Peregrinations

Happy Birthday

2008-09-05T21:14:54Z

To ophelia_crane ! May you have all the dirigibles and brass goggles you desire!

Halp!

2008-09-04T14:51:49Z

I need a word, guys. You know that feeling of "of course-ness" you have sometimes? Like, "I'm running fifteen minutes late, and of course the sweater I want to wear is in the laundry, and of course my car is almost out of gas, and of course I hit every red light on the way in" etc. Not anger or ruefulness or chagrin, just kind of an ironic, "Well, it figures."

There's a word for that, right? What is it?

Edited to Add:

Here's the sentence I'm using it in:

Despite the rigor of the preceding days, there was no shortage of volunteers to man the exploratory boat, and when [the character] approached him, Captain Morningway felt [word] but no surprise.

Maybe that word doesn't exist? Maybe I just think it should? Argh!

The Plan

2008-09-02T12:28:11Z

Wanted to thank those of you who advised me on the whole "reapply to Disney" conundrum. Last week I had a (much too) brief storyboarding gig downtown, which gave me some much-needed perspective. So here's the plan:

I am going to reapply to Disney ... but not right away. Mr S suggested taking the next six months to keep honing my drawing skills, so that when I do reapply, they will say, "Wowsa! These are some damn fine drawings!" Amazon and my credit card are going to be good buddies, as I order a bunch of anatomy books that I've been ogling for years.

Meanwhile, I have a shortlist of smaller companies around the country that needs to turn into a long list: places where I can apply at my current skill level, and have more of a prayer of getting in. I know how to animate, but gone are the days (it seems) when a talented n00b of great potential (and I'm not even sure that description fits me) would get hired on and then mentored by guys like Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. So. Get hired on at a smaller house where I can (again) hone the skills, learn more about not just the mechanics of animation but also acting. As I say, I have a short list of places, and I'd like it to be much longer.

Meanwhile meanwhile, I have tons of other projects to keep me busy: books to write and comics to draw, so I figure if I keep casting seeds out there, eventually something is going to sprout.

So that's what's up with me. How are you guys? Did everyone have a fun Labor Day weekend?

Mr Ponytail

2008-08-29T01:38:12Z

Do you guys remember the crazy-deadline animation project I worked on earlier this year? (Like, at the beginning of the year, to be precise?) Well, the client company posted it to YouTube, so I can finally show it off.

It wound up being about two months from concept to completion, two animators (Mr S and me), three cleanup leads with a bunch of cleanup assists on the easy shots, everyone else in the office (i.e., all three of 'em) compositing... Ah, good times.

Almost forgot to add: the company who produced the animation did not produce the live-action footage as well.

Follow Up

2008-08-25T14:20:00Z

Since Disney rejected me I have been meditating on what to do. A couple of folks (Steve, I owe you an email response, and it is coming, never fear) have encouraged me to try again, and again, and again until I (I don't know) irritate them into hiring me. I have written to Mr S (my mentor) for advice, because while I can see the value in such an approach (squeaky wheel 'n all that), my deeply reclusive, introverted, laconic midwestern soul recoils.

So until I hear back from Mr S I am also writing follow-up letters to the other places I've applied, who have not responded. (Now I think about it, isn't that the same principle I'm so nervous about with Disney? *poke poke* "Hey, did you get my portfolio? Didja, didja? Cause ... I'd really like a job!" *poke poke*)

Okay, that's all for now. Happy Monday, everyone!

P.S.

Dark IMAX

2008-08-25T05:01:08Z

Super-tired, but omg you guys, if there is an IMAX theatre near you, you must see The Dark Knight there. We went this evening and asgjkhlgdsfgoipjgfdlawesome. The overhead city shots are stunning in a "holy crap I'm about to fall out of the helicopter" kind of way, the Hong Kong skydiving sequence was enough to make strong men weep, the armored car chase sequence ... I could go on and on, but it would be boring. Not all of it was shot for IMAX, of course, but the sequences that were ... holy lord. Also the picture and sound quality (even on the non-IMAX-y bits) were about a jillion times better than even the great big large huge schmancy theatre where we saw it on opening night.

