What's in your Book Stack?

Currently I'm reading two books. The first is one I've owned since my birthday and I'm very happy to finally get to read it. It's "The Pixar Touch" by David Price and it doesn't read like your average informative book. It plays out Pixar's story in at times what could seem like a fictional tale. But what I'm the most interested in getting out of it is more detailed knowledge of the history of Pixar's animation as well as a more detailed explanation of how they run their studio.

The second book which is less of a book and more of a resource right now is "Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market". If you couldn't tell by my fascination with Maurice Sendak and Eric Carle that I'm interested in Children's Literature and especially illustration then I guess this book is a dead give away. Hopefully this book will lead me into a proper direction to see if my artwork can be put to good use.

Now beyond the books I'm currently I have several others stacked at the end of my desk, reminding me they have yet to be read. They are "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" the graphic novel vol. 1, "Paper Puppet Palooza" by Norma V. Toraya, "The Art of Disney Pixar's UP", "Beware of Dug!" a children's book based off of UP that uses some very neat paper cut out illustration technique, and the last book at the very bottom of the stack is "Authentic Decor The Domestic Interior: 1620-1920" (if that one confuses you see my other blog here).

What's in your Book Stack?

New Platypus Print in my Etsy Shop

Yesterday I posted a new print on my etsy shop, currently only available in a medium size. Check it out here and the rest of my shop here.

Your Desk Space

Ever since I learned of Warhol's desktop boxes I've always been fascinated at the desk space people keep. It's great insight into how they work and how they think. Just today I read on twitter:

"RT @jggube: I liked this quote via @CJCUK: "Creative clutter is better than idle neatness". INDEED."

I've always kept a messy desk full of books I intend to read, have finished projects, toys and tools scattered all about. What about those more well known than myself, what kind of desk do they keep.

Roald Dahl's sleeping bag

Eric Carle's work space

And then there are those who almost make an art of documenting there work space. The photos give you information about the current projects but the pictures were taken with careful framing.

One of Megan Auman's workspaces

What's your desk/work space look like?

Ok so a Deviation from my Deviation

Sometimes I get too excited and deviate from what I'm working on, even if it was a previous deviation from what I was working on (you still following). I've doubled back and threw in some textures on my Dead Animal Party moose concept art. You can view the progression from sketch to textured in the image above.

Storyboard

As I mentioned in my last post that I was slightly deviating from my DAP animation, my new project is for a contest for Etsy.com. The theme of the contest is "Handmade Moments". Check out my rough storyboard:

Slight Deviation

As I continue to work on my new animation, which you will see a lot of in my blogs due to my unemployment, I may get slightly deviated by projects that have a possibility of winning any kind of money. Today is one of those days where I have stumbled across a possible project for me to animate and win some money, and so I deviate.

In the mean time enjoy some more concept art for Dead Animal Party (thats its temporary project name).

Final Two Characters

Here are the final two characters. Still a little unsure on how the squirrel came out but incredibly happy with the twisted neck deer.

Sorry I ate all the Popcorn

Two of the Main Characters

Here are two of the main characters from my upcoming animation.

Dead Animal Party

Heres some more concept art work.

End of the Story

My last post I started with the story I was going to animate and I left you with some concept art as well as a test animation. So again I come bearing gifts as well as the end of my story idea. Enjoy the concept art and the end of the story!


At last they came to a clearing in the woods. On one side was a table containing a bowl of punch, a bag of sour cream and onion chips and a vegetable platter. On the opposite side of the clearing was another table containing name cards that read “Hello. My Name is ___________” as well as party hats. The souls made their way into the clearing grabbing their nametags and party hats. More animals appeared at the edge of the clearing. A moose with an exposed rib cage drank from a red plastic cup while a bear missing an arm, stood in the center of the clearing telling a joke. Everyone laughed except the turtle whose head was now where his foot used to be. The party continued until the sun appeared above the tops of the trees and the souls began to fade. The clearing was now empty except for a few party hats that had been left behind and a nametag that read “Hello. My Name is Flattened Squirrel”.

New Short Animation

So I'm working on a new short animation, applying what I recently had an epiphany about last week. I've completely written the story already and am about to move into storyboards. To give you a feel for what the animation will be about I'll post the first paragraph of the story as well as a bit of concept art I had completed today. Enjoy!

The dead squirrel laid by the side of the road, flattened except for his tail, which pointed straight up, then left, and then back up again. As the cars passed by the squirrel’s soul rose from his dead body, slowly lifting up. His soul mirrored that of his body, flattened except for his crooked wiry tail. Moving from the side of the road into the trees, he marched slowly to some unknown destination. In the woods a bird, completely spherical, bloated by the sun and head of the day joined him. Next came a deer, who would have seemed perfectly healthy if his head wasn’t twisted completely around to face his rear. The last to join this mutilated soul parade, marching through the woods in the middle of the night was an orange tabby cat whose two halves of a body were being held together only by his intestines. They marched on in a single file line under the full moon, passing by a pond that gave no reflection of the souls of the flattened squirrel, the bloated bird, the twisted deer, or the two halves of cat.

Hurray Textures!

If you have seen my artwork then you should know my love of textures. Today, I'm sharing that love. Here are some high quality scans of some of the recent textures I'm using in my work.

Eric Carle's Blog

I am so excited for this find because Eric Carle is a huge inspiration for me and my work. Here it is Eric Carle's blog which is truly fantastic. A little insight into his world and what he's been up to.

I'm particularly excited about this post of his.

This may even inspire me into creating a short children's book (primarily illustrations, I'm not much of a writer). There could be a few ideas floating around up here in the old noggin.

Paper Toys

Heave over to the Small Imaginings Blog for more information.

Find and Animate

During my unemployment I must continue to work on animation. That's easier said then done but I've broken it down into the simplest formula I can think of.

"Find a story and Animate it"

My problem is that I'm not thinking filmic enough. When I think animation I think of my Hypermedia class in which one individual cut out character can be used through the entire short film. If I'm going to make an animation I have to think like a film maker.
Not every character image can be used throughout the entire film I'm going to need to see the front of the character, the side, the back, his feet, and his hands. Each scene is a new piece of art work, consisted of individually created images for that scene. If it's a class project, sure, using the same character repeatedly makes sense with a deadline. Not if you are creating something worthwhile.

(This would be my epiphany here -->) I have to take a story and create the story boards as if it were a film and then animate it. You can't let the animation dictate the story, the story should dictate the animation.