Y'know, women never really faint

Hi blog

So i spent the weekend drawing and listening to music. My two favourite things. I was working on another piece, this was an 2minute inbetween sketch. hopefully be able to share the other thing soon :)

A.

Colours Sketches

Dear blog, Im back in sunny Adelaide. Working with the lovely kids at PRA. Crazy year hey? Adelaide-Brisbane-Melbourne-Adelaide. Ummm so Im house sitting for a friend for a couple of weeks, and he has a cintq. Its so nice to play with. here are a few little sketches, studies and ideas from the last few nights.

Look i know my studies are always as ugly as sin... colour study, from one of my favourite speakers at melbourne semi permanent- Day 19

day 19.

In other news, the company I was working for in Melbourne has officially closed down for good. If you are in the Australian entertainment industry and in need of a union, we have found Alliance to be very helpful.

Love

A.

The Nature of our Industry

I am currently employed in a large animation studio with over 100 colleagues. Mid last week a large majority of the studio I work at was stood down without notice, myself included, for a yet to be defined amount of time. It was explained by the owner to us in a brief meeting. I think that it is ok for me to mention this here as it seems like it was a story that was spread quite quickly amongst people in the Australian animation industry (i received messages from 2 friends in other states half an hour after the meeting saying that they heard about it.)

I dont think it appropriate to talk about the specifics of how this came to be or to blame any specific cause, but I would like to talk briefly about a phrase that was uttered during the meeting. "The nature of our industry".

It seems to be accepted that people in our industry can be treated differently than those in others. Perhaps its the perception that we are "lucky" to work in our profession. Perhaps it is a lack of a unified body or union. Im not really sure, but I very much doubt that if you stood down dozens of people without notice in other office that it would considered par for the course.

I dont think that the industry can thrive while the people working in it are mistreated. Seniors will retire early into different fields, juniors will be disillusioned, and with the creative quality compromised as a result the demand from clients will decline. I do not accept that the industry has to be this way, and hope that I never facilitate it doing so.


I am hopeful that I will be able to work with talented people on bay st again soon.

If you are involved in the situation and feel that this post in inappropriate please email at afgrigg@gmail.com

Love Alex.

Muggers

All right, so they werent muggers, but I got attacked by some nutters at the train station last night. One second a woman was asking me for change, the next her and her boyfriend were trying to kick the shit out of me. fortunately they were realatively harmless and i was fine. I did some sketches when i got home. the woman in the bottom right was based on one the nutters.

Also, every wednesday lunchtime some guys at work run.a sketch jam called in 1800. It basically stands for in eighteenhundred seconds (half an hour) and requires you to draw something under a set theme in that time. This week's theme was undead farm animals. My submition wasnt very inspired.
next week im going to try and figure out how to get pressure sensitivity to work on my machine.

Love
Alex

Splish Spash whip lash

sup blog.

A playblast sketch from today.

Love Alex

Train Sketches

Hi Blog,

Soooo as I mentioned in my last post, work is really sapping my time so I dont have a lot of time for personal work. The main drawing time i get at the moment is on the short train ride to and from the studio.

These are a couple of the sketches Ive done on trains of commuters in the few months since I've moved to Melbourne. All about 30seconds to three minutes. Hopefully I'll be able to share something more substantial with you soon!


oh and thank you to everybody who's checked out Cat Piano on vimeo. Its got an amazing response, something that I know all the crew is very excited about. it got over 100thousand views in its first 10days and has been featured on a number of very cool sites. Another cyber hi-five to the architects Ari Gibson, Eddie White, Makoto Koji and Jason Pamment for making everything happen :)
Love Alex

Cat Piano Hits the Internetssss

Heya blog,

You can now officially stop bootlegging your copies of the Cat Piano and start watching the Hi Fidelity Official version on Vimeo.



If you arent familiar with the kids who worked on it, please check out the blogs of fellow cat kids Makoto Koji, Benni "D" Drake, Jason Pamment, Leath Mattner, and of course the People's Republic of Animation website.

Work has been pretty much consuming every waking moment for the last month so I havent got much new work to share with you. soo I thought I'd share some of the things that have been inspiring me lately (just to make sure this blog keeps kicking yo.)

Music Vid for NewZealand badboys of punk/indie/pop- The Mint Chicks

Animal Collective. My newest musical obsession. These guys have released what is easily one of my favourite albums of the year- Merriweather Post Pavilion. Its been on loop on my stereo for the last month or so.

An unofficial music video for super tight band Grizzly Bear, created by Gabe Askew



A simply wonderful short student film by Lois Van Baarie


Off the Planet cool Video Created for Drawing Black Chalks by NitroCorpz


Also music related, a great double album I picked up this weekend- Dark Was the Night. Completely amazing, crammed with some of the most interesting american artists around at the moment. Listen to a few tracks HERE. And the official website-HERE

not enuff for you? check out yayayeveryday for a stream of uberwicked inspiration.
Last and unfortunately least is a little doodle i did tonight. Inspired by the Australian super kids Dappeled Cities

talksoon

A.

Tea Towel Designs for Little Scout

Heya blog,

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by the very cute kids in Little Scout to do a tea towel design for them.
Between starting my new job and finding a place to live I made these two ideas.
The first one won out. We might use the second for a gig poster or something later on.

I had a lot of fun making these, hope you like.

