Axium Coffee

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I went to Axium Coffee (146 W. Plant St Winter Garden,
FL 34787)
to sketch and sip. This used to be a place that artist Larry Lauria like
to hang out and sketch. After leaving Full Sail University, I was shocked to find out
that Larry had died. I came to his old haunt to sketch in his honor. I was also
working on a book about sketching in cafes so I was exploring all the best
local cafes to try their best coffee and soak up their ambiance as I sketched.

Axium Coffee was founded in 2005. 
They envisioned a gathering place for the community.  It is not just about the coffee, tea,
smoothies, pastries, and desserts, but also about coming together around a
cause.  It is a place about giving
instead of taking, about helping those in need: locally, nationally and
internationally. Here guests are not just numbers, but people with stories to
tell.  They wanted to find a way to
tangibly touch the lives of people in need: orphans, human trafficking victims,
the poverty-stricken, those without potable water, while creating a place that
unites the local community.  So, they
decided to give all the profit away in hopes of changing the world…one cup of
coffee at a time.

The name was born out of this dream. Axium is a city in Ethiopia.  In Axum,
there are 45,000 people.  The is no fresh
water, inadequate medical care, 1000 orphans on the streets and 1000 beggars
who are old, blind or physically impaired in some way.  Most people walk over 5 miles each day to
collect water from a reservoir that then needs to be boiled to be relatively
safe.  Over the next 10 years, with the
right funding and committed people they can bring fresh water to the city,
enhance medical care, sponsor orphans back into homes of relatives or friends
and help care for the old, the poor, and the blind.  The hope is to bring total transformation to
the city and the impact could be felt for generations to come.  Hopefully in 10 years this will be this
café’s story. The goal is to change lives one city at a time!

I didn’t know about Axium’s mission s I sketched, but I am
happy that choosing to sketch there helped their mission in a small way.

Animation has lost veteran animator and teacher Larry Lauria.

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On a quiet Sunday to escape a barrage of football games on TV, I went through my phone sites that were bookmarked to thin down the list. I clicked on Animation World Network and was surprised to see a sketch from my former co-worker, Larry Lauria. The article, dated December 3, 2014 was titled “In tribute to my good friend Larry Lauria.” I read on, pleased that Larry was getting some much deserved attention. By the second sentence a numb realization dawned on me. The author was referring to Larry in the past tense. Larry, my friend and colleague had died. How had I missed this? Am I so self absorbed in creating sketches, that I would loose sight of friends leaving this world? Of all the billions of articles online, how had I come across this one article?  I couldn’t be real. Just a few months ago, Larry had taken part in a group that did a sketch every day and shared those sketches online. Larry was always open to embracing a new creative challenge. I went to his Facebook page in disbelief and found other loving tributes.

The sketch above, shows Larry in a typical pose as he hunched over a drawing in class. He would teach students by example, often having fun animating a scene to see how far he could push the assignment. He loved showing students how to construct characters using simple shapes.  When he found out about my sketch a day work ethic, he quickly embraced cafe drawings into his daily routine. He loved to go to coffee shops where he could relax to sketch and do thumbnails for scenes he was going to work on. While teaching the traditional animation class at Full Sail, he managed to storyboard and animate an entire Salty Dog animated short. His dedication and excitement to the medium of animation was contagious.

Larry and his family traveled to Dublin Ireland where he became the Course Coordinator and an Instructor at
the European School of Animation, one of the top
three animation programs in the world.  He had students create an animated film that transcended the differences between North and south Ireland. The film was a crowning achievement. Lauria went on to become the head of animation at the Disney Institute in Orlando, FL.  As Disney began lay offs, Larry was saddened to have to let go the talented people he had hired. It was one of the most difficult things he had to do.

On the last day of each months animation class, Larry would often call up animation veterans to give the students a behind the scenes view of the productions they worked on. Larry was never shy about asking advice from animation veterans. When he moved to California he looked in a phone book to find Ward Kimball one of Disney’s revered nine old men. In the nervous moment when he introduced himself, Larry stammered, “Hi, this is Ward Kimbal.” Ward responded, “No, I’m Ward Kimball.” The blunder resulted in laughter on both ends of the line. Ward invited Larry over to his studio and Larry was able to ask any question he wanted of the animation legend.

