JaMiE BaKeR: fallout

I’ve been having some trouble with my mental focus these past few weeks. This a common problem when working on my own projects but it rarely comes up when working for “the man.” I am very productive when working for for someone else but when working for myself, I guess I just don’t respect the boss.

When I need some creative Viagra, I usually just look at great artwork on the internet but that backfired on me this time. There is so much fabulous work out there that it leaves me feeling strangely inadequate! Inspiration can be a double-edged sword when it makes me want to throw out everything I’ve done.

Mind you, I am quite capable of chasing my tail without any outside distractions. My personal form of mental blockage is usually a case of having a lot of ideas and not knowing which one to use. I’ve heard this called “analysis paralysis” but I prefer the term “IDEA-rhea”. Too many ideas is as bad as none, sometimes.

Convincing myself that what I am making is even worth the effort can be a strange mental game. I’ll draw something I’m very happy with and then after a break for lunch, I come back and hate it. The reverse happens as well; I stumble upon some scribbles I did a day ago and have no idea why I threw them away. With me, that ridiculous internal chit chat can go ad infinitum… I know that all of this is a tempest in a tea cup but when the tea cup is my skull, the tempest can be exhausting none the less.

The artists who I really admire have, in addition to good drawing skills and original ideas, the ability to focus themselves and produce. Self-discipline is an invaluable quality in anyone but it really is essential for people creating things, especially when doing the creation solo…

OK, that’s enough of my whining; gotta go do some drawings. They don’t throw themselves away, you know!

More from the stack-O-doodles. This is another of my rare attempts at a famous costumed-hero character, inspired by seeing all the costumed folks walk by at Comic Con.

I am not sure if I will see the latest Fantastic 4 Film… Somehow the idea of the baddie being a planet-absorbing cloud, rather than a ginormous planet-devouring bloke in a wicked cool red and blue helmet is a bit of a let-down.

If you feel that way too, then cheer yourself up by looking at either THIS or THIS.

This picture was drawn years ago for my friend JOY who used to have a retro clothing line called FROCK & ROLL. (These days she designs under the label of HOT COUTURE).

The recent discovery of an old, water-damaged portfolio has prompted me to sort through my sketchbooks and stacks of scribbles and make a digital back-up of my older drawings (the newer ones have already been scanned at some point). I really SHOULD be doing a mini comic for Comic-Con but I am having the worst mental-block about it, which is what inspired me to sift through old drawings in the first place, looking for some inspiration.

One bonus of this spate of scanning, is that I have been updating and resizing some of the scans in the ART section of this site (for example this, this, this and that). Many of the images in my galleries were scanned years ago (as long ago as 2000) and were consequently posted at the tiny size required in the pre-DSL internet days.

After almost 7 years online, and 6 years doing this NEWS page, this is POST #200.

My first website launched in Late 2000, initially as part of the MAVERIX STUDIOS site (until I got my own domain and hosting in early 2002). This NEWS page began in August 2001 and I made the posts by hand in HTML until I discovered BLOGGER in August 2003.

The ease of the Blogger interface meant that the frequency of posts went up from one per month to roughly one per week, and the focus broadened from merely listing updates to my site, to posting general ramblings about this and that. In March 2006 I moved to WORDPRESS and I really like the flexibility and features of this platform.

Here are some stats from my administration dashboard: There are 200 POSTS and 703 VISITOR COMMENTS, the most commented post received 32 comments. A whopping 15,418 SPAM COMMENTS have been caught since I installed SPAM blocking software in March 2006. The real-comment/spam-comment imbalance is pretty intimidating…

Speaking of statistics, thanks to all of you who come by once in a while and create a HIT in my VISITOR STATS (I am ashamed to admit how obsessively I check them; it makes me strangely happy). EXTRA special thanks to those of you who occasionally take the time to post a comment and make this blogging process a dialogue instead of merely a monologue.

Having my own little outpost on the web has given me a lot of pleasure and I think that being part of a worldwide art-nerd community is a large part of the fun…

Lately, I have been scanning a bunch of doodles, sketches and scribbles that I have done over the years. Here is one from last year.

The pic is a sketch I did last year, recently coloured in photoshop.

I have just found my own web host, so even though I am still a part of the Maverix Studios site, my files are hosted by www.digitalriot.org, who I can heartilly recommend. Their prices are very reasonable and they always have speedy responses to my dopey questions.

