La Linea #222

I remember when I was younger, I used to watch Sesame Street. Who didn't, right? There were often clips of animation inter cut with the educational skits to keep the kids entertained. I just recently came across animation clips on YouTube that brought an instant smile to my face. I was captivated, waiting to see what happened next. Some one has posted up clips of animation called La Linea. They are simple entertaining short stories told using an animated line. It is amazing to view it again to see how much visual is communicated through strong silhouette, clear gesture, and audio. The designs are simplified to the point which you can project your own imagination into the scene. No rendering, no fancy back grounds, no complex cgi compositing. Just straight old school entertainment. (What happened to this type of entertainment in the mainstream? The more contrived complexity and realistic rendering that mass entertainment pours on the screen, the more I check out. I've got a list of reasons why. Too long and probably too dull to list here. You all probably know what I'm talking about. There is a hunger deep inside of us as viewers, probably groaning with each year, for something more substantial than mega million studio processed fare). However, La Linea I enjoyed it when I was younger and I can still enjoy it now as an adult. I'd be curious to see if you have the same reaction. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl4iKnWYVck&feature=related

Quando? Quando? Quando?

Soon my dear, there will be more posting.

I've been busy at work on the Cleveland show during the day and creating the artwork for the upcoming issue of Hot Mexican Love Comics. I've written a little tale for the collection and currently I'm inking the penciled pages. I will post the pages once the book has seen print. Which shouldn't be too far off.

You can check out what HMLC is all about here: http://www.hotmexicanlovecomics.com/hotnews.html

On a personal note it's been challenging to start restructuring some of my schedule to accommodate up coming family events. Flexibility and speed go hand in hand to squeeze in time to create art work and spend time with family. It's important for balance in ones life, but I've found that experiences with family and friends only deepen the creative well from which one can draw upon.

Into the Ring

Ding! The new year's bell has rung! It's time to get into the ring and start slugging it out with the obstacles which can impede progress.

Have you ever noticed that being involved in continued creative pursuits is very similar to being a prize fighter or olympic athlete? When we embark upon our journey to becoming an artist/ creative, one will put in many hours of drawing, painting, design, or theorizing practice to hone one's skills to join the ranks of the talented professionals. Be it commercial or fine artists, we strive to succeed to greater heights than the artists we admire. Similar to the athlete who begins their career training their particular skill toward the prize fight, the olympic event, or acceptance to a professional team.

The training requires diligence (consistency of training schedules), endurance when the doing gets tough (monotonous), flexibility (the ability to adapt and experiment to get out of ruts), perserverance, and goal setting.

With the rewards (financially) and achievements (gaining professional status etc.) over the years, new challenges arise: new life complexities (family/health), heavy production schedules,

social engagements/ activities, and other obstacles inherent to one's life. When one gets older there comes the nagging want to coast on previous successes and put off the toil of training.

It's hard but the training must continue, to keep the athlete operating at peak performance and reach future gold laurels .

More on this later.

Has it been that Long?

So, it's been a while.

I know. I haven't been as diligent at updating this blog as posting artwork and links here:

http://pallora.deviantart.com/

That's right I've started a deviant art page, to which I've posted up some newer artwork.

I've been contemplating consolidating all my web activity as the new year approaches.

At the same time I am doing a massive cleaning in the home studio while production continues to crunch on at the Fox studio.

The Cleveland Show is doing well in the ratings and hopefully gaining a large audience. Production on the second season is pretty heavy compared to the first. Scripts are a bit larger to try and "out do the first season funny" which translates into more time on boarding.

As an Assistant Director, I get to share in many aspects of the show. I keep a close eye on continuity, asset tracking, and the general feel of the show by: story-boarding sequences, providing input on the visual structure of our shows, helping guide the shows sequences into animatic production, overseeing the board and revision artists, conferring on the timing of the animation, working closely with final check, and finally ensuring all aspects of the show are ready for shipping to overseas production.

Keeps me pretty busy. To say the least.

So I hope that in the coming year I can think up a challenge to get me posting on a regular basis.

Till then, Happy Holidays!

Jumping into the New

Trying to take a different artistic path of late.

Attempting to stretch artistically by deliberately pushing my art toward new styles. Trying to escape "cute" styles. It can become a niche which I know I can continue to develop, however I feel by trying new "dangerous" styles it will strengthen what I already have attained.

Posted up new artwork on that path here: http://pallora.deviantart.com/

Here's the Post-it that kicked it off.

Last Post It Patch for July

Here's the latest and last Post It Patch for July.

With the last show of season one for the Cleveland Show wrapping up in conjunction with the recent San Diego Comicon there wasn't much time to tend the yellow patch. I plan to cultivate another bountiful crop this month.

Post It Patch 2

More small warm up sketches I do before getting to the main creative tasks for the day.

This weeks crop above. Mixing it up w/ pencils, pens, and brush pens.