Basic Draw

Rose Tyler

Wow. Phew. I have quite some busy weeks behind me! So I can finally say to you, my loyal blog follower: Honey, Im home!
Do you know that feeling of flow, an amazing buzzy feeling that floats through your body? I am experiencing that right now. I am excited, new ideas keep popping into my mind and I have wonderful plans for 2014, about which I will share with you soon in another blogpost.  
Ive really grown as an artist and entrepreneur in the past year. Last year in November, I launched my online drawing course JustDrawIt for the very first time, and a lot has happened in the meantime! Heres just a few highlights.

For the first time ever, I did a live broadcasted video chat. For the participants of Draw It Like Its Hot, Salli (one of the founders of They Draw And Cook) and I answered all of their questions in our chat. She was in Ohio and I was in Amsterdam (you gotta love the internet!) I was kind of nervous and of course, inspite of our elaborate tests on beforehand, we encountered some technical problems on the moment suprême. However, Salli and I watched the recorded video afterwards, and patted each other on the backs virtually about how we did a pretty good job, being newbies on Google Hangout.

Its just amazing to me that by sharing my work and doing the things that I truly love doing, I am meeting so much inspiring people. Like Nate and Salli, who are the best, and who are so supportive and enthusiastic. But also each participant of my online classes truly inspires me back. Connecting through the internet makes the world so small and I love it.
I mean, I just sent out a birthday gift to one of my online friends, posted about 20 postcards to sent out to a few of my online contacts who live all over the world, and the cherry on top: Last weekend I  had coffee and then dinner with Danny Gregory here in Amsterdam. You may know him from his inspiring books, like The Creative Licence. Its not that I want to be name dropping, I just want to emphasize that about a year ago, I wouldnt even have thought of the possibility. We eyeballed eachothers sketchbooks we brought, chatted about drawing, teaching, learning, traveling, music and a whole bunch of other  stuff and some more drawing. We sketched a bit as well, and laughed about the fact how hard it suddenly is to draw something, if its on the page of someone elses journal. I was afraid to mess up!

peeking in each others sketchbooks, and our sketch results

Enough about me. Lets talk about YOU.
Conveniently, today its Thanksgiving in the US, which is a great opportunity to say:
Thank you so much for your support, for following me and for encouraging me by doing that! It really means a lot. You are awesome.


To show you my appreciation for you being there, I can send you a personal note by snail mail, if youd like that. Simply drop me an email and leave your home address if youd like to recieve a card from Amsterdang.
My email address is draw[at]koosjekoene[dot]nl

The most important ingredient is patience! Yep, a trip to the supermarket is a lot faster, but making your own yogurt is fun! You can find this recipe on TheyDrawAndCook.

I dont remember how I found her blog a while ago, probably through Illustration Friday. It doesnt matter anyway. Her work is delightful, colourful, juicy and loose, and I love it. Her watercolour drawings and paintings are awesome, but she works magic with colour pencils and even oil paint too. See for yourself!

Im an Animation Mentor student now! Actually, I have been for six weeks, I just happened to get around to writing this now. My demo reel got me waived out of the first class, so Im in class 2: Animation Body Mechanics Basics.

Its been great so far. Ive learned so much about animation and about the animation industry. My mentor (an ILM animator) gives really great critiques and Ive seen great improvements in my work already. All the other students in the class with me are awesome, too. Not only are they as passionate about animation as I am, but they give great feedback. And of course, I get to use the great AM rigs, including the new Stella, Stan, and Sloan.



I highly recommend Animation Mentor to anyone who is considering becoming an animator, and I think that it is a perfect substitute to the traditional 4+ years at art college. As you can see on my About page, I did 3 years at two different art colleges, and while both were great and I learned many things, I do think that AM provides a more streamlined and detailed animation education.

That last part, the amount of detail, is what I especially like about AM. We dont just learn how to animate a walk cycle by copying from the poses in The Animtors Survival Kit. We learn the science and fine details behind it. The lectures even include lessons from a physiologist describing why we walk the way we do. Its that kind of knowledge that helps make good animation become great.

I know that some peoples concern about AM is that they think #1- theyll only learn animation, and #2- all AM graduates animate the same. While it is true that the character and animal animation tracks dont teach modeling/texturing/rigging, etc. its not like those are things you cant learn on your own. There are tons of free and paid resources online that can teach you about those subjects. After all, AM is only one class at a time. If youre at a traditional art college you would be dealing with 3-5 classes a week. So at AM you should have plenty of time to do your classwork, have a job, and practice some extra things on the side if you want (though my mentor did warn us against becoming "jacks of all trades, but master of none"). Also, you do have to draw as an AM student, so its not like youll never pick up a pencil. There arent any official class lessons about drawing, but youll naturally improve because of the weekly sketchbook assignments, and you can improve even faster if you sketch in your free time.

Some of my AM Sketches. Circled poses I chose to recreate with Stella.

And as far as all AM graduates animating the same, thats only true if animating the same means making great animation. One of the first things my mentor said in our first Q & A was that we could tell him what style we were going for in our shots and hed critique us accordingly. Some students choose to animate in a more cartoony style, and some more realistically. We are not being taught to animate in the same way, we are just being taught to animate well, and then we can adjust our work to our stylistic preferences. If you know how to animate well, meaning you understand the principles and techniques, you can switch between styles depending on the project. I may take a few days to transition from usually working in a cartoony style to working in a realistic one, but its not like you have to go learn a whole different thing. Animation is animation, its just how you set the poses, timing, and spacing that changes the style.

So what I generally wanted to say with all this is that Im very happy to now be an AM student. And if you are like I was for years, thinking "Should I go to Animation Mentor even though I wont get a college degree?" my answer is yes, you should. In this field, degrees dont matter. Skill does. You can go to the fanciest animation college in the world, but if an AM student applying for the same job as you can animate better, theyll get the job. But whether you go to AM or to art college, just keep practicing and having fun with your work and youll be fine.

Until next time!

Star Wars Stormtroopers 













































Yes, Ive finally posted a Star Wars character! Many of you have emailed asking about SW stuff, and I always intended to get to it - Truth be told, I envisioned some grand event for the blog with a whole bunch of Star Wars characters and everything, but the idea was so daunting I kept putting it off and putting it off.

At this point though, I just decided (with free time being what it is) to stop stressing about it and just sprinkle in SW stuff where I can, the way I do with most everything else on the blog. Hopefully this is the first in a long list of SW guys Ill be able to share with you.

Anyway, I like Star Wars, but Im not a real "nerd" for it, yknow? ...So, you guys can feel free to share your ideas and suggestions on SW stuff. Thanks for your patience, all!

I always carry a small sketchbook with me. It can come in handy, for instance, when waiting. Sketching made the long wait a lot better.

Lois Lane




































...and yet another Clark Kent



SP reader Philip has done something cool that he wants to share - He drew up a Springfield-ized royal couple, Will and Kate! Thanks Philip!