Checking The Back Trail, II

March 14, 2011

Worked all weekend on several fronts. Working up an aerial illustrated map of Orme School and spent some time doing due diligence on perspective drawings of complicated buildings from the air. Not an easy thing to do.

Finally executed a key scene in the next installment of Mickey Free. After the fire fight in the mountains, Mickey and his trusty mammoth jack made it safely past the blazing inferno, and on to a river where the two bed down for the night. In the morning, Mick led Tu into the water and rubbed his sore sides, burnt and blackened from the fire. inspecting the big mule's face, Mick laughs, seeing that Tu's eyelashes are gone, not realizing that his look the same way:

Nice effects on the sides of the mule. Not easy to do, but I had good reference, and even a blind dog finds an acorn from time to time.

Meanwhile, took another crack at "Checking Out The Back Trail" and may use this scene to begin the Fire Fighter episode of Graphic Cinema:

Yes, those are Frank Tenney Johnson inspired boulders. Also, took another crack at Last Light On Morningstar and got some decent effects going.

Like the shape of Sugarloaf Butte better in this one. This makes the ninth attempt at this particular scene. I need to develop the foreground, adding saguaros, etc. Should about have it, with ten attempts, although I have been told that Maynard Dixon sometimes did 85 studies before he went to a final.

Saw three movies this weekend: "127 Hours," "Inside Job," and "Love And Other Drugs." Really enjoyed "Inside Job" an Academy Award winning doc on how we now have a Wall Street government. "127 Hours" was excrutiating and well done, but it wasn't my idea of fun. Kathy actually enjoyed it more than me. Loved the nudity in "Love and Other Drugs" but thought the story was a little forced towards the end.

"Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity."
—Charles Mingus