Larry always said that all of his career moves were tempered by his family’s needs. He was blessed that his wife and family always wanted to be a part of the adventure. Larry’s son Matt has found success working as an actor in Hollywood films and stage productions. Larry loved to share the air times of any program like Parenthood, that his son was starring in. It made sense that his son would be inspired to follow in his father’s footsteps to embrace the entertainment industry. Larry was just as enthusiastic when he introduced me to his daughter at an outdoor concert in Winter Garden.

Larry founded an animation studio in Washington DC because there weren’t any studios there. When he moved to Orlando he realized there wasn’t an animation festival there. Rather than accept those limits, he felt the need to found an animated festival. When students expressed an interest in having a traditional animation club, Larry talked to school administrators about getting the club started. Larry instilled in me an excitement about getting a chance to experience large animation festivals like the one in Annecy France. He truly loved the medium of animation and he shared that love. He left a mark on every student and he has inspired me to want to be a better artist. Though I find his passing hard to accept, I’ll always miss his  humor and excitement about a medium in which anything is possible.

2D Animation

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There is a certain nostalgia seeing a new group of students each month in the 2DA Full Sail classroom. By the end of the first day it is possible to sense which students have the drive to excel. Most of my time is spend helping students navigate how to use the computer software to shoot the drawings they produce at their animation desks. For some students there is a legitimate glee that comes from seeing their drawings move for the first time.

Larry Lauria does a good job of sharing his enthusiasm for the medium. Each lunch break he shows academy award winning animated shorts, to give the students an idea of what can be achieved with a pencil, plenty of paper and imagination. On the first day, students realize the amount of work needed to create just one second of animation. They create a one second animated morph, having one object transform into another.

The students are issued plastic portfolio cases that come packed with the basic supplies needed to create hand drawn animation. They get red, blue and black Prismacolor pencils, an eraser, sharpener, a peg strip and a flip book.  The 150 page flip book is the most creative assignment the students get. They can create any type of animated scene that they like. Some students plan a whole story while others simply play with shapes and forms.

There are several animation projects in each of the ten classes each month. Some students finish with ease while others struggle to keep up. I’m always trying to encourage students to make passable animation
better or more entertaining. This is the hardest thing to pass on, the
fire in the belly, an undeniable need to create. Some sleep walk through
life trying to just get by. Some discover this drive early while others
will find it later in life. Jobs might come and go, but a life fueled with creative ambition will always be full filling.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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I went to an open rehearsal for William Shakespeare‘s Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center on April 26th. The only performance would be the next day and it was completely sold out. I was surprised at how crowded it was getting into the theater. It turned out $10 tickets were sold to see the rehearsal. I usually sit right up front but the front rows were blocked with yellow caution tape.

I did this sketch with a fountain pen Larry Lauria had lent me. It wasn’t until I started adding watercolor washes, that I realized that the ink wasn’t waterproof. Every wash that touched a line would explode black as the ink spread. I wanted to abandon the sketch and start another, but there wasn’t enough time. I pushed forward hoping the whole page wouldn’t turn black by the end of the show.

The orchestra performed music by Felix Mendelsohn which perfectly complimented the play. There were love potions that caused mortals to fall helplessly in love with the wrong person. All the lovers were bewildered and lost. The wost case was when Titania fell in love with an actor who had been transformed into an ass. My favorite moment was the play staged within the play. Brandon Roberts as a carpenter announced the play while standing on a column. The actors staged a farcical tragedy of Pyramus and Thisby. The female Thisby  was played by a man and there must have been basketballs on his chest swinging under the Greek toga. Philip Nolan as Pyramus had a hilarious death scene in which he kept poking his sword at his impenetrable chest plate. He apologized to the assembled audience on stage and said “Well, this is actually more of a dress rehearsal.” He finally shoved the sword inside the armor and had a long winded agonizing death scene that he milked at least three times. Even members of the orchestra couldn’t stop laughing.

It was a delightful evening and I hope the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center continue to collaborate.

Riff Raff

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Larry Lauria who I work with at Full Sail told me I had to hear Dan Rafkin play guitar. He let me know that Dan would be [laying in Winter Garden in the Plant Street Gazebo on the evening of March 8th. Dan apparently has very fast fingers and his writes his own songs.

Downtown Winter Garden is a model for how a downtown can be am ideal place to gather. A pack of girl scouts rushed past me as I walked towards the gazebo. So much of Central Florida had developed into tasteless over developed strip malls. Plant Street maintains an old town feel with historic old brick buildings and a newly built public gathering place in the street’s central median.

