I took me weeks, but I drew a dragon.

I drew this dragon. Click for big:

And now, as a tribute to Bea Arthur, here is one of the strangest moments from one of the strangest artifacts of the late 70's:




I've just started in on "Pokemon Platinum", because I am a dweeb. I'm as far as Florama-Flowertown-Hippie Colony Town, having blitzed through everything prior in order to get my Secret Key. (Dear Nintendo, please keep sending nice things via Wi-Fi instead of making those of us whose local Toys "R" Us-ses have all closed down feel sad and angry at you. K Thnx.)
Anyone got any Sneasel and/or Trapinch eggs?

How I spent my Arbor Day

Short answer: I worked my butt off.

And here are the new plants I planted. They were all just too unusual to leave at the Giant Hardware Store. I've never experimented with Primula Primroses before and these were the last two they had. The Species Tulips (Tulipa tarda) were just too cool, and they now reside out front. And the little tiny tree is a Redtwig Dogwood (Red Osier to our friends out west, Cornus sericea to everyone else). Technically, it's a shrub. But it'll flower, and it'll fruit, and it may get to be around three times as tall as it is now. (I don't know if there are any hard and fast rules as to what gets to be called a tree and what gets to be called a shrub.)

How about an Arbor day song sung by a Cardinal with an odd-looking beak who can apparently alter his size at will? I can assure you that when I am very old, when I forget everything important in life, I will be singing the line about how "that's where squirrels spend their time!"

"Fun in the Backyard" 33

This time, Woodpecker courtship. Sort of. This episode was inspired by the comedy hit of the winter.

It isn't spring until I feel like I've thrown my back out while transplanting daffodils...

"Fun in the Backyard" Episode 32

We've covered Nut-hatch courtship. Here's Chickadee courtship. As usual, click for the big (and readable) version and it's followup:

If it wasn't yet clear that "FITBY" is my "just for fun experiment with different formatting, media, storytelling methods" outlet, it will be on Friday...

My gosh, it is actually not raining on Earth Day! I get to work outside!

Edit 3:45 PM: Yeah... I spoke too soon on that one. But I got to hook the hose up. :/

It's 4/20! Let's talk about that animated Tiger Woods Commercial!

Obligatory, "LOL it's 4/20" nonsense:

For those who have not seen the very awesome commercial alluded to in the title yet:



You know, even as I little kid I noticed that there was more gorgeous animation in commercials than in some of the cartoon series they'd interrupt. This commercial reminds me of those days. Anyone know what studio did this? Look for the scene about 47 minutes in, where there are dozens and dozens of Disney-style animated characters onscreen at once. That would have taken ages and ages to do back in the day.

And as a funny aside, as memorable and wonderful as this commercial is, it isn't doing it's job. I spent fifteen minutes searching in vain for "Tiger Woods Vitamin Water Ad"...

Some thoughts on "3-effin'-D!!!"

3.28.09 - 3-effin'-D!!!
Originally uploaded by Babbletrish
Click for big (and legible).

Now, I lurk in a lot of discussion boards (and post in... two or three of them). Every so often, you catch a moment of sheer brilliance. I was inspired to draw this parody of the "Monsters v. Aliens" poster after reading this exchange at FARK.com. Full comments and the related article can be read here:

Cold1s: "I love puppetry... Gesture and posture are the game here. Big Bird's bowed head after (his memorial performance of 'It's Not Easy Bein') Green' spoke volumes.
In an age of digital whatever-you-want-to-see-you-see, I hope true stage performances like puppets and Muppets come back."

Dokool: "I had similar thoughts when I saw the Wallace & Gromit link two rows below this one.
In an age where we're bored of CGI-based films because there's so many of them (imagine anyone taking you seriously if you were to predict that around when 'Toy Story' came out!), nobody even considers returning to the older methods. If you watch an average episode of the 'Muppet Show', or 'Fraggle Rock', or even 'Sesame Street', the level of the craft is astounding.
The fact that articles (and threads) like this even exist is testament to the fact that they connected with us in such a meaningful way that even 20 years later people remember it. I was only born in '85 but I remember all of my 'Sesame Street' and Muppet-related VHS tapes like I'd just watched them. Will they say the same about any of the stuff kids watch these days?"

