This one has Yakety Sax and stop motion blankets. Happy Friday!
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You may have noticed we like to use the gorilla mask in many of our movies here at Hosler House Productions. Well, this feature is the original appearance of said mask. Lisa picked it up as part of the now famous Huge Half-Price Post-Halloween Costume Haul (needless to say we got lots of cheap play costumes). Anyway, this movie is the first we made with the new video camera we got for Christmas. It stars Max, Jack, my niece Ellie, nephew Levi, brother-in-law Russ, my Dad and Me (as the dope drinking the secret formula). As you can see I come by my sense of the cornball naturally.
The embedded video was acting up hen I first posted this, so if it doesn’t work, check it out on Youtube
The Standing Stone 4th graders took a field trip to Harrisburg, PA today to visit the Whitaker Center and the State Capital. I had the pleasure of chaperoning and managed to successfully wrangle my fantastic foursome through the entire day and return them safe and sound. It was a lot of fun but boy am I tired. It was great to spend the day with Max. Well worth the exhaustion I am currently feeling. Now we just need to finish up our homework for tomorrow and it is off to bed!
Here’s a film we made a few months ago. It features the best belch ever courtesy of the character Burp-quake. Of course, we only came up with that name AFTER the movie was done.
Also, this is my third post today. Guess which of the following is the reason:
a. I don’t teach on Tuesday
b. I have a test and quiz to grade
c. I have a test to write for tomorrow
d. my fragile ego desperately wants to see the visitor count numbers climb.
e. all of the above
First one to guess the right answer gets a hearty “Atta, girl!” or “Atta, boy!”
Aaaaand, we’re back. I was doing so well, trying to be a good little blogger and post something everyday but last week completely derailed that effort. I had several letters to write, a grant proposal to submit, a pile of grading, some revisions/notes on the manuscript for my next book (more on that later) and lots of time with the boys since they had Friday and Monday off.
Anyway, things are back on track. Jason sent me his latest Monday Update and he is developing these cool 3-D models for the world his characters will be inhabiting. They are very nice and I need to learn how he does it. I did manage to peck away at the page I had only started for last week’s challenge and finished it early yesterday. I like it so much, I’m going to share the entire page instead of one measly panel:
From the standpoint of camera angles, backgrounds, black/white balance and texturing, it might be one of the best pages I’ve ever drawn. The design of the balcony is based on the balcony of the Mishler Theatre in Altoona, PA. We took the kids there to see the Altoona Symphony Orchestra play a winter concert two years ago (the boys’ doctor plays violin in the ASO). Follow the link above to see what a grand old theatre it is.
Also on this page we see new advances in wood representation technology. I’ve been looking for a good way to draw wood grain and I think I may have found an approach I like. It was inspired by a story in the recent volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack (I think it was #8). The story is about a pregnant woman whose baby is encased in an egg (it is worth reading, believe me). Anyway, this woman worked as a hostess in a hotel and as she walked up the steps to deliver some food to a patron, I noticed to how Tezuka had drawn the wood steps. I liked it so much, I stole it.
Incidentally, Max and Jack are now gobbling up the Black Jack volumes I have. They love the medical mystery, humor and general weirdness of it. Plus, I think they ebjoy the novelty of reading from back to front and right to left.
Things are getting busy for both Jason and me. He is in the process of exploring some exciting job opportunities and I am bracing myself for the academic onslaught of April. So, the Sunday Challenge has become the Monday challenge to give ourselves a little more time to work. Unfortunately, that didn’t do me much good. The panel below is all I have to show for the week. And, since it was drawn months ago, that means all I managed to do in seven days was to ink the letters in one balloon. And, I just realized I didn’t even finish that (note the final word ’science’ is still in pencil). Sheesh, that’s bad. But, there have been papers, test and quizzes to grade, advisees to lead astray and other commitments that needed my special, half-assed attention. Maybe this week new vistas of time will open up. Fingers crossed!
This movie took longer to do than ANY we have done so far. Not because it was particularly challenging to film or edit, but because after we filmed it two weeks ago our home computer crashed. We got the computer back yesterday and I successfully downloaded the clips. Unfortunately, as I was editing, iTunes on both the iMac and my laptop decided to wig-out so I spent a lot of time obsessively trying to work out the problem. I was up way past my bedtime last night, but the kiddos had waited so long that I just wanted to get it done. Which it now is. I hope the funky ninja action gives your Friday the kung fu karate chop it needs.
Well, another week, another page of Age of Elytra for my weekly cartooning challenge with Jason. Unfortunately, since we were in D.C. last weekend I forgot to post my representative panel last Sunday (it was done, I swear). This one shows the entire crew hanging out and doing…something or other. I can’t remember. Anyway, I’m sure it all very exciting.
Lisa took today’s photo at Black Moshannon State Park in central PA. Black Moshannon is a bog and the water is filled with plant tannins making the water dark brown/black. These nasty insect-eating (booo!) pitcher plants lure their prey in with a lovely nectar treat. A carpet of downward facing hairs line the hood of the pitcher and when the insects come in for the nectar they loose their footing and slide into the pitcher. At the bottom of the well is a little reservoir of water filled with digestive enzymes. Because the walls of the pitcher as so slippery, insects can’t get a foot hold to escape and eventually drown. They are then slowly digested by the plant. This particular specimen was just off the wood walk way that snakes along the edge of the bog.
Not far from this pitcher plant we found another insect eating plant called a sundew that uses the sticky tentacles on their leaves to trap their insect prey. Frankly, I found the whole, ghoulish insect-eating experience quite unsettling and I was happy when the nature hike moved onto to something less terrifying like sticking our heads into bear dens.
I managed to complete another page of Age of Elytra for this week’s Sunday Challenge with Jason. His web comic is going to be a lot of fun and I can’t wait until others get a look at it. Here is a panel from my new page showing Lucy and Professor Bombardier strolling through the streets of New Coleopolis.
