A Change in Plans

I had promised in my last entry that I would post the finished inked product of all three compositions from "the Cartoon Universe" panoramic drawing. Here there are:




The Looney Tunes Universe




The Disney Universe






The Hanna-Barbera Universe

 I had originally planned to take a picture of this drawing with a special panoramic feature that my camera has, and then I would upload it onto the computer and start digitally coloring it. Well...as per usual, I had to tweak that plan, and in fact, I changed it all together. I didn't keep track of how many pictures I had taken of it, but it was a lot, and I never could get it quite right. Something was always off just a little bit. It was very frustrating especially when I could take a panoramic picture of my room successfully, but not a drawing. As I continued to fail in this endeavor I started looking into other options such as finding a company that can scan a 4 ft. 3 in. long drawing, which I didn't find. It would just be so much easier if I could just put it together on the computer, but I didn't know how...until now. I've decided to dismantle the drawings into three individual compositions, scan them into the computer, and then I'll use Photoshop to put them back together the way they were meant to be seen. I don't have a 11x17 scanner either, but that doesn't matter because I will be returning to SCAD-Atlanta in a few days, and I can scan them into the computer during my long time lapse between classes. Now I just wish that I could work on digitally coloring them between classes, but the school undoubtedly has updated their Adobe to CS5, and my home computer has CS4. I'm sure that I could work on a project in the CS4 and continue working on it in a CS5, but probably not vice versa.


The Return of the Trophy


3D Design had to be one of my favorite classes that I've ever taken at SCAD-Atlanta, and in fact, I would put it in the top three best classes, right behind Intro. to Sequential and Animation I. I had created some spectacular sculptures including a wire sculpture of a Tumbleweed, which would be my first art object that was ever displayed in the hallways of SCAD-Atlanta. It was a fun class even though I had cut and burned my hands in creating each sculpture. The final sculpture in 3D Design was a Trophy Project, where we had to design a prototype of a trophy, and an organization called Big Voices was going to pick one of the trophies to mass produce. Big Voices hands out awards to people who have helped children, but they wanted a new trophy, and my class got to design a new one for them. I built a figure trophy featuring a child about to take a step out into the unknown, but then  there's an adult behind him with one hand on the child's shoulder and leaning a little to the left to protect the child from harm. It was a great idea that went so terribly wrong. On the day that I was supposed to turn it in and have Big Voices examine it, the trophy...fell apart. The hot glue wasn't strong enough to hold the figures in place. So suffice it to say, my trophy was not chosen. I did get a B out of that project, and that's great and all, but I was not aiming for a good grade, I wanted my design to be chosen. In that regard...I failed. After my failure, I placed the trophy in a box and shelved it in my closet, not to be seen again for at least a year.


After that horrible display, I didn't want to look at it because it just reminded me of how I failed, but at the same time, I am a Wright, and most Wrights are perfectionists. When the trophy fell apart it became an unfinished product, and that meant that I had to put it back together the way I had envisioned it. So as soon as I had finished inking "the Cartoon Universe" I brought the trophy back down to begin repairing, and there was a lot to do. It hadn't been pulled out of the box for a year, and so there was considerable damage to not only the figures, but also the base. Everything had to be fixed. It took a week, but the Trophy has been completely repaired and is standing proudly on the top shelf of my bookcase in my room.






Big Brother

Before I had used hot glue to get the figures to stick on the base, which didn't work out, and so this time I decided to use a much more powerful glue, Gorilla Glue. The figures are holding although every now and then I will check to make sure there aren't any problems arising. I don't want to go through the repair job again.


I've been wanting to do another sculpture for quite a while, but I didn't have a single idea, which is a definite problem. However, after repairing the trophy, I finally know what my next sculpture will be. It's going to be similar to this except it won't be a trophy. In my Survey of Western Art I class, we had to design a lost piece of art, but there couldn't be any photographs of the original piece, we had to design it purely through writings from those who had seen it in person. My lost art project was the Colossus of Rhodes, the least known of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I had done a drawing of it based on everything that I had learned about it, but if I had known how to do a sculpture at the time, I would have done a figure sculpture of the Colossus. That's my next sculpture, the Colossus of Rhodes.


Paul


Well, it's time for my first movie review. I saw Paul yesterday, and the movie is basically about two English geeks who have come to America to attend the famous International Comic Con in San Diego, which is the biggest comic convention of them all. While they were in the United States they went on a road trip to visit well known alien sites such as Area 51 and Roswell, but along the way they encounter an alien named Paul, who had just escaped from Area 51. Paul needed their help to elude some Men in Black types who wanted to probe him to access some of his powers such as invisibility and healing, and he needed a ride to get to the spot where he would contact his home planet to be picked up. That is the plot in a nutshell, and then you add some chases and strange humor, which equals a whacked out comedy...at least according to some anyway.


