This is Allie.

She knows she’s really hideous with her headgear and all, so she thought she’d try to be as pretty as a princess– that’s why she decked out her headgear with stars and sparkly things.

Isn’t that the ugliest baby you’ve ever seen?! This is the bum in the box that Allie meets on her solo walk around the block. A crazy war vet, this hobo lost his legs to the war– did I mention he lost his mind, too? He’s CONVINCED that the Flood’s going to happen again. So he’s prepared. He’s got a cardboard box. He thinks that all those people in cars made the unintelligent choice of a large piece of metal with four tires…. That won’t float! CLEARLY his cardboard box is going to make it, as it’s made of paper, which comes from trees, and trees are made out of…. wood. And wood floats. (Kinda like duck-witch-Monty-Python logic). So he’s ready for the Flood, and preaches to Allie about getting her own cardboard box.

I want a crazy dog like that. Well, a sculpture of one, at least!

…. Maybe Ghandi IS a ninja in his down-time?…..

Lookie, he turned into a pirate! (See left drawing). The pegleg and eyepatch say it all.

…Of course, the fatty happy bull didn’t want to put up the fight. I think he won in the end

I was lucky enough to snag a spot in the upper-classmen Character Design class! (That’s becuase there’s a new teacher in town who distracted all the old Character Animation students. That meant only one person was enrolled in Character Design with Rick Maki; because of the sore lack of enrollment, the department decided to allow first years into that class!

I don’t believe I’ve ever gone through 27 pages in a sketchbook before in a single week.

What a busy semester this is going to be!!!

Last week our Friday lecture was from Shane Prigmore and Shannon Tindle, who (on top of giving us a great lecture and lots of pretty, inspiring drawings) gave us all an assignment due this week: to design Oliver, the Artful Dodger and Fagin from Oliver Twist. They provided us with text samples from the book– the rest was up to us!

When I first read the description of Fagin, I immediately started drawing this strange melted candle thing… I decided to make him a sort of snake-candle that’d been melted and melts his way along wherever he goes, because he’s such a slimy creep! So there it is and there you go, the most abstract design presented tonight

And there’s the Artful Dodger, AKA Jack Dawkins. I figured I’d make his coat extra long so it would drag on the floor like a cape– because to him it probably is a cape; he snatched it off of some unsuspecting pedestrian, I’m sure, and consequently is proud of his prize and considers himself a superhero at his art of sticky fingers.

Compare these concept paintings to the sculpted maquette!