Jimmy the Head Monster

*update 2.15.11*

A couple more hours tonight, I mostly concentrated on his left arm, hand, all those lovely wrinkles, and a bit of his chest...I love how just when I think he can't get any creepier, i add a little detail and it make it all the more disturbing. And I kept Jerry busy, as he figured out a very clever way to mold the eyeballs for me out of urethane plastic. Can't wait to get those babies painted and insert them into Jimmy! (This is our first attempt at making eyeballs, let alone really tiny ones, so I'm taking work-in-progress pictures as we go and I will post them all together when they are done) Oh yah, I couldn't just call him head monster anymore, so I nicknamed him Jimmy.

*update 2.13.11*
A few more hours on this guy, i concentrated a lot on his face and head. And added the most important part- nipples!

So this little guy only has about 2 or 3 hours of sculpting into him so far and doesn't have a name yet, but that doesn't mean he doesn't already have a destiny! My good friend and collaborator Vince is the mean mug you see set in plaster there. He endured a tortuous hour or so of us putting goo, goo, and more goo all over his head in order to replicate his impressively large noggin.

As i had mentioned in a previous post, I have grown terribly bored with zombies. Of creating them as well as writing about them or seeing them in movies.

So in a tribute to the era of monsters like Basketcase, Vince and I have been cooking up a feel-good film featuring him and his unfortunate life with his little head monster. The idea is to either figure out some simple animatronics or rig some puppetry to make some disgusting spastic movements, although I have no experience in doing either. Yet another new skill to learn! Woo!

When I had sculpted the head, I was working so up close and concentrating that when I pulled back and took a look, I actually creeped myself out so I take that as a good sign. I like where this is going, but it still needs tons of work and the devil is always in the details, so I will post progress pics! But I can't wait for the glass eyes and mini sharp teeth!

DON'T YOU LOVE WHEN THIS HAPPENS...

PRESTON BLAIR ANIMATION 1:

Just some scribbles based on the book. Trying to learn volume, perspective, and develop an eye for proportion and detail. I will eventually post the pages of the book to go with it, but my scanners too tiny and I'm feeling lazy about piecing the pages together...

SOME ARTISTIC WISDOM

"You start drawing with your brain, but aim to draw from the heart. That doesn't happen instantly. You have to first absorb the knowledge slowly and then forget about it and let your pencil be guided by your subconscious. Not easy, and it hurts to go through the stiff period. A lot of lesser men give up during the stiff beginnings of learning something new and that's a dirty shame. Take the pain and shame like a man and get over it. You'll be so happy when your new knowledge becomes second nature. Otherwise, you will be stuck, a slave to formula for life and unhappy, maybe even without knowing why? That pain and shame is essential to your progress. Embrace it. Kick the walls if you have to. But get back to the drawing board and force that stiff information into your head. Then lay awake nights obsessing over it. That's your tax for being gifted."
- John K.

This struck me as a profound statement.

On one hand, it makes me sad to think about how much time I've wasted being disappointed that my "natural" drawing abilities weren't everything I want them to be and that I convinced myself somewhere along the line that I couldn't possibly learn this ability, like you either had it or you didn't. It also makes me angry to admit that I was defeated in my "stiff period" because there wasn't anyone around to kick me and tell me to keep going and that it would get better.

On the other hand, what better inspiring words from someone that will outwardly admit the parts of drawing and animation that he still struggles with and what through hard work, dedication, and focus can actually do to improve and hone your "natural" abilities.

I would be less inclined to believe it if I hadn't been stalking John K through his blog and listening, learning, and demonstrating everything he says to and actually figuring out simple things about drawing that apparently my 27 years and 4 years of college didn't teach me.

Fuck it. Let's do this.

I've already been sketching a lot and will post results soon.

MOMENTS LIKE THESE MAKE ME SMILE...

Ok, so this is pretty old news, but i just found this again and it still astounds me....

