Blaaaahg

SO I actually did finish in time.

2011-12-13T15:04:00.001-08:00

Its been a long time, but I realized I never posted my last few Office Paintings. So here they are Andy Bernard, Erin Hannon and the one and only Michael Scott.

I'll try to update again soon with some pictures and such from the set visit I did in February where I got to actually give each cast member their own copy and also have them sign a copy for me. It was an awesome experience and one I'll never forget. :)

4 days... 4 paintings...

2011-02-18T09:56:00.001-08:00

1 down... 3 to go. Erin, Andy and Michael... GOOOOOOOOO!!!

Deadline...

2011-01-23T22:26:00.000-08:00

I'm just going to give up promising or saying that I'm going to update this blog very often, because lets be honest... probably not going to happen haha! With that said. I am going to visit the set of The Office in about a month and now sort of have a 'deadline' to get my paintings done. So yeah... maybe I will paint more soon! Anyhoo... bam BAM. Double Office portraits for today!

Darryl and Phyllis. Boom. Consider yourselves PAINTED!

Only a few more to go... Gabe, Erin, Andy and Michael.

Office Thursday treat!

2010-10-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

Its Thursday... Office Thursday. And I left work early since I'm on down time... so... Oscar Martinez is here!!

"I love a good quitting story. It makes me feel like I have control over my own life. Gives me hope. Maybe I will have one of my own someday. But I dream.. so.."

Angela Martin accounting...

2010-09-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

Ah Labor Day... thank you for having an Office Marathon. I was inspired and so....

Here's Angela.

Boom. Two in a row.

2010-07-07T16:10:00.001-07:00

My car was kind of broken the past couple of days, so I have been stuck at home with out much to do.

So... another Office painting is what you get!! Today's painting... Meredith Palmer the office drunk. BOOM.

Don't get used to this... I'm totally going to work tomorrow!

I'm on a roll...

2010-07-06T10:28:00.001-07:00

It may be a slow roll, but I'm on it!

Since Steve Carrell seems to think its his last season of The Office I figured I had better be getting the rest of the cast done! So here is Ryan Howard aka Temp aka Fire Guy aka The Kid.

I'm attempting to pump out the rest of the cast while I'm on down time... so keep your eyes peeled for more! 9 down 8 to go...

December was only 6 months ago...

2010-06-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

Well... here it is June. The end of June. Yikes.

What have I been doing? Eh just workin' on some movie about some toys whose owner is growing up and going to college. Also working on some new Cars Toons...

As I mentioned in my previous post (almost 7 months ago) I auctioned off a portrait of anyone the winner chose at the Fur Ball. And here is the portrait I did of the winner John.

Fur Ball at the Skirball '09

2009-12-06T21:44:00.001-08:00

Alrighty... so this is that other piece of artwork that I had been talking about here on the blog. This year I was asked to design the invitations for the annual fundraiser for Kitten Rescue in Los Angeles. The design sort of ended up on everything for the event, which was weird and cool at the same time. I've never done anything like that, so it was a little nerve wracking knowing this was going to be seen by so many people. Anyhoo... I'll try to be briefer than I was last yet in my summary!

WARNING: extreme dorkness follows

Me and Kevin got to the Skirball Center at 6 when it started and went to look at all of the auction goodness... And goodness there was! Unfortunately, all of the Office stuff was grouped together in one auction (2 signed photos, signed Pam and Angela bobble

heads, signed season 3 dvd set, a coffee tumbler and probably something else I'm forgetting). There was another Office fan there who really really wanted it all, so I wasn't going to bid against her and ruin her night. Plus what I really wanted... was the necklace that Jenna wore in the wedding episode of The Office this year. That was saved for the live auction later that night and in the end... it was too ri

ch for my blood.

Getting married in the next couple years folks... gotta budget!! We did score a sweet score from ET signed by John Williams and I swooned over an amazing square blue sapphire diamond necklace that I didn't end up bidding on.

Okay so we kept going and finally came across the piece that I was auctioning off. A personalized digital portrait of whoever you wanted... and if you can believe it... someone bid on it!!! For an example to set out, I sent in a framed version of my 'Dwight' Office painting that I did a little while

ago. Then we went outside and got some drinks, it was freezing outside so we weren't out there very long before coming in and just taking a breather at the table. We sat at Jenna Fischer's table this year so we didn't have to scout out and reserve seats like last year. Here is where I met the other Office fan Kristina from last year.

We walked the auction again when Jenna Fischer and her fiance Lee got there and they not only saw, but complimented my Dwight painting... COMPLIMENTED!! Then me and Kevin went and sat back down because we were exhausted from moving Kevin and his roommates to their various new apartments, plus a little bit of tiredness from Toy Story 3 OT and flying in the night before. Eventually everyone sat at the table and the show began... I sat next to Jenna's fiance Lee who was really nice and I wish I had gotten to chat with him more, but I didn't want to be rude during the event. He asked if I did the "Office" paintings for a living... which was very sweet :). Jenna was a great host and super funny, awards were given, videos were shown, food was devoured (kudos on the salad and desert... sooo good!), and then they did the live auction of Jenna's dress she was wearing, the wedding necklace and a vacation package. There was probably more, but I forget... Afterwards Jenna came over and we chatted for a little while and I asked if she would mind taking a picture. (Big thanks to Lee for taking it!)

If you find yourself in the giving spirit this year and are looking for an organization to donate to, please consider Kitten Rescue. When no one else would, they thought that a sick, 8 year old, black and white cat and a feral kitten who had been hit by a car and had a shattered leg were worth saving and I'm forever in debt to them for that.

Jack + Squeaker

(And yes they have more than one bed... they just prefer this)

3.5 Months isn't that long...

2009-11-22T21:57:00.000-08:00

...right? Okay... so it is. (mah bad Garcia)

Toy Story has been an amazing experience, but takes up most of my creative energy and time. I'm also moving on Friday back down to Foster City and bidding E-ville farewell. I have been doing some art here and there, but nothing really worthy of showing. Until tonight I guess. I had been working on this off and on and tonight I decided that I'd finish it no matter how long it took.