The movie was sold as if it was a laugh riot, and I admit that there were some amusing elements to it, but I never once laughed. I mainly smiled. Although I don't really laugh when I am watching a movie in a theater because I do take the theater's "Silence is Golden" quote very seriously. The best parts of the film were all of the science fiction references especially those of Star Wars. There is a bar scene where the band is playing the Star Wars Cantina Theme, and I certainly did not know that that theme could be played on a guitar. One of the government agents gets frustrated with his boss and shoots the two-way radio, and he quotes Han Solo, "Boring conversion anyway." So this movie was very much a parody that was paying homage to classic science fiction movies. Since I am an animator the other best part of the film was the 3D animation of Paul, which was astounding. A lot of times mixing a 3D animated character with live action characters can look kind of fake, but the animators did a great job in making the alien look as though he belonged in the live action world. So those were the good points, but now for the bad. For most of the movie, I had no idea what the plot was about, and it wasn't until the middle of the movie when Paul finally decides to confide everything with the two geeks that I understood what was going on. I suppose now a days it's all right to make fun of a religion as long as that religion doesn't have some radical extremists who are willing to kill you for it, and I am not an extremist, but I did not find the constant attacks on God and Christianity one bit amusing. They were basically saying that Christians were naive and stupid for believing that there is a supreme being who created the universe. There was absolutely no reason for the attacks as it didn't enhance the plot any, and so it was as if they wanted an anti-God element in the film. As a storyteller, if someone wants to add an element into their story, it must enhance the plot in someway, and it shouldn't be added just for the sake of having it in there. Of course, I am speaking as a dramatic storyteller, not a comic, and so what do I know really? Still, it hurt the film, and so I have to give it just two stars, which is generous by the way, but the animators' work was enough to keep the rating from being worse.

Name That Price!

It has been a while since I've been this excited for finishing a project like I am right now with "the Cartoon Universe." I am proud of all of the work that I have put into this, and I hope that I will be able to find a way to eventually print it out. That got me to thinking that I had been told during a Q&A session at Dragon Con that sequential artists should draw characters that fans are already familiar with, which is known as fan art, and if the fans like your style then they might take a look at some of your original works. That's basically what I've been doing as of late, just a rash of fan art. There will be a day when I set up a booth at a comic convention to sell prints of my work, but that brings up a problem that I will have to face. How do I price my work? I am not good at pricing my artwork, and I am more likely to under price it than over price it. I had mentioned that my Tumbleweed sculpture was on display at SCAD-Atlanta, but it was also up for sale. When it came to pricing the sculpture the school gave me three choices, and I went with the lowest price, which was $200 although I didn't think that it was worth a triple digit figure. My mom disagrees with me, and in fact, she thinks that it is worth more than $200 because of all the time and wounds that I had to endure in making it. Well, according to my Google research on the subject of pricing one's artwork, time definitely should be a factor. Too bad I don't keep track of the time. I couldn't even tell you how many hours I've spent on the panoramic drawing, I can only tell you how many months, weeks, and days, but not hours. I probably should start keeping track of that. Another thing that artists should do according to the research is compare prices with your competitors, which is something I'll start to take more notice of now when I go to conventions, starting with the Fluke Festival in Athens, GA next month. Size is also important. I was thinking that maybe a 9x12 drawing would be $10 to $15 and a 11x17 drawing would be $20 to $25, but of course, a 4 ft. and 3 in. long drawing is in another realm entirely. I would love to sell prints of "the Cartoon Universe," but the size of it really throws my thinking out of whack on how to price it. Fortunately I am not ready to sell any prints yet, and so there's plenty of time to do more research whether it's asking my sequential friends or the sequential professors.

And the Winner is...

In my last entry I left you all hanging about who won the SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society Animation Competition, and mainly because I had no idea who had won. I suppose I could drag it out a little bit longer to keep you all in suspense, but...naw, I won't torture you all like that. I was thinking that there would be a winner in both 2D animation and 3D animation, and it sort of fell that way, but it was listed as first place and second place with the 2D animator taking the first place award. It just goes to show you that 2D is still king, and the fact that the 2D animation featured a story behind it may have helped in the voting process. Yep, that's right. Norman and the Love Triangle won the animation competition. I couldn't believe that I had won because I didn't think that I would. I definitely wanted to although I didn't think that I could win on my first shot in the Animation Society competition. It just goes to show you what can happen with a lot of hard work and a little bit of craziness.

Final Thoughts

The Spring Quarter starts on Monday, March 28, 2011 for all four campuses of the Savannah College of Art and Design, and it is with great pleasure and relief to finally say that I will be there in attendance although it won't be on Monday. My Spring Quarter doesn't begin until Tuesday. Well, I've waited this long, I can wait an extra day. I'd like to wish all of my friends the best whether they are at the Atlanta campus, Savannah, or Hong Kong-I actually know someone there now. Until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody.