Color Keys from the Florida Keys

Hey everyone! 

I just got back from a week-long trip boat trip with my family. Yep, that's right, a boat trip. Do people still do many boating vacations nowadays? Not a cruise ship or anything. I'm talking one-family-two-sails-really-feel-the-waves-underneath-the-hull kind of boating. Anyways, I really enjoyed it. It's a totally different way of of life, and while I'm glad to be back on land, it was fun to try! I now have a much better understanding of what Rat means when he talks about "Simply messing, messing about in boats, or with boats. In or out of em, it doesn't matter" (that's Rat from The Wind in the Willows - though I dearly hope you already knew that). I'm still trying to get all the salt out of my clothes and hair - it's a process. Especially since I won't be going to Ireland this summer, it was nice to have the chance to see a new place, though one of a significantly warmer and more humid nature: the Florida Keys. I've been recently amazed by just how big America is. Even though Florida is still in the states, it definitely feels like a different country compared to Tennessee. The expansive salt marshes, the spanish moss, the decaying rust bridges set over azure salt water - it just all seems so summer-y and adventurous. And this strange nostalgia for the landscape of Florida and the coastal American South (part of the reason why I LOVE Princess and the Frog), was nice to indulge. And indulge I did! Through gazing for hours out of the car window and the boat ... spaces on deck??? Oh and I also did some art. Bet you didn't expect that! ;) 

I brought, as usual, way too many art supplies, most of which I never used. I intended to do watercolor pieces like I did during my Bahamas mission trip last summer, but when I started the first one I kept getting frustrated with the pencil sketch which seemed to predict getting even more frustrated with the watercolor later down the line... so I caved, pulled out the Ipad, and worked almost entirely digitally for the remainder of the trip. The watercolors and gouache were not touched :( I have mixed feelings about the outcome. This was my first big trip with The Pad, by the way. I felt like the digital nature of the art was able to capture the luminosity and vibrancy of the color and water in way that would have been difficult for me to do with traditional media. And the whole process is just so much easier. I feel more comfortable with it as a medium, I feel more free to experiment, depicting light is quick (lookin at u, multiply and overlay layers), I don't have to wait for paint to dry, and I don't have to mix colors unless I want to. So all that means drawings that look prettier (in my opinion) and I have more time to spend on the actual vacation. (which is kinda the point of the thing)

But, on the other hand, I feel like traditional plein air painting in new and inspiring places is what encourages me to still keep traditional media as part of my skillset. I don't want to be a primarily/exclusively digital artist if I can help it, cause I feel like each time I put serious effort into my traditional work, I make breakthroughs on the digital side as well. Remember that Brother Bear poster? Or perhaps any tree I have drawn in the past year? Those were directly influenced by how I plein air paint with gouache.

It's in the simplification of shading and round shapes in the tree

Traditional media is just cool, and becoming increasingly rare in animation art. In other words, the Disney Archives are quickly becoming something you access through a computer, and not something you hold in you hands and think, "Wow. Milt Kahl drew this. And now I am trying not to spill something on it." I know I'm not going to get better at traditional media if I don't actual try it, fail, succeed, and learn. So part of me was a little disappointed that I didn't risk it on this trip. Plus, using traditional media fosters a greater sense of "place." Knowing that I worked on this piece of paper at this place in the universe makes the art a bit more special than a file that just ends up in Google Drive. Anyways, I digress. You probably didn't come here to listen to me ramble about drawing mediums. Maybe you actually wanted to see some art.

So here's some art.

Sombrero Key Lighthouse

Many, if not most, of these were inspired by what's in animation called "color keys." Popularized by Pixar, these are small paintings which are intended to direct the color of a scene rather than the detail and design. I like to do them because they don't take a lot of time, and if the detail is off, eeeeehhhhh, just shrug and say it's a just a color key/sketch. Actually, don't say that. (personal pet peeve: calling something a "sketch" to lower the bar when in fact, the piece is not "a sketch." Just own it, people. The piece is probably good anyways.) I would love to do color keys professionally some day, but combining them all into a harmonious order called a "color script" seems baffling and something that takes guts.

 Snappers

I actually got to pet this manatee, who lived in a marina and was pretty scarred up

Many of these were also inspired by the art of Louie Zong, a man whose work has become increasingly influential to me over the past several months. His art has a lot of texture to it and good color sense all submerged in a childlike simplicity and innocence which I really appreciate. His work often gets very simplistic but somehow still feels professional ... needless to say I'm a fan, and am trying to incorporate some of his sensibilities into my own art. But at the moment, the most immediate thing you'll notice is quite a liberal use of Procreate's "Splatter" and my modified "Flicks" brushes.

Clownfish, Moon Jellies, and Sandbar Shark

I needed to use a pencil after sooo much digital art. Also, baby gators.

Sleeping Hawksbill Sea Turtle

In Key West, they have wild chickens that roam around town, just doin their thing. I've known several friends who kept chickens, but what surprised me most about the Key West chickens was watching the hens run around surrounded their chicks - back at home you usually just see the adults or mail-order chicks by themselves in a pen. So it was delightful to see these little families where everyone was all together! When I got back home I wanted to make a more stylized piece that reflected this memory (drawing on *heh* the art of Annette Marnat, thanks Naomi Bethel). This took a LOT longer than I expected but was a fun exploration into a new, soft, and even-more-texture-y style.

also took some cues from Audubon's Great American Hen and Young

Although I don't try to pressure myself to draw when I'm on vacation, it's nice when art like this spills out naturally! You may have implied from that statement that drawing often feels like work now, which is true. And although it's good work, work that makes me happy and time fly, I realized that I need to recapture that spirit of play, be willing to let pieces suck, and draw without reference... but that's likely a topic for another day. Be sure to check back here on the Roost for that! A lot is going on on my Instagram too - I'll be posting most of these pictures there and celebrating 500 followers! That's a big milestone, and I'm going to try to focus on being grateful for that rather than envious of 1000... let's see how that goes. ;) As usual, feel free to share Roost posts with your friends if you think they would be helpful. People really seemed to like the only "advice" post I have on here, and I plan on posting a few more tutorial kind of stuff here over the summer, so if there's a specific topic you want me to cover, let me know in the comments. 

