All posts by keith

Art, technique tuesday

Technique Tuesday

Another Tuesday, some more technique.
The great John K. creator of Ren and Stimpyhas a series on composition for cartoonists and animators. Here is a page with links to each blog post. It’s a good series, and is useful for fine artists who paint realistically, and illustrators, as well as the people they’re aimed at.
Today I’m interested in one post in particular and his small rant on why todays animations are seriously lacking.

Here is an example of what happens so often in the crazy inefficient, wasteful animation production system we have today. There are so many steps in the animation production process, where about 5 different artists all work on the same scene and each one in succession has to draw the same pose that the previous artist drew, and each time the scene gets watered down, until the final scene is completely stiff and lifeless and has lots its original purpose and meaning…

There’s more. The post is about composing your poses together and having characters interact with each other.
He illustrates with examples from animations, and cartoons/comics

He could just as easily used some examples from the fine arts. Such as:

michelangelo-adam

or a couple from Rembrandt:
rembrandt

Rembrandt_van_Rijn_The_Feast_of_Belshazzar_c1635

See how every character reacts to the others? There’s more at the links above, including negative/positive space, etc.

Free art class–what more could you ask for?

wacky wednesday

Wacky Wednesday

M S Hove – Cakeland

Cakeland is a sculptural installation resembling a collection of perfect delicious cakes– wall mounted, hanging and standing– a walk-through cake environment complete with its own lighting. It is a sweet refuge, an endless kaleidoscopic landscape of cake, a respite from the grinding realities of the outside world….

General, wacky wednesday

Wacky Wednesday

What could be a wackier way to start off my wacky Wednesday posts than The Principia Discordia–the online version.
some of the wisdom contained therein:

A ZEN STORY
by Camden Benares, The Count of Five, Headmaster, Camp Meeker Cabal

A serious young man found the conflicts of mid 20th Century America
confusing. He went to many people seeking a way of resolving within himself
the discords that troubled him, but he remained troubled.
One night in a
coffee house, a self-ordained Zen Master said to him, “go to the dilapidated
mansion you will find at this address which I have written down for you. Do
not speak to those who live there; you must remain silent until the moon
rises tomorrow night. Go to the large room on the right of the main
hallway, sit in the lotus position on top of the rubble in the northeast
corner, face the corner, and meditate.”
He did just as the Zen Master
instructed. His meditation was frequently interrupted by worries. He
worried whether or not the rest of the plumbing fixtures would fall from the
second floor bathroom to join the pipes and other trash he was sitting on.
He worried how would he know when the moon rose on the next night. He
worried about what the people who walked through the room said about him.

His worrying and meditation were disturbed when, as if in a test of his
faith, ordure fell from the second floor onto him. At that time two people
walked into the room. The first asked the second who the man was sitting
there was. The second replied “Some say he is a holy man. Others say he is
a shithead.”
Hearing this, the man was enlightened

Much more on the site, and it’s just utterly crazy, and mind blowing.
Mind the fnors. All Hail Eris!

Health

Ranting about “Health” Care

Start Rant
Here’s a burning question for you–at least one that’s burning another hole in my head.
Why does (almost) everyone want the people who brought you the DMV, public schools, potholes, and, now, the farce that is C.A.R.S. (car allowance rebate system)–which ran out of money in 4 (that’s right F-O-U-R) days (although they have more funding for now), to run your medical care system for you?
I’m trying to wrap my head around this, since I’ve never really been able to understand people who think the government has the answer to all their problems, when most of the time it’s the cause.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first to admit that the medical care (I refuse to call it health care because it has nothing to do with keeping you healthy) system is a total fucked up mess, and that insurance companies, which have a lot of influence in government, are a big part of the problem, but, I don’t think that making the government your insurance company is the answer. Just look at the medicare/medicaid systems and how screwed up, and abused, they are.
I don’t have a solution, but, I while don’t think that government medicine is the answer, neither do I think that continuing with the status quo is either. It’s time to ‘think outside the box’, and to ‘change the paradigm’, to quote a couple of cliche terms. Medical professionals, and patients need to figure a different way–a health centric way to fix the system.
End Rant.