Time for Another Round (of Root Beer): It's the Best of 2023 and Recap Post

Happy New Years Eve, Bloggerfolk!

And what a year it has been! For me, 2023 started off with a bang, going to Disney World nary six days into the new year and to be frank, I think I was chasing that high for the remaining twelve months (even going BACK to DW for another, significantly hotter trip in August.) I think I really needed some time to play this year, to experience the wonder of entering a cartoon world, and to care very, very deeply about the silliest of things, re-energizing my heart in the process. This had the potential to be a somewhat dis-heartening year. I found myself constantly pushing off my grand expectations for the future (traveling the world, trying out for exciting opportunities) while realizing that so much of my life is just totally out of my control. However, my present situation was full of unexpected goods (advancement at my current work, being with the best of friends, new apartment in Nashville.) Like George Bailey, my unwitting role model/cautionary tale, I’ve found that things really are wonderful, even if it’s not in the way I would have planned. I think it all comes down to surrendering to God WITHOUT being defeated by my circumstances.

Still, in the day-to-day doldrums of meetings, traffic, and the dozens of other things I don’t particularly want to do, I find myself forgetting the dreams, hope, and curiosity I once had. The kind of radical derring-do that feels essential to making art, and being a lively human being in general. So is it too much of a exaggeration to say that for the betterment of my SOUL I needed to cheer loudly for the Bear Band of Grizzly Hall, delight in the imagination of the imagineers (and Figment), and ride Slinky Dog Dash with fireworks exploding in the distance? NO! NO EXAGGERATION IN THE SLIGHTEST!

imagination pavilion

This was also a year of looking back, becoming fascinated by the analog artifacts of a pre-digital life. It’s hopelessly nerdy of me, but I love the tactile-ness and playfulness of the 80s-00s. Through movies, old blogs, and even 3D experiences (like at Disney World, built mostly during this period) I loved studying the aesthetics and themes that made this period remarkable for those who lived it (and also for me, for some reason.) The dinomania that gave us Jurassic Park and Dinosaur (the ride, long may it live). The pinnacle of classical 2D animation with Bluth and Disney. The animatronics that couldn’t quite make it out of the uncanny valley, yet I applaud their effort. The necessity of real world, in-person experiences. The music of John Williams and Phil Collins. Maybe I’m weary of the dull convenience of the Internet, or am nostalgic for a dusty corner of my own past, but it was an era that really peaked my curiosity this year. Which you miiiiight have been able to tell given this year’s Big Work, Arte’s Curio Shop, a celebration and encapsulation of all this study and interest. (Check it out! Again! Or for the first time!)

But of course there was a lot THIS present year had to offer, which I’d like to share with you in my customary, year-end, best-of list. As also is customary, I’m putting both 2023 releases and older titles in here since I want to support new work, yet I also want to celebrate any title that made the year special. 2023 releases are in bold.

Watch (Movies)

• Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse
• Gassy’s Gas’n Stuff
• RRR
• Paddington 2

Big movies! Loooooong movies! I think I spent a combined 13 hours watching/rewatching just the picks on this list. RRR gave me some of my favorite theater experiences in addition to being an incredibly inventive spectacle movie (something I’d forgotten could be a thing.) Spiderverse smashed my already high expectations for it, a totally mind-blowing movie. Gas’n Stuff is my short film pick for the year, probably since I’ve watched it an absurd amount of times, and it captures character so quickly and effortlessly. Paddington 2 made me a genuinely better person and its soundtrack kept me company through many a drawing session.

Watch (TV)

• Andor
• Joe Pera Talks with You

I finally watched Andor this year, and yeah, anyone who tells you to watch it is right. And I’d like to give Joe Pera my “Best Thing to Watch While Eating Breakfast” award for capturing the beauty of simple joys. And for having an episode about breakfast.

Read

• Animation Obsessive
• Jake Parker’s Newsletter

Gonna plug two newsletters here since I didn’t make the time to read many books. But I do get genuinely excited to see both of these show up in my inbox.

Listen

• A Night at the Symphony - Laufey
• A Symphonic Celebration (Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki) - Joe Hisaishi

A good year for the symphony, it seems. Both of these are springtime favorites, orchestrated cover albums, and arguably the definitive versions of the tracks they cover. And they are almost good enough to dull the pain caused by missing BOTH of Laufey’s Nashville shows. *shakes fist at every ticketing system and the leagues of tiktok fans*

Ride

• Country Bear Jamboree
• Journey Into Imagination with Figment
• Dinosaur
• Runaway Railway
• Cosmic Rewind

Did you think I was gonna start this post talking about Disney and NOT end the list with a special theme park section??? I discovered this year that I do in fact love rides that are 0% thrill, 100% fantasy, a sentiment which would have embarrassed my teenage self to no end. When I think of some of my favorite memories this year I’d include swirling through the cosmos listening to “September,” running across the park in the rain to ride Dinosaur, and becoming arguably the biggest Bears fan, as testified by the people seated in the rows around us.

