New Year's Morning...

Rain fell most of the night then changed to snow about 5 am. When we woke up we saw snow stuck to everything! This is our cherry tree in the backyard in Toronto Canada.

Oscar Peterson...

Posted by Arna:

Oscar Peterson the renowned Canadian jazz piano master died yesterday. He will be missed.

Here is an interview with Oscar Peterson from 1965, published in 'Seventeen & a half', which was my high school literary magazine. Good friend Lanny Salsberg was publisher of the mag. My friend and fellow classmate Robert Libman met Mr. Peterson at the Friars Tavern in Toronto, Canada. I did the portrait from a photograph.

Mewy Christmas to all...

Hair(less) The Musical!

Got the chance to see a terrific forty-five minute cartoon musical this weekend at the Royal Cinema in Toronto.

The RUBY GLOOM characters were all singing and all dancing. With a great music score by Ray Parker and Tom Szczesniak, (the same guys who created our COOLMAN! music), HAIR(LESS) sounded and looked gorgeous. Director Robin Budd and his crew pulled out all the stops. Pretty nice stuff for a television budget animated in Toon Boom Harmony. Why not release this on the big screen?

fatKiki

She's actually not this fat, but heck, she sure loves to hang out!

Moo Cards!

Got these a while ago. They are fun to share, sort of like our own personal trading cards. Yayyy for Moo!

Gladstone Late Afternoon...

Taken by John van Bruggen, on the way to Canzine 2007. Read more about the event here.

Here's more about the event, for Nick who asked :)

Artist Max Douglas was there (Arna's son), showing off his ambitious new book, THEREFORE REPENT (a partnership with writer Jim Monroe). We hung out with Max, (family day!) and picked up a poignant graphic trio of HUNG books by Shannon Gerard and a really funny little (really little!) book called Transit Tokens by John Martz (he of the called notorious TTC ANAGRAM MAP). We also got a trippy PINPAL PAPER DOLL. There was lots more to see and do- you could have a 'hate letter' written about you if you so desired, and read the latest SHAMELESS magazine. We somehow missed seeing the room installation by TARA BURSEY, but we heard it was dark. Tara's work always challenges the viewer.

Royal Winter Fair 2006

Here's a little sampler of shots we took during our visit with Daniela and James at the Royal Winter Fair last year. It's been a year and the Royal is on again. What a great place to draw.

But since we might not make it to the fair this year, we'll post this link to a fabulous set of Royal Winter Fair sketches by Drazen Kozjan. Delicious.

Dani and J are in San Francisco now, and from what we hear, life is good. You can visit their blogs here:

Daniela and J

Persepolis!!

Posted by Arna:

Here are some stills from the soon to be released animated feature film, Persepolis:

Based on the books by the same name:

On the first night of this year's TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) we saw Persepolis, the movie, and it was good.
A few facts:

-Approx. two years in the making.

-Based on the graphic novels 1 and 2 of the same name by Marjane Satrapi.

-Directed by artist and writer Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud.

-Created almost entirely in black and white in France, using traditional animation techniques with some CGI enhanced shots.

-Set against the fundamentalist Iranian revolution of the 1980's, the story follows writer artist Marjane Satrapi's life starting when she was a ten year old girl in an educated liberal family, to the time she was a young adult, living in exile in Europe. As Marjane Satrapi was careful to explain at the screening, this is a story based on her life, but not a true autobiography, since there are events that were altered from reality during the making of the movie.

-The version we saw was subtitled, but this movie will be dubbed in English and released later this year for the North American market. I hope that it will see a good size release in theatres. Certainly the audience at this night's screening reacted with genuine delight and much spontaneous laughter.
This style of animation is what is now known as ' 2D traditional'. Hand animated on paper, then in-betweened. And then in this case and most amazingly, the animated line was all traced by felt tip pen to give the look and feel of Satrapi's original graphic novel. For more on the technique, please check the nifty 'making of' documentary which you can watch on the Persepolis website. In order to create the felt tip traced line that you see on every drawing in this film, the filmmakers searched out a respected semi retired French hand-inker named Franck Miyot (or Miller...sp?) and asked him to train a young crew of approx. 20 artists in the art of hand-inking. As a result there is a group of talented artists in France who have brought this labour intense animation tradition back to life in that country.

Can't say anything bad about this film. OKAY maybe once in a while the score was a tiny bit too on the nose. Even so the music was workmanlike and better, and at often genuinely uplifting. Listen for a quirky and totally appropriate version of 'Eye Of The Tiger' sung in a raw slightly off-key style by the heroine. ~Woohoo! The song pulls you out of a sequence that focuses on the teen Marjane's mind-numbing depression, exacerbated (always wanted to use that word in a sentence) by a doctor's over-prescribed drug regime.

The film makers could have divided this story up into two parts, but maybe they thought that they'd get just one kick at the can. They'd edited the two books into one tale and told it well. The art direction of the film elaborates on the simple black and white style of the books, sticking mostly to black and white but adding shades of grey, laid down in richly textured washes. The look of the film sometimes feels like German expressionism... (a little Cabinet of Doctor Caligari perhaps?) in it's use of scumbled blacks and murky lighting. Or a reference to the Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez. Then during the battle scenes and historic sequences, there's a echo of the silhouette animation of Lotte Reininger, and you can see the influence of Goya during the riot/execution sequences.

Favourite characters:

Young Marjane. A bossy outspoken little girl, innocent and possessing faith in her world and her God... soon to be tested.

