Okay, enough of feeling blue. Here's something that makes me happy: TREES!







These trees are for a secret project. I can't tell you what it is, but I had a lot of fun doing them. Sorry the scans are kinda funky...that round paper that I stole from Swarovski is not ideal for scanning.

The review is over now but I don't know what will come of it. I guess I'll just go to Disneyland for free while I still can.

Hi.


Very bad with posting lately...because our big review is tomorrow. So instead of posting an image I'm going to tell you a story. I like to call this story, "The Last Time I was Awesome."

I was at Pixar during the summer. Kevin Dart was there too. One day he asked me to go over his character designs for him, and I was like "Shucks!" because asking for help from your peer means that you think they're really worth their salt, it's a compliment. So I took his drawings and drew over them on a light table. It was a sassy lady character, and all I said was something like "I like how her lower legs are long, you should keep her feet small like that, and pointy...but from the side too" (it was a turn around) "and they feel a little sausage-y right here, so go like this...so the line just runs down the side of her body...I like her big butt. Her hair doesn't really turn...maybe if you did this?? Or like this kinda? This nose looks a little funky from this angle. You could go like this? Or like this?" Etcetera. It's not that exciting in words, actually, maybe I shouldn't have bothered to write all that but it's too late now. So he was all like "Thanks!!" and I was like "No problem! I love doing that schtuff! My pleasure!" And no sooner is all said and done when Dan Holland walks into the room, and he's like "HEY DOES ANYBODY NEED HELP WITH ANYTHING?" And everyone was kinda quiet, cause we were all doing our thing or what have you, and then Kevin is all "Uh...you could go over this character design for me if you want." So Dan sits down to a light table and goes over it and he basically says "I like how her lower legs are long, you should keep her feet small like that, and pointy...but from the side too...and they feel a little sausage-y right here, so go like this...so the line just runs down the side of her body...I like her big butt. Her hair doesn't really turn...maybe if you did this?? Or like this kinda? This nose looks a little funky from this angle. You could go like this? Or like this?" And Kevin was like "Thanks!" And Dan was like "no problem!" And after Dan left I was like "did you see that?? That guy destroys me with his drawing skill and we just gave you the SAME ADVICE! That guy works at Pixar and we just gave you the same exact critique! Only I did it FIRST!! Oh my god!"

And I felt AWESOME.

That was the last time I felt legitimately awesome. Right now...not so awesome. For some reason I arrived at the same snag at both Pixar and Disney, and at the eve of my final review I'm really realizing what a yucky, stupid, harmful snag that is. It feels gross, and so I'm reveling in my past awesomeness.

Also, if you're reading this and you were in the above story and you feel as though you've been at all misrepresented, sorry. But it's my memory, and memory's an imperfect thing, ya know?

And here's a doodle of Scully from X-files, which I'm watching after not watching since like HIGH SCHOOL! One billion years ago! She's super tiny and petit, but 90's fashion logic calls for a suit which consumes about 80% of her body, making her look like a large torso with even larger shoulders, with little teeny legs poking out the bottom.



I'm going to go watch X-files and feel sorry for myself. BYE!

Well, it seems as though it's been a little while.

Do you ever wonder, "what does Brigette DO? What's she up to? If she's not drawing for the sake of updating her blog then what's going ON??" Mostly what's going on is this: I get home from work, where I sit at a desk and draw all day, and I eat something, usually a vegan cupcake or a pizza or a banana (but only after using it as a pretend telephone first) or some such thing, and then I either lay around the house like a big lazy cat for hours on end, or I sit back down at my own personal desk and draw some more. It's kind of a dangerous thing though, since I usually have no specific aim when I draw for myself, and it can potentially go on forever (like, into the wee hours of the night). It's just right brain madness. Sometimes I draw while looking at an ancient magazine, or try to draw something from memory. Usually when this happens I end up with a bunch of half-drawings and half-ideas, which is not really stuff you would wanna show off. But I need to keep UPDATING! So I went through the big stack in my desk drawer and pulled out some precious examples, so you can either gawk at how heinous they are or revel in my genius! Either way it's bound to keep you entertained for a few seconds.


Here's a drawing with another drawing peeking through the paper. This was a painting idea.




Here's some bathtub compositions/possible paintings and some adorable cat drawings based on a felt finger puppet I bought in Austria. I named him "der Meow". How did these things come to exist on the same page?? I couldn't tell you.