Here ya go: Creed Bratton. I was going to try to think up something witty to say, but he says some of the craziest crap on that show and I'm feeling self conscious and inferior. So just the painting for now!

I'll try to make the next post sooner than later. I have something else to show, but I'll wait until December for that one!

I hate so much about the things that you choose to be.

2009-08-03T22:41:00.000-07:00

Well this is coming unexpectedly soon... I really hadn't planned on it to be done for a few weeks, but all it really took was Ghostbusters 1 and 2 plus The Toy, and there he is. Its not perfect, in fact while I'm sitting here uploading I can see things I want to change, but I'll do that later.

Poor Toby... that's pretty much what I say during most episodes, except that one where he almost got Jim fired. So here you are folks, the most hated HR representative in North Eastern Pennsylvania Midsized Paper Company history. Toby Flenderson.

"Toby's in HR, which technically means he works for corporate. So he's really not a part of our family. Also, he's divorced, so he's really not a part of his family." - Michael Scott

Alive...

2009-07-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, its me again. It's been a while, but whatcha gonna do....

Aside from animating on Toy Story 3, I've been doing some designing and stuff that I will post later once its released and stuff, but for now a simple Office painting will have to do!

I present Mr. Kevin Malone.

On the Up and UP!

2009-06-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

"Up" is out!

And its been #1 for two weeks in a row! I hope those of you who have seen it are loving it! OR at least pretending to love it for my sake.

And now... onto...

TOY STORY 3!!!!

I just started this past week... well sort of started... I'm halfsies on it and halfsies on another project. BUT still... I'm moving THOSE CHARACTERS!!!

Wrapped UP.

2009-04-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

So this Saturday was the Up wrap party... a night in which the entire studio gets to see the new movie, the new short and trailer for the next film and then party their buns off afterwards.

This year the screening was at the Paramount Theater and the party was held at the newly renovated Fox Theater both in Oakland. Very convenient for me. Less than 10 minutes away! Me and Kevin got dressed to the nines and headed to the Paramount.

I'll keep this brief, because I really just don't feel like typing tonight haha. So we went in... picked up our various candies and headed to find some seats. We scored front row balcony in the center! Eventually after people speak and such they play the Toy Story 3 teaser!! You all are in for a treat! Then they played Partly Cloudy! ADORABLE and funny! Then... they played Up! It was sooo good! I had seen most of the animation in dailies, but its nothing like seeing it all together lit and with the score. Simply incredible and beautiful. We laughed, we cried, and we made a damn fine movie!

After the movie, we all walked to the Fox Theater, which was only a couple blocks away. The homeless people were really thrown off. Police presence and lots of balloons kept us all safe in our journey! We finally get there and wow this place is swank. And... lets just say... Pixar knows how to throw a party! Great night!

Unlikely Heroes

2009-04-22T17:09:00.001-07:00

Up Exclusive Featurette

Cute promo clip for UP! I animated the shot at 2:11 where Russell says "I found SAAAAND"! The wrap party is this weekend and I can't wait to see it all done and glorious!

I have a diary to keep secrets from my computer.

2009-04-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

SO a week ago today I had the honor of attending a Reno 911 charity event at the Largo in L.A.. And who was also in attendance? None other than Rainn Wilson himself. So... I decided I had to at least say hi. I mean me and Rainn don't hang out often... or ever... so this was perhaps my only chance. So I did it... much to my boyfriend's dismay I went over and introduced myself and then called Kevin over to meet Rainn too. Boyfriend claims it was an embarrassing conversation, but I thought it was totally cool!!

Anyways... great show... great cause.

http://www.plantingpeace.org/

.end backstory.

SO I was inspired to paint the legend himself. Dwight Kurt Schrute. This one's a little different than the others... I couldn't justify giving him big eyes. He has small eyes.

I used the word So a lot in this post... SO WHAT!?!?

5 Things I'm still scared of...

2009-04-06T13:17:00.001-07:00

Do you remember any of the things you were afraid of when you were 5? Are you still afraid of any of them? I am. Here is a few of those things that I still have an irrational fear of...

1. When Ursula gets really big at the end of The Little Mermaid.

I will still skip this part on the dvd. She is scary and gross and her voice is gross. No thanks, I'll just skip to the wedding and the rainbow please.

2. Storm drains and clowns.

I saw this movie at a really young age. Actually... I saw a lot of horror films at a really young age. This movie... ruined me. I still wont walk over a grate of any kind. I'm also creeped out by any and all clowns. Thanks Pennywise.

3. Escalators

I was a morbid child who liked to watch shows and hear stories about people getting hurt. Which lead to my fascination with a show called Rescue 911. Nothing is scarier than falling down an escalator... oh... except getting your clothes caught in one. I still take extra time when escalating... and always hold the hand rail no matter how gross. But really... the jagged edges on the escalators look like they'd hurt so bad.

4. Pink Elephants on Parade

I don't know if its the creepy music... or the black eyes that creep me out the most.

5. Chuckie
and for that fact... dolls in general.

So this movie terrified me beyond belief. I literally could not watch more than 5 minutes of it. It took until this past January for me to force myself to actually sit down and watch the entire thing. And of course these dolls had a crazy resemblance to:

...which I had. And never played with because it freaked me out.

The end.

I don't talk trash I talk smack...

2009-03-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

So... In an effort not to spend money today (other than the Starbucks and bagel that I had) I decided to paint away my day. And after much deliberation I decided to redo the painting I did of Mindy Kaling aka Kelly Kapoor! I know I know... you are crying foul because she already got a painting. But... I mean for reals it looked nothing like her. This one at least has some resemblance. Some. :)

Me and Squeaker sat down on the couch... put Dreamgirls on and lounged while I painted. Now I'm going to have to decide who to do next again. *sigh* Like most of the paintings I'll probably go back in a couple of days and retouch it here and there, but for now... here she is!

Are you outta your DAMN mind...

2009-03-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

So... a while back I put a request out as to who from The Office I should paint next... the result is over there on the left.

Stanley Hudson.

This painting might not be as refined or smooth as some of my other paintings, but I liked the texture to it so I stopped before I made it a mess. In the end... who really cares if they look like they all go together. Only me...

But anyhoo... now I need another character to paint.

