Day 5: Inspirational Animated Shorts: Disney and Dali

First off- yes I did promise no more Disney... but this is kinda worth it.  Secondly I did in fact say Disney and Dali.  As in Salvador Dali.  As in melting clocks man. (Among other fantastic works of art) Just in case you are still confused as to whom I'm referring to:

So apparently in 1945 Walt Disney and Salvador Dali got together and decided to do a story about Chronos (the god of time from Greek mythology)(oh and I do mean Chronos the god not Cronus the psychotic father of Zeus (and a few others) that ate his children so they wouldn't kill him later)(I'm a bit of a greek mythology geek...)

ANYWAY

The story is about Chronos and a love desperate to fail between him and a mortal woman.  The story portrayed is strange; but beautiful.  The one thing I don't love about this video is the singing; the Spanish singer that starts out the film has a beautiful voice- but then she is later joined by the chorus of disney voices that you'll recognize from Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and many other early Disney movies.  I've never appreciated the particular sound of that chorus- so it's a bit of a distraction for me.  

The film was started in 1945-1946; the project only lasted 3 (or 8 depending on the source) months and they only had a 15 second demo and a few sketches done at that point.   The unique thing about this film is the combination of live dancers and animation.  But not in the style of Bedknobs and Broomsticks or Mary Poppins; the live actors in this film have been animated so they look like they are a part of the whole sequence. (*edit- I don't want to leave out that the main artist that worked with Dali in story boarding this project was in fact John Hench who was the pen behind Disney's ideas for many many years- I could go on about him forever, but will not at this time)

I've gotten most of this information from the description below the video on youtube as well as some research done online to IMDb, Wikipedia, this article "The Time Salvador Dali Worked for Walt Disney" and a Disney Fine Art article called "The Art of Destino".  Information does get repeated; but for anyone truly curious- go check it out.

The project was finally finished in 2003 after Disney's nephew Roy decided to revive the project while working on Fantasia 2000.  

Ok- that is enough history.  Why do I find this inspiring? Simple- it is so strange and creative that watching it just makes your mind soar into creative thought.  

Dalí said: "Entertainment highlights the art, its possibilities are endless." The plot of the film was described by. Dalí as "A magical display of the problem of life in the labyrinth of time." 
Walt Disney said it was "A simple story about a young girl in search of true love."

~Nikkie

Day 4: Inspirational Animated Shorts: The Ballad of Nessie

This will be the last one from Disney.  This one takes a step away from the others in that it doesn't feel as 'artistic' as the others- it feels like a short Disney cartoon.  And it is.  The things I find inspirational about this one is not really the art (though I do like the art) but it is the message of the whole thing.  Nessie kept searching trying to find a new home- and when things were the most depressing for her; she finally found it.  I'm an optimist by nature- and believe it or not this isn't always a good thing.  I'm often crushed by life and people; but I always know in my heart that things will get better.  They usually do- even if it takes a long time to get there.

~Nikkie

Day 3: Inspirational Animated Shorts: Glen Keane

Forgive the expression- but you'd have to have been living in a cave over the past two week on order to miss 'Duet' by Glen Keane.

I think the thing I love the most about this is just the way he uses lines to express emotion and movement.  Which is the point of the little film in many ways.  This is another one I could spend a long time dissecting and analysing.  Again; in this case like with Paperman, I think I'll leave that to my Art Blog.

~Nikkie

Day 2: Inspirational Animated Shorts: John Kahrs (director of Paperman)

Paperman took the internet by storm a few years ago- it was a short film that was played before the Disney movie 'Wreck it Ralph' in theaters.  I didn't have the opportunity to see it in theaters; but I was aware the instant it came out- suddenly it was EVERYWHERE on the internet. 

So I watched it a few dozen times along with the rest of the world.  It is a fantastic little film.  I could write pages and pages analysing this- but I'm not going to here.  I think I will on my art blog later on (since most of what I have to say is art related) What I will say is this- I find this little story inspiring; the writing was so fantastically done- the story came across as sincere and was completely captivating. 

This copy isn't the highest quality I've found- but it is the complete film; just need to close the little boxes that pop up at first.

~Nikkie

Happy 4th!

Been a long day- so no real content to my post tonight- but have a happy 4th!!
Nikkie

Day 1 Inspirational Animated Shorts: Ryan Woodward

Today I spent some time collecting various short animated pieces by artists that I admire.  I've never been interested in being an animator myself- my focus in art is more along the lines of epic fantasy art, concept art, comic books and children's books.  Frankly the only reason that I've never wanted to do animation is because of how repetitive the drawing is.  Though- someday when my skill have improved I may try my hand at animating a music video like one of these.  

