THE SIMPSONS NEWS

As of the time of this writing, I’m ALMOST done cleaning up the section of the board that ‘s due by the end of this week.  It’s been a really interesting experience for me.  After the meeting last week that left my head spinning and feeling overwhelmed, I’ve really had time to internalize it all.

I’ve learned a few things about myself as well as the people who I’m working with.  Biggest thing I learned is that I have a big ego. I mean, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have been so disappointed by how the meeting went.  Having spoken to other board artists on the show, they’ve told me meeting sometimes go that way and sometimes they don’t.  It’s just about learning the style of the show and learning to let go.  I thought I had learned that lesson already but obviously I hadn’t.

Second, I’ve had time since, to talk to both the director and head director about the meeting.  To them, the meeting was just like any other and they’re happy with my work.  Too often, I over think and over worry.

Not only that, but after working on the boards after the revisions, you start “owning” the revisions as well. After all, you have to execute the new shot and any fixes to the original versions.  The interesting thing about doing the revisions is that you’re less worried about whether the shot you’re working on is going to be rejected.

In any case, I will tease the fact that there’s something special being planned for the section I’m working on right now.  I’ll keep you updated as things get closer to finishing.

VIDEOS

I’m a big fan of LOST and a fan of what Damon Lindelof did on it.  I also think it’s fascinating how much he seems like just “one of the guys”.  How down to earth he is and how public he is. He’s a very rare screenwriter in that he’s almost as well known as some actors.

For this reason I was curious to see this interview with him on the Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show.  It’s awesome! If anything, I now respect Lindelof even more.  The story of how he met J.J. Abrams and ended up the show runner on LOST is one of the most compelling things ever.  I love how he tells you what exactly about the show was his idea and what J.J. Abrams came up with AND how much time they had to do the pilot. It’s amazing.

The interview is well over two hours but it’s so worth watching. I highly recommend it.

ART

I’m still plugging away at that book cover for my wife.  This week I blew up my sketch and with a blue color erase pencil I mapped out the rhythm lines for the character’s face. I also fleshed out the construction of the face a bit more.

I picked up the book  Robert Fawcett: The Illustrator’s Illustrator edited by Manuel Auad, last week and have been sooo inspired.  HE’S SO GOOD! It’s amazing.

If want my cover to somehow capture SOMETHING of Fawcett‘s work.  He’s leagues over my head in mastery. He’s draftsmanship is incredible. I mean, look at his drawing!

So taking his work and having it at the back of my head, I start working on my own thing.  I’m not Fawcett and I don’t think I’ll get there anytime soon (if ever) BUT it’s good to have him as inspiration.

Using the photo reference I took of a friend of my wife, I began doing a slightly tighter version of my rough drawing above.  It was kinda going good until I ran into the problem I was hoping I wasn’t going to have, namely, my reference doesn’t have her eyes open.  In my reference the eyes are looking down, but for my drawing, I wanted the eyes looking back.

Turns out, I can’t fake it.

My drawing below is my first tonal study. If you notice, the area around the eye is darker than the rest the of the drawing. This is because I erased the heck out that area trying to get the eye to look right.  In the end, it just looks cartoony somehow.

I was also testing out what it would look like if I was to really obscure the details of the right hand side of the face in shadow.  I didn’t really like it.

I decided to give it another try.  This time, I would put in the details in the shadow area.  It turned out better, BUT once again, those darn eyes messed me up again.  It’s the one thing I made up out of my head and it’s the one thing that looks off.  Especially the right eye.  I was going for half lidded but it just looks off, and the iris is just way too far away. Plus it seems like it doesn’t line up well with the left eye.

It’s really frustrating. Once again, you can see where I was erasing the most because it’s darker in that area.

I finally did the sensible thing and decided to get the photo reference I needed.  Instead of asking my wife’s friend to come back just to her a picture of her looking back, I asked my wife to model  it instead.  Hopefully my next study will have the eyes right.

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