Note that, although I think the "CGI vs. Hand-Drawn" debate is stupid as hell (so where do stop-motion, cut-paper, pixilation, and so on fit into the debate?), I have no problem with CGI films.

When their scripts don't suck. When I actually end up caring about their characters. When the people making the films do so with intelligence and heart and creativity, rather than an overall attitude of "Ooh CGI, shiny!!!".

Actually, why don't I just direct you to this, by way of Cartoon Brew (of course. And, yikes, they really all do that one eyebrow thing.)

As far as animation that does not suck goes, the Onion AV Club has posted a lovely review of "Spirited Away" (which you are not allowed to read another word of this blog unless you promise me you will add it to your Queue immediately). It's sparked a lively discussion as well.

Am I hearing Orioles already? Seems a little early given that the trees haven't leafed out yet.

Yet more thoughts on bad and/or weird cartoons

This is "Small Fry" by Max Fleisher:



Thanks to it being aired endlessly on "The Disney Channel" (I can't figure it out either; they must have acquired the Fleisher catalog at some point during the 80's), I have seen this little slice of WTF more times than "One Froggy Evening", "The Old Mill", "What's Opera Doc", "The Band Concert", "The Brave Little Tailor", and "Duck Amuck" combined.

I especially enjoy the mother's line near the end, "You got your feet all soakin' wet!" Try being five years old and trying to wrap your brain around that one.

While on the subject of bad cartoons we used to watch as kids because we didn't know any better. I recently rented "Mission: Magic!" I did so only because it was available on Netflix and because (this is absolutely true) every History Of Animation book that has ever mentioned it ends it's plot summary with, "Yes. This series actually existed."

"Mission: Magic!" is an early-70's Filmation series about a magical teacher a la Miss Frizzle in the better-known Magic Schoolbus series. She and her students go on adventures through a dimensional porthole in her blackboard, where they are assisted by an owl, an Egyptian cat statue who comes to life, and a pre-"General Hospital" pre-"Jesse's Girl" Rick Springfield. At the end of every adventure, during a "Yellow Submarine"-esque sequence, Rick sings a song about that particular episode's lesson.

Yes. This series actually existed. Actually, thanks to the magic of the Internet, I can prove it actually existed. Here's the opening:



Now you're probably adding this thing to your Queue out of sheer curiosity right now, aren't you? Well, let me emphasize something easily missed in the above summary: "Mission: Magic!" is an early-70's Filmation series.

You can't remove it from your Queue fast enough, can you?

I grew up with tedious reruns of early 70's Filmation series and let me tell you, to this day watching such series can make me disillusioned with all animation everywhere. They are exactly what Chuck Jones meant when he complained of "Illustrated Radio". It almost looks like they drew each of the characters once and just copied and pasted that one drawing wherever needed. (In "Mission", they don't even bother to pretend they didn't do this. Pay close attention to the "R" on Rick's jumpsuit.) And for some reason, each and every one of these series has a laugh track. I have a big, big problem with canned laughter.

So why in the world did this series warrant a DVD release? I guess because it's so very much a series of it's time. I didn't like it, but certainly the people who watched it on Saturday mornings will enjoy watching it again. Hey, I rented the entire first season on "My Little Pony" so who am I to judge?

Or it could be for some other reason, but who knows what that could be?

More AA4A books?

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four.

More AA4A books? Well, why not? Especially when you can get Knight and Hultgren for about $20.00 together at Amazon.
I suspected earlier that if anyone was going to cover non-mammals in an AA4A book, paleoart legend Charles R. Knight was the one to do it. I was right. Sort of.

He has a chapter on birds, which is very nice. He has shorter chapters on other animals. There's lots of information here... but not many illustrations.

