Old Smiley Returns!

Look who is back! Good old Mr. Gammage (self caricature above). I say mister out of respect for the meanest man in animation, of course. Anyway here is a link to his new sketchblog, so be nice, go there.
ChuckToon

Toronto Animation Industry Night

The Toronto Animation Industry Night
Thursday, March 6th . 7 - 11pm
Veritas 234 King St. E. Toronto
Open Bar 7 - 9pm
Live Animation Jam, Event Screening, Networking

Industry Night Blog

Alexis Victor

New Year, New Stuff Coming!

Well after a lengthy hiatus I am back, and ready to post some more stuff for everyone. Hopefully in the coming weeks I will have my FTP up and running so I can post some of my animation notes that I have gathered over the years, for you to download.

So stay tuned!

Happy New Year !

Bucephalus

Thanks to my co-worker Pasquale for the tip to check out this Sheridan animation film from 2002. Just incredible,considering the entire film was traditionally painted, and scanned in digitally after.

The Roughs

Some of the rough drawings of character designs from previous posts.

Sesame Street Number 9

I have been doing some research on Sesame Street recently, in search of some animated shorts for reference, and found a few Number 9 shorts. Here you go !




This next one is a Maurice Sendak one to boot !

From The Archives

I found these designs the other night, originally from a pitch at Chuck Gammage, for an animated version of Vinyl Cafe, that unfortunately did not. Nevertheless very good designs by Trevor Deane-Freeman, and clean line drawings by yours truly. Colour versions coming soon !

Some Words - On Art

"Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions and buy records by the billions. We the people, affect the making and the quality of most of our culture, but not our art.

The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery, you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires."

"The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Fame is a by-product of doing something else. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit."

To see/read more about Banksy the artist who said this click the link.

3 Finger Blues

I found this character tucked away in a folder on my laptop, and couldn't remember if I posted him, so please forgive me if this is a re-run. This is just me playing around with some line-work, on a sketch Chuck Gammage did of me, as bluesman. Also a little color to look nice for the blog. Still trying to track down the original sketch Chuck made, and will post as soon as I find it.
I should mention that this was mostly inspired by listening to Blind Willie McTell - The Last Session, and if you get a chance check out some of these links where you can listen to some clips, and learn why Bob Dylan, Kurt Cobain, and Jack White were all inspired by Blind Willie.

Wikipedia's in depth info


Here are some song clips from the Last Session album.

Baby It Must Be Love -clip

Kill It Kid - clip

Goodbye Blues - clip

Blind Willie McTell – Statesboro Blues


P.S. the layout of the blog is a little wacky these days but hopefully i can get things worked out soon.

Street Musique

I found another short film by Ryan Larkin on YOUTUBE, called Street Musique. If you want to see more check out my previous post on Larkin, or click HERE for instant satisfaction.

Betty Boop

While working on the Dark Years project at Chuck Gammage Animation, I have really started to appreciate the early rubber-hose style animation, from the 30's and 40's. It is amazing the animation they could do then, with limited technology . Simple basic things that they were drawing, yes drawing! back then, that we have somehow evolved into a complicated and sterile process by using computers (more on that, and a perfect example over at Cartoon Brew).
Anyway here is a Betty Boop cartoon, and although it contains questionable material, is a very good example of what talented artists can draw.



See another Boop cartoon HERE.

It's About To Go Down!

Today is a smiley day, especially when I opened my email to find another news bit from the Beastie Boys ( one of my all time favorite groups ). So click here and see for yourself, be cool now and avoid the line-ups. COOL STUFF

Also check out the Mic-to-Mic blog, the most up to date and in the know Beasties blog.

Mountie vs. Matlox

A good friend of mine made himself a little film. Check out the goodness!

3 Headed Nazi !

Just one of the fabulous creations from the Dark Years, Episode 1. Original design by Rex Hackelberg, rough pose drawing by Chuck Gammage, clean line drawing by yours truly.

Ryan Larkin 1943-2007

On a sad note Ryan Larkin passed away on on February 14th. Larkin was best known for his creative animation techniques and his oscar nominated NFB film, Walking.
In recent years most he is most notably known for being the subject of Academy Award winning short "Ryan", by Chris Landreth. As a child I watched many of his films without knowing it, and it wasn't until I was in my first year of animation, when seeing the short film Walking that I connected the artist with his work, and I was fully inspired.

I have posted a few items here including the news report on his passing, a link to the Wikipedia site on Larkin, and two of his films, Walking and Syrinx.

All about Ryan Larkin.

New Look For the Old Blog

Here is a little sneak peak at the upcoming new look for this blog. Much thanks to creative designer SMASHA, who also designed my business cards and website.

Iwao Takamoto (1925-2007)

It is with great sadness that I am posting on the passing of IwaoTakamoto, the creator/designer of Scooby-Doo, and many, many more favorite characters from my childhood. You can read more from the CBC article HERE, or an article posted on Cartoon Brew, featuring an interview with Mr. Takamoto, HERE.

Even more HERE.

The Dog Who Was A Cat Inside

Here is a very creative short film called, The Dog Who Was A Cat Inside, by Siri Melchior. You can find more information about the film HERE.

The Look of Things to Come

So I wanted to get posting on a regular basis and to start off the first image I am posting is the future look of my website. Also coming soon this blog will be getting an overhaul to resemble the look of my site. So anyway I am back and new stuff is coming soon.

Lucky Number Nine

I wanted to post a little something fun, along the lines of Numba9, and I have always really liked this song by the Moldy Peaches, titled Lucky Number Nine.

Don't worry more real drawings and fun art work are coming, I have just been busy drawing for dollars.