Things. And more things.

Morris Lessmore Now on the Oscar Shortlist

2011-12-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

So the short (which I referenced here) I was a scenic artist on has made it to the Oscar shortlist for nominations! A sea of about 300 shorts were eventually pared down to this list, and from this list, members of the Academy are going to pick what will actually be nominated.

It’s exciting! My boyfriend acted as a storyboarder, the character designer, and an art director on it, and I’m friends with not just some of the people in the set fabrication stage but also most of the animators at the studio.

Click here for the trailer, if you haven’t seen it yet! It’s available for purchase on iTunes… alternately, if you have an iPad, purchasing the Morris Lessmore storybook app (which, again, my boyfriend was a creative director on), you’ll get the film as part of your purchase.

2011-12-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

I wondered if I could needle felt a narwhal.

The answer is yes!

Etsy!

2011-11-24T08:04:00.000-08:00

While I'm updating my actual website, I set up a redirect here, to my blog. I realized I needed to direct people to my respective Etsy shops though, so here we go:

TerribleFantastic, my needle-felting Etsy

7Seventeengallery, my illustration Etsy.

2011-10-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

So, recently, I've gotten into needle felting.

I personally cannot sculpt, which is why I had to have someone else sculpt Binkus from my design when we were working on the resin toys. I'm somewhat clumsy and apply too much pressure and I have slight hand tremors when I try to apply gentle pressure, so needless to say, all my efforts with clay come out total messes. I'd seen pictures of people's felted sculptures on Etsy though, and it seemed like something I could try to pull off. Now, what it is, is you're taking wool and a barbed needle, and you are poking, poking, poking that wool and manipulating the fibers until you come up with a shape. It's essentially sculpting with wool. So here are a few things I did recently:

It's really kind of fun to zone out in front of the tv and just needle away at some wool and a few hours later, voila, you have a little soft creature in your hand. But, mind you don't zone out too much, or else you stab yourself with the needle. And those things hurt.

Here's my Etsy shop for my needle felted work: TerribleFantastic.etsy.com
Maybe check it out!

Behind the Scenes of the Morris Lessmore Shoot

2011-08-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

'The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore' is the animated short my boyfriend's studio has released, and is the same short that has been snatching up awards left and right at film festivals across the country. It's 3D animation, paired with real sets, built in miniature at 1/12th scale. The sets were filmed first, in January of 2010, and the rest of the year the animation and tech departments were hard at work making the real life environments mesh seamlessly with the animation.

I was a scenic artist, on set for the shoot, and while I took a number of photos, I realized I hadn't posted them here.

So, here we go.

First, the books. The majority of the action takes place in a library. Each individual book was hand-painted. I never did find out how many hundreds we actually painted.

The set, early on.

This is the kind of detail that went into painting each individual buildings, most of which are on screen for mere seconds. I spent roughly 9 hours simulating water damage all over this building. I was just one of several artists tasked with painting these buildings; I can't speak for anyone else on how long they took, but generally one day of work seemed standard.

A maquette of Morris stands in for his animated counterpart in the library for size reference.

The city of New Orleans is slowly coming together.

Filming.

Joe and Adam tending to the library set.

Aftermath of the storm.

Once shooting was complete--around midnight after a 14 hour shooting day-- the filmmakers took to the set to celebrate.

Figuring I was filthy enough, I crawled around on stage too for awhile.

Check out the trailer for the completed film. It's available on iTunes.

2011-08-09T12:02:00.001-07:00

SUPER is out on DVD & blu-ray today!

There was a really good article/interview at Art of the Title with Puny Animation's Shad Petosky about the animated title credits. While I didn't animate on that part of the film, they did try to base some of the character designs on the crude and childlike style I'd adapted for Frank. It's an interesting article, and furthermore, an interesting site. Clicky here.

2011-08-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Little niche Tumblr I started based on some warm-up character designs-- Rad Chicks in Fancy Dresses

Just a doodle of a pretty fierce Halston dress from the 70s.

SXSW Premiere of SUPER

2011-03-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

While it's true that I do have other things in my life going on, the one thing that I've been thinking the most about for awhile is, of course, SUPER.

We went to the SXSW premiere last weekend in Austin.

December 2009 is when I read the script, and did like, a zillion drawings for the film based on some very precise outlines given to us by the director. And I was impressed with the script then-- impressed in a way, because the sick sense of humor reminded me so much of my own. I put it down at the end and told my boyfriend that it was totally something I should be working on, because it was so gleefully twisted, with a big dose of pathos. Just like the inside of my brain!

