Anton von Flugelhorn – Studying online with Glenn Vilppu, an adventure in art!

If you wonder what I mean by “sissy girl” in the title of this week and if you are considering writing me a flaming letter about women’s rights and strengthes, may I first remember for those who may have forgotten that my screen name Anton stands for Antonia my 4th given name (yes 4th! I’m french, if I had been born Spanish like a friend of mine I would have 6 or 7 of them!). So I am a girl, and when I talk about sissy girls I mean: girls who scream when they see a mouse, wait for prince charming to come and rescue them instead of rescuing themselves, and also girls who consider that cutting up a roasted chicken is “man’s job” (actually having some knowledge in artistic anatomy helps in that task, so I cut up burned corpses of birds served in pretty large plates much better than any man in the family).
But why is this week not for sissy girls? Remember last week how Glenn told me he would give me hell with the nitty gritty?
OK, HE HAS, and you know what….. he’s right….. AGAIN!

Here is what I sent in for assignment: two ruffs and a comp (comp= almost finished piece) all in one jpg as they dont deserve a digimark protection number each!

This said I love them even if I mistreated them this week, so they are digimarcked, and I am not a sissy girl as established up above, so dont use without permission or I’ll come and make your worse karma come true.

Why “week not for sissy girls” What Glenn told me during the critic of these images was that the comp (bottom one) was sort of ok but the drawing could be improved in many places, and as for the two others they were flattened by the colors (what do colours have to do in a rough?) the line weight was the same everywhere, all this making them unreadable composition-wise.

Glenn knows me well enough to know that I can take the heat – I’m the kind of person to say: “oh look a torpedo, full speed ahead let’s see what happens!”.

But still not for sissy girls.
Between the moment I heard the critic and the moment I could talk to him during the live chat a strange little duo appeared in my mind: one was agitated and claiming it was a scandal being told things so directly and truthfully and critically, while the other whined on and on about how I’m no good and I should never have imagined I could do anything artistic. This may sound funny or idiotic but two days with those voices made it exhausting just living (for my husband too!). I tried to tell those voices that I was here to learn, and that you can only learn from your mistakes, plus I’ve got the best teacher to help me – so shut up. But it was not a thing for sissy girls indeed.
The chat finally came and I could talk to Glenn, as usual he took the time needed to show me the way and analyse the problem (I think he was expecting it – that man sees more than he says) His diagnosis: I need to work with value, depth, more details, more care – in fact what he had told me last week but I had not understood or listen or been able to do it. My fault, lesson understood this time I hope, if not I’ll work on it again! Not “sissy” but definitely “boneheaded”, that I am, mate!
Now I know exactly what to do: pen, paper, think every line but don’t loose spontaneity – something I’m not sure I could have attempted earlier. Ok let’s do it! we’ll see if I got it write this time!
See you next week folks
Anton

        Week ten and end of compo 1! Time flies like an arrow (which translated by Bing or Google translate into French gives something like: “time loves flies (insect) an arrow”).
        Comic-wise, I don’t know if I’ve out come of WTF mode: I have realised how much work is ahead of me and I’m working hard on it – the comic, the character, wordpress security, webcomics must-dos and must-not-dos, you name it… And of course right now is the time my brain chooses for another helping of “I can’t draw at all anymore”. Well I don’t have time for this shit: I’ve got work to do! So I’m currently designing the faces of my characters in zbrush – realistic style – I’ll caricature them later.
        I’ll blog about that when I start my webcomic, so enough about this.
        Anyway, week ten. I went on using only pencil and paper.
        Glenn, as usual, gave me a thorough and very useful critic on my three pieces:

        First, the office scene. Last week he asked me to zoom in on the real action and lower the camera (I’m translating in movie language, apologies). Here is what I’ve done:

        Glenn’s comments could be summed up by “almost there, exaggerate the movement even more”, it’s true the puppets could accompany the movement of the swooning girl, the character on the right of her is useless, and the unhappy guy on the second row and his neighbours could have move movement, expressing better what they feel, and making the action of the main characters more obvious.
        The legs in the background are… to my surprise, an excellent idea: the world does not end at the border of the image!!!

