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

Break Out the Good Stuff, And By That I Mean Root Beer: Celebrating the Top 19 of 2022

oops! all bearpuncher! compilation from 2022-2021

Happy New Year's Eve, bloggerfolk! 

Like Julie Andrews on a thundery evening, I'm here to bring you some of My Favorite Things from this year. But on this Eve, I want to do something different - a list! 

When I think back on 2022, it was a year of doing. And nothing comforts a do-er like me than a good list... Inspired by Patrick H Willems's kinda-chaotic-in-a-charming-way list from 2019, I've taken movies, books, major life turning points and crammed them into an categorically-sorted, yet in-no-particular-order list of 19 things I did this year. (For those wondering, I did try to find 22 things for 2022, but then the list felt too long... so a nice, awkward 19 it is.)

But first my yearly disclaimer: Anything I watched/read/did for the first time in 2022 is fair game, regardless of premiere date. I'd hate to exclude something impactful just because it initially came out a few years ago (as is the case with 99% of the books I read) Sound good? Let's go! 

Movies/TV/Games I Watched/Binged/Played

19. All the Stuff My Friends Made!

What a good year for friend things of all kinds! With so many graduating college we had a wealth of thesis films, but also comics, new short film projects, and production work. I wish I had space to link them all here, but several are on Pencilish's channel, Jon Densk is running several projects by himself, watch the Wingfeather Saga, and read Joel Guthrie's comic.

18. The Bad Guys

The directors of this movie always say they were making "Tarantino for kids," but that's because they don't have the guts to say they were really making "Lupin the Third for furries." This movie takes everything great about the Lupin films (snappy, pose-driven animation, 1960s heist soundtrack, literal waves of policemen) and brings them into a sunny LA setting. The story isn't anything special, but it's just a really fun movie to watch that wears its inspirations proudly on its sleeve.

17. Horned Cook, Gola

This is probably my top film of 2022, and it's not even feature-length. It's a Calarts short film. But what makes it so special is the way it invites you into the sensory world of the characters. Adam's animations are always so tactile, especially given the way he animates hands. He invites you to participate in the senses of smell and touch in a way no other animator can. The short has such a fresh, crisp feeling to it, like a cucumber salad. It's great.

16. Bee and Puppycat

Watching this show for the first time in 2022 felt like a lovely coda to the incredibly special and nostalgic era of 2010s animation. It calls to mind the gentle pastels and chiptune melodies of Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Animal Crossing, and Nintendo in general. While it captures that aesthetic moment exquisitely, its observations on being in your 20s and pondering your future still ring true a decade later. Nothing is presented too forcefully, the characters move through their emotions and problems at a slow and relaxed pace. The show begins to devolve into further experimentation and absurdity in the later episodes, but I personally enjoy the earlier episodes the most, when it's just Bee blundering around and Puppycat screaming "PRETTY PATRICK!!" in his adorable little voice.

The second season/new show(???) that released this year on Netflix isn't as good as the original webseries, but at least I didn't have to wait years for more B&PC content!

15. Disney Channel's Theme: A History Mystery

"Defunctland" has been a surprise contender for 2022's YouTube Channel of the Year, but narrator/director Kevin Perjurer is one of the best ones out there. His work is well-researched, nostalgic, and increasingly funny, and I think this is his magnum opus. It's an internet treasure hunt full of dusty old websites, nostalgia trips, and genuine heart. Kevin really has something beautiful to say here, but like a good mystery it surprises you in the end. The subjects are so well chosen and great to listen to. I wish there were more docs about these sorts of people, made with this level of craft.

14. Wingspan

An obvious, clear winner for Game of the Year - when rereading my journals I was genuinely surprised by the number of times I logged playing this game. It takes my favorite game mechanic (engine building/card combos) and surrounds that with birds and bird lore. Maybe not the game for everyone, but certainly the game for ME!

13. Bonus: Letterboxd, Honorable Mentions

This was the year I discovered Letterboxd, which meant I watched a LOT of movies. Letterboxd satisfies two primal needs for the cinema-goer: it broadcasts your movie opinions to the world, and it lets you know what your friends are watching without you. I hate how much time I spent on this platform, but it did make writing this section substantially easier. So... win? 

