For my phenakistoscope project, I decided to draw a bust sculpture rotating, as I wanted to practice drawing my two dimensional style of human faces from different angles. I additionally added a spinning crystal, as it felt incomplete with only one subject. This was also done with the intent to work on perspective drawing. After completing this piece, I feel I have more of a grasp of how to make still images look like they are moving as well as an ability to create a looped ‘video.’ It was a bit of a struggle at first to correctly space out the heads over 12 frames, but I got through it by working on the first and last frames and filling in the rest from there. The three-quarters view from the back of the head was a tricky one to draw also; it took me some trial and error, but I tried to rely on using simple shapes to construct it and then add more details. If I were to do this project again, I think that I would spend more time shading the crystals. They don’t look quite like the right type of material to me, so I would use reference photos next time. I’m very happy with how the shading on the heads turned out, and I’m very proud to have created a two dimensional style that will hold up from any angle. I think this could be very helpful in the future as I try to animate on a larger scale. Animation is an incredibly long and tedious process; I definitely have gained more respect for people who animate entire stories or even movies.
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