That's Solid

I moved

2011-11-12T18:26:00.000-08:00

No more posts here unfortunately :(

Please head on over to http://connielichan.tumblr.com for fun and merriment!

I've decided to start fresh, and switch my allegiance over to the tumblr. Thanks for the good times, blogspot.

Gettin in the groove

2011-06-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a short comic called Coyote's Strawberry. It's an old native american (crow) tale. Here's a little peek.

That's not really a berry.

More to come.

Some comics

2011-05-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

So you know that scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix where Voldemort possesses Harry and tell him he's weak, and then Harry hits him back with the lamest retort ever?? Watch this to see what I'm talking about. Seriously, I can't stop laughing every time I think about that.

And uhhhh yeah. Some other comics about my misinterpreted fantasies and my favorite foods and how me and Stephen babysat a cat. It pretty much sums up my life.

(Sorry Stephen)

Best dream ever

2011-04-09T10:31:00.001-07:00

Doodly break

2011-03-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

A doggie. His name is Buttermilk.

And the beginnings of an idea? It may or may not go somewhere.

Nooow back to work.

Muriel and Cheddar

2011-02-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

Muriel is 87 seven years old. Cheddar the pup never leaves her side.

Pinhole camera

2011-01-26T09:12:00.000-08:00

Back in summer, I made a pinhole camera using a matchstick box. I attached one full roll of film on one end, which connected to an empty canister on the other end.

It took a lot of trial and error and an entire roll being wasted, but I managed to get a good amount of prints. It was fun!

I finally got around to developing the pictures last month. It's interesting to see what pictures you get months after you take them. It's like stepping back into a dream, but you're not really sure where you are and when you are. I have barely any recollection of where these photos are from, but I am pretty sure one of them was when I had lunch at CrackerBarrel.

Anyway, interesting experiment.

Granny time

2011-01-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

Hey yall.

It's been a lovely winter so far. Spent the holidays with friends and family in Los Angeles, visited an alpaca farm, climbed a mountain, and had general merriment.

I barely missed Snowmageddon, but came back to New York in time to see more snow. It's terribly cold, so I've picked up a few hobbies to cope. Crocheting like a super grandma and making nonsense out of scraps of fabric. White and brown hat below made from alpaca yarn from the Windy Hill Alpaca Ranch.

(super granny photograph by sacha goldberger)

Happy viking monday

2010-11-22T19:35:00.000-08:00

My posts are always perpetually two months behind what I'm actually doing at the moment.

In late July, I became obsessed with the idea of cross-stitching after seeing Barb finish up a teddy bear pattern she started back when she was 15. Inspired, I headed on over to my local Michael's Arts and Crafts to buy my very own pattern to begin. So excited I was, like a little girl buying a new toy! After nearly 4 months of train rides, I have completed "Two Wolves in Winter Landscape (Amidst Alien Invasion)."

Also. Some vikings.

Been playing with this idea about lovelorn vikings a while ago. As of now it has been filed away in my ever-expanding incomplete folder, but perhaps I will return to it if the mood strikes me. My brain = cluttered and cloudy.

I sick

2010-10-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

I gots a sore throat. So I will post on blog to feel better. What have I been up to in the last month?

This is what's been going on at my work desk lately. Been making animal track/tree cards from paint chips and Timberland printed shoe wrappings. And tiny envelopes. Basically I'm just making useless things from the trash scattered all over the apartment. I started the envelopes earlier in the year and they were so fun to make. So now I'll make more!

And the meager fruits of my tomato harvest!

In case you haven't seen, I helped Stephen out on a cartoon for NPR. It's about a cute little monster called Toxie! And she fucks shit up. You can see it here.

Also collaborated with kneeon! and did animation for a Gear Up commercial. They want you to apply to college! Take a look:

"Stick To College" - Gear Up Commercial

Awesome fun and awesome teamwork with everybody. Wheeeeeee!

Tomato explosion!!

2010-09-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

I love tomatoes.

