A quick experiment using watercolor directly on animation bond paper. As expected, it is quite a challenge to create a wash thin enough that it is not immediately cause the paper to curl up. Overall, though, it worked a lot better than I had anticipated.

Here is a collaborative new short film called "Earth!", which was made last month at a Floating Shape Workshop event. On the eve of Earth Day 2018, we set up shop at my good pal Tara's Robot Inside (in their beautiful new storefront location). This was a free public/community event, so any child who came by had the opportunity to contribute to the film.

All that was prepared beforehand was the traditional animation in the beginning, before the cutouts were added. We used a very quick & simple set up as we only had two hours of time. It was a different format for a workshop than I have done before, but I really think it turned out well. The majority of the materials used in the film were of recycled and/or scrap paper.

J. Otto Seibold is trying to pitch an animated television show, based on the concept of a rock band called "Bubblesoap".

I am a big fan of the work of J. Otto Seibold. Back when I was working on my children's book "Tunnel-Ball", I had a very nice (online) conversation with Jotto about the art of picturebook making and the dramatic changes in the landscape of publishing today compared to the previous decades. I gave his most recent book, "Lost Sloth", to my nieces a few Christmases ago, which has became an instant classic to them (if you are reading this and are familiar with Seibold's books, don't worry, "Olive" was already a Christmas staple for them). Also, Black Francis read Lost Sloth. Does it get any better than that?

Here is the link to a Gofundme page to help support the endeavor to bring Bubblesoap to fruition. I would love nothing more than to see these characters animated, so I hope, at the very least, this will open the door to that in one capacity or another.

Here is the completed film from the children's animation workshop that I hosted last Saturday. It was one of a series of workshops that took place as part of the Inbetween Animation Festival (put on by the Cincinnati Film Society).

The workshop was a lot of fun and a lot was accomplished in just two hour's time. Registration for the event sold out, so almost twenty children (ages 7-15) got to participate, many of which were experimenting with animation for the first time. The new portable, lightweight lightboxes for traditional hand drawn animation (for future Floating Shape Workshop events) also made their debut, and were a big hit. On this same Vimeo channel, you can also see the flipbooks that we made & filmed during the workshop.

Also, as I was cleaning up the room from my workshop, my friend Tracy Miller-Robbins began setting up for her workshop which proceeded mine. It was called "Animated Drawings" (ages 16+), and she was hosted it with her husband Rob. They also do children's workshops together as well (Cartwheel Animation Studio). Check out the awesome results from their workshop, too ...

Found this old, unfinished painting in the studio recently. It was for the Bowie tribute at the Thunder-Sky gallery two years ago. I ended up going with other ideas (such a fantastic show!), but this was an idea to design a theatrical poster for "Life on Mars" (the show referenced in the song). Sidenote: how has it already been two years since the death of Bowie?