Aha, and now my super-last minute rush-job for one of my clients has finished uploading. Time to sleeeeeeeeeeep. G'night.

(P.S. Watchmen trailer on super-huge screen? Ohhhhh yes.)

What Am I Growing?

2008-08-22T14:51:30Z

See, cause I thought it was lavender. I have two healthy plants in a pot, where I planted lavender seeds, except lavender has small flat roundish slightly squishy leaves (squishy like juicy, you know?), and grow into a sort of shrub-like thing, whereas these plants are growing straight up in a tree-like fashion, and have wide heart-shaped leaves like a cottonwood has.

Um, what the heck?

I haven't really talked about my garden, because it seems like such a nerdy thing to go on about, but I'm really happy with it this year. My marigolds have stopped blooming, but my morning glories are quite strong, the basil is flourishing, the oregano would be great if certain kitty cats would stop walking in the pot, and the two lemons on the lemon tree are finally starting to think about maybe possibly getting ripe. I also have one tomato on my five-foot-tall tomato plant. One! But I have high hopes for more, maybe. Possibly.

I just wish I knew what I was growing instead of lavender. I really don't need a cottonwood on my balcony.

Marvel Cards done

2008-08-20T15:19:22Z

Finished them up yesterday in one grand orgy of drawing-ness, finished around midnight, and, though completely fagged, was too hyper to sleep. Even though the cards were done, I kept drawing Marvel characters in my head. Hot chocolate with brandy set me to rights, however, so all is well.

Sent the cards off for approval this morning; I'm pretty confident in 98% of them, but there's one card that's plaguing me, because it sucks. Oh, well.

Today looks like I get to play homemaker: take the kitten to the vet, do the laundry, buy groceries, treat the apartment for fleas (Artemis must've brought some in yesterday after playing in the balcony garden, and now I am covered with bites). Ugh. I don't mind being all domestic, but I still have twenty-odd comic pages to draw, and I already see a day full of precious, precious hours slipping through my fingers.

In honor of which, have some The Myriad:

Progress!

2008-08-18T21:12:00Z

Sketchcards progress: 27/50 = 54%

Not bad, considering I started on Thursday.

Even better? Some of 'em don't suck.

I'll be showing off my favorites once they're all sent off and approved, and after that happens I will have a number (five? ten? don't remember) of "artist proof" cards that I get to dispose of as I will. I'm meditating on what to do with them; EBay is a bad plan, as I am a nobody and no one's ever heard of me. Deviant art pimpage, maybe. We'll see.

Anyhoo, happy Monday, all! It's raining here!

Teatime.

Takin a Break

2008-08-15T19:02:42Z

...from more sketchcards. (Guys, I can't wait to show off my uber-hot Magneto! <3 )

Meme yoinked from robyinatree

01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
A. Yes. Married, coming up on seventh anniversary.

02) What was your dream growing up?
A. To be a published author, an animator, or a veterinarian.

03) What talent do you wish you had?
A. Dancing

04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
A. Assuming you bought me the drink I wanted, it would be a gin and tonic

05) Favorite vegetable?
A. Broccoli or asparagus

06) What was the last book you read?
A. Twilight. And now I'm reading Moonraker.

07) What zodiac sign are you?
A. Gemini

08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
A. Two mostly-healed-over piercings in each earlobe

09) Worst Habit?
A. Procrastinating?

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
A. If I recognized you

11) What is your favorite sport?
A. Fencing is a sport, right?

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
A. I'm an optimistic cynic

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
A. Start singing

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
A. I'd say, "I'd rather not say", but that makes it sound much more exciting and traumatic than it actually was.

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
A. There are no weird facts about me.

16) Do you have any pets?
A. 3 cats: Luna, Anathema, and Tiny (Artemis)

17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
A. "Come on in! Would you like a gin and tonic?"