The audience ate it up; this was exactly the type of crowd I wanted to see it with for the first time. They were eager to see it--the line had wrapped around the block--and the laughter was uproarious. It was the most fun I'd ever had at a movie, and having worked on it was just icing on the cake.

We went to the afterparty, and I got a photo with James Gunn... which I now realize is actually the third time I've posed with a director (Joel Schumacher and Joss Whedon being the others). Who's next?? Harmony Korine? Vincent Gallo? Man, who knows. I'm blowing up. I'm Hollywood now.

I've become quite a cheerleader of this movie, to a point verging on being a fangirl, but it's just I think that much of this movie, and the production. You gotta understand, it was made for next to nothing, and the level of interest in it thus far-- the longest line for ANY screening at SXSW they say-- is an entirely grassroots, internet-based thing. I mean, there wasn't a trailer until a few weeks ago. And I think that's a great thing, because it started off as such a personal project for its writer-director, and it in turn became very personal for the people who worked on it.

And I wanna be real here for a minute: another part I am so excited, is because sometimes, it's not that easy to be an artist. Sometimes it's not that easy to get work, and as a result, you find yourself doubting yourself or abilities, and you lose motivation. A lot of people's art blogs, I find, are just self-aggrandizing or blatant networking attempts and... I can't do that. I'm too self-deprecating. And while that may be a great tool for getting ahead, I find that stuff insincere, and I just can't do it. So that's why I care about this movie: I got validation. I felt incredibly proud, and you know, just grateful, because the thing an artist needs most in the world is just to be given a chance. And I got it on this! Sometimes chances are few and far between and I'm just glad to have gotten one on something that was so important to all of the people who worked on it.

So go see it when it comes out-- but... you know, only if you are awesome, because it's not for everyone (a dude explodes).

SUPER Trailer

2011-03-07T16:47:00.000-08:00

It's finally here, the trailer for SUPER:

The animation you see in the trailer are clips from the credits, and was done by the neato Puny Entertainment. I will admit to a little bit of envy there; once upon a time I was going to be involved in that aspect of the film, and while I did contribute some animation elsewhere, I didn't have anything to do with the credits. You'll still see my gloriously bad artwork in the movie though.

This Saturday, March 12, SUPER will be screening at SXSW and I've been told we are going to be able to get in to see it. So that's... that's pretty cool.

Click the poster for release dates! It is a very small film, that's relying largely on word-of-mouth. The good news is, the word-of-mouth from early screenings has been rad.

More to come later this week!

Binkus REDUX

2010-12-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

So we have a handful of Binkuses (Binki?) left over from Comic Con this past July. While we intended on getting them online for sale, a stray dog rescue followed immediately by a move, followed then by my sculpt-making-partner being slammed with deadline after deadline as the studio raced to finish The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore coinciding with the fact that in the new place, there was no room for a poly resin pouring workspace..... needless to say, we were swamped.

But. We have a few left over. Our intention is this: pour a few more for a second run of Binkus, while simultaneously working on a new Binkus pose. The studio is still a mess, but no fear; I'll kick stuff out of the way.

I'm also working on a couple of custom Binki (Binkuses?) for some far away friends! Pictures will be up!

In the meantime, if you want a Binkus, stay tuned!

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore

2010-12-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

This looks awesome. Also I'm dating the character designer. Also I am a scenic artist for it (I GOT MY OWN IMDB PAGE GUYZ). Still, looks very awesome.

On the Kate Beaton Kerfluffle

2010-11-01T19:56:00.001-07:00

I posted this on my tumblr elsewhere the other evening; it wasn't until earlier I realized it got reblogged and linked to on a number of sites and other tumblrs. Hits just basically went through the roof.

Kate Beaton--one of my favorite webcomic artists--as one would expect, gets a lot of comments and emails and tweets from fans. And I guess something had been happening consistently, that she finally felt she needed to address. These are her words, from a series of tweets the other evening:
"dear internet, you are well meaning, but I'd like to make a point. when you tell a female creator you like her work so much you want to marry her and have her babies, you're not doing anyone any favors. first of all, as cute as it sounds in your head, it's a shitty, disrespectful 'compliment.' No one makes comics looking for sexual attention secondly, by doing so you invite others to critique that person's works based on their looks, which is uncomfortable, sexist and unfair."

