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Howdy friends. Today I give you three more characters strutting their stuff. We have Mort Felinestien, Hank Tembo, and Mrs. Topeka. I trimmed the sections that you have already seen, so that it doesn't get monotonous. As I have stated in previous posts the first section contains the rough pencil animation I have used as the basis for all the other walk cycles. When I drop these characters into scenes in the final animation I'll stagger their walk cycles. In English that means they won't all walk in unison in the final. ; )

As you can see to the left here, Mrs. Topeka doesn't have much up and down in her walk cycle. I tried to match the suggestion of girth/weight (no offense Mrs. Topeka!) that I had in Mr. Topeka's walk a few weeks back. I have a feeling that as they approach you on the sidewalk you can feel these two characters before you see them. The concrete would tremble.

Speaking of trembling concrete, Hank Tembo (Swahili for elephant, according to Google) is sporting a stylish plaid Irish cap (which can be purchased in the gift shop on your way out). His toy/gift bag originally had the name Finnegan's on it, but it was too hard to read so I took that out.

And then of course there is Mort Felinestien looking oh so sharp in a grey suit which matches his bowler, the band of which matches his tie and socks! Mort is carrying a rolled up newspaper, which he plans to attack and shred once he gets back to the office.

One again that's the Marine Corps belting out "Up In The Morning". It seems very fitting with all the exercising going on around here. It's also one of my favorite cadences, and one I loved to run and ride to back in the day.

Next time I will try and drop a city sidewalk scene scrolling by in the background for next time. Something that loops, like the old Flintstone's backgrounds did. Something simple though. I want it to be interesting, but I don't want it to detract from the main purpose which is just showing off the walk cycles.

Walking Characters from ryanloghry on Vimeo.

As I have stated before my work flow is pretty basic. I draw the characters in my sketchbook. I scan the drawings and "cut them out" in PhotoShop so I can move the pieces. Then I pose them on each frame of the walk cycle (still in PhotoShop). Then I render it out as a Quicktime movie. I use After Effects and Premiere to composite everything together. As always I hope you have enjoyed my drawings and this animation. Thank you for stopping by, God bless, and have a great day.

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Hello everyone! I've added two more animated characters to the mix this week. an alligator, and a buffalo. I also added some Miles Davis for them to walk to. Five points if you can name the song and album(that's what we called a collection of songs before cds came along, for all you kiddos out there).

More Walking Animals from ryanloghry on Vimeo.

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Good morning everyone! Today I'm am sharing some work in progress. All year long I will be adding to the Christmas animation I posted in December. I will be adding more animated characters walking, and interacting in every scene.

In this animation I am showing on the left side the walk cycle I drew (thank you Preston Blair for your amazing work). In the middle of the frame is the black and white pencil drawn character I created, and matched pose for pose to my template. And then finally the full color character walking on the right, which I will drop into one of my scenes. My goal is to make last years animation look fuller, more lived in. I try to produce a card and animation each year, but since I usually start in August or September that only leaves me about 3 months to produce everything needed, which for a one man show is not very long. Last year I hit on this idea of creating an animation, and then filling it in, and improving it all year long.

I'm not sure why, but the above player is not allowing you to see the whole frame. I've tried jiggling the code a bit, but I couldn't fix it. Please go here to watch the whole thing.

I sure love to draw, and I love to make those drawings move. I again thank my wife Angela for getting me Adobe CS6 three years ago, it is an amazing tool that allows me to fulfill my dreams, and to work at a level higher than I've ever been able to achieve before.

A full list of the tools I used for this: Pentel .7mm mechanical pencil; a Pentalic hardbound sketchbook with 70 lbs. paper; an Epson 3200 scanner (thank you David Schrotzberger for giving me yours when my old one died unexpectedly); Adobe Photoshope for edge clean up and colorization of the pencil drawings, as well as creating the frame by frame animation; Adobe Premiere for comping each animation together.

As always I hope you have enjoyed watching this animation and learning how I work. Thank you for stopping by, and I'll keep posting updates as I finish more characters. Have a terrific day, and God bless! -- Ryan

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A print from my pencil drawing, personalised with name of your choice.
Available from my Etsy shop.

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Good morning everyone,

Here is the latest in my Celtic cross series. This one is a bit more involved, not in the intricate design on the cross itself but in the background, as you can see.

As usual I created this with a pencil and paper. The color is all done by painting on a single color layer in PhotoShop. I originally sketched the concept out last year, and spent a few evenings last week working out. The last time I spent this much time drawing leaves was when I illustrated Jairo Penaranda's book "The Little Leaf" which is available here. Like most people I enjoy fall, the bright colors in the trees. I'm especially enjoying it this year as we had such a hot dry summer here. I'm very thankful for the cooler temperatures, and the rain.

