A Few Marbles Short of a Full Deck

Potfolio Post!

2011-02-18T07:39:00.003-05:00

Flexing the ol' blogging muscles since my Portfolio class is requiring me to update this blog more often.

I'll leave this here for all of you. It's a still of one of my skits for my Degree Project.

Toilet seat covers and exorcisms.

2010-08-01T23:28:00.008-04:00

Has anyone ever been able to use those toilet seat covers without ruthlessly shredding them apart? I'm still a proponent of the "covering the seat with toilet paper" method when I need to make my poops. I tried using one today and not only did it take so long to get it out of the death trap of a cardboard box the covers are contained in but when I finally did use it I felt no more protected than sitting on the toilet seat itself. It was cold. And scary.

As I'm writing this a commercial came on for another exorcism movie... it looks... like every other exorcism movie... I don't know, I never found it to be a terrifying concept, exorcisms. I guess it's hard to be afraid of possessions when you're agnostic... They all use the same camera techniques and writhing pre-teen girls puking pea soup and shouting profanities in Latin. That's the other thing, why don't possession movies ever have a male character getting possessed? Do guys not get possessed? If so, that further lessens my fear of said topic since apparently my gender alone removes me from any threat or predisposition to demons taking over my soul.

I saw Inception last week. On the pure fact that Christopher Nolan is a bad ass who doesn't give a crap about making high-earning movies, I loved Inception. I was a bit slow at times and at no point of the movie was I completely thrown off by what happened, but the general concept of the movie and the spectacular execution furthered my respect for Nolan and his ability to make truly thought-provoking and mentally stimulating pieces of cinema. It's just too bad that people consider the movies he makes to be "summer blockbusters" because as far as blockbusters go, Inception was a psychological adventure into the corners of the human mind and investigation of coping mechanisms. It also had a cute little cliff hanger at the end that I won't mention in case the three people who read this haven't seen the movie yet.

I wish I could dress nicer without spending money. I'm growing an admiration of sweater vests and ties. I own no vests and one tie that I only use for formal occasions. Also, dockers and loafers would be cool.

I want the school year to start, I'm itching to get some feedback on the things I've written for my DP. I also can't wait to start writing for television, it's going to be sweet.

New Layout?!

2010-06-18T22:55:00.003-04:00

Thanks Blogspot for getting your crap together! I am digging this new look, I feel like I should be blogging for Interpol now... (the band, not the international law enforcement agency)

So far this summer has been.... well... something....

I've been writing some more really good scripts for my DP idea. I think it's a good sign when I crack myself up while writing out the joke. I've decided that I'm doing either 5 or 7 short animations in sketch comedy format. My DP will start with a nice one liner to grab the audience and have either 2 or 3 longer shorts with one liners between them and ending on another little bit joke. I have some recurring theme ideas that I think would tie the whole thing together nicely. I might write a few more out and start story boarding soon (my favorite part). My Degree Project teacher, the ever wise Steve Subotnik said we should feel free to e-mail ideas to him throughout the summer so I might take him up on the offer.

I also was asked by a friend to do a little teaser animation for a show pitch idea my friend has. I'm going to be honest, the script he sent me is hilarious, I don't know if it's actually TV worthy but I would love to be a part of the project. So I might be working on that over the next couple of months, once he sends me specifics.

In other news, I finally got a callback from Apple but they pushed the interview back to the 27th so by the time I get the job I'll only be working for a month and a half. Also got a response from Sears to be a "Tool Lead" which I hope doesn't mean if I take the job I'll need to be some sort of guru in tool knowledge because my grasp of that subject is loose at novice at best.

YEEEEE-HAW

Johnny-poo

Writing Post #1

2010-05-31T22:07:00.003-04:00

I guess I'm going for more creative writing rather than any sort of livejournal-esque documentation.

Decided I'm not going to write my skits down on this site for fear of them being stolen or something. Suffice to say, I wrote around 6 good sketches this morning that I'm really happy with. Just some one liners that would go between the main skits. A lot of my inspiration has come from this sheet I have with all these inside jokes my friend Nick Burgess and I have created over the years. They're comedic gold mines and really good jumping off points for further writing.

I am also aware that I've already failed at my frequent updating promise. Pshaw I say, in a feigned apathetic declaration....

Sidenote, Autosave keeps freaking out because I've been writing and rewriting this blog entry for a week and had the page open the whole time.

SUCK IT UP, BLOGSPOT!

-John

Summer 2010

2010-05-23T22:22:00.002-04:00

This is the calm before the great storm that is Senior Year.

We're talking degree projects, portfolios, networking and gathering up all my credits to face the 8-headed beast of graduation. My entire time in education has all come to these last twelve months.

