BUSY busy busy ^_^

Due to procrastination and a busy life I must now attempt to sum up the entire week (and a bit) in this one little entry, I may I'll break it into days like the other to make it easier for myself ... and you hopefully ^_^ here goes..

I'm afraid Monday to Thursday is a bit of a blur - But I'm sure it consisted of the usual combination of Cha visiting/ Taro drinking and general moseying around and wasting time. Thank god Friday sticks out, although starting out slow with an hour wait for the bus (the 222 is a difficult one to predict). You know your living in LA when it doesn't faze you to ride the bus with the incredible hulk in the morning - that would be a guy dressed up as the hulk, not Eric Banner... One of those hug worn costumers that looks like a combination of green spray paint and parts of the couch. We also got a little scare when a guy that was honked at decided to chase after us and hit the bus that KEPT breaking down!... not sure what broke in his mind to think he could take on a bus?? I walked across country to meet Shaun at Starbucks getting almost killed by a bike in the meantime (note to self, ALWAYS look before stepping of a curb, even if the little green man is beckoning you forward ^_^) My meeting with Shaun went great, even with the bizarre presence of the man sitting outside on a deck-chair complete with cup holder.

Later, getting lost downtown and finding an extremely elaborate movie shoot (complete with cranes) I picked up some art supplies, and ran into David and Rob as I made my way to Little Tokyo. I couldn't stay long so grabbed some yogurt for sustenance and caught the 92 to Glenoaks where I sorted through dust and broken wood for a decent frame at the 98c store.

Dave and I saw "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs" that night followed by Thai and a really long chat where I got some prezzies (so spoiled) which included Richard Williams animation survival guide - basically the bible of animation how to's ^_^ THANKS DAVE!!

Ok I'm tiring already so the rest will have to be an arrangement of carefully thought out dot points ^_^
Friday

Saturday
- Waited an Hour for the bus - again that 222 has it in for me... but I'll get the better of it next time muahaha
- First animation class, drew portraites of how we felt that morning, mine was held up! (as were a few of my pics :) Going to be in-betweening Aurora and the prince and his horse (to which I completely geeked out and squeeled like a big girl) - basically our teachers goal is to have us try for Disney in-betweening at the end of the course an get a job!
- Took three hours to get downtown to the sketch crawl, met Alina in the Bradbury building - (what an amazing place, like a giant fancy escher painting with detail in every corner, including the doorknobs! sketched for a while...
- Went to the markets - talked to a security guard while Alina was in the bathroom (poor guy looked like he had been driven insane by the many hours he has to spend outside the girls toilets EVERY day, had a laugh...
- Went back to Alina's and played piano while she got ready
- Dinner and drinks was at CHA and of course a looong chat
- Strolled down the road to Nucleus for the Terrible Yellow eyes opening - drew on the walls, talked to Brittney Lee, Kazu, Ben and Orion (Disney) had an excellent time - stayed till 11, had a street dance upon running into some of Alina's friends then got drinks and went home

Sunday
- Woke up early
- Alina picked me up for our 3 hour road trip to Salvank - a little replica of country Holland, complete with windmills and lots of friendly old people (so thats where they all went...)
- Strolled around the postcard village, begailed by dancing, the smell of applekirks (definitely spelt that wrong - basically a pancake in the shape of a tennis ball, drizzled with raspberry jam and icing sugar) in the air, smiling faces, ompahpah music. Had meatballs for lunch with saurkrout - not too bad, service was a little abrupt so I took a bunch of crackers and jams to make up for it!
- Explored every corner, browsed all the stores, wound up music toys, tried on viking hats and learnt a little more about Hand Christan Anderson.
- Had a pretzel for dessert, was almost forced into a buying a kookoo clock then tired and eyes just about popping out of our heads we made for the car and the three hour journey home.. to which I proved to Alina that I really do shutdown from 3:30 to 5 then am roaring to go till 2am the next morning!
- Had tea and yogurt for dinner then made my way home with some more videos and a sore belly...

