Iowa Independent Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia screened of the first day of the Iowa Independent Film Festival. That evening there was a party for filmmakers at The Boulevard (1311 Bayou Road Clear Lake Iowa).

After COVID Dystopia screened I was approached by a crew of 5 filmmakers who had a music video in the festival. Their music video Infinite Battleground was about two men struggling to balance work with their passion for music. The production is as dark and sinister as my own film, so we hit it off. Director Kristopher J. Gathercoal is in my sketch holding a beer. He wasn’t actually playing pool but I put him in as the second player to fill out the scene. The drummer hooked me up to the groups Through the Darkness youtube page. One of their music videos featured a sketch of a classroom and he wanted me to check it out.

Most of the filmmakers crowded into a back room consuming flat bread and drinks while chatting. The seating arrangement made it so that you would stay with on click the whole time. Since I had to plan to eat indoors, I decided instead to sketch the music video filmmakers as they played pool. The pool table I drew had a definite slant to is so that the balls always rolled to one corner. After two games at that table they switched to the table to my right. I had to get up a couple of times to allow for clean shots. One played became unbeatable once he had a few drinks. He explained that the buzz made him focus extra hard. It was a fascinating use of beer to promote zen.

The bar owner came up to me while I was sketching to talk. He was also a graphic designer and had designed the blue and gold mural on the wall. He was quite pleased that I was sketching it. He took a few pictures as I sketched.

At the awards ceremony, the filmmakers from Infinite Battleground sat next to me in the back row. Their film was nominated for best music video and my film COVID Dystopia was nominated for best animated film. I had no expectations, but they had been at this festival multiple times before and were looking forward to their first win. I was pleased that a good chunk of the intro to my film was played. That was the most eyeballs to view my film in Iowa. I think there were about 22 people in the theater when the film first screened, but this theater was packed for the awards ceremony, so there were hundreds of eyeballs. I paused my sketching when the winner for best animated film award was about to be announced. My fountain pen snapped in half and a big blob of ink splashed on to the sketch. I got distracted and tried to clean up the mess.

COVID Dystopia: Iowa Independent Film Festival

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Mums are in season in Clear Lake Iowa. I stood in front of a flower shot tha t had so many mums on sale that they wrapped around the block. I had. Arrived at the Lake Theater in Clear Lake Iowa early to sketch.
People I’m Iowa are so nice. I dropped a few of the movie marketing cards while I was setting up to sketch. A woman’s driving by stopped to shout out her window to let me know I had dropped the cards. While I was sketching the film festival organizers showed up with a card table, and some banners. One of the. Stopped in the middle of the street to shoot a cell phone photo of then marquee.

i picked up my filmmaker lanyard and spent the day watching films. There were some stinkers and some real gems.

Ben Riggin, one of the festival organizers told me a bit about the history of the theater. It used to be an opera house. Opera singers used to travel from city to city to, perform opera. It was like vaudeville bit with a touch more class. This  traveling opera tradition ended around the 1920s. The the building res converted into a movie house which is still is today.

COVID Dystopia was shown in the third block of films. There was applause after the credits rolled which is rewarding. I never know how an audience will react. After the screening a group of young filmmakers asked me more questions outside. They wanted to know about the music by Any Matchett and I got to tell them about Key of E the post apocalyptic rock musical.

I am really amazed COVID Dystopia screened in Iowa. Iowa is a very deep red state that embraced Trump. This short has many scenes denigrating Trumps failed COVID policies. Granted I am the only one masked at all the film festival screenings and after parties but no one has given me a hard time about it.

Crealde Urban Sketching Class

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This is a quick sketch done of my students working on the patio behind the Crealde Urban Sketching classroom. This was a demo to show how to do a thumbnail sketch to plan out the composition of a scene.

I do these sketches with no intention of pushing them to a finish to show the early stages of planning a scene. When I work on location on my own, I tent to just jump in and do a sketch that fills the page. The early stages of one of those large sketches would also look a bit like this, with detail pushed aside to block in the big shapes. This sketch really only has one major shape and that is the students on several benches. The general shape is a backwards letter L.

This thumbnail could be pushed further if I went back in and refined shapes using my fountain pen. Instead, I spent my time working with each student to show each how to analyze and sketch their own thumbnails, based on their chosen view.

COVID Dystopia: Semi Finalist at Serbest International Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia was a Semi – Finalist at the Serbest International Film Festival. That means the jury liked the film but would not dare to show it to an audience.

The festival was to be held in Moldova which borders on Ukraine. The festival provides accommodations for film makers who make the trip to the country.

