This is an advertisement?

My lovely Squidworks posted the cheap version of "Fight or Flight" on their website. It's $3.00, but if you can wait a bit longer and pay a bit more, there will be a nicer edition.

Nicer edition will include:
Fancy paper
Fancier resolution
And even fancier Japanese book binding (stitched by me lol)
I'll even sign copies to make it feel more special.

How much will it cost? No clue yet. It will depend on the paper and printing cost. Yes folks stitching will be free! It will be done as soon as the semester is over. Finals are evil!

This was a really poor advertisement. Moral of the story...I guess wait for the nice copy. :P

30th Starz Film Festival

Here's the shows I'm going to:

Chicago 10 (Brett Morgen in person)

It's 1968. The war over there is causing chaos over here, where the spirit of revolution fills the air. When the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Chicago, a television audience of over 50 million watches as protestors clash with police and bring the city to a standstill. Eight men are held accountable for inciting the riots in what will soon become known as the Chicago conspiracy trial – and as a media circus whose ringleaders and clowns, political-tightrope walkers and sideshow freaks represented Americans on both sides of the divide.

Animation Station workshop

All in this Tea (Blank and Leibrecht in person)

Blank’s new film with co-director Gina Leibrecht, All In This Tea, constitutes a similar sort of departure in its portrayal of a subject as consumed by his passion as he is driven by the pursuit of its perfection. In this case, we’re following not Herzog (who nonetheless makes a cameo appearance) but David Lee Hoffman, a tea expert and merchant from Berkeley, California. Obsessed with locating the world’s best handmade teas, Hoffman travels to the farmlands of China to work directly with the few remaining practicioners of an ancient but dying art.

Adventure is Where you Find it (For shorts :p)

Persepolis (sadly Marjane Satrapi not in person)

With her remarkable multi-volume graphic novel Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi parlayed the stuff of her life in post-revolutionary Iran into art-critical acclaim and pop-cultural fame. First published in the United States in 2003, Persepolis operated on multiple levels - as a disarmingly funny bildungsroman, an exposé of Iranian society under totalitarian rule and an example, à la Art Spiegelman's Maus, of the ways in which comics are expanding our notion of storytelling.

What I Did For Love? (For Georges Schwizgebel's Jeu)

It's going to be a fun two weeks.
http://www.denverfilm.org/festival/

Halloween

Xiao Bao dressed up as Clint Eastwood this year and no he is not going to paint your wagon.

NDK pics

I uploaded my pics finally of NDK 2007 at my Flickr account.
So go check it out!

Last weekend was the 24 hour comic challenge. Really brutal this year, but I finished! It's going to be published in our Squidworks anthology soon.

I've been really busy lately so I will upload these pics to a better page later. Otherwise you can check out the pics at our forum.

My profile in the anthology will look something like this:

Ellen Yu grew up in Aurora, Colorado. Her obsession with guinea pigs, Japanese ink drawings, and animation scares many people especially her family. She is currently attending The University of Colorado at Denver for a BFA in Drawing. After she graduates in 2008, she plans to attend an animation school which would lead her to a lifetime of 2-D and experimental hijinks. Her most recent comic "Fight or Flight" uses anthropomorphism of guinea pigs to describe a panic attack through ink washes.

"The Tooth Courier" debunks the myth of tooth fairies. The 24 hour comic is chapter one of this idea focusing on Issac. A boy born without wings, and his struggles in a tooth centered society.


I will hopefully post more in November. Oh yes! I've narrowed down the schools.
1. CalArts
2. USC
3. Kansas City
4. RMCAD

I'm working on the applications now :p

Sketch Cast

This so much fun.

How it went!

Yay! National Portfolio Day went pretty well. It was extremely crowded lol, but it was mainly crowded for RMCAD (Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design) which is odd because they have tours all the time.

I was a little odd there because most of the attendees were from high school. There was even one gujy in 11th grade checking the place out. Everytime I came up to a table, I told them I would recieve a BFA before going to their school. They were a little estatic when I said that lol.

I got to talk to CalArts and got great advice. They love the guinea pig comic lol. Sadly even though I will have a degree, I would still be at CalArts for the full 4 years, but with some extra room due to credits. No folks...the price wasn't reduced lol.

Then I went to look at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver. Remarkably cheap $10,000 and I will only have to go there for three years. Still have to check out their students work though.

Next, I went to see the Kansas City Art Institute. Wonderful fine arts college, but I didn't know they had animation. They looked at my portfolio, and Iwas approved. I was surprised they approved portfolios here lol. It was quite a shock lol. Their student work wasn't too bad, so it's a possibility.

