Smile Dippin'

If ever a product should exist it is Smile Dip. This magical (but banned) substance comes from the Gravity Falls animated television show.

If you watch Gravity Falls, 10 awesome points to you. If you don't... WELL HURRY UP AND WATCH IT ALREADY! That is all... ONWARDS AOSHIMA!

Oh the things you will see

Word change up

About 90% of the time, when i'm in a conversation or when I read something on a billboard, I substitute the actual words used for more interesting ones. I still hear or see the real ones but my mind still places ideas in my head regardless.

This is a quick sketch I did after my drive home from work. The billboard (for an energy drink) exclaimed "Take on the afternoon!". My mind replaced afternoon with Pterodon. Don't ask me why. That's just the way it is! This is what I imagined...

Don't take no lip from no pre-historic beasties!

Phineas and Ferb fan-art lives!

And here we have a scene typical of the animation. I also included an slightly updated version of Phineas 10. Just because...

Drawn by chance challenge - Lanky hybrid animals

I found an awesome blog where you draw, sketch, paint or (whatever you wanna do) a picture based on random words. I like the fact it's a phrase because it can add so much more than just a word.

My quick submission for lanky hybrid animals below.

Little Stevie regretted going to the new zoo alone...

Sculpty test

A Sculpt I did as part of an awesome character sculpting weekend course with Judd Simantov. I enjoyed it thoroughly and hope to sculpt many more.

Doodles... Doodles EVERYWHERE!

I decided it might be fun to gather some doodles I have lying around and chuck 'em together. Some of these are old. No seriously, like years old. They still have evoke a good feeling in me though so that's alright.

These are but a drop in the vast ocean of sketches I have, I just can't be bothered to scan everything. Or find it for that matter!

Doodles_01

Doodles_02

Doodles_03

 

Undoubtedly more will follow...

Just some fun

I'm a big fan of the radio show 'The Fresh Drive' on 5FM radio station. The other day they created a spoof of Ben 10 called Sibusiso 7 with South African flair. I pictured the characters in my head and I couldn't stop laughing.
So, I decided to do some quick sketches. Looking at them now they look so stupidly ridiculous but I don't care. It was just for fun and I didn't spend time trying to get perfect designs. I think it should just be about the fun sometimes. A good idea to apply to life in general.

The heroes unite

With the power to cut anything

Infinite toughness

My personal favourite. Eat chip oil you fiend!

You're not getting past this minibus taxi!

I kind of can't remember the rest of the radio spot so I'm not sure of the other powers. I think there's a sangoma in there somewhere. Frikkie also needs his harvester power I know that. Oh well, if I feel like it I might draw them as well.

swing things.

I decided to try and finish my swinging dude so I can put him in my showreel opening. I don't have a bulk scanner so I unfortunately have to scan in each page one by one. TEDIOUS!
Anyway. Here are two clips. One is  a rough line test and the other is a cleaner version I attempted with photoshop.

Hopefully I can add a background and colour him soonish.

Ben 10 aliens - Four-arms

Another quick sketch I did. colour was done with markers but had to be enhanced in photoshop because my scanner is so bloody awful.

He must be great at opening jars.

Ben 10 aliens- Upgrade

So i'm a BIG Ben 10 fan. Understatement of the century (He does share my name you know). I love the original series but alien force (while entertaining) kind of disappointed me. Thankfully ultimate alien causes a tingling of hope within me.
Since I love Ben 10 and I have re-awakened my love of sketching, I have decided to try and sketch as many of the aliens as possible. They may be pencil and pen or they may be digital. Heck I might even sculpt one or two.

So let us begin our alien adventure in no particular order. Ladies and gentlemen I present Upgrade! *insert applause here*

Quick marker sketch with fake glow courtesy of Photoshop. 

Yes that is an upgraded lawn mower...

Slap yourself awake!

Well yeah...

 A new year it is. For a multitude of reasons (Family and malfunctioning computer equipment mainly) I began the year feeling both unhappy and tired. I slipped into that patch of lethargy we so often find ourselves in during certain periods of life. That period where you know you should be doing something, but you'd rather not. I can safely say that period is now over.
The cure? Just do something. Pick yourself up and slap yourself in the face! Most of us who whither away into nothingness blame the world, our family, our friends and even random strangers. But no-one ever notices that we whither willingly. It's not any ones fault but yours!
You are the key!

