Sarah Lynne ReulHead Drawing Class Flashback: “Girl with Dreadlocks”
Posted on August 23, 2013
So, my posting schedule started to suffer at the end of the Fall 2012 semester when I was working on assignments for a head drawing class. Luckily I still have the files for most of them so I’ll post a few of those before my classes for this fall get going in the next couple weeks.
After focusing on sanguine/white studies on tan paper, we worked in pastels, a medium I’d never used before. The best way to describe them is like very brightly colored sticks of chalk; they’re neither “pastel” nor are they creamy like oil pastels. The colors are very vibrant and fun to work with, and the process required in the class called for layering in warm & cool colors to create the light & shadow colors. If you cover the majority of the paper with pigment – I think something like 90%, then it’s actually considered a painting even though it’s been done with a dry medium.
I managed to remember to take photos throughout the process for a few of the drawing/paintings. Here’s one of the earlier ones – “Girl with Dreadlocks”
Each of the drawings begins with a black underdrawing…
…which is then overlaid with either black chalk or some other color.
Then you lay in a base layer of color…
… and add more layers of pigment, topping off with highlights until you are “finished”. The whole process takes somewhere between six to 8,000 hours.
Also, it helps if you color balance your photos! More to come next week.
Thesis update: Storyboards & Animatic
Posted on August 16, 2013
So as you may remember, I’ve been working on a 2D Animation Master of Fine Arts degree through the Academy of Art University’s online program. As a final thesis project, we’re required to complete a short film.
“The Search for the Monster of Lake Quannapowitt” will be a 2D, digitally hand-drawn animated short of less than 3 minutes about the candidate search to fill an open lake monster position.
This past March, I passed my midpoint review (hooray!), which means I can start production and directed study courses. I’ve posted all of my thesis work to my new website – the midpoint book, including overview, original script & storyboards, as well as character designs and concept art.
I’m still working on refining the story and the timing of all the elements. I had enrolled in a group directed study course over the summer but had to cancel due to some medical issues. Before I dropped the class, I had a chance to rework my storyboards, with the help of my friend Alison Potoma, as well as my mom, dad & Nick. The goal was twofold – reduce the overall runtime of the film down to two minutes (so that I can focus more on the animated acting) and clarify the story, punching up the gags. Here’s the work in progress:
Here’s the original animatic (with sound effect help from fellow AAU student Zoe Yang). The changes may seem subtle when comparing to the storyboard above, but I think the updated timing will make a huge difference – I’m planning to tackle the revised animatic this fall.
“The Smith Family Secret” – fully funded on Kickstarter!
Posted on August 5, 2013
I’m excited to say that the initial launch of my friend Alison’s book, “The Smith Family Secret“, has been fully funded on Kickstarter! To celebrate, I’ve posted all of the illustrations on my website – you can find them here!
The campaign will continue through Wednesday, August 7th, so if you want to get in as one of the early supporters (and get a first-run copy of the book!) you still have a chance to pledge. Any additional funding above the original goal will be used to cover marketing costs, so that she can get the book out to the world (and ultimately so that she can finish up and publish the remaining four books in the series!). Thanks so much for your support!
new website!
Posted on July 29, 2013
After letting my old blog languish for 6+ months, I finally got it together to revamp my website reuler.com and start it all back up again!
I’ve got tons of stuff to post – assignments from the spring semester, personal projects (like illustrating my friend Alison’s awesome book, The Smith Family Secret!) and of course, updates on my MFA thesis. I’ve imported all of the old posts to this site so you can search/explore the archives as before. My goal is to jump back on the once-a-week posting schedule, so please feel free to subscribe if you’d like.
I’m looking forward to posting regularly again – thanks for checking out the new site!
caricatures for character design
Posted on December 1, 2012
Caricatures are crazy – how is it that you can exaggerate/minimize features and somehow get a likeness that can – when professionally executed – be more recognizable than a photo? This guy – Wouter Tulp – is one amazing caricature artist (among his many talents). Hanoch Piven manages to create very abstract caricatures with amazing likenesses, using objects and minimal color.
Here are a few of my attempts, based off of photo ref provided in the class.
two portraits of nick
Posted on November 19, 2012
We finally had a module of Head Drawing that required us to take our own photo reference, to practice 3/4 and side lighting for portraits. Nick was very patient as I adjusted the camera and lights a thousand times to take two rounds of photos before they were improved. Each of these drawings took me about 4 hours to complete, using sanguine & white pastel pencil on tan “velvet gray” charcoal paper. Looking at them now, I could probably take more evenly lit photos of the final pieces, but generally I am happy with the likeness!
man with hat portrait
Posted on November 13, 2012
fabric fold design
Posted on November 6, 2012
Take a look at your elbows – if you’re wearing a long-sleeve shirt, you’ll have a bunch of fabric folds there. Anytime you move, bend or stretch your arm, those folds change. The folds in fabric help describe the action of the figure, but sometimes they’re super complicated and it’s not necessary to include every single fold. How can we simplify fabric so that it describes enough without distracting from the face and the overall figure?
Here are three (well, four) of my attempts at this – our assignment was to draw a vagabond, a Gibson girl & a knight using unrelated model references for the poses. We then had to figure out where the folds would be and how they would fall for the different costumes that these characters would wear. I think I was focusing so hard on the drapery that the characters ended up a bit short – I fixed the vagabond for the final version but you can see my earlier effort below.
focus on ears
Posted on October 30, 2012
Here we had a focus on ears – both for the 3-hour portrait and for the study section.
shape character design
Posted on October 25, 2012
Here’s a fun recent assignment – create a character by starting with a shape outline that utilizes basic design principles (curves vs straights, small/med/large, intuitive lines.) Here’s my little final guy, with the earlier steps below.
I'm an illustrator and 2D animator who likes lots of stuff, including science, bright colors and figuring out how things work.
Sarah Lynne Reul 