And by god, I will be ready for it.

This summer I'm doing another drawing blog with a friend where we each put up an observational drawing on alternating days. I'm also looking for a job to help pay off some of the overwhelming funds I have racked up in school loan debts.

Finally, in an attempt to further my skills as a writer, I'm going to make a vow to try and write at least one thing on this blog everyday. I've finally realized that my real strength lies in writing and set-up, so for my DP I'm going to put all of my time and energy into coming up with some hilarious skits this summer and let the animation fall into place.

So here's to a productive summer, let the coming months be fruitful.

John

PSA is DONE

2010-04-20T18:02:00.001-04:00

Well, actually, my Public Service Announcement has been done for over a week, but I didn't blog about it yet.

NEXT UP!

Thinking of what I'm going to do for my Stop-Motion final that's due in..... 2 weeks -____-

Idea anyone?! I don't even have a medium picked out yet *nervous laugh*

Superlative post.

2010-04-04T23:45:00.002-04:00

I just felt like writing something right now.

I'm working on a painting for my Illustration class and noooot really happy with how it's coming out. I think it'll start to look better once I've added the more detailed aspects of the composition.

I keep thinking about this Design assignment I have and how into my concept I've become. It's this TV Show idea I have about highwaymen in the late 1600's and the trials and tribulations of outlaw life (my main inspirations are coming from Watanabe cartoons and real stories of 17th century highwaymen). It might end up being my Degree Project, even though I've been told multiple times NOT to let that happen.

Also, I have a full day of shooting animation tomorrow, both in digital and film, which should be... interesting.

All I can say is, if I smoked, this would be the time to step outside for a cigarette and collect my thoughts.

New Art!!

2010-04-04T12:45:00.002-04:00

On my Deviant Art.

It's the stipple piece in my "Featured" section. I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

UNTIL NEXT TIME!

.John.

New Stop-Motion Animation

2010-03-02T11:24:00.002-05:00

Pretty happy with how it came out in relation to the little effort I put into making it.

If you want to see it in Super HD in all it's awesome glory, go here on my Vimeo account.

PRO ARTS VIDEO DONE!

2010-02-14T11:45:00.002-05:00

I know, I didn't talk about my commission on this blog at all, as it was occurring. Mainly due to frustration and time lines, I just didn't want to think about it anymore than I had to.

BUT!
IT'S!
DONE!

It was the first piece I've ever truly directed and worked on for commercial use and it was quite the experience. I'm just glad I was able to work with the team I did. Tim and Nathalie made the experience far more enjoyable than it would have had I worked on it alone. They also made it look way cooler than I ever could have, I'm more an ideas guy than I am a pure "animation" guy, haha.

Soooo, if anyone actually reads this, you should check it out at Pro Arts Connect!

Or if you just want to see it by itself without visiting the site, here's the Vimeo Page posted by the guy who hired me.

side-note

2009-11-23T10:49:00.001-05:00

Blackyard.ch, check it out, some amazing stuff by a collaboration team of European Illustrators.

Art, the Final Frontier

2009-11-23T10:36:00.002-05:00

I just needed to share this, because it made me squeal with glee. I was looking around on Drawn.ca this morning when I happened upon a post of Luke Butler. Words cannot describe how awesome I think these paintings are. As a professional nerd, I am not ashamed to say that I myself have drawn some Star Trek characters before, but never followed it through with the skill and vigor Luke is able to.

Boston Comic-Con?!

2009-10-29T10:04:00.002-04:00

This has been a busy, busy month. Boston Comic-Con was nice, it's not a huge venue but the people there are always nice and you can have more intimate talks with the artists.

My friend and I received signatures and sketches from the legendary Tim Sale!! It was sweet, Tim's a really nice guy and I had a pretty nice conversation with him about his art and the fact that I'm an animation major.

I also met a Kent Archer, the inker for Dr. McNinja.com!!! (If you haven't seen Dr. McNinja, I highly recommend it, there's a link to it on my "Talented Individuals" window under the name "Chris Hastings")
He was crazy nice and I ended up chatting with him at his table for about a half an hour. He also did a full page sketch of a Spiderman bust in full color, FOR FREE! I felt guilty taking it so I bought one of their anthology books of the webcomic, which is sort of a win-win if you ask me.

The rest of the convention was pretty average, it never gets too huge or full of celebrities, and it's only a comic convention, not one of those huge all enetertainment venues like San Diego. I didn't buy any comics, BUT, I saw a Dr. Fate comic that re-sparked my love for Dr. Fate (you might be seeing some posts about Dr. Fate sketches in the near future, as I've become very interested in drawing him).

That's all for now, have a happy Halloween everyone!

