Moving on

It's been almost a month and I think I've finally recovered from the epic horrendousness that was M.Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender... especially now that Nickelodeon has officially announced a new spinoff series: "Avatar: the Legend of Korra!"

“The Legend of Korra takes place 70 years after the events of ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ and follows the adventures of the Avatar after Aang - a passionate, rebellious, and fearless teenaged girl from the Southern Water Tribe named Korra.”

Korra’s quest eventually leads her to Republic City - the epicenter of the world of “Avatar.” A metropolis powered by steampunk-type technology, the city is inhabited by people from all nations. Korra finds that Republic City suffers from rampant crime and is also dealing with an anti-bender revolt. Korra is tutored by Aang’s son, Tenzin, is the ways of airbending."

It's only going to be a mini-series (which means less filler, more intense storylines!) and according to Mike and Bryan, it's set to be released sometime in 2011. I'm really excited for this, and I'm just glad that those two are still keeping their amazing universe alive and kicking.

But seriously... what happened to Zuko's mom? =/

Anyway, enough Avatar-related goodness. Going into art school... I have to say that if you don't take criticism with a grain of salt in this world, people drop out of it like flies. I never thought I'd get a D in a drawing assignment, but then you realize, "wait, there's technique involved" and "dammit, I need to stop holding the pencil as if I were writing a letter!" My knowledge about figure drawing technique seems to fluctuate with every work I do; one day you might be asked to do five-minute quick drawings, but then the next unit involves drawing for 45 minutes a full figure to establish the anatomy. Contour lines are key in this class, which has made me grunt uncontrollably because I love to be "messy" in my drawings. It's all about defining the figure with minimal lines first, and then adding the value (which we haven't gotten to yet).

Here's an example of what I worked this past week, using charcoal:


(I think I overdid the shading, but I'm actually proud with my use of charcoal. It's scary! You can't erase or take back what you already did. =S)

The semester's almost over, and by then I'll be finished with my History of Character Animation class, turned in my paper on Don Bluth's style of animation, and mastered the art of drawing in charcoal and graphite. Wish me luck!

And... if you haven't seen Despicable Me, go see it just to see the yellow Minions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fKfWMcD48