Repetitive stress

Deadlining is always fun (no wait, shouldn't that read "never" fun??) I remember once doing clean-up on an animated show years ago and I think I probably did over 100 drawings in a day. My hand got completely mad at me, it was numb, tingling and pulsing. I'd abused the thing so badly I couldn't even write my name!

I try and take care of my drawing hand a little better than that these days...but it's still very easy to overstrain the poor darlin'. Frequent stretching breaks are good..but it's easy to forget when you're rushing to do a pile of drawings. Arg!

demo

Yes, I've somehow worked in animation since 1990 and don't have a demo reel. I worked on the technical side of things (from '90 - '96 or so), I've written scripts, outlines and developed world ideas... (from '99 - present) sketched thousands of characters, designed, done boards...

In school ('97 - '99) it was the same thing. I'm a burning creative... and I think my old first year "anijam" was the only example of actual animation. Yeesh... it's probably on a DAT disc somewhere!

Troy Little and Nick Cross OIAF with Angora Napkin

I know, it is no secret that I have a fondness for Mr. Little and Mr. Cross. That being said, my obsession with their extremely creative, irreverent and FUN creation; specifically ANGORA NAPKIN knows no bounds!


Angora Napkin not only exists in comic form, within the pages of the lovely hard cover graphic novel from IDW, but also the girl rock-band trio exists in bouncy toon form as well. If you have not had the pleasure of seeing this amazing spectacle, then it is now your chance to get out and catch it.


Molly, Mallory and Beatrice will grace the stage of the Arts Court Theatre October 15th at 11:30pm. I was fortunate to catch the initial screening of the Teletoon sponsored "pilot project" when Troy brought the gals to the Shanghai Restaurant in the spring. All I can say is that come hell or high water, get yer arses down town and your bottoms into the theatre seats to soak in the jovial pop rock candy that IS Angora Napkin. You won't be disappointed!

For the curious, check out my initial horn tooting here. If, like me, you are over-the-top with excitement, you can listen to CUB's "My Chinchilla" song on YouTube. (My Chinchilla is expertly animated in Troy Little's section of the Angora Napkin pilot. Beware--this will become and ear worm...) Here's a ukelele cover of My Chinchilla. CHINCHILLA!!

In Nick Cross' section of the pilot, the girls are animated beautifully to CUB's "Go Fish". Yeahp, you can listen to it here!

BUY the book! Get 'er signed! Read, enjoy, repeat...

Later..
Ok I went trolling: you can watch a quickie preview of AN here!
Enjoy >^_^<

Doug Murray

Today was my friend Doug Murray's birthday, who passed away a couple of years ago. July 21st doesn't go by without making me think of him and making me wonder about how things would've been different had he lived.

I met Doug when I started in the Animation-Television programme at Algonquin College back in 1997. A lot of people knew Doug as a teacher at the school in their Design programme, but at that time, he was a student. It was gratifying meeting him because he was also one of the older students too, at 33. I had been quite intimidated at the thought of returning to school at the age of 27, when many of the other students were 18 years old.


Doug was immediately charming, funny, intelligent, silly, genuine, and engaging. He could warm to any subject and had ideas and opinions on many. He was always up for a "wee pint" as he called it, and then would lapse into many Monty Pythonisms thereafter (including "Decomposing Composers" and "The Philosopher's Song").

Not long after our Siers-survival group was formed, and we were meeting regularly at the Ob, Doug showed us one of his "tricks", which was to squeeze his hands together and thus produce a credible fart sound. Hilarious! Often we'd tease him into doing it for us time and time again, and he would comply. I remember Lorne saying: "Give us a fart Doogie", and Doug, grinning like a madman, happily made the sound over and over.

I partnered with Doug in Drama class a number of times. Lorne has tapes of our Drama efforts (God!! Blackmail material for sure!) It is so poignant to watch them--usually we manage to every year at Lorne and Kim's Christmas party. Doug and I go through the pantomime motions of 1st year Charlie-Chaplin wannabes. I pretend to kill him or something, or cut off his arm... and it is all silent.

I wish that we had been more adamant about taping our later, spoken Drama moments. I really miss hearing his voice, and his laugh. I miss seeing the twinkle in his eye and the crinkle of skin that preceded great laughter.

