A little more progress, A little less Stephen.

Here's a revised blocking on my shot even though the tutorship w/ Stephen is over. Although he said to keep sending WIP's his way , which I thought that was really cool.

I look back at the work I did for the tutorship and cant help but feel like I didn't "bring it" like I wanted to! I certainly couldn't have worked any harder. But I knew I wanted to zero in on acting , specifically characters interacting, cause thats what I felt I needed the most improvement on. And who better to get that kind of feedback from than a Pixar animator right?
One of the biggest things I'll take away from my time w/ Stephen is the idea of striving of a certain level of sophistication in your animation. And there are alot of elements that go into achieving that. He breaks down what some of those "elements" are here. I tell everyone that Stephen has set his standards extremely high for what he feels like is the good stuff, and it was cool to be able to tap into that .

I'm back to my "trying to stay as productive" routine of animating during the day at work, squeezing in some drawing during lunch, coming home and working on my shot until about 3-ish. I don't think I can sleep before 3 comfortably. I dont know when that started happening, but I always feel like I have to have something going on, and get really antsy when I dont. Which made 2007 just fly by!

Yo Picasso!

A WIP started today at lunch. Seems like a real pleasant person to be around eh? Yo Picasso! Lighten up a little, son!

The Shoulders of Giants

I'll have to, once again, direct your attention to Brian McDonald's Invisible Ink blog. I've been making my way through the amazing entries in his archives, but this one in particular struck a chord with me:
Standing on the shoulders of Giants.

In one section , he mentions telling his students to find what he calls a 'virtual mentor'. That is they should find a person or two or three (giants) to follow. That "When you find these virtual mentors try to be as much like them as possible and they will teach you things about your craft that you didn't even know were there to learn."

I thought it'd be cool to share the people who, consciously or subconsciously, I've used as "virtual mentors." (up to this point.)

Pablo Picasso- Like many others I've talked to, I was initially turned off by his work, and also like many others, was shocked to discover the virtuosity of his work as a youth. Here was an artist that spent his lifetime challenging and reinventing himself. He kicked off the modern art movement w/ a few paintings. Picasso came in, learned the rules, broke all of the rules, and changed the way people looked at art forever.

Glen Keane- What can I say about this guy. He is the single biggest reason I'm an animator today. I was in the 3rd quater of art school, I saw Tarzan, and it was over. The timing was perfect as I had no idea what I wanted to do for a career. We all know of the rest of his illustrious career, but you listen to the guy talk now, and his passion for animation has not waned in the least. 35 years into his animation career and he still feels like there are things he could be better at. His work is always coming from some place personal and emotional, because that is the only way he could work. He's very candid about the struggles he's had in his career in a way that is completely relatable for someone like me.

Michelangelo Bounarroti- Every time I come across something I think is completely beyond my capabilities, I tell myself that Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. The effing Sistine Chapel son! And he didn't even think it was any good, he thought it would surely ruin his career. I could go on and on about this man, most of which wouldnt be news to you. But after all of his accomplishments , I recently found this quote from him.
"If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem wonderful at all. "

Suffice to say there are many many, many other artists along the way that I've followed to a greater or lesser degree. But I'm comfortable with these 3 sitting at the top.

Tutoring w/ Stephen Gregory - Last Session!

Last night was my last session with Stephen. Here is the blocking of the new assignment I've been working on. I'll post the notes I took on it when I get home tonight. Because of his busy schedule, he'll be postponing his next tutorship session until the summer time.

On another note, I wanted to share an amazingblogsite that I stumbled upon yesterday. I check out tons and tons of art blogs, but Brian McDonald's Invisible Ink blogsite is chalk full of insightful, well thought-out, theories and opinions that artists, from many disciplines can take away from. I've been missing out and you have too! I'm still making my way through the archives.

This Weekend

Seattle vs. Green Bay.
Go Seahawks!

A Gamble

On Roy Disney and the features:

"He was wrong most of the time. The only time he might have been right was with Fantasia. It was a gamble. They were all gambles. Anybody who tries to do anything great is gambling. " -Bill Peet

Amen Brother!

The whole Bill Peet interview here

Tutoring w/ Stephen Gregory Update

For reasons unbeknowst to me, my notebook started to steadily decline again last week. As it was slowly self corrupting, I scrambled to back my files up on an external hard drive! After the dust settled, and I re-formatted/reinstalled everything, I found out that in my haste, I didnt back up the right files, and the work for the latest exercise was gone. So it was just as much my fault. Pretty lame right?

I've spent my time being disheartened by it, and I've already hit the ground running on a new test, and since there is only a week left of our tutorship, I' ll have accomplish the most work I can in less than a week!

So I'm tellin ya right now, don't expect anything fantastic, but I'll do my best. At least you'll still get to hear some great insights from Stephen! Thats where the gold is!

Happy 2008!

I had a great vacation. Hope you did too. Alot of time spent with my fiance,friends, family. Not a lot of drawing or animation done unfortunately, but here are some things we did do, in random order:

-I finally got to see the Wu-Tang Clan perform (12 years in the making!)
-I went to my first Sonics game. We walked away with the W (against the worst team in the NBA, and Durant sprained his wrist, but still.)
-The Patriots went 16-0. I celebrated.
-Picked up Rock Band!
-My countdown to New Years was actually about 15 minutes off. WTF? When was the last time you had some one tell you that.
- I got some really awesome family portraits painted by Cheryl's sister for Christmas, maybe I'll scan and post them.
- Caught up with a lot of old friends from Bremerton/Silverdale, at the War Room.
-Finally got into Heroes. Pretty good stuff, if you muscle past the cheesy first episodes. Also got the 3rd season of Lost for Christmas (Thanks Ev!) But didnt get around to watching it.
-Out of all the movies I wanted to see, I only Caught Sweeney Todd. Which was pretty good, though I didnt expect a musical, I know, ridiculous.
- Yuji Okumoto (the bad guy from Karate Kid 2) made us drinks at his restaurant, Kona Kitchen!

I'm really looking forward to this year.
I'm getting to go to my first Seahawks game this saturday, which is a playoff game! Nice ! Yes! Aaaand my 10 year high school reunion is this year, holy crap no.

With all the great holiday cards we've gotten this years, I offer you my embarrasingly unfinished holiday card that I couldnt finish before vacation!It's supposed to be Cheryl and I being pulled along on a sled by my two pups. Charming? Unfunny? Downright cruel? Why are those pups so huge? Sorry, I promise to work more on my storytelling skills this year!

I'll be posting more WIP's of my assignment with Stephen soon. Our last session is now on the 14th!