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?

Story Work

Right now I'm working on the story still. I want to really write it out and work and re-work it, because film is all about telling a good story. I value the work Pixar does because of their story telling abilities and the amount of time they actually invest on their stories. So I really want to get this right.

In the mean time school work comes first so I thought I'd share another photo with everyone. You can see all of my photos here from the assignment.

My Beloved Monster

When I was young I never closed my closet door at night and kept one eye on it until I fell asleep. My parents gave me a monster-proof t-shirt which I wore every night until it was one day unwearable. This is what could be found in my closet.

Inspired by Pixar's Monsters Inc., Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and the illustration style of Eric Carle's children's books. This image is now for sale on my etsy shop here.

New day... New challenges

The question I asked myself today was "Are you sure you're doing your characters in the right way?" My answer to myself was an obvious "No". So I spent the good majority of the day coming up with how to create character befitting of my story.

In these kind of situations I find it's best to turn to those who have already done it. There's no point in re-inventing the wheel. And of course I turn to Pixar, my heroes. Looking at some of the most memorable characters I notice some patterns. Mike and Sully, Wall-E and Eve, and from their new movie Up! the main characters Russell and Carl are all constructed from a basic geometric shape, either a circle or rectangle. 

Knowing this useful fact today I cut up some basic shapes of my own as the foundation of my characters. But of course I'm getting ahead of myself because I haven't even written the story up yet. It's all in my head... but I should probably write it down first.

Pixar my dream job...

I want this...