Art & Story Blog

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.

This past weekend was spent at Cinequest 16, where I attended a screening of The Second Death. This was my first experience attending a festival screening as one of the film’s makers (storyboard artist and actor). The film was a part of Shorts Program 8: Mindbenders which began at about midnight and ran approximately two hours, Friday and Saturday. There were a number of interesting films included in the lineup. One that has apparently been making the rounds at festivals for a little while now was Lucky, in which a man locked in the trunk of a car, seeks to free himself and gain control of the unmanned, yet speeding car he finds himself a passenger on. Another was Slice of Heaven, showing the strangely mundane actions of a woman (SPOILER ALERT) harvesting feces from a bacon-grease fed infant to serve as fertilizer (END SPOILER) for her bucolic suburban garden. And another worth mention, was Rats, a black and white short based on the comic-story of the same name by Frank Miller. Sparing us the comic-book effects and devices, but still preserving Miller’s story, composition, chiaroscuro, and sense of timing. With these films alone, we certainly were in good company.

Somewhat regretfully, I skipped out on participating in the Q&A section of the screening. Although by about a quarter after two in the morning, I don’t think it was the most provocative of Q&A’s anyway. A few hours of mindbending social ineptitude followed back at the Montgomery Hotel and made for a Sunday that was a bit rough around the edges, but I did manage to see another entertaining short and an outstanding, albeit immensely depressing, feature in the evening before trucking back to L.A. I do wish I had the luxury of spending a bit more time at the festival to see films and meet filmmakers, but it’s at least kindled more of an interest to do more of that sort of thing in the future.

Saturday morning, I went down to MOCA for a day-long panel discussion moderated by Amy Pederson, with comics artists David Collier (Collier’s Vol. 1 & 2), Mary Fleener (Slutburger) and Lily Lau (Mom’s Drawer Is At The Bottom); comics publisher Ron Turner (Last Gasp); and graffiti artist Barry McGee (Twist).

Pictured above from left to right are David, Mary, Ron, Barry, Lily, and Amy. Projected above them is a panel from one of David’s comics.

Continue reading ‘Comics & Politics: A Day-Long Discussion’