They are my favorite fruit, vegetable, whatever you want to call it. So simple in its design and form, yet capable of endless palatable possibilities. I never realized it before, but I probably eat tomatoes at least 4 times a week. You are what you eat? Then I'm a fat, red tomato.

This year is the first time I've attempted to grow anything substantial on my own. During my childhood, my grandmother, an expert gardener, had a wonderful patch of vegetables in our backyard. She grew everything from winter squash to delicious chinese herbs. And of course she grew my fave! Tomatoes. They were big and fat and juicy and I ate them for summers.

So now as I sort of follow my grandmother's footsteps, my fire escape has transformed into a makeshift garden of tomato, rosemary, and pepper plants. They sit on the fourth story, surviving the worst conditions New York has to offer--everything from massive heat waves to the terrible 2nd Ave subway construction. Stumbling through the gardening process has been fun and insightful, but not without making some mistakes. Usually dumb ones. For example, do not sprinkle ALL 30 seeds from your packet into your one pot. One seed does indeed equal one plant, and that one plant WILL become over 5 feet tall and block out your entire bedroom window. Many seedlings were sacrificed in this lesson.

I have 3 cherry tomato plants now. Two are flourishing outside and fruiting like mad. They are thick-stemmed and fuzzy, and smell like a tomato porno. The third is stuck inside my apartment and slowly dying from lack of sunny rays. It's been kept inside for months since it's too big to put outside, and it hasn't been receiving the proper sunlight. Sigh...I had high hopes for this big guy, but sometimes you try to reach for the stars and you just come crashing down. Lesson learned. Next summer: new plants, new plans.

Savor the moment (and watermelons)

2010-08-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

I went to the beach on Saturday. As I was sitting in the sand cross-stitching some wolves (this will surely be another post), I saw the sun setting down in the West and I thought, "Shit. That's beautiful." Savor the moment, everybody. The world is filled with them.

Some tree studies from on the road (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi) and watermelons. Two of my favorite things about summer. Note the particularly whimsical names of some places in the south.

Lazy summer

2010-08-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

As usual, I let the summer days get to me and my mind has been wandering to far off places instead of blogging. Which is probably a good thing!

Last few months have been wild--just finished up working on a claymation spot at work, been doing some drawings and things here and there, and just came back from a road trip to New Orleans.

Some older drawings from back in June. Here's to summer:

Mister Blake Larue.

Update on the little new york apartment gardening project: I was getting a little scared that my tomatoes wouldn't flower, but all that worry was for nothing for they are thriving, flowering, and fruiting like the awesome plants they are! Also, they are humongous and taking over my bedroom.

I'm avoiding posting more drawings and stuff...but that's for another post. Meanwhile, I leave you with skies of the south, the most breathtaking skies I reckon I ever seen in this here blessed country.

Ice cream man news

2010-06-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

In case the five people who read this haven't seen it yet, my film is online on youtube and imdb. Youtube refuses to make the frame rate normal so here's the imdb link.

Also, Ice Cream Man! will be screening at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas. Randomly awesome!!

Hm, some girls and plants

2010-05-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

Work has been pretty busy...been building lots of stuff out of clay which has been super fun and exhausting. I've managed to do some drawings here and there though. Ladies are fun to draw.

Lady #2 is inspired by episode 367 of This American Life.

I am also excited to unveil my little new york apartment gardening project, that's been going on since March. I gots some tomato action going on, and just started some rosemary and peppers. I know diddly about growing plants so it's so far been improvisation mixed with a little common sense and dumb luck.

A little snow for a summer day

2010-05-05T21:12:00.000-07:00

Two mini paintings come together as one.

Colorin

2010-04-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

I just finished a sketchbook and realized I haven't painted a single thing since I went on vacation. So I took some time to slap some color and niceness on some old drawings.

Sketch from Costa Rica.

If pirates got cold.

I had this pretty intense dream a while ago about grass bunnies and bunny spirits. It's weird how some dreams are so easy to forget but others are just burned into your memory. WHAT DOES IT MEAAAAN?? I drew this out in brushpen and did it up in Photoshop. Thinking about doing a giant painting of this, but not sure.