Monday was another Cha day, which saw me catch up to some drawings, designs for the book and my website as well as starting and finished "The Dip" (another present from Dave) a book about Knowing when to quite and when to stick it out - a pretty good read if you stuck in a rut ^_^

Tuesday was my errand day
- Had another Rice triangle for breaky
- Went to Woodbury to ask whether I could use their animation tables- got pushed all around campus and left with still no answer
- Rode to Micheals to get a frame - jackpot! (got materials too)
- Back to ASIFA to check if it was open, met Steve the al knowing boss of the archives and practiced some volunteer work I'll be doing from now on (I'm thinking Saturdays) and looked over the fortune of materials and references they have on offer
- Back up to Burbank for a yoghurt stop then to the Council to FINALLY get my permit so I can draw on the street ^_^ then Library to print notes, taro for extra brain strength and onto Office works to get more supplies. On the way home I stopped by Ralphs for groceries (now officially looked like a bag lady - complete with pillow and made spagbowl for dinner - yum!

Wednesday was another Cha day, the highlight was managing to finally get my hands on Coraline!! woohoo so I watched that along with a few other you tube vids to round of the night.

PHew - if your still there, go get yourself some sort of food reward, you deserve it ^_^

Over and out
Lel





for more pics go to my facebook page

Thats freakin awesome! Your so gonna cry when you see this!!

Ok so it may be another long one - I'll try my best to sum up the last few days, but lets be honest, we all know I really stink at being brief... Not to mention I'm attempting to multi task by watching the MTV VMA awards at the same time as doing this which means I'm extremely distracted... honestly its taken me half an hour to write three lines...

Take 2 - its now the next day, I gave up last night at midnight when I fell asleep on my keyboard.
So where were we, I left of on Tuesday after my glorious debut volunteering for Siggraph and the next days spent at Cha. Thursday night was as always down at Priscilla's drinking tea and drawing with the gang, to which I discovered the barrister there wants to marry me and take home to meet his mum ^_^ Friday I made a trip to Studio city to Meet Shaun and Gary for an interview, the job will be a lot like the one I had at cartoon kingdom except a little less money and only teaching. I actually start training this friday for my two classes starting next week (lego and science... at least I wont have to wear a wig). It took me a while to get down there especially as I decided to walk from studio city - as always it looked a lot shorter on the map. I arrived sweating like crazy and tried my best to hide it as we went through the interview... thank god for long lasting deodorant ^_^
The interview went great and it was a pleasant journey home looking through cute little boutiques and chilling out at Bobaloca.

Saturday Howard and I got to know each other on the two hour trip to Victorville. We were set to join David for a picnic in the city as caricaturists. Howard started first while I grabbed some free food (meat smothered in sauce, beans, bread and corn - thank god I brought something green) then I joined him at 12 and David followed at 1. I was a little nervous as it was my first time doing heads and bodies, but after some really positive feedback and a lot of fun I'm seriously eager to do it again!

Sunday Alina picked me up early to go to the county fair. Imagine the Easter show minus the showbags. The air was cool when we stepped out of the car and the sky dark with the look of ominous clouds rolling in (it was great!) but as always it fined up as we made our way around the park, cheering on pigs at the races, pretending to be cowgirls at the horse barrel competitions (I actually responded with this after a guy knocked a barrel over - GO steve! don't worry cowboy, shake it of, YEEHA!) ^_^

We also strolled through the safari, patted baby animals, rode the sky line, chowed down on smoked corn and were all set to go for a GIANT turkey leg until I was told it cost 10 bucks! We cleverly avoided the most other fair cuisine which included deep fried twinkies, oreos, zuchinies, chees burgers and more! NO wonder people are fat here!

Well thats all for now

Until next time ^_^



Good times ^_^

Its a Mystery!!

Warning: The entry includes strong language

Ok, momentary freak out, thought I lost my date book, I'm not saying its in my list of things to take with me in case of fire, but as my life seems to be getting increasingly busy I do need it for past and future event co-ordination ^_^

I would also like to add a note early in this entry as most of you may not reach the end - I've had a few emails recently that tell me your trying to "catch up" and life is too busy.. Its not a mystery novel people, there's no plot twists, over reaching plot developments or cliff hangers. Just read what ever entry is at the top and you should be ok...

Right, now that thats been said, we can move onto my fabulous life that I know your all vicariously living through (she jokes pathetically).

