IF - Train

In my mind, this week's Illustration Friday theme "Train" apparently equates "Samurai in snowy forest". I even attempted to do a decent background, for this one, too. Because samurai are worth it.

This guy is actually one of my own personal characters, albeit incredibly off model. Regardless, this drawing was fun to do, and I like the results. I guess I should draw people chopping trees in half more often!

About Time

I haven't updated my blog for a while, but before anyone grabs for their pitchfork and begins prodding at the procrastinator, I do have a reason. Behold:

A Portfolio Site

It's still a work in progress (and I'm still getting stuff ready to upload), but I think I have it more or less ironed out. At least, enough that I can start shamelessly promoting it. My one and only official portfolio website! Check it out! Let me know what you think.

Illustration Friday - Wool

Phew... And another Illustration Friday is finished barely in time! It is not a drawing without faults, of course, because I was messing around with new ways of adding color (which I'm not sure were entirely successful), but at least I made myself do a background. :) My entry for the IF theme "Wool":

I won't lie, I definitely had "Baa Baa Black Sheep" going through my head when I was doing this. As such, you are all required to hum that song to yourself as you view the entries for this week. :D

Chump Change

I recently attended the local ADDY Awards with a group of folks, knowing that I may or may have not have a good reason to be there. Imagine my surprise when I found out that my six-page graphic novel "Chump Change" was awarded a Silver ADDY Award in the category of Visual Illustration. On top of that, we had quite a few people from our group walk away with Gold and Silver awards, and even a Popular Choice award. Talk about cool!

Even more cool, however, are the trophy's we all got today. I now have something to proudly put on display in my room, and it has a giant 'I' on the top of it! I don't know what the 'I' means, but we determined that our trophies combined can spell fun things (as not all of the letters on top are the same).

To see what the ADDY Awards are about, click here.

And to read "Chump Change", click here. :)

Emma's Dilemma

I just realized that I haven't uploaded anything artistic-y for a while. This is mostly because I've been in full swing making a portfolio website and cranking out base meshes for my senior project, and partly because I just plain keep forgetting to upload things. Like, say, a drawing I did for a Character Mentor assignment which may or may not have been collecting digital dust on my computer for a while now.

The prompt was to draw Generic Girl Emma reacting to something in her hand. Naturally that led to a drawing with mice leaping from hamburgers.

My thought trains require no logic to reach their destination!

More Books: Your Career in Animation

Since I read a lot of books, and thus have a relatively endless supply of books to post about on my blog, I decided that I should probably just start labeling these blog entries with the title of the targeted book. Why I didn't just do this to begin with, I have no idea. But regardless, I just finished a book yesterday that I thought I should promote.

Title: Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive (David B. Levy)

Who should read it: Animators and related fields, some film production people.

Why is it awesome?:

I knew this book would be good the moment I saw the cover. Samurai Jack fighting Aku? This book has to be amazing! Just be careful when you open it, though, because you will be instantly buried under a veritable landslide of information about the animation field of work. I was impressed at how much this book covers in just 235 pages. Your Career in Animation explains what looking for work might be like, how to effectively network, how to play nice in the workplace, how to pitch, how to be successful in animation, how to freelance, how to make a living doing indie films, etc. Honestly, if I listed all of the information it covers it would go on for a paragraph or two, so I'll spare you the text wall. (A few of my favorite sections include When Creators Attack..., The Three Nevers, and the Animation Career Strategy Survival List. If you ever pick up a copy of the book, keep an eye out for those segments.)

Apart from the sheer amount of information you get from Your Career in Animation, the author also includes quotes and advice from animation titans, photos and stills of animated shorts, and stories from the industry that further illustrate, clarify, and expand upon the information in each chapter. Also helpful is the breakdown of different jobs in the animation field (such as directing, sheet timing, story boarding, etc.) that helps to explain what people are looking for and what you should be prepared to show a potential employer. And possibly the best feature of the book is the Appendix. You know, the part of the book that most people skip? Well, go back and take a look at this one, because it lists festivals, events, schools, and other resources that animators should be aware of. Really, the word "goldmine" pretty accurately sums up this book for anyone interested in animation as a career. Pick it up, read it, and then re-read it. If, when you finish, your book refuses to close because of how many placeholders and dog-eared pages you put in there (like my copy), you can consider this book well worth the purchase.