My fish died

2010-04-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Oh no! There's a whale in my kitchen!

2010-04-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

Gauze and plaster of paris over cardboard. The first of what's to hopefully be a parade of sea creatures floating in the apartment.

Also somewhat exciting: the layout has recently been revamped on the blog. Check it out! It features happier things instead of the obnoxious red and green.

Ice cream poo

2010-03-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

It's been almost two years but...Ice Cream Man is officially FINISHED.

It's kinda interesting to see the very first storyboards I did back in 2008, and comparing them to the final product now. I cringe a little now seeing these old drawings, but I think I'm more embarrassed by the few drawings I did where I apparently failed to notice the possible sexual connotations i.e. second board panel. Oh well, good thing I revised that shot.

It's been an insanely long process but I learned a lot from making this film. I think I'll take my time before jumping into the next one. Watch for Ice Cream Man to be up on youtube sometime soon.

In the meantime, check out this comic I did when I went to Costa Rica two weeks ago. A lil slice of life.

Boy, I sure am gettin the winter blues...

2010-02-07T23:07:00.000-08:00

...can't wait til I'm sweating like a pig again.

I finished up backgrounds on Ice Cream Man. Woohoo. Here are a couple screenshots.

I am so so close to being finished.

A feline snow day

2010-01-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

I had a lot of down time at work this week, so I fooled around in Photoshop, trying to do something different instead of the usual paint and draw on paper.

I got pretty lazy towards the end and sorta slapped the background together. Maybe when I get better at Peeshop, I'll get more into illustrating digitally. Nothing beats doing it old school, though!

Meanwhile, I've been watching a lot of David Attenborough stuff. Just finished The Life of Mammals, and now starting Life of Birds. I highly recommend everyone to check that shit out! It's instant play on Netflix. Look at Dave stalking a kiwi!

And this is awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy67XU6xEi8

Drawins

2010-01-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

Some watercolor stuff!

The first one is something this guy I worked with once told me to draw. "DRAW ME a rusty pick-up truck with a tire missing set up on a cement block and cracked windows. Oh yeah, and there's a octopus in the trunk." Well, here you go.
This one is based off a Richard Brautigan poem called Adrenalin Mother. I just like the words he used.

Adrenalin Mother
with your dress of comets
and your shoes of swift bird wings
and shadow of jumping fish,
thank you for touching,
understanding and loving my life.
Without you, I am dead.

And a comic! True story.
Besides illustrating things literally, I have started working on backgrounds on my film. Will post some later. In the meantime, check out my bohemoth stack of animation that have been cleaned up and colored. Those babies can finally go in the closet!

Me so cold!

2010-01-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

Sketch dump! Old drawings and recent drawings.

The effervescent Rob Malone

Harry Potter, the College Kid.

I went back to Delaware for the holidays and had a nice arts and crafts session and bound some notebooks. Looked up some tips on the internet and found it to be surprisingly easy. Try it out and make your own! All you need is some paper, thread, and a sewing needle.

Anyway, feels good to be back in the city. Feels not so good out in the cold. That's why I stayed inside and made a fort.

I am a Dinosaur

2009-11-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

I got a sewing machine and I was so excited I made a dinosaur costume for Halloween.

Some brainstorm doodling. These were the blueprints.

Preeeetty goofy! Anyway, besides going apeshit over my sewing machine, I've been working more on my film (oh yeah...that) and trying to get it done by December. Also drawing some but not so much. Think I'm due for a sketchbook dump of some stuff from summer. Hope everybody had a merry Halloween!

Cars

2009-09-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

Did this a few weeks back for fun during some downtime at work. Mmm, cars.

Finished those damn heads!

2009-09-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Steve and Barb for helping me out, especially that one painfully late night...

If you're free this Friday night, come on over to Erebuni at 158 Roebling St. and see the show!

I heart Ira

2009-09-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

Still been pretty tied up last couple weeks. I wish the Earth's rotation would slow down and add an extra day to each week. Like in that one episode of Doug when Quailman makes a new day called Funday? Yeah.