For my newer crowd, i'll catch you up to speed- a friend of mine and I started a horror photography company back in 2007 called They Walk By Night Productions, back before any asswad with an iphone and fake blood thought taking scaaaary pictures was cool...it's originally how i got into doing fx makeup. If you are interested in checking out our photos, most of them are on my website under my FX portfolio www.morgue-anne.com

So we handed out hundreds of stickers and postcards to promote our website that looked like this:

About two years and change later, I get a hysterical call from my friend Nicole, the model in this picture, saying that this guy friended her on myspace because he got her TATTOOED on him.

Behold!
She didn't know whether to be freaked out or feel honored, but i thought it was pretty fucking bad-ass, especially because it was a complete stranger that decided our art was iconic enough to be on him forever.

Morgue Anne: THE CARTOON!

CHARACTERS SPAWNED THUS FAR!

ME! (of course)
Peppertin- My ASS-istant
MY ABOMINABLE CREEEEATION!!!

JOHN K. - MY NEW HERO

Who doesn't remember rushing home to watch nick toons? Back in the golden age of nickelodeon, with all their boundary-pushing cartoons and action-packed Mike O'Malley game shows, there would be few among us who doesn't revere Ren & Stimpy as simply one of the best cartoons of all time.

Now years later, as I attempt to delve into the world of animation, a craft that I have the utmost respect for...my endless internet browsing has inevitably led me back to one man: John K, the creator of Ren & Stimpy.

While looking for animation tutorials, resources, and college courses, I stumbled across this website named ASIFA (The Hollywood Animation Archive) claming a "$100,000 animation course for FREE"! Best case scenario I was expecting tons of pop ups ads or one of those fake search engines with a bunch of bogus links.

"$100,000 ANIMATION COURSE FOR FREE!"

The introduction said it all...schools are a waste of time and a shit ton of money, and anything you need to know you can learn from Preston Blair's book "Animation" which you can purchase for $8. And who's advice is this? JOHN K! HOLY CRAP!

The following pages are his personal lessons to those daring to try them and post their results for him to critique. This gesture struck me as something not just rare...but practically non-existent in today's world. As someone that has consistently offered my services for free or to teaching anyone that wants to learn what I know, I can tell you there's only really one reason that anyone would offer this without monetary reward: out of a pure love of their craft. So started my true intrigue of John K...

He also offers a link to his personal blog to follow, where it's just a GOLDMINE of inspiration- from tutorials to doodles to vintage comics and toys to his silly t-shirts.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/

Upon further stalking on his imdb profile, John K is a pretty infamous animator. He was fired for making a drug reference in the remake of the Mighty Mouse cartoon, then practically tricked Nickelodeon into buying into Ren & Stimpy, and calls Walt Disney the "blandest human on the planet" and that he ruined animation. He also blames Bambi and Lady in the Tramp for the "furry" fetish and regularly rants about how hippies destroyed modern entertainment.


"I just knew at the regular networks there was no way in the world they would buy my stuff undiluted. So I diluted it. I hid the Ren and Stimpy characters, surrounding them with a bunch of kids in a show called 'Your Gang.' And I made up a bogus pitch about it being socially conscious. I tricked 'em! I told 'em it was going to be unfunny; that it would be wiggly lines, nobody would be able to follow the stories, and nobody could identify with the characters. And they said, `Oh! That's exactly what we want!' And I totally lied." - John K.

After just 8 episodes, he was fired from Ren & Stimpy and Nickelodeon for arguing not only script but technique. He'll even use the alias "Raymond Spum" when he acts, writes or directs in a cartoon that gets edited in a way that he feels ruins it and robs it of his "artistic vision...he cares! HE ACTUALLY CARES! It's his passion and pride...an artist with integrity! What a breath of fresh air!
...not to mention he is extremely knowledgable, incredibly talented, and absolutely crazy.

John K on the impact of The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991): "I think we are destroying the minds of America, and that's been one of my lifelong ambitions."

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

He makes me have hope for humanity :-)