New Trailer!!

2009-03-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=53531

AND ITS AWESOME!!

In other news... here's an interesting quick painting I did of a guy I work with. There's a lot of back story that I wont get into... Just enjoy it for what it is.

TZ and the bear.

Just a ho-hum day at work...

2009-02-23T14:20:00.000-08:00

So... yeah I didn't work on it. In fact the movie I did work on was nominated and didn't win.

BUT... I'M SO HAPPY FOR ANDREW AND ALL THE WALL.E CREW! Congratulations to you all!

UPisode 1

2009-02-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

No longer a stranger from the outside...

2009-01-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been super busy with work since getting back from vacation. I haven't had much time if any to do any sort of art outside of work.

BUT... the hard work has paid off.

I'm now officially a full time employee! Yay for not having to move this year! Yay for not having to put together a demo reel! Yay for yay's sake.

There's 3.5 weeks left in production on Up and probably at least 3.5 weeks until another update here! Sorries. To make it up to you... here's the new poster that you'll start seeing in theaters this week.

Sneak...

2009-01-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

Another little look into what I'm workin' on these days.

now that that whole christmas shennanigans is over...

2009-01-03T14:56:00.000-08:00

I painted this for my sister for Christmas this year. She has a thing for Jon Stewart... and there is a lack of posters of him available to the public for purchase... so I made this for her. It went over well.

And now that I'm back after 2 weeks of vacation its time to hit the '09 ground running and make some new art!

Up, up and away...

2008-10-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

So you've been wondering why there haven't been any posts lately? That's why!

Hopping from one crunch to another is a crazy business, but I'm loving the work I'm doing and am so stoked to be a part of this movie!

I'm going to be doing a painting here soon and I'll try to show some progress pictures of it. And this is a for reals painting... with real tangible paint and canvas. So... we'll see how that goes. So far I just have some blank canvas and paint that may or may not be dried out.

No on Prop 8

2008-10-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not usually one to talk politics or voting, but this one rings home for me... I think my family and friends deserve equal opportunities and I hope that same sex marriage becomes legal in all 50 states!!

So to all of my California voter peeps...

Do me a solid and vote NO on prop 8. Don't we all deserve an equal opportunity to marry the ones we love?

Video made by my suuuuuper talented friend Adrian! Check his blog out to the right over there ------->

Thursdays are back!!!

2008-09-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

YES!

If you didn't watch... shame on you... BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION!!
Predictions for this season:

Angela is having Dwight's baby... hence the need to put on weight... and it's Dwight's because she has yet to see Andy nakie.

Toby will come back once he's healed... because his hospital bills probably depleted any savings he had.

Jan's baby... will be the deciding factor for Michael... and he will stick with Jan instead of Holly. (even though I love Holly and want her to stay forever). Who is the real father of Jan's baby? I'm skeptical about the sperm bank next to IHOP... Hunter?

Kelly will eventually get back with Ryan, but she's going to make him wait for a while. A while meaning until he proposes and wants to make babies.

Pam will finish out at Pratt... but the distance will put a strain on the relationship. Jealousy will ensue a-la Jim. Pam didn't seem to have many friends in Scranton and I don't think Jim will look forward to sharing. Maybe they will second guess the engagement... dun dun dun!

Jim will play more pranks... mostly on Dwight.

Dwight... well... I think he's going to become a father. The truth will come out and ruin Andy and Angela's "relationship"...

Angela is going to end up doing something to push Phyllis over th edge... cat's outta the bag!

And everyone else will be awesome too.

I guess we'll see in the Spring if I'm onto anything :)

The Best Kind of Fur Ball.

2008-09-15T16:34:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This ended up being way longer than I thought. Mah bad.

So last night I had the great fortune of attending the rescue group I volunteer for (Kitten Rescue)'s fundraiser. It was called the Fur Ball at the Skirball. I'm pretty much going to just sum up the awesomeness of the day :)

So me and the boyfriend woke up early and headed out to Van Nuys to pack up all of the auction items and gift bags onto the moving truck so that it could all be taken to the Skirball center. It was there that I first set eyes on my prize... the prize I knew I needed to have... a signed script from The Office. There it was in all its glory I didn't get a chance to see which episode it was for, but I wanted it anyways. It was in a gift basket packaged with a Dunder Mifflin hat. There were other Office goodies to be had... including a signed photo of the entire cast, a signed Dwight bobble head, a signed piece of Dunder Mifflin luggage, a signed season 3 Dvd set, and a signed "World's Best Boss" mug packaged with an Office t-shirt (conveniently in my size). So anyhoo... we loaded up the truck and then went back to Kev's apartment for lunch. Side note... we watched the end of Season 3 of the Office an episode called The Job.

Then a dilemma... my cat Sqeaker had evidently decided this dress was pretty much his favorite to sleep on. Seeing that it was silk and he is rather portly... there was no ironing out these wrinkles. After some internet scouring we found a tip and resulted in a less-wrinkled dress. We finished getting ready and we were off.

We got to the Skirball an hour early just in case they needed any extra help setting things up.

When we got there they had it all under control so we moseyed around. As people started to line up we did too and were some of the first people in. The event started at 6pm with a nice cocktail hour complete with cat themed specialty drinks... I had the Tom Cat. There was a greatpianist named Jason Farnham who played for the first 45 minutes of the night. Also starting at 6pm was the silent auction. It was located on the upper level so we went up stairs to check it all out and put down our bids on the Office stuff. Since I forgot to earlier, I checked to see which script it was in the gift basket and lo and behold it was The Job which we had just watched before leaving. FATE I TELL YA!!!

While I was up there I caught a glimpse of Jenna Fischer doing some interviews along the red carpet. For those of you who don't know... she's pretty much my favorite EVER! But anyways... we continued along our tour of the auction items and eventually made our way back downstairs for a drink. As I was walking to get a drink Jenna happened to get thirsty at the same time... yep. I didn't say anything to her, just got my drink and went and walked around checking out the plans for the Shelter that Kitten Rescue was hoping to renovate with the night's donations. After that we went back up stairs because of my paranoia of losing the auction... from up there I watched Phoenix Projekt perform their fire dancing act.