This is all you get for reptile anatomy. And it's fairly typical for the book. Instead of diagrams and illustrations, you get loads and loads of text:

It is a bit of a disappointment, although the drawings are nice. I should note something about the text, and this has hit me in the Calderon book too (which I read more of recently): The text is very dated. I don't just mean "no longer scientifically accurate" dated but also "antiquated language that may throw you off" dated. Take a shot when Knight calls some rather innocuous animal or other a "brute" and/or "dumb animal". (It took me a while but I think I finally figured out that the old phrase "dumb animal" doesn't mean "not as smart as a human" but instead means "can't talk like a human". The reader is invited to cringe along with me at the unfortunate implications.)
So what's the book that came in the same box got to bring to the table? I've never even heard of Ken Hultgren. He's probably just going to cover horses again and...

Woah...

Well, he'll probably just do another chapter on dogs, right?

Dude...

OK, if you haven't gathered by now, this book blew me away. He does not discuss the nuts and bolts of anatomy at all, really. But by the end, you don't care. The things you will learn about action and animation more than make up for it. I highly recommend it.

Happy Easter.

I spent most of yesterday out in the garden. This was the first time I worked extensively on it this season. I mulched, moved some boundaries around, cleaned, discovered that I have a healthy population of earthworms out there, and I even spread some seeds around just to see what they do. I'm still wonderfully exhausted and my hands are hurting bad now.
The one thing I did not do was take any before-and-after pictures. Wah.

My Little Pwny - A Girl and her Quest for a Fleet of Fuzzy Fliers

I am still recovering from this past weekend. But I have also just listed my very first group of items up for auction on Ebay. Do have a look, won't you? And you know, it's high time I write about this My Little Pony thing. There will certainly be more about this later.

Some weeks ago, I was working on some Photoshoppery when I started getting very hungry. I checked the mailbox on the way to the kitchen and --
Bouncy and her baby! This was a deal on Ebay that I just could not pass on. They seriously needed a bath, but afterward, they looked lovely. They were ready to stand among my growing army of So-Soft Pegasuses.

Aren't they lovely? I have more on the way from the "worldwide garage sale". Click for a bigger picture and the surprisingly sweet story behind Northstar and her kid.

It's later!

4.5.09 - Boston Comic-Con Doodles p3
Originally uploaded by Babbletrish

Boston Comic-Con was a lot of fun. I met lots of interesting people and got to speak with many different artists. That was the best because, really, there aren't many social opportunities for illustrators. This is the third convention I've been to and I've had a lot of fun each visit.

I was volunteering at the Comicbook Artists Guild's table for most of the day. During the show's few slow moments, I tried to see how quickly I could draw whatever came to mind (or whatever interesting things I saw) before the next guest came to the table. Here are a few of the random sketches from yesterday afternoon. Click for big and to see more of them.

A big welcome to anyone who is just starting to read this Blog after meeting me at the convention!

My thoughts on Comicon are coming later.

On a much, much happier note, after quite a long time in development limbo, we're finally getting Spike Jones' "Where the Wild Things Are" film. And if the "Labyrinth"-ish trailer is any indication, we get to look forward to...
...well, basically what a Spike Jones adaptation of a psychologically dense Maurice Sendak picture book should look like. It's not news by now that book adaptations trigger my "prepare to hate it" response, but this looks like it'll be amazing.
By the way, as an illustrator who wrote a thesis on Sendak and his art, it amuses me to no end that the studio executives were having such a hard time with... um, issues that were in the book (and apparently bothering nobody -- but it's a movie now so we can panic now!) for the past forty-six years.😒

(See also the uproar over: "Euw the big blue guy's naked!" "OMG, there's like fifty different endings why didn't the just pick one?" "The Martians are killed by germs? That's stupid! You're stupid!" And on and on. You wonder, sometimes, if people even know what a book *is*.)

Addendum: Read this interview and prepare to be twice as excited. We're finally getting a new children's film that is about something.

Comicon Comicon Comicon!!!

This weekend! Yay!!! More information in this previous post.

This PSA of sorts was created for a different convention, but the safety tips within are still relevant:

Last Feederwatch Friday Ever
I have to say, participating in Project Feederwatch was fun. I'd absolutely consider doing it again.
Right now, in the backyard, there's more shipping out there than in a message board run by "Avatar" fangirls.
Fun fact: Woodpeckers are cute but they fight dirty.

Raise your hand if you've got "Never Gonna Give You Up" in your head after yesterday.