Bits and Bobs and Burps

I'm still alive!

2011-08-31T17:53:00.000-07:00

I've been animating at a studio since February, and have been mostly preoccupied with that. I should update more often!

alt tintin art

2011-06-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

silly tintin alt doodle done in my spare time

SAI paint tool

2011-04-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

Just figuring out SAI some more

2011-02-23T19:23:00.001-08:00

I apologize for the lack of recent posts. Two weeks ago I started at Soup2Nuts animating for Word Girl on PBS, and I'll be there for a few more weeks. I'm learning a lot and I am also really enjoying myself.

2011-01-30T15:59:00.000-08:00

Very quick sketch for http://drawadinosaurday.com/

2011-01-30T14:55:00.001-08:00

gummy

2011-01-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

I'm on a roll.

2011-01-27T14:20:00.001-08:00

Panda time. :)

2011-01-19T16:25:00.001-08:00

Quickie fox thing.

Spirit Pokemon

2011-01-19T12:55:00.001-08:00

There's a cute meme going around called Spirit Pokemon comics. So I did one. Because I am a follower.

2011-01-13T14:26:00.001-08:00

Just trying out some new stuff. Definitely had some inspiration from Lindsay's vector art.

2011-01-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

Takin' a wee sketchdump

2010-12-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

This is what I did during the blizzard so far. SPACE WOLF

2010-12-19T18:06:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-17T11:31:00.001-08:00

Faux-woodcut design

2010-12-16T18:20:00.001-08:00

I'm trying out a new program called Paint Tool SAI. I absolutely love it so far. I like that I can "paint" much better than in photoshop and get the look I want. Here's a little ten minute speed painting of a snowy scene out of my head.

Pardus

2010-11-09T17:31:00.000-08:00

Little sketch for my buddy Darren McRoy.

more sketchin' in my comfort zone

2010-11-09T13:34:00.001-08:00

ahurrrrr

2010-11-09T08:33:00.001-08:00

When I get home from work, I am usually creatively drained, even if I want to work on my own stuff. This is how it usually goes.

The buck and the coyote

2010-11-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Fearful symmetry~

2010-11-07T14:21:00.000-08:00

I want to make a webcomic with these two in it but I'm not sure if I'm hilarious (or patient) enough for it.

2010-11-05T14:24:00.001-07:00

In my down-time between work loads, I like to doodle weird stuff.

Beasties

2010-10-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

I had a little time to be creative off the clock tonight, and drew for myself for the first time in months. It was really fun to put pencil to paper and draw what comes naturally to me.

(I need a bigger scanner... the gutter always ruins the edges of my drawings :[ )

Oh, right, blog

2010-09-22T10:50:00.001-07:00

For those who don't know, or are perhaps wondering why my updates stopped, I'm currently animating on a show for Adult Swim, so when I get home from work I tend to not have the creative energy left to make art that's not related to it. However, I really miss making art for me, so I hope to return to that soon.

ka-DOODLE

2010-07-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

The lion and the unicorn. They is fwends.

Yeah, it's kinda like that.

2010-07-18T19:35:00.001-07:00

GRIFFINS

2010-07-13T16:36:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I like to smoosh two animals together. Griffins (or griffons, or gryphons) are traditionally chimeras with the front half of an eagle and the back half of a lion. I decided to tweak the formula to just be front half bird + back half beast.

Here is an owl/fox griffin, a cockatiel/hamster griffin, and a hawk/greyhound griffin. Errr ignore Mr. Potter and Hedwig in the corner.

lipsync practice

2010-06-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

I took a really long hiatus from animating (over a year), so this is my first baby-steps back in to it. I'm sort of unsure how I feel posting this here because it's just practice for me and I wasn't very neat or careful with it, but here it is nonetheless.

His Dark Materials

2010-05-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through the files on my old laptop looking for something unrelated when I found this sketch I did a few years ago of Lyra from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, my absolute favorite books in the world. I liked it so here it is.

sneak

2010-05-19T12:55:00.001-07:00

sneakpeek of what I'm working on for my submission to the next Space242 show.

hurrr

2010-05-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Loosening up to begin working on my next pieces. Characters of (c) Nintento and Gamefreak.