        My other work in progress was the coming home of the drunk father and the protective good guy being….er…. protective of mama and baby, all this with the emphasis on diagramming space.
        I followed last week’s comments to the best of my abilities (and added thickness to doors and windows…… grrrrr … I’m so stupid sometimes). Here is the scene’s new version:

        OK, let’s tell it like it is: it now looks like mr good guy is threatening mama and child, and drunk dad is coming home either to hit her… or save her from the good guy! LOL, talk about a drawing that reads backwards!!! Imagine Michelangelo drawing a crucifixion scene in which Mary looks like she holding her son in position while they are brutally nailing His hands to the cross…. no, no, no! Must redo this for compo 2 (and the office scene too, cause it’s nearly ok… which is a more flattering reason, I confess :-D)

        As for the topic of the week, it’s a biggie: rhythm and timing!
        As a famous computer would have said: “…hmmm, tricky!”
        After much thinking I went the Mayan way (remember the Mayans? Their huge and blood soaked empire got over-taken by 200 sick and hungry Spaniards on tired horses, but today some people still read and believe their prophecies. Go figure.)
        Here is my pseudo Maya scene (and don’t email me about the historical exactitude of this sacrifice scene, or I make them into Mayans from another planet and then I have them do whatever I want!).

        Glenn spent quite some time on this one, talking to me about the big things: perspective should be different for the sacrifice rock (and the corpse at the bottom), why so many mountains when one would suffice to emphasis the chasm, also the right side of the image (beyond the head of the plummeting guy) is frankly useless.
        We’ll work again on this one and the attached topic during week one of compo two.

        Composition two start this coming week, the chat is at an unusual time due to Glenn being in Japan – in the afternoon for the US….. at 6am for Europe.
        I’ll be there, and I’ll be here too, blogging about it all. If you feel like dropping me a line, get in touch on Facebook with Anton von Flugelhorn, I’ll be happy to make new pals!

        One week-end is all I’ve got to work “only” on my comic. Next week, madness strikes again, LOL!
        I haven’t had the time to really finish any drawing during this compo 1 class, but I do feel like it has completely changed my approach to drawing: drawing is only part of a larger process, don’t make such a fuss over it, shut and draw, if the result is bad, throw it away, do another one, a hundred other ones, after all, it’s only drawing.
        I think it’s significant that the other day, I thought to myself: “hum, that kind of building seen from above…. let’s build a rough of in sketchup to see what it’s like, and where to put the camera” and my next thought was “naaaah…. it’s faster drawing it!”
        I would never ever have thought *that* only a month ago.
        The class has changed me deeply, but then it’s logical: compo is the favourite topic of the greatest drawing teacher of the planet – if you add to it my working hard, and doing what he says (he’s always right even when I don’t understand why… very unnerving at times LOL) a winning combination I guess.

        See you next week my friends, draw! draw! draw! and have fun!!

Anton aka Marie

This week I tried every evening to draw, sketch doodle mindlessly, while chatting with my family (that includes the dog “woof” and “shut up” being the meat of that dialogue.
        It might have to do with my watching the excellent documentary Stripped (about cartoonists, authors of “funnies”, web comics etc) but I ended up making a sort of four images strip (for you manga fans: a “4 koma”) I thought I’d share it here, it’s autobiographical obviously:

        I do think too much and draw better when I reach “the zone” when “it” draws, reread Herigel’s classic little book on zen archery for more on this feeling. I can but fight this by drawing a lot, far more than before. This week I must have draw several hundred thumbnails, most of them of no value, but almost all of them were on different topics or scenes, also it’s now becoming more natural to me to position my “camera” in a non “photo taken in the street” position. These two points are really big steps forwards for me, I’m not sure it make me better at composition but it makes me better at drawing and that is fantastic!
        For fun I included the little strip above on my assignment, Glenn laughed a lot and told me I *am* a cartoonist at heart and talked about my head drawing, constructing heads in the classic manner but doing exaggerated feature like Daumier. Is he trying to tell me something ? 😀 I’m going to go on doing some 4 komas just to see how I feel about it, and caricatures à la Daumier. Any drawing is good for me!
        Last week I promised you some togas, here they are as a ruff for the topic of the week: mass against space:

        Yes yes, I know, it’s totally “Mary, baby Jesus and Joseph” in appearance, an odd subject for an old Buddhist like me, but they could be any family from the days of togas, they could even be the Baptist and his Mom and Dad LOL! See in this what you feel like seeing, that is fine with me! (got nothing against baby Jesus or his family!)
        More seriously I kept thinking how the old master had it easy with compo with all the togas and folds and clouds and rocks etc. I decided to try it myself.
        Is it easier? Hmmmmmm in a way: you have more choice, but deciding that the fold of Mom’s lap is going to have a certain shape so it leads the eye to Dad is…. difficult: can I get of with i? is it cloth wise believable? is it a good choice? will people notice – is it too subtle or not subtle enough?
        Composition is a complex game of choices and also of self confidence, knowing one’s audience, experience.It’s not just pointing a red arrow with a bubble saying in blinking letters “important thing over there!”
        To my surprise Glenn did not comment on the family or the folds of their togas. He found the tree a i hard to read and advised me to add roots to it so it reads better, my diagramming of space is ok with the carpet on the floor and scenery, but the rock on the side is not big enough to make this a “mass against space” image.
        Embarrassed smile…. I did the image thinking of the family plus tree as the mass, the rest being space, the rock being a repeat or reminder of the family mass. Another drawing that does read one way for me, another for others! Glenn advises me (same for the two other drawing below) to draw on paper next week, no cintiqing at all. OK, let’s see what it changes!
        My sinking titanic and the star couple being noticeable thanks to compo only…… I can’t stand that titanic thing any more! so I change completely the topic for the final of that “couple in crowd”. It’s suposed to be a final, it’s only a first try, a thumbnail, I’ll work on that later. here is the beast:

