A Note on Using Reference

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Maybe most of you can relate to this story:
         5th grade, and all your classmates know you are the kid that can 'draw'. You have a little sketch book of drawings of Pokemon and other random things you think are cool. You take pride in your drawings and you kinda let yourself feel like: "hell yea, you know what? I CAN draw" Then one day you are put on the spot, someone asks you if you can draw them a Tiger. You try to say you don't draw in front of people but everyone crowds around because they want to see how you draw a tiger. So you try to draw a tiger and the damn drawing ends up looking like freakin kitty cat.

          Why is it that when you are at home laying stomach down and you have a ripped page from a magazine to look at and copy from, you can draw anything! But when you try to draw from your mind and have nothing for reference all your drawing skills disappear?

WHY?
          Well in my opinion: When one hasn't developed a photographic memory, their mind usually defaults to cliches and generic drawing solutions. While developing as artist, free style drawing is usually their weakest area. People like drawings that breath life and remind them of the real thing. Even if the drawing isn't perfectly photo-realistic, if it has enough detail from your reference, people will accept it. This is probably why life/figure drawings or copied drawings usually get a lot of wow's, ooo's, and Ah's. They were drawn from life/something real and they have details in them that regular people wouldn't think of including into a drawing. Even caricatures and portraits are specific enough where the viewer accepts the drawing enough where they start to invent personalities and feelings to associate with the image.

         Every artist uses reference in one way or another. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Norman Rockwell and even Disney artists! They all use reference. (they actually used live models, they would sketch them and then use their sketches as reference while working on their final painting) But using reference doesn't mean 'to copy', reference is to be used as a starting point and it should always be improved upon.

IMPROVE UPON?
           Here are a few images from the 1950's I found on the internet. You will see the reference in black and white and the finished painting on the right. You can see the photo the artist used for their foundation and if you study it closely you can see the specific changes the artist made in the final piece of art. Use this chance to test your observational skills and see how many changes you can spot between the reference and the final painting. If you want a greater challenge: Try to figure out WHY the artist made each change.

ARMS: The artist chose to switch the girls arms so that the other one held up the sheet.

LEGS: are more vertical up and down than in the photo. Forces the legs to line up with the vertical arm above them. which makes a line that leads you to the face of the girl. And the face in turn, leads your gaze to the mirror. You might think I'm over thinking it but these are just some of the elements that make a drawing stand out from the rest.

LEANING towards the mirror rather than away. 

EYES: in the reflection her eyes were changed to look down to bring focus on the tan line.

MIRROR: shape is changed. A square is too masculine! A circle is a much more 'softer' shape to compliment the female.

HEAD:Turning the head screen right forces a twist in the body/neck that is visually more interesting than having all the main body parts orientated in the same direction.

LEGS: Are tucked in to simplify the silhouette 

ARMS: Are changed so that the object's silhouette do not compete with the woman's silhouette. The box top is brought in closer to the body.
PILLOW: It's a better decision to tuck it in behind her so that she 'leans forward' more towards the viewer 

Very little difference here

         Sometimes the artist will really like their reference and literally copy it. *GASP* ...and it's not a bad thing! *DOUBLE GASP* Your audience will never see your reference so all they know is that these drawings/paintings have come straight out from your imagination. It might feel like cheating but it's not. When all is said and done it is still your work and your decisions that we see. Keep in mind this is not the right and only way to use reference. I urge you to find your own (but similar) process for using reference. Stay away from stiff character designs and generic poses!! 

INSPIRATION: Letters From Creative Minds

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Leonid Afremov - 'Winter Park' (A painting that inspires me)

      A new year equals new beginnings and with new beginnings one usually needs new inspiration. I'm going to share that with you today something I found while ago that I found very inspiring.

      Sometimes we get inspired from other peoples work, and sometimes we get inspired by how they think! When you learn how a professional looks at a problem or thinks about life's obstacles, it can be educational as well as inspiring. Here I have 8 artists and their letters. Their letters are from two websites called 'Animator Letters Project' and 'Letters of Note'. Both of these sites have an awesome collection of letters are worth reading! Do a quick search and check them out.