18) What was your first impression of me? (hmmm...careful!)
A. Lots of Joker icons

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
A. SCARY

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
A. I was going to say "my nose," but honestly, I can see that going hideously awry.

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
A. Crime!

22) What color eyes do you have?
A. Green/hazel

23) Ever been arrested?
A. No but I got asked to step out of the car one time

24) Bottle or can soda?
A. Coffee, please, in a big thick mug. I don't like soda

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
A. PAY OFF CREDIT CARDS

26) Would you ever hug a perfect stranger?
A. Sure!

27) What's your favorite place to hang at?
A. The gallows?

28) Do you believe in ghosts?
A. Maybe

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
A. Read

30) Do you swear a lot?
A. Too much

31) Biggest pet peeve?
A. People blaming external circumstances for their own mistakes. Or, people refusing to take action when the right course is apparent.

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
A. Gah. Uh. Spazzy?

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
A. Do I believe romance?

34) Do you have "one of those faces" (i.e. you look horribly familiar to everyone)?
A. Yes. Everyone I know has a cousin/sister/next door neighbor/coworker/former roommate who looks just like me.

35) Do you believe in God?
A. Yes

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
A. Done.

Take That!

2008-08-15T14:48:30Z

I got five sketchcards drawn yesterday! Five! Hahaha, take that, demons of paralysing procrastination! I am 10% done!

Also read Twilight this week. Found it thoroughly readable, although the middle bit (Bella: "Oh, Edward! You're so beautiful!" Edward: "Oh, Bella! So are you!") love love section was a bit tedious. I was kind of hoping Bella would date that nice, ordinary boy Mike instead. Or Jacob. He seemed like a pleasant lad. But that's because I'm old and crotchety and less impressed with gorgeous pallid youths than I was in my salad days, haha.

Also also, do any of you have a copy of the opening theme from Casino Royale? I have watched that movie five times this week. I think I'm a bit obsessed.

Also the third, I will have more pictures of Tiny as soon as I can figure out how to get them off my phone.

Happy weekend, everybody!

You Must Be Kidding

2008-08-13T13:06:16Z

Just saw this headline on Yahoo news:

Phelps becomes winningest Olympic athlete ever

I'd comment further, but I'm too filled with disgust and dismay to be able to muster the energy. Like, ZOMG you guyzzzzz, Phelps is like totally the winningest Olypmic athlete EVAR!

"Winningest"? Really? Didn't the AP used to have standards?

Winningest. In a serious news article. (Well, as serious as a story about the Olympics can be, which I suppose depends on how seriously you take your international sports contests. In the AP's case, the answer is apparently, not very.)

Winningest. Unbelievable.

It's repeated in the body copy too. Glargh.

Help, Need Writerly Advice!

2008-08-07T15:34:18Z

I have a question for all you writerly-types out there, especially those of you who are making careers out of it (you lucky dogs, you!). (Actually I've decided to go ahead and ask this because of cosmonautnicki's good news today!)

My husband has written a horror novel, and now he wants to get it published. I've said I'd help with the cover letter and querying thing so that he can find an agent. (His style ... not so suited to selling.) So, any advice on how to get that done? We've got a Writer's Guide and an Agent's Guide, but, of course, simply having the names of agents is not enough. Any tips at all would be really helpful!

(P.S. And, yes, I'll probably be applying those tips to my own publication quest for The Voyage to Ruin and other projects ... right now, though, the Commodore's book is the priority, I think.)

Damn

2008-08-04T22:07:03Z

Disney said no.

"Unfortunately your skills and experience do not meet our current studio requirements. We recognize your artistic capabilities and encourage you to continue developing your artistic skills."

Damn, damn, damn.

Blargh.

Shadow of the Stars Preview

2008-08-01T18:21:00Z

One of the things that has been mercilessly engaging my time over the past ... er, while ... is doing the pencils for a new comic book, Shadow of the Stars. I am happy to announce that a preview of the first several pages is available at the publisher's site, here.

