Cleaning House

Man, I really had a pile of old drawings from old commissions I never got around to posting. And thats saying something, because I tend to post every damn thing I do. Here at last are samples from my days designing avatars at Halcyon Worlds:



Here's an old band logo commission, and they actually paid me!



And here are ideas for commission to design a cute cat tattoo, for which I will probably never get paid:


I'm still working on consolidating all my Karen Taylor stuff. Back atcha soon!

Trix In SPAAAAAAACE!

One of the last things I worked on while still employed full-time at Primal Screen was a pitch for a General Mills job. Actually, it was a pitch for two executives who pitched to Saatchi & Saatchi who then pitched to General Mills, but there was a job at the end of that corporate rainbow. The idea was "Trix In Space!" and I was just itching to animate the Trix Rabbit again. To make a long and boring story short, we didn't get the job, and thats a wound that still smarts. I keep wondering..."if only my designs were snappier!" ...but What Ifs, Perhapses, and Quizases can only take you so far. And besidees, I kinda like of the drawings I submitted. The execs eventually asked for a "Kim Possible" look, which is cool, but I wished I could have explored the other ideas too. I've compiled my favorites here:

At Long Last...

I've been dallying long enough. I'm through with excuses. Yesterday I said "I want a new demo reel and by George I shall have it!" But George was busy, so I ended up making it myself.

It is embarrassing that my college demo reel had been left on my website to mold all this time, so I hope this demo reel is at least slightly less embarrassing.

Some More Doodles

I'm trying to focus on making new pages for my portfolio, but it hurts my thinking muscles. Sometimes doodling helps to relax...

Zoran's Low Carb Comedy

A few months ago, my friend Zoran Gvojic asked me to create a simple puppy animation for one of his short films. I was just now posting the puppy when I got to impulse to watch his films again, and. they. rock. If you want humor that is really wrong (but oh so right!) you need to stop by LowCarbComedy.com . (FYI: For the best place to start, I recommend one of his student films called "A Trip To The Movies.")

Outside My Comfort Zone

In truth, I'm not really "comfortable" drawing anything, but I'm even less comfortable when I take the things I drew in discomfort and uncomfortably add colors using markers and comfort penci- er, COLORED pencils. A lot of my hesitation stems from my fear of ruining a perfectly good, blank sketchbook with terrible drawings. But I arrived at a solution! You know those cardboard inserts that come in stacks of animation bond? I collected them for about a year, and when I had enough, I bound them together and made it into a sketchbook. Its a very crappy sketchbook, but thats the whole point. I don't have to be afraid of ruining it, because its already crappy! And any crappy uncomfortable drawing I put in it can only make the sketchbook more interesting. I feel free to experiment now, and I'm getting really comfortable with this uncomfortable book.

I highly recommend the mental band-aid for anyone who has a neurosis similar to mine.

Bloggin' Fever

So I just signed up with an awesome social network called Frederator Raw...and it finally happened. The network is so friggendy awesome that I decided to get a a real blog. Well, this still isn't the kind of blog you write home about (although that would be kinda weird) but at least now I have real archiving, real comment-leaving capabilities, and a real RSS feed (I think I do at least..I'm still not quite hep to the technojive.) No more manually copying and pasting old news entries, no more fretting about the length of my entries not fitting in the constraints of my page! I am free! FREEEEEE!

I am really pumped to get my act together now. Stay tuned for massive sketchpad update!

Forgot!

Now I've noticed that I had forgotten to include my most stunning, brilliant, sublimely poetic animation on my Animation page! Where is my mind these days??

I'm A Winner!... I Guess?

Yep, I am a winner! As part of my Get-My-Art-Awesome-So-I-Can-Get-A-Job Unemployment Rehab Program, I entered the monthly animation contest at StrutYourReel.com. I did this because I need some meatier animation peices for my demo reel if I ever hope to get noticed by people who will pay me to draw. You can view the finished peice here- its not the best, but its a start. So I posted the peice on the Strut forums, and lo! Come November 1st, I am a winner! But...I was also the only entry. Could it be that my entry was so freakin' rad that all the other entries just slunk away in head-hanging shame? Actually, this experience reminded me of when I was a kid competing in rhythmic gymnastics, way back in the day. At that time, rhythmic gymnasts were divided into eight skills levels, and of those skill levels, they had three age groups Child, Junior, and Senior. But since rhythmic isn't really the most beloved sport in America, there never have been many girls to compete against at any given time. So for the better part of my competitive career, I was the only Child in my level, and I always won the blue ribbons by default. It wasn't exactly a bad feeling, but it wasn't exactly a good feeling either. Kind of like getting the perfect attendance award at school. Its an award for just showing up. It doesn't take talent or skill to Just Show Up, so being honored for it always made me feel empty and self-conscious. But now I see it differently. I am now celebrating my latest "Hey! You Showed Up!" Award. I have a groovy icon on the main page of Strut, I'm energized to keep drawing and animating, and I think I might bake some cookies. Because even if "showing up" isn't exactly an honorable talent or marketable career, its the first step in trying to get somewhere. Cheers!