Plato's cave 2013

I realise I am on the Internet.

I know you are reading it on here. 

I understand the irony of this inspired piece. 

I think this mainly came from the onslaught of the Internet and how many do not know life without it. I was born in 1980. I am lucky enough to be apart of the dawn of technology. 

Four heads help illustrate the terror and overwhelming feeling of information. Or misinformation. 

Doesn't mean we need it all the time. 

I promised myself a day off.

I promised myself a day off.

Then I wanted to draw myself as a viking.

DOH!!!

Happy with the result regardless.

Demonic Zombie back breaker - Scariest pose

I am a massive Horror fan. But in learning animation there is not to many jobs in the macabre. So for the past few years I have focused on drama, thriller and children shows. Currently working with one of my favourite New Zealand death/ thrash metal bands

Horror is actual one of the hardiest genres to do, but I was unaware of this.

I wanted to do a very difficult demonic , spider walk style pose. Something I had not drawn before.

I wanted to do a quick(ish) study ( 7 hours ). This was something I had wanted to draw for about three months. Final I had problem solved it my head. I love Jacen Burrows and his work. His line style and characters are just rad and very scary.

Here is the end result.

Me and Maya, my new best friend. A visual diary.

I have started the year learning MAYA autodesk. Its been a steep learning curve to get used to navigating around the programme and apply those 2D skills. I always knew it would take me a few months to get my head around it. Extremely glad I am learning it in an institute,  I learn well in a team environment and speaking things out loud.

This is a visual diary to record my own progress, that's what I love about blogging the most. Looking back through the pages of work you have created. This is not a show reel of my best work. This is my learning process.

I Love music since my inception into the world 09/09/1980.

I Love music. I always have..

Ever since my first burgundy walkman with bright orange headphones. My first tape was Bon Jovi - Slippery when wet. My second tape was Michael Jackson - Bad . It was pretty big at the time and now everyone pretty much chooses "living on a prey" and "I'm bad" at Karaoke.

I have always been in to music, many genres. I can never get enough. Not saying I dont enjoy quiet nights. but I love adding a soundtrack to my life. I always submerge when I listen to music. I thrash a band sometimes for a month, I just can't stop listening. Other times I listen to an album and semi enjoy/disregard. But a year later revisit the same album and fall in love. Then there's the revisit an album you were obsessed with a decade or two later and still is radical.

I had always wanted to write music. I some times had a play on my Mums guitar, I used to enjoy playing "stand by me" , "smoke on the water" and "walk". All classic, first timer riffs. I didn't have the best co-ordination when it came to playing instruments. I was into sports like soccer, cricket , basketball rugby and rugby league. I enjoyed drawing and drama games too. But I never just picked up an instrument. They were very expensive in the mid 80s to mid 90s. Even entry level models of guitars were $400.

My Dad played guitar, but he mainly played in a covers band. Which was super cool. But I wanted to write the songs. I always saw it as a shame that my dad didn't have time to teach me. But it shows me that it was going to come out of me know matter what. I was always going to share music with my friends and family. But by the time I was writing music. The Internet was alive and kicking. Check out my many different styles of music here:


https://soundcloud.com/mrleontaylor

Neon gross-ness I can not stop looking at.

I grew up in the 1980s. Every year of it. One thing I remember the most is collecting cards. I collected TMNT live action and animated, Dick Tracey, Goonies, WWF and my favourite Garbage pail kids.

There was always something so appealing about these cards. They were also the only ones that came is a smaller pack.

This drawing I like to think has those "cool!" Closely followed by a " gross!" Feelings

I have made them with different palates to go for a feel. When I did a vote on instagram and facebook this is the order of which people voted as their favourite.

Twelve horns - Four seasons - One Moon

This started as a vision of explaining seasons through out the year and years lived. I was originally going to make it one character holding a large falcon.But once I had started to research my animal anatomy, then attempted to draw what I had planned. But, it didn't work out. I was clouded, with a stronger vision of what I wanted from the drawing. The current drawing, It didn't explain how I feel towards these seasons. Nor did it explain the organic feel I was going for.

I'm gonna need a bigger bit of paper.

Four Seasons : This is to illustrate the times of year. Living on this amazing earth we all experience winter at other times of year. So I did not want to bunch them in to months that not everyone can relate too.


12 horns : The 12 horns you might think stand for the number of months. In a way it does. But It stems back to the quality of life I feel we get from these times of year. In summer times, we have more daylight to achieve our goals and with the sun can have extra energy.


One moon: We live with one moon. This fascinates me. It is all apart of this world we live in. The planet still spins regardless of how we react to it.


Explanations of the piece of art.


FARM GOAT / SUMMER: Farm goats are sturdy animals and relentless with the job. The goat has four horns to illustrate quality of life and amount of life enjoyed.



WOLF / AUTUMN: The wolf is a ravenous animal. I used it to illustrate how we gather supplies for the winter looking for what's best in the coming months.



BEAR / WINTER: The bear in a caring yet protective animal. We sometimes lock down over winter, we don't spend as much time with people as we would like. But spending time with those closest to you can really make you feel great as you look forward to spring



MOUNTAIN GOAT / SPRING: The mountain goat has a balance we can all admire. No fear of the steepness and I feel the illustrate how hard work over the colder months pays off. The goat also has four horns to illustrate quality of life and amount of life enjoyed. But is in a different shape to show how life can be a little tough too.



I was very pleased with the end result.

I hope you enjoy.

mrleontaylor

The BIG EARS Basketball team

I am in my first year of CGI animation after 3 years of studying and applying traditional animation. So character designs I have done before and am still learning a lot about it. Forever learning and up skilling. All the character designs I had done before were only used in 2D/traditional/toon boom animation.

Most of the same things apply in CGI animation. Over the years I have read a lot about CGI and even seen others learn it. I have even watched videos regarding MAYA. It didnt make to much sense, but somehow knew it would make sense eventually.

Then suddenly it's all making a lot more sense. Every day. Starting to get really excited about it too. I understand there are many hurdles. But having idea how long the race is, is helping get clarity.

Chalk drawing Eden Park centenary 1913-2013

Eden Park had contacted my school ACNZ (animation college NZ) to do a chalk drawing celebrating 100 years of sport family and fun. I was asked if I wanted to take responsibility for the day to design, direct a mural. I was happy to take on the challenge. Even if I was new to the medium I knew I could apply my skills I have learnt and applied over the last 3 years learning traditional animation. Only on a large scale.

Enjoy.

mrleontaylor

Feature artist at ACNZ, H(oney) - Division pt2 in colour.

The real story of 100 acre wood. I had to colour this fan-art. I could not be more happy with how things turned out. I coloured this using photoshop

Also I am the feature artist at school this week. Which I am very proud of.

I launched my artist page on Facebook and have had such a positive response in only 4 days.

My photo on the Auckland zoo Facebook page has had over 500 likes. I am so fortunate to be able to express how I feel and that people enjoy. It is so rewarding.

Loving my journey as an artist. It's just excellent.

Feel free to check out all these pages.

Thanks so much

mrleontaylor.