Honorable mentions to Sing 2 (a movie I'm pretty sure they made just for me, a diehard Sing 1 advocate), Everything Everywhere All At Once (the best multiverse movie) and Turning Red (which had a great soundtrack and visual look, but major story problems.) I also watched Spongebob for the first time this year, and now so many cultural references make sense... thanks Clay!

Albums I Listened To

12. The Complete After Midnight Sessions - Nat King Cole (Vintage Pick)

This is Christmas music for the rest of the year. This is a rare example of jazz violin. This is awesome.

11. Nisemono - Ginger Root (2022 Pick)

There's indie music, and there's funk-inspired-by-japanese-city-pop-from-the-80s-sung-on-a-landline-telephone indie music. Whenever I tell someone about GR's music I always feel like the most pretentious hipster, but dang does he capture well a forgotten era of kitschy synths, late night ramen, and anime reruns. For this album, he's built this whole storyline that connects his social media, music videos, and live shows all together - it's pretty great. 

Things I Read This Year

10. Animation Obsessive

Two years running. Guys. If you like animation you have to read this. Puts every other animation publication to shame. (And they featured Bearpuncher this year!) 

9. The Line Between

Certainly more in the high-art/concept world of animation, but one of the most open and insightful looks into the entire creative process, chronicled in newsletter form, as it happens. Although it seems to be more and more behind a paywall these days, there's still a lot of achieved content that's free and definitely worth reading. 

8. Only Like Five Actual Books

Not a great year for reading in general, as I largely gave it up to finish Bearpuncher. Of the books I did manage to finish, Deep Work and A Praying Life were probably the most impactful. Read A Praying Life, but just read a summary of Deep Work. 

Places I Went

7. Forest Fair Mall 

The perfect Venn Diagram of abandoned mall and Goofy Movie design sensibilities. A late 90's - early 00's time capsule, and it's about to be torn down :(

6. Lightbox Expo

Every year I think the hype isn't gonna be worth it, and somehow... it is. People say "right place, right time," and that's the way Lightbox has often felt for me. 

5. Ireland

Surprisingly... I never wrote a dedicated post about this trip. I had one in the works, but I never found the time to finish it. This was my first big trip in Europe, and I was honestly pretty intimidated. Never have I felt more American than when I was 4000 miles away from home! For the past few years I've had a goal of living abroad someday - I now know it would be more challenging than I thought, but I'd still like to have my Kiki's Delivery Service kind of experience, adapting to a new place and finding my place in it. 

Art I Made

4. Little Fanarts, 

3. Wingfeather Designs, 

2. Aquarium Drawings, 

but Mostly...

1. Bearpuncher

In 2022, I finished Bearpuncher as part of a 2.5 year journey that stretched from my school years well into my first year of post-college work. It kinda dominated my experience of this year, as I reoriented my schedule, carving out early mornings and weekends to find "the consistent dripping of drops of time that erode away the immovable rock," to quote Jake Parker. This was a huge goal of mine and it's a relief to have it finished, and see people enjoy it. Thanks everybody for making Bearpuncher what it is today!

. . .

Listing, watching, making, traveling, doing - I think this year definitely reflected my resolution, which was to "be prolific." What I meant by that incredibly vague mantra is I wanted to adjust my style and adjust my schedule to maximize my artistic output in 2022. I had come out of a 2021 defined by some big life changes but with not much to show for it. I was frustrated by how little time adult, post-college life afforded to creativity, and yet was so inspired by the lives of creators throughout history who (because they didn't have Instagram, I guess) still found time to write letters, paint, write, read, socialize in fancy parlors, etc. I wanted that. Parlors and all.  

It meant I'd have to change my priorities. "Being prolific" in one area meant streamlining and cutting back in many others. As much as this was a year of doing, it was also a year of stopping. I found the time needed to document the process of creating (like on social media, and even the Roost) took time away from actually creating. So I picked my priorities and largely withdrew from posting online. While working on Bearpuncher I hardly exercised, cooked, or read. Although I tried to preserve my social time unaffected, I'm sure there are some who would say it felt otherwise. 

