Rey's Anatomy,Notes from a Teacher

Rey's Anatomy by Rey Bustos | Make Your Own Book

Teaching at Disney Feature Animation

I am currently teaching (May through June 2010) at Disney Feature Animation in Burbank Ca. with some amazing artists. Teaching here is one of my favorite teaching gigs, I have always enjoyed working with these great artists.

Zack Petroc is shown

with his fabulous ecorche',(above my drawing photos), the picture above him is of Disney artists, Hiroki Itokazu and Jim Doherty. The first images are of the ecorche's close to being done.

I have also included a couple of pics of my lecture drawings.

Remembering Norm Schureman

Well once again in too short of a time, we have lost another great teacher at Art Center to senseless violence. It was a mere 14 years ago that I got the jaw-dropping news that our beloved Dwight Harmon was killed by a couple of thugs while Dwight walked in the park after teaching his class at ACCD. He was beaten to death by two young predators that saw Dwight as an easy mark or maybe it was timing or opportunity. I don't know. How can we know, those of us that lead "normal" lives. Lives with purpose and meaning unlike so many lost and cowardly people among us. So, how can we know what it takes to be so cruel. I got the news of Norm's tragic death in an email from one of my own ACCD students, Rebecca Blake, the day after the shooting that took Norm's life. I stared at her words, reading in between the lines I felt her pain as she let me know the horrible news. Unlike at the time of Dwight's death, news was instantly available throughout the internet. It was fast but it was widely varied. A lot of it reminded me of the child's game of "Telephone". So much of what I read on idiotic BLOGS were the usual inane people assuming things beyond their knowledge and I read disturbing suppositions about the event and even about Norm himself. It reminded me of the multitudes of cowards behind anonymous, often hate-filled spewings. So many people nowadays hide behind anonymity.
But through all of the cybergarbage,the one fact was irrefutable, Norm was no longer with us. I lost a friend and colleague that Saturday night, I will miss the talks about future plans to join forces and create a class that combined my Imaginatomy class with his VisCom/drawing class. It would be a uberclass. But as with many things that get put on the shelf, time ran out. As a matter of fact it is in part because of Norm and his trust in my knowledge that I created IMAGINATOMY. It's a long story but it was over a decade ago that Norm started sending his students over to me on a regular basis to help with anatomical questions that I could help with. He was brilliant and the sign of true brilliance is knowing that you don't know everything. Anyway, I figure, why not create a class to answer those questions about made up beasts and their anatomy? Voila, Imaginatomy was born. I also remember that he always liked my sayings, I often write them for my students on my blackboard. He liked one in particular that I often tell my students, it's about drawing......"To draw is to pull out, to interpret is to put in".
Well Norm, we will miss you and it is with a heavy heart that I bid you a final farewell...or, to be more precise,"Toodle-Loo" as I would say to him in the halls of our ol' school. Toodle-loo Norm, until we meet in heaven. I am now filled with even more passion to teach to my fullest and to try to give more fully in life. Life is good even when it hurts.
Rey Bustos, March 24th, 2010

SoPas Gallery to show my PLANE AIR paintings

I am excited to have finally unveiled these new paintings that I am so proud of. The first two pictures are from the show...the three young ladies served as hostesses. The pictures that follow were from the day before the show. We had about two hundred people there on opening night and many paintings were given nice homes! Rey Bustos

Rey's classroom at L.A. Academy (1009)

Rey and Harry 2009

Here's a shot of one of my favorite teachers, Harry Carmean and myself last summer.

Florence, Italy 2009

I got back from my Florence trip with a group of people that wanted to draw and experience Florence with me. I have to say that the city was more than anything I could have ever dreamed of. Every artist should make the pilgimage to this great city, the birthplace of the Renaissance..or Rinascimento,as they say in Italy. I did demos and talked about anatomy, my area of expertise, and perspective, another one of my loves...Florence is the birthplace of mathematical perspective...yes, there is brilliance all around you literally everywhere in this amazing city. We all stayed at the Bernini Palace Hotel right by the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery...we were right in the middle of everything and everything seemed to be at arms length!





Pictures from top to bottom:Rey in the Michelangelo Plaza, The "Florentines", Fellow ACCD alums Janet D'Andrea and Ralph Roberts, one of the sketches that I did and me teaching by the Palazzo Vecchio.

The Getty Hour with Rey Bustos

I will be doing what is called the "Getty Hour" four times in 2007. They are on the first and third Fridays of each month at the Getty Center at 1200 Getty Center Drive in L.A. and my gigs are in January on the 5th and the 19th and in February , on the 2nd and the 16th. I will demonstrate my figure drawing methods and talking a wee bit about the importance of anatomical knowledge as a liberating factor in all figurative work in any medium including CGI. The mini classes are from 7-9pm. I hope to see and meet some of you there. Rey Bustos