East-27 (お話²)

Make with ze lemonade

Olga Ulanova — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 08:11:25 +0000

So this week I was shown a cover for the upcoming new Superboy series. Wow! Super cute official art by Rafael Albuquerque! Cozins you won’t believe how excited I got!! … before realizing to my utter dismay that he’s not doing the interior pages.

To console myself I made up a matching Supergirl ‘cover.’

Hey, when life gives you lemons…

First Storyboard Animatic

Olga Ulanova — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:22:03 +0000

I prefer not to dwell on the past, cozins. Especially when it comes to art. Especially when the art skills of the past pale in comparison to my current ones. But, I think it’s important to acknowledge where I come from, and to give a nod to how far I’ve come since.

So I went back to last summer, and compiled one of my very first storyboards into an animatic. I was enrolled in Jay Oliva’s storyboarding class at Concept Design Academy. The assignment was to pick any two characters from Avatar and stage a fight sequence in the duel format – one on one, hand to hand, no weapons or powers. The sequence had to include basic elements of an action scene:

establish spacial relationship between opponents
showcase the threat & hero’s reaction
execute first action, followed by the choreography as one character attacks, the other reacts
the peril
and resolution of a fight.

The point of a storyboard is to coherently illustrate the action in the scene, not necessarily to draw a pretty picture. Still, compared to what I know now this makes me cringe. ^_^* But considering that it was my first time drawing an action board – hey, not too bad!

This board got me the interview at WB, so not half bad, indeed. ^__^

A million points to whomever can name my sources of “inspiration.” LOL

Art challenge

Olga Ulanova — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:06:25 +0000

It is a bit of a new and peculiar experience for me these days – to be drawing all day every day but having “nothing” to show for it. :D I did get to doodle something non-work related, ’cause for a while we’ve had an art challenge going in the studio.

First week’s theme was “any Marvel hero,” and I picked Blink ’cause I loved her in Age of Apocalypse. Aah, 90s nostalgia, nothing quite like it. ^_^ It was fun to work on a glam piece again, and a good opportunity to practice my upshots.

And for the pre-holiday challenge I drew a Persian mermaid. I wanted to give her way more jewelry to portray the Persian aspect, but either I was tired or she looked right with just the crown. X)

Waiting to exhale

Olga Ulanova — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:07:28 +0000

You know that feeling of slight disbelief whenever you accomplish something despite yourself? Like, when you set out to do a drawing and it comes out exactly like it’s in your head, on first try — and you sit back and just gaze at it in wonderment and awe? And maybe want to pinch yourself a little? Or do a little victory dance?

That’s kind of what happened to my life this summer. :D

I headed out to sunny California with a Plan and a car full of stuff. I enrolled in summer courses at the Concept Design Academy and for 2 months I worked my patootie off. (College seems like child’s play, now. Or just irrelevant.) I engrossed myself in the mysteries of storyboarding. I discovered a field that is finally challenging in all the right ways and appealing for all the right reasons. I finally had an instructor to teach me anatomy. That may not be a big deal in and of itself, but I’ve been self-taught up till now, so having a teacher was absolutely dreamy and inspiring. Someday I’d like to write up the experience. :) I learned so much about art and about me. All in all it’s been a wonderful, terrible, challenging and indescribable summer.

And now here I am — a storyboard revisionist at WB Animation. Yeah. I think in my head I’m still just sitting back and letting it all sink in. I am SO excited about everything to be learned that I want to do a little dance. Or maybe pinch myself. ^_^

quick drawing: hijo de la luna

Olga Ulanova — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:45:28 +0000

Dime luna de plata,
¿Que pretendes hacer con un niño de piel?

I am feeling oh so very tired this week, so I just had to do a little sumthn-sumthn for myself. What I wanted to draw was an Oracle avatar, but instead I ended up with an illustration for one of my favorite songs of all time, Hijo de la Luna.

Check out the acapella version by Belle Perez (just don’t mind the video. lol) Between the chorus and the lyrics, it is absolutely chilling. ^_^