It was a year of production, not exploration, of pouring out rather than drawing in.  Turns out, it's not easy to do that and a fulltime job and still maintain a balanced lifestyle. Who would have guessed! :P  With so much doing I got surprisingly bad at being - I felt guilty resting, and I was always thinking of the next task that needed to be completed. I liked the things I was making, but not the person I was becoming. I was homebound, pulled in several directions, always busy, under-rested, uncomfortable when routines were broken and expectations unmet. I often doubted if it was all worth it - was I just chasing personal vainglory, or caring for my audience and glorifying God? Thinking back on my resolution at the end of 2022, it actually seems kinda dumb. My resolution was just to... "work more???" What kind of resolution is that??!?

What's crazy is that it worked, somehow. The film got done. I found a way to make art in the margins of working a non-art job. I'm actually pretty happy with what I accomplished this year (like the things on the list above) but there's more to a year, and to a life, than what you can fit on a list. Some of my favorite moments of 2022 weren't action items, but simple acts of grace. Stuff like spontaneous movie marathons and trips to theme parks. All the conversations I got to have with my grandma before she passed. The winds that rolled through Nashville at the beginning of each season. Bearpuncher getting any views on YouTube.com. 

I'm proud of 2022, for reasons I can totally take credit for, and reasons I totally cannot. And I think that's just the way things are going to be... a back and forth of working and trusting, hard fought rewards and providential grace, breathing in and breathing out. 

I'm hoping in 2023 to apply this idea to making art - to find a more sustainable way to make things, rather than just be-prolific-at-all costs. Guys, I just can't do a year again like this for a while. I don't know if that means a work adjustment, or a expectation change or what, but I need to do something different... I have all this art I want to make, and things I want to learn, but I also want to have other hobbies, a more-than-shallow knowledge of important subjects, and the freedom to explore a bit more. Except from Bearpuncher being done, I'm sort of in the exact same place I was at the end of 2021, which kinda scares me. Yet I feel like this next year is going to bring something entirely different... and I don't know quite what yet. And that makes me excited.

So here's to the things we earned, the things we didn't, and all we learned along the way -

To 2023!

-dh

My Thoughts on AI Art (But Mostly I Talk About Christmas)

Hello Bloggerfolk - it's Christmastide. Merry Christmas :)

It's been a busy, strange past couple weeks. On one hand, I'm riding the high of the most Christmas spirit I've felt in years, and I'm feeling suitably holly AND jolly. Wasn't able to get a tree for my apartment this year, but my lights are up and I've been watching a bunch of Christmas and Christmas-adjacent movies. Rise of the Guardians has been a particular favorite this year, for a variety of reasons - its swirling, dynamic action+camera, its mythical guardians with whimsical powers, its Easter Rabbit who is Australian(!!!), and its childlike optimism in the simple delights of life. I'd love to make something like this, and I've been taking plenty of notes for future projects... it's definitely in the list of Movies I Wish I Could Just Directly Rip Off But That Would Of Course Be Stealing and That Is Bad. And fanfiction is NOT an option - I know what Tumblr did to this movie.

Speaking of stealing, I've been watching the whole war over AI-created art unfold over the past few days... I barely have enough time for this blog, much less Twitter drama, so I'm staying largely out of it. I make art because I like to seek out pleasing lines and shapes, pull characters out of my head, and glorify God, none of which AI art directly threatens or can help me with. I do find it puzzling that people go to bat for the AI, for it's not like its feelings are getting hurt, it can't thank you for your support, and if it really works it won't really need fleshy advocates to prove its point. Anyways... I'm just gonna leave you with this Jurassic Park gif which pretty accurately sums up how I feel about the whole thing:

Work has been an awkward touch and go of crunch and veg... I'm still not sure what kind of month December is supposed to be for me. Is it a cozy, restful winter's nap? Or prep time for a portfolio boosting, career navigating, project creating kind of new year? I've done a bit of both. I decided to go for it and submit a project to the Sony Talent League, an initiative to help boost independent creators. Although I do like living the exciting, ritzy life of a Nashville Indie Animator (kidding about the ritzy part) it has proved to be dearth of fundage and mentorship, two things the STL is able to provide. It would have been easy enough to just submit Bearpuncher and call it a day, but you know me! I can't have it be THAT easy! (Editor's Note: It also would have been against the rules.) So being December and all I spent some time consolidating an idea I've pondering based on my Christmas Illustration from last year. It's been turning into a surprisingly personal story and one that I hope to get out to you guys, in one way or another. It's still about Ivan and Hollie, two reindeer air traffic controllers, but I hope to use it as a way to talk about vocation, dreams, and leaving art school. And to use it as an excuse to collab with some jazz musicians for the score!

