buttons

This is the ancient written language of the pea-nimals. No one knows how to understand it any more.

cropping ideas

Here's something different.

bella coola

Blurry photo of a painting I'm finishing up. This is going to be in the title sequence for a (mostly live action but partly animated) documentary I did some work on. I especially like how the background mountains are turning out. It was challenging to show some flow and energy around the town of Bella Coola with all the buildings. I probably could have done more work developing that part of the painting, but I felt like I had to keep it draughtsmanlike, so the town is recognizable. If this was solely a painting, I would have whacked it out a lot more.

rough shot

Halfway through compositing a shot, this is what it looks like. I like this just as it is. Next film I made is going to be a lot more bare-bones, and actually reveal some of the nuts and bolts during the film. Just you watch!

bird frame

I like hand-drawn animation more and more - but some of these shots are a bitch. There's a few shots where the hand drawn character is interacting / touching a 3D animated character, so I have to animate on 1's. This means I'm drawing 30 frames every second, instead of 10 or 15.

reflection

I drew this guy at Starfucks. Very strange - I didn't realize it until I was almost finished the drawing, but he was calmly watching me draw him through the reflection in a window. I think this is a first. Usually people don't notice, or they notice and get uncomfortable so I stop. Or they see me drawing people, then sit up more straight and occasionally glance over, like they're hoping I'll draw them too. I never draw the latter types.

ivvavik

This painting will be a background to the animation I'm working on. Getting out of the machine-portion of the film, into the pretty nature stuff. These landscapes are based on Ivvavik National Park, in northern Yukon, where I was invited to go last August with a few other artists.

Painting Room

Finally home! Recent realization - that I haven't been giving myself enough space to do my art properly. Not properly doing my art means not giving priority to what I love to do. Means I'm basically punishing myself for some odd reason. The result - a painting room!

Me so happy,
oh oh me so happy.

PD040 BG

Been back in Vancouver for a couple days now, only here for one more day, then away again for a week. After that, will return to regular postin'.