Ratatouilleterrificness

This film is so delectable, I barely even know where to start.
It has got it ALL.

Story... clever and meaningful. Well thought out with great pacing.

LOVE the character designs. The short angry chef... awkward hero...adorable rat characters - made the main rats have their own design, yet look like they're from the same family... spindley tall and creaky food critic nemesis.

Animation... amazing. The facial expressions on so many of the scenes... wowza. And the physical animation acting was superb. LOVE the scene where Linguini is sleeping and Remy is controlling him to look like he's awake. Genius.

And WHO doesn't LOVE the fact that they let two animators - Lou Romano and Tony Fucile [Pixar geniuses in their own right] voice both Linguini and the health inspector, respectively. I LOVE that they cast voices for the CHARACTERS... not for the pop culture weight they carry.

Oh and all the palpable textures of the worn out wood... the grimy pots and pans... or the rats mangled hair and Linguini's hair on his chin... not to mention the amazingly beautiful skyline of La Paris... aaahhhh....

The 2D credits at the end were definitely worth staying in the theatre for... if ONLY to read at the end their '100% pure animation, no motion capture' guarantee. Take that, Happy Feet.

Did anyone else notice that the first human character at the beginning - the old lady - was one of Pixar's early characters from the famous short of the man playing chess? Classic.

Genius, 5 huge massive stars and thumbs and all the rest.
And I love, love, LOVE the short at the beginning. Who knew an alien learning how to levitate a human could be so dang entertaining.

Thanks for the huge batch of inspirato, Pixar Peeps!

Life is Beautiful

This weekend I retreated from the busyness that is the city, and relaxed with my books in the small town of Winnipeg Beach. I don't know about everyone else, but when I allow myself to slow down and enjoy each moment, I often experience seemingly simple, yet wonderfully beautiful things about this life. And at the end of the day, this is what inspires me most.

I experienced three rather poignant things this weekend, and I feel I must share. Perhaps having a blog is just an excuse to keep a public diary of sorts, but I was so encouraged by what I experienced, I feel it wrong of me to keep all to myself. :)

Experience 1 - The delightful old man, his hair all askew


On Saturday Tams and I were in the little store at Winnipeg Beach with her grandma [who lives there] and we were looking over the fresh meats.

A kindly-looking older man, who obviously spent more time using a hammer than a comb, stopped us and held out a package of meat. He leaned towards us and said, "Excuse me, can I cook this in the fry pan?"

I, being the non-cooker of the pack, [I am much more creative outside of the kitchen!], stepped back and let them field this question. I didn't realize how much his answer would impact me.

They reassured him he could cook that quite fine in a fry pan, to which he replied, smiling in spite of himself, "You know, I should have paid more attention to my wife when she cooked. I just built houses and never noticed, and then she up and got sick and was gone just like that."

He looked away smiling as if to remember her fondly, as he placed the meat into his cart and kept on shopping. I couldn't help but notice how awkward he looked trying to buy his own groceries. Much like myself going to buy a drill in a hardware store.

It just reminded me... everyone around us is leading such drastically different lives, yet it's so easy to ignore people. And despite his scattered exterior; his wiry hair sticking out everywhere and his mussed shorts and t-shirt, he was one of the most beautiful characters I think I have ever met. Even though I told myself I was going to take a sketch-break this weekend, as soon as we came back home, I had to sketch him. It was my way of never forgetting him.

Experience 2 - Snow Cake, surprisingly warm for the heart


We picked up a couple rentals to watch this weekend, one of which was Snow Cake. I have to confess, we decided to rent this solely because of the three main actors whom I adore - Alan Rickman [a la Harry Potter - I would sit if he read me the dictionary], Sigourney Weaver [love the experienced actresses] and Carrie-Ann Moss [of Matrix fame].

This is perhaps one of the best films I have ever seen. It was refreshing, poignant, insightful, touching, exhilaratingly honest, beautifully made, sensitive without being cheesy, indie-feeling without being annoyingly confusing.... incredible writing, amazing acting, heartfelt yet real-to-life story. It dealt with adult autism, death and loss.... but with such compassion and profound humor, it was a joy to get lost in it for a couple of hours. Especially Sigourney Weaver's character was quite wonderful to admire.


I wasn't even ready to hear a story of such amazing capacity... and it sincerely reminded me why I wanted to even get into this ol' film industry. It's films like this that remind you why this medium is so important. Perhaps humanity itself is probably the best plot theme of all. Special effects, schmecial effects.

I normally don't use this blog for reviews, but I felt this one was a definite must-see. Of course, there is always the obligatory scene that it could have done without... but I honestly feel that everyone's life would be better if they watched this film.

And to top this cake off with some incredibly satisfying icing - they mention Winnipeg like 8 times! It's actually set in Wawa, Ontario, but Alan Rickman's character is on his way to Winnipeg. That's worth the price of admission right there.

So what are you waiting for, get to your nearest Blockbuster!

Experience 3 - Great books are underrated


I am currently enjoying three books, all of which are delicious in their own way. One, an Agatha Christie mystery [I am determined to discover for myself what my mom's been raving about all these years], two, Chuck Amuck, Chuck Jones' own story of his animated experiences [such an amazing book I shall reserve for its' own post later on], and three, the above new book by a fav author of mine, Max Lucado.

Sure, the cover is [intended to be] cheesy, but what's inside is surely not. I'm about halfway through this incredibly appealing read, and already I want to re-read it so as not to forget anything.

I don't care whatcha believe in, or how you want to live your life, I think we can all agree that we'd like more help in sincerely enjoying every day of our lives to the fullest. Well, I think ol' Max here has put into sentences most things I have wondered about and have wanted to ask. Just some plain old encouragement on enjoying life. And who doesn't want that? I know I do. :) I am grateful for people like him who have the gift to publish things like this.


