Various rantings from a raving lady cartoonist. "The world decorates its heroes with laurel, and its wags with Brussels Sprouts".
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Friday, September 30, 2022
Retired From Sheridan Today
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
A NEW BOOK OF CARTOONS AND A NEW WEBSITE
This wasn't supposed to be a book at all.
I started drawing cartoons in the winter of 2020 to cheer up family and friends as we adjusted to the new 'normal' in 2020 and 2021.
The cats took over the book because they insisted on helping. And they cheered everyone up.
A neighbor asked for printouts of each cartoon and assembled them in a sort of book. I saw that there was actual continuity, and the neighbor loved the cartoons, so I decided that maybe this could actually become a book.
But no publisher wanted it. So I did it myself. 'Little Red Hen Editions' is a good joke if you know the story.
HOW I FINALLY GOT TO LIVE A CAT'S LIFE is available from online booksellers worldwide. Ebooks will be available on google play and apple in the near future.
And there's my new website.
So enjoy!
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
NEW BLOG
I know it's been a few years since I updated this blog. I have been rather busy, but the efforts have borne fruit: there is a third edition of PREPARE TO BOARD which contains images from a film I wanted to make, OLD TRICKS. I was that confident that the picture would be finished by the time the book was published, I actually put some of the model sheets into it.
a poster for OLD TRICKS |
third edition cover |
And so I made an animated cartoon called A SHORT HISTORY OF INDIANS in CANADA.
Poster for the film. |
You can read about it on my new blog.
This one will still continue...hell, I may still blog on it...but if you want to learn about the book and the films, here's the address of the new one. See you there.
https://nancybeiman.com/
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Here's the first review of the second edition of PREPARE TO BOARD!, from Britain's Skwigly animation site.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Best Design Book of 2012
Rowland B. Wilson's Trade Secrets: Notes on Cartooning and Animation.
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
Blogimation
But on to the blogs. First and foremost I would like to talk about the British site Skwigly . This was revived recently with a series of amazing podcasts with people like Barry Purves, Billy West, Fraser McLean (author of SETTING THE SCENE, the first book on layout history--really) and yours truly. (You can hear me starting at 18:00 in Podcast Number 3.) They have just posted a podcast from the Annecy festival. Take a listen!
Raul Aguirre, Jr.'s MAN VS. ART is an eclectic blend of interviews, reviews, and articles about working in the biz, and is also very entertaining.
One of my favorite bloggers is Steve Moore, whose FLIP magazine was actually written by and for animators. (Yes, I have a couple of articles in there but Steve is unquestionably the best writer on the site.) He's now revived FLIP as a blog and has a British contributor as well!
Elliot Cowan's Sandwichbag chronicles, among other things, its owner's production of an independent feature film. Read about it there, and view some more of Elliot's stuff. He's drawing, but everything is done on computer. This is the way cartoon animation is developing and (frankly) I don't think I will miss paper much if the results look like the ones I've been seeing here and elsewhere. (by the way, I've been drawing on a computer since 1997 and produced two animated films without paper; it's not such a big deal if you have the right tools.)
Jenny Lerew is a story artist and author whose Blackwing Diaries blog is an interesting combination of history and industry news.
Lastly, there is the blog of Animation's Editorial Cartoonist, FLOYD NORMAN...whose autobiography is being published in about a month's time. Don't miss the Gag Wall!
I know there are other blogs out there, but these are the ones I visit regularly. I hope you enjoy them.
And I'm going around camping and traveling in Canada a bit this summer, so there will be pictures. The bicycle trails here are just gorgeous, and I plan to use them as much as possible. So stay tuned...
Friday, May 04, 2012
I'm teaching my 'acting for animators' workshop again, beginning this Monday. It was fun last year and I'm looking forward to seeing the scenarios the students come up with.
