Everything I draw ends up wearing a bow-tie

TL:DR- style and design stuff I guess

1) I have no idea. One day, you just find people are talking about ‘your style’, and you sit there and say you don’t have one and look confused. I have no real idea of how or when it happened to me, and I would say even now that I have several different styles. Also, the idea of 'sticking with a style’ once you’ve found it can actually be dangerous. Even if people like something, you mustn’t feel like you’re restricted to it- it will stagnate, and you will as well. My SKIP design method resulted from pushing the lines to their extreme, stretching and pulling and pushing everything as far as I could, to the point that it was uncomfortable, but only when I had gone that far could I see where it felt right and pull it back. If you don’t push something to the extreme, you’ll never know how far you could have gone.

Evolution and art go hand in hand; if you stop trying to change, to push yourself and improve, then you’ll go extinct. Change can scare people, and they might not like it; you might explore new methods and tricks that simply don’t work for you, but mistakes are the best way to learn. Some of my best pictures have resulted from mistakes- I remember during foundation year, when I was doing some very precise work with a dip pen, I sneezed and my ink spattered across the page. I almost cried, but then I saw it sort of looked like a cat freaking out. I finished it off as the cat, and started over again for the actual piece. Both were far better than the original would have ever been, and the cat was by far my favourite of the two. I still have it at home somewhere.

2) When I draw feeling I draw movement, and when I draw movement I draw feeling. Animators have to be constantly aware of what happened before and after the split moment in time that they are drawing- why is the cloth moving that way, how are they going to land on that foot, what vowel are they saying with their lips, how are they saying it, why? Why is the biggest question to ask when you are drawing something. You are drawing someone who is shy- why are they shy? What sort of shy are they? Is it gangling and awkward, are they curling in on themselves away from the world, or do they simply not want others to know that they are afraid? In one of my acting classes I was told that the best way to portray an emotion in a scene is to try to be the exact opposite- someone who is scared will try to look brave, and as a result seem even more scared. As long as you know the motive of a character- what the character wants, and why they want it- you can do anything.

Motive drives everything, and that includes lines and shapes. With Hare, I wanted to express menacing resentment- in other words, his prerogative is to look mean, but the drive is bitterness. So, imagine what that emotion looks like, feels like, then think about how humans express it physically and combine the two. The result is everything is hooked over and slouching with the chin jutting right out in the front, like a moody teenager trying to make a point that he plain does not give a shit about posture or anything else. The shape is curling in and around itself with hooks and snarls- even though it still reads as aggressive, when you analyze it an abstract way, it is still defensive. He is creating a barrier against the world around him with his own construct.

Silhouette is very important in character design, but it is equally important in character acting- if you can tell what the character is doing by their silhouette, it’s a good drawing, if you can tell what the character is feeling by their silhouette, it’s a great drawing.

GOOD MORNING I HAD LESS THEN FIVE HOURS OF SLEEP

LET’S TRY TO MAKE UP FOR SORT OF EXPLODING LAST NIGHT

EVEN THOUGH I DON’T REGRET ANY OF IT

YOSH

Oh HO HO

Okay, so, usually I would just ignore this and move on but-

EXCUSE ME FOR JUST A MOMENT BECAUSE I’M OFFICIALLY GOING TO LOSE MY RAG.

ACTUALLY SOD THAT THE RAG IS NOT MISPLACED, I JUST CHUCKED IT OVER THE BALCONY. THEN SHOT IT. WITH A BAZOOKA.

Find a good comfy chair and sit your royal posterior the fuck down, my dear Anon, because you are going to listen and listen well.

Point one: Animation does not automatically mean that it has to be cute. Have you seen Grave of the Fireflies? I’m guessing not. If I mentioned the name Jan Svankmajer you’d probably say ‘bless you.’ At least tell me you’ve heard of South Park, because if not I really am going to despair of there being the slightest chance of any of this penetrating the congealed porridge of your stagnated mind.

Animation is a medium. It is an art form. It can be used to any ends and be applied to any audience. It can be horrifying or adorable, it can be disturbing or heart warming, but even if it is frightening and disturbing that doesn’t mean it isn’t inspirational or beautiful.

Point two: clambering back all over your words and saying sorry sorry sorry is just disgusting, stop that. One apology would have been enough. To say sorry can be a difficult thing if it is sincere, and then it is only required to be said once. Words are a precious commodity, do not abuse them, and especially not the words that matter the most. Repetition echoes insincerity.

Point three: I did not ask for you to apologize on your standpoint. You are perfectly permitted to have your own opinion. I actually enjoy critique, if it is well placed, and will always strive to improve my work, which I know is always in need of improvement. The thing that got my back up was the callous supposition that I would adjust my style for you, because clearly I will listen to one anonymous person who knows much more about character design than I do after studying animation for four years and being an active professional in the field.

Point four: Fuck you.

Point five: Time zones. An odd thing to consider I know, but, if you do 'love my work’ I assume that you have been following me for long enough to know that I am situated in Vancouver. I also assume that you know that tomorrow is Monday, a working day from nine to six for me, which will involve, what? Drawing. Lots of it. Now, why am I drawing for a living? Because I’ve studied it? No, because I love it. I live for it. It burns inside my mind and heart like ten thousand hot coals from dawn to dusk and if I did not draw I would probably explode from sheer enthusiasm. The thing is that burning coals, no matter how hot they are, can be doused with water. If this is all getting too metaphorical for you let me be plain; fruitless criticism is water. Constructive criticism, on the other hand, is wood- I can use it to improve, to burn brighter and hotter and produce more and better work. To get this frozen heap of horseshit landed on my emotive state, which I will admit is not very stable today (perhaps because I’m ill or, hell, I don’t know, one my favourite human beings was mugged today and I can’t do a damned thing about it), is not very beneficial for a person who relies on her artistic motivation to make a living.

Point six: Refer to point four.

Thank you very much to everyone who has been supportive of me in regards to this, but we all know how one piece of negative thought can all but eclipse one hundred good ones.

Right.

Fuck this I’m going to bed.

Urgh sorry, that probably wasn’t necessary.

Also the more I look at these anon messages the more I get the feeling they’re all from the same person…

that is…

sad.

Today has not been a greatly inspiring day in regards to humanity :T

Dear brave anons

you’re allowed to have your opinions on my style

you’re allowed to not like it

but it is my style

I am not going to change it for you because it creeps you out

you also appear to be completely missing the fact that that is part of the point of it and who I am

thanks for letting my night end on such a positive note after spending all day drawing those for no profit whilst feeling sick as a parrot

hope you all sleep well too.

I wish I could draw or say something in regards to what just happened to Michael to make everything better, but I can’t.

All I can say I’m so glad he’s okay, I’m yet again gobsmacked at how any human being can react in such a positive and noble manner, and that it’s things like this that make me want to rent out a batman costume and go fucking rogue.