Ever since the whole Strange World/Nicholas Kole debacle of November 2022 I've become more afraid of putting my unpublished ideas out there on the internet. But this might be the one time where my blog's relative obscurity is actually an asset, because I think I can still post speculative stuff like this! Enjoy it while it lasts, my friends! Here's some new headshots of the main characters, riffing on some Shiyoon Kim vibes:

ivan

hollie

It's been fun figuring out who these characters are, finding emotions for Ivan that aren't "grumpy anime boy," and doing a bit of worldbuilding. And RESEARCH! Researching for art projects is my favorite way to experience the Internet. I love going on thrill rides down rabbit trails, trawling the archive sites, going to the dark and dusty corners no one cares to visit. It’s a hunt to find the next link, the next term to Google, it feels like synapses connecting in the brain and a big rollicking adventure. It's way less dull than social media, because nothing is tailored to your whims and most everything has Horrible Web Design. Awesome.

What was less awesome was the mini-burnout that hit after submitting the pitch. I was getting Bearpuncher/Art School flashbacks as I had spent every spare moment to get it done, finishing it just before the deadline. Artistically, I was spent, and socially too - I had to cancel plans last week (something I loathe to do) after realizing that I hadn't had a free night in over a week and I just couldn't keep going like this. The world keeps on pulling, bills keep on coming, and I still want to make art in the middle of all that... I think a big goal for 2023 will be finding a way to make all this sustainable. To get stuff done, but have times to be still and recieve God's peace.

I've been thinking about 2023 a lot already - since my family is going skiing between Christmas and New Years I'm having to get all my lengthy brooding sessions in early if I'm to write that highly anticipated year-end recap post (highly anticipated by ME, at least!) 

Thanks as always for your readership! Hoping to have a new Christmas Illustration ready by Christmas Eve and then the recap shortly after. See y'all then...

-dh

PS: If Internet Research Adventures sound fun to you, definitely watch Kevin Perjurer's most recent documentary about the Disney Channel Theme which captures that experience perfectly and is genuinely fantastic. 

I Done Been Interviewed! (and made some unrelated fanart)

Hey everyone! 

Long time no blog! I can't say this year has been an especially prolific one for the Roost (although my main resolution for this year was to "be prolific," I've applied that more to my drawing than my writing.) But to fill the gap between this and the next post, I am happy to share that I did a recent interview for the Nashville Voyager which you can read here! - https://nashvillevoyager.com/interview/check-out-daniel-haycoxs-story/

It's a fun little summary of my journey in animation (familiar territory for this blog) but now that I'm almost a year out of college (wowie) I'm able to look back with some perspective on my time there and how it shaped me as an artist. The main thing I wanted to convey is that as long as you have a genuine love for the product AND the process I think it's really just a matter of time spent practicing before you gain proficiency, and maybe even a career making what you love. Talking about that did make me a little homesick for the days when my primary work was drawing - I now have to cram art in around the edges between working my job and sleeping. But I'm still trying to make it work, building momentum back on Bearpuncher (only 12 shots left to animate!) and even doing some fanart yesterday!

say cheese, 4townies!

I've been looking forward to Pixar's new movie, Turning Red, for a while - can't say I was initially wowed by the first announcement, but once I saw more trailers and learned that Domee Shi was directing I was totally on board. It also just happened to coincide VERY NICELY with a 2000s nostalgia phase I've been experiencing for the past couple months. Not that I actually remember a lot of the 2000s, but I do enjoy the music of the time and an era where the internet wasn't so invasive... In the movie the kids were taking pictures with the panda and I thought "how is that not going to end up on social media???" Then I realized they didn't HAVE social media. What a concept. 