DISREGARDING THE ODDS
Aaron Hartline - Animator The full letter can be found here
"When I took a tour of Disney right out of high school, I showed the guide/animator my work. She said, "It's easier to get a job as a professional basketball player than getting an animator position at Walt Disney Studios... I knew if I worked hard then one day... some day.. I could do it! I took me 14 years of trying but it happened."

DO WHAT YOU FEEL YOU WHERE BORN TO DO
Steve Vai - Professional Guitarist The full letter can be found here
"The desire to play an instrument must come from with in you. You should not waitr a letter or an approval from anyone else to decide that you should play. Either you don't want to or you have no choice because your heart compels you to."

STAY FOCUSED AND BE YOURSELF
Ray Bradburry - Author (Fahrenheit 251) The full letter can be found here
"Fall in love with the future! I did just that. And after that never listened to one damn fool idiot who doubted me! what did I learn? To be myself and to never let others, prejudiced, interfere with my life. Kids do the same. Be your own self. Love what YOU love."

PERSISTENCE
Austin Madison - Animator the full letter can be found here
"Work through the 97% of murky abysmal mediocrity to get to that 3% which everyone will remember you for!"

DETERMINATION 
Christopher Reeve - Actor (Superman) The full letter can be found here
" I am not going to preach to you that you should stay in school. I do want to tell you that you can do ANYTHING you want in this life if you have the determination and drive to make it happen."

CREATE FOR YOURSELF
(me!) -Animator The full letter can be found here
"As long as you take your desire and never stop improving your technique, you will never be less than what you want. It's not about where you end up, what studio you work at, how much money you make. It's whether or not you are happy with what you are creating." 

HOW TO BE AN ARTIST AND A PERSON
      The best letters I have ever read are by Rainer Maria Rilke. If you ever need to be inspired sit down under a tree or lie on your bed and take your time through her 10 letters. I read them once a year just to never forget them. she wrote these letters to a young man who was 27 who wanted guidance and a critique of some of his poems.
read all ten letters here

Un-Finished work: What to do with it?

Mozart- un-finished symphony

-Franz Kafka had unfinished writings published after his death,

-Mark Twain made THREE versions of the mysterious stranger..

never finished one of them..

-If John von Neumann never would of wrote that incomplete "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" ---Computers would not exist as we know them to be today.    

-Geoffrey Chaucer never completed "The Canterbury Tales to the extensive length that he originally intended..

-Michelangelo left a lot of sculptures and paintings only partially finished to inspire others!

-JR Tolkien made 12 volumes of the History of Middle Earth, huge parts unfinished and in draft

-Edmund Spencer wanted to make 'Faerie Queene' 12 books long. He only made it to 6, and it's the longest epic poem in the English language. 

Un-finished work is no less better than most finished work.

     If you started a walk cycle, worked on it for two weeks, stopped, let 5 months go by.. do you go back and finish it? Would your time be better used if you would just start a NEW walk cycle instead of trying to fix the problems of the old? Wouldn't it be better to take what you learned from the experience of that un-finished walk cycle and pu tit towards a whole new assignment? Here is some work I did waaaay back in sophomore year of college. I cringe when I see it, but I find it healthy having this anthology of files that show a lot of finished and unfinished work. You end up seeing your progress. So if you are asking me, DO NOT go back and touch up every old piece of animation...

So here I'm sharing one of MY old unfinished piece I did in a span of 2 weeks. Hope you can make sense of it :)

Do not feel like you are wasting time by leaving your work unfinished, you ARE STILL LEARNING as long as you are animating. But FINISH your work when it counts. Nobody likes a quitter.

To further prove my point. Here is some unfinished work by John Lennon released in 1996, even recorded with a hand held mic, it still is a wonderful timeless piece.

If you want to achieve greatness, then stop asking for permission

      “There is a visual conversation that takes place on the streets of urban environments. This conversation is dominated primarily by advertising and utilitarian signage and assumes  passive participation. Whether invited or not I am going to participate in this conversation.Public spaces were never intended to be coated from top to bottom with photos of consumer products. These spaces should, in some manner, reflect the culture that thrives in that space.” -A Street Artist


       As you know (and if you don't you are about to know) I truly believe to use art for it's fullest potential is to say something with it, and what better place to do it than right in front of the public eye. Before some of you start to roll your eyes and start to whine about how, 'I don't get art, I'm not artsy, I'm an entertainer, most of the stuff doesn't even make sense!, what does a spray bottle dressed as Cambel's Soup even meeeaaan????' I will agree with you SOME stuff is just general hash hosh and you shouldn't hurt yourself trying to overanalyze it. But that shouldn't take away from the art that actually has something to say. For example the photo above has a piece done by the artist that goes by BANKSY. Simple but just complicated enough to provoke a wee bit of thought. It won't change your life but might be enough to at least get you to feel something, and isn't that what we are ALL trying to do with our art? Whether it be with music, painting or even animation. ISN"T THAT THE POINT WH WE CREATE? ..To get our audience to feel or to think? '..No danny, I make it so people can smile and laugh....'