Thankful for you guys, your readership, and your support! Hope your summer is off to a great start.

-dh


ALSO Music Recommendation for this week: I've been playing the BotW Hyrule Castle theme frequently to make everything seem more epic, maybe you would like a (Triforce of) Courage boost too? I finished BotW the week before the sailing trip and Man Was It Awesome. Storming the castle is so intense, especially when accompanied by this song. And for those Ambrosia fans out there, know that she participated in the final battle against Ganon! Very cool. Thanks Fujibayashi. More BotW art (and Ambrosia art???) to come during Zeldathon this June 13. 

woah that sounded official 

A Happiest of Days, A Saddest of Days

photo of the artist from back when his hair was even longer

photo by Arina P.

written on April 30, 2019

God is good! Today has just been a most fantastic of days and I wanted to make sure I recorded at least some of it on the Roost, cause days like these are treasures and God's faithfulness ought to remembered. Consider it a very joyful Ebenezer.

Today was the last day of my sophomore year of college - meaning that the brutal hours of the finals push are at last over. I gave myself a massive storyboarding load to do, and as usual, not enough time to do it. I was up until 3:30 am this morning, very late for me, especially since I had been working on boards since 9am on the previous day... But I felt very proud of what I had made and the final sequence felt worth all the time put into it! Always nice when it works out that way. It was received positively during the critique (at 8am) and we had a nice storyboarding exam time/party. Summer was finally here!

Then I checked my email and found out that I had been offered an internship by Cartoon Saloon. And there was no one else in the animation lab. So I was free to express the intense happiness of getting my first ANIMATION internship EVER and reaching the beginning of summer in the most exuberant display of fist pumping, unskilled dancing, and shouts of praise. And dance and praise I did. I don't think I had felt this good all semester. I found Tom. He gave me a hug. Things were awesome. And when I found Aedan we learned that he had got the Cartoon Saloon internship too! So we're both going to Ireland this summer! SO AWESOME! Lots of high fives were to be had. It's still kind of hard to believe. But I am so thankful for God's providence and so ready for this summer. This was totally His doing.

Wow. Just wow. I'm going to Cartoon Saloon!

It all seems like a wonderful dream come true. I've been in a weird spot expectation-wise - since I applied to so many studios, I kinda thought I had to get a yes from at least one, but as the torrent of no's rained in, I was reminded of my equally strong expectation that there was no way that I would get an internship on the first go around. And one of my new favorite artists, who is leagues ahead of me art-wise, had been recently posting about her internship rejections. So I figured it was kinda out of the picture for this summer. But God works in mysterious ways, and here I am! I've never felt "imposter syndrome" before, but maybe this is what it feels like?

written on May 15, 2019

Everything has kinda come crashing down regarding the CS internship. About a week ago, Aedan and I got an email from Cartoon Saloon explaining that due to a strict minimum wage law in Ireland, they recently discovered that unpaid internships with non EU citizens were illegal. Cartoon Saloon unfortunately had to rescind their offer. It was a big shock, probably more to Aedan than me, cause CS is his dream studio and I couldn't really accept that this internship wasn't going to happen. I decided to fight this decision as long as I could, without burning any major bridges at the studio. My dad was able to find an internship visa that we hadn't noticed before, one that seemingly allowed for unpaid work even with the minimum wage law. We contacted friends and tried to get as much advice as we could (it's very nice to have a lawyer for a dad in these kind of circumstances). The visa was kinda a long shot - it required a lot of documentation and had a long (8 week max) processing time. But I wanted this internship and was willing to work even more for it. Cartoon Saloon seemed willing to consider this option. I read some Ireland travel books, finished an illustration announcing the internship, and started getting together the documentation, all as an act of faith. In retrospect, it may not have been the smartest idea to try to "prove" my faith to God. I was just praying that He would make a way, and I wanted to show that I knew he could provide. But I was offered this internship by grace, and if it was still going to happen, then it would be by grace as well.

But today was the death knell for the internship. Worried about the high processing time, CS decided that this option was too risky. And the wording in the email seemed to indicate that there would be no more options. It was over. And I can't blame them either. They've put in a lot of work trying to get just two little interns from the US when I'm sure they would have had a much easier time getting talented people from the EU. Throughout the whole process Cartoon Saloon has been very gracious, and I don't write all this out of anger with them. Please don't blame them either. I really like Cartoon Saloon! I still very much want to work with them and maybe Aedan and I would have the chance to next summer. If I am angry with anyone, it's the Irish labor lawmakers who didn't really consider this exception to their otherwise well-intentioned law.

But it still sucks. And it's hard to find the joy in today, or how things turned out. I've begun making plans for the summer that I hope will be fruitful: creating an artbook for sale and pre-production on my junior year film, in addition to some travel. I think it will be a good summer. But my window of time for getting an internship just got one summer smaller. (Many studios want people who are at junior level yet still in college - meaning I only have one more summer before I don't perfectly meet those requirements.) I thought it was important to share both the beginning and the end of this particular application experience, because the happy moments are the easiest to share online and the ones that are the most fun to write about. But the sad moments exist too, and ought to be remembered as well. I think it's easy to forget most, if not all, successful artists (well, actually, people in general) had moments when things weren't going well, when plans gave out, and when it seemed like there was nowhere else to go. And this just felt like one of those moments.

-dh