Kids Predict The Future

 
MSA Visionaries from The Lifelong Friendship Society on Vimeo.


 "The Lifelong Friendship Society"  makes really great videos, this for sure is one of them. Of course the style, design, and motion graphics are top notch but the content is thought provoking and quite charming.

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!

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?

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'.

 

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. 

 

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 ;) 

Choices

Just making some final choices on an illustration. Feel free to provide some insight :)

 

Final Round:

"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. 

 

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.  

100 Year Old Man

I hope my kid yells at me like this, "Sit your ass down were puttin' on Pooh Bear!"

I'll sit my ass down and watch Pooh Bear, old or new.