Some perspective

I felt really bad for not posting any of my work. I have been really busy, and I feel that my work is not the best.

To begin with, here are just a couple of perspective assignments:



This was a one-point perspective assignment at the beginning of the year. The requirements was to have a scene where the character touches an object. I did a Saloon!



This one was fairly recent. The assignment involved stairs and a chase scene. A huge guinea pig chasing me is like a dream come true!



This is the most recent perspective homework. The first one I did in color! The window ellipse still needs to be fixed, but otherwise it was successful.

I will upload my SD card soon with life drawing pictures, my silhouette project, and of course my animation assignments.

Friend's 48 hour animation

Sorry folks...this is not my animation. My animation is still tightly hidden on the pencil test machine. My friend Carlos kicked ass on his first 48 hour film and put it up on Youtube.. He completed it right after he got out of the hospital. (Shaking fist!)

This is the competition and talent here at CalArts, which is awesome and scary at the same time.
Enjoy!

November November

Finally, it is November and the infamous CalArts Halloween party came and went. I had fun dressing up a little bit as a guinea pig. I had bunny ears crumpled down and Michael painted an awesome nose on me.

The night before I had an all niter doing a pitch for story. My group did a parody of Snow White as Snow Grimson. Basically, Snow White gets manipulated into killing maidens after Prince Charming cheats on her. Again, it was a long night.

The Halloween Party was a drunk and drug fest. A lot of crazy costumes and naked people. I'm beginning to see a trend here at CalArts. People do crazy things and nobody gets in trouble. Just recently we had a screening of 48 hour films for this year's theme hair. My favorite shorts this year were Jeff Liu, Carlos Romero, and Henry Yu films. During the screening, someone barfed all over the stairwell near Keane Street where my cube is. Our janitor wasn't going to come in until Monday. Me, Carlos, and Ashley grabbed cleaning supplies and bonded together while cleaning up barf. I feel proud that I cleaned it up...just a weird feeling like slaying a dragon :p
I just hope this doesn't happen again.

Class wise everything is great. I'm improving each week. My artistic caliber is not as high as my classmates, but at least I'm improving. I'm thinking Wednesday before Thanksgiving I'll scan my most recent work. I hate not showing any of my art on this blog.

The big assignment I'm looking forward to at the end of the semester is my mini animation as me as a six-year old. My activity will be using chopsticks.

Our recent guest lecturer was Don Hahn who is the producer for Disney animation. He showed us the final feature film is always revised. Elton John's original Circle of Life sounded like pop music, but was revised to the African soul song of today. Hahn is also publishing Walt Stanchfield's lecture notes on gesture drawings for animation. It's a must buy and will come out this May in two volumes.

I'm going to try to see Fred Seibert of Frederator Studios this Wednesday. I'm willing to skip my critical studies class to see his lecture. I want to be an independent short animator, and it would be great to meet such an influential person in this department.

Last time on...

Last time on Ellen's blog....

On Columbus Day/Indigenous People's Day, I went to see Sita Sings the Blues at Redcat with some great upperclassman. The film was really interesting with the three storylines surrounded Ranma and Sita. I love how Nina Paley combined her own life with this myth. The animation is limited in its movement, but I really can't blame her since she made the whole movie by herself!
The best part of the night was a surprise encounter.

While we were waiting for the film to start, I looked back and thought I saw Craig McCracken (creator of Powerpuff Girls and Foster's) and Lauren Faust (worked on Iron Giant and Foster's). I learned about CalArts through an interview with Craig - on I think a PPG dvd. After the movie was over, he was standing off to the side. I nervously went up to him and shook his hand. All I could was that I was from CalArts. I didn't ask for a picture because I found out there is a unspoken code in L.A. to not be a fangirl. To tap off the night, we ate ramen in Little Tokyo. It was really good and had huge portions. This always reminds me of Tampopo. :D

My CalArts friend is now out of the hospital. He finally got out after two weeks! Now he is catching up and kicking ass.

We finally did Hobaica's silouhette project where we cut five scenes with exacto knives. A lot of people went all out with tiny miniscule details on balcony columns. I liked how mine turned out. It is not the best, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

I'm still struggling on storyboards. Now our teacher is allowing us to add cuts and angles to the scene. I must keep at it!

Trad. Animation is still magical. My timing is really slow still, but I still get excited when things move.

Our recent visiting artist was Mandrews aka Mark Andrews. He was the head of story on The Incredibles and Ratatouille. He is an extreme and funny man. He showed us the majestic qualities of the triangle and talked about what movies suck. I learned all good storyboard artists watch bad movies to learn why do these scenes fail and how to fix them. Michael Giacchino (wrote music scores for Lost, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille) tagged along for the lecture! It was a great lecture and I think he comes every year!

Sadly, I didn't do the 48 hour lockdown, where you animate a film with the picked word and make it in 48 hours. You do post production for one week and then turn it in. The word this year is "hair." I really wanted to do a dancing guinea pig, but the homework was too much for me. I promise you people, I will animate a dancing piggie someday!

