Evening in the mountain cabin

Weekend in the snow

The kids had never played in the snow before, believe it or not. So we drove with some good friends and their kids to Idyllwild and stayed in a beautiful cabin. Some quick sketches of classic snow action resulted: sled riding and snowball fighting, primarily.

Journal as art

I just picked this book up the other day, Drawing From Life: The Journal As Art by Jennifer New. I'm always inspired by the idea of keeping a sketchbook, as I have, religiously, since 1979, but this book has taken that inspiration to a new level. It shows many different kinds of people keeping many different kinds of journals: Artists, filmmakers, writers, scientists - all connected by their passion for keeping a visual document of their own creative or observational processes between the bindings of a book (or not, in the case of cartoonist Lynda Barry who "journals" on loose-leaf yellow legal pads, but journals nevertheless). It's fantastic to see pages scanned directly out of these extremely personal books, to see the authority and command they have and the absolutely singular way each chooses to express himself or herself. It's the kind of authority a person gets when he knows no one else is watching or judging the outcome. I couldn't help but draw a mental connection to blogging when I looked at these various journals but the comparison quickly falls apart because 1. blogs are typewritten and usually formatted in a coherent manner, thanks to various html editing software, whereas these pages were all handwritten, most not even conforming to margins or the quaint notions of "up" and "down"; and 2. blogs are, by definition, meant for public consumption, whereas journals are the exact opposite: meant for the person creating it or a close confidant only. All that aside, judging the book visually alone, it's a feast for the eyes and will inspire anyone - even people who don't draw, because there are many examples of collaged and photographed and just plain interestingly hand-written entries - to go out and buy a blank journal and fill it up.

Yin Yang

Painting Daddy's toenails

She's seven-years-old and very determined. What am I going to say, "No"? (And purple's a good color.)

Lunchtime doodles...

Barbershop impressions

I got a haircut over the weekend. It's amazing the wealth of detail in a barbershop. I barely got started on it when I was called up to sit in the big chair.

Saturday at the Vet's

This guy seemed a little nervous


Some fellow cat-owners.

Words of wisdom

As I've mentioned before, I'm reading David Copperfield, a book by Charles Dickens which is partly autobiographical. This morning I came upon this paragraph at the begining of chapter 42. It's the only time in the book that Dickens speaks directly to the reader, and he's speaking about attaining success (bold emphasis mine):

...I will only add, to what I have already written of my perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous energy which then began to be matured within me, and which I know to be the strong part of my character, if it have any strength at all, that there, on looking back, I find the source of my success. I have been very fortunate in worldly matters; many men have worked much harder, and not succeeded half so well; but I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its heels, which I then formed. Heaven knows I write this, in no spirit of self-laudation. The man who reviews his own life, as I do mine, in going on here, from page to page, had need to have been a good man indeed, if he would be spared the sharp consciousness of many talents neglected, many opportunities wasted, many erratic and perverted feelings con stantly at war within his breast, and defeating him. I do not hold one natural gift, I dare say, that I have not abused. My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest. I have never believed it possible that any natural or improved ability can claim immunity from the companionship of the steady, plain, hard working qualities, and hope to gain its end. There is no such thing as such fulfilment on this earth. Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportunity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of that ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness. Never to put one hand to anything, on which I could throw my whole self; and never to affect depreciation of my work, whatever it was; I find, now, to have been my golden rules.

Whoa - I had to read that two or three times. Good stuff.

Previs sample teaser

Some recent storyboards for an action scene that I'm animating in Maya as a short 3d previs example for my samples page:























Work is keeping me so busy, thankfully, that it's been hard to find the time to put this together. I will be quite relieved when I can show the kind of work I've been doing in 3d lately.