Here is a brand new character- for now, he is Animation Freak boy. Here is a demo of his head construction beginning with simple forms and then just adding and adding and adding.

The expression on the Freek Boy allows me to demonstrate the facial mask and how the brows control the eye shapes.

Here are the Animation Freek Girl and Boy characters - any ideas for names?

These characters will be used for handouts and demos for our new online animation course.

This group is ready to make films

Family Programs 2008 at the Telfair Museum

Winter Session Dates (4 weeks): Jan 28-Feb 22
Spring Session Dates (6 weeks): April 14-May 23

Character Design for Teens (Ages 13-16) New!
Experience the art of animation in this overview session for teens. Participants will explore the basics of animation, weight, speed, timing, etc, through the creation of flipbooks, stop-motion projects, clay character-animation, and drawing. The student will be the animator and director!

Instructor: Larry Lauria
Materials included. $80 members/$90 non-members
Limit 15 students
Thursdays 4pm-6pm

Character Design for Adults Ages 17+ New!
Based on the Jepson Center exhibition Leadership: Oliphant Cartoons and Sculpture from the Bush Years, Character Design will teach you techniques to sketch and design cartoon characters. Hailing from the Disney Institute, seasoned animator Larry Lauria will guide you through the basics of animation and cartoon character development.

Instructor: Larry Lauria
A supply list will be provided. $80 members/
$100 non-members
Limit 12 students
Wednesdays 10am-1pm

To register: Please download the online registration form after contacting studio coordinator to check class availability at stifelt@telfair.org or 790-8823.

Hello.

I just cleared out my COMMENT box and the 2000 plus spam messages- that plus the 1200 + from the Christmas Holidays and it is NO FUN!

If you have a comment please email me at lanimate@bellsouth.net and I will transfer it to my page.

Thanks…

Here is Ty B. bear in Central Park skating with pretzels, a hot dog - in the bg in a subway and a carriage ride thru the Park

Okay, so I’m a bit late with the New year greetings. We spent Christmas and New Years in New York City with our son and his wife.

It was the first time we had two weeks to explore NYC - most of the time it was quick trips to recruit or use post-production facilities. As the saying goes, “I love New York”. We had a wonderful two weeks exploring Queens and Manhattan. No better place to be in the U.S. during the holidays than a large city.

This first sketch is an early compilation of our New York activities.

It did snow for about 15 minutes - just enough for us to take a walk around the neighborhood

We stayed in Astoria, Queens and it was an easy 10 minute subway ride into “Midtown”. It reminded us so much of Europe- we were smack, dab in the middle of the Greek section - it was aterrific holiday.

Astoria abounds with wonderful Greek cafes- this is an early morning sketch!

We had a couple of meals in Little Italy at Cafe Sorrento. The first was with our family and the second was with an Irish friend visiting during the holidays.

Here is a napkin sketch of Ty B. Bear in Little Italy- note the flying cannolis!

Since we returned on the 3rd - we have been up to our necks in work and projects.
2008 looks like a great year!

Even more animated…

This the answer to an email I received today regarding the construction and design of Cute Little Girl Characters.

The request wanted a simple character that could be made into a CG character.

As always I began with 3D type construction to breakdown the character into simple forms and then “play” from there.

Besides the sketch I drew for the demo- I added a few more ideas…

Besides the sketch I drew for the demo- I added a few more ideas…

It came at a good time for me so I jumped right in and there you go…

Our holiday was very relaxing and it gave me a chance to enjoy “being lazy” and having some fun with my sketching…

everything from ink and watercolors to different types of pencils.
Here are a few more….

An ink and watercolor sketch on the streets of Waynesville, NC

The blue thumbnail in the upper right corner is now a Christmas Card.

A guest sits to write in her journal

This from a thumbnail in a sketch above- look at the upper right corner of the red pencil sketch

Another sketch that turned into a Ty B. Bear Christmas card

More art later…

The view from our side of the mountain in Balsam, NC.

This Thanksgiving we were off to the mountains in North and South Carolina for a little R & R & R & R  ( rest and relaxation and reading and rendering). With all our ‘kids” and their spouses off establishing their own new Holiday traditions – it was time for our new traditions, too.

Of course, a rather back pack filled with art supplies accompanied us on our journey.

The Balsam Mountain Lodge - formerly an early 1900’s railway stop.

The first few days we stayed at the Balsam Mountain Lodge in North Carolina, The Lodge has no TV’s or radios -  just fireplaces and a library with about 5,000 books and a seemingly infinite supple of hot chocolate and hot cider. It was amazing!

An ink and watercolor sketch looking toward a fireplace from the library

We drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway to see what ice and snow look like (not much of that in Savannah).

We spent part of a day in Waynesville, NC. – which must have more art galleries per capita than any town I have ever seen. We ended the day at a furniture store/ café/ gelato shop listening to an evening set by a local singer songwriter. She was excellent!

a night view of Main St. Greenville, SC.

The second part of the trip was to Greenville, SC. We stayed at a hotel and reserved tickets for the national traveling troupe of MY FAIR LADY at the Peace Center. Greenville is such a beautiful town- with a natural waterfall downtown and then there are the cafes, shops and galleries strewn about the city. The town featured an old fashioned Christmas Market and a Festival of Trees (decorated Christmas trees throughout the city). It was a great way to ease into Christmas Holidays.

More art on the way!

Some more info on character design and posing

A pose with Ty B. Bear

Here’s the breakdown of the character with some tips on pushing poses!

A breakdown of the character construction with some posing suggestions

This weekend was a trip back into a time warp.

Here a sketch from a while back- after the Animation House, Inc. days

We had a wonderful visit with my old producer, Tony Ames and his wife. We met in Alexandria, Virgina - the birthplace of the Animation House, Inc. (AH).
Tony is the best producer I ever worked with- just amazing energy and vision and an all around great guy!

We had a great chat and covered every thing from the old AH days to politics to current trends and projects. We hope to work together again some day…
At one point, I drove over to the old studio on Powhattan Street and found the building (brand new when we moved in 1985) was completely demolished in favor of a new span over route 1 at the North end of Olde Towne Alexandria. Unfazed, we drove to thr original site of the AH - and, it too was demolished to make way for a new structure. The heritage of the AH was gone- except for folks like Dave Vallone, Al Rosen, Michael Lowery and myself who are still in the biz.

We had a great time at the AH- in fact, I helped intro Dave V. to his wife, Leigh - the first of 7 couples I have helped introduce through work or classes.

Well - everything changes!

Ty B. Bear and friends - those are loggerhead turtles

The last few days the opportunity to draw on toned paper has appeared…well…maybe not appeared. The truth of the matter is that at the Art Festival last weekend, I began to draw on toned paper. I couldn’t just sit there with all that art around me and not draw…so the next thing I knew - there was a Ty B. and friends on toned paper.

Then, I was back in my studio drawing on manilla folders- more sketches. They all just kind of grew….and grew…that’s the cool thing about art…

Another group of filmmakers- more play!

Here is series of under paintings executed in acrylic.

Yes, this is the cover of a sketchbook.

Book-1-a.jpg

To give the paint a good surface to grab onto I applies a couple layers of gesso to the area to be painted.

Then I paint the areas with complimentary colors - reds for the trees and leaves and blur for the path, the hut and the character.

Book-2-a.jpg

I add some earth tones to the blue area…

Book-3-a.jpg

Book-4-a.jpg

Next the greens…and I begin to block in the character…

Book-5-a.jpg

Here is the final with added details and the character in color.

Because of the winding path I used several horizon lines.

There you have it!