What happened next was a perfect storm of resentment, hurt feelings, shock, sexism, and ignorance. People tweeted back at her, indignant, people blogged about it, people reblogged other people's blogs... One fellow took to his tumblr to defiantly protest in a silly diatribe culminating largely in the assessment that she really has no leg to stand on in such an argument. People freaked out, because they felt she couldn't take a "compliment". On my own tumblr, I reblogged that dude's retort, and added my own long-winded rant, which I'm including here, just for posterity.

I’m realizing as I get older that my younger, more defiant statements of “I’m not a feminist… I’m a human” were just really dumb. Just super naive.

It wasn’t actually until a few years ago I became fully aware of the simple fact that it’s true, it’s not a cliche, as a female, you are handicapped right out of the gate. Now, let me be clear: This is not a WOE IS ME/WOE IS THE GENDER bitchfest. Fact is, it’s a fact of our culture, and anyone who denies it has their head in the sand (along with all of those “post-racism” doofuses).

I am interrupted in polite company, when that polite company is comprised of males. I may be halfway through a sentence, and two guys at the same table will instantly start talking over me. Sometimes they will change the subject entirely. I am left with the dilemma: Do I say “You interrupted me” and be the bitch (because only a bitch would point out when a guy is wrong) or feebly try to continue talking? Talking louder and over the other guys only makes you look crazy. No… sometimes it’s better just to stop talking. An ex of mine, when I admonished him for this, he said, “Maybe you should find something worth saying.”

Every woman out there has been catcalled— every woman has had something hideously inappropriate said to them, or found themselves being leered at. The thing about the leering: though the man may not be saying anything, there’s a distinct look that crosses their face that tells you they are really trying their best to picture you naked. They’re not wondering if you’ve seen ‘Inception’, and if so, what you thought that final scene was about. You know it, and they know it. But if you say anything to them, or give them a dirty look, or a combination of both of those, they react strongly, simultaneously on the defense and offense. I’ve had this said to me before: “What’s your problem, you ain’t that hot, I’m not bothering you!!”

A guy doesn’t get this butthurt unless they know they’re in the wrong… OR, I guess, unless they think you owe them something.

Last night, Kate Beaton tweeted a few brief tweets about something that had been bothering her: her male fanbase. Not all of them. Just some. People will tweet at her, or email her, or maybe tell her at a comic con, that they love her work. That right there is a great compliment. Except the guys take it further, in a weirdly cloying attempt to be “charming”, oftentimes by saying they like her work so much they want to marry her and have her babies.

Look, that’s a little weird.

People got up in arms over this and responded with resentment, butthurt feelings, accusations that she can’t take a compliment, and so on.

Those people are being douches.

If Kate wasn’t a cute, young female, these dudes would never say that to her. If she was a 50 year old frump with a silver tongue, these dudes would never say that to her. What they are doing is tying in their admiration for her professional work and personal talent with what amounts to a physical crush.

I feel like I can speak with a modicum of authority on this topic, because I have seen her swarmed at comic conventions. On average I’ve been going to 2-3 a year for a few years. I am not a con-goer, I work at a table manned by my boyfriend, a fairly well-known artist and publisher of books. I had to wait for Kate to sign a book for me in TCAF because I was having to wait on the fawning males to clear the way. They were oblivious to the fact she was clearly made uncomfortable. They bring her gifts, they smile unnaturally for uncomfortably long times, and they linger for too long. It’s been that way every show I’ve seen her at. She and I don’t know each other, keep in mind. It’s possible she recognizes me at these shows in the fleeting way I myself recognize most familiar faces from these shows— I know I’ve seen people before, from earlier cons, but can never place them. So it’s not like I’ve discussed this with her. I have gone back to my table, and told my boyfriend, “Man, those dudes are swamping Kate Beaton.”

My boyfriend has fans that come to the table. A lot of them fawn. No one brings gifts to him, though. Generally, no one flirts with him. And no one has ever told him they want to have his babies.

The amazing thing about all of the furor directed towards Kate is that these guys are probably actually very nice, just emboldened by the fact that they think they know her or are entitled in some way because they appreciate her artwork and writing. But it’s not a lot different than when you’re in a bar, and your typical juicehead stands behind you and comments on your ass. He thinks he’s being actually complementary too. When you don’t thank him, or take the free beer he wants to give you, he gets upset, and offended. The internet and comic cons are where, I guess, people retreat to to find people they see eye to eye with or admire. Just because the dudes are a little nerdy though, it doesn’t make an unsolicited statement about wishing to marry a stranger and then impregnating them multiple times any less creepy. It’s not harmless, it’s not a compliment. It’s gross. And it wouldn’t happen if the artist in question was older or a man. Why tell the woman it’s happening to to brush it off? Is she not entitled to a more respectful type of compliment or discourse?

