On my way back from Malaysia, I had about a week in Paris, and then a few days in Brussels and Bruges. During my time in Europe I did a bunch of sketchbook work that I'd love to share with you, but I lost that sketchbook on my last day in Bruges. So, if anyone finds a sketchbook at the Lybeers Traveller's Hostel, let me know.
Luckily I had another sketch book with me, so here are the two sketches I did after Bruges.
This one was done on the train from Bruges to Frankfurt.
And here is one done on the plane from Frankfurt to New York. I misplaced my favorite drawing pen and had to borrow one from the woman sitting next to me that didn't behave as well as I'd like.
I wonder how many sketches exist in the world done by people with time to kill on planes and trains. Probably a lot.
I'm entering my last week in Malaysia! After a bit of time in Europe, I'll be back in NYC August 13th. So soon there'll (maybe) be more stuff here, and certainly less on my Malaysian blog, which you should totally check out if you haven't already.
The good news.
My TMBG video "I Can Add" (aka only thing this blog has covered in months) got into the Ottawa Animation Festival, which (FYI Mom and Dad) is the biggest (and I think only) international animation festival in North America.
To me, the cool thing about this is that Ottawa is now the second convention/festival that I went to and then decided I'd like to get something in it, and actually succeeded. Before my senior year at RISD, I went to the Small Press Expo (an indy comic convention), and afterwards figured I should make a graphic novel and try to get it published, which I did with Salmon Doubts (a book so successful that it's ranked 1.3 millionth in sales and was so hard to keep in stock that Amazon quit trying). Two years ago I went to Ottawa, and now I've got an animation in it, so I can only assume I Can Add will reach Salmon Doubts levels of popularity. The crushing details of reality aside, I am still batting a thousand, so if anyone has tickets to the Academy Awards let me know.
The great plug.
My friends Max and Ru also did a music video for TMBG with David Cowles. It is absolutely outstanding, and you have to watch it right now.
Did you watch it yet? I'll wait.
Okay, so at some point during the video you probably said to yourself, "I wonder how they did that." Well wonder no longer, Max and Ru put together a "Making Of" blog post. Check it out.
In 2007, I was briefly hired by the New York based ad agency Endoplasmic Reticulum. This was a quick "proof of concept" I put together for their pitch to GM.
This past Sunday, ASIFA East had it's 39th annual Animation Festival. I couldn't make it because I was on the other side of the planet, but the TMBG music video "I Can Add" I directed with David Cowles won an award, which I'm pretty sure means I won an award, which means I probably missed my chance to make an acceptance speech, which when you think about it, is everyone's loss (but mostly mine).
According to man-about-town Sean McBride the award was for "Excellence in Education," which is only fitting because I teach good.
And, lest I forget, let me once more promise a beer to everyone who helped out with the animation.
I wonder how many sketches exist in the world done by people with time to kill on planes and trains. Probably a lot.
