Walt Disney Imagineering Documentary: 2016

 

A documentary about Walt Disney imagineering by filmmaker Leslie Iwerks is due to come out sometime in 2016. I am very excited to hear about this because it was Walt Disney's show "The Disneyland Story" from 1954 that sparked my passion for animation at a young age. 

For those of you unaware, The Disneyland Story was when Walt Disney began hosting his own television show for ABC in 1954 in an unusual contract. Disney provided ABC with a weekly hour-long television program in exchange for funding for the construction of Disneyland. As a result, the television show was also originally named Disneyland. The anthology series has since gone through a number of name changes over the years: Walt Disney Presents, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, The Wonderful World of Disney, Disney's Wonderful World, Walt Disney, The Disney Sunday Movie, and The Magical World of Disney. The series spanned an incredible 54 years—13 seasons of which were hosted by Walt Disney, himself. 

The most influential episode for me as a kid was called "The Story of The Animated Drawing". This episode takes a look at the history of animation and animation techniques throughout the ages. However the best part was many animation pioneers, including J. Stuart Blackton, Windsor McCay, J.R. Bray, Max Fleischer and, of course, Walt Disney were featured! (Here is part 1 of that episode, below.)

I wonder if this new documentary will inspire a new generation of imagineers and creative thinkers...

 

 

Tired Man Character

Some styles of a character I am working on for a children's book. I am mostly thinking about shape and line right now. I will consider color soon though!

My Mini Biography

I wrote a fairly entertaining biography of my life for a job I applied to at Nickelodeon a couple months ago. Should I incorporate some of this into my "About" section on here?

Stephanie Gibree had a lot of trouble learning how to ride a bike and rode a scooter until she was nine years old. She was not a natural athlete. However, she was born an artist! People often referred to her as a character. This trait began to manifest in her life quite literally at the whim of her parents.

 

To achieve the simplicity of bedtime, her father had to pretend his home was a hotel and that Stephanie was a little old lady in search of a room for the evening. She would not go to bed until she was given a full tour and found a room that was satisfactory. At age 5, her mother was instructed to assist and include her imaginary friend, ‘The Professor’ in their daily lives.  This included things like setting an extra place for him at the table and buckling him into his own car seat.

 

Thankfully, Stephanie is much easier to work with now and applies her sense of character into the world of animation. A perfect career choice fueled from strong imaginations.

 

Stephanie spent time crafting her skills and her passion only grew. She enrolled herself in a life drawing class outside of school and listened with intent all the way to the front door of Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Upon acceptance, her long awaited journey into animation began. She produced work centered in children's media, experimented in an array of mediums and absorbed feedback from fellow classmates and friends.

 

Stephanie now abides by the phrase “Do not be afraid to fail.” She believes that being an artist takes courage, not just for slaying dragons, but also for challenging limits and reaching one’s dreams. This spirited girl is currently on the hunt for her dream job in the animation industry. Look out, she hugs!

Marionette Thoughts

Here are two versions of my Marionette page. I had an idea! Maybe the text could be more music/song inspired. For example it could resemble a music sheet. Something to consider since it's about singing. That might be one way to have continuity with differing backgrounds in the story.

I also like the first marionette. His strings and pose are nice. What was concerning me was his lack of style. I was worried he looked naked even though he was made of wood. Maybe I could combine the two pages. The girl could be in the pose of the first marionette page.... 

I can also play around with a lighter colored background for the marionette. That way it will feel like its following a similar color palette as the Parrot image. 

Marionette Page two

Page two of my children's book I am working on for Ivy Leaf Studios. I had a lot of problems with this initally and it started off as a completely different puppet. I am so happy with how this turned out, however. 

Style

I am working on finding the right look for a children's book I am illustrating. This is part collage to give it texture. I love the font! The first letter is done in "Neo Retro Draw" font. I love it for this idea because it has negative space and reminds me of chalk drawing. 

Lisa Frank Interview

This is an interview of the well known Lisa Frank! 

 

 

Patterned Parrot

I am drawing parrots today for a children's book I am illustrating! This little guy didn't make the cut. However, he's so cute I wanted him to live here.  What should we name him?

