Febuurruary

Well it's February.

In this chapter of my blog I'll be talking about my inspirations. In order of gained knowledge...

Craig McCracken - I got to know about him through the Power Puff Girls. I used to be a gigantic fan of the show. I went out and bought the bed spread, the plushies, school supplies and stickers. I loved everything and anything that had those lovable bug-eyed girls on it. My fourth favorite character had to be the talking cat. He was awesome.

Jhonen Vazquez - Aaah Jhonen. Just recently (date 2007) I had gotten signatures from him one on a Squee comic, and another on my drawing I did right at the San Diego comic convention. I've always been such a big fan. I just love his style, even if it was too narrow and pointy for my bubbly style. I really practiced hard to draw Zim Dib and GIR correctly. He gave me the realization of styles- and gave me courage to not only try others, but make my own.

Fred Quimby - A real inspiration with his Tom and Jerry shorts. Now, I know that the names might look mixed up to you, but I never really knew who created T & J until I started watching Invader Zim and appreciating the development of animation. Basically who created what and how. I looked back to T & J and saw Fred Quimby.

Chuck Jones - I looked back again and saw Chuck Jones. Not literally, but almost mentally. Chuck had gotten me hooked on Toons. The concept that cartoon characters are more than what they seem to be on the screen. With episodes like "A Star Is Bored" and "A Hare Grows In Manhattan".

Tom Ruegger/Jean MacCurdy - Okay, so they're not really animators, but they're directors and/or producers for Animaniacs. This would be the time that I discovered Animaniacs. Such a fun loving show, which not only got me interested into the actual process of Animation, but the know-how on writing and musical production. These guys (along with Richard Stone- RIP) have given me the inspiration to not only make music with a show, but apart of a show. Just like they had done.

Robert Zemeckis/Richard Williams - I have a love, great understanding, and appreciation for both of Robert and Richard's talent and imagination. The both of them seemed to me like butter and toast- perfect together in creating such an amazing look at cartoons. No cartoon fan-fiction, nor would most of the cartoons today would ever survive in a world without "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". The elements that made such a successful movie are so genuine. It simply can never be reproduced by computer. *cough*Out Of Jimmy's Head*cough*

Maxwell Atoms - self explanatory. No, I'm just kidding. But if you must know, I've always been a fan of The Grim Adventures, and I've watched every episode I could get my hands on. I also got his signature at Comic-Con.

John K. - The director/producer/creator of Ren and Stimpy. Ren and Stimpy is a cartoon that can be related to a mouse. You see it scurry across the floor, and you shriek or shout out in fear and shock. You go to great lengths to catch and kill it. Then you realize it's tame, and a pet mouse- and become attached to it. Well, that's what it was like for me anyway. ^-^; Besides that, I find his blog (linked on the side of the page) is really inspirational and very informative.

Bob Clampett - To me, there would be no Bob Clampett influence in my art if there never was a John K. to talk about him.

Tex Avery - This amazing guy came on board my inspirations when I revisited Roger Rabbit. I saw Droopy- slapped a hand on my head and let out a huge "DUUUUUHUH!" and did as much research as I could on his animations.

C.H. Greenblatt - An inspiration really. He inspired me for my full blown plan to take over Toon Town. He rose up from a story board artist, to a creator of his own show! How cool is that? Well, I could be very wrong. As I'm only a fan of small proportions for now... but I just adore his show Chowder. The comedy is physical, and verbal. "Radda radda radda!" is PURE GENIUS!

Of course, my friends are also a big inspiration to me. Friends make the world go round. I love them all- in uh, a friendly way. ^-^;

I'll probably add more later on in my life- and probably add more information on these guys too. But for now it's like this...

Greetings!

This is my first entry on my new blog. I wanted to do this because I wanted to document everything down in here that relates to my goal in life. Which is to become an animator. A great one too. ^-^

Right now I'm only sixteen years old, but I personally believe that the sooner you know what you want to achieve in life, the better. I really hope to break into the business soon, and grace the animation department with everything that I have to offer. I kinda sound awfully full of myself don't I? Ah well...

So I should probably start some explanations huh? Like; what I believe my inspirations are and I'm guessing all the way down to my characters...

Well, as a kid (we're talking from 2-7) I had no thought in my mind about picking up a pencil, and drawing a character like my Dad used to do oh-so many times. I never even knew what an cartoonist was. Not even an artist for that matter. All I knew was pretty moving pictures on the screen. I thought like that for the longest- longest time.

As I grew older we (the family) eventually got our own place. When I was eight, my life turned around with the touch of a few buttons. My interests went from Barbies and Furbies to Anime, and rightfully to plain western cartoons. Spongebob Squarepants was the first cartoon I saw (besides Disney stuff)- and yet the PPG series is what won my fandom. It began by tuning into every new episode, and then after buying a magazine, came the want to buy most of the merchandise.

