GANESH drawing for the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo

Usually this is a slow time of the year for me. But this year is different. It wont let up.
I've been digging deep. Like the energizer bunny, I keep going. It always seems like I bite off more than I can chew and the task is impossible. Yet, I get it done!

Here is the list of things I've just wrapped up since my last post; CAOS project animation, Wreck City installation and take down, The Calgary Underground Film Festival,  and the Calgary Comic Expo.

Meanwhile I made this appearance on ShawTV's Calgary Now program.

Today I'm back at it.

It's a good thing too, today is tax day and I balanced and filed my taxes which make me feel like I'm on top of the world. The numbers may not say that however.lol.  That being said, I can finally post the making of my GANESH drawing. I donated the original to the Calgary Comic Expo for the Children's Make a Wish Foundation. It was printed on page 10 of their artbook this year.

Above is a progress shot of the drawing I created on canvas paper.

 I outlined it with my Copic multi-liner pens and began coloring it in with various copic markers based on prior work so that it would with my special 3d glasses.

 Here is is colored. I did the background in a soft pencil crayon and then decided to revisiting the piece and darken the background and add some clouds around the outer edge.

 This is from  the photo I sent in to the Comic Expo for their artbook submission competition. I didn't hear back for a log time so I assumed I was not selected to participate. Days before the Expo when I was on the TV show I ran into the CCEE people (Kendrix and Emily Expo) and they told me I was in fact in print! Booyeah!

It was great seeing my work in the publication. I donated the original fully framed to their auction to help raise money for Children's charity. I signed hundreds of copies for those fans who came to my booth G01 in the Artist Alley at the Expo this week-end and let people borrow my 3D glasses to get the full effect of the artwork.

ink trees

Mostly I'm spending hours on this laptop putting the many pieces of my animation together.

I painted my main intro title frame by frame on this black and then fit it into my timeline.

 I wanted some trees to grow as they zoom past the camera in the foreground. I intended to shoot them a variety of ways in black on white and drop out the bright. Since it is frame by frame it will appear to grow organically.

 I made an elaborate set up consisting of a fish tank with a glass bottom being shot up toward so that I can paint with ink onto the back of wet paper towel, allowing it to soak thru and bleed.

I also decided to do a few trees as top down progressive animations. I based some of my trees off of bonsais from my book collection.

Here is one done in ink on animation paper. They turned out alright, the experimenting allowed me to come up with a variety of things for my animation that I would never have thought up to do. This opportunity has been an incredible opportunity for experimentation.

Golden Giraffe

Here are some progress shots from my final week of production.

I stretched and stapled my green screen fabric over my studio wall so it stayed flat.

I set up my system for the grueling task ahead.

I started applying gold leaf frame by frame as I maintained the stop-motion movement. The size can take up to half an hour to get tacky before applying the leaf. Then I take a picture, apply more of the glue, wait a bit then apply the leaf move the parts and take the next picture. Then repeat.

I started with the back legs then the front and slowly moved up to the body where the spots really begin.  I left the spots free of glue to reveal the dark wood between the gold pattern.

Slowly but surely I complete the body as it walks. It is ridiculously late and I'm losing focus. Now onto the hard part. The neck.

Finally after a grueling and late night/morning I have the first stage done all the way up to the head. I continue the stop motion movement in another session and tidy up the gold leaf. Wish I had a leaf blower. lol.  This is a big  climatic 15 second shot in my film and I'm glad I've got it in the can.

Hiding away working / painting myself into a corner

It should be no surprise that there hasn't been much noise from my end. If you haven't seen or heard from me, I've been hiding away working.

 Here is a ground shot of plasticine growing for my flick.

And a bit more as it progresses across the screen. Later I will drop in a background where the white is and put my animated wooden snake slithering by on top.

But first I have to scrape and clean. The plasticine. Will not fit back into the bucket from which it came.

Look at how full the bucket is. It took longer to clean it up then to make the animation.

I also decided to get rid of my animation table to create a bit more room so I can add another regular table. It made this much more space beside the bookshelf. Enough for my chair and....

 a wire shelf full of painting products, airbrush, canvas etc.

I have been working a tonne with After Effects. Here is a lens flare type thing I am working on for the intro.

Here is a shot of the space during the closing reception.

I had to move out of the +15 space during the Easter long week-end. It took some time but the traffic and parking were not bad since it was a holiday.

 I painted myself into a corner as I exited the space, leaving it feeling brand new.

 I took down the Epcor painting show(above) and the Calgary 2012 publication came out with my Skyline painting on the cover.
Also: My arts collective (Full Spectrum) got into Wreck. We will be doing an undersea kingdom installation in the basement of 807.

More to come, stay tooned.