My Little CrockPot of News and Thoughts

Feed the monster in your stomach what it really wants.

This a picture of me. I drew it this past weekend. For those of you who have never met me, the following is a lot like what our first conversation in person would be like: You: Hi Jared. Me: Hi, you. You: How are things? Me: Good. You: What's wrong with your face? Me: *kick*

I haven't posted about exciting stuff in a while so needless to say I'm excited to be posting this exciting news with excitement! Excited? How exciting! First off, Cannonball Jack is a concept created by the talented Bryan Martin. He recently created a development blog for the property, allowing us to follow its progress from initial idea to realized dream. Check out the site, link to it on your sites, and help create some buzz for a pirate and his monkey sidekick. Secondly, I posted my latest interview on Drawn this morning. Mo Willems, the uber talent rocking the animation and literary worlds, was kind enough to answer my questions, humor my bad jokes, and offer some wonderful insight into his work and creative processes. Now pour yourself a tall glass of sunshine and eat candy.

I was going through my old sketchbook recently and found a couple of spreads that I really enjoyed working on but had forgotten that I had ever done. The first is of a traveling village that I did while on vacation last summer. I don't remember there being any reason for this village on the go... but then I usually never have a reason for anything... This second spread is more recent... from this past fall, I believe. At the time I was thinking a lot about Johnny Appleseed so I thought I would try my hand at designing him. Whether or not I was successful is still up for debate, but it occupied my attention for an evening and kept me out of jail, and no one can argue with those results.

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." From Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

Man! Things have been busy, busy, busy. And on top of it, my computer has decided to go on a vacation to the Mac Spa (aka "authorized Apple repair store"). Silly computer. In the meantime, here are a couple of backgrounds/menus from the DVD series that I worked on a few months back. I don't think I've posted these yet... if I have, just pretend I haven't... pretending is fun...

Things have been really busy here lately. Between work, freelance jobs, spinning glass, making fire, plundering villages, and conquering new lands, I haven't had much time to really sit down and create anything new for the blog. Thank goodness for old work! Following up my last post on the robot animation tests, I thought I'd post a couple of more recent tests. These are of a Revolutionary War era British soldier. He was intended to be seen in the background so there isn't a whole lot to him. Click the images below to see him jump and laugh. Weehaw!