I've been listening to a lot of This American Life. I was really gung ho about it at first, but now I sort of keel over every time I hear a David Sedaris story. I still keep listening though. It's for the background noise. I don't really listen to the stories anymore, I just like the sound of Ira Glass's tinkling voice. It's like a pleasant buzz in my ears.

I also get distracted a lot and doodle in Photoshop, when I should be working.

Yay for birds!

2009-08-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I don't draw much anymore. But I did make these!

I guess it would be kinda cool if I made a totem pole sort of thing, but alas, it's not the fate of these birds. Expect a papier mache party sometime in the future. Perhaps I'll post more frequently as well.

More birds

2009-07-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

My friend JD recently got a new place and gave out 5x5 inch canvases to everyone so he could decorate his apartment with our art. He said we could do whatever we wanted, so I took a big dump on mine, changed my mind, wiped it off, and made this instead:

Got excited, and made another one.

These were fun. I might do some more if I can dig up some extra canvases somewhere. I guess they're sort of a prelude to the big bird heads I'm supposed to be doing...best get on that.

JD, how shall I get your painting to you?

Comic vomit and other things

2009-06-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while. I'm distracted by summer. Bad, bad blogger.

These are some quick comics I've done in the last few weeks. I get really impatient sometimes drawing comics because I don't want to take the time to lay out boxes and set up each frame. So I've been trying something different where if I think of a good gag, I try to get it down on paper as fast as I can despite the sloppiness. Apparently, I can't think of anything other than people with animal bodies.

A semi-autobiographical experience while in LA in early June.
Some sketchbook stuff.

Oh yea, some news! Too Art for TV has accepted my series of bird heads (see two posts before) for their show in September, so you'll be seeing some in-progress construction in the next month as I attempt to make a giant duck head. Should be fun.

Byes!

Man-dog

2009-05-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

Hey, I made a stop-motion short!

man-dog

I'm soooo over animation

2009-05-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

Just kidding. I love it. Really. I'm starting cleanup/color on Ice Cream Man. Check it out!

Haven't really been drawing anything new lately, but I've been working on a bunch of other stuff now that it's the last week of school. Maybe I'll post the puppets I've been making and some ceramics stuff.

I'm thinking about making more bird heads though.

Anyway, see y'all at the showcase! Maybe get a postcard?

NYU 2009 spring showcase

2009-04-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Check it.

Artists in order: Me, Hairy Man, Blake City, Blair Bear

Come by, eat food, watch cartoons. Support the silly animators we are!

Word.

Get set...

2009-03-31T16:53:00.000-07:00

Bit stressed out today.

BUT. Here's is shot 21 of my film, cleaned up and colored. I was testing out how brush pen would look, and I'm pretty happy with the result. Means a lot more stressed out days to come, but who's counting?

Tempus fugit

2009-03-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, haven't posted in a while. Just been working on my film mostly...rough animation is almost complete!

Some doodles from the past few weeks--weird babies, Mr, Dursley, classmates.

Eeeh, my scanner is so lousy...

Dreams

2009-03-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

I have really bad dreams a lot. It gets kind of annoying. This was one of the more vivid ones.

A quick comic I drew on the train after a particularly grumpy morning.
Speaking of dreams and comics, I recently read Julie Doucet's My Most Secret Desire. It's a drawn compilation of Doucet's dreams--disturbing and intimate. She dreams about being a man a lot and giving birth to cat-babies. I like reading about dreams; even though they're not real, I do believe they provide a lot of insight on a person's character. Anyway, I liked the book.

Oh yeah...my film

2009-02-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

I guess I never mentioned it here, but I finished my intermediate film last December. It was pretty exciting on my part for actually completing the damn thing. Took over a year, plus a summer of slacking. Honestly, the choice came down to sweating over peghole-punched paper all day in my apartment or...go to the beach. Anyway, you can watch it here.

Some concept work I did for it back in the day. When plant had spots.

Uh...yayyyy!

