Link to viewing David Huntsberger's Big Nothingness Animated Comedy Special (free!)

 

Smartphone link here to youtube here (blogger videos won't embed properly anymore, ugh.)

Enjoy! This may be the second in a trilogy. (If you haven't seen David's first animated comedy special "One Headed Beast", it's available for rent on Vimeo and Amazon Prime. Or, order the DVD and you can watch the entire special with an uncut animated option, trippy and fun.) If so I'd be eager to participate again.

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Last year was pretty difficult to focus. I think most of us can relate. Still, between everything going on (check a few posts prior to this one), I'm glad to have accomplished something. 

Personally, I'm beginning to come out of the fog. I used my pandemic assistance to purchase a powerful gaming type pc that's up to more complex animation tasks, and with my bonus rewards, the entire Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, a year paid in advance. Also a GoPro 360 Max. It's a incredibly useful 360 degree camera, a tool I plan to utilize for rotoscoping and more. I'm working on a friend's song for a music video with edited and enhanced GoPro footage. More on that later.

Preview of Big Nothingness

Here's a couple of clips and a series of stills from David Huntsberger's upcoming comedy animation special, "Big Nothingness". I'm eager to see the complete special with the contributions from the other animators. Sorry about the wonky formatting if you're on a smartphone. Blogger is weird sometimes. 

                                                              

                  EARTH AND MARS  

                     MOSQUITO

                                                       Audience to Cosmic Audience

 

16 Second Story 2018

I'll update on this blog about my trip to  David Huntsberger's Junk Show variety show in a future post. Here's another collaborative 16 Second Story that wrapped up this April at the venue. I did the title card with the top heavy instruments sticking out of the Bloody Mary, and the concluding segment at the end at 3:18. I was racing to get this done right up to my flight and encountered some technical glitch with the timing as I was exporting the file to video. Fortunately, David gave it the editing tweaks it needed to fit.

Link to video here for smartphones

David kicked off a new cycle of 2019's future 16 Second Story, and I'll be animating the first segment. It has a sunrise, a dog (As a dogwalker I certainly have a choice of models there!) and deja vu. 

Edit (9/30/21) The host place for the 16 Second Stories was moved, so I relinked them on the other pages. I had a preview for the 2019 in this original post, but it was since completed so here it is. Mine is the very first 16 second clip. I featured a dog I used to walk and sit regularly, a sweet old girl named Elsie. Sadly she has since passed on, but I'm glad I got to make a tiny piece of art based on her, and share it with her people.

                                                                                          

link to video for smartphones here

animated videos-recent past and more, uh.. past-past

Hey, hi...long time no post.

I'm not going to go into much detail tonight of what's gone on this near past year since my last post, nor sharing a lot of work.  However, I have been busy with a long term, trial and error, improve-my-skills, labor of love music video animation (no, not yet complete....but I swear it's made considerable progress and I do see the end in sight. I know better than to set a date but it is on it's way) in between searching for and adjusting to a new dayjob routine (dogwalking-I quite like it), small and longer mini animation projects, a painting commission, and working small black and white ink dreamscape pieces that may lead to my next animation once my current mini epic is complete.

There's been my coping and adjusting to the political and social atrocity running boldly in my country since the US election (my worst birthday, ever...as I witnessed the poll count with growing horror). I also said goodbye to my beloved best friend: Lola, my ragdoll kitty. She almost made it to 17 years old. It was both heartbreaking and a relief to let her go. She was getting so sick and weak from renal failure.  There wasn't much comfort for her other than the brief respite hardcore painkillers can bring. Lola finally had peace, delivered in the form of a compassionate local euthanasia service that makes housecalls.

Lola was in first two of the animations that I'm sharing today.

First of all I'm going back several years. I had shared a previous video of my contribution to David Huntsberger's "One Headed Beast" (2014) comedy/animation special (performed live in Austin Texas), but I never had shared the audio due to licensing concerns. The video was possible to see in full as intended if you watched the "animation only" alternative viewing portion of the DVD (which I recommend--you can buy it from David here). David gave me the ok to share my portion with a pre special practice rough audio clip that I had worked off of in order to shape a piece for his live show. I uploaded this audio version tonight, so the imagery I've previously shared on youtube and this blog will have more context now, as well as being an overall more enjoyable experience.