Boyfriend got tired of hovering around the Office stuff and decided he would go get us seats for the dinner so that we would be at least facing the stage. Shortly there-after, it just so happened that Ms. Fischer was checking our her donations to the auction. She was worried that people didn't know that all of the stuff was signed... and it was true... I didn't know the season 3 Dvds were signed and I didn't know the Bobble Head was signed and I didn't know where the suitcase was signed. Well.. this would not do. So she opened up the bobble head and luggage and wrote on the Dvd's paper that it was in fact signed on the inside by the entire cast.

While Jenna was adjusting everything her friend Ryan stood next to me out of the way. He asked what I was bidding on a such and wished me luck. So I stand up there for a little longer. Finally I realize that the show is going to be starting in the next 15 minutes so I mustered up my courage and walked over to Jenna. She was talking with another office fan... Kristina... who had a whole book of awesomeness that they were looking through. I kinda just waited in the wings and again chatted it up with Ryan. I told him how much of a dork I felt like for asking for a picture... at this point he goes, "Oh no don't worry about it" and grabs the camera and calls Jenna over.

OMG. So this all is sort of a blur my apologies if I forget things.

So she introduces herself and I introduce myself and Ryan takes a couple of pictures (which was so awesome of him). I tell her I love the show etc. She says... well come along with us! (Um are you serious!?!!?) Yes she was serious. So me and Kristina join Jenna and Ryan as they finish walking the auction and head downstairs. I'm not sure how she got on the subject but she talked about the Creative Emmy's and how unfortunately The Office didn't win. She talked about how much fun it was to go and how it was better than the actual Emmy's and that she would definitely be going again. She talked about some of the people she met, one of them being Tom Hanks. She said he was so cool. He sat out in his seat in the audience the whole time, instead of waiting in the green room as some celebs often do. She seemed really stoked to have gotten to meet him. She said he just walked over and said 'Hi I'm Tom'... like no really? haha. She mentioned Kathy Griffin getting in trouble for dropping the F bomb again and mentioned a few other celebs Seth Green, Ashley Tisdale. Jenna made sure that we would tell you all the Ashley is SUPER nice. Like the nicest ever. (I beg to differ... Jenna is in fact the nicest ever... I mean come on... she let two fans tag along with her like it was no big deal).

So at this point its getting close to the time that Jenna has to go on so we're walking back into the auditorium when some ladies stopped her and asked her to ride in a race car. Evidently... its in her contract that they cannot ride in race cars or sky dive or do any other dangerous things. So Jenna chats with us for a little while longer. Kristina asked her what the 'gang sign-ish' thing she was doing in the promos was all about. (I secretly hoped she wouldn't tell us because I like to be surprised) She said she couldn't tell us, but that it did have to do with Pam trying to be 'hip'. About this time we all sort of concurred that she needed to get ready for her hosting gig. Jenna said she'd try to catch a us again towards the end of the night, but said she had to leave the event a little bit early as she had to get up at 5 to go to work. I mentioned that I too had to get up at 5am to get on a flight. She then asked me where I was flying and I told her I had come down from San Francisco. She was so sweet and thanked me so much for coming down for the event. And it was about that time that they said 5 minutes till the auction was closing, so we said our goodbyes and wished Jenna luck. Me and Kristina ventured back upstairs to the auction to... hover. Haha.
I was bidding on the mug/t-shirt and the script/hat and Kristina was bidding on the Dwight bobble head/signed photo. We chatted about how surreal the last 15 mins had been until one of the night's volunteers officially ended the bidding. Me and Kristina both got what we were bidding on! After totally having a geek out moment we composed ourselves and went back to our respective tables. At this time the Kodama Taiko Drummers performed. They were awesome! Okay so now its about 745 and Kim (who organized the event) came up on stage and said a few words and then introduced Jenna.

Jenna came up and shared her story about how she got involved with Kitten Rescue. She joked that it was actually the 11th anniversary, but that rescuers always round down. For instance your 2 year old foster is just a little over a year old at adoptions. She talked about how she had wanted to volunteer with animals so she typed into google 'animal rescue Los Angeles' and Kitten Rescue popped up. She thought that sounded good so she called the number and went through the application process and home check and was approved to be a suitable foster parent. At this point she adds that she thought maybe within the next two weeks she thought maybe she'd get a call... no... 4 hours later she had her first foster kitten. She continued in saying that she had that kitten for 2 weeks before it was adopted and said... "oh this is easy". Then she was convinced to take Honeybear... a 27lb. cat who hid under her couch for 7 months. Eventually Honeybear was adopted by a woman who didn't care if she never saw him. She talked about her efforts to do the Trap Neuter Release program for feral cats... where they said under no circumstances let the cat out... well she saw the kitty in the trap and decided it would be better in a carrier. Which ended with the cat inside her husband's car engine.

She continued to talk about all of the great volunteers for the organization and gave everyone a run down of what would be going on during the evening. Then she introduced the President of Kitten Rescue. He talked about all the volunteers in the organization and had us all stand up and then they presented an award. Jenna then came back on stage and introduced the woman who started Kitten Rescue. She talked about how it all started, thanked the committee, and another award was given out. Jenna came back out and introduced the woman in charge of Kitten Rescue's Shelter. Another award was given out and then Jenna introduced the video.

At this point I get nervous because they had interviewed me for this video and I thought I sounded stupid. The video starts and gives some history. In the video Jenna told a heart breaking story of when she used to answer phone calls for the group. A woman had called and told her that her cat had just been diagnosed with kidney failure and she was going to have to give it sub-q fluids and she wasn't really into that and wanted to give Kitten Rescue her sickly 13 year old cat. Jenna happened to mention this phone call to another rescuer who said, 'oh my God, a woman I know just lost her cat of 22 years and she had been giving him sub-q fluids for years. Let me go talk to her'. And could you believe it that woman took that 13 year old cat. She called up the 'horrible' owner and they got the cat. (Jenna choked up at this part of the video... for those of you who don't know a 13 year old cat is not highly adoptable and when you add on top of that the cat had kidney failure and needed constant care... its incredible that this worked out). At this point I'm blinking away tears because I have adopted 2 hard to place cats... a feral kitten with a severely broken leg and an older black and white kitty (both of which turned out to be the best cats in the whole world). The video continued to touch on how amazing the organization is and cute kitty video ensues... tears... and... thankfully none of my interview! Which I thought was great because I mostly talked about a certain section of Kitten Rescue called the Hope Fund, which is set up for kitties that come in with catastrophic injuries. They did put one clip of me and Squeaker cuddling on the couch towards the end which was cute.