Old stuff and sketchbooks

2009-02-13T15:02:00.000-08:00

I recently started a new sketchbook. It's a 5.5 x 8.5 inch Canson basic sketchbook, black hard-bound. It's super tiny for my standards, but I wanted to try something new. I find that choosing a sketchbook that is going to be your companion for the next few months or so is like choosing a new jacket for winter. It's not going to be used forever, but you'll need it for a good while, so you have to make sure it fits you well.

So far I feel like my drawings have been less free, now that I'm confined to such a small space. I'm hoping in the next few weeks that I'll loosen up and learn to embrace my tiny companion.

Anyway, I have nothing to show from it for now. But I found a sketchbook I had from last summer that I abandoned for those nice 8 x 10 inch black paperback Moleskins. There were a few drawings in it that amused me so I painted them for fun.
I don't know why money stuffed in a dog's butt was funny to me 8 months ago. What specifically made me decide to do that? It's weird looking at old stuff. Even if it's only over a span of a few months, your work reflects how often your mind changes.

Or not. Some early sketches of Ice Cream Man characters. Still looks about the same.

Another oldie. Dated June 16th.
As I already told the 4 people who read this, I saw another guy jerking it on my street last week. Why me? I don't think I'll document it this time though.

I'm so distracted

2009-02-03T11:13:00.000-08:00

Is it February already??

What an annoying feeling it is to have so many things on your mind when really you should be focusing on your work and not reading about pinworms on the internet. I recently learned about pinworms from a friend and am FASCINATED by the thought of them. These things crawl out of your butt at night and lay eggs around your anus. Then they secrete a substance that irritates your butt and makes you scratch it, thus spreading the pinworm love.

How utterly amazing is it that a creature such as the pinworm can spread and reproduce so easily simply by making their hosts scratch their butts? To think how often people scratch their butts! Parasites are ridiculous!

Snow was pretty

2009-01-21T13:55:00.000-08:00

Girls girls girls

2009-01-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

A mini-painting.

Channeling a bit of that fatass horse in What's Opera, Doc?

Hey everyone, go watch GATE OF FLESH (thanks, Harry). A Japanese B movie from the 60's, starring Gooooood ol' Chipmunk a.k.a. Joe Shishido, this pretty cool actor who had cheek implants. He's also in one of my other favorite movies Branded to Kill, which is damn cool.

Bye, 2008

2009-01-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all! Hope your new years have all been great. Three more years until the apocalypse! Some stuff from vacation.
Christmas in Hong Kong. I've been there many times before, but I'm still in awe every time I see the buildings and lights and the ridiculous amount of people. My dad lives in Mongkok, a popular tourist spot and shopping area, which has the highest population density in the world. Every night, several streets are blocked off so there'd be enough room for the heavy flow of pedestrians. Shiiiit!
Some drawings of Hong Kongers.
More adventures in China. My dad and I flew to Hefei, a city about four hours west of Shanghai. We went to a car parts factory in the middle of nowhere. It was extremely unsettling seeing people toiling over machinery and breathing in all those toxic fumes. Yet strangely fascinating.

Then a drive south to Huangshan a.k.a. Yellow Mountain. We visited a few ancient villages which were prominent during the Ming Dynasty. There are people still living there, mostly now working in the tourist trade. I spoke to a woman who told me her family has been at Huangshan for generations, and she showed me a picture of her great-great-grandmother when she was a baby. Then she sold me some Mao Zedong trading cards.
Then we climbed up. Walked up and down and up and down miles of stone steps. It was beautiful. No picture will ever capture what it was like to be standing up there looking down at the clouds.

I finish with this quote I found engraved on a plague:
"A relaxed and happy feeling comes from the harmonious coexistence between human and nature."

Pigeon-man

2008-12-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

I made a pigeon head this week.
It was intended for my video art final project, but now I think it was just an excuse to make a gigantic bird head. Looks good when you wear it though. Here are stills from the project.
The project I originally had in mind was gonna be this epic part live-action part animation thing, with nightmare sequences and dead pigeons dropping all over the place. There was gonna be this part where this pigeon gets pierced to death by seeds. Alas, I think my vision was just too grandiose. Oh well.