Hourglass...sand is leaking

I have no idea how Jennifer Harlow updates her blog so frequently. She is a time management goddess!
http://artofjen.blogspot.com/

I think I have been avoiding my blog because of the task of uploading and resizing pictures...so I have decided to use this as a journal for the rest of the semester. I'll post pics once winter break comes along.

CalArts has been a whirlwind of busy late nights and work, work, work. This is wonderful but it has been really hard to keep in touch with my family and friends back in Colorado. I think I'll save all the sharing when I see them during break. You do give up four years to this place. A trade that is really worth it because I fee like I'm improving everyday.

My favorite class so far is Dan Hansen's Perspective and Traditional animation with Mike Nguyen. Perspective with characters is a lot of fun compared to the classical perspective taught in art school. I feel I'm improving the most in this class. Mike's animation class is great! I really want to intern with him over the summer to help with cleanup on My Little World. I asked him about this, but he bashfully said that I probably wanted to work at Disney or Pixar instead. He's too humble ;) He's also working on a really cool project with Robert Duncan called Land of Zi. It's a children show that teaches kids how to write Chinese characters. They're trying to find a distributor. Man, I would love to work on this show. I have the most fun animating. I still want to become an independent animator, but I do want to work at companies at the beginning to get more experience.



Speaking about career choices, I'm beginning to think I'm not going to head down the job of story or design. The idea of pitching just gets scarier. I don't have a tough skin. The process is not as spontaneous. You have to go through so many revisions and even the best version may be left on the cutting room floor. Character design is something I need to work on. For so long, I tried to capture realism in my drawings and accurate proportions. Now it is the complete opposite. You have to exaggerate and vary shapes in a character. I need to keep pushing it. Its very uncomfortable for me.

On another note, we had some great visiting artists already. One was Ben Balistreri who worked on Danny Phantom and Foster's. He gave us good advice and tricks on character turns and designs. Then, we had Lisa Keene who is the Art Director for Enchanted and Rapunzel. She showed how she morphed photo references into her layouts. Last night, Jeff Snow visited and talked about storyboarding. He worked on Tarzan and Over the Hedge.

We already had a health incident with one of my good friends. From what I hear, it is quite common for students to visit the hospital for carpal tunnel, pneumonia, and back problems because of stress. I have been visiting him at the hospital during my free time. I can't get any work done if I don't visit. He'll be out soon thankfully. :D My health has been normal. I had my first all niter this week for my Story for Animators class. I'm terrible at sitting down and writing on the computer. I saw the sun rise, which was really beautiful.

That's everything so far in a tiny nutshell. I've met some really amazing students here, and I can already tell I found some additional life-long friends.

Up ahead for me: I'm going to see Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues on Monday night. And work my butt off. :p

Favorites of 2008 Producer's Show

Last Duel of a Lost Era
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHJFW5AQxyc

Paranormal Roommates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cSktJ0QxDc

Boyhive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO1mNe2EbrM

Everyone Dies in 90 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGiM_Onk640

Doodlebeats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhMWGGEhH1k
(This song is addictive.)

Umbrella
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Vkk7msTLU

The Airship Danger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak-26zxvO44

Rubber Woes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-FaF7_heX8

Dead Meat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lI6R45HFsI

Damned Cute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvdIKjkHYK8&feature=related

Extreme update!

CalArts is really wonderful and is like a dream. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and be back home lol. Valencia is very hot and CalArts sits on top of a hill. Suposedly, the CalArts area is the basis of the Edward Scissorhands movie. Weird lol!http://laist.com/2006/12/18/edward_scissorhands_lived_near_los_angeles.php

My dorm is really big and has lovely storage. I'm thankfully on the quiet hall. People are known to run through the halls screaming (acting majors lol). My roommate named Disa is super sweet and is a very good match. The window looks out to the pool, which is clothing optional o.o I got to visit Santa Monica as a field trip and finally got to see the ocean for the first time. There were a variety of stores and I finally got to eat a British meat pie!

Very interesting people go to CalArts and are extremely nice. The animation room or The Palace has cubicles on top where we need to work. The cube sign up sheet was actually up at 6:30 pm the day before sign up. I was doing laundry at the time and didn't know. I came in at 7 am the next day because I wanted to sleep in my bed. Everyone else camped out in the halls for no reason. I guess for tradition :p I got number 39 lol out of 49 or something. Luckily, I got a cube #3 in the main building. I'm on Keane St. and Dejas Rue :p (Animator street signs around the cubes). I'm sharing with 3 other people.

My desk is a bizzare story.... It has graffiti and paintings on it. Your allowed to paint the walls and desk in your cube. Mine had unicorns painted on it with Lisa Frank and the cabinet....someone drew men's privates in it. o.0 I later found out that a junior named Henry had this cube. His classmates played a prank on him over winter break and painted horrible things in his cube. The funny coincidence is last year no one got the desk, but I got it this year. Henry's last name is Yu lol. He is now my long lost brother lol!

I have Dan Hansen as my Perspective teacher. He started on the Rescuers. My traditional animation class was awesome. My teacher Mike Nguyen was so enthusiastic. He started to show us how to flip in the last part of the class when he finally mentioned he was the Supervising Animator on the IRON GIANT! Everybody gasped! So I have to learn how to flip with his Hogarth walk cycle. I love CalArts!!!!!

