I've been busy revising my movie scene idea and made some changes to my characters. This is what I've put together for a sketch. My movie set is built and I'm ready to start making my characters.  I just bought an excellent book for reference of children's facial expressions. It's "Facial Expressions Babies to Teens," by Mark Simon. As I said - It's excellent.  There's hundreds of photos of different kids by age making all sorts of different facial expressions.  It's an artist must have.  There's another edition for adult facial expressions as well. 

I'm already feeling a difference in my second figure drawing session.  I'm rebuilding my focus and feel much more fluid than the first session. 

Its been about 3 years since my last figure drawing class.  I decided to start going to "The New Art Center," in Newtonville,MA that has weekly open studio figure drawing. 

I felt so out of shape with the whole thing.  In the begining my hands had a shakiness and my shoulder was on fire after 40 minutes of constant drawing.  The model was excellent though, never moving. By the end of the session I felt everything start to come back again but I'm going to need to start going weekly to get myself back in shape.

This chair has a hideous pattern (if you can't tell it's plaid, floral, and navajo) but it's nice and comfortable for Sunday morning sketches.

Just some new children's illustrations I'll be working on.  Today I went out and bought my supplies to start making the red upholstered seats which I'm wicked excited about. I think I'll be able to use some interesting lighting in this one to give the feel of a scary movie. Maybe some green LED lights!

For my most recent illustration I thought I'd share a bit of my process.

First I gathered some house hold trash and then started to build my city.

Then I painted the city and built traffic signals and sign posts.

I built my main character with super sculpey and painted her with Holbein's Acryla Gouache.  Holbein's Acryla Gouache is my new prefered paint for the sculptures. It gives everything a nice matte finish.

After that I sculpted the crowd.  I made them less detailed and smaller for the back ground.  Then I set it up and took about 230 photos till I got the perfect shoot. 

Now I'm taking the coffee break!

This sketch is for my next illustration.  The signs and traffic lights will be fun to make.  I was thinking of wiring some LED's into the traffic lights.  Seems possible.  Maybe Michael will be helping me with that one.