The answer is, of course not! Silly rabbit: these aren’t real problems. Not until they happen to a male artist, anyway.

2010-10-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to boil down my sketchbooks to a more cohesive mess than a messy mess. I'll have 6 dozen pages of nonsense, or directions to a store in Brooklyn that I wrote down 4 years ago before my iphone, or a watercolor doodle like this

or my name written like 700 different times, presumably done in a fit of boredom while I was on hold with customer service. I need to pare down what I've got.

SUPER off to a rollicking start

2010-10-14T15:30:00.000-07:00

I'm really remiss for not mentioning this before, but the James Gunn film I worked on, 'Super', debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last month and positively blew the roof off the place.

I blogged about it last year-- in this entry-- I more or less wedged myself into a freelance endeavor with a studio in town that was doing some production work for them. Without giving much away, I did a lot of drawings, and did initially contribute some work to another portion of the movie, which ultimately was taken over by a very talented studio in LA & Minneapolis named Puny.

Anyway, the film killed at TIFF, and IFC picked it up. It is currently at the Stiges film festival in Spain, where, at least according to Twitter, it is doing very well. It's not everyone's cup of tea-- my mother certainly will not be able to watch it. But I read the script and dudes, I loved it. It's depraved but has heart. I think that was why I really liked what I did on the film so much; reading through you really began to empathize with this character. So when it came down to drawing the things that he was supposed to draw, things that had meant a lot to him, you kind of wanted that to come through onto the paper. Even if he was really terrible at it. It was a great experience, and I'm glad it's being so well-received. I haven't seen it but am dying to; a friend in Toronto was bowled over by it. Gunn also directed the hilarious PG Porn shorts--

and 2006's 'Slither', starring Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks. Which... if you haven't seen it, and it turns out a lot of people didn't, it's worth checking out. It was promoted badly and looked like a straight-up horror. I didn't even see it when it came out. But as it turns out, it's hilarious. I like me a sick sense of humor, and this guy has it. So to have gotten a little bit of work into the film is pretty gratifying; I'm glad it's doing so well.

2010-07-31T15:37:00.000-07:00

This was one of my favorite paintings I brought to SDCC; I've forever been into drawing and painting animals with anthropomorphic attributes--but I am compelled to stress I am NOT a furry-- and I dunno, a rat in a hat just seems adorable to me. I feel a little hokey admitting that yeah, I did like this thing I did... I'm not trying to toot my own horn. I just sometimes surprise myself-- I'm a huge critic of my own work.

A girl bought him along with 2 or 3 other pieces, much to the detriment of a guy-- from Baja California, if I remember his badge correctly-- who came looking for it literally an hour later. I sold him a print I just happened to have made of it for a chunk less. He said he would like to see more like it, and I said, "Sure, check my website and blog". So maybe he's seeing this now.

So if he is-- hey dude! I'll paint some more stuff quite soon and put them on my etsy shop! So check back. Now that SDCC is over, I have a loooot of free time on my hands with which to focus on projects and artwork.

No rest for the lazy, am I right?

2010-07-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

SO that's me, chillaxing with Binkus. Man, that lighting is not conducive to photographing pale individuals, eh?

I'll recap more thoroughly later...

2010-07-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

....as it stands right now, my brain is incredibly fogged up. It's no secret that every year I go to Comic Con, I leave with some sort of cold or sinus malady. I guess it's going from a hot, humid climate (NYC and now Louisiana) to a dry and more mild one. And then sitting in stale, freezing air conditioning for the extent of the con. This year was no exception but somehow along the way I also developed a helluva allergic reaction. It started on Saturday and I basically itched through the end of the show and a plane ride until I went to the doctor, who declared I'd come into physical contact with something.

I've come to the conclusion that it was one of those scratchy, blue, cushioned chairs I hijacked from the concession stand to use at the table-- I did in fact touch it on Saturday. It's really the only thing I can think of. With the thousands of people coming into contact with those chairs I wouldn't be surprised if Freeman sprayed them down with heavy duty germ-killing chemicals.

So anyway, I'm totally hopped up on industrial strength antihistamines and prednisone and we came home to discover the AC was not working so... let's just say I'm out of it.