Royal Icing

A long time ago I drew these cupcake girls as a quick sketch. I am working on finishing them now. I think of these girls as friends of Marie Antoinette in her royal court for some reason. I love the Marie Antoinette movie with Kristen Dunst. The imagery is so inspiring and the soundtrack is nice too! 

This is just a start. Now I am collecting toile textile patterns as inspiration. I think it would be cool to tile these girls and create a fancy pattern of them. 

Here is a clip from the movie for fun.

 

Hands On Music Event

Children's musician, Dara Linthwaite, invited me to one of her "Hands on Music" events at the "Quogue Library" in Long Island, New York. Here are some photos from our day. 

Why Children Need Art

This is a great picture I saw posted on Facebook by the Massachusetts Teachers Association. The caption read 'Why we need art in our schools and in our lives'.

 

Home is Key

A house key neighborhood! I added some Key Hole trees, or maybe it's a fence? Anyway I put a gradient on it to add some lighting. I will add more later. For now I will get away from it and come back with a fresh eye tomorrow.

Buds With Suds

 "Buds With Suds" is the winning title for this new portfolio piece. I also added my "S.G" signature into the bubble work. 

 

Beards and Suds

This is the final look for my bubble bath illustration. I made the bubble beards more transparent so they dont look like cotton candy. I also gave our feathered friend (Bill) a tail to fill some space on the left of the composition. It still needs a clever title and to be put into my portfolio. Some title ideas I should be involving bath time and playing with bubbles #BestJobEver. Feel free to suggest any in the comment section. For now I am going to get back to work on some other projects. I am making lots of new work for my portfolio. See ya tomorrow and I hope this inspires you to take a nice bubbly or in this case pet-filled bath.  -- Blub Bye -- #BubbleHumor

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Blub Blub Blub BUBBLES!

Blub Blub Blub BUBBLES!

I changed things around again. I will look at it later with a fresh eye to see if anything else comes to my attention.

I think the best thing to do is to make as many versions of something as possible to choose from. I only posted four versions of this but there was several sketches, color blockings and throw away tests.  I often make experiments I hate that spark brilliant ideas! You also learn what isn't working. 

It also helps to have friends with art backgrounds to give you feedback ;) 

"Catch Of The Night" in Book Form

This is a short video I took on my phone to show you the style of the book I made for, Catch of The Night. In case your new around here, this started as a story for my Children's Literature class from last year. I am in the process of turning this into an animation and consider this a draft. 

One of my goals for this has always been having the design start as an inverted line and transform to the opposite, just as the night turns to day within the story. Click here for past posts for this project from design to completion!

Also if your interested in book arts this is called an accordion style binding. The story is set on the roof of a tall house with a man fishing in the sky, therefor height was a big theme for him. This book style allowed me to work with that. For my animation I would like to channel this idea further maybe with a constant scroll movement, I'm not sure yet. 

 

PST Animated Intro

The intro I made for Puppet Showplace Theatre (no audio) during my internship.

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Big Sister

This is a photo of a family friend of mine. His name is Tanner and his family is going through a rough time right now. Sometimes parents cant give their children the time they need when dealing with a family crisis. I have been offering my time to Tanner the past few months as sort of a big sister. I cant afford to buy him cool stuff or take him any where fun to play and thats ok. All he needs is someone to include him. 

He really likes to draw and being an artist I am more than happy to encourage his creativity. For Christmas I gave him some of my old art materials that I dont use and he has been enjoying them ever since, including some very nice markers that he was eyeing!  

I saw him yesterday for a pizza/ movie night and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. He helped me clean my room and showed me his new Sonic The Hedgehog comic and a picture he is trying to paint. While cleaning my room we found my old Nintendo DS and gave it to him then we played Scribblenauts. 

One of my favorite memories with Tanner is when I let him draw in my sketchbook. I told him how special my sketchbook was to me and that I never let anyone draw in it. He appreciated me including him in something that iss important to me and is becoming important to him as well.

I think one of the biggest struggles for children is people treating them like children. Often they are smarter than all of us. I will learn more from Tanner than he will learn from me.  

Just a dash!

Showing some sketches I'm working on. Also my cousins cute dogs!

Children's Literature Book Exhibit

The display case holding the final book projects for my Children's Literature class!