We're also doing some retraining, ourselves. This should be quite useful and interesting.
now, unfortunately there is some bad news about the book. Its publication is delayed again since Focal Press was purchased by another publisher. I'm told they are excellent, but it nevertheless does make me a little unhappy that I cannot use the new edition for the fall classes. It really is quite an improvement over the original. But that's the way it is. The publisher will 'push' sales in the spring, but I don't know how many schools actually would buy the books at that late date.
So, the second edition of PREPARE TO BOARD will have to be used in the fall, 2013 classes at this rate. The original is still useful, but I have supplemented it with so many handouts over the years. I'd like to not have to do this any more. One more year should do it.
I had to take a short visit to see my parents due to illness in the family, and it's almost over now.
The move to the new apartment will take up all the remaining time not spent in retraining and teaching the workshops.
At least Gizmo is healthy. I hope she stays that way.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Gizmo the Survivor Kitty
Publication date for PREPARE TO BOARD second edition
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Oh yeah, then there's this.
The second edition of PREPARE TO BOARD will be published this year. There's a lot of new artwork in it...and I've revised or rewritten about a third of the book. So anyone who wants to buy it will not feel that it has merely received a cosmetic makeover. I think that it is very much improved, not that the original is junk, you understand; but I write better now, and have fixed some parts that I found needed fixing. Here's the new cover, once again featuring cover girl Gizmo.
The Moon Never Sets on the British Empire
I have Been a Naughty Person
Well, it's that time of year when we make new year's resolutions, and mine is: to start keeping this blog in some kind of shape again. You just never know who is going to read it.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
High School Confidential
I feel about the same way, since the entire post was deleted by blogger. (Wordpress is calling, y'all.)
Here's my second try. Today I was at the Etobicoke School of Art. It's a fine little 'magnet' school in a town about 25 miles to the east of Oakville. My hostess described it as the "New Jersey of Canada" and it did indeed resemble my childhood home of West New York, except that it was a lot cleaner.
The school is bright, cheery, covered with student artwork of great sensitivity, and filled with motivated students. Many of them piled into the library to see me lecture. I showed representative samples of Sheridan films in CGI, hand drawn, and stop motion; one group project; a lot of last semester's Leica reels; two rare Disney films I storyboarded; and some examples of the exercises done by the Taiwanese students last summer.
I think it was a success.
I just have to explain it to the cat.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Gizmo is in the Movies
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Indie Animation and The Future
Bill has been joined by Nina Paley and Paul and Sandra Fierlinger. Each artist works in a different medium; Plympton draws on paper, the Fierlingers draw on the computer, and Paley is a master of Flash animation.
The films are doing well. Bill Plympton's IDIOTS AND ANGELS, which I feel is the best of his features, is playing in roadshow engagements. Nina Paley's SITA SINGS THE BLUES is getting rave reviews and is doing well in theatrical and digital distribution. The Fierlinger's MY DOG TULIP, though only in 'platform' release, is also getting good press.
The big-budget-by-European-standards THE ILLUSIONIST by Sylvain Chomet is nearly certain to have an Oscar nomination this year, as Tomm Moore's THE SECRET OF KELLS did last year.
All in all, this is a good thing, and I hope that more artists join the ranks of independent feature/featurette producers in the coming year.
Of the big budget films out this year, I rate DreamWorks' HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON highest. I enjoyed it immensely, it was beautifully directed and designed, the dragons were fantastic, and if the world was just, it would be nominated for best cinematography along with the live action pictures. I haven't seen chiaroscuro like that since PINOCCHIO. It's also the only 3D film I've seen that really used that medium well.
Will the modestly budgeted indie features indicate a new direction to the big producers? A film's quality doesn't necessarily correspond to its cost. Animated features with overblown budgets fail at the boxoffice not because they aren't popular, but because they don't make enough to cover their negative cost (which if you don't know, is double the production cost.) Some are grotesquely overproduced. Lower budgeted productions with good stories and interesting design would entertain audiences and make a good profit--IF the right people were in charge. The example of the independent animators can help the lions of animation as well as the mice.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Mr. Potato Head
Woman Vs. Art
You can enjoy other interviews with animators here too.
http://manvsart.com/
Happy 2011 to you all!