Side note:
I've found out about some websites for those who can't make it to CalArts or are interested.

Mike Nguyen
http://rainplace.net/

Chong Suk Lee (My storyboard teacher)
http://chongtoons.com/

Chris Meeks
http://homepage.smc.edu/meeks_christopher/

My Schedule

This is just for future reference...plus you get to see how much stuff I'm taking!

CLASS DAY
BP –Basic Perspective Mondays: 9am-noon
IDP –Intro to Digital Perspective Tuesday: 9am-noon
C&D1 –Color & Design 1 Tuesday: 1pm- 4pm
BA –Beginning Animation Tuesday: 7pm-10pm
Doubles- Doubles, in art and culture Wednesday: 10am-1pm
BSD –Beginning Story Development Wednesday: 7pm-10pm
BLD –Beginning Life Drawing Thursday: 9am-4pm
BCGIA –Beginning CGI Animation Thursday: 7pm-10pm
SFA –Story for Animators Friday: 1pm-3pm

Holy crap lol! I start tomorrow ^^ and will battle for a cubicle on Tuesday. Freshman get the leftovers and since our class has 44 people (reguar is 25), space will be limited.

CalArts arrival

I arrived safely at Calarts in lovely Valencia. It has been really hot, but the scenery is so beautiful. The students are really friendly, and I think Ron Perlman's son is attending CalArts.

Chouinard, my dorm, is way bigger than I expected. The rooms are huge. I regret not taking some of my dvds. The pool here is clothing optional lol.

I'll put up a better report with pictures. This week has been pretty busy.

Here's a Pictures for Sad Children by John Campbell that I simply love!

ASIFA-Colorado workshop animation

I didn't realize they posted this on Youtube. I did this during the Starz Film Festival during a workshop.This was done before I did Check the Label. I started with a guinea pig animation then gave it to another participant. The next person animated my pig as being blown up o.0

My drawings are at 1:10 with the dancing leaf, 1:13 with my piggie, and 2:14 with the flower head.

I didn't get to see this compiled together until now. I had to go see the screening of Persepolis ;)

From Olympics to the DNC

These past two weeks I have been staying up watching the Olympics. Normally, I never watched the Olympics. I think I ignored the last one in Athens.

I felt so much pride and excitement that it was taking place in Beijing. My whole family and a lot of other Asian cultures seem to be excited and celebrating as well. We rooted for China and gasped at the beautiful venues for the Olympic Village. World Records were breaking with the help of the Water Cube's design. China finally showed off, which is wonderful since people associate China with lead paint and pollution.

Now the spotlight is on Denver!

The pic above is me on the light rail Saturday. Media trailers were covering everything.

I'm a little sad the Democratic National Convention had to happen the last week I'm in Denver. Roads are closed off and the media is going crazy. Most of my friends who live in Denver are hiding in their apartments. Protestors are at their footstep. Where the convention is held, The Pepsi Center, is right across from university I went to. I can't believe their using the campus as a security checkpoint :p


Well, I leave Colorado this Friday on a road trip to CalArts. I feel nostalgic and sad that I'm leaving such wonderful friends and my beautiful home I grew up in. I'm leaving behind my precious baby Xiao Bao. I hope to gain new experiences and develop into a better artist and person. It's an exciting transition. California here I come!

Cul de Sac

Hmm...I don't dress my guinea pig like a cowboy.....all the time.


Any comic with a main character as a guinea pig gets extra points.

GIMP Test

Much easier than Photoshop and is free!

Oh yeah I have a blog...

I finally graduated with a BFA in Drawing. Sort of bittersweet since I have four more years at CalArts. I have been looking for a summer job. It is an odd situation when you have a college degree that pretty much doesn't matter at all in the job market. Oh well, I enjoyed my stay at CU Denver.

I'm posting the ever popular guinea pig portraits! My teacher John Hull just kept telling me "more" guinea pigs. My whole independent study was just that....guinea pigs :D Out of that great experience I created my comic zine Fight or Flight. My study was during a painting class where I did portraits of my friends.

Richard and Nancy

The paint guru Lisa!

My friend Sean with his many acrylic jars...

As a farewell gift to John Hull, he was moving to Charleston, I made him a guinea pig. Lots of inside jokes in this piece.

The newest of the drawing is my guinea pig portrait I gave to the Flight of the Conchords when they played at the Ellie Caulkins. True bliss I have to say because I got to give it to them.

The very sweet and tall Jemaine Clement!

The also very tall and sweet Bret.

And because I am lazy....my thesis art...the one with the pandas can be found at my new deviantart account. I mainly got one because all the CalArts peeps update that thing like crazy. I think when I probably post my thesis art on this blog, I will discuss that I hope people don't consider my art "furry art." I just think people as guinea pigs is silly and fun.

Thanks for reading ^^

Check the Label

Finally uploaded my animation on Youtube! Originally it was going to be a 12 second project, but ended up 1 minute and 40 seconds.

The film is playing on a plasma at my thesis art show and at the Starz Film Center.
I entered it in our school competition "Digital Visions" and won Best Animation! :D

Thesis Postcard

My fancy postcard!



Come if you can to my thesis reception and see my work!

CalArts it is!

