Jon Magram's Blog

Bardance

2012-01-07T01:56:00.000-08:00

This was a couple dancing at a bar I went to. It seemed like quite the workout.

Sketchtown and new portfolio website

2011-11-17T00:43:00.001-08:00

My new portfolio website redesign is up. It's hopefully much less boring than before: jonmagramportfolio.blogspot.com

I've also updated my projects and pages. Check it out, but only if you want to.

Besides that, here's just a small portion of all the sketches I've been doing in the past few months:

More sketches!

2011-08-23T00:11:00.000-07:00

More sketches. Trying my best to implement good, solid, appealing shapes while maintaining gesture and story. Also trying to use value to divide, break up, and clarify.

Philz Sketches

2011-08-20T00:46:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of sketches that I did at Philz Coffee today (I always think I'll have something more to say when I post, but I never do).

Recent Caricatures

2011-07-26T00:40:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to work on implementing the design lessons that I've learned in the past year into everything I do. These are some attempts as I try to caricature people I know. Though I feel like my use of shape and proportion is getting incrementally better, there are still a ton of issues I need to be vigilant about.

Oh well! Here they are:

Also, here's a caricature that Melissa King did of me a while ago. I don't know if it'll ever see the light of day unless I post it, and I think it's a very accurate representation of myself. Here it is, forever on the web.

Other than that, goodbye for now.

Some recent stuff.

2011-07-20T02:47:00.000-07:00

Two things:

First Thing:

I updated the header of my blog. It now looks like this:

Tomorrow morning I may realize that it looks stupid and I might try to change it again. We'll see. Maybe it's the greatest thing anyone has ever done; it's hard to tell this early in history.

Whatever the case, if you look closely, you can find at least one hidden animal. I implemented little secrets like that because I thought they would make me look cool.

[EDIT (07-26-11): I was right, I realized I didn't like it and I decided to change it again. We'll see how long this one lasts.]

Second thing:

Here are some little bits of recent bits.

One More Post with Sketch Pages

2011-07-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

Here are a few sketches that I've done in the past few days.

The following are just excerpts from sketch pages that I kind of liked. Maybe you will too.

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Here are some sketches I did at Santana Row in San Jose. I think Santana Row is made up of 20% rich people, and 70% middle class people who want to pretend to be rich. The final 10% are other people that I did not want to think about.

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This is Eric Goldberg. I was lucky enough to sit next to him and David Silverman as we watched Ron Diamond's DVD collection called "Giants' First Steps", which contained student shorts by people like Nick Park, Pete Doctor, Andrew Stanton, Eric Goldberg, David Silverman, and a bunch of other interesting people. It was pretty cool.

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This is a woman I saw. I felt that a simple line drawing did not capture her true essence, so I went and colored her. I can only hope that, one day, I too will age gracefully and look like her.

Character Designs from Last Semester

2011-07-02T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hello! For some reason I still haven't posted the following pages. They're from my final project last semester, which was a workshop on character design taught by Nickelodeon artist Joel Fajnor. It was one of the most useful workshops I've ever been a part of, and I've been able to use the principles that I learned in pretty much every creative endeavor I've had since.

The assignment was to design either a male rhino in female clothing, or a female wolf in sheep's clothing. I chose the wolf.

Anyway, here they are.

Thomas

2011-04-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

Thomas is my girlfriend's cat. He is stupid, but my cat Bob is stupider. I'll draw Bob sometime.

One More Thing

2011-04-14T11:31:00.001-07:00

Here's a drawing I made of my friend Rob. He's the writer/director of SJSU's summer feature film project, and I hoped this would get people to trust him.

Two New Things

2011-04-14T01:54:00.000-07:00

This is a guy I saw walking out of the library. He had a big red ball of flesh protruding from his eyelid. It was really big. When he blinked it moved with his eyelid. But I don't judge, and I think he should keep it if he wants to.

The second of two new things is Donovan the musician. He writes things and then sings them. He sounds kind of like Bob Dylan, and kind of like Nick Drake, but especially like Donovan.

Figure Drawing

2011-02-21T22:11:00.000-08:00

These are the drawings that I drew that I liked at figure drawing tonight. That's all.

I added the baby.

I added the ropes he was pulling.

I did not add the sword or the blood. This was the last pose of the night.

VidChat Drawings for January 31st, 2011 (the greatest date)

2011-01-31T23:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some more vidchats that I did.

I did these after I was fully warmed up after a day of arduous homework. Therefore, it was significantly easier to push them.

