Go Team!

Sorry sportsfans. I haven't been keeping up with the hundred day challenge. With work picking up and getting off my application to the BYU animation department, I just fell off the wagon. The way things are looking it might be another week or so before I pick up on it again. Until then, here's something to keep all three of my regular viewers happy. This is the brand new logo for the world famous sports team, the University Villa Monsters. The Villa is a relatively small place, and as such, most of the Monsters' games of choice are largely imaginary, played with the thumbs, or with small game pieces not suitable for children under the age of five. But that doesn't stop them from being great! They're awesome because I say they are! Right?

It's like a sequel!

Today is day 21: Vacation. So I took one. Which means that the sketch I was working on just didn't turn out. So, for your viewing entertainment, here is take two of the back handspring animation from this spring, now in glorious pen! We'll be back to your regularly scheduled program tomorrow.

These are Earth Bending Feet

Those of you who know me may also know that I am an Avatar junkie. I. Love. Avatar. It's like a king sized helping of awesome with a heaping bucket of awesome sauce spread liberally over top. Toph, the blind earth bender pictured above is not my favorite, but she does represent the theme for the day. Day 20: Fortitude. Each of the four elemental fighting styles is modeled after an actual fighting style. Earth bending is modeled after Hung Gar, the Kung Fu style attributed to Wong Fei Hong, a Chinese folk hero who restored the fallen Shao Lin order. The style is characterized by its deep, powerful stances, particularly the horse stance, from which its forms are performed. Pretty awesome huh?

Faded Glory

The other day I sat down with my friend Aaron and we watched the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring. We still haven't gotten around to watching the second half. Mostly because when the council of Elrond rolled around and Orlando Bloom finally appeared on camera after an entire hour of blissful absence we could no longer take the movie seriously. Kind of tragic really, because I love the Lord of the Rings. I just don't like Mr. Bloom. They should have just left him in the prop closet they found him in and find a real actor. It's not hard you know. They just roam around the streets of major California cities waiting to be found.

Gandalf here is one of my favorite characters and Sir Ian did a great job with him. He is also grey. Which is today's theme. Day 19: Gray.

Yes, I know I'm a couple of days off, but I spent the weekend finishing my sample animation for the portfolio that I need to mail off sometime this week. I have decided that it's just better to go from where I was rather than trying to play catch up for the four days that I missed. More to come!

You Crack Me Up Little Buddy.

This is my special tribute to Sam & Max: Freelance Police, a hilarious Warner Brothers cartoon that didn't get it's due on daytime television. Sam, a big Dog guy in Sam Spade get-up and his partner Max, a hyper-kinetic, psycho, rabbit-thing, are constantly up to their eyeballs in life-threatening, hilarious hijinx and warding off the baddies with their witty banter, Sam's really big gun, and Max's tendency towards violence (It may not be THE answer, but it is AN answer) and possible rabies. The other guy is another character from the show, Hugh Bliss. He's best known for his catch phrase, "Hi! I'm Hugh Bliss!" I can't express to you how funny this is to me. It also fulfills today's theme! Day 18: Rainbow.

What?

Day 17: Blood. I really just couldn't come up with anything I liked for this theme. So I went with the obvious. The Vampire sparkles in the sunlight of course. That's also ketchup. She fainted while feeding him french fries in a romantic setting. He's checking for a pulse and calling for help. You believe me...right?

I Don't See the Resemblance

Today is day 16: Questioning. I question the supposed relationship between cows and dolphins. I can see that the DO share some few characteristics...like...um...breathing? and they both...eat...food...I think...
Yep! obvious relationship.

More fun than a flaming poodle

Day 13: MisfortuneDay 14: Smile Who better than the Cheshire Cat (THE creepiest character in wonderland) to show us how it's done?
And Day 15: Silence. You all know that those mimes on street corners are the souls of the damned trapped in spiritual glass boxes being tormented in silence right?
Sorry for the delay. I was with my family on a delightful, computer free camping trip this past week and wasn't able to scan/print anything until this evening. But now I'm back on track and ready for more!

