Doodling in Dallas.

Last weekend during my trek back and forth to Frederick, Maryland from Vancouver, I had stopovers in the Dallas airport. For, like, 4 hours. So...... what a perfect time to sketch unsuspecting travellers!

Yield a Krop.

So many online portfolios to create, so little time!

Here's one more I just did, it was easy and rather snazzy!

Tender moments.

Life inspires me. That's probably the biggest reason why I love being an artist. It doesn't matter where I am, or what I am doing, pretty much every day I observe some moment, some big, some small, that reminds me of how beautiful this life is. About how beautiful we all are, unique individuals mixed all together in this crazy world of ours.

This sketch was from a moment that made me smile. It wasn't big. It wasn't profound. But it made me feel something, and it made me smile.

My dad and I were in line at Starbucks a couple weeks ago, and as usual, everyone was busying themselves about what sort of latte concoction they wanted...including me. There were two people in front of us, the one at the counter being the sweetest, slowest moving elderly man you have ever seen. He ordered a cup of joe, and picked it up to add sugar to it. He accidentally spilled some coffee on the counter, so what does he do? Slowly, sweetly, kindly reaches way over from the sugar area and mops up his coffee drips as he smiles at everyone. He wouldn't want anyone to put their arm in his coffee drops.

It was a moment of such sweetness to me. Who takes the time to do the courteous thing these days? Everyone is either too busy or too annoyed.

He spoke to me, in some odd coffee-spilled way. If something as small as that can touch people, what are you doing today that you don't think people are noticing? Life is beautiful. Start making your own contribution to the beauty. You never know who may draw it later :)

My Grandpa :)

I was going through some of my old sketches and I came across this quick one I did of my Grandpa a couple of years ago at the Lake - in his usual position of reading :) He is one of my heroes - he was a Skipper in WW2 and flew Lancaster planes when he was only 21, WOW. We have so much to learn from that generation!

Grandpa and his motorbike during the war in London, England.

Grandpa experimenting with his camera when he was really young, I love this photo! He is still experimenting with technology :)

Daily Delight at the Gym

Col-erase pencil & brush pen

I love people, they come in all too many sorts and varieties...how could one get bored with what to possibly draw??!

This chap is at the gym allll the time when we go, he looks pert-near exactly like this. His shorts are that high, no lie. And he is so happy about it! I say, if he's happy, I'm happy.

Work it out!

A sketch & a quote.

An awesome woman I stopped and memory sketched super quick when we were exploring the streets of Seattle. I find life to be so many shades of beautiful.

Here's a quote a friend of mine shared, of which I am enthralled, and am now sharing. I think we should all take some time each day to ponder stuff like this.

"Two men looked out through prison bars, One saw the mud, the other saw the stars."

Kaj sketches

Still workin on film stuff before I post...but I came across these rough Kaj Pindal sketches I did of him a couple months ago when he was kind enough to critique my film leica.

He gave me some great tips and comments, and regardless, it's always a bundle of enjoyment to be in that man's company and share in his vast animation experience and wisdom!

Cheers to Kaj!

Royal Winter Fairin'

Soooooooo this past Wednesday we did our annual visit to Toronto's Royal Winter Fair to do our day o' drawrin'! It's funny, I realized this is my fourth time comin', and it's always so interesting! Soooo many great and diverse people, funny animals...the day always flies by and I always leave wishing I could come back and continue the drawin'. However, Alysia and I had a great day with our pencils and watercolours, and here's a few from the day!

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?

Drawrings o' life

Here's some more life drawings / caffe sketches from the last couple weeks of life drawing class. We are working on drapery, tone and lighting....and did I mention drawing 2 models is tough!

Once again, I feel the more I learn, the more I need to learn.......the more I want to learn!

I hope that feeling never goes away, 'cause isn't that what life is all about??

Prashant Miranda

Prashant Miranda [see his blog here!] came to Sheridan this week and spoke at two of our lectures, and I found him to not only be genuinely a pleasure to listen to, but completely inspiring! His journals are absolutely amazing and gave me a new resolution to how I approach sketching/journaling. Here's a quick sketch I did of him today whilst he spoke.

What a great time for him to come to speak - when we are just beginning these films of ours and everything seems to be such a mish-mash....just a reminder to get back to basics and WHY we wanted to create art in the first place.

Thanks Prashant!

Back to drawring life....year 4!

OH golly, talk about jumping back into the deep end! First week of school, and already we have to present our story concept, homework for 2 electives and 3 hours of intense life drawing.

Hmm, perhaps I thought it was intense because I never picked up a piece of conte the entire summer. Or MAYbe I thought it was intense 'cause I was still in summer mode...

Who knows. Regardless, I thought I was gonna completely bomb and draw pure stick figures. Couple that with the pressure of handing something in at the end of class - well, I wasn't exactly looking forward to the results. But I tried to just, phew, let go, just see what happens.