However at the last minute they sent out an e-mail informing everyone that the festival would have to be virtual this year because to the war in Ukraine. They did not want to put filmmakers lives at risk. I was excited for the virtual option since it also reduces the risks of infection in a crowded theater.

I am not adding laurels for runner up festivals. I need to focus on the festivals who will screen the film. Tonight I will be packing up to get ready to go to Iowa where I will be taking a rather insane  six hour road trip to the Iowa Independent Film festival.

Crealde Student on Sculptural Bench

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In the Urban Sketching class I teach at Crealde, we have one solid day devoted to sketching each other. Poses are fast and the goal isn’t to produce a detailed portrait, but to create a scene.

I keep stressing the importance of grounding the figures. In this scen the base of the sculptural bench is critical to seeing the ground plane. The bench itself unfortunately is seen straight on. Seeing another plane of the sculpture would have made it more three dimensional.

Another point of the demo however was to treat the person and the bench as one single bold shape. With just two large washes the page was covered and the sketch felt complete although it could use plenty of loving care adding details if time allowed. For instance there is a hint of the shape of the shoes but I haven’t gone back in to add the detail to describe the shoes shape and make.

Crealde Student

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In my Crealde Urban Sketching class, we take one class to do fast five or ten minute poses with each student taking a turn.

As a demo I sketch each student in turn and try and encourage the students to capture more that the person but the entire scene.

There is a frantic energy to working so fast and the goal to get the students to work just as fast and frenetic. Sketches become less detail oriented and more simplified. Detail is only added where it is needed.

I am always pushing students to look for the curve of the back so in this sketch there is one curve drawn behind the figure to show that curve. It was the first line to go on the page.

Tiny Home Orlando

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This sketch was done as a demo for a student. Sketches done for students are usually done much faster and with full knowledge that I will not have time to put the usual amount of detail into the sketch.

Most students want to do many sketches with little detail. This is a rare example therefor of how one of my sketches start before I put in detail and layers washes of color. Color is applied in large washes that gradually get smaller with each pass.

The simple building is a tiny house outside of the Orlando Science Center. It has solar panels on the roof. I have looked at tiny homes as a studio option. I would have to get my giant Disney animation desk inside somehow. Part of me thinks the tiny home might topple over once the desk throws off the balance.

I am looking around for a place to live and I look at homes in just about every state to get a feel for what I need in a home studio. One priority is large windows with northern light. For some reason I am finding myself drawn to homes with red metal roofs. I am also finding I like rustic cabins with either mountain views of a creek nearby. What I seem to want is a fortress of solitude, but within driving distance of a community with a thriving arts scene.

Pulse: First Responder

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Yesterday I saw an article in Watermark that Barbara Poma and her husband Rosario were cleared of any wrong doing in relation to the Pulse Nightclub shooting that resulted in 49 deaths.

The shooting happened June 12, 2016 and the wounds are still raw.

This sketch was done in the office of Pam Schwartz, then the director of the Orange County History Museum. She conducted an interview with Mathew Hairs who was a first responder at Pulse after the shooting. I loved that Mathew’s pup was so attentive. Maybe an hour into the oral history the pup curled up on the floor.

Disney Feature Animation Building Demolition

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I got an unexpected shock to her that Disney is planning to demolish the Disney Feature Animation Building on the back lot of Disney;s Hollywood Studios.

I stated work in this building and the trailers in the parking lot with Lion King, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Lilo and Stitch and Brother Bear, to name a few. It was an amazing decade and this studio produced some real gems.

Disney is planning to replace the Feature Animation building with a Monsters Inc ride. Apparently, the folks in the building were told on Friday August 16, 2024 that they will be relocated to new offices. Unfortunately Disney Executive never fully grasped the creativity that went on inside these walls. The  legacy of all the artists will probably be destroyed to make way for a roller coaster. It is kind of ironic that Roller Coaster Rabbit was also created in this building.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Final Thumbnails

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This was one set of thumbnails I did to plan out the final project animation for the internship. The assignment was to have Baloo from The Jungle Book pull something.

I had him scratch his back against a tree so  much that he caused a fire. He then ran, and pulled an elephant into the scene by the trunk to put the fire out.

This was an insanely over ambitious project involving animating two characters along with the effects animation of fire and water. I attempted it simply because I didn’t know any better. I still have the animation on a huge VHS tape that I haven’t looked at for over 30 years. I tried to convert the tape to digital a while back and they didn’t have any way to play the tape in order to convert it. The scene was pretty much a train wreck of mistakes and yet surprisingly Disney still hired me to work on animated films for the next 10 years.