In the spirit of yesterday's artist "evaluation," I wanted to revisit the Influence Map I made a while back. While most of those present on the old map are still very influential and inspiring to me, I felt I've grown a lot in terms of learning from and favoring a new slew of artists and themes. I did keep some from the old map, but for the most part there's a new haul of awesome work.


The list:

Glen Keane
J.W.M. Turner, art history
Chris Sanders
Traveling, Eurpope
Parks and Recreation
Paul Felix
Mary Cassatt, feminism
Craig Ferguson
Vera Brosgol
Adele
Doctor Who, "behind the scenes" work
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Vincent Van Gogh
Claire Hummel
Naughty Dog's Uncharted series
Valve's Portal series, Blue Sky (x, x)
Disney's Nine Old Men
Elsa Chang
Heather Campbell
Lily Fox
Lois Van Baarle
Lorelay Bove
Mary Blair

I know there's a ton I've missed in terms of things I'm inspired by or things I aspire to, but this was a healthy start. (My tumblr exists nearly for the sole purpose of reblogging awesome artwork and concept art, anyway.)

I saw this meme going around Tumblr, so of course I had to give it a go! I'm a sucker for these things - I see them as a means of personal exploration. (At least, that's what I'm telling myself after taking so long to complete this!)

What sort of artist would you most identify yourself as?
I draw on paper. I color with markers and paints. I use Photoshop for anything and everything. I’ve animated in Maya and composted in After Effects. I tell myself I can model and texture. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to say I do it well.

What would be your secondary identity?
I’m an introverted nerd.

What forms of art do you dabble in, but don’t excel at?
I like writing, but am terrible at it. I’m unoriginal to the point where I want to hit my head against the wall until lightening hits me with a string of brilliant ideas… If only.

How would you describe your ‘style’?
I think I walk that Disney/cutsey line, and would like to stray farther away. Not that I don’t love Disney characters - come on, they’re brilliant - but I’d like to not be typecast. I admire those who can work in a wide variety, where each piece is unique and fresh, with underlying tones of one’s style.

What medium do you favor most?
Pencil and Photoshop. I like watercolors, but they don’t always like me. Then again, Photoshop doesn’t always like me, either.

What are your favorite subject matters?
Characters, story.

What are your least favorite subject matters?
Buildings, inanimate objects.

List your Artistic Strengths

• Poses with personality
• Script to boarding (and troubleshooting)
• Organizing (scenes, laytouts, etc)

List your Artistic Weaknesses

• The male form
• Environments (i.e. perspective)
• Digital painting (i.e. rendering)

Which of the above weaknesses would you most like to see improve?
It’s hard to pick just one: all of them, obviously!

Adult Content… yes/no?
Adult as in stimulating, intellectual and deep? Yes. Graphic gore and sex? No thanks.

Adult Subject Matter you favor? See above.

Schooling/Training received in the arts?
I went to the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago, majoring in Media Arts and Animation. It was a 3ish year Bachelor’s program that covered the basics of animation, motion graphics, modeling, lighting, figure drawing, etc.

In June I’ll be attending a Pixar seminar on animation and story here in town. It’s only a two day event, but I’m very much looking forward to it!

Schooling/Training you’d still like to have?
I would love to attend an MFA program, ideally in illustration or art history. One day I’d also love to go through Animation Mentor’s program, as their student work is out of this world.

Would you consider yourself prolific, or a ‘quality over quantity’ sort of artist?
Quality over quantity.

Would you considering yourself a Fine Artist, or a Commercial Artist?
Commercial in the sense that the media arts world I’ve been trained in is very profit driven, but I also love fine art and the aspect of doing art for the sake of one’s self.

Where would you like to be in five years? I would love to be a story artist, working in the pre-production department for feature films or games.

Varying styles using form/shape, as seen in David Colman's DVD. Only took a little over an hour to do this, but I really had fun with it. I do wish I would have gone a little crazier on the graphic style, as that's not my forte at all... Next time!

And - you guessed it - gestures.


I recently bought The Art of Character Design with David Colman, and am loving it. Very inspiring, so I do in fact have some character stuff coming along soon!

More gestures!

And also some old Blue Sky Wheatley sketches I never posted here for some reason. 

Picking up from yesterday's gestures. Not as many this time, as the site was acting up and not loading after only a few minutes...

Did some gesture drawings today, and realized how terribly out of practice I am.

Was a nice warm up though!

Between siblings and babysitting I've watched my fair share of kids shows, and my favorite has got to be The Backyardigans. It's kind of like Doctor Who in that they go any time/any place, and sing crazy awesome songs in the mean time.

There's even an 80's themed episode ("A Giant Problem," for curious minds), and if that doesn't seal the deal I don't know what does.

I finished Blue Sky by the talented Waffles this past weekend, and my emotions are just all over the place.

And I'm rather intimated as I post this, as there are some lovely, talented, and utterly inspiring artists on Tumblr who draw the best fanart ever (I'm looking at you, NQH and baysalt, among many many others).

But I can't help doodle and draw hearts all over the likes of Chell and Wheatley, sue me. While Wheatley is absent in the above, I can't help love thinking of Chell making a bagel... It just makes me an emotional gooey mess.

Basically: follow all the people linked above, and go read Blue Sky. You'll find yourself smiling like a fool the entire time, I promise you.

And, the series comes to and end!

Mostly because it could go on forever, but also because I think 4 & 4 works: four gals, four guys.

Happy Easter!

Now, here are some vegetables.

Allergies are here to stay, apparently.


I miss school for several reasons, but a main reason being that I miss getting somewhat nicely dressed up several times a week. Nowadays it's mostly jeans and a sweatshirt. Each day, every day.

I bought a pair of awesome skinny jeans from Von Maur recently - they're this brilliant shade of green.

I'm kind of really in love with all the crazy pastel colors that are in right now. The next color on my list of things to get: coral!

"Sorry fellas, she's married... to science!"

My reaction to 1. finishing the February Daily Draw Challenge!

And 2. the new Avengers trailer!

I look like a happy seal, but whatever. It's a happy Leap Day, indeed. :)

A friend of mine made the claim that I'm not a true nerd until I draw Star Wars/Star Trek fanart.

As Barney says: challenge accepted.

Sometimes you just gotta draw a turret. 

My little brother hates destroying them. He claims their sweet little voices tug at his heartstrings. Bless.

I'm trying to do this more - just drawing a random squiggly and see what you can walk away with.

It helps when you're at a loss for what to draw, or trying to break away from any patterns you may have fallen in to.

And the world needs more awesome plus-size ballerinas, seriously.

Being a completist, I can't not do them all.

(Thus, Mars is coming somewhere down the line soon.)

Inspired by my dog. I swear, he can hear the UPS truck from across town.

Another Sailor Scout.

It's a guilty pleasure, I can't help it.

I'm also a sucker for analogous color schemes. So, there's that. 

An overwhelming portion of this month has been Portal 2.

...

I regret nothing.