We're really proud and really excited about this project. Please go take a look, and if you like it, please spread the word. Cheers!

Harvey Harvey Harvey Dent

2008-08-01T03:11:12Z

Dear LJ,

Have now seen The Dark Knight three times. Not tired of it yet. Each watching gives me something else to think about. Many many many deep thoughts I'd love to share, but no time to type them out into anything resembling an organized ... anything. How about a shallow thought? I can't decide who I love more: Harvey (oh, Harvey, I swoon for you!), Joker ("You think you can steal from us and just walk out of here?" "...Yeah."), or Gordon when he does that spoilery thing that I don't want to give away in case you haven't seen it yet. Oh, wasn't there some guy in a bat mask in this movie too? Oh, well. Harvey, if I weren't married already, I would totally marry you.

V. busy these days; wish me luck with job hunting and getting done all the work I've been given to do, as well as a new story that is eating a hole in my brain if I neglect it for more than a few hours.

Hope everyone is well! *waves*

love,
me

P.S. Thanks, flinkmaster , for the icon. <3

Geeking Out Over the Entirely Wrong Thing

2008-07-16T22:02:10Z

So we went this weekend to the musuem, to look at the 15th-century altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo cathedral. Now the exhibition was interesting for any number of reasons: nifty medieval paintings, delving into the artistic techniques of the period, getting to see the artists' sketches beneath the paintings through this cool infrared technology (yay, underdrawing!); plus there were several rooms of Spanish painting through subsequent ages, including an Immaculate Conception who looked like she was standing on three severed baby heads (they were cherubs).

All of which was pretty cool.

But the thing that had me really freaked out? There's a hole in the Ecce Homo from the altarpiece ... that was put there during Wellington's siege on the city in 1812! I got to see a hole in a painting put there during the Napoleonic wars! OMG SQUEE!

/nerd

Kung Fu Panda

2008-07-12T13:27:32Z

Okay, finally saw it.

The problem is, when you intersperse AMAZINGLY BADASS martial arts sequences with LAME-ASS CLICHE plot, the end result is simply ... all right. I'm not asking for much, you know. I don't require character development or a story that makes sense ... it's a freakin MARTIAL ARTS MOVIE fer cryin out loud! All I ask is that it not be ASTONISHINGLY LAME.

On which point, they failed.

Those martial arts sequences, though ... zomg, some of the best I've ever seen, in any movie, ever.

Other thoughts:
- Opening dream sequence by James Baxter animation: ultimate win! Also one of the funniest parts of the movie, with Jack Black's narration. (Anyone know how they did it? It was 2D, but had some of the smoothness of motion of 3D. Cell-shaded? Aftereffects? Or they just followed the Richard Williams school of thought and did it all on ones? ;)

- "Believe"? Believe in what? So tired of this worn-out bromide, Hollywood. Find something new.

- Textures, shading, lighting, all looked fantastic. I'm getting a little freaked out, though, by hyperrealistic shaders on hyper-stylized characters. These cartoony characters had teeth! Individual, wet-looking, shiny teeth, with that strange glossy highlight that makes them look ever so slightly translucent. They did a brilliant job--I mean, it looks real--but visually it's jarring, the contrast between a cartoony, simplified character and his super-realistic, super-detailed fur, clothes, eyes, teeth.

I tried to find a picture of the Kung Fu Master, the worst offender in the creepy teeth department, but all I could find was this action photo of Tigress.

- By the same token, the environments were gorgeous, and the lighting pretty good overall. I liked the bits of the movie with more stylized locations and lighting better than the ones where they went for a more naturalistic style. See above for my reasons. ;) The backgrounds paintings were especially terrific, kind of soft and impressionistic. Unfortunately, see above for that whole clash-between-realism-and-cartoonyness thing. >__<

In short, this was a movie that didn't know what it wanted to be. Was it a martial arts comedy, a sort of Beverly Hills Ninja with animals? Was it a stirring action adventure? The hero's journey of a callow youth? Even the visual style was confused. It tried to be everything, without ever clearly being one thing, and came out a muddled mess.