     No shit Einstein.. To Laugh is pretty much visual evidence that you are feeling something, and you have to comprehend what you are seeing in order to laugh at it. So even if you are a creator for commercial reasons you are still an artist


     We are all artist. and our motives for making our art, no matter how different they seem, still come from the same deep drive and urge to create. Some people might say some motives to create (like money) are un-honorable and do not count. (I agree, but the things that are created for money are still created with the same passion that comes from us when we make art) If you haven't watched 'EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP' I really recommend it, it was a contender for an oscar and it was the focus of many jokes during the show last weekend. It explore the example above in a way that hits hard by the end of the documentary.

      Even the smallest gestures of art can bring a spot to life. Even if it's not visually evident you will feel it just by looking at it. I walk through Oakland to my work every day, the art that is found through out this city is precious in it's own way. These are lil bits and signs of humanity show up among the cement desert of billboards and advertisement that yell at your face to buy.. I bet your city is similar, and screams out just like mine. People who do street art might be called vandals and punks, but they are just trying to make the space they live in reflect the voice that it hidden. Public space is usually dominated by companies and advertisements and thus ceases to be public when you cannot even express your art or self through these damn public space. 
       You do not have to be a brilliant artist like Bansky to have something to say or become Andy Warhol to create something that grabs attention. My buddy leaves his mark with Post-it-Notes every where he goes. Other artist use stencils or paint directly on walls. The most popular starting tool is to create stickers and slap them on public places. Remember that painting and spraying on public property is illegal. Never paint for the simple goal of vandalizing – It’s better to create than to destroy. Never paint over other artists work, and never paint racist and explicit images. be classy about this and don't act like your 12. Here is a wonderful Blog about the very stuff I am talking about. 
OAKTOWN ART BLOG: How to make a Stencil

If you like the idea of doing your own art for your city  or just want to make something that says something.. and do not know what to start brainstorming, here's a check list.




Do you have a message?
Do you want to make something pretty? or shocking?
Do you want to challenge the status quo?
Do you want the people who see it to have a certain experience?

     I do hope I've gotten you to think about this art form and hopefully it finds some use in your future work. Drawing is the medium that is most accessible for this type of art. but I am sure that animation, music, and writing have their own power to show in street art. Go be an artist, or at least start thinking like one. you'll make the world a better place.

     

Attention To Details...

Some people learn by example. So I'm posting a link at the end of this post. When you watch this video look at how the main guy (Brian Wilson) doesn't accept anything but what he has envisioned in his mind.

     When you know what you want to create, you don't settle for any variations. Don't go for accidents that look ok and then take credit for them. Painters: make every color because YOU mixed for it. For drawers: make every line deliberately. Same with animation. Don't accept an anomaly in your animation and say, "Well I was going for sneak walk cycle, but this looks like a double bounce.. sooo I'm going to do a double bounce now."
     You learn nothing like that. Spontaneity is good sometimes, but do not rely on it. Learn how to control details.. The purpose of learning details is so your work not only looks good the first time around but also when people take their time and stop to check out your work. You don't want it to look nice from afar and then when they come close to see it actually looks like shit... In high school that is one thing I worked really hard on, details. It teaches you patience and trains you eye and hand. Here is an example, the following picture I drew back in the summer of my sophomore year in high school. It was for my brother.

      In the close up, you can still see my pencil marks, my goal was to make it so perfect you couldn't tell it was done in pencil. I was close, but the point was that I was trying to control my level of detail and not just let random lines make up my drawing in a span of ten minutes.. TAKE YOUR TIME! There is no rush. You'll be so surprised in how much you can learn when you spend two hours on something..

