Doodles and Other Fine Art

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has posted some doodles of animation legend Ralph Bakshi along with some background and stories about Bakshi’s career.

Ha ha.

Via MilitantPlatypus.

Google purchased @Last Software and has released a free version of their SketchUp 3D modelling software. Google SketchUp main page.

A Pro version is available for $495 and supports additional file formats, high resolution rendering, and other features.

This is intuitive and extremely easy-to-use software.

In the screenshot of the free version SketchUp, below, I’ve been piling on and extruding through a box with random shapes. With the paint bucket tool selected, animated context-sensitive help appears.

For free models, visit the Google 3D Warehouse.

I’m stunned. Really, this Pump King Utter guy (a.k.a. Scott Cummins) is good. Weird name, but as it turns out, he carves pumpkins. Yeah, a bit.

Oh, and read the frequently asked questions. Funny guy.

He also does more traditional illustration too.

Children’s art is great. While they have trouble coloring in the lines, their work is often unrestrained, innocent, and engaging. They can reveal and inspire. I posted about the Monster Engine, Dave DeVries’ interesting project of “completing” drawings done by kids.

Thomas the ArtLad is six years old and has no need of anyone completing his work. He is chock full of talent and smart as a whip (assuming as I do that the words are his).

Check out his art blog and drop him a line. Thomas is the son of Magazine Man at Somewhere on the Masthead, who posts about his son’s blog here.

Seen here and here.

Do you draw on your trash? Too easy. How about others’ trash? Ian Stevenson has been enhancing the the rubbish on trash pickup days and has an exhibition at his website I Like Drawing. Fun stuff. Take a look around at his simple but amusing drawings too.

Seen here and here.

Stumbled on a great “how to draw” article by Niklas Jansson. Mostly Photoshop, but the concepts apply to Painter and regular old natural media. Niklas seems to gravitate to comic art, but does so with aplomb.

Some other useful tutorials can be found here, here, here, and here.

This is great. Doodling with type, or TypeDrawing is a fun online tool to create simple “drawings” with type.

My feeble first attempt is here. Some more here and here and here.

Neat stuff. Reminiscent of a tool… Wacom (maybe?) put up last year. Anyway, TypeDrawing was seen here, here, and here.

Dave DeVries’ compelling work of “completing” kids’ artwork is showcased at The Monster Engine.

On the one hand, the project is a great way for kids to see their creations taken by a professional artist further than where they left them. It’s easy to see how this might ignite and inspire an artistic spirit that might otherwise fade.

On the other hand, there is something innocent and pure about the original art that doesn’t need embellishment. Would a kid see the difference between what they might otherwise be quite proud to claim, and end up assuming they had no talent compared to a real artist?

But, on the third hand, DeVries appears to genuinely care about the children and their art, and sees value in exploring from whence the monsters come.

It began when his neice Jessica, then 7, snatched his sketchbook at the beach and drew a flat, stick-like demon. DeVries, an artist, was so intrigued, he traced her drawing onto canvas and painted it in realistic, three-dimensional detail and color. Then he talked to Jessica about it.

It was the beginning of a project called “The Monster Engine,” …

“I love their drawings because they are so simple, uncensored and powerful,” he said. “They’re revealing a part of themselves, their souls.”

This is an inspiring project with some great art (both by DeVries and the children) on display.

Channel One has a Doodle Decoder gallery, with commentary from graphologist Anna Koren.

We all scribble stuff in the margins of notebooks or on our shoes, but what do all those stars, hearts and initials mean anyway? Some professional graphologists (people who analyze handwriting) like Anna Koren believe that these drawings reveal things about an individual’s personality. Koren reveals all in our ChannelOne.com doodle gallery.

Other links from this story

• Anna Koren’s Doodle page
• Another ChannelOne doodle story