I finally made my decision. I'm going to CalArts Fall 2008. My scholarship appeal didn't go so well. Money is tight for education and everything right now. CalArts has no more money to give. I just have to be happy with my $1000 scholarship.

So I thought to myself since the apocolypse is coming, loans shouldn't be too much of a worry :p My parents practically gave me the ultimatum of DO NOT FAIL! MAKE MONEY! I'm really lucky to receive help from them.



To save money ramen will become the ultimate food lol. This is a pastel work from Denver local Riva Sweetrocket Comfort Foods.

I will be leaving my precious guinea pig at home. No pets allowed and he practically lives like a king in my home. My parents are setting up a webcam for me to help ease the seperation anxiety.

My dream has finally come true to go to CalArts! :D

The Great Pause

I mainly have just been running around the past few weeks. I got to go to Kansas City to visit KCAI over spring break. Really nice town although everything closes at 7pm. The school was quite nice. I regret not going to this school for my first bachelor. They have a different working space for each year you attend. Plus, the school is situated near the Nelson-Atkins Museum and the Kemper Comtemporary Museum.

So in the end surprisingly...I got into all of the schools I applied. I recieved a mere $1000 of scholarship from CalArts -.-
USC MFA program hasn't sent my award money yet. KCAI gave me a $15,000 transfer scholarship o.o. I'm shamefully using it as leverage to get more money from CalArts. I appealed my scholarship in hopes for more money.

I've been debating which school to attend. In my heart, CalArts is the place I want to go. All the faculty from USC and KCAI seem to have come from CalArts lol.
My brain is the basic problem. If I go to CalArts...I'll be eternally poor ($47,500 a year for everything) and no MFA degree. I applied to Character because I like what is coming out of there and the department is legendary.

I have to make my decision soon. Wahhh!

Yayyyy!!!!!!

I got into CalArts! I slowly opened the mailbox today and there it was. The flamboyant envelope of acceptance lol! I screamed when I saw it.

I'm in a daze. It really hasn't sinked in yet. Unless USC offers me a ton of money, I'm going to CalArts this fall.


*faints*

Peek-a-boo Mailbox

The application waiting game is making me crazy lately. It has been reported through forums that the envelopes are out! I think I won't know about KCAI or USC until April since the deadline was February. I get a mild heart jolt every time I open the mailbox. I don't want to get anymore generic envelopes from the schools. My hands start shaking only just to find out the letter was about financial aid. >< I really want Xiao Bao to be my letter opener.

I need to post my portfolio pics on flickr asap.

Thesis work has been fine. I think everybody is on the same boat with holes and slowly sinking into the abyss that is the sea :p I have about 6 or 7 seconds of animation done. Hooray!

Of course as soon as I find out about CalArts, I'll spam everyone with the news! Good or bad!

Project after project

I started animating for my independent study last week. I did a pencil sketch, then ink, and then ink wash for one second of the entire piece. Three times I had to work on this. I met with my teacher, and she said I needed to get two seconds done by next week 0.0.

The short is going to be 12 seconds. So fast for soo much work. It seems like I'll be animating in Photoshop CS3 (amazingly they have an animation feature). I'm starting to panic a bit. I have to do final pieces for my thesis as well.

For now, I know how this guy feels:

Hourly Comic Day

I participated in Hourly Comic Day created by the awesome John Campbell. I had to create a comic every hour I was awake. Kind of like a diary. It was a really fun event and less daunting than the 24 hour challenge.



Blogger is giving me trouble with the pictures. You can read them better here: http://www.tencentticker.com/msgbrd/viewtopic.php?t=710
If you were wondering, what the party was in the comic. I was at the book signing of The 24 Hour Comics People party that I participated in. Whoo hoo! The Squids did great readings of their work. I couldn't read mine due to my sore throat. The book will be available online soon!

My thesis

I started my last semester at CU Denver this week. Everything has been scary and exciting at the same time. I have to come up with a proposal in the next week explaining my concept and necessary gallery schematics. It's faster than I expected.

Choosing the topic of my thesis is daunting. A lot of my colleagues want me to incorporate guinea pigs in my show. I feel like I have already accomplished this with the comic book. I need something with a serious concept.

I've been avoiding topics about being American Born Chinese in my artwork. It is a hard subject to tackle with personally, and it does not help that my art is influenced by Japanese ink drawings. The style and concept just don't connect. I'm more comfortable in incorporating the subject of anxiety in my art than my ethnic background.

A lot of ideas pop into my head when I think about the topic, so I know it's a good one. It seems many people with multiple ethnic backgrounds have problems with fitting in like I do. Not understanding the language. Neither Chinese or American. I haven't decided if I'm emotionally ready to give my all to this topic.

I always wondered why Amnesty International's Universal Declaration of Human Rights said:

Everyone has the right to a nationality.
No one shall be arbitrarily
deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

I didn't understand how someone can change their nationality. I now see nationality is based on your influences. If you feel at home with a certain culture, it's fine to become a part of it.

I guess I'll give it a shot.

2008 kick-start

Yes...that's a guinea pig buffet....

It's been pretty hectic the last couple of days, but I finally sent the portfolio to CalArts. Whoo hoo! The due date was Jan 4th (a paticularly bad time to ship things) but it made it there safe and sound.