(And before we get too far away from lists here’s one more with stuff I couldn’t fit into any other paragraph:)

Happenings

• Moved into new apartment
• Finished watching every Don Bluth movie
• Got to learn about the business side of show business at a producers’ conference
• My Bluey artwork was featured by Disney Junior
• Camped overnight at the zoo
• Found 5 shark teeth fossils
• Watched A Goofy Movie with Bill Farmer (voice of Goofy) in the row directly behind me
• Got to see my celebrity crush in concert uwu

finishing arte’s curio shop with clay

My goal for 2023 was to “find a way to make art sustainably.” Art-wise, most of my time this year was spent working on Curio, which I recorded here on the blog (see the substack archive). I experienced some big strides forward when it came to my abilities with traditional media and animated performance, but was especially pleased to create an animated project, however short, within the span of a single year. Curio, for all its unexpected difficulties, was a more sustainable project than Bearpuncher. Its length and animation load meant that I could exercise, spend time with friends, and travel during its production. And thanks to the support of paid members here at the Roost, I could also bring in friends/dream collaborators (like Sam, Brandon, Kennoniah, Clay, Kosperry, and Louie Zong) to take the short to a higher level of quality than anything I’ve made so far. While I’m still aways off from making 2D animated projects as a full-time gig, I’m so thankful to have another animated short out into the world and being enjoyed by real people. Thanks for your help!

majestic beasts

What’s next for 2024? I don’t quite know! I’m excited to continue directing at Wingfeather, drawing at the zoo, learning about dinosaurs, decorating my home, reading books, and traveling to who knows where. I don’t quite know if it’s time to dive fully into another short, or if I need more time to experiment and learn first. But nevertheless I want to make more things, spend more time with the people I love, and see more of this wonderful world we live in. Basically I want like two more months added to next year, but so far all I have been able to secure is one extra day in February. Will keep you posted.

So I guess I lied. I do have some ideas for what’s next. But as with any year, it will probably be all the things I didn’t expect that will shape the year into something grand (or horrible! But I’m hoping for grand.)

Before I go…

Thanks to my travel companions who risked limb if not life (you know who you are) to make every trip (Disney and elsewhere) a great one.

Thanks to the artists and artist friends who inspire me every day.

Thanks to all who supported my work this year, read this silly blog, and gave your attention (and in some cases money) to help me tell these stories that are on my heart. I’m grateful, and you’re the best!

To 2024!

-dh

2023 in one picture

Bluey's Back!

working(?) from home

Hey Bloggerfolk!

It’s been a while since my last Bluey fanart, but you can only stay away so long, ya know? Since my last fanart, Bluey’s become a worldwide phenomenon and is quoted frequently by my cadre of friends, only two of whom are parents and none of whom are preschoolers. Finally, people don’t give me strange looks when I say “I’m Busting!” as part of casual conversation. One of my fanarts (ironically, my oldest one) was recently featured on Disney Junior’s Instagram, which may be the highest honor I’ve yet received as an artist, and a Bluey fan? Let me tell you, you are NEVER prepared for the moment when Disney Junior slides into your DMs. Thanks DJ!

I’m loathe to take time away from Curio but wanted to jump back into the Bluey scene and try some new things with the characters. As usual, I love drawing these guys with a weighted, plush feel. But I wanted to try something new with a tighter lineart pass plus a Anna-Scott-meets-The-Mitchells-vs-The-Machines color pass.

sketch

Doing some fanart ended up being a good change of pace from all the non-digital, non-character work I’ve been doing for Curio recently. And somehow it only took 2.5 hours? Which may be the fastest I’ve EVER drawn something on the iPad. I think it’s because I had years worth of fanart to reference, but also because Bandit reminds me a lot of my own dad, and I found myself thinking back on the days we shared at his work (which usually didn’t include a yoga ball. My desk at home though, did.) Good times.

Hope y’all are having a good weekend and a happy Eastertide!

-dh

PS: To my many friends who are also parents, for example, my own parents - that line above is more about my college friends and is a joke, not a reflection of our personal friend status, sorry for the confusion

Secret Workshop: Out of Season

This post is thanks to our Workshop Crew members. Thanks Crew! To join the team (and see the top-secret art I reference in this post) sign up here!

this post features images of hayao miyazaki. i am not an old man. yet.

It’s Spring. It’s the blissful time here in Nashville when the murkiness and violent ochre of fall is almost entirely forgotten as the trees burst into pastel pinks and darling greens. There’s some agro-hipster (dare I say ancient) part of me that longs to live alongside the seasons, and thus for me Spring is typically bright and fresh, the celebration of the new, the joyous, the adventurous. Now’s the time when I rewatch the Studio Ghibli catalog, or replay Zelda games. It’s probably the time when I’m the least nostalgic.

While the coming of Spring has brought great enjoyment to my heart, it has brought great difficulty to my work. My current project, CURIO, is really more of an autumnal creature. CURIO needs to be a bit murky, most definitely nostalgic, steeped in things almost forgotten - absolutely not pastel, not current, not fresh. You may begin to see my problem. My heart is off in Ghibli-land, but CURIO demands it be in the exact opposite place. What am I to do? I could quit CURIO and follow my every seasonal whim. But that would mean working on 4(+) short films every year, never finishing any of them, and for a lot of reasons probably feeling very confused. I don’t really want that. So my alternative is to work out of season, against the very inspirations my heart is drawn to, and return to whatever increasingly dull-seeming, out of season project sits currently at my desk.