I did this drawing, and it was incomprehensible. It was total scribble madness. So I put another peice of paper on top and went over some things. It's still kinda vague, and I tried to make it more presentable in photoshop, buuuut...hm. If it makes you feel slightly uncomfortable, it's supposed to.


This little girl is yellin'! She's fairly unresolved, but I can see where I was going.


So, about that rainy day painting...

It's coming! Patience is a virtue.

Hello blog buddies out there in the interwebs. I went for a walk this past weekend around my neighborhood, in the early afternoon before yet another storm rolled in to soak everything. It was super freaking bright, and I walked by a blue apartment building with the brightest, bloomiest loveliest pink roses in front.




I didn't have my camera, because I'm a retard. So this is just from memory. That girl isn't supposed to be me...I'm not blonde. Not even close. But I did put her in my favorite dress! Black with small white dots, which is what I was wearing during my walk. I also don't have blue boots that awesome, although I wouldn't refuse them. This is a real for REAL painting with PAINT! Paint and colored pencils on board.

So I think I should set myself an artistic challenge for the month of February. Either a painting every other day, or 100 owls, or something...I just need to keep myself creating stuff outside work.

I also wanted to start a new blog, one where I just talk about stuff I like. Why? Cause I wanna share my favorite stuff with people. I kind of disagree the attitude of hoarding all your influences, especially when it's so much more FUN to show people stuff they've never seen before. And everybody takes something different from it anyway, right? I guess it's just the teacher in me. So I'll jump start that blog later today. I have some scanning to do!

Here's something interesting, if you find me at all an interesting kinda person: I got my tattoo this weekend! It looks real scabby/gross/bruisy in this picture, but I love it.



I had an instructor at CSSSA who said that when you sit down to write (but it goes for drawing too, or for creating with your hands in general I think) what you are really trying to do is get a direct line from that hand to your heart, bypassing all the logic in your brain that tells you stuff like "that doesn't make sense, it's not good enough, it looks like so and so's stuff, that sucks, start over, give up, this is taking too long." So now I have my little black heart to remind me of that important heart/hand connection (or you know, for those more technical, right brain/hand, or collective unconcious/hand maybe?)

Have a nice Wednesday!

Look at me! Totally following through.


Here's some color idears for those drawings below.

I have a fun idea: you tell me which one strikes your fancy. I even numbered them to make it extra easy. My initial idea was to make the background kind of a washed out green grey. I'm really determined to keep that umbrella in the orange family, because I used to have an orange umbrella just like that, and I miss it. It's kind of an ode to my lost orange umbrella, the droopy blue trees on Los Feliz Blvd, and my 16-year old self, since I did do a (very, very much less sophisticated) version of this back in high school.




So??

See! I am keeping my promise to myself. I stayed up until 2am yesterday to get these doodles out my brains (that's usually when the best kinds of drawings occur), with the rain and wind going at it outside the window and a cup of tea and listening to Jens Lekman and John Prine, knowing I was going to hate hate hate waking up in the morning. Without thinking or noticing I drew right over some notes that Sean had written on that peice of paper...it says something like "- not sucking - beautiful - elegant - David Bowie -"

Can you guess what these drawings are going to become?







You'll find out soon.

Since you asked...


I'm not in Austria anymore. I've been back in California for a bit, did the holiday thing, and now I'm right back where I was before: wedged into the corner of a hot little room at Disney.

Austria was really cold, and everything was super old and historic. I went to Crystal World. It was extremely surreal (it even smelled like a dream).

Other highlights: ate in a medieval castle (there was an awesome CAT in there too!), it snowed and looked magical, I stole some tiny spoons from the Swarovski office, went to Lichtenstein (that's a country and no I didn't make it up), rollicked around the traditional Christmas Markets, went to Mozart's house (where he lived pre-Stanzy, with his dad), checked out a LOT of crazy baroque churches and cathedrals. And ate a lot of cheese. And drank a lot of coffee, even though I don't really like it, it's just the thing to DO there, and it tastes an awful lot better than that muddy bean water they serve up here in the states. I also found myself calling my home country "the states". Is there a way to say United States of America without feeling like you're playing an American in a movie? "USA" is awkward. "America" makes it sound like the land of milk and honey, which is certainly not my personal impression of it.