But I wanted to say, for any of you checking in, that Binkus will be going into a second run soon enough. We were a couple dolls shy of selling out completely but had a lot of interest online before the show, so we're going to be putting information up soon enough on how to buy one. Just FYI.

Binkus Featured Elsewhere

2010-07-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

The designer toy website, Plastic & Plush has a little blurb on Binkus in advance of SDCC. So that's awesome. It's cool to be featured elsewhere... and while I admittedly was not 100% familiar with the site before, I've come to realize it's a pretty great resource, especially to the collectors updating their "Must Get" list for San Diego.

Sculpting Binkus

2010-07-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

I've about had it with polyresin today. I got it all over my pants, got it all over my leg, my arms, my fingers, maybe on the dog, and it kind of smells like a musty basement while the liquid is curing.

I mean, that said, it's awesome to be learning a new craft, despite the learning curve. Despite the hideous, off-putting feeling of a thin layer of plastic surrounding your thumb that you just cannot scrub off. I think I'm going to stop at 30 plastic sculpts. This will be a Comic Con ~exclusive~ if you will. Each one takes 30 minutes to cure (harden) in its mold, then you must meticulously break each one out. Then comes the dremel fun, the sanding, the priming, and the painting.

This is not to say it's not fun. It is! Mostly! It just is time consuming. Limiting the number of sculpts makes them a little more special. I will perhaps, after Comic Con, continue to produce them, but between now and Preview Night, I'm unsure if I can really breach the 30 mark. I also have mini paintings and cards to paint/print/etc.

Cramming for San Diego is like having a freelance job with a breakneck race to a deadline, which I appreciate. Since I'm totally unemployed.

Anyway, here's a grainy iPhone pic of most of my sculpts of the little critter.

I'm already thinking about my next possible sculpts, and other designs I could possibly work from. It's.... it's pretty rad.

When we have a nice, finished, painted one, I'll post that. So you have a better idea of WTF you're looking at.

2010-07-14T15:14:00.001-07:00

If they weren't so alienating and profane, I'd have half a mind to do a bunch of decorative prints with the Mel Gibson hate rants on them to sell at Comic Con, but I think I'd have to apply for a special "Mature Content" card or something.

Project Time.

2010-07-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

not my (big beefy) hand

I make no promises about the outcome of these photographs. I know what I am aiming for, and I have a fair amount of faith in that outcome. But I also know that jinxes exist so therefore I shall not get into the details.

But I'll know more about how it's turning out in say, 48 hours.

In related news, I have a LOT of stuff to do for Comic Con. Just over a week left. Yoinks.

4th of July, 2010.

2010-07-11T02:37:00.000-07:00

Whatever you did on the 4th of July, I think we will be able to agree it probably wasn't this epic.

The 4th of July is a big deal to some people down here. This year's theme was "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"-- an homage to Flaming Lips.

Basically we just blew stuff up. No one died or was maimed.

Pinklight Bazaar at Redlight

2010-06-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was Round 5 of the Pinklight in Orlando, and the third one I've participated in.

I quite enjoyed the first two, but was not at all sure how things would go last week. My first stint at the Pinklight, on its inaugural run, was a wild success. I virtually sold out of everything. But, the second one, ehhh. Not so successful. I had a great time at each, and really, what wasn't sold then was sold at conventions or online. Truth is, you may know your audience, but you don't know if they will feel like spending money.

I am happy (and relieved) to report, however, that this third foray was a success! I did quite well, and had some super excellent cupcakes as well. All the vendors were interesting and talented; jewelry, handmade soaps, charms (that looked like cupcakes!), vintage clothing, ceramics, and so on. It was a great variety of stuff. I'm very appreciative to the ladies who run the event for having me.

A raccoon wearing a fez. I sold this, and had very mixed feelings about that. It was my favorite!

My table.

I was chagrined to realize after the fact that my business cards directed people either to my website, which has no splashpage or index at the moment, or to this blog... My real, new business cards are in limbo thanks to a magnificent screw-up by Overnight Prints, and so I had to just grab whatever I had left over from last year's cons. I felt quite annoyed when it dawned on me that people weren't going to the right location on the internet for me or anymore of my artwork. For right this instant, however, I'm updating the etsy, which you can see to your right... and if you've found me here from Pinklight, hey! Hi! Hello! There will be more here, and more on etsy, quite soon. Stay tuned!

Horned... Blue.. Thing.

2010-04-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

I dunno, but it's cute.

2010-04-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

I don't know what this is. But I'm calling it Dinohamster because I guess that's basically what it looks like.