Coastal Beauty

Stopped along the coastal highway to take in some of the breath taking beauty on the way to San Francisco. I managed this watercolor while being battered by the wind. My fingers were sore from holding on to the paper by the time I decided to leave, but it was worth it to stop off the highway, and hike down through thick shrubs and flowers to spend some time admiring nature.

Manisha Shahane at the Mint

I had the pleasure of enjoying a short set by Manisha Shahane at the Mint as well as one by Lilli Lewis. Here are sketches of Lilli, Manisha, and Dawn Norfleet who performed with Manisha.

Refugee Nation

I went to a powerful play put on by my friends at Teada, called Refugee Nation. It dealt with the affects of the brutal, 9 year U.S. bombing of Laos on the people there as well as the refugees who came to the U.S. and their children. It is powerful to see the human consequences of the war, which came out to about one full load of bombs dropped from a U.S. plane onto the tiny nation of Laos every 8 minutes for 9 years. That is unimaginable. How do we hold governments accountable for their atrocities? When we do not, they simply continue to violate the security and humanity of nations, as we see with continued violence perpetuated on the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and so many more.

Elephants with Guns and Silent Water Screening

I managed a few sketches of my friends Elephants with Guns at the Silent Water screening. The set ended before I could finish drawing Sagar or even start Maya.

Kirtan

I enjoyed some beautiful Kirtan this morning thanks to a wonderful wedding celebration. Here's a pencil sketch of the Raagis performing. 

Naazneen Diwan at Tuesday Night Cafe

I did a few pencil sketches of some performers at the Tuesday Night Cafe in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. Here are Mai-Thi Pham, my friend Nazneen Diwan and Johanna Chase.

2D Animation Lesson 3 – Animating your Character

Animating your character.Now that you have a finished model sheet and construction drawings (character broken down into basic shapes) as well as some personality drawings, you are ready to plan your first animation with the character.Walk cycles are a good thing to start with, but I find that people usually copy walk cycles instead of really animating it for themselves. Instead, let's animate our characters walking, avoiding an obstacle and continuing to walk.Your obstacle could be a box, a giant circle in the path, or hanging from above. Just keep the object as a simple shape, so it is easy to draw.Class Work1. Put down the computer or pencil and act out some ideas. Walk, and then avoid objects by ducking, or stepping to the side. Keep doing this until you get something you like.2. Act out the sequence you like. Stop at key poses and draw thumbnail sketches (small, stick figures or simple sketches) to plan out the poses you want to animate.3. Start drawing your keyframes based off the thumbnail sketches you drew.Homework1. Finish drawing your rough keyframes and draw half of your in betweens. These drawings should be simple shapes that represent your character. No need to draw in completed bodies yet, just shapes.Take a look at this beautiful video of pencil tests by Glen Keane to see how rough pencil tests can be before cleanup:

2D Animation Lesson 2 - Character Model Sheet

In this lesson, we'll take the ideas learned from the bouncing ball lesson and apply them to a character. The ball was an easy shape to draw. Characters can be more difficult, but we can make them easier to draw by breaking them down into simpler shapes, like sphere, cylinders etc.Here are some examples of characters broken down into simpler shapes.More Model SheetsClass Work1. Design a character with a head, two arms and two legs. Don't worry about making fingers and facial features (eyes, nose and mouth etc). Just make the basic shapes, without extra details like clothes.2. Make a single drawing of your character from the front.3. With another sheet of paper on top, or if on the computer, in another layer on top, draw shapes like circles, rectangles, cylinders over your character to simplify it down to basic shapes.4. Draw the side/profile view and isometric/perspective/3/4 view of your character, using the shapes to help stay on model (keep it looking the same). This is your model sheet. it will help you to redraw the character in different poses and angles and still keep it looking consistent.Homework1. Finish you model sheet.2. Draw some poses, and expressions with the character to get a feel for how he or she will move and what his or her personality is like. Act out these poses and then draw them.