The president came up again after the video and talked about the future of the organization. Then someone read something that they had written about animal rescuers called "Not on my watch" which was followed by a fund drive. After he was finished Wendy McLendon-Covey (from Reno 911) came up and gave out the raffle prizes. And then at about 930 Jenna came up and thanked everyone for coming and introduced the final performer Rossana. At this point I was so tired and knowing that I had to get up at 5 we decided to head out. I didn't get to chat with Jenna again, but I saw she left about the same time I did. We waited in line for my auction winnings and grabbed our gift bags.

To any of you out there who might want to give a donation please go to www.KittenRescue.org

They are an amazing organization that I am proud to be a part of. In the year I've been with them they have helped me save 5 kitties. Just think... you could help too.

Little Man - Jack

Squeaker

Dunder and Mifflin

The end.

Oh, and for those who care I did make it back to work this morning by 9am to show the director my shots in dailies and I did get my cable installed... which did not go as awesome as planned... they seem to want to cut a hole in the wall... me thinks... not so much.

You say goodbye and I say hello

2008-09-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry for the lack of updates. It has been a crazy past few weeks for me. I finished up working on Bolt at Disney, packed up all of my things, moved 300 miles north, and started my new/old job at Pixar!

So here I sit in my temporary office awaiting the return of my supervisor to get into gear for Up!!!

I'm so excited to be back and I'm raring to go!

And... I think I'm done.

2008-08-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

Welp... I think these might be as final as I get. I tried to get more of a richer contrast in the image overall. Or basically... add more darks. So yeah. Who shall I do next... Ryan? Dwight? Angela? Toby? Michael Scott? We shall see who I'm inspired by :)

In other news... I'm in the process of foiling my office mate's side of the office. She's on vacation, so I decided to continue the tradition and foil her like I foiled Nick. MUAHAHAHA.

Pam.

2008-08-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

So yeah... here's the latest in my Office paintings: Jenna Fischer aka Pam Beesley

I'm not done yet, so there may be an update later with a more polished version. I'd like to get some more darks on her face as a whole. I dunno... Recent developments indicate I may have the slightest of chances of meeting her! And she is pretty much my fave so... as you can imagine I'm pretty stoked! Anyhoo... I should probably do some work here.

This weekend was bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S

2008-07-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend was one of my most favorite weekends of the year: COMIC CON!

I did well this year, paying more for parking than I did for anything I bought at the convention. Me and Kevin decided to venture down to San Diego for the day on Wednesday to check out preview night and enjoy some time puttering around San Diego. My thinking was... this would be a day where there wouldn't be many people there and we'd be able to walk freely and get what we wanted before the hoards of people got there. I was proven wrong when we returned to get inside. We had to wait a half an hour just waiting in a line for an escalator to get onto the floor. I had no idea there were so many professionals and 4 day pass holders. WOOH. It was almost as busy as Saturday. So we just walked isles and stopped by to see friends who had booths and such. My main goal for the buying side of the con was to get Pascal Campion's book... and I'm proud to say this was my only purchase! I had never met Pascal, but I've admired his work on various blogs and websites. What a nice guy! I have high hopes on attending the Totoro auction and (if my wallet allows) bidding on his piece. After that we pretty much headed out to drive back to L.A.

Saturday we woke up really early to get back to San Diego. We got there a little before it opened in hopes of getting a seat in the room for The Office panel. We got around like 12th row seats and sat through some talk about a cartoon called Ben 10. After that we hopped forward a few rows for the Sarah Connor Chronicles or whatever its called. And when that was over I was able to run forward and score us some seats about 4 rows back from exactly where Rainn Wilson would be emceeing.
This is how they did their introductions:
It was AWESOME!! That's all I can say. At the end of the panel the writers signed a few autographs and I got B.J. Novak to sign my Dwight poster!

After The Office panel we did another walk through of the floor and saw some more friends and then headed home.

Office arts.

2008-07-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

So... I love The Office, and while I am being starved for new episodes I'm going to be doing some new paintings. I'll start off with Jim Halpert. Go easy on me... I didn't have any pressure sensitivity on the wacom I used.

I'm hoping to at least get a Pam painting done, I actually have a preliminary sketch for her, but who knows... maybe a good Dwight and of course Kelly Kapur. Who knows... it all depends on overtimes at work, boredom, and the need to actually be artistic.

Oh speaking of The Office... THE WRITERS AND RAINN WILSON WILL BE AT COMIC CON!!! I'm so there!

Let it BEGIN!!!

2008-06-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

Here it is... It'll be in front of WALL-E for all of you who get out to the theaters.

OH... and by the way... I did the shot of them rolling on top of the train at 1:53 and Mittens saying "BOLT" at 2:09....

Just a little taste...

2008-06-10T09:08:00.001-07:00

Well... it looks like the Disney Channel beat out the trailer. Here's a little sneak preview into Bolt.

I dont know what to say...

2008-03-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday March 18th I lost a friend and former coworker, Justin Wright. Justin was a story intern the same summer that I was an animation intern. All of my room mates were story interns so I spent a bit of time over in their room. After we got hired Justin was the first former intern to start so I would go up and see what he was up to and we would geek out about how cool our dreams jobs were. I kept that up usually going up to chat once a week or so to see what he was working on and he'd show me how things worked up there since I had a big interest in story. He spent an hour once showing me how their software worked and showing me how he was doing his stuff for WALL.E. And every so often he'd accompany me and Valerie to Starbucks as the coffee at work was not up to our likings. I just can't believe that I'll never get to run up those stairs and check out what he's working on again...

Rest In Peace Justin.

tilly-willy

2008-02-29T10:03:00.000-08:00

You can hate on her tiny head all you want, but she's been up on Stuffonmycat twice!