     Here's a link I promised earlier. when you listen to it, again, just listen to the directors specific choices. he knows what he want's before he starts. And once you have that kind of mind set, your work might be tremendously complex, but it'll be under control because you know every detail and how you want each one to turn out. So check out this video. It's a real treat to see this genius at work. Brian Wilson is one of the greatest song composers of all time. So take your time and listen to all of it. And then go put as much dedication into your own work.

super awesome video

-Daniel Gonzales

-This Is How I Started Out..

      Instead of posting more Art work that I have done in the last 2 years I will take you back to show  how it was when I first started. Some favourite work of mine is from high school. My favourite work is not after I went to college, even though my draftsmanship greatly improved when I went to college and even better when I got to Pixar. It is from high school, because in high school all I knew how to do is translate my thought's to paper. When I look back over my work since I've started college I see a stop in that and more of a focus to get my drawing skills better, my life drawing and paintings all greatly improved ten fold but my thinking and creativity was put on hold. I see that happen with a lot of peoples art.

I see that in a lot of blogs and sketch books these days...

      People start to post sketches from sketch books and try to do a drawing a day or post multiple drawings they did that day of people at the park or just draw for the sake of drawing...


-Leonardo De Vinci said it best, "The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, with out any reason, is like the mirror which copies everything in front of it with out being conscious of it's existence."


       Look at the picture I posted, in high school, people go through some raw emotions, sometimes for the first time, but none the less they are very intense emotions and feelings. This is a drawing i did way back then really fast, even though it sucks, I expressed a feeling. I had drawing skills that were enough to translate what I was thinking better but that wasn't the point. I drew for a reason. I drew to say something, I drew to let things out or express how I felt. I drew and didn't care if my drawing came out right, I cared about if the drawing communicated a thought. And I rather draw like that for the rest of my life than to draw perfect life drawings and masterful acrylic paintings till the universe freezes over. 

        So I have nothing against people who draw for love of drawing, I admit to doing so and filling up my last five sketch books with mostly good drawing nonsense. But again I will stress, what is the point of being an artist, (who's work is an ambassador of humanity for future generations), if you have nothing to say? I have been seeing a lot of reels/portfolios and looking at a lot of blogs. 75% of the things I see are for:
 
-For entertainment
-For showing off skills (aka trying to get a job)
-or for practice
-to draw/create pretty things because they like how it looks..


       A lot of the reels I see, they just have gags or exercises, and the typical - something that looks cool and bad ass. . (which I understand why, because that's all the time you have when you are doing it for assignments while in school..) These things you choose to make that might reflect your 'taste' but they NOTHING about yourselves. For example, how much do you realy find out about me if I just say I like the old TV show called 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S'? You don't learn anything form that just like I learn nothing form you when you make a short about a a person picking up something heavy....


      I'm guilty of doing the same for the last two years and only recently have I been using my Animation to make comments and reflect thoughts... I went home for Thanksgiving and documented EVERY drawing, sketch, doodle, shit stain, ANYTHING I ever made with a pencil or brush I took a photo of. In those old sketch books of mine there where drawings that showed me my own heart ache, happiness, cockiness, love, fear, hate, regret, want.. it was as if it was a visual diary. These drawings meant something. I look now look at my life drawing, what the HELL is a naked man holding a stick going to tell me about myself??? That I can draw proportions and weight pretty damn accurately!?
      I am so thankful and lucky to have received the training I have during college and high school But now I shall stop 'copying' and imitating what I see and start reflecting something more onto my paper.

There are some people out there that are making wonderful pieces such as Ashley Wood and Ryan Woodward. I hope to see an increase of art someday, but until then I guess I shall lead the charge on my own. 

Remember though, FIRST learn your craft, THEN say something with it.

       My drawing I posted in the beginning of this post was made when I was.. ehh.. in tenth grade, 5th period math...  I never made it into a drawing or finished it. I have tons of drawings to show but I wanted to show this little doodle that I did on one random corner of my sketchbook because it is a perfect example of me drawing down a thought in the moment, never to return to it again until today. During winter break my activity on this blog will start to slow down a bit so to compensate for me being so busy, I shall post every three days, a drawing or doodle from my very old sketch books. So you guys can have something to look at over the holidays. I don't know what I really expected to tell you in this post.. I just needed to get these thoughts out of me and I thought it might do some people good to hear what was going through my mind.