        I was quite happy with the way I put in star position my couple (the guy has to be James Stewart -D) the work with the scarf, the window behind etc.
        Glenn pointed out two things: one small: the tall guy on the right has a head that is far too big, and most important: the old knitting lady looks like she in front of the others, forward really. I did not wan that, to me these people were all lining up at the bus stop but not I can see: the little guy on her right looks like he’s leaning against her and not the bus stop panel.
        Also the tangent between the shop window and the bus stop sign kill the depth of the image – image to be reworked on during the free week right before compo2 class!

        Last thing: the “comp” for my cubicle love scene, last week it was too still and vague, who was the scene about?
        This is my new take on it:

        Glenn’s advice: much better but I can play more with position (they are all at equal distance from the others, yuk) I could have my red hair girl bend more one way, her colleagues be in more exaggerated positions.
        I’m being too subtle once more. Again Glenn asks me to work on paper and with pencil only – ok let’s do that and see!

        Next week is week 9 of the ten week course, let’s go for it: subtlety bye bye! (and cintiq good night)

        See you next week for more about my adventures in time, space and art!

Lost at sea, truly lost, as Alice would say, this is a difficult week; but things are starting to move in my head (I know cause I come from the future: I’m writing this from the vantage point of….. august and this week that I’m describing is in july! (insert mad scientist laughter here or, failing that, the Aracuane ’s song from Disney’s Très Compañeros!)

my final of last week’s killer sequence has change a lot, Glenn likes it except for the girl when she gets blasted, it’s hard to read and should be redone – I will when I can. He likes the counterpoint of all the actions that take place above the killing scene. Dont quite know where I got that idea from, it’s not quite composition, more “playing with elements of composition” but I guess it’s already something!
here it is:

my “comp” (the “almost there” stage) of my banana peel has improved too according to Glenn: the creation of the shop instead of the wall behind the action gives some more “arrows” pointing the eye toward the tragedy about to unfold (the shoulder line of the girl in the shop, the wave of the window shop decoration etc.) but it’s not clear says Glenn if it’s a poster or if it’s a shop… more 3D please seems to be the message he has for me!

this is the “thing in question”:

        Which brings to mind a game I invented: try using naturally in a normal conversation the following sentence: “I think my banana peel is too close to the suer man”. I did use that sentence naturally, but can you 😀 my circumstances are not yours (insert another insane laughter – this is Vincent Price type laughter week)

        So the girl getting blasted did not read well even though it was easy to guess what was happening to her, and the shop in the banana disaster scene is not an easy read either.
        Funny, cause I read them very well, just as I read well my Hamlet two week ago. Is there a pattern emerging here?
        The “topic” of the week being a couple stands out of a crowd thanks to composition I decided to do this (and I dont tell you what it is so you can see if you can read it of not)

        Now can you read (understand) the action? Glenn could not and read it as a sort of swimming pool thing, a confusing multi actions scene with nobody standing out clearly of it.
        This was, in my head and in my head only, the sinking of the titanic, 3rd class, 2 corpses float in the water, children are the priority, they must be saved, but panic is high and so is water!
        Fail! major fail! and I was certain it read loud and clear with our romantic couple arm extended towards each other in an horizontal if Bollywoodesque moment.
        Two lessons t be learn for me (three if you count the ego being bruised: I was happy with myself on that one):
        1/you the artist know what you are representing in an image, the viewer doesn’t, even with a tell tale title (which is cheap and old fashioned) they have no idea at all what they are watching – ok there is water and there are people, but outside of that it can be anything: the swimming pool, the titanic, what I did during my vacation, the martians invading the Aloha islands…. what you know is useless, it’s what is in your picture that people will see, they are not telepaths.
        2/ dont be subtle, well, not the super subtle kind of subtle. This guy is important? OK make that unescapable – and as this is a compo class, make that unescapable trough composition!
        If you look at the great masters of the past, they kept representing Jesus (the church being the big big client for art at the time), now their Jesus sometimes has a halo, plus a mystical glow, plus is wearing expensive colours that only the star of the painting will wear (blue aka lapis pazuli, at the time would cost more than gold!) and everybody is looking at him either to beat him or crucify him or to hear his wise words, all are towards him, even the animals. YET the great master would STILL use compo to make him stand out – the fold of the cloth of the guys around him, the hills behind, the clouds, everything manipulates your eyes towards Jesus. And the result? It’s SUBTLE, yes for all the “in your face” and “all the tricks of the trade” and the (bully’s voice:) “he’s the big guy in this painting O-K-?” it comes out as subtle!
        This is what I have learned this week.
        actually I realised al that a week after “this week”, but it’s “this week” that made me face it. And Glenn was right: I was on the right track, and my being lost was quite a good sign. It’s a must go through moment. There are many such moment when you learn a craft, and there is none so difficult and complex and rich….. and fun, than composition.
        I can now see all I have to learn, which is a lot! 😀 but I can also see in which direction Glenn is taking us 😀
        And i shall disagree with him for once: the old masters had it easy with the togas and draperies and halos – try their compo with tight t-shirts and jeans!

