Sheldon Vella..

inspiring imagery from Sheldon Vella.. dig.

In front of People

Various Faces

Inkpen faces

Aged Super Hero Paintings by Andreas Englund..

These are just fantastic. Good on ya Swedish artist Andreas Englund..
"Humour can be the carrier of messages that are otherwise hard to convey. For me, it liberates my thoughts and ideas from pretentiousness while at the same time it opens doors to new routes and angles." -Andreas Englund.

 

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Star Wars Propaganda Posters..

 Above Cliff Chiang Below is from Joe Corroney:

Friday

Dick Figures

I just checked out the YouTube sensation “Dick Figures”, because I heard it was the next popular sight on YouTube, getting up to 10 million views a month! Those guys must be making a fortune!

This is something I want to take advantage of – so I checked it out – and I couldn't see the attraction. They took Don Hertzfeldt's characters and slapped on South Parks offensive dialogue and voilá! An animation sensation.

Of course it's not that funny to me. The audience is 14 years old boys who've just discovered YouTube and profanity. But congrats to the creators for making humorous animated shorts that make money – people never believe me when I say animated shorts can be profitable as long as they're short, cheap and funny.

In fact, now I'm working on my own internet series – I can't reveal the name but I hope to bring it online this winter, so watch Scribble Junkies for any updates.

Conflict and Contrast with Rockwells "Road Block"..

Norman Rockwell was a master story-teller. He's possibly one of the greatest examples of what I've been trying to express when I lecture about your story's all important "Image." (see Constructing a Story for a Short Film, Part 2) Your image needs to express that distinct conflict that will draw your viewer in. It's simply something that makes your image interesting, and worthy of constructing a story around.

In Norman Rockwell's "Road Block", we have a classic Rockwellian storyline. The conflict is clear. The little dog is not moving out of the way of the massive truck. Contrasts are abundant. The most obvious is the large truck and the little dog. Furthermore, the large, bald, rough and gritty truck driver gently attempting to lure the dog away, as the dog looks the other direction. The dog is completely unwilling to budge. The truck itself, with it's colossal height and perfect width to be wedged between tenement buildings, creates an unmistakable flavor of tension. Rockwell expertly placed the audience within the image, represented by all the bystanders, most of them bursting in laughter.  The numerous contrasts of this debacle are very humorous, and we are prompted to laugh along with the bystanders.

Jaw Studies

Figure Drawing at Tisch-Asia

For the past year, I've been organizing Figure drawing sessions at one of the massive shooting bays here at Tisch-Asia. The sessions are open to all Singapore residents, and attracts professionals and students alike. I've designed the entire operation after Minerva Durhams excellent program, Spring St. Studio, in New York City, in which I participated in for over a decade.  We concentrate on quicker poses (due to my animator status), the longest pose we do is 15 minutes, and we only do two of those toward the end of the evening. Most poses are 10's and 5's. So if you're in the Singapore area, join us! Every Sunday at 6pm. Hope to see you there! For more information contact me via facebook.

Self Portrait

The Winsor McCay Project

It's countdown time for the world premiere of the Winsor McCay/Bill Plympton version of “The Flying House” at the Hamptons Film Festival October 13th-17^th. I've decided to make a documentary DVD that explains the background of my decision to create this new version of the film.

Also, I want to include the original version of the film on the DVD, and perhaps talk to some of my assistants about working on the Winsor McCay project.

I'm really excited about the new film “The Flying House”. Briefly, the whole idea started when I was watching a compilation of his work and was struck by how magnificent “The Flying House” (1921) was, yet how in all my years as an animator I'd never seen the film. What a shame! I quickly surmised that although it was a delightful story with terrific animation, the poor quality of the film stock, intertitles, and the lack of sound and color made it a very difficult film to enjoy. So I decided to take it upon myself to resurrect this forgotten masterpiece. It's been a 2-year project, and finally now I get to show it to the world at the prestigious Hamptons Film Festival.

However, a number of film and animation scholars have objected to my project. In fact, there was a lively debate on Mark Mayerson's site – I encourage you to go there and witness the carnage:

http://mayersononanimation.blogspot.com/2011/06/flying-house-resurrection-or-ruination.html

Women's face studies