-Daniel Gonzales

A Thinking Mind pt 3/3

So this is the 3 part of 3 in my rant about art. enjoy...

-Concepts In Art

        So in the last posts I spoke of how (fine) art cannot just look good but also needs have a thought behind it. You cannot just make pretty muffins as an artist. There is no message or thought in your product. The same goes with concept making, you cannot have only strong concepts and not be able to communicate that through your art. If a fine Art piece requires an artist statement in order to understand it, then the aesthetics are off thus failing as art.. Remember your work must be able to please the sences and at the same time make the audience think specifically what you intend them to think.
       You can't just be making concept after concept as if you were a philosopher then try to make art by slapping some dog shit on a canvas and then say, "This represents how the industry treats real artists..." That, I hope everyone would agree, is just a pile of crap on a canvass....  literally.

You must be both, the philosopher and the muffin maker to make a working aesthetic piece and have a concept.

summery- if the concept is strong- but it is presented badly... then FAIL. If it looks good but has no concept. .. why do you even bother creating things??

-More than a Concept
        It is not that simple just apply a concept and be done with your pretty piece.. Here's where I going to get a little dense. Regarding concepts and ideas pertaining to one's piece of art:
 -A piece of fine art induces much thought. BUT does not yield to the possibility of a definite thought, if it's just one idea then it's just a concept.

         Meaning, if your art piece says what it is meant to say right off the bat then the art piece is weak as a whole. The piece of art must invoke images and themes in your mind which surpass the ordinary experience. Remember a good piece of art you find yourself thinking about for a while. One doesn't need to be blunt and have that shock value in order to get one's thought across to his or her's audience. One doesn't need to spoonfeed their audience ideas, you let the art do the talking indirectly.

-You as an Artist
        As artists you might of notice sometimes we don't think the same as the general public does. In our minds there is cognition and imagination. In normal people cognition is the the regular, but not so in us, imagination is dominant. So think about what that allows you to do...

      -As Animators can create an emotion and a thought by just using body language. WALL-E did this for the whole first half an hour flawlessly.
      -As painter can make a composition and with a few colors you can set the whole mood of the painting.. Look at Van Goughs last painting he made before he committed suicide and I dare you to tell me there was no forshadowing...


'Wheatfield with Crows' - by Van Gogh, 1890: last weeks of his life

      -As a musician you can create great wonderful pieces with only six strings. You can create so much emotion with just sound...
And all the other artists out there are capable of so much as well. It is our imagination that allows us to do that. We can recompose the things around us, this allows artist to change the world around them. This is how humans surpass nature. With science, nature is never surprised by what we discover, but with Art nature is dumbfounded in our ability to create wholly never before seen things.

      Not only do we make concepts but we make them into experiences for others to feel. Thats what Art is. All together it becomes more than a concept, it becomes an aesthetic idea.

      A culture is only as great as it's artist and a civilization lives on through it's ideas and art. That's right. Feel that pressure. There are a lot of bad artist out there but nonetheless they are trying. It is up to you to bear humanities future in your creativity with simplicity and elegance.
     One last note before I end this, do not undervalue your personal tastes. 'Taste clips the wings of geniuses' Kant said this and rightly so. You can't just make pure imaginational nonsense. Your taste needs to be the deciding factor when trying to decide when a piece of work is done. When you are judging what stays and what goes, that's is your taste at work. The ability to stand back and evaluate your own art to your liking and from others perspective is crucial. Because it's useless if you have a million ideas but can not reflect on them, if that was the case you would forever combine all ideas all the time and make pure nonsense as long as you live.
So there.
     I hope I gave you enough to THINK about and that it helps you develop your own understanding about what it means to be an artist, to create art, and the idea of beauty.

     Now you should have a good understanding why 'Avatar' was beaten by 'The Hurt Locker' for last year's Best Picture Award at the Oscars. Avatar was about concepts, (the movie told us 'this is good, this is bad' etc etc) as good as the film was made, it had bad aesthetics when compared to the Hurt Locker. It was all on the surface.. Hurt Locker on the other hand went MUCH deeper than Avatar. It showed you a character and gave you the experience and emotion he went through. How he thought, what he felt, all the grey areas with all of life's complications. It made one think about what we value in life. Hurt locker deserved to win and the Academy members saw that as well. So kudo's to Cameran's ex wife for making The Hurt Locker. I bet that stung him a little...