Rhode Island College of Design was nice too. However, this school is definitely out of the question. I can't get any scholarships because I will have a bachelors, and they were the most expensive school I saw.

I tried to see Minneapolis, but the line was extremely long.

Great day! Kansas City was the biggest surprised. I literally thought my portfolio was crap lol. I'm happy. I feel more confident.

So the next steps....
Keep working on sketchbook to the extreme. Animals especially
Need to make a flipbook
Take digital and regular slides of work...CalArts will be the only one to get the real deal.

On another note....
Enoch, I'm glad the comics came. I hope you enjoy them.
As soon as I get the special edition guinea comic done, I'll send one to you ^^

Review Portfolio tomorrow

Well tomorrow is the day I talk with some representatives. The craziness....I'm bringing mainly my huge sketches, comics, and sketchbook. I'm not nearly done or feel satisfied with my progress so far.

NDK was last weekend. Pretty awesome! I got to meet Mr. Shin Itagaki & Mr. Hisashi Abe. Poor Itagaki-san was sick because of the drastic change in altitude, but kept coming to panels anyway with his poor surgical mask on. It was an extreme delight to meet Abe-san. He is a legend and has worked on so many shows. He did a lot of character animation designs for CLAMP.
I'll post pics soon with the stuff I bought. Darn those CLAMP 3-D land figures. Collecting obsession!!!

I finished "Fight or Flight" aka Guinea pig comic in time for the con. It was a crappy version. I'm trying to get a nicer version on paper with Japanese bookbinding. :D I'm just glad I got the comic done.

Other news, I tried to get my comic gig back at "The Advocate", but the new editor thought "Breakfast at Tivoli" wasn't gritty enough...too high school he said. I thought about it because this time I actually would get paid, but I declined. It's just not my style.

I'll update again about the results tomorrow. ^^

Must See Museums

To pass some time and to dream about the future, I wanted to compile THE museums I must see. Just the not the extremely famous ones like the Louvre, Guggenheim, Tate, or the Met; which I hope to visit someday.

Tezuka Osamu Museum
Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum
Cartoon Museum in London
Van Gogh Museum
Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art
Mucha Museum
Studio Ghibli Museum
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (will have to visit multiple times...they have Yoshitoshi right now and Tezuka :O
National Cartoon Museum
Cartoon Museum SF
MFA Boston (over 700 Hokusai prints)
Cartoon Art Museum SF

This list shall forever expand. Tell me if I missed anything.

Meh

New pic of me. Might put up a different one after a while with color.

I kinda liked my old pic better, but I needed the change.
Plus it has the pig!

Bulletin 2.0

National Portfolio Day

Animation
Major :
Academy of Art University (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
Atlanta College of Art (computer) (UG)
Carnegie Mellon University, School of Art (computer) (UG) (GR)
College for Creative Studies (traditional, computer) (UG)
Cornish College of the Arts (computer) (UG)
Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Fashion Institute of Technology (computer) (UG)
Grand Valley State University (computer) (UG)
Kansas City Art Institute (computer traditional) (UG)
Laguna College of Art and Design (traditional) (UG)
Maryland Institute College of Art (computer) (UG)
Massachusetts College of Art + Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Minneapolis College of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
Mount Ida College, School of Design (computer) (UG)
Otis College of Art & Design (computer) (UG)
Ringling College of Art and Design (UG)
Rhode Island School of Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Rochester Institute of Technology (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (computer, traditional) (UG) (GR)
School of Visual Arts (traditional) (UG) (computer) (UG) (GR)
The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
The University of the Arts (UG)


Concentration:
Academy of Art University (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
California Institute of the Arts (computer) (UG) (GR)
Cleveland Institute of Art (computer) (UG)
Columbus College of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
East Carolina University, School of Arts and Design (computer) (UG)
Fashion Institute of Technology (computer) (UG)
Laguna College of Art and Design (computer) (UG
Maryland Institute College of Art (computer) (UG)
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Parsons School of Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Pratt Institute (traditional, computer) (UG)
Purchase College, SUNY (computer) (UG)
San Francisco Art Institute (traditional, computer) (UG)
FIDM/The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (computer) (UG) (GR)
The Cooper Union School of Art (computer) (UG)
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (traditional, computer) (UG)
Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts (UG) (GR)

I have a bad feeling I'm going to be flashing my portfolio like crazy over these colleges.

Big Kahunas

CalArts
San Jose State
MCAD (remarkable good showcase of work)
and if all fails I could check out the local RMCAD...still not sure.
Who knows one of the other colleges might be a perfect fit.