I remember I had someone brow-beaten he and Rene into being in my Drama group, where we had to act out scripts from our scriptwriting class. None of us had practiced really. The script made sense to me, because I'd written it--but Rene and Doug were a little baffled. I finished my lines, something to the effect of being the Chief of the Tribe and having all this power.. and Doug, completely forgetting his lines, grinned up at me and said: "And I suppose that makes you special??" Fantastic!

I have our illustrated yearbook "Flip This" from 1st year, and it has Doug's drawings in it; lush, lovely life drawings and silly, whimsical animation designs. He signed in my book and I treasure the note. Another note I have is on a birthday card from our Dynomight Cartoon days. Scribbled at the back is: "Ich bin ein donut!", which is pure Doug--silly, yet very literary and historical.

Anyway, I am trolling the memories and they come fast and furious. If I dig into them too much I will be crying, and I don't want it--sometimes it is too difficult to stop, you know? Suffice to say that all that I have of Doug, I treasure thoroughly, making me miss him all the harder. He was one of the good ones, and the world is diminished without him.

((hugs))
Suzanne.

Algonquin College's Doug Murray Life Bursary
Some great Flamenco guitar music (Doug was an accomplished musician as well!)
And the old Elmdale Tennis Club where he played much tennis >v_v<

Yes it's that time of the year

I have decided that 2007 is my year for CHALLENGES. In keeping with my self-imposed madness, I signed up for National Novel Writing Month. For more info on what that's all about, please feel free to follow the links.

This year, I challenged myself to complete a french course, which I managed to do. I took up the challenge of getting back into animation, thanks to Nick Cross, that came true as well. I challenged myself to leave my steady job and jump into the well of creativity, and all wise-words and fear be damned! That sorta worked out... I challenged the old self to get in the car and drive East on my lonesome. That was some fun. Probably would be more fun with company, but whatcha gonna do?

The fall's challenges have been in a very creative vein! Labour Day weekend was the 3-Day Novel Contest. Carol Little helped inspire me to enter that (you can check out an awesome article about her and the challenge online in PEI's Guardian!) I completed a 131 pg. novel called "Terra Del Meurta", which as Clay later pointed out reads more like an outline for a really BIG novel :-) I think a rewrite or 3 may be in order. But the cool thing is; I got it done! Hurray Sue :-)

Onto the rest of the challenges.... October 20th dawned beautiful and sunny; the 24 Hour Comics Day had arrived. Five brave souls threw themselves into the fray (Keith Savage, Westin Church, Meaghan Quinn, Suzanne Marsden & Clayton Jacobs) and three came out, including moi! I will be posting info on that all on its own, cause I want to scan in some pics too.

And, because I haven't had enough of grueling creative exercises, I signed up for NaNoWriMo. Basically, you have 30 days to write a novel of 50,000 words (or more.) It's day 6 and I'm clocking in around 9296 words...which ain't too bad. I feel good; my fingers are a little annoyed with me (whaaat? You're doing Data Entry? Whaat?)

Finally, my biggest challenge to date...
Return to Statistics Canada. How is that going to be? Don't know... It is in a completely different Division than I was before, doing work as a Publication Assistant. So--it might even be fun? Mm, you can tell I generally see things in the glass-is-half-full light, right? ;-)

So...there will be more. Sorry for the long hiatus, and thanks for continuing to check in to see if I'm still alive and kickin'. Yeap! Still alive... Still kickin'...

Cheers!
Suzanne.

The Throes of Ecstasy

Madness comes in many forms; sometimes it's the bucking, rabid Pony of Animation, that you cling to and try not to get bitten by..then fall off and chase until you can clamber back up on its back once more. Sometimes, it's the personal challenge of the unknown..the darkness that resides to the far left of the soul; the unblinking staring of the hazel eye in the reflective surface..the hollow depth of the pupil echoing back at you going: Well? WEELLL??

