No. 97, An Iconic Image On a Good Day

A Good Day

As mentioned in my last post, No. 96, I went to the Drawtastic event last Saturday in West Seattle with the intention of promoting this blog and, as always, to crusade for drawing and for hand-drawn animation.  I paid a fee for a vendor's table, though I had nothing to sell for money, and I sat there all day just talking with the crowd, handing out my flyers, and doing some drawing at my portable animation desk.  It was time well spent.

At my vendor's table during Drawtastic. Photo by Tony White.

I talked with a teacher about her program of guiding high school students through the making of personal animated films.  With a very limited classroom schedule, what do you emphasize for them to accomplish? A certain length? A certain style?  No; to try to tell a story.

I talked with the caricaturist Nolan Harris about those cases where you just can't get a good likeness. It does happen!

I met a man whose son, also present, loves the old Jay Ward Rocky and Bullwinkle shows.  The boy is about ten years old. This gave me a little thrill, because I believe that a lot of kids today have no interest in any animation now considered as classic, which mostly is comprised of 2D animation. Jungle Book?  Awesome! (But they mean the CGI Jungle Book.)  Lion King? Oh, yeah, that's a Broadway musical, isn't it? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Ancient history. But meeting this boy gives me hope that perhaps I am being too cynical.

Among the guests, I met the animator Mike A. Smith, from Portland, Oregon, winner not only of Drawtastic's Golden Pencil Award for Best 2D Animated Film, but also, by audience vote, Best of the Fest. I had seen Mike's entry Cooped on Vimeo, and loved it, but I didn't get it that this guy was that animator until near the end of the day.  Mike works "paperless", drawing directly into his computer. That's something I have not been able to do, but Mike's work is proof that the results can be worthy indeed. Google "Cooped" and see for yourself.

A frame from Cooped, by Mike A. Smith

The Perfect Moment

The most magical moment of the day, however, was captured by a fellow vendor who got this candid shot of me with a young animation enthusiast.

Passing the lore to a new generation, perhaps. Photo by Morgan Krepky.

It's such a wonderful image, it just leaves me speechless.

Next:  Developing the movie poster for Carry On.