It's more fun over here

Day 12: Insanity. Nothing new here. You would think that I would be more familiar with the form and workings of a strait jacket, but I've never had the privilege of being thrown into one of those. Or a padded room oddly enough. Sounds fun though. No color today, the little blue men ran off with my computer tablet.

Silly Old Bear

Toady is day 11 of the hundred day tour: Memory. I can't tell you how many memories I have that are wrapped up in stories like this one. For a long time I had a real fear of growing up. I thought that childhood was the last refuge, the only safe place. I have thankfully outgrown that sentiment and have instead adopted the point of view expressed by Mr. C. S. Lewis (I quote him often, get used to it) in quoting 1 Corinthians 3:11: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things...including the fear of appearing childish. I agree wholeheartedly. There is no reason on earth that growing up should mean growing hard and cynical. Things have to change, but our childhood joys can grow into even greater joys as we mature. Never confuse growing up with growing old. Getting old kills people. Growing up just makes them more alive.

Not the Regularly Scheduled Program

Sorry about this one. While, on the plus side, I managed to get another celebrity appearance in the person of young Tarzan, The coloring sucks and this isn't really what I wanted for day 10: Breathe Again. I had something ingenious involving divers and a large shark, but while I was drawing some shark studies, I seem to have inadvertently given myself a severe case of the jibblies and can't draw them anymore today. I'll probably try to incorporate them another time. Oh! heart rate and adrenaline gland going nuts again just thinking about sharks. Maybe I'm allergic?

Not Plagiarism, Research.

Before you ask, yes I drew that myself, and yes, I copied the original pretty darn closely. As an animator, I'm expected to be able to imitate the work of others and it's a great way to practice. Onward with the 100 picture challenge! Day 9: Drive with special guest star, Goofy (Obviously copyright of the Walt Disney Corporation) as Mr. Wheeler, the road demon that lurks in all mild mannered motorists.

Would I Lie?

Isn't this the most adorable spiked-bat-wielding thing you have ever seen? There are probably laws against things this cute. This is the post for day 8: Innocence. This is also one of my less socially acceptable imaginary friends. I should probably also point out that this character is loosely based on the brilliantly irreverent web comic Bear Nuts.

Further up! Further in!

100 picture challenge day 7: Heaven. This one was tough. I've been reading a lot of C.S. Lewis's works lately culminating in The Great Divorce about a man who has a Dante-esque experience of passing through Hell and taking a few tottering steps toward heaven. Heaven is a journey. If we are willing to endure all hardships and move ever forward, we will find, at the end, that everywhere we had been had been heaven all along.

Happy 4th of July!

No time! No time! I only have a minute or two before we begin that delightful ritual of lighting highly explosive, potentially deadly objects on fire and watching them burn in honor of our nation's independence. This is my Patriaardvark, in the vein of S.T. Lewis's Patriotter. I thought that I had been at least a little creative with the aardvark, then realized that Shane had done the same thing about a year ago and had done it better. But the Patriostrich was nowhere near finished and I needed something to post for day 6: Breaking Free. So here's to you America!

Rhapsody in Blah

The 100 picture challenge goes on! Today is day 5: Seeking Solace. And there is nothing in this world that provides me solace like beautiful music. I feel like I could have done a great deal more with this one, it looks like a poor rip off of that one George Gershwin caricature. Oh well. Rock on George, rock on.

Sunburn waiting to happen.

The Egyptians worshipped the sun and believed that the best way to curry the favor of said sun god was to expose as much of yourself as possible to its beatific rays. Now scientists tell us that the sun causes cancer. So this guy is taking sun worship to a new level. Or should I say layer. Of clothing. He has at least one. The 100 picture challenge continues with day 4: Light. Sorry for the crappy value stuff. I did it really fast to get it done today.

Things that go BUMP!

Here is post number three: Dark. I had it done yesterday, but my home scanner has been disconnected. There should be another one later today. This is one of the monsters that I need my imaginary friends to fend off.