Introducing...

2008-01-10T10:29:00.001-08:00

So here they are. The three main character's in Bolt. I promise the dog and hamster don't really have levitation powers... and the cat is not wet... nor does her fur still look like that. And... the movie has some really cool action scenes... they're not just walking to L.A. :)

Anyways... exciting to see images get released!

False.

2008-01-09T16:48:00.001-08:00

So I've been watching a lot of The Office lately. This is just a quick sketch/work in progress...

A little more permanent than originally planned.

2008-01-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

So after much soul searching and deliberation... Jack and Squeaker are going to become permanent fixtures in the VanderGalien/Andrus abode. They're our boys... no question about it.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T17:41:00.001-08:00

Hope you all are having a great Holiday break!!!

sitting on the couch

2007-12-10T21:58:00.000-08:00

I'm having a lazy night tonight and decided to do a quick painting/sketch. Turned out alright... I haven't painted in forever, and the pressure sensitivity didn't work, but here it is. Took me about an hour. Jack is the black blob in the bed. Squeaker decided it was more interesting to watch me paint than to be a subject.

Check this...

2007-11-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

That's right... a poster. OOOOooooOOOO! I finaled my first shot last Wednesday! I'm officially a part of the movie!

for serious.

2007-11-13T20:06:00.000-08:00

Okay I finally got a shot...

...for serious this time.

Good news all around!

2007-11-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

So...

I won the Animago for BEST IDEA!

Also...

My boy is famous!

More good news...

2007-10-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

It looks like Moe and Les has been nominated for an Animago.

http://www.animago.com/animagoeng/home.asp

I guess I find out if I win November 8th... too bad I can't go to Germany to see in person :)

And so it begins...

2007-10-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

I am supposed to be getting my first shots on Bolt tomorrow. :)

Hong Kong day 2

2007-09-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

Monday morning I woke up after more than 12 hours of sleep. I got up quietly and saw Chris was up and getting ready to head off to school. We chatted for a little bit and he handed me the keys and set off for work. Eventually Kevin got up and we both got ready and headed out.

Our first stop was Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kowloon Tong. This was on the top of the list of my things to do. Its a Taoist temple that is supposed to bring good luck. So a lot of the time people will pray here if they're in need of some luck :). It was our first experience with the incense that we found out later was a must at these types of places. They sell the incense in tons and tons of little stands outside of the temple. There are even people that will come up to you and try to sell you some as you come out of the train station. Fortunately seeing as we were "american looking" no one approached us or bothered us with anything like that.

We went in and instantly felt a lil... um... different. I saw no other westerners or anything. We both got a lil wide-eyed and maybe wondered if we were allowed to be there. But anyhoo.. back to what this place is about. So people light the incense and do some praying. Hardcore folks will lay out a lil mat and offer fruits. There were also some ladies spilling some sort of oil on the ground... maybe extra luck if you do that. Then there were these cans of bamboo sticks that they would shake until one fell out and I'm guessing that this had your fortune on it. I wouldn't know first hand because they were written in what I'll guess was Mandarin or Cantonese.

I originally thought this was all that this place had to offer, but was suprized when we walked behind the temple and found little gardens and ponds. There was amazingly beautiful architecture and paths that I'll assume the monks use more than anyone else, but it was very serene and lovely just sitting down and watching the turtles swim around. There were sooo many turtles in various areas in HK. Not indiginous I'm sure, but very very cute nonetheless. There was also the "9 Dragon Wall" which is evidently what Kowloon Tong means. :) So we walked around there for a bit before heading to the train station.

On the way to the train station we picked up some incense and stopped into a mall (yes another one) and I bought myself a new battery for my camera, since I failed to bring my charging cord it was my only option if I wanted to take pictures.

We hopped back onto the train and hit the next stop on our trip which was the Chi Lin Nunnery. This place was amaaaaaaazing. Built entirely without the use of nails. So this wooden place is held together with wooden dowels and strategic bracket work. In the pictures you can see the tall modern buildings behind this place. Its funny to think something like this is just smack dab in the middle of a really populated area.

On our way to the Nunnery we passed the gates to a little garden and since we had the time after the nunnery we decided to walk through there. And that goodness we did. It was spectacular. There were a lot of really strange looking rocks and just nice paths and beautifulness. There was the "Pavillion of Absolute Perfection"... it had an orange bridge. We kept walking and noticed this nice waterfall thing they had which was right by their vegetarian restaurant. Seeing as our were hot we decided to give it a try. tummy's were rumbling and we Whooo! That was seriously the best food I've had in a long time. I'm not vegetarian or anything, but that place could convert me. MMMMmmmMMMm...

We went to the gift shop and got ourselves some nice lil sketchbooks and made our way back to the train station. Since I didn't have camera battery for that morning I requested that we go back to Wong Tai Sin and take pictures... so we did :)

Hong Kong day 1

2007-09-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

Alright so Sunday morning Me, Kevin and Chris set off to tour around Hong Kong a little bit. It was at this point that I realized how much of a genius I was because I brought the cables to transfer images from my camera, but not the cable to charge it. Wonderful... especially since I had no juice in my battery. So I apologize, but there are a lack of pictures from day 1... Kevin has most of those pictures and we have no internet at home right now so I have none to show :)

Okay so we set out for the train station. The public transportation in Hong Kong is amazing. Easy to use, convenient, and cheap. We went and purchased Octopus Cards. Octopus cards are like little credit cards that are used on all public transportation in HK, and even taken in restaurants and vending machines. So we got those and hopped on the train to Kowloon Tong to go to the mall to get our coffee on. So we went into Festival Walk, which is the mall just outside the train station. This mall is incredibly clean... and huge. There was an ice skating rink inside. I tell you I have never seen so much shopping in my life.

