Happy Holidays !

Wish you all Happy holidays and a Fantastic year ahead :) Yaay!!

Draw draw draw !

click to enlarge

At cafe Zest

Finger-painting with Sketchbook Pro on iPod.

I had sketched this one some weeks back at a coffee shop in Pune while I was waiting for a friend. Today I finished painting it, I tried some new things and it was fun!

Brushes

A couple of weeks back I installed the Brushes App for iPod, its fantastic. I like Sketchbook Pro for drawing, but Brushes is a brilliant app for Painting.

These are my first paintings in Brushes.

This is a bakery/cafe some of us from work frequently eat at. This was done from memory.

This portrait was done at a CafeCoffeeDay.

Superheroes

 

I drew this one on a friend's tablet PC. Its fun drawing directly on the screen with a Stylus, gives a nice tactile feel like pen on paper. Batman, as usual, is a joy draw.

 

This ones drawn with fingertips on the iPod /Sketchbook app during a lunch break.

John Hill Podcast

This week speakingofanimation.com posted a new Interview podcast with John Hill. John has been at Dreamworks Animation since "Spirit". Recently he worked as Supervising Animator on Madagascar2 and Shrek4. 

We at Dreamworks India are having the pleasure of working with him as he is the HOCA (Head of Character Animation) for the current show. I feel incredibly lucky to get the opportunity to work under him!

Apart from being amazing at Animation, John is a very humble and inspiring person. Do listen to the episode, I am sure you will be very inspired as well.

Even Gordon Freeman needs a break

Back when I was in school/ junior college, Half-Life and its sequel HL-2 were my favorite games.
Yesterday I was doing some sketching at a coffee-shop and felt like drawing the fantastic brawns+brains combo of "Gordon Freeman", the character we role-play in HL.
Inspired by the surroundings, thought it would be cool to have him just relax and sip a Latte for a change.
Below is the one I drew first and then improved on the idea in the computer.

Disney's Tinkerbell 3

The direct-to-DVD film I worked on at my previous job - Disney's "Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue" released last month. Feeling excited to be a part of a show that is out there for audiences to watch ! IMDB link
Congrats to all my friends who worked on it :)

Heres a trailer. Enjoy!

Beware of those Vans !

One night last week, I was walking back home after dinner. The weather was cool and my tummy was full - which also means I was in a pleasant mood.

 

Out of nowhere a Omni Van pulled in front of me..

And stopped !! I was terrified !

Then came the scarier part - the door slided open.

 

 It really creeped me out.

 

To add to it, a scary big hand poked out.

 

I was frozen with shock!

 

Now, you must be thinking, whats so scary about all this? Well, havnt you watched Hindi films? Omni Vans are the favorite vehicle of kidnappers ! If you dont know, go watch them. Take Sarfarosh and Fiza for example (for good and bad films respectively)

Why do kidnappers like the Van so much? Think ..
A guy is riding on a scooter.

 

The bad guys follow him.

 

 The door SLIDES !

 

Gone !

 

.. and no one knows it happened !

 

Well, now that you know why a Van is a scary thing, I'll return to what happened. I was frozen for a moment. A lot of thoughts went through my head - why would anyone kidnap me? What if they made me a slave animator?!! EEEEEEEEKK. Isnt that scary ?!

Few seconds later, I jolted back to reality and realized the Van was gone and I was still there.

 

I thanked God and decided I should make a Public Service Announcement (like at the end of those G.I.Joe TV show episodes) and make everyone aware about the Omni vans. They are Mean Kidnapping-Machines !

By the way - they are also used for transporting passengers (non-kidnapped) and other harmless goods like milk, bread, postal delivery and stuff. But still - BEWARE !

You'll Thank me when you dodge one.

Sketchbook Adventures - UBCity Mall

One day, third post!  I've been drawing a lot lately, just being lazy to blog it out. So here we go.
Yesterday I was at UBCity mall, which is incredibly posh. It suddenly started raining - too heavily. I was stuck at the food court and luckily had my sketchbook with me.

I hadnt even planned to go sketching but Thanks to Indra, the rain god!
A sub + coffee + drawing = Time well spent.

Enough blogging, time for some Tea :)

Sketchbook Adventures - neighbourhood Mall

 Last weekend went out to a mall nearby for sketching with fellow Dreamworks Unit Animator Nideep Varghese. We had a great time doing a sketch marathon. So far I have been doing more of gesture drawing, so the faces havn't been detailed enough. This time I gave them a little prime time.
 I see a huge learning curve ahead. Btw check out Nideep's blog - its definitely one for the bookmarks. He is kick-ass at drawing and well, animation !

Next time I'll try and find a better way to capture them, I am using my phone for now. Ideal way should be to use a scanner, hmmm.