OIAF News!

2009-10-19T22:09:00.002-04:00

Well I have news for you! I got back from the Ottawa International Animation Festival (the second largest Animation festival in the world, or so I've been told) and it was wonderful! I met some amazingly talented people and saw some fantastic animations during my time in Ottawa.

It was my second and easily more successful year going to the OIAF. I schmoozed my ass off in the hopes of making some new contacts in the biz. I'm not holding my breath for any of the encounters to end up making a huge difference in my attempts to enter the Animation community, but it was certainly inspiring.

A big point of advice I got was to stay creative, always tell the story first, which is really motivating for me. That's why I became an Animation Major, I love telling stories and my biggest hope is that my artistic skill can match my overactive imagination someday. Also, quite a few people said it's important to know Flash and other computer animating programs, so I'll definitely get cracking on refining my Flash skills and hopefully finding the time to teach myself some After Effects and Toon Boom (once I find copies of both those programs).

I'm so ready for my art to hit the next level, too bad it's taking its sweet ass time getting there. Ah well, these things don't happen overnight and in the mean time I'm going to be enjoying every step along the path to Animation mastery! ho-HO!

Buh-bye for now, guys and gals.

Morrrre skteches

2009-10-07T01:36:00.002-04:00

Because it's 1:30 in the morning and I have nothing better to do... :D
Everything but Green Lantern came from my mind, a dangerous place to be.

A different side project?!?!

2009-10-02T15:16:00.006-04:00

When will it end?!

I've been throwing around ideas with a couple of friends about projects, I don't know if any of these will come to fruition, but I'm going to post the sketches just to show that I am in fact still alive.

I put the painting to the side for now, as I'm hitting somewhat of an artist's block with it. I have ideas I just don't know can't decide on a composition for any one that I'm happy with.

Trust me, it's better that I took poopy Photo Booth pictures than tried to scan them, my scanner is AWFUL.

And what is this? More than one update a year?! Truly a indication of the Rapture (the biblical event, not the band or bad movie starring Mimi Rogers).

Alright robot internet people! Keep with your 0's and 1's!

Side Project?!?!

2009-09-17T11:02:00.003-04:00

Alright, I have no illustration classes this semester so I HAVE to do something to keep me from getting rusty.

I was thinking of doing a painting that will eventually be a Christmas gift for my dad. Since he's such a fan of WW2 I was leaning towards that subject.

I'll start posting process work and maybe people can critique it! I'm not getting my hopes up though.

New School Year!

2009-08-24T12:30:00.003-04:00

Whew, I am most probably the worst blogger ever.

ANYWAY!

A new school year has reared it's 400 toothed ugly head. It hasn't officially begun, but I'm back in the dorms for RA training and the likes, so for all intents and purposes the summer has officially concluded for me. Which is just as well, this summer was a poop covered poop storm of boredom and complete unproductive mediocrity.

But that will all change this year as I'm going to be in hyper work mode. Being a CA, the Student Government Representative for Animation and going into my junior year is going to be horrific.

Hopefully I'll still be able to put out some good work because, believe it or not, animation is still the most important thing to me right now. Writing it, directing it, watching it, drawing it, thinking about it. I can't wait to see what I'll truly be capable of someday. But, one step at a time.

SO!

In conclusion.

That's how the dinosaurs died.

Springward Bound!

2009-04-07T21:32:00.003-04:00

Heya there everybody. School work and RA commitments have been consuming my life as of life. However, I have found time to upload new stuff to my Youtube and Deviant Art accounts (please view the YouTube videos in High Quality/Definition or they look really crappy).

I'm really excited for next year, my schedule seems really good and I hope to take Bladesmithing in the Spring Semester (keep your fingers crossed when next November rolls around). I really hope to make something out of the Character Animation class I have, considering that's what I want to go into and all... I should be doing some keyframing for Animation II class right now, but procrastination is a bitch and I am her helpless prisoner, and I really don't know how to keyframe that well. D:

Bwaaah

2009-03-08T13:47:00.004-04:00

I am no good at this blogging thing. I just forget! I have news and such and I just don't think to blog it. Well, here's a wrap-up of my recent doings:

I've been working my ass off in Animation and really want to hit the next step with my work. I'm tired of all these pencil tests and abstract collage animations. I'm gonna try to do some more work in flash to get a more finished look out of my animations.

I'm getting more comfortable with my illustration style, well, at least a little more confident in my abilities. My biggest illustration crux is just pure laziness. I've really been pushing myself recently though and I'm pretty happy with the things I've been turning out. I'm going to start posting more on my deviant art account (http://www.johnnyink.deviantart.com/) so you guys can check that out soon!