Improvement Meme

2010-05-04T13:42:00.001-07:00

This was a meme that was floating around deviantART for a while, so I finally got around to filling it out. It was weird/embarrassing sorting through old work, but also fun to see how it's evolved.

Pointed out to me by a friend

2010-05-01T13:33:00.001-07:00

http://kotaku.com/5523467/heavy-rains-cartoons-are-better-than-heavy-rain

Now there's some animation.

more toothless sketchin'

2010-04-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

2010-04-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

I love Toothless.

HTTYD

2010-04-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

Workin' on Toothless here. This is my desktop.

I wanna be..

2010-04-04T19:38:00.001-07:00

Here's me with some poké-pals. Color coming soon.

EDIT:

Started to shade this, but I sort of like the flat colors.

Okami

2010-03-23T13:43:00.001-07:00

Quick drawing of Amaterasu and Issun from Okami.

Among the bean vines..

2010-02-25T20:08:00.000-08:00

I'm rereading Watership Down, which was a childhood favorite (of course, bunnies!).

This is from a scene where they rabbits are catching their breath and resting amongst a field of beans. I tried to make them not TOO cartoony, but not realistic either. From left to right, here is Hazel, Fiver and Bigwig.

P.S. I am now on Coroflot. My profile can be found here.

Felidae

2010-02-16T18:27:00.001-08:00

I picked one cat from each genus, just for fun.

2010-02-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

Congrats to all the senior Illustration majors on their wonderful degree projects. I was really glad I could see them yesterday. :)

Blindfold

2010-02-02T18:37:00.000-08:00

I started sketching and this is what came out.. gonna clean this up and color it, probs.

EDIT:

finished

Creature

2010-02-02T17:06:00.001-08:00

I really like drawing weird mashed-up creatures. This one is sort of a fox-lizard-goat sort of thing, maybe?

2010-01-04T17:57:00.000-08:00

Sketch for something I'm working on.

two more things

2010-01-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

The first image is some sketches I found that I'd done for my degree project "Unipchaaq". The second image is a collage of sketches I found ranging from about 2005-07 in my basement.

Bigger version of the sketchdump can be found here.

Absolon

2010-01-04T10:57:00.001-08:00

A while ago I said I'd upload some sketches of that raccoon character. A little background:

I created Absolon in 12th grade when I was doodling. During my first year of college I gave him a story. I had been planning to make it in to a comicstrip but I

never got around to it.

Basically, Absolon's mother was killed by a car, and a family takes him in as a baby. The family raises showdogs and Absolon gets treated like one, and is basically served with a silver spoon. But as he grows, the fact that he's a wild animal can no longer be ignored, and the family sets him loose in a park.

This is where the second main character comes in. Rodney is a red panda that escaped from a

nearby zoo, and has been living on the streets. He is a sly, stre

et-wise character who introduces Absolon to his way of living. There is also a gang of cats who make appearances but they aren't really fleshed out.

It was a fun concept and maybe some day I'll get around to it again..

These drawings aren't in chronological order, but generally the taller/fatter his head is, the older it is. Most of these are from 2005/2006.

more gift art

2009-12-17T22:06:00.000-08:00

BECAUSE I AM A CREEP WHO DOES ART FOR PEOPLE SHE NEVERS TALKS TO.

This is the character of an acquaintance on deviant art. You can find her page here.

leopards and lions and tigers and jaguars, oh my!

2009-12-11T19:54:00.001-08:00

I did a little art for an old friend's webcomic, Panthera.

doopadoop

2009-12-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

I'm doing some gift art for an old friend's webcomic. This is what I've got so far. Still to do: ink the human's faces, color and shade everything.

book's in

2009-12-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

So I finally got my copy of the book I did coverwork for. The typography leaves something to be desired, but I didn't have anything to do with that. Woohoo! I'm published!

Go check out P.E. Snyder's book!

shirts are in!