Normally I can push through this kind of thing, but this week I’m working on CURIO’s color script. (The color script defines the color palette and lighting for the short, which essentially set the tone and vibes for the whole production.) I can muscle through linework, I can muscle through character design, heck, I can even muscle through animation if I need to. But color has always seemed different to me. Color is the most emotive part of the animation process, and the most ineffable. When I seek out color I’m relying almost solidly on gut and vibes. There’s no formula for setting the colors of a project. I need to feel it.

But I don’t feel it this week.

I arrive at the desk and this quote weighs heavily in my mind:

Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.
- Isabel Allende

So I show up. I pull together reference images, looking for color patterns like stars in constellations. What I’m doing is almost scientific. Almost like an autopsy. All these inspirations were things I cherished last fall, things I still think are worthy of reference and imitation - yet the luster is gone. It’s partly the season, and partly being in the stage of production when there’s still much work ahead and not much currently on the page to encourage you.

I show up. I try out some different color combinations, eyedrop hues from screenshots, etc. I wonder how people work on Christmas projects during the summer. I mourn the loss of the “perfect” version of this I would make, the version made when my mood more matches the project. But I can’t wait for fall, can I? Who feels Christmas-y during the summer??

I show up. Thankfully, color’s not the only thing I’m working on this week - I’m also planning out the main BG painting for the short, and while inspiration would be nice for that too, it doesn’t feel as crucial for this kind of work. I alternate between the two tasks. Thirty minutes on color, thirty minutes on linework, tea, donut, watch a bit of Kiki’s Delivery Service, clock in to my studio job.

Finally, a spark. Not on color, but on the BG painting. It’s just an idea, a little story/design solution for something I’ve been turning over since Monday, but it’s so surprising that it excites me. I still don’t know my way with the color direction, but this is exciting. Suddenly the project has some luster again.

And that’s just kinda how it goes. It’s weird. You’d think that working on personal work and your own story would always be fun. But it’s still a challenge. However, I feel like it was a bit unfair to call this whole process an autopsy earlier - I think it’s really more like faith. Faith to trust a direction and rediscover why you chose it in the first place. Faith to just keep going. Faith to trust that a product that captures even 70% of the grandeur you saw in your head is still better than keeping it all up there, where it can’t be shared and enjoyed. It’s not an autopsy, it’s charging through what looks languid to find that living soul at the heart of the idea, the soul that captured your attention and sent you down this road in the first place. I almost feel like I’m talking about a relationship at this point, but that’s still another act of making, and thus requires just as much faith. (Probably more!)

If Bearpuncher was any indication, this struggle to find CURIO’s motivation won’t be solved in a week. But in the meantime, I’ll do my best to keep putting in the hours, making… something. Just something is good.

Crew Members, read your extra email to see what that something is! Bloggerfolk all, thanks for your readership! What are you making this week? Whatever it is, I hope the muse is right there with ya (and if not, just show up anyways).

best,
-dh

One More Reason to Like The Lion King (as if you needed more)

pretty sure these are by jean gillmore

I wanted to share these beautiful Lion King drawings I’ve recently been inspired by. A couple weekends ago I got the chance to visit the Art of Animation resort while at Disney and the lobby is full of huge printouts with drawings like these. Sketchy, pencil-y, wonderful drawings. Why did nobody tell me to go here sooner?!?

These drawings are from what feels like a now forgotten age of animation art when everything had to be done on paper, so you get these fascinating results - especially in the line quality. Look closely at the lines here - imagine them without the interior coloring. They're short, kinda jagged, making little attempt to connect up with each other or look "pretty." But that's exactly the point - they're unpretentious, fearless even. Once the drawing's colored in, you barely even notice the lines anymore (power of silhouette I guess). And ultimately, concept trumps all - these drawings work not because of the lines but because they convey interesting, appealing characters. You get the sense that the character, not the drawing, is what matters. And what the audience really cares about.

these two by chris sanders

That’s something I have to tell myself again and again while creating. Digital tools make it so easy to tailor the drawing to exactly how you’d like it, which maybe is missing the point. Perhaps the inflexibility of physical mediums forces you to focus on the message, not the lines on the page. I’ve been testing this out on my current short film project, working so far just with pencil and paper to develop the character. This process is actually quite foreign to me, and it’s disappointing when I inevitably make shoddy marks that can't be easily undo-ed. On one hand, I think my drawings are worse than if I had made them digitally, but it’s freed me to think more of the character that these drawings are a window into. The forest, not the trees. It’s also been fun to hold my drawings in my hand again, flipping to the ones I like - I really do miss that when working digitally!

Anyway, The Lion King is great and I’m a fan - what else is new!

Thanks for your readership :)

-dh

ps for lion king fans only: more drawings here and here