X-mas was okay. That is one holiday that dilutes into a big old bummer as one ages. The best thing about this x-mas was my favorite best present ever: A BIG RED BICYCLE! A one speed Schwinn with a basket and back pedal brakes (I never liked those hand brakes...they give my thumbs blisters). Sean and I spent several afternoons pedaling around our neighborhood during break. Lovely!

I've been working on a lot of stuff but I can't exactly show it to you. That's one of the many facets of suckiness that accompany making artwork for a job. But I won't go into that. Suffice to say that I can promise you much new stuff soon, since I've decided that my new year's resolution is to make more art for myself, just cause I feel like it, just right out my guts, just letting the right brain flow all over the place. That's my favorite kind of stuff anyway...the funnest to do and usually the best lookin'.

That said, here is an exremely tiny, extremely accurate self-portrait (by accurate I mean that I am in reality absolutely no more, or less, attractive than this image implies). This was supposed to be my new blogger image, but I'm having a hell of a time getting it to work for some reason.



Okay, happy new year, and expect new and excellent things from this blog. It's about time already.

Hello! This is the deal: I'm going to Austria tomorrow, for two weeks. Not on vacation, but to do some design-y stuff for the Swarovski company. They make crystals. Not the kind you dig up out of the ground or find in a mystical cave, but the kind that they glue all over celebrities to make them extra-fancy. So I'll have lots of stuff to show off about Austria when I come back! In the mean time, here are some sketchy-doodles from my sketchy book.

Some kids.



Owls. At one point I thought it would be really cool to draw 100 different owls. Does that sound like a good idea to you?



An unfinished Posieden. I liked where it was going.




Also, I met Walt Peregoy today. If you don't know who that is, then stop reading right now and go find out! He said the Freddie Moore was a drunk, Mary Blair was a drunk, and Marc Davis was a drunk. He also relived a conversation he once had with Milt Kahl:
Walt: I'm glad I don't live next door to you.
Milt: Why is that?
Walt: Because if your house was on fire, I wouldn't so much as piss on it.

He was a very, very irreverent old man. But he had some great stories!

Wish me luck in Austria...it's gonna be cold!

Aha! Here's a spooky thing just in time for Halloween.




It's for the Cereal Killers project (check it out at idigcerealkillers.blogspot.com). For those of you who don't get it, here's you're opportunity to learn something: Margaret Keane was an artist who was responsible for quite a few of those ubiquitious 60's big eye pop art kids, you know, the ones that make you feel instantly guilty just for looking at them. I happen to be a fan of her work, which is limited in its subject matter of large eyed kids/women/animals, but there's something appealing about the weirdness of the images. Maybe it's just that I'm nostalgic for an era that I never existed in...but what's wrong with that? For reference, here are some real Keanes to measure mine against:






There are other artists who painted in this style too, like Eve, Gig and Mayo. I really don't know who started the trend, I just like the Keane stuff best. I like it so much that I sleep with her arguably most famous peice, "The Stray", watching over me every night.





There's an awesome legend about Margaret and her husband, Walter, over who really did the paintings. They were divorced and both claimed that they had done the work. Margaret won in the end...if you wanna know more then Google it or something, I've gushed about the Keanes long enough! Have a Happy Halloween! Watch The Shining! Carve a pumpkin, for goodness sakes!

I am so sorry. I will never abandon my blog again. I feel like I forgot to feed my fish for a week or something...except in that case the fish would most probably be expired, while this blog is hopefully (fingers crossed) still kicking. I guess my major cause of blog neglect is simply having a full time job, but that's NO EXCUSE! I know! Also I've been doing a lot of other life-oriented stuff, like throwing tea parties and baking cupcakes and going to Disneyland and buying Halloween decorations galore! So it's not that I'm lazy or boring, I just don't have any art to show for it. I'm gonna have to feed you that old line about "posting something soon!" In the mean time, here's a big old load of baked goods:


Here's a cartoon/super dork-related thing: I went to Dia de los Muertos at Hollywood Forever Cemetary last night, and there was an alter dedicated to Mel Blanc! It won 2nd place in the alter contest! It was real hard to get a good shot because it was super dark, and there were people crowded all over.





Happy Halloween, by the way!

Hello everyone! Thanks for saying so much nice stuff to me. Here's a picture of a girl I saw at the Melrose Trading Post in LA.




