Happy Mother's Day!

Instead of Bunny Sunday. Which I'll continue next week. After I get back on track with blogging.

Home!

It was so nice to get home and be surprised by a clean room! I share a room with my 17 and 14 year old sisters, who forgot that there was a floor underneath all their clothes. And with my bed in Cleveland, not to mention, little room in that room, I have to sleep on an air mattress all summer. Which is fine since the room is clean! (Thanks to my mom who took a day off work to go through that black hole.)

Mia's glad I'm home. She hasn't let go of me yet. Even after she fell asleep. Ha.

I get to start work tomorrow! And a new sketchbook...

Packing/Procrastinating.

This is the hard part. You see, I've procrastinated packing until the last possible moment because, well, I hate it. You would think that with all my moving around from one home to another in different states, I would have a handle on it. Nope. I despise it. So I'm just now getting around to it today. I go home to Detroit tomorrow afternoon. Oops. Clothes are no big deal. I really don't have that many for the summer anyway. Art supplies, however...

This is always the tough part. Deciding what I want to make over break. Which is everything. I want to do some linoleum carving (I've had those blocks sitting there for far too long). I want to learn how to make granny squares since I finally have time. I want to sew some dresses and maybe a new wallet. Oh, and I want to fill up a bunch of sketchbooks. I love to collage in my sketchbooks. Love to. It really helps me get my ideas out. But I just haven't had time this year. So I wanna get back into it. But collaging back home means I have to pick which magazines and vintage papers and drawing supplies and, oh hey, sketchbooks to take with me. I have to have a clear idea of an aesthetic I want to go with, or else I can't commit to a sketchbook. And they all end up halfway filled.

Right now my room looks like a war zone. I thought animators didn't have to have that many supplies? Oh wait. I don't make mine on the computer [usually]. I need to collect junk for stop motions and magazines for cut out animations and drawing supplies for 2d and rotoscopes. Oy. I feel so materialistic.

I'm still procrastinating.

Anway, here are some pretty collages for you to look at while I figure out what to bring home.

Made by misspaq on Flickr.

I'm afraid of...

Taking showers during thunderstorms. I don't remember if my mom told me when I was younger or if it was something on one of those garbage tv shows about the possibility of being electrocuted, but ever since it was mentioned, even if people tell me it's not true, I avoid it. And so instead of showering, I'm sitting in my room listening to "Raining Like Magic" from the Fern Gully soundtrack.

I should probably do some more packing. But every time I try that, I get side tracked and end up making Sculpey necklaces or crocheting headbands or organizing my fabric collection. The good news, though, is that in the midst of going through all sorts of art supplies, I may have come up with ideas of things to sell on Etsy! My problem is just that I love making pretty much everything. That makes it hard to nail down what I really want to make a lot of. I'll be testing some things out this weekend.

Also, check out one of my favorite animations! I came across this so long ago, and still, every time I watch it, I am impressed.

Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

Robin Hood

Ok, here's a really nerdy secret about me: I started learning html coding and making layouts for Livejournal in middle school. I had a million different accounts just to test layouts on and get familiar with coding. Plus, I was obsessed with all the little groups that made icons. For some reason, those little 100x100 pixels are just so pretty to me. Note that I said "are" because I still like them. Usually. And every now and then, I look them up. Now is one of those times.

(Click images for sources)

Last night, I watched Disney's Robin Hood for the first time. We were more about the princess movies in my house, so there are a few that escaped me, but I'm working on catching up. But Robin Hood was awesome! It's my roommate's favorite Disney movie, and she was laughing at how into it I was last night. Let me tell you, that movie is intense. Did you see that rhinoceros executioner!? How is that ok for little kids?! But it's also really funny. I'm bummed I missed out on it as a kid. And from an animator's standpoint, it was wonderful. I recognized a lot of the scenes from standard Disney reference footage, but it was still beautifully done. And those opening titles with the parade of characters crossing the screen was perfect. Sir Hiss reminded me a lot of Kaa from The Jungle Book, but Kaa never got his head stuck in a balloon and flew around. I can't tell you how hard I was laughing at that part. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

One of my favorite parts of watching Disney classics is picking out familiar voices and figuring out what other characters they were. I'm getting really good at it! And I also like picking out similar animation styles, especially if I don't know the date of when something was made, so I can place it between two other movies. I guessed Robin Hood was between The Jungle Book and The Rescuers. I was right :)  Those are probably just more reasons you should never watch animated movies with me. I'll tell you all the history of Disney's Nine Old Men and which movies Tim Burton worked on before Nightmare.

Don't Worry, I'm Yours

Came across these awesome remixes today! The first is still my favorite. I'm in love with anything ukulele.

Don't Worry, I'm Yours (Jason Mraz vs. Bobby McFerrin vs. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)byDJ Dain

Dani California's Last Dance (Red Hot Chili Peppers vs. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers)byDJ Dain

Hotter, Colder, Dreamer, Fighter (Perfume vs. Daft Punk vs. Katy Perry)byDJ Dain


You can find more on DJ Dain's blog.

Bunny Sunday: Follow the White Rabbit

When I went home for that job interview a couple weeks ago, Mia was still on her Wonderland kick. She was even talking in her sleep/having a nightmare that "Cayla's in Wonderland and I'm not allowed in!" Haha, she's one creative kid. So we of course drew lots of pictures together. Here's one in which she asked me to draw Alice in the scene where she is in the white rabbit's house, eats a cookie, and grows into a "monster." Mia added the white rabbit (near her knee) and asked me to sign it (by her elbow) after she signed it herself (at the top...see the big "m"?). I thought it was adorable. Sorry for it not being the prettiest drawing, but when you have a 3 year old with an overactive imagination, you'll have lots to draw in a short amount of time. So anyway, just for Mia, I decided today's Bunny Sunday would be about my favorite bunny of them all: the White Rabbit from Wonderland.

You know, one of the things I want to collect is different versions of the Alice stories. Just because the story is so surreal and therefore the illustrator is in complete control of how we see this place called Wonderland. I think about that every now and then...would we still picture Alice in that blue frock if Disney had made his movie when it was originally scheduled before World War II, with styling by David Hall? It would be very different from the quirky style of Mary Blair, that's for sure.