Squishy Dreams

Edward Burtynsky, a Canadian photographer, has been a favourite of mine for a number of years. His sense of composition reaches an inquisitive part of me that really questions the way we handle our everyday materials.

I feel that the fine Canadian program, The Hour, has done this man a real service by releasing an interview of him discussing his work. Very fascinating photography. I don’t remember if I missed him at this year’s Contact Festival in Toronto. Definitely a photographer worth checking out.

Just the other evening I was pointed to a blog post by a professor of mine, located [here]. I must say, I have never seen him display as much disgust and dissatisfaction to a cartoon than I did here. Being the article is quite old, I might’ve just missed the boat here, but I believe I should argue in defence of the cartoon, Adventure Time (viewed [here]).

In fact, let’s start off by talking about the script. Popular cartoon scripts these days don’t need to make sense, Pete. It’s just the way businesses work these days. Producers and directors and writers need their vacation time, as much as anyone else these days, and don’t have time to read “the script”. It’s obvious to them, if they’re not paying attention to it, the audience won’t even really mind any ways. These are the things that keep The Simpsons on the air, stringing together a sequence of non-sequitur events to lead up to a simple outcome. I am in favour of the producers on this one, as they know half of their audiences are on the computer, cell phone, playing music, chatting with friends, and watching TV at the same time. Even though this is a flash cartoon, all you have to do is play it in the background with some loud trendy music playing, and everything will make sense.

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I came across a very fascinating link from a site I visit semi-regularly: The Pixar Blog. Amongst other things, it is a very inormative site. The link in question is about Pixar’s storyboarding process. It’s in here we learn the utter chaotic form that storyboarding takes on. Not only do I know of my storyboard teacher, Nancy Beiman’s own experiences, but now that of Pixar’s own story section.

It seems that is very true you should never get attached to one idea or one set of drawings, because most likely they’ll be thrown out in the end for something more powerful.

I have quite a fun time thinking up odd stories. However, what gets tough is how to tell them effectively. Our 2nd year storyboard teacher Nancy Beiman is an amazing teacher, and she is definitely showing us the ropes.

This is a twist on a nursery rhyme she gave us in class. Boards are in graphite with colour highlight of blue.

Here’s a coupla’ WIP pieces for a painting I’m working on for school.

B&W versions done with marker. The other two are digital.

Thought I’d lost this one, but here it is! woo!

Here’s a nice selection of the more successful pieces from over the summer. I did these at Visual Arts Brampton. If you’re in the Brampton / TO / Mississauga area and are looking for life drawing studios, these guys are highly recommended.

All these pieces are 30+ minutes or more. Enjoy!

That’s right folks. Squishy Dreams is back in action for another season, and I apologize for the long awaited refresh. I’ve certainly been busy over the summer period, and will be posting some interesting stuff pertaining to all of this really soon!

Now, I’m not sure if all the bugs in the blog have been worked out yet. It still needs to be tested on the old IE explorers (uhh-ohs to ensue). However, take the time to gander at the new visuals, and the work that will be posted ASAP.

If this is your first time here, and can’t quite understand what is going on, well, let’s just say you soon will.

Thanks for the visit, and keep on smiling!

I’ve updated the site with an evolving photography gallery. Enjoy!

Meet my funky elephant. Final character design assignment.