On the topic of Madness, I must confess, I have signed up for another tour of physical, mental and emotional challenges (not unlike the 41 hr deadline, or the 3 24-hour comics I've managed to complete.) No, this is the longest yet.. the 3-Day Novel Writing Competition. I'm not alone apparently; the loony bins have emptied their patrons.. they are staggering about the streets, typewriters in hands, stubbed pencils firmly in grip.. menacing blank sheets of paper with their gimlet eyes :-)

For some great info on the challenge, check this link! For information on my pals Troy & Carol Little and how they are coping with the challenge..check THIS link out. For info on how I'm doing.. well, you'll have to wait til Tuesday I guess... or Wednesday. The next Three Days are slated for the pure undiluted gesture of mad creativity, burning burning like Roman Candles.. Me and Jack bursting bubbles of soporific humdrum and zapping outside the megalomanic walls of existence.. until spent, one flops to the tiled floor in oozed somnolence and begs for sweet Morpheus to bear one aloft on starry steeds of sleep.

Ok, I've used up all my words;
the novel will consist of CAT
DOG
TOY
& possibly
LEPRECHAUN.

Cheers,
Suzanne.

How much for the tofu-dog in the window?

I'm feeling better--the above drawing aside ;-) If you'd like to see more of my SICK drawings, hop on over to Kunstpike for the whole bunch of me looking ill :-P

Work was ok.. I hate Mondays, period, no ifs & ands or buts. Even when I'm unemployed Mondays suck. I don't mind Thursdays though. Weird eh? HRSDC was as numbing as ever. My pod-mates were all antsy today too. No one wanted to work, it was a consensus of irritable boredom. 2 months (sort've) I've been at it, and it is still as icky as ever. Who knows what'll happen next? I keep applying to whatever comes up in the ICN. So far I've applied for 2 graphics jobs and got an application in to the Canada Council for the Arts. Now we just wait for a few months (or longer... the wheels turn slow!)

Speaking of slow wheels. Development (in animation-land) also moves slowly. But not for lack of trying. I just received an offer to renew my contract with Decode for "Ivy & Dummy" and my "Moon Warriors" show ideas, so that's cool. I can't believe 4 years have swung by already. But everyone down there still seems keen, so I said "sure"! At least with the Development happening, I feel like one day a ship may come in, even if it's an optimistic coracle ;-)

What else? I have a few things lining up, might even get a chance to sharpen my pencils and help my friend Nick on some storyboard clean-up, which would be nice. It may even save this old wreck of an artist; at least from gnawing off a limb or two! There may be creative things brewing with my dear friend Tracy too! That would be swell :-D Also, the summer is coming..and with it possible travel plans.. have to see how the dough holds out, but I am hoping the Clay-dude & I may hit Detroit for the Palladium Books open house in May, and if all goes well, a wedding out west in June. Again; tentative, but something I can look forward to. Yay!

Had a nice lunch Sunday with Mom at Mexi's at Centrum which I'd never been to; it was huge! We had fajitas (of course) and used Mom's coupon. The beer went very well with it. I'm so glad I'm not feeling nauseous any more. Yes! Poked around at Cdn. Tire for colour chips and got some sandpaper. Sandpaper costs .72 cents. That's your fact for today! I'm going to sand, scrub and prime the studio... then we'll slap on some paint... just have to see if I'm firm on the idea of a bright violet wall or not *wink*.

I have been reading like a monster, as usual... Reviews will follow when I have more time. I have to hit the books and study; this is my last week of French study at work (Block 5) and all the tests and evaluations are this week..so.. je devrai etudier mes livres! Zut alors!

I hope everyone is well and that the creative fires burn brightly for you all. Courage my friends!
May the Muse be generous, the creative souls quiver with eager anticipation and the pieces of time you carve in which to lay down those juicy creations be enough to salve your souls.

*hugs*
Suzanne.



I got a bunch of these this week from a buddy at work.. this is my fave. I am tempted to print it on good photo paper and get it laminated. I think it would look swell over my computer. It's one of those lovely little pics that Management would glance at and go, "Great! It's one of those motivational pics! What a great sign of glowing morale!" When it fact, it is a sign of moral decay and the need for suicide prevention officers wielding mega hypos of thorazine to chase us down one by one and cart us safely to the Quiet Room for Deprogramming.

wheee!

PS: Today's "secret word" is salve.