-Daniel Gonzales

PS. I should be responding very soon to your emails if you have sent me one. And if you had given me a business card I going to give priority to the ones who have emailed me first (because their work is usually linked in the email.) So if you gave me a business card I would advise to email me if you want a speedier response. Other wise I will get to you eventually. As for what I will speak of next? Leave a Comment about what you would like to hear. From Blocking in animation, to a little rant on composition. What ever you would like to see. If you want me to publicly critique something for all to see or watch a step by step progress of how I do my work. The sky is the limit. Thanks.

A Thinking Mind Pt 2/3

        It's hard to work on a movie, teach, holidays with family time, do work on your own time AND MANAGE A BLOG. It's hard.. I never said I never liked it though. To the new people just joining that I met at CTN, welcome. The people already following, Update: I will be putting more great artists I met on my right side column AND also some of my drawings and paintings will be linked as well.

        Lets get  back to business. Hope you all are caught up on my last posts since I haven't posted anything for a while. I'm going to say this once. If you didn't read the part 1/3 post before this one you will be so far behind you will crap yourself. 

    
-BEAUTY- recap
        So we talked about this thing called Beauty. This thing that can confuse reason and overload your imagination. Beauty is not just about the feel good and not only about the concept either. It's both. My former teacher (Philosopher from Boston College) told me a story as an example:
         He was standing on a cliff watching a sunset with this girl. The sunset was very pretty, and he was thinking how beautiful it was with all the colors and with the calm ocean, it was so peaceful. So he is standing there with this girl staring at the sunset, thinking these thoughts to himself for some time, when all of a sudden the girl says, "I am just a speck." 

        She was experiencing that sunset on a whole different level than my teacher was. He just thought it looked pretty but to her not only was the sunset a site to see, it caused her to think about things that were greater than the sunset and herself combined. the relevance of  life compared to the mass scale of the universe etc etc.. whatever BUT her mind was unlocked and she was experiencing the sunset and that itself was beautiful.. the beauty of the sunset. So think about that when you're trying to recall the last time you experienced something beautiful.
        So now lets talk about Art itself. Just like beauty, you as an artist must at least have an opinion on art. So here is my opinion and if you disagree, GREAT. That means you already have a thought on art. Like last time I will get dense fast but remember my goal is not to get you to understand but to start to thinking about art as a form and not just something people DO.

-ART      
        Art is a touchy subject, some people say everything can be art but we all know some stuff just looks ... well like shit. Maybe a lot of stuff can pass as art but lets talk about what it takes for something to be good art.

-What (Fine) Art Can Not Be-
        Art can't just be about stuff that makes you feel good. Nor can it be about about just looking so good that it only must please your senses. Porn for example, it's pleasing.. but that's it! It just pleases the senses and it doesn't go deeper than that. You cannot just go for the quick gag or only the shock-factor. If there is no thought or thinking involved that means that there can be no engagement to cause reflection.
        (Fine) Art can't just be about color, sound, texture or any one single thing. These single elements must be arranged harmoniously so they show off their own essence as well as the essence of the other elements around them. These arrangements are usually called composition, contrast, rhythm, etc.

So don't want just want feel good and pretty things that might taste good like muffins. It's more than just pornography and muffins_ that's not fine art... you don't feel a muffin..
(P.S. if you email me that you feel muffins I'll kill you..)

So your art has to have it's aesthetics (looks) and you as the artist also put in a concept (thought) Lets talk about the aesthetics first.


-The Nature of Art-
         What is art? What do you have to do to make great art? Kant said it best, "Art must appear as nature, not imitate it." So this does not mean go COPY nature, that would be imitating nature.

Nature is made is made of original forms, and so shall your art. 


You must CREATE as an artist and make that creation feel as natural as life itself. Art pleases when it flows naturally. When everything in you art belongs like how tree's are meant to be there, like how the ocean is meant to be there, it Flows.. your art should not be shown as forced, it must look natural.

