Tonight I'm glad I have a little bit of free time to reply to emails and post on my blog about the Imaginism Workshop, which is btw a beautiful place full of wonder where unicorns run free and rainbows lead our path to happiness.
I arrived to Toronto on January 5th and stayed at a hostel for a few days. It was nice to be back in Canada and feel some real winter weather. The workshop started until the 8th so I had a bit of time to look around and visit some places in the city. The first thing I did of course was to ask for directions to the nearest Tim Hortons because I friggen love that place and I'm glad there are plenty of those all around the country. Heaven on Earth ►
On Sunday Thierry picked me up at the hostel and took me to the Imaginism House, he showed me around and then we headed to the airport to pick up another pupil (whose art can be seen here). Later on that night we went back to the airport to get another one. The 4th student arrived until last Thursday.The house itself is amazing. There are paintings by Bobby, Kei and Thierry on every wall. That afternoon we got some supplies for the week and apparently tomorrow we're gonna clean the house, YAY!
The workshop oficially started on Monday, I was really excited about it, it was what I was waiting for since I got accepted. That day we had a lecture with Bobby Chiu. He shared some of his experiences in the industry and told us the secret of how to become a succesful artist. A lot of things he said though I had heard them from my own dad but I never paid attention to him because that's my job as his daughter, but now I know that all succesful men will always tell you the same thing.
The day after, we started the actual drawing lessons with Thierry Lafontaine. From that very day I started to see things differently, I realized that: a simple square is harder to get right than you think, people are just boxes in facial features-wrapping paper, drawing has the same structure as writting/talking, and many other things that have blown my mind. It's my first time using a Cintiq too, they're super practical and fun to draw on! I might try to get one later on this year, I just have to save some money because those things are E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E but they're totally worth every penny. Also homework was already pretty hardcore, I mean, it's not tough or anything but it takes a long time to do... although it's mostly me who is kind of a perfectionist and keeps redoing stuff all the time.
Here are some of my class assignments I did this week:
It's so great to see how in such a short amount of time I'm beginning to improve, or at least to feel a lot more comfortable drawing people, I'm so stoked about subway sketching tomorrow! I'm expecting to find lots of interesting characters to draw.
That's all for now, stay tuned for more exciting adventures at the Imaginism House :)
Here's a video that Matt Johnson (who attended the workshop in November - December) made about the workshop. I think that pretty much explains how awesome it is to be here. I'm so lucky...
Next time I post something I'll show you another video by another student.
R
PS: Remember I told you I made the ending credits for TopCat the movie? Someone already posted it on Youtube :)
Enjoy!
