The Art of Renee Vance

Of the many outstanding students we've had at the Academy one of our most recent is Renee Vance. She enrolled with us through our online program and took classes from her home in Pennsylvania. The following samples are assignments she came up with while taking Visual Development.

In addition to being a remarkable artist her creative productivity is astounding. Renee would come up with fantastic art that went beyond what the assignment called for in terms of quantity while maintaining an excellent standard of quality.

Renee is currently developing a fun and exciting project for a client in Los Angeles. Everyone that works with her is amazed at her creativity and the volume of content she's able to come up with.

Renee recently launched a YouTube channel which features some of her process videos. She's also on Patreon if you'd like to subscribe and have access to her upcoming content.

A visit from Don Sheean

Normally one wouldn't attach a talented artist with the demanding profession of a cross country truck driver. That said I challenge anyone to find a cross country truck driver who is as talented an artist as Don Sheean.

Don's history with us goes way back to the earliest days of the Academy when he was first taking classes. Nowadays we enjoy the pleasure of his company when he's in town and available. We had that opportunity last week when Don was in class and came up with the beautiful mermaid sketch below.

You can see more of Don's great work at his ArtStation site. Much of what he exhibits are compositions he came up with in class. As an added  bonus I've dug up some of Don's work that was posted here on the Academy's blog in the past to revisit and appreciate...

Emily Choi - A Rising Star

Another of our recent students who's making a mark is Emily Choi. She started with us last August and has been steadily growing in her skills which were impressive to begin with. Here's a few samples of what she's done from Character Design 1 and into Visual Development.

Rotations are a basic professional requirement when it comes to Character Design. They're the bridge between concept and the production pipeline. Emily did a fine job on her first attempts at this challenging assignment.

Next up is her facial expression assignment. Now that she's established the look of her character it's time to explore how that character behaves...

Getting your character moving about is another important priority in the emergence of the design. Here are a few samples of her action / attitude posing...

This is where Emily makes the transition from concentrating on the form of her designs to rendering. These are samples of her first attempts at tonal illustration using gray scale markers...

Experience with traditional mediums helps in successfully migrating towards the digital side of things. In this example Emily begins with a gray scale tonal rendering then uses that as a foundation for color. She went over her marker rendering with color pencils for a very interesting look through an unusual technique...

This is where she transitions to digital illustration. Her first assignment in Photoshop...

   

Among her most recent assignments is this color illustration she created for a new project she's developing. Emily did this full color digital illustration based upon the approach she worked with traditionally going from gray scale to color...

The Progress of Alexander Ponce

Late last summer in August 2018 a new student enrolled with us in Character Design 1. Alex had talent but as with many of our incoming artists he was raw in certain areas. Drawing from one's imagination can be a challenge and he applied himself diligently. The results of his efforts can be seen below as we follow his progress in reverse from his latest work to his earliest.

This is what distinguishes The Animation Academy in Burbank. Our students make remarkable leaps in their skill levels as can be seen in the impressive samples of Alex Ponce.

    

Background Painting Demo by Joel Valdez

Joel Valdez is a former student of the Academy and a very talented artist in many areas especially as a character designer and in visual development / production design. At one point he was with us as an instructor. He's taking his artistic expertise in new directions as he builds his YouTube channel with excellent videos in landscape and background painting.

This is his latest demo as he paints Jackson Square in New Orleans. Subscribe to Joel's channel to catch all of his upcoming videos. Click on the bell for notifications.

Alyssa Ayson's fingertip art

Among our innovative students is a newcomer to the Academy. Alyssa Ayson is completing our entry class of Character Design 1. In the process she took a sketch she created and photographed it with her smart phone. Then she used an illustration app called ibis Paint X to color it. She did this with her fingertip...