 "16 Second Story" (2017) a collaborative mini storytelling animation game (a different animator interprets 16 seconds of an improvised story told by an audience member at David's Junk show, once a month for a year) as a fire breathing dragon cat. There was another version I previously included, which tied other elements of the story in progress: Kafka's miserable boss of Gregor Samsa, but in the form of Donald Trump, who also makes shitty cookies at his umbrella corporation, and gropes the melancholy violin playing sister's ass. After reviewing it before the final submission I got notes that seeing Trump's face just wasn't welcome...his ugliness is saturated in our media and most of us desperately need a fucking break from that reality. I had to agree after reviewing it. It didn't flow all that great anyway: I had crammed too much into such a short period of time. So, it was edited and expanded to mostly feature a flying fire breathing Lola Dragon, which was a better fit.
                                                         
My 16 second portion is 2:25-2:41.

Link to video for smartphones

David recently made another comedy/animation special performed nightly throughout August of this year at the Fringe Fest in Scotland. Many of the same animators from One Headed Beast came back to collaborate on this. Overall the animations were to be more loose, experimental, and flowy. That said, regarding the comedy bit I selected ("I Hope You All Die") David mentioned that particular piece may welcome somewhat more specific imagery, but  within the more experimental flowy execution and spirit of the project. This piece closed out his nightly show.

I used and incorporated different video captures to rotoscope into this piece: (1) food dye in water with the tones and values inverted, as well as rotated to make the bomb/meteor effects (2) sparklers from the street on the 4th of July for the inside of the "uddership" (3) waves from a visit to Rehoboth Beach (4) gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery (5) oil in paint/water emulsions backlit on a makeshift lightbox and magnified with a smartphone fisheye accessory lens for the space background. (6) a blinking marquis sign that transformed into the futuristic hospital room.

I also took more advantage with my growing knowledge of Photoshop's video editor tools as you'll notice with various motion effects (POV traveling on a curved road, cockroach swarm, card scatter).

There's a section with cows, which refers to an ongoing theme and callback to the whole special. I may be switching out the early practice audio for a later, more developed version that specifically references them when it's available in the future.

Animation stills/digression on detailed vs.general facial depiction

I don't think this will be done by the end of the month as I tentatively wrote as a hopeful goal two posts ago. I am encouraged that I'm making steady progress, even if it's slow. The idea was to create a piece not constrained by deadlines, and to make sure each clip is at the best of my ability, (no matter how limited my technical knowledge is). I think of this as a sort of unofficial animation senior thesis where a student would just work a small, several minute long piece for a significant stretch of time throughout the school year.

I've been rotoscoping (drawing on top of frames) videos of my own face and body for the guide to create the two main  figures' movement (and a little help from Muybridge action photos in one clip), with different features and body than my own ( The male in this actually resembles me much more than the female, whose face is very altered. )Some was less rotoscoping, and more just redrawing/altering the new figures to match the expression I made. It gets a little tedious, as a detailed face with limited movement can look vapid. I've also had to correct too much movement that can end up looking like a tic. Next time I take on the project, I'm going to simplify the facial features and make something more general. Not merely as a time saver, but to depict a more universal symbol of a type of figure that the reader would naturally perceive.  Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics - The Invisible Art (a smart and trippy read for all visual artists, and those who appreciate them)  touches on the range of specific likenesses to a universal generality. (A comprehensive review of the book can be found here: AnnaP's Blog )

some of Scott McCloud's examples:

For the final scene in the animation, I'm happy to say I don't have to rely on myself for the action and subsequent manipulation again. A friend agreed to digitally shoot himself and his girlfriend in an interactive scene, and with the help of a green screen too. I'll be using the silhouette of their forms, and creating an animated universe inside the figures. I won't have to manipulate the features or their shapes.

So here's some more stills:

I have a mini clip pinned to the top of my Twitter for the time being (as of 6/18/16) that I'll keep up for a few more weeks. I give more frequent updates on my work there, along with chiming in on general topics (current events, music, podcasts, comedy, etc).

Still lifes

Meyer Lemon

oil on wood in recycled, painted frame

varnished

total size 6" square

Pear

oil on wood in recycled, painted frame

varnished

total size 6" square

Kiwano, Lemon, Apple

oil on 8" square canvas, black painted wood frame

varnished

You will find these at Local Colour Boutique in Arlington VA.  More will be coming in both oil and acrylic. All work will be cycled out with a new set at the start of June and July, and also to replace pieces whenever they sell. Depending on the general size allotment (the nightscape posted from the other day is considerably larger than the suggested guidelines) I may be bringing a couple more at the end of the week. 

Here's one in progress in acrylic . It has a flatter, more linear style. I think I need to work with what acrylic does instead of fighting it. 