2009-12-01T18:53:00.001-08:00

The shirt I designed for the Live Animal Center is in.

I did the back, the logo is someone else's work but I LOVE it.

2009-11-15T08:43:00.001-08:00

I've been working at the Museum of Science with the live animals, and they have become a bit of an inspiration for doodles. The curator wanted to turn one of my doodles in to a t-shirt for all of us interns and volunteers. Here's the design.

From bottom to top: Annie the bobcat, Sigmund the great-horned owl, Rain the possum, the prairie dog in her hamster ball, a gecko and a millipede.

GHO

2009-10-16T10:40:00.001-07:00

speed painting (30 min.)

More linework

2009-10-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a re-imagining of a Charizard mother and her baby Charmander. Cause, derp.

I think I'm going to practice painting backgrounds and work on lighting (tail-flames) with this one.

timewarp

2009-10-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

In my last couple years of highschool I had been planning to draw a comic based around a character I developed. Recently, when cleaning out my room, I found a whole SLEW of drawings from this. I'm going to be scanning and collaging them soon.

In the meantime, here's the main-character, as drawn today. Love this little guy. It's fun to see how different he looks now that my style has matured a little.

More info on these characters/story in the future. :)

creatures

2009-09-24T17:06:00.001-07:00

Lines for a new piece I'm doing and a bear-unicorn wearing a scarf and eating soup.

2009-09-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

It's mah birthday todaaaay!

But a few days ago, it was also Lindsay Small's! Dis is for heeeeer.

d'aw

2009-09-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking of doing more children's illustration, that's my forte. I did this one pretty quick, about forty minutes from sketch to color.

animating again maybe sorta?

2009-09-11T18:28:00.001-07:00

Copying Alex and seeing how much I can animate in 10 minutes. This is the first time I've animated since about April... I am VERY rusty.

If you don't recognize him, this is the dog from my degree project. Click to make it move.

Also, here is Stitch.

Book cover

2009-09-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

So this week I've been working on my first "real" art commission (not counting deviantART and friend commissions), the cover of a fantasy novel that's being published soon. I got to draw huge fucking bees.

Space Squid

2009-07-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

Did you know that squid are most at home in Outer Space?

more process work

2009-07-19T22:44:00.001-07:00

Here, have another one. Trying to force myself to do "real" backgrounds..

arc arc!

2009-07-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

I like Pokemon and I'm not ashamed.

Here's a bit of process work (warning: the actual image is quite large).

July

2009-07-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

How did it get to be July already?!

The job market seems to be pretty dry, unfortunately, so I've been doing some art for (and of) myself.

Summer

2009-06-02T15:37:00.001-07:00

PHEW. Sorry for the long hiatus in updates. Since I last updated, I finished my degree project and it was screened at On Deck where it won audience favorite and was subsequently also shown at Squealing Pegs. I had a table at our portfolio night, graduated, moved, and am now getting around to organizing my blog a little better. You may notice that a) carolineramsey.com redirects here and b) my portfolio, both 2D and animation, is now available in the right-hand toolbar, near the top.

monster

2009-04-27T17:16:00.000-07:00

The theme of the animation shows this year is monsters.

DP

2009-04-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

I finished my Degree Project this past Friday. It feels amazing.

Here is the poster (without text)

Chugging along..

2009-04-18T15:10:00.001-07:00

Almost done painting frames.

Portfolio

2009-04-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

I went home to grab some stuff for my 2D portfolio today and I found some older stuff to add, so I scanned it. Here's a few things from 2007 for various projects (editorial pieces, a children's book, etc.)

Happy Easter!!

2009-04-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

Check this out

2009-04-11T15:22:00.000-07:00

stady from OHASHI_Takashi on Vimeo.

I love stuff like this.

Monsters and kittens

2009-04-08T09:06:00.001-07:00

I don't know.

DP stills

2009-03-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Here are a few screen caps from my degree project. I'm going to have to reshoot everything at once so it all looks the same, so these aren't final.

branding

2009-03-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

I'm a couple drafts in to the design for my business card. Here's what I have right now, front and back.

