Cordillera International Film Festival: Salt Lake City Airport

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On the flight back from Reno, Nevada where I had attended the Cordillera International Film Festival, there was a three hour lay over in Salt Lake City. I of course used the time to sketch. I would not be getting back to Orlando until 5:30AM. So my hope was that I might get some sleep on the flight. In the man time I had travelers to sketch. The guy with his feet up on his luggage suspected I was up to something nefarious and kept glancing over at me. I made sure to be looking and sketching some other part of the scene when he looked my way. Eventually he settled in and watched a movie on his iPhone in his lap.

Of course sketching the airport in Salt Lake City is really no different than any other airport sketch. Had I taken a full day, I could have explored the huge family history archives in the city. Some people took to lying on the floors to sleep. A little 10 year old boy got impatient and kept walking around with hill rolling luggage. The bag was too large for him to maneuver so he kept bumping into people. As always I was the only person masked, although I did see several people rush by to their flights. Perhaps only Floridians are clueless that we are still in the 9th wave of the pandemic.

On the flight I ended up watching the first Dune movie, so I didn’t actually get any sleep on the flight. They wear such awesome masks and goggles in Dune. I might have nodded off in the last hour when the movie was over. I do think I am still jet lagged.

Halloween Drink and Draw

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I have a soft spot for all things Cos Play.This Drink and Draw hosted by the AIGA was held at the Barley and Vine Biergarten 2406 E Washington St, Orlando FL.

All the artists circled up on an outdoor patio using available wooden stools. Spiderman being a superhero wasn’t content to pose standing on the tile floor, but he instead posed on tables and stood on stools.This was a great sketching opportunity although much of my time was spent sketching my fellow artists.

I only sign sketches when I post them online and somehow this one slipped through the cracks.

My short film, COVID Dystopia was accepted to another film festival but I can’t announce which one until October 23. Since I will be flying between 3 film festivals in the coming month, I will likely start posting more COVID Dystopia “making of” articles to help promote the film in the various cities where it will be shown. One festival screening is strictly virtual which makes sense for my film. It will be good to know that no one will get infected with COVID while watching COVID Dystopia. Since my screening is virtual, I am debating if I should travel to the city where the in person festival is being held. I suspect I will, since I want to be open to any chance encounter.

Mygration Films

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I sketched the evening that the filmmakers met their subjects for the MYgradion film series. I was therefor excited to see the end results of these films that had to be shot and crafted over just 2 days.

At the filmmaker meet an greet, one filmmaker, David Yanovich, found out that because of a mix up, he didn’t have a subject to work with. He was asked to just hang out since sometimes a filmmaker might just not show up. Sure enough someone didn’t show and David was matched with a subject. This was his first time crafting a short documentary. He worked with Idrees Khan and created the film, Ties to Trinidad.

Of the 13 or so films I was most excited to see the film about Stella Abelaez by Michael Elliott called The Path to Healing. I had met Stella at Disney Feature animation back in the 1990s.  Of all the films shown at the screening, the film about Stella was the only one that had me wiping away tears and yet feeling absolute joy at the end of the journey. It was a five minute emotional roller-coaster. At the end of the screenings, the audience got to cast their vote for the best film of the series.

The winner of the best short film was Culture to Canvas, a film about artist Nelson Cardenas by Ariana Castillo. I met Nelson at an art opening of his large paintings on wood of healthcare workers wearing masks which were shown during the lull after the second wave of the pandemic at the Orange County Regional History Center. I liked the work since so few artists have documented the pandemic. At the time of that opening the number of COVID infections was far lower that they are today. Today we are coming down from the 9th wave of the pandemic and about every 45th person is infected. People have been groomed to think repeat infections are the new normal. I was the only person masked person at the screening.

In this film I got to see some of the amazing paintings Nelson created about his emigration experience from Columbia. One painting of three men lying in the trunk of a car really stood out. He paid particular attention to the detail of one of the men’s stylish cowboy boots. Nelson and his mother had to squeeze into the same trunk with the men. Part of me is thinking that just this aspect of his story could be crafted into a powerful short animated film. The seed is planted, we will see if it will grow.

Sanford Florida: The Barbara Lee

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The Barbara Lee of the Saint John’s River Company is docked at (433 N Palmetto Ave, Sanford, FL). The river boat became the site of The Barbara Lee Comedy Wedding which is a fun dinner theater show.

A group of misplaced New Yorkers arrive at the river boat and what follows is an ill planned, madcap wedding. The audience is part of the dinner party and if anything can go wrong it does go wrong to hilarious effect. On the three hour cruise the guests enjoy a four course meal while the bride and groom cope with escalating high jinks.

Performances are on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month. Guests board at 4:30pm and the boat leaves the dock, cruising from 5-8pm. There is also a 4th Thursday boarding at 10:30am for lunchtime wedding chaos. Tickets are $85.

Ringling Library Demo

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One of my online students is planning to attend Ringling College here in Florida. I asked her to pick one of the Ringling College buildings to sketch and she chose the library.

I worked on a sketch along with her to show how to block in the big shapes and then work towards smaller detail. When we got to color I stressed leaving the lightest areas alone. The temptation is to add some color to the light areas first but that only darkens them.

The other lesson is to always make a mess and then try and clean it up. The goal isn’t photo realism but a rough monstrosity that could have been painted by a child. I am proud to say that my student is now a Ringling student and forging her way towards a new career. The building looks a bit like a gator wearing horse blinders.

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 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.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Baloo

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The final project for the Disney Feature Animation internship involved animating a scene in which Baloo from The Jungle Book, pulls on something.

These are just a few of the quick studies I did to get a feeling for how to construct the character. These are just a few of the many sketches I did to get a feel for the character before animating. There were just 22 days to go before the internship ended. I was going quite stir craze and longed to get back to NYC.

My plan was to have Baloo pull an elephant’s trunk. I don’t know why I couldn’t just have him pull a rope or a vine. I always have to over complicate things. This would mean I would be animating two characters instead of one.