And with that I say, life is beautiful.

Caricatures, Round 2!

This was the second time doing caricatures this summer, and I forgot how tiring it is! My church here in the Peg, Soul Sanctuary, put on their annual Father's Day car show & shine, and they asked me to do caricatures during the festivities.

Of course I welcomed the opportunity!! Bring on da peeps. Goodness KNOWS I can use the practice. Can I git an AMEN?

It was my second "real" time doing caricatures for a solid couple of hours, and it was super fun! And rather tiring, but that didn't kick in until later that evening. I managed to do 18 peeps in 2 hours... I don't think I stopped once! Fun times! :)

Here are some of my favs!

A lovely lady whom I enjoyed drawing! Especially her hair.

I just met this guy, Chris. He was fun to draw more cartoony!

Chris larger.

Leanne and her wonderfully flowy hair!

I liked her freckles!

My pal Brad and his beard, pondering life.

A fun couple to draw! I loved Francis' many earrings and spikey hair.

A closer view.

Moi drawing my pal Jayme avec her pal! Yes, I am wearing a fedora. Hats make me draw better.

The happy friends!

This couple was grand to draw!

The grand couple :)

Brown-eyed girl!

Lauren in cartoon form!

My pal, Leanne, she waited so patiently in line!

This is Lionel, he was one of my most favs to draw!

Zoomed in Lionel.

Moi drawing Cheryl, good times!

Cheryl finished.

A weekend o' caricaturing!

A friend asked me last week if I could draw a friend of hers for a grad present. I always welcome a request to caricature peeps!

So Saturday I worked on this; it's a bit harder when it's strictly from photos, but I did me best. She also wanted it coloured, so that was fun – being able to spend a bit more time on a caricature with my brush pen + Photoshop, instead of the few minutes you have when the person is sitting right in front of you.

Caricatures are always a work in progress for me, so the more practice, the better!

Coincidentally, we had a Father's Day car show at our church yesterday, and they asked me to do caricatures. Whoo!

Those kooky capers, I shall post tomorrow.

Watercolours on a hot day

This is a Takin. He looked lovable and goofy. And his best friend is a barrel that he pushes around all day.

We all know Llamas. Don't they just look either stoned or bratty?? Gotta love 'em.

Today's Vulture of choice was the Rueppell variety. Your standard ticked-off bird with a crazy bendy neck! Fit for drawing.

Today Tams and I headed off for a day of drawrin' at the good ol' Winnipeg Zoo. Hey, there's no orangatans, or Mr. Sub... but there are a lot of cool animals! And the gate fee is cheaper - who could ask for anything more?

It was a lovely hot and sweaty day here in the Peg, but we managed to stick around the zoo for a good 6 hours and these 3 watercolours are my favs from the day. Ahhh.... I love the tactile-ness of a paintbrush in your hands.... the sweat on your forehead [well today anyway].

Animals are so fun to draw! They don't pretend to be happy seeing you, they don't care who you are, they are just what they are. But each animal tends to have a personality right-off. These guys were fun to draw! I love da paintin'.

Next time with my paintbrush perchance I'll brave the lions, tigers and even bears!
Oh my.

TerraFrog Clothing Corp.

The concept sketches

The final artwork

This is probably my biggest freelance job that I've been working on since coming home from school. I didn't post anything earlier due to trademark issues, but my lovely client gave me the go-ahead to post away. It's been great fun working on this job, I wanted to share :)

Here's the low-down:

> A client hired me to design two logos for her new yoga-inspired clothing company, called TerraFrog Clothing Corp.

> I did a sketch per her request to do a cartoony-ish frog, sitting in a yoga position on the earth, and to come up with a smaller logo that will go on the clothing

> The crawling dude is what will go on the clothing, and the other one [we named him Norman] goes on everything else... water bottles, tshirts, business cards....etc

It took a while for me to convert the sketches to the exact kind of vector logos I wanted. So [for all you artistes out there] I sketched them in col-erase, then traced over them in Sketchbook Pro [to get the thick and thin], then converted those to vector in Illustrator. I had to do a lot of finicky playing around with the lines to get them just right, but it always looks so nice once it's done.

It also took a while to figure out the right colours and font... but here are the finals as far as right now. It'll be exciting to see some actual clothing samples!

Check out the TerraFrog line at www.terrafrog.com!

In conclusion, frogs are fun :)

Ernie on da street

This is Ernie. As soon as I finish a sketch, I know their name. But not until then. I drew him a couple nights ago whilst Tams and I were watching the Stanley Cup finals.

Well, okay, she was watching, I was pretending I knew which team was which. [Although I AM miffed a Canadian team did not win, even though the American team had more Canadian players!!!.... but I digress.]

I was just gonna post the sketch of Monsieur Ernie... and [as I tend to do] got distracted and started colouring him... then I thought, 'Hey, what would it look like if I threw a real pic behind him?'. This is a pic I took the last time I was in NYC.

Just havin' fun experimenting!

Now I bid y'all adieu [all three of you] as I embark on a long weekend venture all the way down South to Ye Olde Grand Forks. Here I come, Target! [Or Tar-jay as some peeps like to call it.] I prefer T-dot-get. It sounds so posse-ish.

Peace out!
S-dot-Cho

Git along little drawrin's

This has been another crazy week o' freelance... so I am a-gonna post the rest of my model sheets from our Western character design... cont'd from Clara I posted earlier.

I have plans to colourize and finish a couple poses of these guys, and also do a group pose with them... but the summer is a-flyin' and my to-do list is piling up!!

Now if you'll excuse me it's a beautiful sunny summer Saturday, and I have plans to frolick in the closest meadow.