All I have left to do is send image discs to Kansas City and USC. CalArts is the only brutal one that wants the real thing XD. I'll post my whole portfolio once the Feb 15th due date passes by. I'm a little unsure if anybody would steal anything from me. Although that would be flattering lol.

For USC, they need me to take the GRE for the MFA program. Nobody ever told me about this lol...kinda was a footnote to the whole process. Important note to anyone getting a Masters: you'll probably have to take this test even though it has math...which my degree only required one class. I'm digging up the old high school math.

Now the all important worry time about getting in. I may not get into CalArts, which is alright with me. I may not like animation...really have not had much practice with this. However, I do love to create comics. It's an unknown for what is in store for 2008.

What I do know is in 2008:

• I graduate :D
• I have my BFA thesis show...with cheese and crackers
• I have an independent study on animation. I have to make 15 sec of hand drawn goodness. The faculty will look at me in bewilderment because we have a computer animation program lol.

Things that should have happen:

• Getting my comic bookbound...I will get this done Rarrrr!

Everybody have a great 2008!

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

Cranberry?

You Are a Cranberry and Popcorn Strung Tree

Christmas is all about showcasing your creative talents. From cookies to nicely wrapped presents, your unique creations impress everyone.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

Blizzard and comics???

Denver Blizzard of 2006
Originally uploaded by mag1c3y3.

Every three years (it seems to be) Colorado gets hit by a blizzard that causes several feet of snow. The last couple of times it's been during March or February, but this year it's a Holiday Blizzard.

We got about two feet, but I'm still stuck at home due to lack of huge SUV lol. This one wasn't as bad as 2003, but with the holidays approaching, I'm worried the airport is going to be hellish. Be careful Bemmie!

My Squidworks compadres persuaded me to sign up for a Comic Space account. They just opened a few weeks ago and, it's a very cool site. Much more appealing than myspace. It will soon have the capability to show comics. Depending on how easy and pretty the comic page will be, I might upload my "Breakfast at Tivoli" comics. If it is really awesome, I'll re-upload "DayDream" on there and make that site it's new home.

Happy Holidays everyone and be careful when traveling to any destination ^^

Rest in Peace Joseph Barbera

I found out from the Nightly News with Brian Williams that Mr. Barbera. I'm glad they found out and reported this on the air.

He died quietly with his wife by his side. Jeff Harris has a wonderful thought about his passing.
http://www.thexbridge.com/joebarbera.html

Thank you Mr. Barbera

Comic on sale!!!

UPDATE!!!
I hope Enoch didn't buy too quickly, but my comic is available on the Squidworks website here. It's a lot cheaper and helps out the group a bit. :D

Hurray! My 24 hour comic is available for sale through Mile High Comics! A tad pricey for my meager plunge into insomnia.....

I'm going to post the link up anyway, but I believe later on the Squidworks website will have it with cheaper shipping (Is it okay to say this lol?). $6.00 is a bit too much for my taste. If you're in Colorado, swing by and bug them.

And if you are really low on cash...
I might put up a smaller version up on the internet :D

Here's the link:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=list&title=37962938842&snumber=1

I'm just really happy I have a shopping cart for my comic. Novice happiness....^^

Realism?

Really terrible quote:

“And even though we are featuring live-action characters, it still had to be done the Cartoon Network way. Re-Animated has proven to be that kind of project.”--Michael Ouweleen, senior vice president, programming and development for Cartoon Network

Jaw droppin stupid quote...

From Toonzone:

"The Hollywood Reporter states that Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D earned $3.3 million in its opening weekend, raking in $291,000 at the El Capitain Theatre in Hollywood to break the house record previously held by Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Buena Vista distribution president Chuck Viane was quoted as saying, 'There is no question now that digital 3-D is having an impact on the box office.'"

These two quotes were just some of several that made me slap my forehead. I swear I have bruises for slapping so hard. Today, I found a quote (more like a paragraph) that made my animation soul flicker.

"Representational art has a place, but it's not for me. I'm more interested in drawings as psychology and expression, a subjective way somebody might see the world. I like little flaws in art because they reflect the flaws in life. I like children's drawings, not just the freedom and imagination in them but the painstaking struggle in the lines. There's conflict and tension there. There's so much richness and personality going on before you even get to what the story is.

CG models and perfect life drawings leave me cold. All that a realistic, representational drawing of a bicycle tells me is, "bicycle." There's so much more mood and psychology to bring to the film if your artwork communicates more than just nouns. It's why photorealism in animation is usually so boring and pointless. It's all nouns. Ninety percent of CG animation is all nouns. I can't feel anything going on behind the image.

The point of this medium is you can do literally anything, you can show us amazing things we've never seen before. I want to see animators change the language of cinema! Seriously, we have the means. Push animation deep into the wild new places where the surrealists took their reaction to photography. Rock the damn boat. If you're going to strip animation of all its subjective power and just show me what things look like in real life you might as well be shooting live action."--Don Hertzfeldt

Don just said everything I ever wanted to say about the animation industry and the educational system in a couple of paragraphs. Heck, this quote can reflect life in general. People always strive to be perfect when it is not necessary to be. I hated my high school self because all I cared about was to have perfect academics in all subjects. Only in college did I realize challenging yourself and building yourself was what mattered.