From there Chris we hopped on another train up to Yau Ma Tei... Chris wanted to show us some crazy shopping districts where the signs covered the sky and people were packed in tight. We also walked through some markets that had produce and fresh fish swimming in little styrofoam tanks of sorts. This was very intriguing until one large fish decided to take a flying leap out of his tank missing my face by inches. I'll admit it scared the crap out of me and was definitely not what I expected... therefore a few curse words were yelled and I hopped away as Kevin took a picture of the flying fish. That was enough market for me, so we kept walking. We were getting hungry so we stopped at a pizza joint to grab a bite. I think one of Chris's favorite foods is Nachos, and so we got some there. What they brought out to us was quite interesting. It was... nacho flavored Doritos, covered in cheese, beans, and all the fixings. It seemed a little redundent to me, but... they were good. After there we headed toward the water. We walked around a little bit and decided to take the Star Ferry over. You would think... man taking a boat across the water would be expensive, but it was like 25 cents American. SO we took that across the way and ventured into the heart of Hong Kong.

It was on the boat that Chris explained to us that in Hong Kong everyone had a maid. EVERYONE. And Sunday is their day off, but they aren't allowed to stay at the house with the families... so... every Sunday there are hordes and hordes of these women just lining the streets and different areas. Most of them sitting on cardboard playing cards and eating or just... sitting. When we got to downtown is was even more than I could have imagined. A lot of these women are really well educated as well, but they can make more in HK as maids than they could in their home countries being lawyers and such.

So when we get off the boat and start trekking across downtown we see tons of these ladies around. Its weird.

SO we walked around and around... through some parks, which are more like landscaped paths. At this point I am huffing and puffing because its 90 degrees out, plus humidity, plus I sit behind a desk for a living. We headed back to Chris's at about this point. We were going to meet some friends of his for dinner and so went back to take a little rest before then. We got back around 4 or 5 I think and man was I beat. I was so tired in fact that I decided I'd lay down for a little bit. Cut to 7 o'clock Chris comes in and asks Kevin and I if we wanted to go out... I don't remember responding, but I believe it was a no, then cut to the next morning when I woke up. Yeah... we slept forever. Miles of walking + heat - 15 hour time difference = JET LAG.

Hong Kong... the prequel.

2007-09-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

So, last week me and Kevin ventured to the far off land of Hong Kong. We stayed with my cousin Chris who has lived there for quite some time now. It was our first out of country experience and I'm going to post basically what we did day by day. So... without further adieu... Hong Kong.

I guess I should start with a prequel to what happened before leaving Hong Kong. On Thursday night me and Kevin flew up to San Francisco and hopped on a BART train to Oakland. Jon picked us up and we took Kevin to the hotel to sleep while I went and surprised everyone at poker night. It was a lot of fun, I didn't win anything as usual, but a great time none the less... I even got some old bust-a-move in! After poker night Toaster took me back to the hotel and I went to bed.

Friday morning we were off... we BARTed to the airport and went into the International Terminal. We exchanged out money and it was nice to see that the American Dollar was worth about 7 HK dollars... and their money was pretty colors! We made our way to the gate and to see if we got on the flight. Our names were called and we ended up getting business class! I asked the lady at the counter how long the flight was going to be and she said "oh about 10 hours"... oh how wrong she was. 14 hours later... we arrived in Hong Kong.

We got off the plane and went through what I guess was customs... aka... nothing. The new Hong Kong airport is amazing... HUGE! (I think it is like the 2nd largest single room in the world or something like that) Walked out and began the search for my cousin. Kevin had no idea what he looked like, and I wasn't sure what color his hair would be this time around, so I just told him to look for a white guy haha. I tried my laptop to see if Chris had emailed and left a destination that we were to meet at, but as soon as I got the laptop open Kevin nudged me and asked if a guy walking around was him... and it was. :) I haven't seen Chris in forever, but he looks the same... and I swear he never ages! So, did some introductions and we were off! We caught a Taxi back to Chris's flat back in Tin Sum Village. Tin Sum is one of the few places in Hong Kong where the buildings cannot exceed 3 stories high.

We climbed the steps to his place... where he informed us he had become Asian and shoes were to be left outside the door. Which was cool with us :). So we went in and got some good ole air conditioning. Air conditioning is an interesting thing in HK because... no one has central air... they all have these window/wall units. Incredible tall buildings... all with air con units attached to the sides of them... dripping down on all the people on the sidewalks. We relaxed and caught up for a bit and then headed out to a near by Thai place to eat. It was sooo good. Other than the hard pieces that were in the soup that you weren't supposed to eat, but I somehow managed to get one in every spoonful.

After eating we just headed back to Chris's flat because we were pretty lagged from the plane ride out. Chris graciously offered us his room and we passed out.

Then the real adventure begins...

This is us waiting for our flight in San Fran.

Humble Beginnings

2007-08-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

So... I was going through my CDs the other day looking for a copy of some program when I ran across an old cd with my name scrawled across it. It then hit me where I got his from. It was a disk with my high school 3d work on it.

At my high school there was a random 3d studio max class. I had to take a really dumb class as a prereq. for it, but I was so excited to see what this 3d thing that I thought I wanted to do for a career was all about... and to make sure I enjoyed it before I spent the money to go to college. So our teacher pretty much had no idea how to use the software or how to animate or anything so we had books we would try to do things from and some tutorials online. I made pretty much the coolest gold fish project ever and was very proud of myself. It was after this class that I knew CG was for me. Looking back... wow... I mean... dangerous skills here haha.

This is the AWESOME fish animation I did... Yeah... those are blend shapes on his tail making him swim (if you can even see them). I was pretty much a camera animation genius. Man... so good... took all day to render this.

The class was mostly modeling and trying to make something that looked cool. Everything looked plastic and totally CG, but I think that was the point for us.

And finally here is a fireplace thing I modeled... very proud of it.

Happy Birthday Mama!

2007-08-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

Today is my Ma's birthday... so this is a lil shout out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MA! Hope you enjoy your present!

Huntington Library

2007-08-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

So this weekend Kevin, Gwen, Firat and I ventured over to Huntington Library in Pasadena to check out the sights there. Gwen went there once when she was little so it was a reminiscent trip for her. Good times were had by all... well... maybe not Firat who seemed to be at war with nature.

We started off by going to the Desert part of the Botanical Gardens.

We then made our way through a misc gardens until we reached the Japanese gardens. They had a lot of Bonsai trees there, disgustingly large koi, a budha, and a mock japanese house. Muy interesante!