I am an RA now for the Artist Residents and I have recently received news that I have been rehired for next year too! So that'll really help with living costs and such as well as another nice addition to my resume. I'll also finally be able to go through RA training (since I was hired mid-year due to the previous RA quitting) so I think I'll be able to do a lot more to help the Res Life staff and the students, which will be immensely rewarding unto itself.

I also volunteered to become the Student Government representative for Animation next year. My biggest reason is so I can lobby to put more technology-based classes into the Animation curriculum (which you can ask any MassArt Animation major is the biggest weakness of the department).

My friend Mr. Jason Flinkstrom and I are also in the talks about starting up a webcomic about a very silly/awesome concept of future interdimensional assassins, he has written the first few pages of the first issue and I pencilled some tests. I also have recruited the help of the very talented individuals Tim Prendergast (to do inks) and Lauren St. Onge (to do colors) so I think there may actually be some potential in this.

I have yet to hear back from ANY of my internship applications :( . Looks like I'll be working retail this summer, c'est la vie. If anyone has heard of anything, or would be interested in my sevices as an intern, I have a wide range of abilites and think I could really help in almost an situation.

I think that's it for now, I hope everyone has a St. Patrick's Day, I'll be celebrating my birthday soon enough (the big 2-0 D:) which will be... cool? I don't know, birthdays never really struck me as anything that important. I know I always say this, but I will try to post more often, even if it's mundane.

Not so new beginnings

2009-02-01T09:59:00.002-05:00

Weeeeelllll, howdy... Yeah, that comic thing isn't going to happen if you haven't figured it out yet. Nick totally welched on me and is just sitting around with his thumb up his butt, hopefully just figuratively. But to be fair, I'm not exactly shooting finished comics out of my figurative butt either.

So anywho, 2009 has been a busy year thus far and I know I'm going to be learning a whole crap ton this semester which has me all excited and sweaty... I should probably see someone about that...

One big thing, I've recently officially become an RA at the Massart dorms, due to the previous RA deciding she doesn't think art school is her thing (deciding this after attending here for 5 semesters...) so I was offered the job, since I'm such a stand up guy.

I'll pause for laughter.

I hope everyone had super exciting holidays and that 2009 is as awesome as 2008 was, if not more! This is going to be a big year, and if anyone has internships they wanna let me in on, like, assisting a warlock or high-leveled druid, I would be aaaall over that, in fat kid v. cake style.

I'll try to write more blogs, but I probably won't because I rarely have exciting things to say. Bye everyone and GoBama!

Whew!

2008-11-01T12:24:00.002-04:00

Hey guys! Sorry about the no comic yet, it's sort of taken a back seat to all the school work Nick and I have. But worry not, we will have it up before Christmas, I sort of promise.

On a lighter note, I have some new animations done and up on the interweb for all to see! So check those out if you want. After doing that rotoscope one I'm thinking of doing a couple more like it because they're super easy and fun.

Well, I guess that's all for now, hope everyone had an awesome Halloween!

What Willis was talking about

2008-10-16T12:01:00.003-04:00

Ok, so here's a little update. My friend Nick Burgess and I are going to start doing a web comic of sorts. Each of us are doing a separate comic but will both be posting on this blog. I'll hint now that there may be a lot of crossovers from our two comics during the time.

We'll be posting up our first comics in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for that! I don't know what our exact update schedules are going to bed, only time will tell.

Well, that's all for now, hopefully someone is actually reading this so I don't seem crazy...

Well, it has to start somewhere.

2008-10-10T00:00:00.000-04:00

Starting out this blog thing I suppose. I'm a Sophomore working on a BFA in Animation at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Really loving the whole Animation process so I figured I should start posting updates of my work and such. I have a few things on YouTube that you can find by just looking up "Zoloft Gun" and clicking on the first hand drawn animation you see, it's pretty awful so bear that in mind. I did it Freshman year and it was the first Animation I had ever done, ever.

So far I've only worked with hand drawn animation, doing my own music and sound effects for the most part. It's a very tedious process that I've fallen madly in love with and hope to do for the rest of my sleep deprived life. Everything about it interests me, watching it, drawing it, editing it, cursing it. Up to this point of my life, Animation has been that first thing I've tried that I feel I have a complete and total uninhibited motivation to do. The sky's the limit for this one ladies and gentleman. I just hope I can accomplish all the things I plan to set out and do, because if I could, that would be preeetty friggin' awesome.

But aaaanyway, I don't know how often I'll end up updating this, hopefully with some regularity if I have any sort of dignity. I'll also try to remember to post up things that catch my fancy that I want you all to see, if anyone does in fact start reading this... g'night all you guys and gals.