Grandma. Wise in woman's ways and Marjane's rock.

Persepolis will be screening at the Ottawa Animation Festival later this week. It's a great time to read the graphic novels before the English language version of the film debuts in December. Or re-read them, which I'm off to do next!~ Arna

Reviews of the film: Here, here, and here. Update: here's a new review on Michael Sporn's 'splog' and this review posts a video of the Persepolis trailer.

And here's Nick Sung's review of several TIFF films including Persepolis. Nick's review comes complete with watercolour illustrations!

Chester and Joe...

Hey! If you went to the groovy Toronto Comic Arts Festival last weekend and you have pictures you wish to put up...please check out this TCAF Flickr group. Anyone who wants to contribute photos of the Fest is welcome to join. If you see yourself in a shot, please comment and tell us who you are...We'll add your names to the caption.

It was an excellent fest. I only wish I'd been able to go both days and see even more of the artists and the artwork!

Kicking off the Toronto Comic Arts Fest...

posted by Arna:

Updated, August 17, 2007: Here's a link to flickr photos from this event. Don't forget that the TCAF Toronto Comic Arts Fest is this weekend! Mostly a free event with loads of talented artists and their work on display...
On August 16 2007, there will be a comic book launch featuring two very different visions of the end days, spanning the political spectrum:

Claudia Dávila's spOILed is a Peak Oil parable about a world without petroleum.

A peek at spOILed here.

Salgood Sam (AKA Max Douglas, son of Arna Selznick) and Jim Munroe's THEREFORE REPENT! is a Post-Rapture graphic novel about a world without God.

preview THERFORE REPENT! on comicspace

The creators will be in attendance, and their original artwork from the comics will be on display. Books, original artwork and silkscreened posters will be on sale.

This event kicks off the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, which culminates in the weekend fair of international artists on the U of T campus.

Thursday, August16, 8pm-10pm. Free at Tequila Bookworm 512 Queen St. West, upstairs. The Bookworm's new location is ten doors west of their old place, and the upstairs features lots of cozy rooms and an outdoor patio to enjoy their local brews.

Did I Do Wrong?

Posted by Arna.

Here's a sketch for the weekend: another dachshund. These dogs keep coming up in my doodles.

Persepolis!

Check it out!

A gripping tale told from the point of view of a ten year old Iranian girl. Now a 2D animated movie made in France and directed by the original writer/artist Marjane Satrapi, and Vincent Paronnaud. Hopefully an English language version will be released soon. You'll find some intriguing (French language) videos on the Persepolis MySpace site.

Update, July 17_07: Cast announced for the English language version include the voices of Sean Penn and Iggy Pop. (read more from Animation Magazine)

Sony Classics Persepolis temporary site

FRESH IDEAS IN PUPPETRY DAY...

Posted by Arna: Meant to post this weeks ago when it happened, so sorry it's late.

I was a lucky participant at an all day puppetry workshop in June at Puppetmongers Studio. I met a very cool bunch of people with tonnes of passion for their storyteller's art. Here are some of the shots I took at the event:

Above: David Powell of Puppetmongers and Brad Harley of Shadowland Theatre check out one of Eric Woolfe's puppets. Taken at the FRESH IDEAS IN PUPPETRY DAY, June 16, 2007 at Puppetmongers workshop.

Above: Eric Woolfe (THE BABYSITTER) and his crew...

Above: Ronnie Burkett reads from new work in progress, BILLY TWINKLE, REQUIEM FOR A GOLDEN BOY. BILLY TWINKLE is about puppeteers and promises to intrigue and mystify as did his shows: The Trilogy: TINKA'S NEW DRESS, STREET OF BLOOD, and HAPPY, and more recently TEN DAYS ON EARTH. You can read more about him here, and take a tour of Burkett's workshop.

Above: Panel on Story and Scripting. Members of the puppeteers group The Raucus Caucus ~love that name! Left to right: Ruth Howard, Brad Harley, Ann Powell, David Anderson. Turns out that storytelling with puppets presents many of the same challenges that animation storytelling does. Ann and David explained that they storyboard their shows together, working out ideas on the wall of their studio.

Earlier in the day we heard a discussion on directing, moderated by Anne Barber (Bread and Puppet Theatre, Shadowland Theatre). Directors Mark Cassidy (click here for current info), Michael Waller, and Jim Warren shared their insights. Eg: (I'm paraphrasing here, not actual quotes!!)

Mark Cassidy "Use puppets in a story to open up the telling of the tale, and create a situation that will bring out the unexpected".

Michael Waller "When giving direction, sometime it's best to talk to the puppet, not the puppeteer".

Jim Warren: 'When adding puppets to a dramatic production, integrate the puppets into the story and allow adequate time to develop the puppet designs!"

Funniest line in this discussion(I think it was Michael Waller's) :

" Little balls can make you cry".

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The evening was given over to performances, which included Mark Keetch and Noah Kenneally performing their bittersweet piece on relationships: OUR TIME, Johan Vandergun of Lampoon PuppetTheatre and Pat Lewis of Meadowsweet Productions perform THE PARK BENCH and David Powell and his puppet Alex performing LONG LIFE AS BOUNDLESS AS THE SKY, (named for the Korean musical accompaniment) in which we saw Alex stand on his head. You really do believe that there are muscles and tendons in Alex as he goes through the various yoga-like positions.

:)

Kiki In Purple_1

I like Art Rage... :)