Childhood Aspirations...

When you draw back upon childhood aspirations, what did you want to be? An astronaut, a teacher, an environmentalist, a philanthropist, etc? Did your ambitions fluctuate or did they remain constant throughout your life? One of my dreams happened to revolve around Disney and animation./concept design.. In a way, it still does; but with less emphasis on the Disney part. These sketches served as a personal exercise to learn and understand diverse character designs, styles and techniques by reproducing existing characters from animated films. The fun and challenging part involved creating original concepts which imitated the same artistic style. Back in the age where DVD players were nonexistent and VCRs prevailed, the pause function only lasted for 5 minutes before resuming the "play" mode (which was unfortunate). If one exceeded 5 minutes, it was difficult to find the exact moment where the pause button was originally pressed. I had problems freezing frames where I needed them to remain stationary...so the characters' facial expressions were never quite the same during each session. I guess that provides more incentive and pressure to finish the sketches within the given time frame.

CHARACTER SKETCHES FROM DISNEY'S HERCULES
(Hades, Melpomene, Aphrodite)
Mechanical pencil on paper 8.5" x 11" (1999)

MORE CHARACTER SKETCHES FROM DISNEY'S HERCULES
& ORIGINAL CONCEPT DESIGN
(Hestia, Zeus, Hermes & my original concept for Persephone)
Mechanical pencil on paper 8.5" x 11" (1999)