"Twice Upon A Time" (48 Hour Film Project)

I received a pleasant surprise today: The new and longer edit from my team's entry (Aura Media Productions) to last summer's 48 Hour Film Project competition in Washington, DC.

The film project is part of a worldwide competition. The spirit of this contest is about promoting a sense of can-do urgency in filmmakers.  They are challenged to conceptualize and complete a short feature in an assigned genre, in very limited time frame. From what I had observed, the adventure of submitting an entry by deadline eclipsed any direct competition between teams.

There are a few "catches" in order to prevent filmmakers from jumping ahead of the gun.  There are secret, surprise elements that are revealed to all the teams at the start of the 48 hour filming period. All these elements must be incorporated into the film. Last year they were:

Character	Samuel or Samantha (Sam) Canterbury, Event Planner
Prop	an envelope
Line	"You can trust me."

The director pulls the assigned genre out of a hat:

•    Comedy

•    Dark Comedy

•    Drama

•    Film Noir

•    Film de Femme

•    Fish Out of Water

•    Horror

•    Musical or Western

•    Road Movie

•    Romance

•    Sci Fi

•    Silent Film

•    Thriller/Suspense

•    Time Travel

We got "comedy" with parody as the sub genre. So a parody of a fairly tale was crafted: Twice Upon a Time.

My contribution had a limited but visible role in the longer cut of the film. My artwork was in the background inside of wicked Samantha Canterbury's castle dwelling. In reality, the castle dwelling was the director's condo building party room that can be rented out for resident events. I took down much of the designer match-y art already on the walls and hung as much work as I could bring, mostly on the entertainment shelves for big screen tv watching. (We took down and/or hid all the electronics.)

Veronika Downes as Samantha Canterbury in "Twice Upon a Time" copyright 2014 Aura Media Productions

For this, I was given a Production Design credit. There were other visual artists on this team who shared this credit. They stayed up late creating the pencil portraits and other art in the magic book, and in the background of the final credit roll. 

In the competition, the run of the entries must be capped at seven minutes. A lot of footage gets left behind in editing, and my own art was pretty much a brief blur. I was a little disappointed, but considering the hard rules of the contest. I had figured getting edited out could be a possibility.

No, we didn't win....but I'm glad to see Aura Pro Media took the time to re-edit the footage for the original seven minute entry to a piece (in this cut, seventeen minutes) that better reflects their vision. In this one you can see much more of my artwork, as well as the rest of the crew's contributions, and a more developed storyline. 

I was impressed with the friendly but no-nonsense hard work and cooperation of everyone on set: Director Stephanie Cristancho, Producer James Lewis, the actors, the film crew, the hair and makeup artists, the wardrobe coordinator, the catering, and those who doubled their duties with providing transportation early and late hours to the rest of the cast and crew. My first experience on a film set was a positive one, and I would enjoy more opportunities to contribute my artwork in ways that would be of service. 

Here is the (approximate) seventeen minute version of the short film:

Dreamscapes, Sea and Space (April 2015)

Here's more of completed "dreamscape" drawings worked with color and collage.

Both are acrylic ink, watercolor, and collage drawings on recycled, painted frames.

12.5" w x 16"h

                                                                      14"w x 17" h

soundless portion preview to comedy bit "Diagnosis: Depression"

EDIT/UPDATE 11/01/2017 soundless no longer! Here's an updated post with audio accompaniment
http://jeannehospod.blogspot.com/2017/10/animated-videos-recent-past-and-more-uh.html

My portion of the animation (sound omitted for the preview) collaboration that will accompany David Huntsberger's Comedy/Animation Stand Up special. The live performance was recorded at the New Movement Theater in Austin, Texas on November 15th, 2014.

(BTW - I had a fabulous time at the live show at The New Movement Theater in Austin, and met so many cool talented people! David, the film crew, the prop artists, and the animation team were a pleasure to work with. I'll follow up with links to the other animators in an upcoming post.)

Curious what all this imagery is about? Want to hear David  Huntsberger's comedy standup? Want to see more of the other amazing animation work by the rest of David's team, (thanks to the supporters of the Kickstarter that made this project possible?) The official DVD and download will be available for sale (approximately) by the summer of 2015.

See www.davidhuntsberger.com  for updates.

Life Sized Figure Painting (with some camp and metaphor)

This piece lightened up both in pallette and mood from my original concept to the finished result. It was darker and more somber in my sketches. I don't mind the change, but would like to try variations of my original idea and sketches in future figure work. It certainly is seasonally appropriate.