Monday was extremely educational, Alina and I spent around 5 hours wearing the soles out of our shoes stumbling around LACMA. Imagine all the museums and galleries in Sydney and combine them into one uber museum situated in the downtown area of LA. There was all sorts of cool things to look at, like the giant Tupperware sculpture outside (long lines of Tupperware dangling from the ceiling that you could walk through). We started out in the Pop art section, browsing everything from Warhole to who knows... I think the main criteria for pop art is it has to be HUMONGOUS (love that word) Honestly you could have a blow up toy crocodile stuffed through a ladder (which we actually saw) but as long as its bigger than a car its considered art... The only really cool thing was the Giant doll house... the only thing worthy of being huge, and the biggest 20 dollar bill... but only because it had a little person on it moving around and painting the white house.

Then it was of to the Pompey exhibit.. making fun of hermaphrodite sculptures and others with little pointy penis's and GIANT testicles ^_^ I started this fun little game were we had to make up a caption for each sculpture and painting... We tried to do another building but after making it round the first floor (and seeing a hysterical Dracula silent film) we conked out and had to recuperate outside in the courtyard.

Later that afternoon we had fun moseying around a little area with cool galleries and book stores, then met a friend of hers for dinner at a sleek indonesian restaurant nearby.

Tuesday's highlight was my volunteer work at Siggraph down in the LA film school. We were thanked profusely for helping place biscuits on a tray then spent the rest of the night FREEZING OUR ASSES OF inside the theatre watching 3D animation shorts and adds contributed by some of the worlds best independent and major studios and film makers. One of my faves was "French Roast" I suggest you youtube it if you've never heard of it, the character design work is amazing!! I also loved this really creepy one of a little girl that gets turned into a doll and of Course Partly Cloudy by PIXAR. There was also this brilliant add for the convenience of a particular credit card that showed a guy going from his work to home on a water slide - ALex remember when we hypothesized the creation of a slide that would take us from our beds to the dining table.. well this totally kicked out dreams ass! I was so devastated when I realised it was all 3D so my dreams of a pilgrimage to try it out were ruined...

Wednesday was CHA day (yay) and a massage to finish it all of, then today was pretty much the same... minus the massage. Why am I spending away willy nilly you ask? well I have an actual job this weekend!! thats right folks $200 is commin my way ^_^ I'm doing some caricatures at a festival somewhere I have never heard of...should be fun! Oh and I have a job interview tomorrow for another company a lot like Cartoon Kingdom so wish me luck...

For now I'll leave you with some observations of today...

- Man ran up and hit the bus after he was beeped at for being in the way
- Smokers are litter bugs! I told a smoker to throw their butt away today
- Can a cookie really be outrageous??
- Drawing big allows you to get in more detail... obvious but only a recent realisation

OH and I also got a library card! I'm trying to continue my DVD education so I got Oklahoma (the Hugh Jackman version) West side story and the Animation show - if you have any suggestions send them my way ^_^

And one very last thing (promise) did anyway send me a present recently... that is two limited edition Coraline dolls?? I got them yesterday and have NO idea why... No return address or sender info, if you have any information on this mystery please let me know asap... or I may have to send them back...


These are some sketches I did of a little baby while at Cha... thanks again to Jackie and her baby Elijah for letting me stare at them for an hour ^_^

My new monthly destination...

Well Folks,

I just finished one of the BEST breakfast's I've ever had! Picture this steamed corn, carrots and bright green broccoli florets accompanied by polish dumplings stuffed with sauerkraut and mushrooms, rich melt in your mouth Goulash with tender chewy gnocchi and a perfectly cooked cabbage roll stuffed with lean pork, chicken and rice! I'm salivating just thinking about it!
It was the other half of the dish I chose not to finish last night so that I'd have something special to wake up to this morning ^_^

Yesterday was really great. I woke up late and after a light breaky (was already preparing for my dinner) made my way to the Starbucks near my street to meet Hamid for a little jamming session. I was early so spent some time in Frogen Yozurt for a second breakfast and a cool down in the air-conditioning. When 11:30 rolled round and I hadn't heard from Hamid I started to worry... then after calling to confirm the location we were supposedly both at I realised with a jolt that I was at the wrong starbucks! Luckily he was very forgiving and told me to hang in there while he jumped in the car and came over to pick me up.