Avatar Season 3 Promo

Wow O.O

Sneak Peek at portfolio

All this summer, I have been working on the portfolio. Right now, I have 37 of the big drawings on newsprint, drawing, and watercolor paper. I still need to work hard on the sketchbook. Animals are quite tricky.

I have been neglecting my blog, so here are some of the sketches that might make it in.

I'm still working on the guinea pig comic that might be called "Fight or Flight." It will be included in the portfolio as well.

Ratatouille

Black Angus!

Ratatouille is beautiful! Of course the animation is beautiful, but the story is wonderfully crafted. It brings a smile to your face. Remy's point of view is breathtaking. When this comes on dvd, a scene by scene analyzation might be necessary because the movement was flawless. I got a warm fuzzy feeling at the end of the movie. Brad Bird really raised the bar on this movie. Ratatouille may even be better than The Iron Giant.

From some of the Rotten Tomato reviews, the main complaints were they couldn't get over the rats in the kitchen concept and they thought it had too much dialogue. My goodness, the rats in the movie clean their hands! Brad Bird's dialogue is complex, but kids will treasure it when they are older. It wasn't sexual innuendo that they will soon discover, but ideas about labeling and pursuing your dream.

Go see the movie ^^

On another note, I was quite surprised whe I found out Camille did a song for the movie, which was an additional plus.

And yes, the movie reminded me a lot of my little guinea.

Now I have a hankering for some Ratatouille. Xiao Bao bring the eggplants and the zucchini!

Sir Slade

I love The Fray not just because they went to my university. So I thought this article was incredibly funny. What are the chances?

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/music/article/0,2792,DRMN_54_5567348,00.html

My favorite quote form the article:
"Sir Benjamin said he suspected the singer is descended from relatives in central England, who founded the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art at University College London.

'They were very artistic ones, so I think it's likely he's related there,' he said. 'My branch of the family were only interested in fighting, hunting, drinking and killing the French.'"

Also an interesting article deadly karaoke:

Karaoke is deadly
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070531/lf_afp/philippinescrimeshot;_ylt=Arkp3FuUNVwBsOsWYY331hjMWM0F

Yes.....when hearing excrutiating karaoke at wedding banquets, the thought of clubbing the singer has crossed my mind. I do feel bad for this fellow. The security guard should have learned to use earplugs.
Sinatra is deadly.

My goodness some of this news is right out of a movie.

CalArts Producer's Show

I really had to post these. For those who don't know CalArts every year picks the top 20 or so short films and show it to producers at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood.

Here are the openings for the shows ^^





Yes there is still debate whether or not CalArts is still the place to go. Great blog that has comments about this.
http://sewardstreet.com/2005/05/17/is-calarts-still-a-good-idea/

Bulletin for me

Sunday, September 23
Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design
1600 Pierce Street
Lakewood, CO 80214
800-888-ARTS
303-753-6046

National Portfolio Day of Doom

CalArts deadline January 5, 2008 supposedly
San Jose....no clue yet

No clue. I bet the NPD will clear up everything....too bad CalArts only wants originals.

Due date for comic with guinea pig July 1st. No exceptions!

I'll hopefully keep all of these promises :p

Why Spiderman 3 why?

I went to see Spiderman 3 Friday in spirit of Free Comic Book Day (which was simply fantastic). Purely disappointed. Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi should never be able to write a screenplay together ever again. The whole movie was full of cheese and incoherent plot and character development. I'm aggravated because the first movie was great and the second was even greater.

I really do like Tobey Maguire...but there is this really stupid scene with him dancing. I wanted dark Spiderman to be violent and not have value for life. In this movie, they just made him a complete jerk.

The cartoon did a better job.

Red+yellow=orange

I had a bit of an emotional breakdown this week because of concern of a friend at school, and my piggie's pee being orange. He went to the vet Friday and found out he had bacteria and blood in his urine. Yikes, a urinary tract infection! He was bitter about the whole experience because they put him on a smooth counter top (it's like ice skating for him), and they gave him an ultrasound and x-rays to make sure he didn't have a kidney stone. He didn't have any...not to sure why he has blood in the urine then?

Now poor Xiao Bao has to take antibiotics twice a day. He's still just as feisty. I get way too emotional over these things.

On a lighter note, 3 people bought my 24 hour comic! Hooray! Plus, I'm in an article that Bruce MacIntosh wrote. It's for a small newsletter, but it's pretty cool. It talks about the Squidworks group. I'll post when I get permission.