More VidChat Drawings

2011-01-30T00:45:00.001-08:00

Winter Break Update pt.2

2011-01-26T14:18:00.000-08:00

And here is the long-awaited sequel.

These are all the sketches that I've done from life. I've been focusing on improving my drawing during this break. I made progress.

The following were done at a variety of coffee shops, libraries, and furry conventions.

These were all done digitally, using a computer, a tablet, and a keyboard for when I wanted to check my e-mail for the hundredth time.

These were done mostly at FurCon, San Jose's biggest and greatest furry convention. The purpose of a furry convention is for humans to dress like animals, and also to remind real animals of the limitless superiority of humans.

This is a man sitting at the library, angry at his newspaper.

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Edit:
Also, here are some more chatroulette caricatures that I forgot to post yesterday.

Winter Break Update pt.1

2011-01-25T17:56:00.000-08:00

Winter break is over! One of the ways I passed the time was by going on websites like Chat Roulette and drawing live caricatures of people. I used a webcam program which allowed me to share my screen so the only thing people saw was the canvas. It was a good exercise, because in order to keep people from nexting me, I had to very quickly draw the gesture of their face--enough that they could recognize themselves--within a few seconds. It really helped me to see their basic face shapes quickly.

And it was fun. Here are the results!

Sketches and Figure Drawings and words

2010-11-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

Hello! Here are some drawings I've done in the past few weeks. I've begun to realize how much work I have to do in terms of sketching from life. It's extraordinarily difficult to capture the moment I want and put it down on paper accurately.

I'll just keep trying for a billion hours and see how far I get.

Sketches from life:

Figure Drawings:

Two new little short films...

2010-10-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

Here are two new little short films I've made in the past couple months.

Elliot Kane (5 minutes)
This first one is called Elliot Kane, and I made it for CampusMovieFest with my UbseyMovies team: Jeff Benson, Robbie Benson, and Robert Krakower.
It recently managed to take home Best Picture at CampusMovieFest SJSU finale, so we got some cool prizes and the film will move on to the International Finale at the end of the school year.

Jon Magram: Paranormal Investigator (2.5 minutes)
This second one is a stupid little short I made for my Senior class at SJSU. We had to make a video that introduces who we are, so I decided to make a short film, because that's what I like to do.

Update with sketches...

2010-07-07T20:54:00.001-07:00

Here are some sketches I have drawn from the past few months. I have started to experiment with watercolor, and it's difficult but fun.

A self-portrait...

2010-07-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

I made this for this blog, so here this is! I wanted it to look sort of gross, like me.

2010-05-31T01:59:00.001-07:00

Here's something I did for a friend as a graduation present, because she demanded it should be hand-made for her. Her name is Allison and she has tiny little hands. I hope she doesn't hate it!

Here it goes:

CD Cover Art

2010-05-24T20:18:00.001-07:00

A finished piece I did for a CD Cover. Dunno when it will be in stores, but it is for a guy named Bobby Black and his Steel Guitar Paradise album.

Without placeholder text.

With placeholder text.

Also, a piece from my conceptual illustration class. It was for a book that contained an alliterated sentence and an illustration for every letter of the alphabet. My letter was A.

I should have updated my blog like I said I would

2009-12-16T17:16:00.000-08:00

Updating my blog:

I will try really hard this time, and I mean it (sort of).

Here is the work I have done for my first semester of visual development, and my first semester of 3D modeling (Maya):

VIS DEV:

Project 1 - A Kitchen

Kitchen Studies:

Kitchen Pieces:

Project 2 - A Treehouse

Project 3 - A Donut Shop

Project 4 - Circus Act

The chimpanzee menagerie, starring chimps dressed in all kinds of gear and wimps dressed from ear to ear!

Plein-errs

I also did these:

That is that, for that.

MAYA:

I only have a few pieces that are worth calling my own. The rest turned out fine but were very paint-by-numbers. The following are the projects that I had enough creative freedom that I could say that they are mine. Mine:

Project 1 - An Ottoman

Project 1 - A Pincushion

This is my mother's pincushion. I took it.

From now on, I will update more forever.

2009-02-12T20:40:00.001-08:00

Here are updates from the past year:

I will update more from now on:

Here it is:

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From this semester, Spring 2009...

Figure Drawings So Far This Semester:

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From last semester, Fall 2008...

114 Portfolio:

114 animation:

113B eggs and object painting:

hello everyone...

2008-04-24T02:48:00.000-07:00

Spring 2007 Portfolio for the SJSU animation/illustration portfolio review.

This is the portfolio that I submitted to be accepted into SJSU's animation/illustration program.

2008-03-18T18:49:00.001-07:00