(Edit/update: My goal was to have this ready for a show I'm hanging in Arlington. However, there is an issue that the piece may be too big and a safety issue to hang. After sleeping on it, I'm thinking the piece lacks something in a flow. I'm going to take it back home today and try to take it to a resolution that works for me.)

oil on wood

84"x28.5"

Night Scene 2, interrupted & concluded

oil on canvas 20" x 20"

This started as one of several on-scene night landscapes I've been working on lately. My plan was to work on this start to finish from direct observation. Unfortunately, I had a major disruption that kept me from being present on location to complete it. I had to use my backup photos and improvisation to conclude it.

I'm still debating whether to tweak it a bit more or not. The color is a bit much for me, could be toned down For right now, I'm just going to let it be.

I'll describe the disruption, as I've been trying to get the word out for my neighborhood's safety. The usual places that would publish this kind of incident aren't taking much note of it, despite my efforts (so far, anyway).

Here in Shirlington, a small and upscale neighborhood with a village of boutiques, fine dining and bars is considered to be an extremely safe area  in terms of crime stats. For night owls, it is very easy to be comfortable with  late night grocery errands, walking/running/working out on the nearby outdoor trail fitness equipment , and wandering to and from the bar scene. I felt very safe painting some views nearby when the sun went down. I'm fond of the look of artificial light on natural scenery outside. It has a sort of lonely drama to it.

Sometimes I do get interrupted when I work, but mostly just dog walkers and a couple of semi buzzed patrons leaving the village. I'm not crazy about that, but the attention is usually benign. Generally, the most I've had to deal with are unsolicited critiques, or someone who wants to bend my ear about art when I try to show with my body language I really need to focus on my work. 

So I was doing my 3rd session on this scene and it got to a point where the canvas was really saturated with oil and not taking any fresh color without mushing and muddying so I packed it up and thought I'll finish up with a final visit later before the foliage changes.

I was kneeling on the ground  over my bag of paints when I heard a man's voice directly behind me.

"What are you doing?" As I noticed out of the corner of my eye his legs were very close to my back, I felt him touch the back of my upper arm. 

I stood up and whipped around quickly and was about a foot away from a man facing me with a 4"-5" knife held low but pointing at me. He softly said to come with him and "everything will be ok". I glanced and saw a vehicle idling in the street, door open. I was blank, numb and staring, but unfortunately not really taking in his features or what he was driving in much...was focused on the knife.

(This I know: 5'7"-ish, Hispanic, black short hair, clean shaven, medium build, late 20's/early 30's--oh, and the location was Taylor and Arlington Mills Drive, across from Four Mile Run trail and creek This all went down around 1:30am -ish on 10/19)

My mace was well buried in my pocket, in my key chain holster so it wasn't helpful. He repeated to just come with him and there won't be any problems. 

I leaned my body like I was going to go with him, then bolted as in the opposite direction to the 24/7 grocery a few blocks away, screaming "MURDER-RAPE" at the top of my lungs. I didn't turn to see if he was following until I got to a more populated street several blocks later. I didn't see him. From there I jogged to the grocery store up another block and called the police.

I understand I didn't look like a typical Shirlington resident at the time. I'm dressed for work with paint, shabby clothes, dirty hands, etc. The police seemed skeptical and asked me to repeat my story several times stopping at details as if to catch a discrepancy, asked for my ID (which I expected) and then my social security number (which I didn't expect..never had that experience when I had reported apartment neighbors domestic brawling/other criminal disruptions in Austin, TX--maybe it's procedure here in VA? Tell me in the comments if you know). They appeared to have swayed to the notion that I might be credible as I continued with my consistent report. Appeared to.... might be...

I had about 300 bucks worth of oil paint in my art bag, plus painting, easel and cart left behind and I needed to get it. They seemed reluctant to escort me or deal with that inconvenience, but they eventually got a younger officer to retrieve it. I do appreciate that they spared me from having to even consider returning to the scene . I would have had to get a cab to idle there with my sister accompanying me I suppose. Or just let the supplies and work go untill sunrise and risk someone hauling it off.

I was assigned a case number but I have not seen it up on the Arlington police daily crime reports.I passed the word on to my apartment staff so they could get the word out to my neighbors.  I've tweeted info to different Arlington/Shirlington handles and emailed DC metro news agencies and so far, again no response. (UPDATE 10/23- The local DC metro Fox and NBC affiliates got in touch and filmed spots regarding the incident. Also, a detective from Arlington Police department gave me a call earlier this evening.)That bothers me, because especially during this time of year, it would be good to alert fellow Shirlington residents, patrons, and employees not to be lulled into a false sense of security.