I have added sample pages from my 2nd Rocket Rabbit comic book to the Comics section, and there are details of how to buy that and my other books in the Store section. Speaking of that, I have also been having fun making artwork for the products in my store, and I will probably buy a bunch of it myself and take care of all my year end present buying in one hit. (hint hint)

Other than that I have been doing some illustrations for a book written by my Dad, wrestling mightilly with a new comic story, and picking Rhode Montijo‘s brains as to how to get my already self-published stuff distributed…

This is probably old news to many of you, but I have recently been getting a kick out of reading and posting on a few graphics message boards; Shane Glines’ Drawing Board The Aimee’s studio board and the Bellefree forum are the main ones. Artists from all around the world post stuff on there and it has really increased my success rate in finding good art sites on the web. Oh, and don’t forget the Maverixstudios forum where you are all welcome to post your pix!

I spent the last month in Europe traveling about. The main purpose of the trip was to be at my sister VICTORIA’s wedding in Paris, which all my family members managed to attend. It is no easy matter getting all of us far flung Bakers in the one place at the one time either!

Before and after the Parisian nuptuals I was able to visit friends living in Germany and Sweden. My pals of many years the McClenahans have been living in Munich, where they had just finished work on an animated film. When I showed up they dropped everything and went with me on a trip to Venice. What can I say, I loved that city. But believe it or not I had the worst Italian food I’ve ever had right there. Thereafter I made my way to Florence and back to Munich where I caught the train to Paris.

It was a real blast spending time with my small-town family in that wonderful city. I never stopped getting a kick out of it. Despite the terrible summer, the city looked beautiful in the autumn. After spending some time together we all had to go our seperate ways. The group that came over from Australia went home via Vietnam, which I am jealous about as they had a bunch of adventures there.

Once alone, I went up to Sweden to visit my old pal Annelie who I first met in the Orient when I was travelling there years ago. It was late in the year to be travelling around Sweden but I gave it my best shot, despite the sometimes grey weather. Stockholm is a truly beautiful city, I’m not sure why I haven’t heard more people gush about it… Perhaps the high prices keep them away… I briefly visited the Filmtecknarna Animation studio to pick up a new copy of one of my favourite ever animated shorts; REVOLVER by Lars Ohlson. My previous copy went missing a few years ago…

After Sweden I headed straight down to Germany via a train that drove straight onto a ferry. I spent a bit of time in Stralsund and then on to Berlin, and back to Munich where I flew out of Europe. A few days in New York hanging with my buddy Dave Gordon and the trip was done… whew!

Last weekend I put on my moth-eaten old suit and walked the few blocks from my apartment to the San Francisco Masonic Hall, to watch a screening of Ratatouille, the latest PIXAR film. Later, at the Wrap-party, I was surrounded by co-workers and friends, all dressed-up, wearing huge grins on their faces. It wasn’t only the champagne making them smile; they realized that they had somehow made yet another great movie.

I am curious to see how Ratatouille goes over with general audiences. If they like it as much as the Wrap-party audience then it might be the biggest hit of any Pixar film yet. Kids will no doubt enjoy the fun scenes of a rat-chef as much as I did, but will they appreciate the thematic sophistication? Will clean-freaks get beyond the “ICK-factor” and learn to love a little rodent (yes, even in the kitchen) as much as me? How will it play for the People of France and other Francophone people? Will they see the love-letter to French culture that I see, among the many layers of this film?

There were quite a few French artists on the crew. No self-respecting animation studio can compete without its fair share of French artists these days (they are as sought after in the corporate animation-race as German rocket-scientists were in the space-race) and I think that their participation in this particular project lends it an authenticity, right down to the distinctive Gallic gestures in the beautifully acted animation.

Paris is lovingly presented, in one beauty-shot after another. The scenes of the city seen through evening fog from the River Seine brought back memories of my own nocturnal wanderings along those banks. This is the new movie to beat in terms of animation design. Character-design, production-design, staging, shading, lighting… everything.

As someone who worked on it myself, I am not able to give an unbiased review of this film, so I shouldn’t even try. Let’s just say that if you are a fan of any of the other 7 Pixar films, then you are not going to be disappointed by number #8.