Anyways, I think the movie nailed a lot of very specific niche interests of mine - animal movies, 2000s jams, hip-hop/asian fusion music, cartoony expressions in feature films, movies set in uncommon locales - and so I was never not gonna like it. And I haven't seen a movie really tackle puberty the way they did (usually movies stick to portraying "coming of age" as only a mental and emotional transition, something much more marketable...) But I'm glad they risked it here, as it reminded me of how confusing and even panic-inducing that age was for me, which I've never seen represented in a movie before. 

Turning Red is one of my first reviews on my new Letterboxd account - anybody else using that site? I was a begrudging convert at first, but my reviews have steadily been getting longer and longer... If you read this blog you probably can guess I like sharing my opinions, so it's no surprise that I have become an avid user of a site that lets you pretend to be a movie critic. Hah! 

Anyways, I hope all y'all are well. We got a freak snow here in Nashville a couple days ago but the cherry blossoms have been blooming nonetheless. I'm looking forward to watching some Ghibli movies and dreaming about summer! (Trying not to do that too much until Lent is over, but still...) 

You guys have any spring plans? Or thoughts on Turning Red? I've found people have a wide range of opinions on that movie so I'd be interested to hear 'em.

Your fellow wayfarer,

dh

Whoops: I Had Too Much Root Beer and Forgot that 2021 Ended

some favorite pieces from 2021

Well, not exactly. 

But I am pushing the bounds of when it's appropriate to post a "2021 wrap-up!" 

For some reason, it's been really hard for me to summarize my experience of 2021. The year had several distinct stages, each with their own joys and disappointments. It was a very mixed bag of a year for me - one where many goals were achieved, but many dreams left unfulfilled. Although it's only a month distant, the year already feels fairly foreign to me. I was in school only a year ago! Hah. Weird to think about. 

But before I go and get too introspective, I wanted to share my favorite things I discovered in 2021. So in case you happen to be looking for something to direct your eyes (or industry awards) towards, here are my recommendations. As always, I'm not limiting this list to things that debuted in 2021, just things I watch/read/played for the first time last year. 

Movie of the Year: The Mitchells vs the Machines

This film continues the innovation and heart first shown in Spiderverse, establishing Sony's position at the forefront of the American feature animation scene. It's probably the funniest movie I've seen in a decade, with absurdly dumb, smartly utilized jokes that hearken to the directors' days on Gravity Falls. I was worried that I liked the movie only for artsy reasons (art-school protagonist, innovative use of CG reminiscent of watercolor mixed-media) but its multi-week tenure on Netflix's top ten speaks to its widespread appeal. In addition, my mom was recommending this movie to everyone she talked to, a rare and sacred honor. This movie knows how to flip between being as zany as possible during action-comedy sequences, and as real as possible during the family scenes. If it doesn't win the Oscar, I will flip. 

Show of the Year: Centaurworld

This may be because I don't watch a ton of TV any more, but I felt like this was a weak year for animated TV. Many good shows (Hilda, Bluey, Mao Mao:HoPH) were in their between-season hiatuses, with only Amphibia holding down the fort with its killer season finales. However, Centaurworld's first season stood out with an incredibly satisfying story set in an incredibly weird and song-filled world. Kimiko Glenn and Megan Hilty are just fantastic as the show's leads, providing such life to the character dynamics and the show's soundtrack. It's with great regret that I say that Season 2 falls vastly short of its predecessor and instead plays out like an awkward fanfiction dotted with decidedly un-catchy songs. I don't really know what happened there, but Season 1 is good enough, and self contained enough, to establish Centaurworld as a great offering from Netflix Animation and my pick of the year. 

Note 2: Aquaman, King of Atlantis is a STRONG runner up and since I don't think it got enough love, I'm plugging it here. 

Book of the Year: Watership Down

You can find my full review here, but this was easily my favorite book I read this year. It has such a well-balanced sense of scale - both in the physical setting and worldbuilding. Nothing feels too sprawling or extraneous, so the author gives you permission to care about each detail he provides. And these are details you're gonna want to care about - daring escapes, bunny politics, prophecies of doom(!?!) The adventure is grand, the in-world fables are highly enjoyable, and the characters are rabbits. What more can you want from a book?

Game of the Year: Villainous

Whaaaaat??? A Board game as a game of the year??? Luckily for me, I wrote this category vague enough that I can do this. Try and stop me. You can't. 

