Art & Story Blog

Here are some random recent scraps. Imbibe!

I was just technorati-ing my blog, which is kind of like that narcissistic Googling oneself that most people are aware of by now, but for blogs. This was maybe the fourth time I checked technorati for links since I started doing this, when I discovered that Catherine at Designers Who Blog wrote a very nice post featuring this humble little weblog of yours truly. Suffice it to say, I was pleasantly surprised and my ego found just the morsel it had been hunting for! Ego-boost aside, it’s encouraging and (I know it sounds schmaltzy) affirming to get this kind of attention, and at a time when I haven’t posted any drawings in a while! I have been doodling away like mad, so hopefully soon, I can get in a scanning session and share some of them with you. In the meantime, you can scour Catherine’s blog for many more inspiring links!

Here’s another story tidbit to chew on. Gene Deitch discusses the importance of finding your story’s premise in chapter 7 of his e-book, How To Succeed In Animation. I have not read the rest of the book, but stumbled upon it and the title of this chapter jumped out at me. He acknowledges that story rarely starts with a premise, but rather, character — and knowing your characters well. The premise is what you need to make sure that there is a story that you are telling with those characters and not just showing us what you can do with them.

Hmm, where’d it go? Oh, here it is.

On a side note, Gene was born in Chicago, but has chosen to live in Prague since 1961, so we know he must be a very smart man.

I just read a great post by Jenny on Blackwing Diaries. She discusses the pitfalls of making flawed, annoying characters vs. the “true” and “likeable” characters that are able to drive a story. Really some great insights from an industry story artist. Give a read.

For a few months now, I’ve been taking figure drawing classes from Karl Gnass, held at the Animation Guild in North Hollywood. Karl tends to throw a lot of ideas at us, which can sometimes make me feel like I am swimming in a turbulent sea when drawing. My sense of stability is ripped apart and there’s nothing but uncertainty as I try to grapple with the many concepts circling my head. However, I am determined to try and grasp at these various concepts, sometimes one or two at a time, even if fleetingly, and to abandon a prior “safer” approach to drawing the figure. At times, the effect can be that I shut down completely and stutter through my drawings and at other times, almost unconciously, some new understanding starts to shine through, even if just a little. It helps to have an inspiring model, too. As you will see in some of the drawings below.