Monday

I am always inclined to draw and paint girls rather than guys because they are always more interesting it seems. The have pretty scarves and purses and different shoes... Guys usually just have a jacket and pants so it can be a little boring. COME ON MEN!! DRESS IT UP!


Don't forget to check out my free art giveaway!! Enter to win some awesome art!

The Best Advice I Ever Got, Part 1

Todays post is thanks to my grade 8 teacher. When he was teaching us BEDMAS (the order in which to do large equations) he said this: "When you don't know what to do, do something." While this doesn't actually make a lot of sense with BEDMAS (because you can't just do something you have to start with brackets etc.) I always remembered those words. Whenever I have been frozen with indecision or fear or uncertainty I always think, I don't know what to do, but I know I have to do something. Just remembering that breaks the mental cycle of worrying about making the wrong mistake and gets me moving into making a decision which really is the desired end result. This can apply to so many things. It is really easy for me (and I think a lot of us) to be intimidated by big decisions and for that to just freeze our progress. We can sometimes be afraid of moving for fear of moving in the wrong direction. Just remember, moving in ANY direction is better than staying still and stagnating and even if you make mistakes along the way you will get to where you want to be a lot faster than if you let fear freeze you.



And remember, its not to late to enter my FREE ART GIVEAWAY. Just so you know shipping is included! Its just my way of saying thanks for checking out my blog!

Have a great day ALL!

FREE ART GIVEAWAY!

This is it!! I will be giving away three sets my "Corner of Winter and Bloor" postcard series!! You can check out what they look like at my Etsy Shop! Here is how this is going to work. I will be doing a draw. To enter your name into the draw:
1) comment on this post with your email address
2) link to this post on your blog and email it to me so I can see it
3) If you are a follower of my blog you are automatically entered

I will enter your name for each thing that you do so you can triple your chances of winning if you do all three!

I will announce the winner in one week: MARCH 3rd

Good Luck!! And thank you again to everyone who reads and comments on my blog, it always brightens my day :)

WE DID IT! CHECK BACK TOMORROW TO SEE HOW TO ENTER MY ART GIVEAWAY!

We're almost there!!

48 followers!! Only two down until my art giveaway!! I'm sooo excited! This week I am going to start a series called "The best advice I ever had" where I post about.....I think you get it :). There are several very important lessons I have learned along the way, some in grade 8 math class, some when I was applying to college, some through stories from my parents and I want to share how all of these things indirectly made me a better artist! So look out for that and look out for the giveaway which should be happening pretty soon!

Sam Cooke said it best

Well a change is going to come. I feel far too comfortable in the way I have been drawing and going about my daily artistic ventures. MUST SWITCH IT UP! Today I decided to look at people longer and then do a bit of a memory sketch rather than drawing as I'm looking. Small changes to lead to bigger changes :)

HAPPY MADE UP CANADIAN HOLIDAY!

So if you are a fellow Canadian you know that today is Family day. If you are not a Canadian you probably think we are even more lame than you thought. Well SURPRISE even if it is a made up day we still get to take a day off work so WHO CARES! I am spending the day with my BF because it is rare that he gets a day off. When we hang out we usually tend to do some of the hanging out together and some of it apart. We both do VERY different things when we need to unwind and forcing one of us to do what the other one wants would probably stress us both out. So as he is unwinding playing games I have read the newspaper front to back (one of my favorite things to do!). Of course I realize that not everyone has a day off so as not to disappoint I painted up a sketch from Friday which is also super relaxing :)
have a fun day everybody!

Oh yeah, and if any of you have kids and are in the Toronto area you may have caught my sisters performing in their very popular childrens band Leading Notes. I designed their CD and posters! They are all about showing children that learning is just about the most fun thing you can do so check them out!

GUYS SERIOUSLY........

SERIOUSLY how can I focus on a day like today??? If you are in Toronto you KNOW it is NINE DEGREES!!!!!!!!! NINE DEGREEEEESSSS!!!!!! It is supposed to go down to like -15 after today so I am riding high on good weather feelings. My balcony door is OPEN!
Its amazing what an impact good weather can have.

Not Feeling Blue Today

Whenever I paint these up I choose 3 colours plus white to work with. I ALWAYS use a blue, either prussian or cerulean plus a yellow and a red. This time around a decided to be DARING and use purple instead of a blue. Everything went pink! Apparently purple + ochre does not create the neutral tone I was expecting. I love learning these little surprises about colour.

FPS JUNK!

Here is some animation like I promised! Having animated for TV for the past few years I have gotten in the nasty habit of animating at 12fps. I was aiming at doing this at 24fps but when I played it back it was WAY to fast and its clear I haven't yet transitioned my timing. The same sort of thing happened when I switched from working on a show that was at 15fps to a show that was 12fps. There always seems to be a bit of a grace period before I can mentally change my timing. Can't wait to show you some sweet animation in 24fps!

Also thanks for the enthusiasm regarding my art giveaway!! WE'RE ALMOST THERE!!

WHEN I REACH 50 FOLLOWERS I WILL HAVE AN ART GIVEAWAY CONTEST!

So as I have mentioned before I am SO super happy and grateful for everyone who comes to check out my blog and share their comments with me. To say thank-you I will be having an art giveaway contest of a set of my collection of postcards. You can check out the postcards at my ETSY SHOP and if you just can't wait until I get to 50 followers and you want to support an independent artist (ME!) then go for it an order a set! If you email me the promo code: FUNBLOG I will give you 15% off for being my friend! :)
Oh yes, and I will be posting some animation tomorrow so check back!