When I was a kid, my grandfather used to raise pigeons in our backyard. Every few weeks or so, my grandma would wrangle a pigeon from the coop, kill it, and cook it for dinner. I used to stand there and watch pigeons dangling from the doorknob for years. I guess blatant animal cruelty wasn't a big issue in my family.

Twilight and funny people

2008-12-10T23:06:00.000-08:00

I love Twilight. It's sickening. So much staring and sexual tension!!
*13 hour edit later: Oh yeah, I just checked out Blake's blog and his little bit about this ridiculous movie. That's him down below.
I think the main reason why I enjoyed it as much as I did (besides the vampire thing and the hot dudes thing) is it reminded me so much of when I was 14 years old and I wanted so badly to have an out-of-this-world experience. Reality was pretty insufferable when my imagination was so easily catered to with young adult fantasy novels.

On another note, I came upon these two doodles on my computer. One is of this funny-looking redhead I saw at Wawa Canteen and the other is my redhead video art teacher. I like drawing random people but it's kind of hit and miss for me . Sometimes they end up looking silly and nothing like the person at all, but other times I happen to get down the right lines and it's a good resemblance. Does anybody want to ride the trains with me and draw people?

I'm going to China next week for Christmas break. I think I'll buy like 20 Twilight bootlegs and give everyone a copy.

Friday night egg drop competition

2008-12-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

Middle school science class was the shit. So on Friday night, Blake Larue, Harry Teitelman, Stephen Neary, JD Amato, Ben Oviatt, and I decided to relive those good ol' days and hold an egg drop competition. The rules? You can use anything from my apartment. The objective? Construct whatever you can to save your egg from cracking when you toss it off a six-story building.

PART I: CONSTRUCTIONHarry's egg already lost.

This may be considered cheating, but under the stipulations of the aforementioned rules, there's nothing that can be done.

SS JD in mid-construction.

PART II: BON VOYAGE The view from the roof. Esteemed judge M. Porcello awaits down below.

PART II.5: MONEY SHOTS The infamous parachute that struck a sleeping bum down below.

PART III: AFTERMATH The SS JD took a hit that rivals the RMS Titanic. But Captain Egg and First Mate Craig Johnson survived with no serious injuries.

All competing eggs survived. 20+ years of living on this earth just for this moment!

EPILOGUE:
We could have been arrested.

I'm ready for Thanksgiving

2008-11-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

Haven't been drawing too much lately due to working on the films. I've managed to doodle some during subway rides and class time.

I saw Don Hertzfeldt at IFC on Wednesday, which was awesome. He's quite the interesting guy. I started drawing this bear on his shirt which I liked.

A comic. A colorful week...not so colorful on paper.

The weather's been nice these days

2008-11-07T17:56:00.000-08:00

I'm kind of glad it's not too cold just yet. I need to prepare myself before having to deal with trekking about in sub-zero temperatures. Best part though about winter coming is the snow. The beauty of newly fallen snow! I always wanted a snow day like this:

It was nice out on Halloween, too. Here's a recap of that night.

Random doodle during my video art class. I don't know.
That class is pretty fun. I get to make fun videos which are a refreshing break from all the hardcore animating I've been doing, and I get to be exposed to a ton of weird shit. Here's this one video I've been showing people that I've been particularly entranced with:

Some nice places I went to

2008-10-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

Last week, I went to some new places and some familiar places. My brain sort of imploded from everything my senses were taking in. The colors and smells of fall, the agonizing yet satisfying allure of the lab...New England graveyards. It was pretty awesome.

If you haven't been, go to the Dream House on 275 Church St. It's like being inside a giant womb. I had the best nap there ever. I won't say more than that.
On the highway, coming back from New Hampshire.

So now my days are really "routine-y", minus a distractive outing here and there. Get up, lab, go home. The best thing about going home is knowing that SCHOOL and THE FILM are over for the day and COZY HOME time begins. I turn on the tube, chat with my roommate, and eat and paint and watch Splash or whatever until I pass out. I dig it.

