Blinking Chihuahua

Another in-class demo, this one from New England Institute of Art a couple of quarters ago. We were talking about Julian Opie's blinking portraits.

Blockhead - The Music Scene - Official Video [HD]

We talked about walk cycles, overlapping action, follow-through and drag in relation to walk cycles. Some serious drag here:

EVERYTHING WILL BE OK - by DON HERTZFELDT

We screened this one too:

GUARD DOG clip - Bill Plympton

Wednesday in 2D Animation Principles we watched the extended version Guard Dog by Bill Plympton.

Since own drawing and animation progress this week has been all examples lifted from Preston Blair and Chris Georgenes, I give you this:

Progress on the Marquee

I'll post the latest from the Sports Edition of the BCEC's Art on the Marquee. One is the 3D simulation that shows how they'll work together. The other is the render for the Dactronics template, which doesn't really show how the screens will relate. There's a preview tomorrow at the BCEC, which I will miss. I'd still like a little more detail and I'd like to be able to see the splash on the upper screen, but I think I'm out of time. Still looking for a studio, which has taken a lot of time away from work. The brightly colored stripes at the end won't be there, but it gives you an idea of how the screens are set up. You animate one square that wraps around like an open book cover, then two lower panels.

Art on the Marquee: Sports Edition vol. 1

I'm excited to be teaching 2D Character Animation at Montserrat College of Art this semester! It looks like I have a bunch of motivated, talented, and helpful students who are eager for challenges. Since I'm requiring them to post to blogs weekly, I thought I should require the same of myself. I'll post once a week, probably on Tuesdays, so I can share my animation and art experiments with them and with anyone interested in 2D character animation, painting and drawing. It's been a busy week looking for a new studio space. We have to move at the end of the month and none of us has a space yet. We were waiting to hear about a space but it obviously won't be ready in time. Also by the end of the month I have to finish an animation I've proposed for the Art on the Marquee program at the Boston Exhibition and Convention Center (BCEC) with Boston Cyberarts. I've completed the first step in submitting work to the Boston, and below are the roughs for this 80-foot-high structure composed of 7 screens. The diver will jump off the board in the upper righthand panel, fall through the upper lefthand panel, and land in the lower left panel, then repeat on opposite sides. I may need to add other elements so there's not so much dead air. The clips are 7 seconds, but the actual animation will run 30 seconds. I'll most likely extend the wind-up and may add a flip.

Reminiscing about the Dune Shack

I keep thinking about the week I spent at the C-Scape dune shack in Provincetown, MA thanks to the generosity of friend and ukelele diva Mary Martin Scheaffer. I thought I'd share some images. Above is a watercolor that took about an hour & a half despite its small size. It was cold out but with a thermos of tea by my side it was enjoyable. I used this little watercolor packet I got for $10 at Conway Lumber on my way there. It included everything including paper.

View from kitchen table through open door (10"x8" oil on Gessoboard). I love my guerilla box, which let me set up & move from one painting to the next easily. I was pretty surprised there were rugs in a shack but grateful for them. It was cold! This was started the day I got there, and it was warm. In order to finish it, I had to drape the wool blanket between the living room & the dining room to keep the heat in the living room. I believe I was wearing a tank top, a long-sleeve shirt, a moth-eaten cashmere sweater, a hoodie and a hat with leggings, long jeans skirt, hi-tops. This became my dune-dwelling painter-girl uniform for the week. Add red paint-splattered windbreaker for outdoor days.

View from the path to the beach (4"x6" oil on canvas board)
Made the same day I did the watercolor. Sunburn!

View from the path to dunes to the left of the shack (9"x12" oil on Gessoboard)
I'll be back to paint these dunes-- sun went down too fast for me that day.

There are many sketches too, but I haven't scanned them yet. Will do this soon, because I've just made that promise here, but not yet.

Very busy trying to make more headway on this animated film I'm working on for the Fort Point Theater Channel called Ou est Fleuri Rose? I'm fortunate to be working with graphic novelist, cartoonist, musician, painter, and all-around artist Nick Thorkelson. We're working for the composer of a classical music piece with the same name by composer Mark Warhol. Painting usually calls much stronger, but this animation project is fun. Can't post images from that yet.