Awesome sauce.

So at the moment I should be pretty-fying myself as I have to bounce off to work in the next 30 minutes. However, I feel it necessary, on my own behalf, to say this.

I don't draw nearly as much as I used to, these past couple months. What happened to my inspiration and joie de vivre? Alas, I happened to me. It's quite fine to mope about complaining about not doing anywork and wondering where the the wasted hours went, but quite another thing to actually stop myself in the midst of this wallowing and kick-start my creativity.

That being said, here is what I have come to realize-
The more I force myself to do something, the less I want to do it.

So, in this thinking, I've decided to revert to my old ways, which is merely WANTING to do it. Because I've always lived for pushing myself to new goals. What a LOSER I am. haha.

Anyway, this might sound grander or lamer than I intended. But this time I'm not going to promise anything, I'm just going to have fun.

Also- I wish to live here.

Recrudescense

HAHA.

I never keep my promises when it comes to this blog. But now I will. Because I have willpower, and you know what they say. Willpower means that you "will". Well, "they" don't say it. Not really sure anyone says it. Regardless.

I've got a great friend who is blogging as well now, and sort of reading over her site and doing some self evaluation made me kick me-self in the pants to get a move on. I really started this blog to ramble on and on about art and my insignificant life and art and self improvement and animation and art and general mayhem. And art. I didn't mention that one yet. But the biggest key to me creating a blog has always been to keep myself active and to have fun while pushing myself. ALWAYS WITH THE PUSHING!

Recently I've been undertaking the quest to be funny, after I was deeply affected by someone telling me (repeatedly) that I was not, and was in fact quite boring. Though it was the first time I heard of such nonsense, I was aghast at the possibility. ME!? NOT FUNNY!? This needs to be remedied! FETCH THE DOCTOR!

Anyway- It's come down to me realizing funny is totally in the eye of the beholder, or...mind of the beholder...what have you. So therefore I shouldn't sweat it, because being naturally funny to the people I can make laugh is much better. Who doesn't like to laugh, anyway?

That's where my thoughts leave off for the moment. No art to show you folks, unfortunately. My scanner's out of commision, my mac is catastrophic, and I'm too lazy to wait the ten minutes it takes to transfer one image from my computer to my dell.

Drawn to Life- A book review.

For all you animators, aspiring animators, and animation lovers out there- I would highly recommend reading if not buying this book. Based of the lectures of Disney's amazingly talented animator/drawing teacher Walt Stanchfield, this book is a lovely step away from those ruddy how-to books. I'd hail this as spectacularly informative as Richard Williams' "Animation Survival Kit", and I personally feel this book has indeed retained the author's (deceased before the book was published) voice and uncanny love for his craft. I couldn't help but be uplifted and inspired by the passages, and entranced by the photographs of animation "treasures" such as keyframes from Milt Kahl, T. Hee, as well as many others.

Here is one particular bit I was captivated by early on in the book-

"...quick sketching is the shortest route to training yourself for capturing those spontaneous gestures and poses that are so essential to good drawing. Break one of your bad habits today. Which one? That habit of not sketching! ... Listen to some jazz, some symphony, a string quintet, and some contry music. Stop everything and just listen...Feel the leaves of a sycamore tree, a wad of cotton, a piece of sandpaper. Pick up a stone from the beach or from the mountains and fondle it. See if it has a message for you...Sharpen your senses in all ways. Life will open up its vistas of adventure and courage and venturesomeness. Then, when you make a sketch you will feel an authoritateve confidence flow into it. It will have the rhytmns of the music you heard, the drama of the books you have read, and the tactile influence of all the things you have touched."

Walt's passion and energy makes for a spectacular read, especially to those who share his everlasting love for animation, art, life, and all aspects inbetween.

(this particular rant of mine is also host on theautumnsociety.blogspot.com)

An inkling of Inking.

Wow! Okay so here are a couple of the better practice-inking designs of Kaleb I did today. I actually did about 10 in total today, however, the early ones were absolutely atrocious. But hey, I certainly learned from them. It was a really fun process, and I didn't want to stop! On the whole I'm content with my learning as it panned out today, because I could really see progress in my work, which actually astonished me! I've certainly got a long way to go, however. I tried strictly using brush throughout the whole time, however when it got to this final image here, I should have trusted my instinct and gone with a smaller nib for defining the arms. As soon as I laid a few lines down, I regretted it. I can only be reassured that better judgment will come with time, and practice is what I certainly must do.

I was trying to create a more open style of inking to the figures, similar to Toth's figures, as well as get over my fear of going dark. No sculptural black and white contrast of form yet, however. Still a little too afraid of creating such a dark image. BUT BOY ARE THOSE CONTRASTS GORGEOUS. I'm a real huge fan of Mike Mignola's work (hellboy is my homeboy- see below image) so if I could master his design sense and explore his technique it would me amazing!

God I could just stare at that image for hours. I need to do me some more learnin'.

Film Festivals

So it's Thursday, and the days and weeks are flying by. I'm only 21, but I'm beginning to understand exactly what people say about how the older you get the faster time goes by.

I'm really enjoying life at the moment, which is hard. I've got my film in the Festival of Independence portion of the Philadelphia Film Festival this year, which came a an unexpected and wonderful shock. I'm also submitting to three more festivals within the next week. Wish me luck!

I've also submitted my demo reel for the Animation internship at Pixar. I'd love to get it, but of course I'm fully prepared for not getting it. There are tons of better artists around, so of course others have a much better chance than I do. However, I would LOVE IT if they even responded to my work, and sent me a critique. That would be gold! Ah man, if I got into Pixar, working with other eager and talented and goofy passionate people would be amazing!!!

I've got alot of sophomores working for me now, too. Like.. A staggering amount, I'm not sure how handle it. It's basically like me running my own small production company. About 9 sophomores have signed up to work on my film, and four juniors. 14 people! SHEESH! *faint* I'm half tempted to actually pass off my inbetweens to some of the Juniors.

But I will not. Not that I don't think they could do a fabulous job. The juniors who have volunteered their time are wonderful and passionate people who I was both honored and humbled to hear how eager they were to work on my film. I simply feel, strongly i might add, that as this is my film and my view and my baby, I should be responsible for animating it. Besides, I LOVE ANIMATING.

Also, here's my adjusted and soon-to-be-printed business card! Yay!

Kero-kero, kero-kero.

^ Did you know that is the sound effect for looking on the ground, in Japanese? The Japanese have a soundeffect for basically everything. its hysterical.

Running a little late on posting! This week has been jam-packed full of excitement and adventure!
I have two composers at the moment, both of which I am very interested in hearing how they will interpret my film. Excitement!

ALSO, i'm designing business cards! Yay!

I think I'm going to use a variation of this design.

just drawin.

Well I've been busy with life. But aren't we all? I nearly forgot to update, as well! Shame on me! Hahah.

I wonder what life would be like if we had licorice for hair.