Anyone with a large Arlington/Shirlington/DC metro area following please link this story to your followers. Thanks.

Oh, yeah...and I sort of lost my taste for painting outdoor night scenes for the time being. I have a few balcony images I'll still sort out but that's about it. I'll take more advantage of the fall colors in sunlight this season.

Night Scene-conclusion

You may have seen this in earlier stages a while ago on this blog.

A scene outside my old apartment in Austin.

I had previously left it in a state that wasn't quite resolved when I was suddenly dealing with a myriad of personal/family issues and lost focus. I put it away hoping I could bring it to some resolution in the future.  Right now I'm working on several night scenes of trees around Arlington.  Having  recent practice observing and interpreting similar artificial night lights on nature scenes gave me some confidence to give this one a final workover.

oil on panel 2 ft. high by 3 ft. long

Black and White Dreamscape Compilation, Framed

One of the pieces I'll be presenting at Northside Social at the end of the month. This is a collection of older dreamscape work. I thought the images resonate well with each other as a group, and that this presentation has a sort of non-linear anti-comix like narrative.

Total size: 45"long  x 35"wide.

Individual images: 9"long x 7"wide

India ink on acid free paper

White archival ink on black acid free matboard.
white acrylic painted wooden recycled frame
covered with uv acrylic protective "glass"

Self Portrait-Summer into Fall, Near Dusk

oil on canvas 24"x48

(added edit: here's the progression of some of the sessions)

Announcement: Solo Show

I just wanted to mention that I will be having a solo exhibition of my work at Northside Social up at the end of the month (I'll be hanging the work on the 28th, but all pieces should be up by Halloween if not sooner).

It will be a mix of both my observed work in oil: still life, figurative and outdoor paintings, and my "dreamscape" decorative, patterned, symbolic stream of consciousness body of work. They both serve important but usually separate veins of expression. There is actually an experimental work underway that does combine both ways of working (to be posted soon). That said, I'm untroubled if these styles resist overlapping. Those concerns are more about galleries wanting a marketable brand.

Currently, I'm mostly working on the work from observation, but there's a lot of framing of the dreamscape work (mostly ink/watercolor on watercolor paper) to finish up too. For those pieces, the frame becomes an integral extension of the design and concept of the piece. I've found and collected quality vintage frames from thrift stores (and some left over from the family homestead) that I sand and repaint as well as the acid free mat/mounting board, then add a uv acrylic cover (I don't like to use glass for all the risks of damage). Here's a couple of examples of work (painted in 2011-2012/frame & embellishments 2013 that recently were shipped to my fellow friends/collectors back in Austin. (Thanks Terri & Border!)

By November, I'll be putting up a page of what is for sale at Northside, with photos of new work and the newly enhanced older pieces and prices.

Legacy: Casimir

acrylic and acrylic ink on assembled recycled wood panels and steel frame

17"x 17"

details

Still life - Asian Pear and Skull Cloth

8"x 10" oil on canvas

I had a smaller companion piece, but disposed of it after painfully reworking it to no satisfaction too many times  That's frustrating, but there's a time to let it go. When I was younger I had the issue of starting too many things (though energetic and enthusiastic about various works) I couldn't or didn't finish. I now prefer to see work resolved if there is any way it can be done. Sometimes it can't, or I can't. 

Upload in a day or two on a dreamscape for a young child.

Dreamscape 2/19/13

acrylic on recycled assembled wood panels

approximately 6"x 6"

Had a blast.

The viewing part of the listening and viewing party did not go as planned, but it was lots of fun nonetheless. The videographer shot scenes of both the furries and regular party goers which I will link when available. As you see I did manage to get some painting done last night.  Tonight I will catch up on a portrait  and continue to plan the second animation.

Listening/Viewing Party This Thursday!! 10/28

 Party this Thursday with The Boxing Lesson hosting at The Side Bar! Lots of fun..
 Party starts at 10pm
 Listening Party for the recent release, (and viewing for the video One, animated by yours truly) Fur State starts at 11pm
to be followed by a live performance of the upcoming release, Possibilities.




Costumes, mad props and more! Dress as a furry and be in an upcoming video for Fur State!
Like the animation, you too can be a flying kitty (or squirrel, or bear, or sloth, you get the picture) in a Topo Chico cardboard spacecraft. And rock out  with Jaylinn Davidson's (keyboardist from TBL) mad mad props.

Some pics from our arts and crafts, or as Jaylinn puts it "Farts and Rafts" night.

link for more detailed info:   http://theboxinglesson.fanbridge.com/campaigns/show.php?id=670097&sid=85226665