Here's the highlights....not TOO bad for first week back! These are all 1 minute or 5 minute gestures. Ed was wearing a hippie costume - if ya couldn't tell from the fro wig!

Wowza, 4th year. Insane in the membrane.










Part of our sketchbook assignment this week: a page of realistic drawings from life. Fortunately I spent the weekend at Pipe Creek Farm, a beautiful B&B in Western NY, and they had many animals to draw! Although I have to say....it was reeeeeeaaaallllllly hard to draw realisticallllly. MUCH more fun to stylize!

Snippets of Inspirato

Firstly, a sketch and a snapshot.

I deem this dude Ed. I only caught a glimpse of him as I was driving through the Fisher-Price campus returning from lunch. I think he is a gardener on the grounds, and he paused as I drove by. His whole persona and expression just struck me, I had to immediately run back to my cube and sketch him. He makes me happy. :)

This was taken during a jaunt to one of the lovely Western NY parks - this one even having sculptures scattered among the green beauty! I loved loved loved loved it. I would love to retreat there daily. It is instances like this that I wish the whole "beam me up Scotty" thing was a reality! But because I cannot, I shall stare at the pics and pretend.


I can't believe I have a mere 5 weeks left here in Western NY. I realized this morning whilst I was chatting on the phone with a friend, and they asked if I was excited to come home, that I am going to miss everything here! I think that snuck up on me.

Isn't life just like that sometimes? I think all of us "human-folk" resist change. Eeww, cringe, NO, change?? Why, why change? I like knowing where to go, who I will talk to, what I will do, no, don't change it!

But then when we allow ourselves to let the door of change swing open, and we walk through it - not knowing really anything about what we are stepping into - there are always rewards. Always. Albeit, tough times of adjustment and discomfort too...but isn't that what makes you feel alive, really? Who wants to get comfortable in a rut? Isn't it almost worse to let yourself feel that numb autopilot, than to be invigorated with the fear of having no flippin' clue where are you headed next?

All of my rambling is leading to one thing: at first I really found it hard to adjust being out here. Being away from everyone and everything I knew. But I really tried to get as much out of each day that I could - and almost more importantly - put as much IN to each day as I could!

And I am really feeling the rewards of that now. I can honestly say that I am truly enjoying being out here, meeting the people I have and experiencing the things I have thus far. I am truly blessed, and I can't help but share that. I can only hope to pour some of that gratitude and positive experience into my film next year. If I can communicate even a snippet of that, I believe my film will be a success.

Life is too short. Find a way to enjoy your moment - now!

Introspective inspirato

Alright, well, brace yourself, all you 3.4 people out there who follow this humble blogness o' mine!

I have been formulating a sort of blog in my head for months now, but I have not really had the chance to properly sit down and intelligently regurgitate it into the e-world.

So, before I attempt to do so - here's a couple pages o' warm-up sketches I did before work this week. The second page, top left - I did him during a meeting and he ended up being the inspirato for my highlight project of the week. Yay meeting sketches!



Alright here goes. Bear with me! [Bare? I never know.]

I have been working at Fisher Price for 4 weeks-ish now, and it has been really interesting. I have been able to happily combine my graphic design knowledge/experience with my animation schooling into one enjoyable internship parcel. The people are superb, the work is interesting, all that good stuff.

But I didn't anticipate the fact that I would have such a hard time re-adjusting to having to sit in one place all day. I suppose I just got used to the crazy norm that school brings - going to this class, running here, doing this, back to school for a meeting, working all night....yada yada yada. However, this abundance of time [in one place] has allowed me to rediscover something I had temporarily let slide:

The shear beauty and wonder that is the podcast. No, not doing my own [heaven forbid!], but listening to some I had on my iPod but had just plain forgot about. Think about how cool they are! We get spoiled nowadays with all this fancy technology, but HOW COOL is it that I can sit in and listen to 2 dudes at Pixar chat about process? Podcasts like Spline Doctors, Stephen Silver and the Animation podcast. I listened to a few this week, and wow - I never realized how re-motivating it is to listen to a couple of animators yammer on about how their thought process works when they storyboard, or what their favorite movies are, or what made them think of how to animate the scene of Nemo talking to his dad.....

And here's where I had my Aha! moment this week. In all the different podcasts I listened to this week, with all the different people from different studios/places/etc - they had a couple common pieces of advice. And they were all things I had been thinking/wondering about for quite some time, so I decided to share.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that as you [or I] grow as a person, as I experience more and share more and see more, I grow as an artist. Now I know this may seem like an entirely obvious comment to make, but think about it. Does life experience make for a better carpenter? A better accountant? A better lion tamer? Perhaps. But I honestly feel that as an [aspiring] artist, my personal growth has a direct and immediate connection to my artistic growth.