Love A.

Fresh scars for old wounds.

So blog.

A few little tid bits of information.
Firstly, I got a new job working in Melbourne as a character animator. Its like a proper salary delio, so that means much less freelance for the medium term. Hopefully I'll be able to keep doing illo work for peeps though. I leave on Wednesday, and start on Monday. Big thing for me!!!
Secondly, Im not doing the DZ cover art anymore. The wolf pic above was my last submission to them, but as its no longer getting used I am sharing it. Check out they're latest release here. you can also get a taste of some of hype they've been getting lately.
Thirdly, I just wanted to say I am glad that I have been blessed with such lovely friends here in Brisbane. I am going to miss them all a lot. they are all loving, patient, and inspiring and I appreciate them with all of my heart.



much love

A.

Im Back!`

Heya blog,

Sorry for not posting in ages! My trip was completely amazing. I really hope we get another chance to go to Annecy again.


A little montage the festival put together.(Stick Around For the Interviews!)

Here are a few of the drawings I did while there (I did a lot of observational stuff, but I'll share those in a future post:))







Colours slapped on this arve,

Hope you like.
Love lots

Alex

Annecy 2009

Annecy-The trademark Prison



Ari and Ed, Directors

Dear Blog,

Im in france at the moment to Support our film- The Cat Piano at the worlds leading animation festival- Annecy. Needless to say, the experience is amazing.

There is about 7000 people attending the festival which is set in the alps about 4 hours train from Paris. the town it self is beautiful, Very old french/swiss buildings, winding streets, and pressed against a turquoise blue lake. The atmosphere is incredible here. I cant imagine anything better- thousands of friendly, like minded people, mind blowing scenery and the worlds most cutting edge films.

Im just about to start my third day of the festival. The highlights so far have been seeing the european premiers of Pixars film Partly Cloudy and Henry Sellicks new masterpiece Coroline.

This internet cafe is shoddy, so its hard to share photos. hopefully i will find a better one!

Until then,

DZ Shirt Design

soo this is kinda the final design for DZ. there were a few tweaks i wanted to do, but I had to leave them.
Also, i got my business card printed. great success. If you are a brisbane kid, use king of print. Their customer service is pretty crap, but the product is great and cheap.

Storyboard Studies. And a note on talent.

I have no innate talent for storyboarding, but it something I enjoy greatly. These are are some studies done this morning to take my mind off things.Theres no way for me to explain how excited the Where the Wild Things Are trailer made me. It brings together so many things that resonate with me. An amazing director who inspires me beyond words, a fantastic story, and genius music. the cynic in me would suggest that all of this is to much of a coincidence, that some genius marketing department has cooked all this up in their pot- a magic potion that will effortlessly achieve cult film status. but the truth is that i dont care, because i am not a cynic at heart. I am excited that so many talented people were given the chance to make the film.
if you are interested in film stills, for study or otherwise, check out Framefilter. A great collection, regularly updated by cal arts graduate and dreamworks storyboard artist.

To expand on my mention of innate talent (a very controversial topic in creative circles)-
I don't have innate talent for anything i do in creative fields. This is not a designed self-deprecating statement, it is a realisation that i came across years ago and has so far helped me immensely in my development. There are people that have innate talent, ideas and concepts come to them, lines flow effortlessly from their pencil. I have worked and studied with these people, and they are truly inspirational. In contrast to them everything I do is a battle. From start to finish. Despite this, I have so much energy for what I do, and I think this goes a long way to compensate for what I lack.
I would be interested in how you feel about talent, Im sure there are some strong opinions out there.

New Business Card

So its been coming for a fair while.These are the front and back of my new card. I would have liked to get a Die Cut, but there isnt enough time to print them before I leave the country. Im not a designer, so this stuff is hard for me. Hope you dig it! (sorry i know that "hello!" is a bit tacky, and has been done. but i originally had "FUCK yeah!" and it seemed a little strong)

vanity.!.

Heya blog,
so ive known you for a while, and it occurred to me that Ive never shown you my face. i think its time to take it to the next level...Just a stupid pic for another site.


Annnnnd something with crazily cliche' subject matter, but hopefully not too boring. Havent really done serious cell shading for a while. i like the limitations. *(slightly updated image based on some ideas offered over at SatelliteSoda.com)
Love Alex

jizzjazz

A couple of procrastination sketches done today.

SPACE WASPS!!!!!!! theres no escape!!


and another loose study based on a very dapper man on Facehunter. With some liberties taken on the treatment. You can probably tell by now. I Love Half tone.


Also, a couple of things that have inspired me over the last few days, largely via Boooooooom.
an amazing live video from lykki li

A really fun Music Video from a french band Naive New Beaters. The song isnt my scene, but the vid is!

???removed due to lameness (the first time ive ever done this, but the pic just really annoyed me!)



and an infamous Justice video following a youth gang through the streets of paris. violent and haunting.

New Reel.

So, Its new reel time! Hopefully there will be some dialog in there soon!



Love Alex!

Jump Animation, Second Pass

Thank you very much for the helpful advice guys. Ive tried to address it the best i could.



Ryan? Which ryan are you? Ryan K? haha, i couldnt stalk you to find out, but all of the advice was great. I would love to hear what you think of the new version (i know its not radically different, but hopefully its...better) :)

Alex