I've decided to share one video and one artist a day for the next week.  I hope you enjoy!! 

First is 'Thought of You' by Ryan Woodward.  

Ryan Woodward is just an amazing artist- you can check out more of his work here: http://conteanimated.com/ and here: http://ryanwoodwardart.com/. He has a couple of animated shorts and an ipad app- it is all just so beautiful.  I have been studying his work and hope to one day be able to draw gestures with as much life as he does.  

~Nikkie

July Projects

I don't have anything specific to post about tonight- so I'm going to share my project goals for July.

Project #1- finish organizing my office
house is pretty unpacked- I just need to finish straightening different rooms out.  You know- for aesthetics :D I'm just down to 'finding a place to put everything in my office'

Project #2- Establish cleaning routines and chore charts
Anyone who follows me on Pinterest will have been spammed earlier today as I pinned many 'age appropriate' chore resources.  I'm revising my old chore cards/lists I made a few years back and making chore charts for my kids.  They are both old enough to start actually helping around the house more- and now that the house has a semblance of order to it I'm going to give them chores to do every day.  I'm excited about it- I've got a few ideas of how to make a chore system that they will actually get excited about.  I'll post more about that when I've finished it

Project #3- Meal Plan for the next year
Yes- for the next YEAR and it will be a plan that will meet our dietary needs (since I'm allergic to so much /sadface) and also will require as little cooking day to day as possible.  Another thing I'll post once I have things more flushed out

Project #4- Websites
yea- I need to build mine :P

Project #5- Comic-Con!
I have so much work to do for that- the Con is in 2 months.... and I have exactly nothing to sell right now.  I have many ideas... need to implement them though.

Project #6- Exercise
really establish an obtainable routine that I can do even once school starts and my life explodes into business.

Those are the main projects I have to work on.  Other than that will be hanging out with kids and other general fun :D

~Nikkie

July 1st- and yes- I'm still unpacking

Though my zeal and excitement for unpacking has waned.  I honestly don't have that much left- but am sorta burned out after being so busy for the past 6 weeks.

Yesterday I sat down and 'virtually' rearranged my home- trying to figure out the best way to situate the last 2 rooms.  My office and the 'master' bedroom/husband's office.  After doing a bunch of measuring and rearranging I finally came up with a configuration that would make both rooms work a TON better than they have been.  I should mention I've been a bit sick the past 2 days... So sitting around and theorizing how to rearrange furniture seemed about the most that I could do.  Then last night at about 11:45 I decided, might as well start re-arranging furniture for real! (yea I'm a genius that late at night) I moved my desks in my office and then it was 2 am and I decided I needed sleep.

Then I got up this morning and went to initiate the next part of my plan: moving my dresser from my bedroom to my office.

I don't know how many of you have seen it- but there is this movie that Disney did a few years back called 'Meet the Robinsons' it's a silly movie- but surprisingly funny.  I totally recommend watching it with your kids sometime.   Well the evil master mind is... not much of a master mind and he is constantly making mistakes.

I got my dresser to about here:

this is the door way to my office-
this is my dresser taking up that entire space

view from the middle of the room towards the door

 I wish I could've gotten a picture from the other side of the door.  BUT I'D TRAPPED MYSELF IN MY OFFICE.  

This is the view from the door into the room.  I'm sure you can see the problem...

At this point this is what is going through my head (from the movie I previously mentioned):

This is from my desk to the corner where my dresser was going:

Yea; not my most well thought through plan... To make matters worse... MY 2 YEAR OLD AND 4 YEAR OLD WERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR.  Luckily they were quietly watching TV, even more fortunately I was able to get a hold of their aunt (who lives above us) and she came down to keep an eye on them while I struggled with the dresser.

She actually helped me get the dresser into the room (we through a towel down on my desk and slid it across and then teeter-tottered it down to the floor- after moving a ton of boxes that were in the way of course.

More pictures of my adventure:

dresser nearly to my desk

another view of it near my desk... yea- not a lot of room there

now it's in my office- like magic!!

then I heard a little voice from the doorway

oh hi Avi

yes- you're beautiful... I'll be out soon

desk standing up right in the middle of my office

and then- it was against the wall where I wanted it to be

This is a silly thing to share- but it is what I did with my day.  Frankly I found the whole event pretty funny.  I should finish putting everything away tonight and tomorrow should actually put up some pictures of my office in a clean and put away state.  

~Nikkie