Nothing compares 2 U

2008-10-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

Final animatic done for Ice Cream Man...time to animate!

Here's some background stuff and color studies.

And now...as many of you know, my love for Sinead O'Connor will never cease.

More ice cream man

2008-09-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

Boy, I've been spending a lot of time at the lab...

I'm playing around with the houses and cacti for my film. I can't seem to break away from that same old boxy look for the houses. I want to try approaching the design from a different direction. Maybe next post.

Sketches of Isabella, one of the kids.

And now off-topic...the mice in my apartment are such ballsy little bastards. I would be sitting in the living room and they'd come right out in the middle of kitchen and stare me down. It's a never-ending battle.

The drawing game

2008-09-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

My pals and I have been playing The Drawing Game. Not too creative a name, but good to keep it simple.

Rules:

1) Each person gets a piece of paper and writes a sentence on it. Pass it to the next person.

2) Read the sentence and draw a picture to it. Fold over the sentence and pass it on.

3) Look at the picture and write a sentence to it. Fold over the picture and pass it on.

4) And so on and so forth.

It's fun to see what comes out of the game when the sentences and drawings get more complex or abstract with each passing. We've been playing four people at a time. I like to compare the two sets of drawings and sentences and see what was each person's thought process. Hilarity ensues. Here were some I liked:

Two almost identical setups. Different explanations.

This one was great! Funny how both drawers depicted the same action of a woman pointing as the plant shoots. This one started from bottom to top.

The drawings are basically the same, but different attitudes are conveyed due to what sentence was given.

This was a good one. Translation went way off but it made for a strange but beautiful drawing at the end. Oh, that ghost!

One where it all went to shit.

Sketchbook dump

2008-09-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited for fall!

I used to have these daydreams in high school where I would see giant black figures walking in fields. I didn't really know where these daydreams were going, but they looked kind of creepy and cool.

In my apartment, the toilet and the bathtub are built in separate rooms. I get tired of people asking me how I shower after they take a dump in my toilet so this is my answer.

I think I'm gonna try to do more short comics. Just little funny things that happen around me.

Ice cream man

2008-09-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

School's started and I'm all geared up to get my advanced film rolling. I've got preliminary storyboards done, and now it's time to cut it down and rearrange them to fit the time limit. I'll post some boards here sometime. Here's some art I did earlier this year for Ice Cream Man.

Prick's suburban landscape.

Early designs of Ice Cream Man and testing some colors.

His mild-mannered alter ego. And the neighborhood kids. He's got a rounder, softer look now.

I'm excited for this year. My goal is to roughly finish this film by graduation, along with my intermediate film from last year. I've learned that making an animated film is no walk in the park, so I'm determined to thoroughly manage my time for the next two semesters and really discipline myself to get something done that I can be proud of.

Bye, August

2008-08-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

Summer's almost over so that means it's time to say good-bye to sunshine and beach time and hello to You better start picking up your ass and do some serious shit! Here's some stuff.

My friend, Pam. I hope she's not offended by how I portray her sometimes but she seems to be a pretty good sport about it.

A good ol' sunset.

And some ice cream trucks.

I got great advice from this dude who's the creative director at Four in Hand and he told me this exercise that anybody who's serious about cartooning should do until their fingers fall off:

1) Take any subject you see and draw it as simply as possible.

2) Draw another version of the subject using only geometric shapes.

3) Compare the two drawings, and think about what is the ESSENCE of the subject?

4) Now draw the essence.

Deep, but useful.

Oh shit, I'm bloggin!

2008-07-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

I made this blog months ago and never did anything to it. Seems like it's the thing to do these days, though. So here goes it--my first post. Here's some stuff from the sketchbook:

I watched the Graduate a few weeks ago. Dustin Hoffman, what a babe!

Ratgirl. Inspired by my friend who works with schizophrenic rats at a hospital.

My pal Barbara and I hit the beach last week, and during a doodle session she told me about some fishnet porn she spotted on the internet.
Well, that's all. I don't see myself blogging all too much, but we shall see!