I chose simple colors, and gradations of a single color for each leaf, instead of multiple colors for the leaves. After spending a few days on the drawing I don't have the time to spend making a photo realistic painting (I've never enjoyed that style myself, why not just take a picture, and save the wear and tear on your hand and wrist?). I like to keep it simple too, it appeals to me.

This is a close-up of a portion of the pencil drawing before I colorized it in PhotoShop.

Thank you again for stopping by my blog. I hope that you enjoyed what I have shared with you here, and that you have a terrific day today, God bless. --Ryan

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Good morning everyone!

Today I am sharing a rough animation I have created. I created this scene for my annual Christmas card and animation. First I drew all the buildings and the train in pencil, scanned them, and colorized & knocked them out in PhotoShop. Next I rendered an animation(quicktime movie) of each one, then I took all those quicktime movies into After Effects and rendered each one with snow falling. On each piece of my "set", as they go further back into my scene I added a little camera lens blur, I did all of this to add to the depth of the scene.

I'm really disappointed with the compression on this. It looks SO much better on my computer here at home. Maybe some day I will find the right settings, that will make a clean and clear video that is small enough to upload from my connection here at home. I will try to replace this video at some point with a version that has better compression settings. Also, I'm not sure why but the animation is cropped. I created a 16x9 animation and this is not as wide as it should be. If you want to see it un-cropped go to my Vimeo page and view it there.

Next I will add riders on the train, and people in some of the windows in the apartments. Some of them will be animated, just a little. I'm only one person and I only have until the end of November. This animation was a huge first step though, proving I could create the look I wanted.

I hope you enjoyed this project, I hope to post a couple updates as I work on this over the next couple months. As always feel free to leave a comment, and to share this post with others. I hope you all have a terrific day, and thank you for stopping by.

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The Jaguar E-type has recently been voted Britain's favourite classic cars in this poll. I was commissioned to produce a drawing of it. It's not surprising that it is in the number one spot as it really is a thing of beauty.

I used pencil (a soft thick 4B) and marker pens, to make this drawing, both of  which are drawing materials that I've recently started using. I've never been much of a pencil girl. It doesn't really do it for me, but I kinda like these soft pencils now and again. The marker pen has been a revelation and I can't get enough of them these days. I did all the darker tones and areas with the markers, and it struck me that at one point I would have filled all that in with tiny cross hatched fine lines. Just the thought of doing that, now, brings me to tears.

You can see the rest of the list of Britain's favourite cars, and if you vote you can actually win this drawing HERE.

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Hi everyone! Here is my latest drawing. As you can see I really enjoy drawing these Celtic crosses.

This particular drawing has significantly more detail than any other cross I have drawn so far. I added more Christian symbolism this time; the alpha and omega on either side of the globe, and the seven roses. The gears represent the intricate workings of God's creation. The distressed quality on the gears is meant to reflect the fallen nature of our world.

As usual this drawing was done with a mechanical pencil. This time I used a paper with a much smoother tooth, which allowed for more detail. I hope you enjoy it, as always feel free to leave a comment.

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I ran into problems with getting evrything I needed for this weeks featured illustrator. I almost ran oneof them, but at the last minute, I didn’t think it was fair to use his or her spot if it didn’t completely show them off. So I decided to put up a drawing tip on drawing hair. I am always getting e-mails from non-artists saying how much they admire seeing the artwork and how it is created.

For all you non-illustrators, why don’t you follow the steps and try your hand at creating hair. Don’t worry about the pencil numbers, just pick up any pencil you have around the house. Why should illustrator have all the fun?

For the illustrators, you maybe able to get something out the post by noting the number pencils used.

I used a mechanical pencil 4B (2 mm) to draw the roots.

Still using 4B, I drew the other darkest parts.

Using a mechanical pencil 2B (0.5 mm), I drew the darkest lines inside the locks and also drew the little hair locks on the left (I mean, above her right ear).

Using a mechanical pencil HB (0.3 mm), I finished drawing the inside of the locks.

Using Blu-Tack and an ink eraser pencil, I created some highlights. I also added some 9H in the lightest locks.

I created the skin tones on her forehead before drawing the hair locks that were left to do.

I drew the locks, added some tones where it was needed and also darkened a little her hair on the right since, in my drawing, there was no background to emphasize it.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy
PS: I’d love to see your results.

Filed under: authors and illustrators, How to, illustrating, Illustrator's Saturday Tagged: drawing hair, Illustrator Saturday, pencil drawing, step-by-step 5 Comments on Illustrator Saturday – Hair, last added: 8/20/2011