Summer Projects

Summer break is a week away for me, which means it's time for summer projects.

The number one summer project will be joining up with the John K./Preston Blair $8 animation course. I just picked up a copy of Preston Blair's Animation again and it was a nostalgia rush. I had this book when I was a kid 'cause I had seen it at Ben Franklin's (maybe that store was still even called Darr's then) and made my mom buy it for me. Anyway, the Hobby Lobby here in town amazingly has three copies of this big floppy book (Eight bucks for one of the formative texts of my youth!) and as I turn the pages I'm shocked at how many of these drawings I viscerally remember. This was a major influence on my taste even though I had pretty much forgotten about it for 14 years or more. 40's animation design will probably always mean more to me than anything else that pencils can make. I need to find a scanner for my drawings.

The other summer project will be to make a ukulele out of a tin lunchbox. It should cost me only 23 bucks instead of the $129 this place wants you to fork over for their ugly things. I guess I have to find the right lunchbox, too. What would be appropriate and attractive on a lunchbox ukulele? What if there were W.C. Fields lunchboxes?

I also want to read a stack of books. Since I'll be doing the same job I did last summer, which is pretty much just sitting near a phone, I should have a lot of time to draw cartoon dog faces and read. Evenings will be for sitting outside and for watching black and white movies on VHS.

I put a lot of links in this post.