I arrived a bit early but Dan Rafkin and the band had already set up and were ready to start their first set. The band was called Riff Raff. They sang old country cover tunes from musicians like Merl Haggard. I never got to hear any of Dan’s original material. This wasn’t what I expected but the crow ate it up. Larry, His wife and daughter and her son showed up and they hunted for a restaurant to eat supper. There were lines and an hour wait wherever they went. Before they got back, I finished my sketch and headed home.

Graham Toms

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At Full Sail University, Larry Lauria brought in Graham Toms, a former co-worker from Disney University. Today, Graham is a spokes person for New Tech Lightwave 3D modeling software. He basically showed us samples of his work using the software. He was asked by a Texas cattle rancher once to paint his prize bulls. Graham modeled and posed the bulls in Lightwave and then used those renderings as reference for his painting. I had never considered using 3D software in that way. Having a traditional background and embracing new technology gives him more ways to express himself.

His daughter was traveling with him and she sat in the corner doing her homework. Most of his modeling is of fantastical creatures. His paintings are extremely detailed allegorical works.  He showed us how he loosens up when he draws by drawing circles and waving lines just to get his hand and brain warmed up. He doesn’t like to listen to music when he works although he knows of other artists who do amazing work while listening to classical music. It seems like a pretty sweet deal to show samples of the work you love to do, while discussing your process.

Graham also demonstrated the software by modeling a horse quickly in 3D using Sub-D’s. The fact that he has sketchbooks full of drawings of horses made modeling a quick and intuitive process.

The Sketchbook Project

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The Sketchbook Project has been touring the nation and it made a stop at Urban ReThink (625 East Central Blvd., Orlando). The Sketchbook Project sells small sketchbooks to artists around the country, asking the artists to return the book full of art. I participated the first year I heard about the project but it was painful to give up a full sketchbook. I learned from fellow Urban Sketchers that the Sketchbook Project retains all reproduction rights to the sketches. It is nice to have the one sketchbook in the Brooklyn Sketchbook Library but I’m not tempted to do it again.7000 sketchbooks were neatly stored in bookshelves on wheels. They can be quickly rolled off a truck to be moved to a new city. Dina Mack sat flipping through sketchbooks. As she put it, “I’m in sketchbook heaven.”

Urban ReThink which was formerly a book store seemed perfectly suited to house the collection. The first step in checking out a sketchbook was to get a library card. I already had my card from the previous year, so I skipped to step two, which was checking out a book. There was a laser bar code reader to scan the card and then you used a computer to pick out sketchbooks by theme, location or artist’s name. I picked two local sketchbooks to start. The sketchbook from Orlando was dark, brooding and full of angst. The next category I searched was “This is a sketchbook.”  I figured I’d get to see some quality sketches. One artist did catch my eye. Cheism was an artist from London and his sketches were light hearted and fun. Larry Lauria an animation instructor from Full Sail stopped in. Larry had submitted a sketchbook this time around so I tried to check out his sketchbook. It wasn’t available. Someone else must have checked it out. I seemed to keep checking out duds while the young couple next to me kept getting fun creative sketchbooks. One of their books was taped together accordion style and the whole book was one big colorful Dagwood sandwich.

Artist Mary K. Shaw sat with friends at the table in front of me flipping through sketchbooks. Blank post cards were available for artists to sketch on. If you sketched on a postcard, it would be sent to the next stop on the sketchbook tour. Robin Maria-Pedrero completed a postcard sketch and in return, she was given another artists postcard. The postcard sent her warm wishes for a beautiful day. The next step for the Sketchbook Project is a mobile library, similar to a food truck.

Storytelling Drawings

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In the 2D Animation Lab at Full Sail, students returning from the lunch break are asked to do a storytelling drawing. They are given a theme and asked to do some thumbnail drawings and pick one idea to execute. The drawings aren’t supposed to be highly rendered works of art, but rather simple, playful ideas. Sample suggestions include, standing in line, waiting for an elevator and moving something heavy. At the end of the 10 classes there are six or seven examples from each student and the best three are graded.

Pirates of the Caribbean had just come out in movie theaters. Larry Lauria came up with a new theme called “Pie Rats of the Caribbean.” Dan Riebold likes to tackle each storytelling himself on the white board. His whimsical sketches help inspire and challenge the students. Often there is a movie screen which he works behind like the Wizard in the “Wizard of Oz.” Dan was drawing a rat which had just been punched by a slice of pie. The vicious pie had not been sketched yet. Larry likes to do small sketches as well. When the students were finished, they were asked to tape it up on the white board. Of the ten to twenty students it is always fun to see all the different ideas that students generate.