More Head Drawings and starting to do head painting!

Rebecca at Courbet Art Circle - 1st figure painting I've done in a while.

Preliminary Sketch

Ballerina Clown at Catalyst Art Studio

Short Poses

Girl at Courbet Art Circle

Quante at 3Kicks Art Studio

Karl Gnass Workshop at Animation Guild

Last Saturday - I attended a "Expression, Character and Story" Karl Gnass workshop at Animation Guild. I decided to try it out because the 5 hour workshop was only $60. l. It sounded like a great deal, I heard good things about the school, and it fit my schedule.

The models were terrific. They held very dynamic poses and facial expressions for 8 minute poses. These guys were true professionals - not many models are able to accomplish such feats. In addition - they constantly changed costumes and props to enhance the character of the pose. 

The workshop was mostly drawing with lecture material sprinkled during breaks. Karl talked about the expression, character and story. He advocated empathizing and embodying the expression from within instead of seeking to capture it. When drawing from 2 models, he had us get the gesture of the two models instead of drawing each model individual. This advice was particularly effective.

 

"Where we going?"
 beginning of workshop sketch

3 min facial expression poses 

dancing

pygmalion 

riding cowboy! last sketch of workshop

More Juice

I've had a crazy idea recently to really rack up my drawing mileage.  It's more than just projects and paintings I do here and there. It's a plan to change my behavior. My plan is inspired by 2 movies and 1 magazine article.

Limitless: In this movie, there is this dude that takes a pill allows him to use more of his brain so he becomes super baller.

Lesson:
You have more potential than you are using. 

Adjustment Bureau: In this movie, this dude defies God.

Lesson:
If you want it bad enough - go get it.
Whether or not you do it... is whatever... but you gotta go balls out and risk everything if you really believe in it.

Harnessing the Power of Feedback loops: In this "Wired" article, the writer suggests that you can change your behavior using feedback loops. Corporations like Facebook and the police do it to you all the time.

Currently I'm working a system to change my sleep cycle so I sleep early and wake up earlier (10pm - 6am), and to increase the number hours that I draw a day.

High School work at Art Center (2004)

The PLAN

Currently, I spend 10-15 hours a week on drawing. It's not bad, but I'm honestly not producing any work with the passion I used to. I have much more potential. 

I plan to increase my drawing hours to 15-20 hours a week. This roughly is the number of hours I spent on my Art Center class in high school.  Getting these hours in require discipline, but yield respectable results. By July 15, 2011 - I want to be at this stage.

Booth at Carnegie Mellon (2008)

Afterwards,  I want to increase to drawing/ painting to 20-40 hours a week. This is how much time I spent on Booth in college. While this seems like a lot, this is a standard work schedule for average people. The hours will probably seem grueling, but I would be making work that I would be proud of.  By September 1, 2011- I want to be at this stage.

Eventually, I want to hit 40-60 hours a week of drawing/ painting/ designing. This is a lofty ambition, but you don't get anywhere by dreaming small. In fact, this is generally this workweek of an industry professional, if not more. By January 1, 2012 - I want to be at this stage.

Head Drawing & Figure Quick Sketch

Asian girl from hair magazine

Marcie at Courbet Art Circle. The hostness brought a birthday cake for the model. Really thoughtful.

More magazine drawings

Trying out the "Figure Quick Sketch" style

CDA, Red Engine, 3Kicks, LAAFA, Watts, Animation Guild, Animation Academy

I always wanted to draw and paint really well.  Recently - I realized that my dreams could all come true. There are tons of great art studios in the area, offering thousands of hours of class a year!  Concept Design, figure painting/ drawing, plein air painting, animation...  it's all here in LA. Over the next 3-4 years, I'm going to dedicate myself to fulfilling my dream. This opportunity was always in front of me, I just never realized it.

- Concept Design Academy (http://www.conceptdesignacad.com) $510
- Red Engine (http://www.redenginestudios.com) $355 - $595

- 3 Kicks Studio (http://3kickstudio.com) $480
- LAAFA (http://www.laafa.org) $50-695
- Watts Atelier (http://www.wattsatelier.com) $375

- Animation Guild (http://animationguild.org/education/) $180-$300
- The Animation Academy (http://theanimationacademy.com/) $325

So far I've taken classes at CDA, 3Kicks and LAAFA. CDA has a great learning environment and quality service. The only downside is that it's so darn popular and the classes are so full that the instructors may not give you as much personal attention.

I've also taken class at 3Kicks. While it's right next to CDA, the studio space is much smaller and attracts a fewer number of students. However, the quality of instruction is still great (only 4-6 people in my Head Drawing class with Glen Orbik).

I've only taken one workshop at LAAFA - a Nathan Fowkes color class. But by the vibe and the work hanging from the walls - I already know that these people are really serious about their work - they don't fuck around. There's a large variety of workshops and classes at LAAFA and they have some really gangsta artists like Steven Houston and Nathan Fowkes.

My plan is to alternate my studies between foundation and digital painting/ design classes. Take some figure painting then environment design, some plein air then some entertainment design, some figure drawing then some character design. I plan to really strengthen my foundation in painting/ drawing, and apply that technique towards conceptual art.

New portfolio website

Hey guys - I recently introduced a new layout to my portfolio website.  To date - this is version 4 of the website. www.chris-chien.com

The concept is to be able to browse through the website with minimal clicking. On the front page, you get a comprehensive preview of the entire website in just a couple of seconds. And, when you click on the individual section - the images auto-scroll in slideshow mode. I'd love to hear what you guys think of this new format.

The content is not 100% complete - but if you have any comments or suggestions regarding aesthetics, content, usability etc...  I'd love to hear what you think so far. Please leave your comments below, or email me directly at xpchien@gmail.com

Thanks!

- Chris

Head Drawing - 2D Shapes and Head Construction

These are more head drawings. Recently, I've been focusing more on designing 2D shapes. The construction and 2D shapes go hand in hand - and I've been trying to balance the two principles.