Suddenly Cartoon Network did the most glorious thing in the world that changed my whole aspect of cartoons. They began to play Tom and Jerry shorts, which immediately lined up with the time of day when I was back home from school. I would go into the backyard, do some homework, then race to my grandmother's back room and turn on her TV. I would catch a very short glimpse of the Animaniacs, enough to watch the WB door closing on the characters. But those guys that had doors closed on them had nothin' on Tom and Jerry. I would watch Tom and Jerry for an hour, then walk home. It wasn't until I gained more control over the remote, that I saw a curious title next to it on the "Guide".

Looney Tunes was the name. Yep! I sat through Tom and Jerry, and had my eyes swell up into the world of Bugs Bunny and his pals. It had more words, and I realized it was somewhat less violent than Tom and Jerry. Soon I began shifting the schedule to come and watch Bugs and Daffy going at each other. Usually if the long-eared rabbit wasn't on, I'd flip the channel- sometimes on a rare occasion I'd flip the whole TV off.

Never once, in my entire knowledge of cartoon land that my grandmother's television provided, had I turned the channel to the Disney Channel. I never saw Darkwing Duck, never laid eyes on Chip and Dale, and certainly never saw Tale Spin. Some of you say I'm deprived, but I had the classics to satisfy me. I grew up on the old Spongebob, PPG, Dexter's Lab, and with classics like Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, and in the mornings I had Scooby Doo.

It wasn't until I started becoming more engrossed with the later showings that I learned about all the other cast members of LT. The only sad part about this is that I had no knowledge that Looney Tunes was ever ripped away off of Cartoon Network until I was fourteen. I was kind of lost in my own world, so now I feel like I left the Looney Toons cast behind. This phase was when I started to become more involved with the internet. I explored art sites, and I learned knowledge of Invader Zim, and webcomics like Bleedman's and Megatokyo.

I went into a slight depression when I found out that Invader Zim was canceled before I could even lay eyes on the show. But eventually it came to a point where it never really bothered me, so I drew the characters. The comic "Megatokyo" inspired me to make my own characters. I was even convinced I would make my own webcomic. But instead of that, Megatokyo kind of gestured me towards The Animaniacs, in which I caught a glimpse of the three's faces. I ignored it... again. Suddenly, after fanart central took a portion of my life, fanfiction.net became apart of it too. I explored the I.Z. section. Then when I saw that no more updates were being spit out every five seconds, I went to tread into another territory- the author's favorites.

Galaxy Dancer- my fan-art central "idol", connected me through FAC, to FF.net, to The Island Hopper; a fantastic author who wrote large stories, about a subject I had no clue about. I could only imagine 'Yakko' 'Wakko' and 'Dot' looked like. I had to settle my curiosity. I began my research, starting with Wikipedia. I looked at the Warner's faces and I could've sworn it was love at first sight. I began to go deeper into Yahoo, and I found Youtube. On Youtube, I found "Lookit The Fuzzy Heads" and from that moment on, I knew I was a major fan of the Warners. (date 2003)

See, basically, the show that had gotten me interested in animation period was Tom and Jerry. The thing that got me into animation development was, Invader Zim. Then Animaniacs got me interested in the quality/process of animation.

While on FF.net, I wrote out my IZ fan-fictions (which have been deleted for lack of descriptive creativity- nothing less nothing more), and then my Animaniacs fan-fictions. So when people sent me feedback on my Animaniacs fan-fictions (only three- two are visible on my account now), I became more involved with the community, and I greeted new commers with open arms. One of these "characters" happened to be my best internet friend; Sonja. She's a wonderful writer, and I've have had the wonderful opportunity to walk her through her writing, and her artwork.

In fact, through the long months (which have seemed like years) of being with her on FF.net another art site, and chatting on MSN- we both have become close friends. We both share our dreams, our passions, and our emotions with one another. It's one of the best (and only) long distance friendship I've had on the internet. We've sent video files, audio files, photos and pieces of artwork back and forth. We've both have been ultra supportive of each other, and have great respect for one another.

But my longest running online friend is Kelli. http://www.freewebs.com/elevatormusicinc/ She's also very awesome. x3

So I had a lot of people following me, I went off the radar after leaving FAC for FF.net at a point, but I got back on the chart when I went to Deviant Art. Unfortunately I've been blocked from the website, but I'm now- slowly- recovering.

And now I've joined the fun here! So, I hope to make some friends that have the same aspirations and likes and such. I also hope the stalkers have fun looking at all the art I have to offer...

Speaking of art, I'm guessing I should explain the character you see above the blog... her name is Catalina AKA Catty- sometimes Cat on rare occasion. She's a shy, worrisome, and sensitive girl. Her body and facial structure have actually changed drastically since the sketch- but I still love the expressions. She is the ideal character I would pick out if someone were to ask me what character I have that represents me. Catty is the one that goes along with two other characters I have. I'm being kinda A.D.D. and stupid for presenting her first, but her image was available first... :3

Enjoy!