I'm busy being an animation student again!

The month of January is almost over! I've been very busy this past month with homework and lectures. I'm taking a workshop with iAnimate (as I mentioned in December) and it's going really well! My teacher, Jason Anastas is awesome. I would recommend him to anyone. Taking this workshop is a great opportunity for me to improve my 3D animation but it's a great overall animation class as well. I've never received lessons and reviews quite like this. I'm learning so much.

I really, really miss working on my film! It's frustrating for me to be so busy that I have to leave it on the back burner. I've gone through periods in the past where I wasn't able to work on it and it's always the best to get back to it.

Tomorrow I'm going to purchase a used copy of The Art of Tangled from someone I found on Craigslist. I miss drawing and there are a couple of gorgeous art books that I haven't allowed myself to get over the years because my husband and I were trying so hard to pare down on belongings as our living space has gotten smaller with the past 3 moves. It's also expensive to ship stuff around the world so we're generally just trying to save some money too. But I feel like I could really use the inspiration. Most of the art books I've hung on to over the years are instructional or informative types. The "how to's" and the "survival kits". I need some beautiful art books full of inspiring drawings! I already know it's a great book since I've flipped through it and seen lots of the drawings online.

I went back and watched the talk by Jim Capobianco at CTN on his process of making Leonardo, his hand animated short film. Jim was an inspiration to me and it's both relieving and terrifying to think that it took him 10 years to finish his short. Here is Jim's making of blog.

Leonardo still

Time to do some homework!

My Inspiration of The Day: Look Books

Yesterday I saw this slideshow of the evolution of Kanye West's style. It's a bit crazy that celebrities have their outfits tracked and put into public slide shows for the world to see. It's also fascinating to be able to click through images and get a sense of a person's style evolution. One of my favourite blogs is The Cut by New York Magazine. A favourite "celebrity" of this blog is Kate Middleton and she's got her very own slideshow there as well. On the front page there are links to the most popular or trending slideshows and you can access them all if you hit "more look books".

Personal style is personal expression. Sometimes we want to dress down, sometimes we want to dress up. We may have a current favourite colour or fabric or pattern. Maybe we follow trends or reject them. There's a reason behind our choices. A film maker or character designer would do well to remember that the personal style of a person reflects how they feel at a given moment and that personal style evolves, just as does the person wearing it.

amazing

2 paintings and Gertrude and Alice Cafe

Here is a little sneak peak of a couple backgrounds:

I have been painting backgrounds all day every day for awhile now. It's feeling a little weird to sit in my cave as it has come to be called, all day each day. I want to write stories and create films. I like to craft a film, to storyboard and collaborate, I like picking colours and painting and animating... But some parts of the process are not completely my cup of tea and it's easy to start feeling doubts or concerns when so much time is spent. The collaboration I crave is for the most part, missing. I have given up on exercise and exploring and I am living as frugally as I can. It's just a strange existence! I am not complaining though. Next time my project will be smaller, or more collaborative and I will focus on the elements I am most passionate about. I am glad that I am learning a lot about the whole process.

My new book!

Yesterday, Sunday, was my weekend essentially and I trotted down to Hall Street with Steve where we popped into a great cafe slash bookshop for a sippa. It's called Gertrude and Alice Cafe Bookstore. I walked by said cafe about a week ago when the evil postman forced me to head that way to pick up an electric blanket I had ordered. It was the rainiest, windiest day I can remember. So windy that it was actually harder to walk with my umbrella open. There is a post office a 5 minute walk from my house, I think the postman deliberately gave the package to a further away post office. Actually, he had buzzed my apartment and promised to leave it inside but when I went down there was no package left for me! Anyway, when I was at this cafe, Steve and I crammed ourselves into the only two available spaces in the place on a soft green sofa. The cafe was bustling with staff, book perusers and coffee sippers. The first book I saw in the $2 bin outside was a hardcover book of Ronald Searle drawings! I snapped that up. I think it was worth more than $2. As I sat with my coffee I noticed that right next to me was a wall with lots of Shakespeare and plays and scripts. Then, past Steve and a woman sitting opposite him was a wall of books on filmmaking, directors and films. Everywhere I looked there were fabulous used books! We found a book with a list of all known heavy metal bands piqued Steve's interest. There were books on medieval armor and artists and their works, a wall of fantasy novels and newspapers and magazines scattered around. It was delightfuly chaotic and inspirational to sit there for a bit. We left after maybe 30 minutes to make room for new customers and to get back to work. But I will be back...