After that we made our way up a tretcherous hill toward the rose garden of beauty... Took lots of glorious pictures of the strangely named roses... including a special one for my uncle Rex!

Right after the rose garden we tried to go into the tea house which was crazy packed so we enjoyed about 40 seconds of air conditioning before heading out into the heat and checking out the "rain forest" aviary... or whatever its called.

After that we narrowly escaped the wrath of a swarm of bees and a disgustingly large peach colored spider which disappeared 5 seconds after we ran underneath its web making barf noises in disgust there was a sculpture garden, but I'll spare you the photos as I'm sure this was more than you wanted to see anyways.

There's also great art/document galleries there too, but no pictures in there! Nice stuff... I'll definitely have to go back.

Once we were all sweaty and gross we came back and played with the monster for a little while and hit up some delish Korean BBQ... mmmm so good... so hot. Literally... I may have first degree burns on my face the grill was so close! MMMMmmmmMMMm Great Sunday!

Suuuuubs.

2007-08-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

This post is primarily for my dad because he wanted me to send him pictures from the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage preview day that I took him to. It was a lot of fun and our first look at the ride all completed. Its really surreal to see your work out there and to know that people will be looking at it every day for the next 40 years and that I'll probably take my grandchildren (if I have any) on it!

So yeah ANYWAYS... here's some pictures and a video on the making of... featuring 1 second of me! Can we say FAMOUS!

For some reason he wanted his picture taken at the Burbank Airport... I passed.

Comic Con

2007-08-10T08:40:00.001-07:00

So a couple of weekends ago me and Kevin ventured down to San Diego to go to Comic Con. It was a lot of fun and a lot busier than I remember last year being. Luckily we got up early enough to park in the parking structure and walk around a bit before things got really crazy. Unfortunately we were too late to pick up Scott Morse's new book :(.

I did manage to get over to Kevin Dart's booth and pick up this print. I've been admiring it for a while and when we ran across it at the convention I decided that would be my purchase for the day :)

We moseyed around for most of the day. Stopping to chat with friends to had booths and gawking at some of the interesting people the con had to offer. Of course I went mostly to look at toys and thank goodness side show didn't have anything I needed this year. BUT.... Gentle Giant is toying with my emotions by setting this awesome Voldemort 1:4 scale figure out. ME NEED! Unfortunately there was no release date for that... waaaah WAAAAAH!

It was a great day... except for the crazy traffic all the way back to Glendale... 3.5 hours worth. MEH. But yeah... successful :

Happy Birthday Michelle!

2007-08-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today is my friend of 18 years' birthday. Crazy to think that we've been friends that long. Michelle and I lived across the street from each other from 1989-1994 and pretty much played together all 5 of those years. When I moved to Indiana we kept in contact by letter and eventually by email. We may not talk as often as we did back then, but we still keep in touch and I still consider her one of my closest friends. Unfortunately I have lost her phone number and can't call her today :(. But as soon as I find it I will give her a ring!

Consiquently it is also her brother's birthday (guy in the tube socks on the left, though they're not twins he's a year older)... so happy birthday to Paul too!

Sick day...

2007-08-02T12:23:00.001-07:00

I've got some sort of stomache virus or something that woke me up in the middle of the night. So... I'm trying to get well at home today.

The other day I got a package in the mail from the Winnipeg International Film Festival. It was a plaque and a gift certificate. Seems as though I won the "Audience Favorite Short" in June. Its a really nice plaque, but unfortunately the gift certificat is for renting flim equipment in Canada. So um... I guess within the next year if I decide to give up animation and move to Canada I'm set! Its 1000 dollars woth too... dang. I'm still pretty honored though.

http://www.winnipegfilmfest.ca/

...and now back to sitting on the couch and sipping water.

The monster who hides under the couch

2007-08-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

So this is me and Kevin's very first foster kitten. We decided to call him Houdini because we lost him in our apartment for about 12 hours when we first got him... so we figured his disappearing trick earned him the name. He's about 10 weeks old and has plumped up quite well from the skin and bones that I picked up last week. He's got quite the little belly now and walks with a little more of a waddle. He's really come out of his shell the past few days. Usually he'd just hide under the couch and you'd have to go in with a broom to get the lil booger close enough that you could grab him. But I got up this morning to a lil face making lil squeekie noises and wanting to be played with and petted. So... I stayed a lil past what I usually do to play and I might even go home for lunch since he's actually being somewhat entertaining. He's still got a lil ways to go and I figure he wont be up for adoption for another 3 or 4 weeks, but... if you're interested let me know :) He's awfully cute eh?

I'll race you around Tom Sawyer's Island

2007-07-31T09:13:00.002-07:00

Somehow in my first few weeks at Disney I was talked into being on a Canoe team. What!? Yes... a canoe team. Its a Disney thing in which teams from all of Disney (mostly the parks... well actually all from the parks except us) race for the best time rowing a canoe around Tom Sawyer's Island. So that meant for the past few Wednesdays I've been getting up at 430am to drive to work, to carpool all the way down to Disney, to row around a smelly lagoon, then turn around and come back to work change and sit in front of my computer for 8 hours. Fun? YES! Tired?... Definitely. Within our teams we needed a male and female steerer, and somehow I ended up steering the front of the canoe. Man... I used muscles I never knew I had. But we never hit anything! I mean... other than that tree that one time. Which had spiders in it, which were all over my back since I was the first one to go into the branches. Last week was our last time rowing. We had to be in the top 16 time wise and of course came in 17th. First place losers, but we shaved a minute and fifteen seconds off of our previous time! It really was a lot of fun and a great way to meet people that I wouldn't have met otherwise. I'm definitely going to enjoy sleeping in tomorrow, but was an experience I'll probably never forget... getting soaked as AJ paddled backwards shoveling water down my back as he "helped steer", walking through backstage and seeing people painting merry-go-round horses and grooming character heads, and of course all of the mighty interesting conversations that were had. Hopefully I'll be able to see these guys every now and then around the studio. And who knows if they keep me around until next year hopefully I'll get to do it again!

So I have a blog now.

2007-07-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

So it looks like I have a blog now. Yes... yes I'm sure of it. Now to figure out what to post... hmmm...