In art especially, you wonder if talent out weighs hard work? I've been struggling with this for quite a while. I could never draw realistically without pulling my eyes out. Maybe I wasn't meant to be an artist. The one thing I could do well was gesture drawings and drawings in brush pen. My professor John Hull helped me figure this out and told me Hokusai can never do Rembrandt and Rembrandt can never do Hokusai because that wasn't their style. I really thank him for such wonderful advice.

In a round about way, animation may have room for someone who can't draw realistically.

Sorry for such a weird and long winded post.....I better end with a Happy Thanksgiving!

Avatar Shipping

Zutara fans are crazy....

Man, Avatar as of late is just getting so crazy....but so addictive :p

I wasn't too sure why at the beginning fans were already pairing Zuko and Katara. They barely meet except in fight scenes.

Aww poor Aang....he better not kill Zuko for this.

I'll blog above the very hilarious Avatar shipping panel at Comic-Con. I'm still rooting for Foamtara lol.

Seat is waiting

Right now, I'm currently waiting for my chance to see "Brief Encounters of the Animated Kind" at the Starz Film Festival. It sold out...so I'm waiting if somebody doesn't show up. This year their main focus is Canadian films. What's better than the wonderful NFB!

I struggled through my flu this weekend to participate in the Norman Mclaren: Animation Workshop. He's really quirky and a wonderful animator. All of these techniques are no walk in the park. He really had talent. I got to take clear film and draw animation on them with colored markers. Then, at another table I got to scratch and color on regular film, which was really difficult. Finally, I got to do pixelation or stop-motion with a camera. They used a device called a "lunchbox" connected to a digital camera to take single frames.
I was thinking to myself..."my god! This is the solution to my animation problems. I've been trying to find a single frame camera."

I found out the box cost roughly $7000.....><

I made approximately 3 seconds of film lol. They screened it the next day, but I was too sick :( It was of my Xiao Bao too....can you imagine him on the big screen XD I have pics of the film strip that I will later post. Sadly, I didn't get to keep the film.

Oh yes and I'm also seeing a short later tonight by Chel White. Gosh I hope I get a seat. On one hand...a sold out show for animation is awesome! On the other....I want to see it.

Here's some Mclaren:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dNzefjYxeEI

The oscar winning and favorite film "Neighbors":
http://youtube.com/watch?v=X6x-Hf9GSfc

Finally NDK 2006 Report

I'm trying a new thing here. I use to just upload pics on Imagecave, but this time I created a Flickr photo album of my photos from NDK. I couldn't upload all the pics because of a limit ><. If you get confused with all the name blurting, here's the guest list and also the slideshow gives more info.
I had a wonderful time this year! I didn't get to go on Friday to see Opening Ceremonies because of printmaking craziness. I think they showed a trailer of Satoshi Kon's Paprika.

Saturday

I started off with the Madhouse Fan Panel (little did I know they would be there lol). For some reason, I had the courage to yammer my head off as to why Madhouse animation represents such quality work. Not to many people came so Umehara-san asked us to bundle together. I got to sit right next to him 0.o. We mainly talked about whether Japan will slowly go to 3-D like the U.S. Mizushima-san said they're so use to flat images like manga that it won't likely happen. We also discussed the difficulty of the transition to cel then digital to make the work. I like how they described missing the air between the cel and the camera so the color was much different. Also we asked if their studios had any rivals. In reality for Japan, animators work at multiple studios and often collaborate with each other. I guess no Pixar and Dreamworks rivalries lol.

I quickly went to see Fullmetal Alchemist: Conquerer of Shambala movie. I had to leave 10 minutes before the end for my panel :( thankfully my sister stayed for the Mizushima-san questions. She said the best part was when Umehara-san slowly came up and said in broken English "Please would you have an anime in Denver?" Mizushima-san cracked up and said no more questions lol.

I was part of the 24 hour comic panel where we retold the comic kinda like a storyboard meeting. A lot more showed up this year and I think people enjoyed it.

Then I went to the Piano Squall concert. Great musician with a great cause.

Sunday

This day was mainly for getting autographs and waiting for the closing ceremony auction. We were lucky enough to win the auction for Mizushima-san's signature with Al. Meeting Madhouse this year was one of the most rewarding experience I've had. Although I bet meeting the Animation Show crew will soon top that lol.

The auction was awesome. They raised around $4000 for Piano Squall's MS charity and $7000 for breast cancer. Umehara-san's sketch went up to $2000. It was a really cute sketch. I was right behind him and he was shaking and sweating lol. He came up to each person who bought his sketch and bowed.

This was a group shot with the two people who auctioned to $2000 each.


This is the banner the guy bid on. As a thank you gift for both they got the entire library of Manga Entertainment and lifetime pass to NDK. They both looked pale lol.


This is Sato-san, Mizushima-san, and Umehara-san


All of the guests...Spike Spencer (va for Shinji from Eva) is the one with the sunglasses lol.


My goodies!