Love is in the air...and MAKEOVER MAKEOVER!

Happy Valentines day everyone!! It is a balmy 4 degrees (Celsius) here in Toronto and windy as heck! The view from my home office is not a pleasant one and every time I hear a big gust of wind I look to the window expecting to see trees blowing or some sort of visual indication of the wind but all I see are solid buildings staring back at me... EW. Oh well, I know the next place I move to will have a view with some trees so at lease I have something to look forward to. This weekend was super exciting for me because I finally bought myself a new desk and desk chair and had a mini-makeover of my home office. So exciting and it has made the space so much more functional, I LOVE IT!
Have a great day everyone!! Remember to have a happy valentines day. Even if you don't have a significant other on this day take the chance to show some kindness to someone you love!

Never Enough

5 years ago I only dreamed of the success I have today in my personal and professional life. I have accomplished so many goals and I am so happy for that. So why as I sit here today am I thinking only of what I have not done and what I don't have? I have said to myself so many times "oh if only I could get that contract I would be sooo completely happy and everything will fall into place." Well those contracts have come and gone and I find myself thinking the exact same thing again. Of course it is good to do this because it keeps us striving for better things and never settling. But I realize that I also have to balance that with taking a look around at everything I have accomplished and just feel happy and satisfied with that. I think the thing to do is just realize: it will never be enough. You will never score enough contracts or accomplish enough goals where you can just say "ok I'm done" and that's a good thing. What is not a good thing is being solely fixated on it. There is so much I have gained in my life like knowledge and success that I need to recognize and not just dismiss as not being enough. It is great, it is amazing, and I want more.

A Man and a Magic Trick

YA!!! improv tonight! So excited...
So today i posted a little animation I did of my hand. Volumes change things are inconsistent but I'm pretty satisfied since this is my second time doing it. It feels so great to be animating again regularly. And it feels especially nice to be doing it in stopmo, traditional and 3D at once. Animation and art in general is such a slow patient process so its nice that when I get bored or antsy I can switch over to another project and every time I am refreshed. Yeah, life is pretty sweet right now :)

THANK YOU THANK YOU

Just want to say another thanks to all the fine fine people who stop by my blog. I'm so grateful that such an online art community exists. It is so valuable.

On another note I am working on something new to start posting. I'm going to aim to post 3 animations a week. Some more stop mo, some 3D and also some 2D which I did a little of today, but I think I will post it tomorrow so I can have it look a little less rough around the edges :). Its all just little stuff but every time I do something I learn something and really that's what life is all about. KEEP CREATING!!

A little of column A, a little of column B

A while back I made a puppet to do some stop mo with. I finally have the time to do it so here is my first attempt with it. I shot this with a webcam and a free stopmo program called frame by frame. I am still getting used to this puppet so there are definitely some pops here and there but I'm happy to be animating again and I will be uploading my progress periodically!

Moving Forward

Life can be difficult for so many different reasons for so many different people. The degree to which we all are affected by varying circumstances differ. The thing that connects us all is our ability to be affected by the things in our lives. We might all experience the same external situation but every single person internalizes it differently and therefore has a completely different experience than anyone else, but yet still the same. What is making me think so deeply today about the human experience? I got a new cell phone. What the what, right? But it just proves my point. We have all gotten new cell phones but because of my life this is how it affects me. Without going into too much detail, my last cellphone was present and an integral part of many significant beginnings and ends that occurred in my life over the last 3 years. It is honestly hard to let go of it because I don't want to forget or get rid of any of the other memories tied to it. I'm sure that I won't but I'm afraid that I will. Such is life. Who know what will happen in the next three years? Life is beautiful. This is what I pondered this morning while drawing in my coffee shop. What are these guys thinking as they are walking by me?

People People!!

today today! today is today and I have nothing else to say!
See ya tomorrow!

Something a little different

Today I wanted to switch it up a little. Usually I work with more muted colours, mostly because its winter right now and everything does seem a little duller. However today after the "snowverated snowpocalypse" that was supposed to be hitting TO the sun came out in full force and the entire sky is blue!! So I let that affect my colour choices so today we are lookin a little more vibrant. I really can't wait for spring though cause I'm so excited to do some plein air painting and drawing people OUTSIDE!!!

Thanks for everyone who has been checking out the article I wrote! It has had such a positive response. So big news: I have begun building my website. I know it will take a long time to really get right and I still have so much more to learn about CSS but I'm excited all the same. I mapped out all of the different pages I will have and its really motivating me to work on some more animation and illustration so that I can put some ROCKIN ARTWORK up to match my ROCKIN WEBSITE! can't wait!! I have set a goal to complete blocking for the 11 second club this month. Since I haven't touched maya in so long I wanted to ease back in a bit because I know if I set a crazy goal I am just setting myself up for disappointment and that is a no-no. I will be posting my animation once I get started, I'm really excited to start sharing more than my everyday drawings!

CHECK THIS OUT!

Let the enthusiasm continue as you click on this link!! I did a guest post on Dennis Salvatier's awesome blog about fear and the artist. I love doing new things and having the opportunity to write a guest post was just about the most fun thing I've done! Check it out and leave a comment, let me know what you think!