March!

2009-03-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

Uploaded a couple character designs I did over vacation. My 2d portfolio needed some color.

Degree Project is coming along steadily. I don't have too much more to animate/shoot, but then I have to go back in to most of the shots and fix things.

Putting off work (i.e.: fandom)

2009-02-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

The fabulous Lindsay and I spent the evening fangirling over the upcoming Watchmen movie. If you're anything like us, you're shitting your pants in anticipation.

Instead of working on important things, we sent doodles back and forth. In this one, I sent her a starting image and she had to finish the scenario.
I drew this one.And this last one, courtesy of Lindsay, is of us parading to our End, as prophecized by Alan Moore.
Tally-hooooooooo.

Progress

2009-02-17T19:30:00.000-08:00

Working steadily on my degree project, although I should probably really get in gear at this point.
I've got about 50 seconds shot, but I need to reshoot most of it and add effects/backgrounds. I have another ten seconds or so that haven't been shot.

I'm trying to decide whether to animate all my backgrounds directly in to the shot (which is what I've mostly been doing) or find a way to composite them without it looking too digital. Does anyone know a way of compositing shots (in After Effects or some other program) that looks good? Same goes for when I have more than one character in the shot.. for the last couple sequences I've just been redrawing them in each shot even if they're just cycling or holding. There must be an easier way! >o

Here's a frame from the piece. This is the (nameless) main character. In this shot he's begging his grandfather to tell him a story. Because there's no dialogue I've been trying to convey everything through expressions and body language.

2009-02-11T20:02:00.000-08:00

For those of you wondering who the rabbit in my drawings is, her name is Sudie and she lives with me as a wonderful companion and occasional leg-humper. The picture above is of her as a baby (still unsure if she was going to lop!), and the lower picture is her with my good friend Julia Precourt and her lady.

Sudie is often my inspiration and also my best friend.

Man, that's sad.

stupid groundhog

2009-02-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

I've got about 17 seconds of my degree project done, as well as a first draft of my animation reel. This week I plan to do some reshooting and I'd also like to go another 200 frames or so drawn, as well as some under-camera animation using charcoal for on sequence of the project.
I'm getting very fond of my (nameless) main character and his dog.

If it's anything like it is here where you are, it's frigid! The bun and I are headed home for the weekend but will be back with "real" updates next week.

P.S. Congrats to two of my favorite shows, Robot Chicken and Avatar: The Last Airbender on their Annie Awards!

Oh Ethan

2009-01-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

(click for fullview)
So if you you like toys, comicbooks and cartoon references and you aren't reading Shortpacked!, get on it. I added Shortpacked! to my webcomic reading list about four years ago and I've never looked back.
By the way, this strip is in reference to the recent DC run Final Crisis and its tie-in Batman R.I.P. Man, Ethan always says exactly what I'm thinking.

(Okay, so this isn't really a Degree Project relevant post. So sue me. I'm actually off to draw frames RIGHT NOW, okay?!)

this is how it begins

2009-01-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

I haven't even finished my first week at school and I'm already pooped. Turns out packing five classes, an internship and a T.A. job in to one week is exhausting.

I've really got to start getting a move-on for my degree project. I've storyboarded it mostly out and I think I've got the character designs pretty much solid. Next I've just got to push myself and start animating, which is the scary part.

I've only really got 8 weeks to have this project finished, and that's more than a little nerve-wracking.

I had a little time to sketch today just because I'm having a bit of an artist's block and I wanted to free it up. Nothing spectacular, just whatever popped in to my head while I waited for FinalCut to render.

Amazing pixillation

2009-01-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

My friend just linked me to this video. Usually, doing a pixillation is a bit stressful on the actors but I think these ones must have been pretty comfy!

First post

2009-01-21T14:14:00.000-08:00

Hi, folks. For those who don't know who I am, I'm a senior at the Massachusetts College of Art majoring in animation. This blog will (loosely) chronicle my endeavors in the art world as I make the transition from student to professional. Thanks for tuning in!