2D Animation Lesson 1 - Bouncing Ball

My name is Adnan Hussain, and a friend asked me to give some tips on animation and help design a course for his students. I saw some of their work, and got an idea of their skill level. Based on that, I feel that drawing is the most important skill I can help to push. These lessons are designed to help you loosen up your drawings for more fluid animation so that you are not limited to animating parts of a single drawing or rotoscoping.The work I do is more as a 3D animation generalist. I do a bit of everything. Examples I am showing are all from the internet, by other people, simply presented in a way that I hope is accessible.Lesson 1 Bouncing BallWe start with a bouncing ball to learn the basic principles of animation, because it is easy to draw a ball.Watch this video from Dark Mane the Wolf.Principles of Animation to think about:Squash and stretchThis will help make your ball feel like it has weight and volume. The idea is that when you squash the ball in one direction, it becomes stretched in the other direction so that it retains volume. Otherwise the ball will look like it is becoming smaller and bigger over time.Slow in and slow outObjects accelerate and decelerate over time. When a car starts, it goes from standing still, to slowly moving and then gaining speed. The same is true for when a person is sitting, then stands up to begin walking. We start slowly and then gain speed. You might slow down to walk around a chair, then speed up again. This also goes for the motion of body parts and objects. When a ball bounces, it hits the floor, which slows it down and then picks up speed as it bounces up. This makes the animation look smoother and more natural. This can be achieved by spacing your inbetween drawings. Draw frames with the ball closer together for slow movement, and further apart for fast motion.ArcsWhether we speak of a bouncing ball, or a swinging arm, or a moving foot, arcs can help make movement look more natural. After drawing your key frames, when you draw your inbetweens you have a choice of drawing the exact middle drawing, for linear movement, like a robot, or you can place the object on your inbetweens on an arc, which can give more natural, and fluid movement. Try it and see the difference.Class WorkIn class, draw a minimum, 50 frame animation of a bouncing ball using some of these principles.HomeworkDraw a 150 frame animation of the bouncing ball. Experiment with making the bounce feel heavy and light using squash and stretch and slow ins and out (spacing).

Sounds and Rhythms of Afghanistan (S.A.R.A.)

I had the pleasure of seeing Sounds and Rhythms of Afghanistan (S.A.R.A.) perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall courtyard. Here are some watercolors of Homayun Sakhi, Abbos Kosimov, Humayun Khan and Salar Nader performing Afghan and Uzbek music along with Ballet Afsaneh performing Tajik, Uzbek and Afghan dance. Hopefully some of the fun and excitement of the performance shows through in the art.

Lonnie "Meganut" Marshall and his Rubberband Box

I went to see my friend Lonnie "Meganut" Marshall and his Rubberband Box perform at the Good Hurt. Here are a few sketches I drew during his performance. If you are in and around the LA area, I highly recommend you check him out. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, for the third time, I shared Thanksgiving in Long Beach, at a Drop in for people in need. I sat at the gratitude table along with Norma and stacks of art supplies in a Church, to share with people in writing and drawing things they are grateful for on this day.Every year it's always fun to join this group of volunteers to serve food to a lot of people who really need it. I tend to be at the art table, but it's satisfying to see the smiles and full tummies. This year there was a wonderful family with 6 kids that really made my day, along with a sweet child who came to volunteer with her mom. In fact that little girl told her mom that she wanted to come out to help instead of going to dinner for thanksgiving. Kids are so inspiring. My bud Koji enjoyed some Star Wars video games on his Nintendo.These are some photos of the kids that made my Thanksgiving so much fun. They made these wonderful cards for me and I made each of them a card too. Some were tag teams with Norma (leaf rubbings and paper hearts), the children and myself. The last one is from Alex, a young man I met outside the entrance as volunteers were setting up inside. I sat down and talked to him for a while. Like several other homeless people I have met, here was a man with a great deal of wisdom and much to share, but due to some condition, uncared for, here he was, unable to connect his thoughts and connect to life as many others do. He made me that card and I made him one too.Thanks to my friend Sonali for the invite and organizing!

Animals of Lahore

I really enjoy walking around the old walled city in Lahore, Pakistan. On my walks, I run into all kinds of interesting buildings, history, people and of course animals. In this post, I'm going to focus on that list category, animals. Early in the morning, you can see donkeys hauling bricks and other construction equipment down the narrow lanes where trucks can't go. Here and there you'll find chickens, walking around, eating, and checking out the scene. Now and then you'll see a goat, looking confused about why you're there as much as you are about it. There are even some parrots and pigeons, often kept in large cages on tall rooftops. The pigeons shown here are actually outside the walled city, in front of the National College of Arts, where I have seen people drive up and spread bird seeds around the famous Kim's Gun, a cannon immortalized by Rudyard Kipling's, who spent some years in Lahore and incidently whose father started the art college, which used to be called the Mayo School of Arts.

Occupy LA

Dangerous Child.

Compassionate Defenders arrive.

..whom?

One of those “dirty”, “lazy”, protesters? A veteran?

but after taking away several peaceful protestors.