        This said, based on my past experience he’s very very probably right and the type of cloth makes no difference, I’m not not at the level when it doesn’t matter anymore 😀
        and by the way: for the past two nights I’ve dreamt entirely in pencilled thumbnails…. there are things happening in my brain.
        Thanks Glenn for the guidance and the patience!

        More next week…. with some togas for fun!

actually I’m late, this is typed on august the 3rd, and week 9 starts tomorrow, so I shall hopefully post “next week” aka “week 7” tomorow.
the reason for this: Glenn is so happy with the interest and progress of the class students that he’s created a compo 2 class that will start on the 25th of august. I plan on finishing my blog on compo 1 before that to avoid going actually mad!        

this week we have to work on:
ruff: several moments in time on the same image (no coping out by doing a comic strip thank you – I tried to talk about it and Glenn laughed)
comp: take last week’s ruff of two groups of people and make it more developped
final: third and last week on the “people taking very little place in space” and I wish I had had a few ore days but deadlines are deadlines!

        How do I feel? odd: on the one hand I’m still confused about composition and it’s link to story telling, I feel uneasy, not sure of myself there, but on the other hand I’m realising that drawing – ya know, that “thing” called drawing we all have to keep working at for years to come, me most of all – well, drawing is not really the problem in a piece of art, be it a cartoon or a comic or a fine art thingy.
        I’m just realising (and two of my class mates told me they felt the same) that being forced to work like crazy on composition, thinking final work, space in the picture, puts us in a “real” situation, no just because of the deadline, but because of the question or what to do with the blank page – so far I would always say: “on a blank page I make a nice drawing” well, no more! it’s got to tell a story, catch the eye, direct the viewer, manipulate him/her as Hitchcock used to say of his movies (he did his story boards himself and was a very good draughtmans and artist)

        I think a big change is happening, alll this unbeknown to me (but beknown to Glenn :-D) and while I strugle, and complain on facebook that I feel like Homer Simpsons DOH! in front of a page on which to thumbnails something far more important gets set in motion! As for composition, no worries, i’ll get it, after all, I have the best teacher on the planet and only composition teacher on the planet on my side!!!

        Let’s take a look at my work of the week and what Glenn said about it

my ruff for several moments in one image:

        OK, I’m a Shakespeare fangirl so to me this reads totally well, but it seems people who have a “normal” relation to the Bard do not get anything of this image, the ghost in the middle is odd, the tomb on the top right doesn’t read, the lower left image is OK…… work to redo!

        My comp, still my rather insane walkirie versus ufo thing

        Glenn laughed, and I think he liked it, and he suggested something great: make the mountain or whatever in the background lower on he walkirie’s side to better lead the eye.
        I would be proud of this one, only I really inspired myself (sort of copied) the “circus” cartoon composition by Daumier, well sort of 😀

The final of people taking very little space but space leading to them:

I’m very happy with this one, sorry I did not have time to do a cleaner city. Glenn gave two comments that are great: the city is….. very conventional, and I have to agree, and he suggested to add some drawings on the floating sheets to A/ make it clear our sketchers are drawing not typing or something, and B/ to show the distance between the sheets close to us and those distant (small drawing large drawing).
        A great idea i’m going to implement as soon as I have 5 minutes, this is one image I want to finish really well.

        Doh indeed but I’m producing more drawings than ever, and my “oh it’s awful this drawing is going to the bin, what a waste” phase is gone: there is more where that came from, getting drawings rejected is normal (by myself or others) no big deal – yes, I just wrote “no big deal” about drawing! doesn’t mean i’m good at it, just that I see it in a new perspective: drawing is a tool, art is what you build with it and other tools.

        More of these consideration next week, thanks for following, if you have any question contact me on facebook!
        now – go back to drawing!!!!