Simple

I've been thinking about simplicity. The minions from Despicable Me are basically glorified cylinders, but they're so endearing. It's remarkable how realistic animations of people, animals, etc. have become. What I've realized though, is that the quality of the character's appearance is important, but the story is what people will connect with. So it probably won't matter how realistic something will look; if the story is weak, the overall response from an audience will not be very enthusiastic. This is something I will remember when I begin my final project for school. And yes, I have tried to figure out everything the minions are singing. And yes, I have listened to the whole video before.

Revisions

To explain the drawing on the right more since I first posted it - this was a turning point for me. I drew the drawing on the left first and was somewhat happy with it. Then, I drew another drawing (the one of two girls in my second post) and paid more attention to what I was seeing. When I saw the difference between the two drawings, I decided to redraw this one. And so you get the drawing on the right (still not a fan of hair).

I like knowing that I will look at the drawing on the right a few years later and see so many areas of improvement.

There's No Place Like Home

I didn't realize the first few years of my life that not everyone has seasons like Alaskans. My scariest experience in the cold was driving 365 miles home. The temperature for about half the drive ranged from -40F to -45F. To give you a taste of what that looks like, look at this link to a video taken of my hometown. I was pretty terrified the whole time. I wasn't feeling too bad until I hit the -40 temperatures and lost a hubcap to the wind ( losing it sounds more intense than it was - it was because I had gotten the tire worked on the day before and the hubcap must have just not been put back correctly). There's about a 1 hour stretch of the highway that's rough, and my car started squeaking every time I went over bumps in the road. It was like 1 hour of having those annoying little dogs constantly running around with a squeaky toy in its mouth.

But I love home.

Art Experience

I love visual art. I wish I would have taken more classes in art during school. Even though I didn't take many classes, I drew a bit at home hoping that I could refine my skills that way. Here are some examples of work from a few years ago...

You'll notice these people have no hair. I never liked drawing hair so I would leave it for the end. In the middle of creating an art portfolio for a school application, I managed to break my arm. I could still hold a pencil but my range of movement was limited to more crude lines. So, I submitted a few drawings like these. Oh well.

I  also have learned a bit about watercolor. It frustrated me at first; the paint was running down my page, the colors faded after the painting was dry, and even when I started to gain more control, I would accidentally drip one drop of water from my paintbrush onto my painting and sit there watching the white burst of water blot out my work. Brutal. But I've come to appreciate it.

And then there was yupo paper. A friend of mine was going to teach a class called "Watercolor with Yupo" and I decided to take it. I had never heard of yupo paper before and assumed it was thicker paper. It's the complete opposite. It's like painting on plastic. It took me a while to appreciate it but once I did I enjoyed being able to take a damp brush and cleanly pick off paint to create white space (like the white spots on the mountain below). I also liked the end result - vibrant colors! These are two paintings I did during the class

Some mentors of mine over the past years have been Max Jones, Tom Nixon and Albert Sevey. Mr. Jones would often tell his students, "Remember improvise, adapt, and over come, you are in the art Marines now." Tom was extremely encouraging and had a gentle way of helping me see what I needed to improve on. Mr. Sevey was a medic in the air force who later taught 3D Studio Max classes. I remember during class one day he told me there was a moment in his life when he was creating animations when he realized that he see so much destruction already in the air force that he didn't want to create more. This was one of the first times I paused to think about what it was I wanted to create.

Here are two things I worked on in Mr. Jones's class - Alaska Native Art. My only regret is that this was the only art class I took in high school and I started it late, so I couldn't take all the semesters that were offered.

Bunny from balsa wood. I carved baleen to make the eyes. 2009.

Hide pouch and beads. 2009.

Introduction

This is one of the earliest known records indicating my desire to create artwork, c1992

Most kids start drawing (on paper, clothes, walls, etc) at a young age, but after time that expression happens less and less. There is a growing amount of research about the two hemispheres of the brain and how many people have one side that's more dominant. It does seem that some people are initially better at some things than others, but I think problems arise when we go to extremes and say that people are either this or that. When we create these dichotomies, we fail to see that the brain is still two halves of a whole and people start to believe that they can't, or shouldn't, develop the other side of the brain. Basically, I don't believe people when they say "I am not creative," "I can't draw," or "I will never be able to understand math and science."My sense is the more we integrate the disciplines of art and science, the more we can understand them. For example, I struggled most days to understand what was being taught in my high school science classes. There was one day, however, when a teacher showed the class an animation that visually explained one of the concepts we were learning about, and it helped a great deal.


I've known since 2004 that I wanted to learn how to make animations, and for years I didn't think about using it outside the film industry. But now, after reflecting back to that animation from my science class, I feel drawn to using animation to develop educational tools, especially for children and youth.

Currently, I'm pursuing my dream to become an animator by studying at Vancouver Film School as a student in the Foundation Visual Art & Design Program. I plan on taking a second year at VFS in the 3D Animation & Visual Effects Program. It took me three years to be able to continue my education after graduating from high school, and to be able to study at Vancouver Film School is an incredible opportunity.