Concept drawing

Concept drawing is one of the most difficult parts of drawing for me. Especially if it's for a class.

The reason it's difficult for me during class is the fact that we have a deadline. When I'm freelancing, I create my own deadlines. But since a lot of my imagery is mentally worked out, placing it into physical work is takes longer.

Mainly I would have a general idea of what I want to do, but going in and putting in the details takes much more time. For example, I'm working on something now (for fun) and I've had this idea for a cover page for about a week. But I'm not quite sure what I want within the page.

I often pay a lot of attention to a character's personality, but because my drawing skills (drawing poses) is kind of limited, it's tough to show a character's personality through a pose.

But I've come to understand that roughing out work is very well worth it. I'll probably have to just sketch a few pictures first and not try to think of the whole thing just yet.

I've recently checked out some animation books, books about writing comics animation etc, and it's pretty interesting! Although I would think "oh gawd, this project is gonna take forever" I still think it's a pretty interesting field.To me it would seem like the easiest, grueling and time consuming, yes, but I think I do have some art skills.

I would like to start on my manga again. I finished Chapter 2 and was quite happy! The fact that I was able to finish that made me happy. The working process takes forever. All the inking and toning @___@

But this time around I would like to pay close more close attention to pacing, dialogue and the story of Chapter 3. When I went to re-read Chapter 2 I was kind of disappointed. I really didn't tell anything in Chapter 2. Chapter 1's artwork was crummy because I didn't really feel like drawing but the story was told well in Chapter 1. Chapter 2's artwork was a bit better, so with Chapter 3 I feel I should compile a bit of both and try my best in Chapter 3.

The in-between work is grueling mainly because it deals with thinking things through, it deals with camera angles, panels, pacing, placement etc. Phase two is story-boarding and making sure everything fits. Phase 3 is putting it into a work piece that's going to be presented. It also includes inking, toning and adding sound effects etc.

@__@ Just knowing that creating a manga is this much work only makes me realize it will be no walk in the park for animating.

However, I think the part which makes me want to toss my hands in the air the most is the coming-up-with-something phase.

I always ALWAYS think my stories through. ALWAYS. If I feel like I'm being forced to produce something really soon, I tense up. So I've been working on a lot of concepts now and writing out my ideas now so I won't have to worry about that.

Anyways, recently I've been working on understanding the planning portion of the process. Such as tips and tricks etc. And regardless if it's for manga or comic, the process if quite the same. I would like to work on the script, but I'm learning how to apply less but show more. Such as letting actions speak beyond the dialogue.

I definitely believe practicing by doing my own manga would help me tremendously!

Well, I'm kind of sleepy now. I'm just staying up for my sister. She said if I go to sleep and wake up then by that time she'll be going to sleep. Soooo I decided to just stay up with her. But I'm sooo sleepy D:

I guess I'll just work on a few more sketches. I'm thinking I'll always work on hand drawing a walk cycle for my 2D animation class.

Oh! And one more thing, on Thursday for my story-boarding class we'll (the class) will visit an animation studio! I've never been to one. I'm not completely excited, but I'm sure it will be quite interesting. I'm sure each studio is different but I wonder what this one will be like.

Mon