Today I went to a protest in downtown Los Angeles, part of the Occupy LA protests in support of the nationwide Occupy Wall Street protests. I took the bus in, and ended up getting out a few blocks away. I walked up and already there was a growing police presence in the area. Was there a riot going on? Were the expensive bank buildings and luxury hotels in danger from a mob of angry, dirty people frothing at the mouth?I walked a little closer to see if I could spot one of the "lazy bums" for myself. Not surprisingly, I saw a crowd of peaceful people, of all ages and races, standing together, chanting peaceful slogans. There was nothing threatening about their posture or words. I joined them, as I had come to do.A couple of friends joined me soon enough, and we stood there, among people with placards, shouting slogans, all about taking back our system of governance for the people that are supposed to be represented. There were volunteers encouraging people to stay on the sidewalks and out of the street. There were chubby officers up on the bridge. There were ever growing lines of police in full riot gear, ready to crush our skulls. The order was twice repeated in English and Spanish, in a polite enough voice telling us that this was an unlawful assembly and that anyone still there in 5 minutes time would meet violent force, risk serious injury and go to jail. One of the cute kids next to me waved at a police officer, as lines of them spread along the street, billy clubs brandished in their fists, staring at old, short Latino women, children, and non aggressive adults of all races and builds.I felt sad that all these beautiful people have to struggle so hard to demand so little. I felt hurt for Pancho and many others I have never met who have been tear gassed, beaten and imprisoned, for peaceful protest around the country. The officers looked stern and ready to attack at a single order. They looked like us, the protesters, except they had helmets, billy clubs and all kinds of other riot gear, ready for violence. They ended up picking up all the people sitting on the street and taking them away without incident, and eventually, instead of taking the rest of us in, they backed down and left. The protest organizers, entreated upon all of us to pick up what few bits of trash were left around before the street was reopened to traffic and the next protest site was announced.I find it heartbreaking to see these officers who willingly become vicious monsters in uniform when given the order. They too are like you and I, but if given the order, they won't hesitate to break bones, trample freedoms and crush rights. That separates "them" from "us". It is not an easy choice to be moral, when those around you discourage it, but if you took an oath to protect and serve and someone orders you to attack unarmed, non-threatening civilians with brutal force then you may wish to consider what you are serving and who you are protecting.Today, I saw but a small drop in the strong current of resistance to the status quo. People dismiss this movement for not setting out policy goals, and yet there is a commonality of grievance and shared desire for redress. Just because there isn't some ego maniac telling us all what to think, doesn't mean we have no direction. Instead, the direction is one of discussion, consensus and a desire to come to decisions as a group of people brought together by the common desire to make positive change. Sounds like a democratic process to me.

Omar Kazmi of Elephants with Guns

A watercolor sketch of my friend Omar Kazmi of Elephants with Guns.

Teale Street Sculpture Studio Drawings

Went over to Teale Street Sculpture Studio for some drawing with my friend Terry. Sometimes I forget key supplies. This time, I brought my brushes, and water etc, but forgot my watercolor paints. So I improvised. I found a hiliter marker in the car and borrowed a charcoal pencil from Terry. I had a sprayer bottle which I found does some cool things. I scribbled out a layout with the marker, then sprayed it which makes it bright and washes it away a bit, then applied the charcoal pencil to the wet paper which gives a beautiful smooth line. I took a brush and added a wash to create some shadow areas.

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia Bansuri/Flute Concert at the Skirball Center

I went to an Indian Classical Bansuri/Flute concert by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia at the Skirball Center and did these quick sketches. Thanks to my friend Ashish for the invite to this event of the World Sacred Music Festival.

Niambi Sims at Soul Kitchen

I went to my friend Mark Anthony Benson's Soul Kitchen and enjoyed a powerful short film about abuse, a beautiful music performance by Niambi Sims and her band as well as some great art by Scott Orner and DJing by DJ Tray Boogie.Here's a sketch of Niambi bringing her music to a the audience at the Industry Jazz Cafe, where Mark does his Soul Kitchen events. Thanks for another great night Mark!

Charlie Haden Quartet at the Catalina Jazz Club

I went to a jazz performance at the Catalina Jazz Club, courtesy of my friend Ashish. Playing that night was the Charlie Haden Quartet West. I started with a sketch of the pianist Alan Broadbent, then the drummer whose name I could not find and I managed a pencil sketch of Charlie Haden himself before the set ended. I painted my pencil sketch of Haden at home the next day. Ernie Watts played saxophone, but I did not manage a sketch of him as he was behind a music stand from where I sat. His instrument was an incredible piece of art in itself, besides the beautiful performances by all four.It was a lot of fun to feel the energy and see the joy of the performers and audience. I tried to capture a piece of that in my work.

Azad Pakistan

Happy Independence Day Pakistan! Here's a sketch from a few years ago of Mehr and Sher Ali, two famous Pakistan Qawwali singers that seemed appropriate for the day.A powerful piece of poetry, instilling a sense of duty and self sufficiency in a people in desperate need, as relevant today as when Mohammad Allama Iqbal wrote it in the 1930's, I give you Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's rendition of "Javed Nama".