Author Archives: AJAiken

Hand Studies

Recently I’ve spoken to a few people about their life drawing, and one thing that’s kept coming up is hands, feet, and faces. It’s really clear when I look at work that has these things missing. They’re tough to draw – don’t I know it! Sadly, they will still be difficult to draw if youContinue reading “Hand Studies”

Studies from ‘The Stranger’

I recently watched Orson Welles’ 1946 film ‘The Stranger’, about an investigator from the War Crimes Commission trying to track down a Nazi in Harper, Connecticut. Early on there is a scene where a character is being followed. When watching it I immediately wanted to draw studies of the shots, but I’ve found it hardContinue reading “Studies from ‘The Stranger’”

‘Klaus’ Clean Up, Part II

Part I A brief note about some of the terms I use: keys, breakdowns, and inbetweens are names for different drawings in animation. Keys are ‘extreme’ poses that tell the story. Breakdowns show how (slowly, angrily, passionately) the character moves from one key to the next. Inbetweens are ‘in between’ all the others, usually halfwayContinue reading “‘Klaus’ Clean Up, Part II”

‘Klaus’ Clean Up, Part I

Last year I worked as a clean up artist on the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning Klaus. SellOut Animation, based in Edinburgh, worked on scenes outsourced from the main studio, SPA, in Madrid. From May until August I joined the team, cleaning up a variety of shots and characters from throughout the film. It was a steepContinue reading “‘Klaus’ Clean Up, Part I”

Life Drawing, 28th January

Danna modelled at this week’s life drawing session. Her poses were often unusual and pretty challenging to draw! I set myself an additional challenge this week of drawing the longer poses in colour. I’ve done a few digital studies from photographs recently, but it has been a long time since I’ve used colour in aContinue reading “Life Drawing, 28th January”

Dogs

Last week I drew some gesture drawings of dogs from Line of Action and here are a few of the results! I enjoyed trying to capture the attitude of each dog. Most of these were drawn in 30 seconds. The ones with more detail were done in two minutes.

Practice, practice, practice

Last year I came across this tweet, which challenged me to start thinking differently about how I draw through the week. Most of the time I only draw whatever I feel like, or what I’m working on. Life drawing has been the only regular study I’ve done since school. I pick things up here andContinue reading “Practice, practice, practice”

Wedding Invite

Last year I had the pleasure of designing the wedding invite for friends of mine. I’m really pleased with how it turned out, so I thought I’d share a little bit of the process of making it. To start with I was given the theme of succulents and hexagons. It was fun trying out differentContinue reading “Wedding Invite”

New Portfolio!

It’s been about two and a half years since I last updated my drawing portfolio (!) so I thought it was time to give it a refresh. What’s been exciting about putting this one together is that it’s all new – nothing from the last portfolio is still in it. You can take a lookContinue reading “New Portfolio!”