Top: Piano Squall poster
Left to right per row: Umehara-san's sketch of me, Mizushima-san's Al, Stan Yan's sketch he gave to me
2nd row: CCS dvd Sat0-san signed, FMA dvd Mizushima-san signed, CD Lisa Furukawa signed
3rd row: PSME dvd Michael Dobson signed, Samurai Champloo dvd Darrel Guilbeau signed
My sister got he Eva figure signed by Spike Spencer which is not present in photo lol.

Check out my pics with Madhouse and more in my Flicker set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32106219@N00/sets/72157594359328314/

What a great year! I missed you Will if you're reading!
Can't wait for next year.

Tumbleweed

Yup....sorry for the abscence. This weekend I'll try to post up my pics from NDK and if willing and not lazy my 24 hour comic.

I'm not sure if I announced this officially yet, but the cool opportunity that happened is...

I'm now an internet intern for The Animation Show!!! One of my jobs is to write about animators' upcoming works. I posted the first one on Jonathan Nix ("Hello" 2006).
It's all to get ready for Year 3!
http://animationshow.com/journal1.html

I hope everyone bought the Bitter Films Vol 1 dvd. It was truly awesome to behold ^^

300 NDK

Martial art Spartans...awesome graphics...and Frank Miller...
What more could you want?
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/

NDK is this weekend...although I may have to compromise in order to finish my printmaking project, but I'll definitely be there for Saturday and Friday. Come see my participation in the 24 hour comic presentation.

I'm a little sad my friend Will won't be there. Everytime we try to meet it is foiled lol.

I'll give a little report on the con.

And a report on DAM....it was so beautiful. Let me just say 3 Damien Hirsts, Janine Antoni's famous "Lick and Lather", and a very sophisticated installation "Engi."

http://www.ucdadvocate.com/media/storage/paper538/news/2006/10/04/PhotoEssay/Dam-Good.Art-2331775.shtml?norewrite200610060017&sourcedomain=www.ucdadvocate.com

I will say nothing about the exploding anime chick. :p

Tales of Ba Sing Se - Iroh's story

The creator's tribute to Mako...you can tell a certain part of the episode his voice changes. I'm assuming that's the voice of the replacement. It was pretty close to his tone, but it just didn't have that hoolow growl. Rest in peace Mako!

24 hour marathon

Updated throughout marathon:

9:30 pm-Start time of course after Avatar

11:47 pm- Couldn't resist petting Xiao Bao

12:16 am- Geez I have about four pages penciled. For the first time, my story might be too short to fit 24 pages. I feel like I'm already stretching it lol. So watch out for monologues!

1:37 am- On 8th page....man I'm bad at this. I already have the urge to sleep.

2:30 am- 9th page....I'm starting to think in gibberish. I'm definitely a dinural animal. I'm beginning to think I have a disadvantage since I started at night. I'm taking a snooze til 7:30 am. I'll be behind about 3 pages, but I'm hoping my inking skills won't fail me.

9:50 am- Well, past the half mark.....I'm really behind now. I'm on the 10th page. I had to drive with my sister to an interview. Hopefully, I can get some work done before I get to the gallery. Now working on 4 hours of sleep ....><

11:01 am- On page 14,I finally picked up some speed. Geez, I'm sure making a damn depressing story, such a drama queen lol.

11:34 am- Only 11 pages to go....seems a lot but the last couple of pages are going to have wider views...yes cheating. this might be my last post for a while. Don't know how tied up the computer will be at the gallery.


.....

10:00 pm- included driving time

hehe I finished! I was very exhausted and had to bring in my sister to erase lol. Thanks to the Squids for such a great time. I'm prinitng my comic for NDK, so if your there buy!!! I might also be doing a powerpoint narration presentation on the comic on Saturday at 4pm. Don't worry...I'll post it after mid-terms :p

On a final note...best memoriam to a voice actor...look above.

24

A lot of craziness has been going on lately. This weekend the Squidworks crew is having a 24 Hour comic Marathon at Capsule Gallery. It is a week ahead of the official date due to NDK being on that same weekend. So if you're in Denver come and watch me become a zombie. The sad thing is I have to start earlier than everyone else due to DAM opening. Pedestrians will get to see the side effects in advance. I'll post my comic ASAP after the event.



The Denver Art Museum opening is a gigantic event. I heard the new contemporary wing is fantastic. Who knew Clyfford Still and De Kooning was in storage this whole time? I'm really curious to see how the slanted walls affected some of the paintings. As you can see it is rather slanted :p

In addition, you may see some design changes on this blog. An awesome opportunity has arised that requires me to post on another journal. So this one may become experimental to improve and work out anything on the other blog. I'll tell you the good news once I make my first post ^^.

Scream with glee

Word came across all art classes around the world...The Scream is found! A lot of people thought this artwork was truly gone, due to the fact this painting was made on cardboard. Oslo police recovered close to two years from the date it was stolen.


It's quite rare for a piece of art to be recovered. What is rarer is the irony and just bizarre coincidence that follows this recovered work.

Just last week M&Ms made a promotion to give 2 million dark M&Ms to the person who recovers the stolen Munch. Many thought this promotion was just for show and a guarantee for the Mars corp. to never have to deliver their promise. Then boom...the work is returned lol.