Let me pause and help you relate this to some things:
For the Animators: When animation flows and makes you forget about how it was made and engulfs you in the character or the movement, it makes the viewer feel like it is moving on it's own. Naturally. When there is a pop and you leave the mistake in your shot it doesn't look natural compared to the rest of your nice animation.
To the painters and drawers: Same as above, you are not going to do a charcoal piece and then slap on some watercolor over it. It wouldn't work visually. Your viewer would notice your materials more than your subject.
The music people: You wouldn't have a wonderful classical sonnet and 5 minutes into it mix in some Ice Cube rap.. The people would not say, 'Woa that was interesting.' They would say, 'What the F*k was he/she thinking when he/she was editing this. Key word: Editing. The audience will think about the process.

          So to all the other art forms I didn't mention you get the picture. Where were we..

         If you can locate how a piece was made, if you can locate the rules, if you can tell who the teacher was, the guidelines the artist used, then your art has lost the ability to induce feelings and therefore lost it's chance to give the experience of beauty. I don't know how else to say it .. wait I do, A beautiful art piece must look like it came from the heavens. :) Art must be above an assignment. 


Original great art can prompt the mind to reflect. If YOU can make original work that not only does this but take that viewer to that next level like how that sunset took the girl in the story I mention, then you are ranked among geniuses.

         -You are up there with the Mona lisa and the first Hellenistic Greek statue. From Carvaggio to Picasso, from Mozart to The Beatles, from Homer to Hemmingway, from Darwin to Einstein.

They all had that originality and translated it so that we could experience with sight, touch or sound. Their work makes us think and reflect. We just don't see their creation we see a thought behind the material.

Next post we talk about the concept part of Art and the Artist herself (himself).

-Daniel Gonzales


P.S. I have gotten many emails from you guys with great work and questions. Due the high amount and the little time I have over the holidays, don't be surprised if it takes me a few days to get back to you. especially around Christmas. But for now I'll just say, if you have questions COMMENT on the post. my email is to only to SEND me work. Thanks again for the support. Now go and make beautiful art masterpieces.

Motivation And Inspiration

         Motivation is a delicate elusive feeling. Some people have trouble finding motivation, Some people have trouble keeping their motivation, and worst of all I see people not knowing what to do when motivation slaps them in the face..

I'm sure it happens to you if you, even if you aren't an art student. You are out and about and you see something... inspiring. You stop in your tracks because you are starting to get cool ideas. you all of a sudden WANT to go home and work. So you make a mental note. Then go on with the rest of your day and then go home. When you get home you sit to work and... all you do is look at your white blank paper.. and thats all. you don't FEEL like working anymore. And you wonder where all your motivation went.

3 things went wrong here. you didn't do anything when your motivation/ inspiration was high because you were unprepared for it thus, letting it fade away. . 

1) What to do when motivation slaps you in the face unexpectedly: 

           First off you DO NOT forget about it and wait till you get home to address your inspiration. The feeling of inspiration is precious, you can create so many ideas that you wouldn't if you had no inspiration. Inspiration is the fuel of creativity, and if you let it come and go it is nothing less but a waste of potential creativity. 

          That's why I carry a sketch book, to write, doodle, glue in, staple anything that I want in it. If something is inspiring you, you have to try to capture it's essence immediately. So you do not have to just remember it when you get home, you can see your take on what it was and can return to it later. IF you ever find yourself without a sketch book and Some inspiration happens to walk by... oh man.. there is only one thing to do. You think about it UNTIL you reach somewhere where you can jot it down. I mean it. Thats what I do. My girlfriend hates it. Like I'll be in the car with her and I'll look a out the window and BAM, I see something that rocks my world (creatively). I shut down. I don't talk, I don't look around. My eyes are glazed and straight forward. All my recourses are put to remembering and exploring what this inspiration means. I do this the whole way home. So this sucks if we just left to go to safeway for groceries.. 

2) Keeping your motivation 

            Besides your sketch book you can do quite a bit to keep your motivation going. I see a lot of people burn out mentally during the school year especially after midterms and before finals. The way I stayed focus and kept my motivation to finish long projects is to transform your work space. For me I needed a visual and an audio set up. You have to surround yourself with inspiring things. The things I put up on my walls around my desk not stuff I liked, but stuff that made me think. I didn't put up a poster of The Beatles but I put up a Russian painting I never saw before. Ilya Repin's 'Ivan the terrible and his Son.'