I started slowly. Sketching little doodles in a tiny book found within a Christmas cracker. That's all it took to open the flood gates. Just do it. Do anything.
I now sketch everyday and if I don't feel like it, I slap myself awake. The more I do the more I want to do.

So yeah. That's my advice. Like so much in life it's up to you. Very important but easy to forget. And if you ever forget about it and slip into lethargy... SLAP YOURSELF AWAKE!

As a prize for reading this I present you with one of the afore mentioned sketches. A mash up of my favourite animated show Ben 10 and another awesome show Phineas and Ferb. Lets get this ball rolling!

The first sketch I doodled

The inked version of the sketch

Flat colours have been added

Post Christmas ramblings

Well Christmas has come and gone. I was required to spend Christmas with the family and I performed dutifully. Flying down to the coast for Christmas eve and day. As much I enjoy observing people splurge on useless items and listening to racist relatives, I found myself remembering an episode of  the animated series 'Invader Zim' by Jhonen Vasquez. Indeed the image of a humongous Santa attacking a domed (and quite possibly doomed) city pleased me greatly, and I dutifully produced this sketch over breakfast on Christmas morning.

Now that Santa was in my mind (a horrible thought indeed) I could not resist sketching another attack on the dome while waiting for relatives to sort out their quarrels. I did some quick marker colour on it. Yes die hard fans, the dome should be purple. I didn't have the colour so sod off...

Lastly, as Christmas drew to a close. I sat in the airport terminal waiting for my flight home. I started sketching some creature thing. To keep in the Christmas theme I added the obligatory fluffy hat. I have now decided that everything creepy looks better with Christmas props. I may have freaked out the people sitting next to me in the terminal but hey, what ya gonna do?

Happy holidays to everyone!

I stepped in a poodle!

I'm part of a doodle project with a few other people. A word is given roughly every two days and people make sketches or paintings to represent it. I'm very thankful for it as it slaps me in the face and reminds me I need to draw more often.

This is from a recent one. The word is (you guessed it) poodle. I liked the twist of the old joke: It's raining cats and dogs outside! I accidentally stepped in a poodle!

Wordplay is fun!

Kung fu and a field of moose

I recently became obsessed with a certain practice movement I was shown in Kung fu. Probably because I couldn't get the arms right when I tried it (It's harder than it looks).

It then occurred to me that it is a perfect example of arcs in movement. Indeed one of the martial arts main principles is using the natural arcs of movement to defend and attack. So I did a quick line test thing to try and capture the flow.

The smoke was for a bit of flair. You GOTTA have flair!

Then there is this. Ummm... It stems from a conversation about the cliched 'run across a field to embrace your lover' moment in films.
The friend who I was having the conversation with is a huge fan of moose (Yes that is the plural) and insisted the scene would not be complete without it.
So I did a quick speedy paint thing. Well...um... here you go.

The Panda! It walks

So in an effort to say thanks to my friend Stuart Coutts for inspiring me to get my butt into gear, I decided to model and rig a Panda he designed. I decided to teach him how to walk as well. This was all done in one weekend so a lot of tweaking needs to be done.

Thanks for inspiration Stu!

Yes, the rig broke. Yes, I will fix it. No, the panda did not receive any injuries.

The phases of layout

Continuing the layout theme I did some quick basic modelling of a building. The idea is to eventually have the complete layout done and then texture it! So this is a start to bigger things.

New anim reel

Like I said in a previous post, my old reel was hideous. Most of it was from 3 years ago *shiver*.

But now I have this. Still need to tweak but it's a start, and a start is all we need sometimes.

Quick layouts

I decided to just doodle some layout sketches. I decided I might use them for animation later if I get round to it.
This first one is a quaint little town. The proposed camera move is shown on the second image.

Next is a Savannahish scene.

Here is a quick pre-vis for the first pan. I used my friend Stuart Coutts's Houdini rig again just so I had a character in scene.