Later, after getting lost a few times (always a great way to get to know someone) we spent a few hours in his house playing piano, singing, going crazy on his bongo drums then rocking out to "I will survive". He was trying to teach me to be angry... but I'm not sure it was working out, I tried to explain that I'm just not an angry person ^_^ At three we wrapped up and it was more circles to try and get back to Burbank.. but we made it and after grabbing a few things in Burbank I made my way to Alina's place.

Dinner that night was ay Polka, a little Polish restaurant I'd heard about on the Food network channel. We got of to a late start after our reservation was pushed back about half an hour or so... but once we sat down we were treated like royalty.. or better yet, part of the family. After being offered complimentary drinks we were served our spinach soup and salad - the salad was really fresh with a sweet fruity dressing. then out came our mains (my breaky) followed by a complimentary dessert that was (to Alina's delight) on fire ^_^ not to mention complimentary little truffle chocolates... Safe to say they deserved their large tip, and as the doors closed for the final time that night we shook hands smiled blissfully and piled in the car with our left overs for the trip to the Hive Gallery.

We didn't stay at the gallery long as it was VERY crowded, VERY loud and EXTREMELY hot.. but there was some great artwork, some interesting looking people (you could get in for less if you dressed provocatively) and as always some strange personalities ^_^

Hope you all had a great weekend and to all the dads out there (especially mine) HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!

Catch up

Sorry for the length - but I've saved up a few entries ^_^

Sunday
Stayed at home all day to stay our of the smoke filled air thats slowly creeping round the burbank area like a monster stretching its fingers further and further, licking at the dried bush with delight... Lucky Alina could pick me up from the house today and at 6:30 it was of to the Monkey comics gallery to have a peek at the girls drawin girls exhibit (a nice blog to check out if you have time). After parking round the back we came in through the massive comic store at the front, Alina left me to browse the numerous isles then I met her in the main gallery (very small compared to the shop) for meat flying of the bbq live modeling.
We had fun sketching and chatting then saying goodbye to new friends I reversed the car out of the lot (parking is not Alina's strong point) and we finished of the night in a very disappointing Thai restaurant that charged us 10 buck for a tiny plate of veggies.

Monday
Spent all day at Cha and met some cool artists!

Tuesday
After going to sleep at 3am that morning I woke up again at 10:30 and had to quickly dress and start my ride down to Flower street to meet Tony at Dream Works. Not factoring in that it would be down hill most of the way I arrived half an hour early but was more than happy to sit by the main fountain and soak up my surroundings ( I saw Chris Sanders walking around!!!) After a while I met up with Tony, Joe and Devon and it was onto a free lunch (The studio provides lunch for everyone -and they even have a frozen yogurt machine!! I was in heaven). We chatted about the industry, food and drawing whilst occasionally looking over at the poker game going on in the middle of the cafeteria (the end of a big comp between the whole studio.. looks Like Jeffery K is the one to beat - who I actually bumped into... literally, he was trying to get through the crowd and asked me to move aside.. nicely ^_^)
I Spent the next 3 hours or so in their office chatting with the likes of Chen Yi Chang (lead character designer on Mulan) and Nico Marlet (character designer on Kung Fu Panda) looking at their work, soaking up the atmosphere, picking up tips and generally having such a good time I'm pretty sure half of what happened has completely left my mind. Later that day we had a coffee break (or frozen yogurt break for me) and met some more people (who I've completely forgotten their names, but they were so nice and encouraging!) then after trying to get through to James (I'd met him at lunch earlier and he asked me to stop by) but having no luck I headed back to Tony's office to see some more stuff and finally end the night with a some brilliant words of encouragement and a long ride back home (stopped over for groceries and Sushi ^_^)

Today was another trip to Cha but along the way I took down some interesting observations
- Red sun and red moon
- Had the nice bus driver
- Faces in the trees
- Lady that smelt moldy and dirt started picking hair of her chin and EATING IT!
- Man with a bicycle pump but no bicycle
- Met a nice guy and girl on the bus that want to take me to the zoo... sounds a lot more sinister than it is ^_^
- Saw a plumbing van with the name "Mr Rooter" - no kidding!

Character designer in training

I did these after talking to the guys at Dreamworks the other day... I plan to set aside an hour a day to focus souley on improving my character designs ^_^