           -Such a powerful piece. The emotion is captured so specifically, only a father would hold his son like that after he just murdered him..  A masterpiece that I could go on forever about. So transform your place, play your music, surround your self with things that make you think. Unless a white walled room is your kind of thing.

3) Finding inspiration

          You can't always search for inspiration. Because sometimes you will find yourself searching the web for inspiration or reference and you find yourself youtube surfing or reading about dogs on wikipedia and you don't even know why.. (never feed your dog a grape by the way). Next thing you know it's 2 hours later and you haven't done anything. You need your inspiration served to you 50/50. Half the time it needs to be unexpected. Other half of the time you have to go to your stash. Your stash is a place where you have saved all things and thoughts that have inspired you in the past. It can be a group of links on your bookmarks, it can be newspaper cut outs. So If you don't have a stash.. MAKE ONE.

I hope this helped some of you out. 

-If you need help starting a stash use the links on my page. There is a list of names on the right hand side on my homepage Click any one of those amazing artists names I guarantee you will find amazing work. Alberto Ruiz has good stuff and so does Enrico Casarosa. ALL OF THEM have good stuff. I have sites right above the names that are also amazing. I also just recently posted new work on Youtube and Vimeo. Be sure to check it out. 

So now you have no excuse to not being able to find inspiration. Go buy a sketchbook. and Let me know what you do to stay motivated I'm sure others would like to know as well. 

-Daniel Gonzales

If You Need Some Direction

First Post, whada ya know...

So twice in the last 24 hours have I personally came across this topic,
- 'What to do to get a job.'

        I just realize that this is a question that has to be answered with a true, honest, and specific understanding tone. You might read on other blogs that you must work hard, learn your craft, don't be a dick to people, and many general tips like these... but what if you DO work hard, what if you are NOT a deuce bag, what if.. what if you just NEED help learning your craft and don't know where to get help? No amount of networking and no amount of film buff knowledge will help you if you don't learn what you need to learn. You can apply to pixar for 6 years and not get in if you do not know your craft.

        So to those out there who read this I have just the few words of advice that I think will help. You need a plan. A plan to get help or a plan to get better. And ANY plan is better than no plan.  Lets say you are in the middle of butt crack no where and you went to college and you KNOW it was a crappy art college and that you learned nothing. Then you look for someone to collaborate with. You want to make a short film? SEARCH for people who would want to make one themselves. Grab your brother or search youtube and find an artist who wouldn't' mind collaborating with you over skype. ANY one is better than by yourself. Because through interaction and the exchanging of ideas does one improve and build ones own knowledge. Don't take your self so seriously. Try to make an epic film. Fail with style. then take everything you learned and make a nice 1 minute film... Do what it takes, but work with people. that's how you have fun building a demo reel.

But Danny I have no friends I live on a Desert Island...

       ok then. Let's say you are in your senior year of college and it has been a shitty experience so far. Tick tock. Graduation is coming and pretty soon your window of getting internships is closing to the size of a pinhole... What do you do? Make a plan! if you have 2 semester's left and you have nothing for your portfolio, then you definitely need a plan. Should you spend all that time on one GIANT project and go for the home run or build up a steady stream of short/small scale work? EITHER ONE IS FINE. if you go for the home run, do not kid yourself and make sure you have your production schedule planned out for every minute of the day. If you fall behind then cut something that is taking your time. Like SLEEP. pshh, who needs sleep any way. I went for a home run one semester. I fell behind. I pulled as many all nighters in a roll until I was up to schedule again... lost three whole days of sleep all because I wanted to watch the season finale of LOST...

      or if you are going to do a bunch of little projects. make sure you start at the basics. If this is for painting and you have 5 months left in your school year this would be my plan...

1st month: nothing but figure drawing and still life's
2nd month: going out to draw people and places
3rd Month: Paint figures, still life's
4th month: Paint on location
5th month: shut myself in a studio and paint whatever dares flow from your mind...

But you see what I mean? by the end of that semester even if you do not have not one worthy painting I BET your skills improved.. and this formula can work with animation and any other art form. Dont' take my word for it, try it...

Have a plan. thats the best thing you can do for yourself. More importantly a plan that will improve yourself and your craft. Thats all I can really say to you. I hope you enjoyed my first post.
any questions.. send them to me (view SEND ME WORK  link) I will be sure to answer them.

-Daniel