A time to leave...

It began as a glance.  

Not across a crowded room at a party or anything quite so romantic or cliché, but you walked past on a jobsite.  

Covered in paint, hair like a wild pony’s mane, coarse, knotted and bleached by the summer sun.  

It’s been a long trip since that day, well over twenty-three years.  

Since that first day I knew I would never be able to keep you.  

No one ever will.

Even before I had you, I knew.  

But I held on for as long as I could.  

Longer than I should. 

There is so much good to remember, sad that some is spoiled by the ending.

I will never know another woman like you.

But you will never be loved, like you were by me.

Good-bye.

Having a head cold is not the same as having a cool head

 I hope you will excuse my recent absence as the New Year has brought me the opportunity to explore the staggering semi-liquid production capacity of my nasal passages in the form of a whopping great head cold.  A journey which I continue this morning.  

I have also been struck by the amazing resistance, which my affliction exhibits, to all forms of remedy, store bought names, generics, and home styled.  No matter the active ingredient, nor the manufacturer, all seem to be totally ineffective.  

At one point it was suggested that it might be an allergy and not a cold at all.  But alas, Allergy meds from A to Z have also been tried only to find their way to the kitchen dustbin in miserable failure.

Felled by my cold have been boxes of various name brand facial tissues, all of which I now equate to the coarsest and most abrasive sand paper.

No sneezing, no “itchy eye,” no fever, or ache, just a continuous production of ever changing colors and consistencies as tissues by the truckload are filled and tossed away.

So excuse me for not participating in all the resolutions, hoopla, and joy exhibited by some.  I'm just not up for it right now.  

Happy Fricken New Year.

Today is the last day of my winter vacation.

I usually take one in the summer, around the fourth of July, and one in the winter around the Christmas holiday. It's a tradition that started when my boys were young and in school. It was done so that I could be home with them.

Sometimes we take trips, sometimes not. Sometimes I get a "Honey do list", most times not. As the boys were growing we have "fed the mouse" several times and been to almost every rollercoaster park in the states. (Cedar point in Sandusky Ohio is still the champ). This year was simpler.

Things throughout this vacation were quietly busy. My wife (scenic artist) was working two shows, my eldest son drove in from New Mexico for the holiday, and my youngest started a new job. We all gathered for the traditional dinner and exchange of gifts at my Mother's house, but for the most part stayed out of each others way.

For myself I dabbled with some new ideas, watched some animation tutorials, and got my holiday cartoon up just before Christmas. I also worked on a second cartoon that I’ve been at for nearly a month. It should be done soon.

And I spent way too much time getting to know Google Plus, and twitter.

I did manage to gain only six pounds this holiday, a sum that my old three speed Beach Cruiser and I will work off without much extra effort. My annual winter cold arrived late, just before new years. It would seem that no amount of prevention can do more than postpone its arrival.

Looking back, it was a nice vacation, filled with family and friends, occasional quiet times for me to clear my mind and do whatever I liked or nothing at all. It was just nice.

But for this year, today is the last day.

Be Well.

A New Years Wish

New Years Eve has come and gone. 

Most other holidays too 

Twenty-twelve is set upon 

the start of something new.  

366 days in Twenty-twelve 

This year we take a leap 

in this prose, I will not delve 

possibilities too deep. 

 But now it's here, we intonate 

the times that we have known. 

In this year I'm fifty-eight

 my, how THAT time has flown. 

 So here we go together then 

into the void that is tomorrow. 

Hoping we will be here when 

the Maya Calendar we outgrow. 

 Be Well.

It Happened Last Christmas

I was in the middle of a different cartoon earlier this week, when I realized that Christmas was this week already and I had not done my holiday video.  Luckily I already had the story, just had to do everything else.

I hope you holidays are happy and your new year wonderfully bizarre.
Be Well.

How It's Supposed To Be

 So how it’s “supposed” to work; the idea; the story; the screenplay/script; storyboards; shot lists; character creation; cell sketches; ink; paint; camera (or digital); direction; animation; editing; and finally presentation.

That is what everything I read said.

The problem was, but the time I got through the first three or four steps, I was board with the story, I had drawn and redrawn the same characters hundreds of times and had not one finished cell to show for it.  Then other ideas get to sounding more exciting. And the project just ends up in a “I’ll finish it later” folder.

I’ve done that for nearly two years now.  Tried to follow “The Production Workflow Process.”  The problem was, I wasn’t a production house.  I was just me.  I write the script, mostly voice, direct, sketch, ink, paint, animate, edit, title, and finally publish it all.  I do get my music and extra voices from friends who are good at that sort of thing, but the final audio designs are mine as well.

This is not a brag, it’s just a fact, and a discovery.  The production process isn’t just a formula set out by years of labor in large and small production houses, it’s what works for you (me).  And I just don’t have the time, or for that matter, the attention span to go through motions that I really don’t need for what I’m working on.  I’m going back to the way I did things years ago when I was being so prolific… and having fun.

That’s not to say that I didn’t learn a thing or two.  I did.  And some of what I did is sure to affect my workflow.  I can now write and rewrite and rewrite (yawn) a script in the proper format.  I can make a storyboard of a script to see if the story moves fluidly. I can do a lot of things that I only THOUGHT I could before. 

But I’ll only use them when I need them and the story calls for them.

In the mean time, I’m going back to having fun.

The Raven- A Halloween Poem

My Halloween Cartoon.

Also my best cartoon using the multiplane 3D environment within ToonBoom.