She was really small, and her shorts were really high waisted. I saw her checking me out through her big dark giant sunglasses. I don't know if it was an approving or disapproving glance.

Everything here at Disney is good. I'm working on a Cintiq which is strange...I'm more used to the tablet and it's weird to always have my hand in the way when I'm drawing something. We've been in training for the past two weeks, lots of classes and getting lost inside the hat building. I really genuinly got disoriented somewhere downstairs yesterday and had that awful, little-kid type "I'm lost" anxiety. But I have been eating lunch on the main lot, just like I hoped I would! The squirrels are real cute.

Anyway, I should be drawing more often now. Just keep checking, there will be better stuff than this meager photoshop thingy soon...

Just an update on the life of Gette, for anyone who's interested...no new work, sorry. But there will be soon!

SO I kept getting annoyed with people for assuming that I'd gotten accepted for the Disney apprenticeship program that starts this next week. They'd say things like "so what now? Just waiting for Disney to start?" and I'd say "NO, because I didn't get the Disney thing." And then that person would shrink a little bit. Not that it's an insult, it's just understandably frustrating to have the same conversation over and over. And then comes Monday and Disney calls me.

So I AM doing the Disney apprenticeship. Serves me right for being so prickly. It starts on Tuesday. What am I looking forward to the MOST? To eating lunch in the comissary on the main lot with my friends, that's what! And harassing Joe Moshier to find out all his design secrets. And free tea. And, oh yeah, access to enormous libraries of animation art and history, too.

And I had a very lovely 23rd birthday last week, and Los Feliz is probably the best neighborhood I've EVER lived in, with the nicest people. Good to be back in LA for keeps! So life post-art school is treating me well. So far so good!

Here's that witch all colored in (you really have to click on it to get a better idea of what all that jibbery detail stuff is).

One of the cool things about being up here is that there's so many awesome people all in the same place. For instance, I talked to Tony Fucile today! I wish I could think of better questions to ask...I'm so bad with spontaneous question asking. I'm always like, "Er...how do I not suck? I mean, how do I be's better? How do I hold a pencil again? What's a shape? " Anyway, he said lots of very nice things, and that was exciting. We're starting to wrap up, even though I've got a bazillion totally unfinshed things lying everywhere... And we're supposed to pitch our stuff to like, real for real art directors and production designers. Hm.

I'm moving to Los Feliz this weekend! Finally I'm out of Valencia... Since I'll be in LA I'm gonna stop by the Ninja Show at Nucleus (I've never been before). Will I see YOU there?

Here's some beat boards from Hansel and Gretel. It's not the whole thing, obviously, but it's a lot of it.







Looking forward to being back in L.A. soon, land of high rent, amazing swapmeets, and blisteringly hot summers.

Kids in color! Oooooh!




When I design characters I usually think of them in color. I knew I wanted Gretel to be super-blonde, so that when she's in the forest or in the witch's dank old house her head will silhouette nicely. Also, a lot of, a LOT of gals in old fairytale illustrations have white blonde hair like that (maybe for the same reason?), so I lifted the idea for myself. Hansel still looks like a jerk but I'll get into him more soon.

It's Hansel and Gretel, right? So where's the witch?? Oh, here she is.




She has a bird theme. I have more drawings of her, but the scanner here is about as useful for recording images as a bologna sandwich. Kevin Dart managed to get these inside the computer, somehow, some way.

My CSSSA kids are coming to visit me soon! Hooray! CSSSA is going on right now, as we speak. Maybe I'll stop by CalArts this weekend while I'm down south and check out the CSSSA crop this year. I'm going to Los Angeles! Yay! We're going to go to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. If you don't know what that is, then you should go here: www.mjt.org

Hansel and Gretel!




My Hansel and Gretel takes place in the late 60's. Hansel, a cynical sulky 11-year old, despises his little sister, who acts like a cute baby even though she's like, 8. So they're both obnoxious in their own special ways, but they only act like brats in hopes of winning their dad's attentions (he's not around too much). And then...enter the evil stepmother! The plot thickens!

More later..

Another taste of Hansel and Gretel...



A color/scale experiment. Character designs coming soon!

Here's something.