Those martial arts sequences, though. omg.

Our Tiny Friend

2008-07-07T20:39:05Z

Meet Artemis, the latest addition to our madhouse:

More photos later, maybe.

Well ... huh

2008-06-30T16:59:27Z

Just got the following e-mail:

Dear Katherine (Kat) Laurange

Thank you for submitting your resume and/or demo reel regarding the Character Designer position with Pixar. We have reviewed your application and while everyone was impressed with your work, we are unable to utilize your skill set at this time. Please feel free to check our website periodically and apply to future positions of interest.

We sincerely appreciate your interest in Pixar and wish you the best in future career endeavors.

Thanks,
Pixar Recruiting

I note with interest my shaking hands and elevated heart-rate. Emotional state: nonplussed, with a side of HOLY $#&@* they actually emailed me back! and a healthy dash of "everyone was impressed with your work"--woo-hoo!

You can bet your sweet bippy I'll be trying again.

Also, everyone else in the world is hiring. Maybe I'll go do storyboards for Laika for a while. Once more into the breach, dear friends!

Wall-E First Impression

2008-06-29T03:13:55Z

Genius. Absolutely genius. Stunning production design. Beautiful, subtle, clear animation. I cried through most of the last third of the movie: poignant, joyful, beautiful.

I'm still digesting so I'll probably have more specific thoughts later. (Of course, whether or not I can be bothered to type them out is another story altogether...)

Marvel Sketch Cards!

2008-06-25T20:43:28Z

As part of my continuing efforts to have a real career as an artist, I fired off a submission to do Marvel Sketch cards a couple of weeks ago ... and lo and behold, I got in! So I'll be churning out a ton of Marvel sketches here in the next little while. Woo! The pay's not great, but who cares? It's the cachet (if that's the word I want) (yes it is) of having done work for Marvel comics, of all people!

Now I've just gotta finish drawing some comic pages, polish up my demo reel, apply for some more jobs, cross my fingers, and ... guys, I'm excited about where things are going!

Earthquake

2008-06-14T14:14:14Z

Just read that Iwate prefecture, Japan, has been hit by a major earthquake. Iwate is where I lived, several years ago now, when I was on the JET program. I hope my friends there are okay.

Humility

2008-06-11T19:10:07Z

So on the drive in to work this morning I got to thinking. There's not much else to do on a 25-mile commute (not that I'm bitter) except think, or sing along with the ~~radio~~ tape player, and I've had a few thoughts to occupy me of late, so I was, as I say, thinking.

I am an unhappy person lately, I thought. My temper's always a hair away from snapping, I can't laugh at myself anymore, and I'm far too quick to see insult even when none is intended. What's up with that?

Well, the miles rolled on by, and despite maneuvering through slow traffic it was a pleasant morning and a pleasant drive, and presently I said, "Aha!" And I pointed my finger towards the ceiling in that "Aha!" gesture you have to make when you've had a revelation. "Aha!" I said. "It is because I lack humility! I am puffed up with arrogance and self-importance, and that is why I can't laugh at myself anymore and am far too quick to see insult even when none is intended!"

So I said a little prayer:

"Lord," I said, "grant me humility. Let it blossom like a flower in my soul ... like a great and glorious and beautiful flower, the most beautiful flower in the world! Let me be the humblest person ever, more humble than anyone! Let me ... Oh. Whoops."

----

Yeah, that's why the shepherd was always the hardest character for me to get in Ultima: Quest of the Avatar. (Great game, by the way. Anyone else here ever play it?)

Go Go Economic Freedom!

2008-06-10T21:25:48Z

Fun politics quiz, ganked from mattador

Quiz results don't link to the quiz itself, so here's a link for taking the quiz.

P.S. Unless I totally lose my marbles, this will be my last political post of the year. ;)