For instance, this summer thus far. I have only been here a few weeks, but the experience of going somewhere new, living somewhere new, getting used to everything new and living alone - they have all been motivating factors for me to draw more, draw better, explore more, and listen better! I feel like in school, we have our heads down focusing so much on the tasks at hand, that we forget about the important things that we need to be doing in order to truly grow as artists.

So if I am gonna sum up my aha-feelings from this week and from those wiser than myself, here it is. My 6-step-program to becoming a better artist/animator. [I write this more for myself than anyone!]

1 - Go out and experience life. Notice as much as you possibly can. Travel to places, small and big. Observe situations, subtle and grandiose. How do the clouds change when the sun is setting? How does that person's face communicate joy or thought? Why does certain music make you feel certain things? Don't wait to "get somewhere" or "go somewhere" just learn from "where" you are!

2 - Just do it. Okay, so Nike may have branded it first, but it's worth reiteration! All us artists feel it sometimes.... the "ugh, I just don't feel like it today, I'm not nearly as good as this Mr/Ms Joe Artist anyway, why bother...." If you love art, if you feel it inside you, then go for it! Get it out anyway you can, and forget about everyone else around you. Make art for you and remember how it felt to have fun doing it! Grab a hold of that and run for it.

3 - KISS. Keep it simple STUPID! You have an idea? Don't flower it up. What are you trying to say? Why is the character doing that? What is he thinking? SIMPLE! Just communication. One idea can change the world, or do I need to quote Martin Luther King?

4 - Share. Share your ideas, share your experiences, share your feelings! No, not in a Dr. Phil sorta way - but if you feel like something you found or did or drew changed something for you - then don't keep it to yourself! If you feel inspired by it, chances are it will inspire others. And you never know when your little bit of inspiration is given to someone in the nick of time.

5 - Don't be scared to screw up. We all do it! We all fail, and it's impossible to avoid. But, really, don't you find when you DO screw up - it's when you learn the most? Don't give up! I also heard this week that JK Rowling apparently got rejected over 90 times [90 times!!] when she submitted the first Harry Potter book to publishers. That's insane. But she never gave up. And lookit her now - she's a multi gazibillionaire!

6 - Rent those movies you keep saying you want to. Almost everyone I listened to this week kept saying how important it is to study the classic films. After all, we may be animators, but more than that, we are filmmakers! Why not study the best? And it's one of the best ways to get inspired.

That being said.... I downloaded AFI's list of 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, and I am determined to put a substantial dent in that list by the end of this summer. Last night I watched #2 and #47. [Stay tuned for my thoughts and sketches on those!]

So forgive me if this has been old news, or boring news, or useless news, but HEY, it's my blog, I can do what I wanna. :) However, I DO hope it has encouraged someone! And I also wanna thank the creative peeps out there that sent a major inspiration station my way - and they may never know it!

Now get out yer pencil and get back to it.

Warmin' up @ Fisher Price

So before I start workin' for the day, I've been just randomly drawing caffe guys from memory to warm up in the morning. It's been fun! It's funny what comes out when you aren't really thinking of anything. Hopefully I can keep this up when it gets busier and busier!

Final Life Drawing portfolio

I can't believe it's already time for our final life drawing portfolio of the year... but alas, the time has come! Well, I have learned heaps, and feel like I am just beginning to understand how colour works and this whole world of caricature and costume...

This last portfolio has felt very rushed, what with our film being due in mere days now [ACK!!], life drawing has definitely been pushed to the back seat. Or, maybe even the trunk....

BUT I am excited to start to implement all I have learned this summer, whew!
Here's the pieces I chose for my final portfolio. Some caffe thrown in there as well, as we had to hand in a page of it.

Caffe-teria

Yesterday in life drawing, Bobby moved our regular class from the model room, to the cafeteria. Time to caricature our fellow Sheridan-ites! Always good times.... my fav was the lady at the top. I dub her Eleanor. I believe she was posing just for moi. :)

Starbucks watercolour

Just practicing my watercolouring skills at the local Starbucks.... trying to build up the facial tones on this gentleman. I like how his face turned out; not so much his suit jacket. Onward and upward!

Sweeney inspired art...

I have been attempting to see [most of] the Oscar nominated films before the big night, and so far so good. Last night we went to see Sweeney Todd, and tonight I watched Surf's Up.

Interestingly enough, the one that inspired me farrrrr more, was the live action one. Sweeney Todd [despite the gore and blood] was so beautiful in its' cinematography, time period, acting and such-fun lyrically genius-esque soundtrack. [Who knew Depp could sing too?]

It inspired me to take out my pastels and get my fingers dirty... and what fun it was! As cool as Photoshop is, it will never replace the tangible feeling of pushing colour around on a thick-toothed stock. I loved this dude [almost as much as Alan Rickman!]... he is so rat-like.

And a few cards I painted today as well... art is so fun without deadlines!