havenart

January 21st, 2008 by admin

As a bit of a filler until some new entries are finished — Interesting Instructional Animation Blogs!

Spline Doctors — Has several different contributors (who are teachers, apparently!), all discussing animation, from techniques to thought processes to interviews and more. They have tons of links to sites of interest. Definitely a place to visit if you’re into the production of animation.

Flip — This blog is written by an animator who has been working for six years and includes tip and tricks of the trade. It looks to be computer animation, so it’s definitely an interesting blog to note!

January 15th, 2008 by admin

n.design studio is an interesting place, particularly if you’re into using Adobe Illustrator for vector drawings. Nick La, the website creator, is a web designer and has graciously put a ton of illustrator tutorials up that will help any artist interested in learning about vector art. I was able to use his photo tracing tutorial to practice tracing over my sketches with the vector tool. Still sloppy, but a decent start on getting comfortable with the process! He also has wordpress themes, dreamweaver tutorials and much more. Plus his site’s web design is pretty bangin’.

January 11th, 2008 by admin

Admin note: Neondragon posted this on her Livejournal, calling it “a sad story” … and I thought it would make a great little mini tutorial on the “ACEO” (sketchcards, art cards, etc) art card craze that’s taken over as of late. So enjoy! Neondragon does some amazing fantasy work, so also check her site out! Please note that the tutorial has paraphrased her exact words to allow for some extra artistic information and for formatting. The original posting is located HERE.

ACEO Art Cards — A Mini Tutorial

by Jessica “Neon Dragon” Peffer @ NeonDragonArt.com

Intro Notes: A lot of artists are making “ACEO” art cards as of late, which are pocket-sized original artwork done on a standard 2.5×3.5 card. Hundreds of artists make them, and the variety in style and medium contributes to the majority of the appeal. So I got it in my head that I was gonna make me an ACEO of a nice dragon.

1. I taped off the drawing area, then drew a teeny dragon.

2. I painted flat colors with teh paints!

3. I added some shadin’s. (for depth)

4. I’m like “LOL neon paint”!

5. I drew with my pencil cuz that’s all I knew to do!

6. And boom! ACEO! I peeled off the tape and admired my nice clean white edge. I was pretty proud…

Detail shots:

7. And then…then I was like “Oh hey, it’s like real art. I should sign it. Artists do that, right? I’m an artist lol.”

Why do I do these things!? That was just about the worst placement I could have chosen. And I had to use ink… because of the slight sheen the pencil sig that I started didn’t work.

8. But I fixed it! The next day. I repainted the background and you can’t even see that it was repainted. It actually works better now. It’s a blue violet that’s more vibrant, and it really makes the orange pop — LOL, color theory!

Finito! Check out Neondragon’s work @ NeonDragonArt!