we start moving forward in the development of the franchise.

Cuz that's what we're doing friends! We're getting an entirely new character based franchise ready to roll on the Internet! The response I'm getting so far from students, professional associates, close chums and assorted folk who've had a look at it has been very very positive and extremely enthusiastic. Everyone at my school can feel the energy. They can sense something. It's in the air!

I'm working with my webmaster preparing the dedicated website and getting social media ready.

I'll be checking in with a further description of what this is about on my next entry.

See you soon! 

Project update - Aiming for April 1 2014 release

Howdy friends and neighbors! Thanks again for indulging the long breaks between posts. Been staying on the special project I've been telling you about. Making progress every day even around the swirling life I live. I've been communicating with my webmaster and we're getting a dedicated site ready for the project. If all goes on schedule on the website side of things I'll be publishing at or about this coming April 1 2014. Just a few days from now.

I'll follow up soon to fill you in on what this is about and provide more information. In the meantime I'm really looking forward to sharing art with you again. This will be very unique and unusual. A long time in the making. My hope is that you'll enjoy it as much as I have developing it.

Thanks very much for the visits to my blog which continue to come every hour even though I haven't posted any visuals to speak of for weeks. I very much appreciate it and am looking forward to having a lot of creative fun in the company of all you cool people.

God bless! See you in a little while.

Charles Zembillas

Burbank California

Meanwhile...

Hello there everybody and thanks for sticking around. It's great to be back. My blog's been getting steady visits even though I haven't posted an entry in more than a month since February 7. I appreciate the continued attention. At that time I was called on a personal mission / adventure. One which I wanted to do. I was away for more than two weeks. Since my return I've been trying to catch up on the back log of biz matters along with managing my school and immersed in creating the final content for the special project I've been telling you about.

I'm very happy to report that as of yesterday on Monday afternoon March 10 at around 1:30 I completed the last drawing for this particular body of work. It's still not finished as I must go through the process of line cleanup and colorization on this latest material. But the content is there. The creative goal for this specific aspect of the project has been reached and now I can make plans to publish with confidence.

I'll be back soon with more info. Right now I need a little time before I go into an intense creation mode to see this through to finality. When I do follow up I'll likely be announcing a launch date and share some of my plans for how I'll be going about publication.

In the meantime, I did have an opportunity to draw something else besides what I've been working on. This is a sketch from last week for a student upon request. She's a Spyro fan and asked if I would draw a few dragons concepts. So I came up with these. Hope you'll enjoy them as it was a fun break from my main focus for the past few months.

Thanks again for hanging out! Back soon. Cheers!

Momentum

Howdy there ladies and gents!

I reached a milestone this past week with the special project. This is looking really good and I know you'll love it in my humble opinion. I very much appreciate your patience and thank you for checking in. This is a monumental work and whatever time I can apply towards it is valuable. What I would normally put into the blog I'm focusing on creative productivity for the project instead.

So thanks again and I'll be keeping you informed and updated as things get closer to the finish of this phase and the beginning of the next which will be publication. It's on the way! 

Progress

Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by. Even though I haven't been posting lately a lot of people are still accessing the blog. I really appreciate the good traffic! Thank you!

I want to let you know that I'm making steady progress with the special project I've been working on. I'm missing posts cuz I'm into it. Every day I get more and more done. It's looking good! You're going to enjoy this special feature. I've got enough accomplished now that I can pretty much tell when I'll be publishing. A little while longer and I'll have something to show that you'll really enjoy! A new character based franchise is on the way. I'll be keeping you informed. Thanks again for hanging out.

Update on Special Project

Hello folks! I've been creating on a daily basis on a dedicated project I've been telling you about for some time now. The art I'm doing is going towards the completion of the project getting it to a point where I can publicly disclose it and share the content online. There's a lot of work that's going into this. It's been a monumental personal effort to develop the project over a very long time but the end of this phase is coming into sight I'm happy to say. It's getting closer to publication with each passing day.

This is a character based property that I'm sure you'll enjoy. If you like the concepts I've developed before, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Jak and Daxter, or anything else I've done in animation, I'm confident you'll love this one. I enjoy working on it and I'm excited about how it's turning out. The project is very different in a way that you'll find engaging and entertaining. It has a long and profound behind the scenes history and I'm glad it's at the point where it can be disclosed soon.

So hang in there with me if you would please. I'm still around and will post as much art as I can in the meantime. Thanks for checking in! I'll be following up soon.

Charles Zembillas

Exploring characters through watercolor

Not sure if I posted these images previously. If I have please consider this entry a review. Sometime around 2003 I was working with my students at my school in the Visual Development class. Lesson being how to employ simple rendering techniques using a classic medium such as watercolors. I sketched these demos and finished them with a very direct and efficient use of pigments. That's the great thing about watercolor. The simpler your approach the more effective the results. Practicing with traditional mediums such as watercolor paints will help you improve your digital illustration skills as well. Many artists including myself recommend learning basic analog painting techniques prior to or in conjunction with your education with digital illustration programs. It'll help make you a better artist.