Right now, I'm working on a really personal comic for class (John is the greatest for letting me do comics as art). I hope it gets done by the end of May, but John says not to rush things lol.

Otters

I am now blind from cuteness.

Kotatsu!!!!

Sorry for the abscence lately. Life has been chaotic, and I thought I could get things done during spring break >.>

hehe I swear this blog is becoming a video blog.



I'm in love with Nodame Cantabile right now. The manga, live-action drama, and anime are all fantastic. Someone quickly license these so I can buy it. Hehe this my favorite scene with the Kotatsu. This series makes me love music again. I use to play the flute and stopped because I felt it was a chore. I really relate to Nodame...of course I'm not that wacky lol.

TAS 3 Finale

I had an awesome time with my friends from school and Al in the Squidworks group. Sadly, Don and Rob couldn't make it out, but it was fabulous anyway.

Rob was glorious enough to post my report on the TAS journal. I drew three comics detailing the flyer process. See the pics I took as well.
http://www.animationshow.com/Journal/coloradowraps


I'll post the comics on comicspace later this week.

Cheers!! :D

Flyer Special Year 3!!!

Extreme!!, originally uploaded by Sheau-Sheau.

I have been flyering around Auraria Campus and Denver for the past week. I had a huge help from my friend Dan. But the battle lives on! Everyday flyers get pasted over each other. A religious group already took over some of the bulletins.

I stapled a poster with an envelope full of flyers.

I still have soo much left lol.

I'm going to do one more round this week and use some chalk. I have 452 seats I want to fill and so far I only know about 20 people for sure that will go.

Go see TAS3 if it comes through your are!

More photos here:

http://flickr.com/photos/32106219@N00/sets/72157594543688208/

Happy Golden Fire Pig Year

Due to zen calculations and this particular year, we get a super lucky combination that only happens every 600 years.

Maybe I should buy some lotto.

So here's to the lucky pig year ^^

Hair High

I finally saw the movie "Hair High" by Bill Plympton at the Starz Film Center. The exaggerations and caricatures in the movies are spot on. All I can say is Go Fighting Cocks!

I did some flyering last weekend for the Animation Show Year 3. I'll post those up ASAP.

Kuroko Technique

I know most have you have seen this technique where people dress in black and puppet the scene with people, but it is just too cool.

Extreme Ping Pong



Scissor Sisters "She's My Man"

Garrr!

I finally uploaded all 52 of my "Breakfast at Tivoli" comics. I've been doing this comic since October 2004 0.o

Currently I'm having a little problem with the newspaper, but I'll keep doing whether or not they publish it.

Check it out in all of its glory:
http://www.comicspace.com/manganese/

More comics!

Wow! Comicspace finally put up their comic feature. It's great! Nothing special mind you, but for someone who has terrible web skills, it's wonderful. Plus I can have multiple comics hosted. I'll load up all of my "Breakfast at Tivoli" comics over the weekend.

My creative juices are bubbling again....amazing how the thought of not dealing with technology makes me excited.

Animation Show 3 is coming. So once again the good old blog will be filled with flyering pics.

Spring Blues

Hmmmm....this semester is starting out on a rocky road.

I get to meet really amazing people because I go to a commuter college. This year I'm going to be losing some good friends and mentors because of college politics and illness. I personally understand how it feels to not be able to go to school because of health problems. I have anxiety attacks that make it hard to travel or go out in the public.

One of my favorite professors is leaving this year due to financial need and not being appreciated enough with the administration. I feel like we're losing a gem in art education. My college is starting forget the needs of the students. One example is a our thesis show only has one spot that can barely fit ten students. I feel really lucky and thankful that I get to have him as my professor one last time.

I'll talk about animation in the next post because it cheers me up.

Animation Show Year 3!!!!

Animation Show is putting on a grand opening with a partnership with MTV2. It's just like the good old days when MTV showed shorts.

Tomorrow on MTV2 they will be showing a recap of the past two tours and a sneak peak at this year's tour. It's at 5pm et.
Check out the website for clips!
http://www.mtv2.com/#series/22412

Finally shorts are reaching the masses ^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a15V4cH1Fyk

Crap

Say it isn't so.....

A trilogy of "Avatar" films directed by......M. Night Shyamalan.

Why couldn't it be someone else? Dear God!

Is there suddenly going to be a "twist ending" where Shyamalan appears and pokes the Fire Lord's eye out?

New Layout?

Finally switched over to the New Blogger...a color change was due for the new year!

I hope it's not to dark. I'll keep tweaking it. :D