Freckleshop.com has launched!

My brand new website and home, http://www.freckleshop.com has just launched!

This is my new REVAMPED, smartphone-friendly, easy to navigate portfolio site which includes personal work, animation and paintings as well as past illustration assignments and game art.

I am planning to phase out http://www.happypix.com over the next few years…but for now, check out my new home!

My Stop Motion kids

This summer I taught a week-long stop motion animation camp to a small group of 6-10 y/o kids as part of the Young Inklings Group. The Society for Young Inklings is a workshop for budding writers and storytellers that works with elementary age kids in schools.

I taught various forms of animation including: white board, animating objects (such as candy), paper cutouts and, of course, claymation.  We also worked on story, sound, POV and developing a memorable character.

The kids had a blast and produced some interesting and very funny work. Here is a sampling of one of the movies they created.  (Um, yes, that’s my voice hamming it up as the Evil Mushroom Villain.  Thanks for asking .  😉

CLICK HERE

Forgetfulness

I really love this merging of Billy Collins’ poetry with animation.  I could watch this over and over again.  .

Pick it Up!

I recently ran across this cool animation as part of animator, Willy Hartland’s reel.

As I have long been a big fan of ska, I thought this was brilliant.

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Inspired!

Last night we trekked over to the Red Vic on Haight street to see the films of Al Jarnow, the amazing experimental animator who is best known for the work he did in the 1970s and 1980s for Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact.  His own stop motion work incorporates found objects including: seashells, stones and blocks– even his baby son!  His studies of the passage of time and light and objects moving through space are incredibly inspiring.

What objects in my own day-to-day life can I animate?   Popcorn? our Guinea Pigs? Our children? Art supplies?  food?  The possibilities are limitless..

I heart animation

I have a love/hate relationship with animation. When I was in art school, it ended up being my major simply because I found it to be so magical.  In the pre-computer days we experimented with xerography, drawing on filmstrips, paper cutout animation, painting under the camera, claymation painted flipbooks, optical printing and so much more.  I felt the possibilities were endless in what I could do and how I could make things move.  I was inspired by artists like Kathy Rose,

Still from Suzan Pitt's "Asparagus"

who combines dance and animation, Joanna Priestly, who works with abstract shapes and mixed media and Suzan Pitt, whose work is surreal, painterly and haunting.   Most of the type of animation that I love seems to have an experimental, fluid quality, because that is closer to the type of animation I like to do.

When it comes to traditional character animation (walk cycles, exaggerated physical movement, cartoon characters, cel painting, etc) I admit that I am generally at a loss.  Until recently, I had trouble appreciating anything falling into that category because I did not really consider it to be ART!

I now realize that had I mastered some traditional skills, like the walk cycle, (I mean REALLY mastered it), perhaps I’d be better able to get more animation work. That said, I am currently working on animating a fire breathing dragon that I created as part of my daughter’s school film festival opening credits.  I am excited to be making the dragon snort, breathe fire, flap his wings and fly. Please, just don’t ask me to make him walk.

Here’s a preview.  When you click on the dragon, you can see the animated version in a separate window.  It’s still in progress.