Above: Character Design and Animation by Ward Jenkins for the company Primal Screen
Ward Jenkins wants to tell you his 9 favorite tips and tools. Ward is also our special guest in 210 today too! WHEEEE! Thanks Ward! Ward is an illustrator and animator and just wrapped up his first children's book.
Check out his links---> Blog, Work, Interview on Design Inspiration. He is a contributing editor at Drawn! as well! Oh, yeah and he also has an amazing collection of vintage and mid-century modern children's book illustrations. Peep those in his flickr sets.
1. Carmine Red Col Erase pencil - A (somewhat) standard among the animation industry, I still use this type of colored pencil for sketching and animating because of the fact that you can erase fairly easily (although I've been very bummed out by the quality of the lead & eraser ever since the name on the pencil changed from 'Sanford' to 'Prismacolor' several years ago). I used to draw in blue, but switched over to red when I realized that the scanner (and camera for penciltests) picked up more of the red.
2. Scanner! - My dream is to have a large bed scanner some day. I've got a regular 8.5x11in. bed right now and animation paper is much larger which bums me out immensely.
by ward. created in ink and gouache
3. Delete whites action in Ps: this is a Photoshop action created on my own after finding out about it when I worked at Primal Screen. It basically does what it says: deletes all the whites on an image without leaving behind an ugly white 'halo effect'. Some have asked me why not use the 'mutiply' layer effect instead, since that kinda does the same and to them I say, 'phooey'. It certainly does not do the same. I explain some of the action on this post: http://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2005/06/how-to-on-black-white.html -- I plan on going into more in depth detail about this later on on my blog. Soon, I promise.
4. Edit > Transform (& transform again)
5. Chalk brush tool - I cannot live without this one.
6. Eyedropper tool
7. Command U - Changing of hue/saturation: My theory is that colors like to play well with each other. Especially if they're from the same neighborhood. So, working with hue, saturation, lightness, etc. becomes this game I play with the colors on a constant basis. Lately, I've found that I'm starting to play with stronger, more saturated colors than I used to. Which is nice.
page from Ward's sketchbook
8. Sketchbook is imperative: (sorry, Frank, but I gotta have mine) any ol' sketchbook is fine, from the über-nice quality of Moleskine to the $5 garden variety you find at your local art supply store. As long as there's some blank paper, it's good to go. I try to take it with me everywhere I go, so I can record interesting scenes, buildings, people. Mostly people. When I was taking the bus on a regular basis, my sketchbook was my best friend. It became my own visual journal, as I can go back and see what I was doing during a particular time. Any thoughts or ideas that pop in my head, I'll write or sketch them down. Later on, it helps to have these sketchbooks readily available in case I need some inspiration for an interesting character I'm currently working on, or for a location, etc. It becomes my own in-house resource. But with the Ward-filter to guide me.
9. Sense of humor: Especially when dealing with various clients and art directors. Gotta keep a sense of humor for all the crazy things that might come up -- if you're easily ticked off then being an artist/designer/illustrator is probably not the best career choice for you.
One thing I try to do is stay away from actions, effects & filters that make the piece I'm working on look too 'computer-y' or 'photoshop-y'. I'll go out of my way and do certain things manually, even if it takes longer (like shadows, textures). Basically, it's about aesthetics for me. I always try to keep the human element intact with each illustration I create. That's why I still draw on pencil. On paper. I've tried out the Cintiq for inking and lines, but it's not enough for me. I'd rather have more control over what I draw with good ol' fashioned graphite & wood on paper. Going the paperless route is not an option for me right now. Sorry, trees. I still love you, though.
Okay. I'm done. Hope that's enough! Thanks for listening.
Ward
Nice stuff as always!You give us such a useful and creative information indeed..Thanks for taking time to share your great experience and knowledge here with us...
Posted by: Flex Circuits | July 21, 2012 at 10:45 PM