M&Ms is keeping their promise. If it is truly the missing Munch, Oslo police gets to have lots of M&Ms.

http://www.typetive.com/candyblog/item/dark_mms_offer_reward/

See...there is a sweet reward for bringing back artwork....now give me back those Rembrandts!!!

Rejoice!!

Whoo hoo! Here's my entry for Nan Desu Kan's Anime Artistry contest. Not sure if I can beat last years, but I really had fun with this. I used watercolor pans to create the color.

I haven't named this image yet....and yes Heidi is a terrible name for it. I got inspired by Earthsea...lots of goats in that book lol.

Back at school as well. I have a little cart with me to help move my art supplies. I look dorky, but my back is very pleased. For those who care, I'm taking Printmaking I, Watermedia I, Advance drawing, Intermediate Life drawing, and Contemporary Art History.

Great things are starting to happen in Denver. We FINALLY have our own Claes Oldenburg sculpture! http://www.amnnews.com/press.jsp?id=2842

Earthsea/ Gedo Senki

When I heard the next Ghibli movie was going to be based on The Farthest Shore part of the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin, I picked up the first book The Wizard of Earthsea after I got off work. Coincidently, this was around the same time my back gave out and I became bedridden for a couple of days. I was expecting nothing special in particular, but what I found was a beautifully crafted world built on history, languages, and culture.

There wasn't a theme of good vs evil or an overuse of "crazy magic" like in Harry Potter. The character Sparrowhawk/Ged has to literally face himself showing how human beings carry their own good and evil. Throughout the whole six books there is no one who is truly evil, just people with basic human yearning for power and control over death. Magic in fantasy is often a gift that can be used without regret. In Earthsea, magic is based on balance such as if a wizard creates rain for an area, it could cause a drought where the rain was destined to be. Magic is used when absolutely necessary. The power of word is more powerful than magic itself. Every element is governed by their originally name. Each character have different aliases to protect them.

I don't even think I accurately expressed the profound and beautiful affect this series has brought to my mind. I feel greatly ashamed I only found this series just because it was turning into a movie.

Gedo Senki came out at the end of July in Japan. Reviews have been mainly good. From what I hear people are most disappointed because it is quite different from the book, the style, and that the characters' mannerisms and skin color aren't the same. I believe I will enjoy the movie when it comes out in the US. This movie is darker than most Ghibli films and IT IS NOT a Hayao Miyazaki movie. I think Goro Miyazaki should get applause as a first time director. Adapting a book to a movie is a difficult process and I heard the movie was made quite quickly compared to other Ghibli films. I hope he makes more movies and understands that the movie is his own now and shouldn't feel terrible if the author didn't like the outcome.

I made this excrutiatingly long post because Le Guin finally saw the movie and posted her feelings on the web. I read forums and read some negative feedback toward her opinion. People need to understand this series has been always misrepresented which made her very protective of her work. Her characters have darker skin and are never represented in this way; on book covers, crappy Sci-fi mini series, and even Gedo Senki.

The makers of the American TV version, while boasting that they
were "color blind," reduced the colored population of Earthsea to one and a
half. I have blasted them for whitewashing Earthsea, and do not forgive them for
it.
The issue is different in Japan. I cannot address the issue of race in
Japan because I know too little about it. But I know that an anime film runs
smack into the almost immutable conventions of its genre. Most of the people in
anime films look — to the American/European eye — white. I am told that the
Japanese audience perceives them differently. I am told that they may perceive
this Ged as darker than my eye does. I hope so. Most of the characters look
white to me, but there is at least a nice variation of tans and beiges. And
Tenar's fair hair and blue eyes are right, since she's a minority type from the
Kargish.

I'm glad Ms. Le Guin stated this. Japanese animation often has characters that are Japanese but have attributes of Europeans. This might have been because of World War II. It may also be the yearning to be white. I've heard of surgeries on Asians to make them look more European or normal. Whatever the reason, I do believe Ged is dark in the movie, but Arren is not(he has a bronze shade to his skin in the book). It is not completely obvious which might have been a major disappointment. The only main problem I could see from the character designs is Therru wasn't more scarred or mangled, but that might scare too many people.

I recommend anyone to read Le Guin's whole opinion on the movie.

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiResponse.html

And to also read Goro's journey through this film with the translated blog.

http://nausicaa.net/miyazaki/earthsea/blog/

Sadly due to Scifi holdings on the rights, the movie won't come out until 2009.

Read Earthsea, Watch Gedo Senki and thank you for reading this incredibly long post.

Knights of Cydonia

The best music video I've seen in a while. I would pay to see this at the movies.

Knights of Cydonia by Muse
Director Joseph Kahn

Xiao Bao's Birthday

His first birthday, which we celebrated on July 27th after my birthday. He was probably actually born earlier in July.


Sorry for the high pitched singing. I go into cutsy mommy role when ever I see him. And yes, he practically ate all of it (parsely, carrot, cucumber, green pepper, and a critter berry treat) and then slept in his fancy new polka dot pouch.

Glorious Xiao Bao

Now you can see Xiao Bao in action. We were trying to tape him doing his cleaning ritual, but my Dad just kept sneezing. That scared Xiao Bao a bit.