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I don’t know if it’s born out of nature or habit, but for me, procrastination is an important part of getting things done. I’ve found that there are times when I plan ahead and work all day on an essay or bit of animation and yet I don’t seem to get anything done. I pump my brain for ideas and yet I can only eek out a couple good lines of clever dialogue, or I might fill my trash can with hundreds of pages of rejected character designs. It seems that the only times when I am able to produce readily are during the last days or even hours before a project is due. Once I feel the pressure of time bearing down on me, suddenly my mind is loosed and ideas pour out faster than I can write or draw them. I seem to get a lot more done with my time this way. It may not be the healthiest way to do it tho.

 

For work that doesn’t involve creating ideas, I’m usually much more diligent…usually. Still, there is a demand for desperation to help get things done. For example, in all of my animation classes, it’s typical for students, once they’ve come up with a project, to discover along the way that it was more than they could handle. This forces them to learn to compromise and economize. Put simply, one must try to convey the same message with less work. Yet there is always one student who shoots for the stars and refuses to redesign their project and so they end up with a very cool and very unfinished project.

 

Right now, I’m in the middle of a really REALLY big animation project. At the moment tho, I’m taking a day off from it just to be lazy. This is an important part of the working process. Enjoy yourself and collect your thoughts before the serious crunch time.

 

We artists are all a quirky people. It seems as if, in exchange for our talent, we have to give up some sanity or some vital life skill. Srsy, time management should be a required class for art majors. There might be fewer artists on drugs or on the streets if it were so.

Tags: Procrastination

Charlton Heston died a couple days ago. of course i never knew him personally, but he's one of my favorite heroes from the classic movie of movies. he starred in two movies that defined the term "biblical proportions." those being "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben-Hur" (my personal favorite). both movies had casts of thousands and sets so massive, they set world records. and yet these armies of thousands and huge colloseums were only scenery to frame our epic hero. he also starred in "Planet of the Apes," another film that paved the way for many more scifis (and parodies). so yeah, maybe nobody cares, but being a big fan of classic movies, i just felt like i had to make a little tribute to this legend. people always seem to think that things were better 'way back when,' probably because we only see the good movies from that time. nonetheless, i sometimes feel like with all the luxuries of modern, movie-making technology, we loose the art and soul of it.

Tags: Charlton Heston Dies

i just wrote down what was in my head for this blog and didn't really organize it. i'll probably rewrite it tomorrow. but for now, enjoy.
i remember reading in one of my psychology books a chapter on creativity. this was a class in developmental psychology to ba specific, and the chapter was on creativity in young children. towards the end of the chapter was a small paragraph about creativity in adults. i'll have to find that book and look up exactly what said, but i seem to remember it saying something like "creativity in adults is defined as finding clever and solutions for problems in the office." anyone else thinking wth about that? maybe it's just the fact that text books tend to botch or dilute information, but to me this book made it seem like all adults work in cubicles. to me, this is a kind of reflection of society which, as a whole seems to emphasize creativity in kids, but when they become adults, they are expected to stop foolin around and start serving our proud utilitarian society. those creative kids eventually become creative adults don't they? i'm an animation student, so i'm often looking for ways to inspire myself. the most obvious ways like looking at other people's work, but that only does so much. most people just assume that if you are a creative person then you will create, but it's hardly so simple. art books that i look at for tutorials on how to draw scenery, cars, or fantacy creatures, all show the physical procees, but not the mental. i think this dilema plagues all artists. we are just expected to create, but not really told how. so lately, i've been thinking, maybe this is how i can combine my psychology studies and my artistic pursuits! maybe i could study the psychology of creativity. i could disect the anatomy of the conception and development of ideas. maybe find a clinical cure for writer's block and whatnot. maybe. it's a nice idea at least.

Tags: Art Creativity

Do you ever feel like you're the black sheep in your family? there are members of my extended family that i feel very close to and yet i feel a bit distanced from them.  here are some examples; i remember at one family gathering, my great uncle and my grandpa were talking about music. my grandpa has his own old-timey jaz band that he has kept going for over 50 years. he plays trumpet. they reminiced about the music of their day and joked about the 'noise' that kids today listen to. it was just like a scene out of a cartoon. it was very amusing. at times like this i feel close to them despite our differences. at other times tho, i feel awkward. like at times when they ask what i've been up to lately. i never quite know what to say. it's hard to tall them that i draw creepy cartoons, dress up as anime characters and galalant around nerdy conventions. my great uncle is a WW2 veteran who spent a long two years sinking japanese transports onboard a submarine in the pacific. i love hearing his old war storries, but after that, it's a little hard to tell him about my interest in japanese animation. some members of my extended family i don't feel any attachment to and i don't really want to. i think we all have someone like that; maybe an obnoxious aunt who still talks to you like you're 10. i have one such aunt. one funny incident that happened at the last thanksgiving (always a family reunion) makes for a perfect metaphore for my relationship with my aunt. we were sitting close to eachother at the table. of course she wants to do a little family bonding and so she asks me in her loud, sunny way "what have you been up to?!" she knew that i made costumes and wore them to some kind of costume convention and so she asked about that. i said i was still doing that. i wanted the conversation to fade, but my mom thought to throw another log on the fire. she said that i'm studying animation. i guess i should have shared that with her myself. being family, she is kinda entitled. she exclaimed how great that was with irritating enthusiasm. "we need more quality animation! i've had enough of those chinese cartoons. you know, the ones where only the mouth moves." i wanted to laugh at her and kick her at the same time.
has anyone ever seen the short movie called Vincent by Tim Burton? it's about a little kid who everyone thinks is such a good little boy, and Vincent tries to act accourdingly, but secretly he's pretending to be an evil scientist. when i say that short, i thought 'that was me as a kid!'
in short, i love my extended family (most of them), but i feel like they can only know me so much.

Tags: Family Black Sheep