Our assignment, which we're going to tackle over the next eight weeks, is Hansel and Gretel. So in my version, the witch lives in a crazy gingerbread style treehouse. This is my first stab at it in color. Still a lot of fixin' and tweaking and so forth to do.

I'm tired!

It's been a hectic month or so!

1. Portfolio day went really well and I got to talk to some cool people.
2. I passed all my classes!
3. We graduated!
4. I got an internship at Pixar!
5. I'm there right now!

So I'll be updating with some actual art soon but not today...there's no scanner in here yet. But you can understand how I've been caught up in all this stuff, right? Okay. More later!

Do you know why they're called "argonauts"? Because the ship they're on is the Argo, which is named after the guy who built the ship, Argos. I never knew that until I watched it again today!




Medea was really hard to draw in profile. She's pretty, but she's got some crazy bone structure where it looks like her cheekbones are swollen, and her eyes are always kinda twitchy and vacant. But she's still one of my favorite characters in the movie anyway. She also wears the most unbearably inaccurate costumes...the Greeks didn't have corsets, and they didn't invent the wasp waist...but what the hell! It's the sixties! Everybody is shiny and orange and it's great.

Hercules' hand is missing because the paper ended. I'm constantly drawing too big for the surface that I've allowed myself. I'll add his hand later, with a giant broach pin in it. And just to prove that I'm not lazy, here's some sketches from the movie:





Archer!

Yes, I'm starting to feel rather tense these days. Portfolio day is a very big day, and I don't want to jinx myself by saying this, but in my CalArts career I've never earned a single callback from it. It's not like my life depends on it or anything, but just the same, wish me luck.

It's not argonauts, but it's better than nothing.




The ensemble cast of Captain Scratchy Beard, compiled for the portfolio...I think they need to be a little bigger. These fine folks and the captain himself, and the sticky cat and the capn's daughter, will be appearing in the Producer's Show! If you were fortunate enough to snag an oh-so coveted ticket, then I'll see you there.

Okay, well, yeah, I didn't die or anything.


This is what's been happening: I FINISHED MY FILM!!! Hoorah!


So I'm done with that! The final thing came out to almost six minutes (longer than I had thought), and somehow I got it in two days early, by some stroke of luck or genius or timing or maybe the universe is about to implode. I thought I was going to be working up until the last possible day, as usual.

So, Captain Scratchy Beard lives. And I can't wait until the Open Show this Friday...I've seen a couple films, a few snippets, a few teasers and tests and so on, but the Open Show is where it all comes together. And my dad is coming down to see it like he does every year, so that'll be fun!

And then, PORTFOLIO DAY! Ugh. So that's what I'm working on now. Sadly, I have nothing to post, since I dare not set foot inside the labs to scan or upload anything (there's nothing worse when you are working on your film and winding down to the last hours than when someone comes waltzing through going "I'm done! I'm done!"), and I feel like I really need a little breaky-break anyway, drink some tea, read a book, paint my fingernails, junk like that.

But soon, I promise, I've been dying to draw some stuff from Jason and the Argonauts since I saw it again a few weeks ago, so expect some Neptunes and greasy sixties-style Greek dudes coming your way.

Thanks everyone for the big response for the indie kids! I like them too, they remind me of CSSSA. The one in the bottom left corner is me. I used to drink soda and wear fairy wings (dork).

Yay for life post-crunchtime!

Pink trees and indie kids.

I'm so tired.

Here, look at this:

Here's my assignment from Shane and Shannon's character design class. I liked the way this one turned out. Somehow I did this and then ran out of steam for the other two, so I'm not postin' those. They turned out yucka. But here's my Tiny Tim!





Here's what a really wanted to do: the assignment was to design Scrooge, Marley's ghost and Tiny Tim, and I thought it would be amazing to do then in 1960's style, and make Tim a big-eyed Keane style waif, holding a stray cat and crying, and then give scrooge a nappy old 40's style suit and show him walking through a courtyard full of mods and Audrey-Hepburn-in-Charade style gals, but where does that leave Marley's ghost?? Anyway, I decided to just hop into 1840's style, but in that case I should have designed some ladies too, cause hoop skirts were IN and those things are crazy! Oh well. Later I suppose.


Trying to finish animation before Spring Break, which starts on the 24th. If I can manage that then I'll not only feel like a super-duper star, but I'll actually stand a chance of getting the whole film done. It might get rowdy but I'll do the best I can.