The Ox in Another Film Fest!

I am working like a nutcase on my current leica on my film....I have revised it twice and I am currently awaiting a scratch track score from my awesome composer Corey Wallace from USC. I shalt post it post-haste [haha] whence I get that.

BUT an update on The Celestial Ox! We got into another film fest - this one entitled The Short Short Story Film Festival, which will be screening our film on two occasions in New England. Check out their logo and site below! Way to go team!

VOICE Buffalo

I have been seriously lacking with the posting of my film updates as of late...I am in the process of RE-storyboarding...but perCHANCE I may post my first pass at my leica. I may. May or may not. Or the second pass. Or the final. :)

The below page o' caffe sketches I did whilst away this past weekend in Buffalo.


I did however do a few caffe sketches there since, well, let's face it, I couldn't resist. My fav is that we said by the drawings, you could really imagine their individual voices. I suppose I will take that as a compliment! "Lyle" in the bottom right corner sounds like a turtle, btw.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Moving forward on tackling the AFI's Top 100 films....I screened To Kill a Mockingbird and did a bit of a longer watercolour study...prob 30 mins-ish. I was focusing more on tones again, but this time I blocked out the structures. I think because of the structure, this turned out better than the Singin in the Rain studies.

I fundamentally enjoyed this film...great acting, surprisingly captivating...definito enjoy-ito.


Gotta love those sweater vests. They never really go out of style, do they?

Set the Tone

This week in Life Drawing, Bobby had us purely focus on tone and shadow - so much so that we had to draw all of our poses ONLY using shapes of the shadows, no linework. Sound easy.....it wasn't! Without blocking in your drawing, things can get out of proportion SO easily unless you concentrate like a crazy monkey. [Don't ask.]

So, call me a crazy monkey, but although it was reeealllllllly challenging, I loved trying to see things more as abstract shapes of tone and shadow and not, 'Oh that's a leg, or an arm, or a shoe,'....I can see how this will definitely help the strength of my drawing skillz if I keep on practicin'!

I tried out what I learned by putting one of my fav films in, Singin in the Rain, and doing a couple quick watercolours by painting tone only. [see below!]




How can you NOT love Gene Kelly??

Ottawa Animation Fest '08 highlights!

A bunch of us went to Ottawa for the annual Animation Fest, and this year was fab! Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that The Celestial Ox made it into the Teletoon Scholarship Competition and was screening there....naw, that had nothing to do with it :) [BTW we got Voter's Choice, go Penguins!]

This was my second time there, and it was great! Saw many great shorts, and saw some amazing peeps - most fab for moi was Doug Sweetland [Director of Presto from PIXAR], Richard Williams [uber-animator who did Roger Rabbit!], and Eric Goldberg [animator extraordinaire legend from Disney]. See below for a pictorial overview of the fun!

Cliff, Alysia and I in front of some of the awesome buildings in Ottawa, we were walking to another screening.

Eric Goldberg giving a talk about character animation - awesomeness!!

Andy and Brock [fellow Celestial Ox animators!] at our Teletoon screening, yay!

Moi drawring at one of my fav places in Ottawa - Byward Market.

Alysia and I being silly amongst the sculptures.

We always take a pic of this ginormous spider outside the National Gallery of Canada. This one is hilare, from left to right: Alysia, Cliff [pretending to have succumbed to the spider's wrath], moi [doing a sort of praying mantis], Kenny [apparently thinking the spider leg is a vine], and Andy [making grand friends with the 8-legged horror].

Richard Williams at the 20th Anniversary screening of Roger Rabbit - so fab!!

Tams in front of more coolio architecture...it made all the walking much more enjoyable!

Alysia, moi and Tams enjoying a dog of the hot sort. Yummmm.

You can't see me, I have perfectly blended into the skinny peopled sculptures.