Vindictive arguments with incredulous (and imaginary) readers aside, I got so much enjoyment out of this well-illustrated game based on Disney's more nefarious cast. This game succeeds due to its balance of story and complexity. Each character/player has a different win condition based on the villain's cinematic plot. As Cruella, you'll have to search out and capture puppies across various locations. As Scar, you'll knock off Mufasa (and then enough of his allies) to secure your rule over the realm. As Prince John, you simply need to collect enough "beautiful, lovely taxes! Ah ha." All these various systems are housed within a streamlined core ruleset - uncommon for an asymmetrical game like this. Learning the different villain plots is the most complicated part, but there's enough similarities between them to make this game easy to pick up without losing any replayability. 

Newsletter of the Year: Animation Obsessive

(2021 BONUS CATEGORY!!!)

This year, as part of a general move towards the analog, I got really into newsletters as a preferred social media. (I even tried my own! Sorry for putting it on hiatus, guys) If you have an email, and are interested in animation at all, I recommend subscribing to Animation Obsessive. They provide some of the most well researched dives into the craft of animation (weekly!) This is some intelligently written stuff, nearly academic and yet instantly approachable. They cover animation of all types, from all places, and dang do you feel cultured after reading it. At times when I don't feel like an artist or I lose my faith in animation, I read AO, and instantly I'm back in art school - informed on what's new, a bit snobby, and ready to make something.

***

For me personally, last year pivoted around my graduation from college, and all the rippling effects and changes and responsibilities that come with it. And boy did I complain and fumble my way through it. Complaining and fumbling, people. After a leisurely summer of working on personal projects while housesitting, I got a major case of lifestyle whiplash in October, when I got my first fulltime job, first apartment, and the very, very minimal amount of free time that accompanies such responsibilities. There's a lot of college luxuries that I found myself wistfully gazing back upon: free time during the sunlit hours, a focus on creating personal art, and the ability to travel to name a few. I've now gained a great respect for grown-ups (especially those with kids??? how??), a great nostalgia for the easy days of college life (wow, that was early), and a great case of sleep deprivation (uh oh). 

I spent the beginning part of 2021 preparing to leave Nashville, and the second half coming to terms with staying here. This spring I said a lot of goodbyes. I was saying goodbye to the people who I had walked with for the past four years - professors who built me as an artist and the friends who'd built me as a person. I had a lot of lasts. Last Caricature Show. Last Five Minute Film Festival. Last college class. Yet the despite the sadness that accompanied this departure, I felt like it was time. Like the Elves, Frodo, and Gandalf, my time in my old world had come and gone. I didn't recognize most faces on campus anymore. My skills were ready to be tested out there at An Animation Studio, where I would begin the next phase of my education. I was ready to drift into campus legend as "that weird guy who always had long hair and sandals" and go tread those sandals elsewhere. During all of the covid-time I had been building up a mighty thirst for adventure, and no place seemed too far away. I'd go to LA, Brisbane, Kilkenny - whatever it took. I was going to "make it," and hopefully draw some new coastlines, pay with new currencies, and create some new stories along the way.

But just like an awkward partygoer, I found I had said my goodbyes a tad too early. As the year went on, I struggled to leave town. A few key things were holding me back. One was my commitment to finish Bearpuncher, my thesis film. While in school I had bitten off way more than I could chew and had prioritized lifestyle rather than making art, which left me with plenty still to do. However, I had made a commitment to finishing it, which felt like something I could do given that I had no job offers coming in (second reason to stay). Although I got really far in the interview process at DreamWorks, my applications remained fruitless. This barren ground would later blossom into a position working at Shining Isle, which has been an incredible experience. Less than six months out of school, I now find myself working in animation, which is incredibly uncommon. Even more uncommon is the studio's location - just south of Nashville. This has left me free to stay in touch with all my good friends, and to continue being blessed by the community we've been building here (third reason to stay). I'm writing this now in my first apartment, nary two blocks away from campus. I can even hear the Lipscomb bells ringing out on the hour (which I do not begrudge, I'd always like to live in a place with bells.) Despite all the obvious goods of this familiar location, I remained haunted by the fact that it felt decidedly un-adventurous. What was I to do with the courage I had been building, an appetite that called out for the strange and new?

I guess what I learned this year is that for as much as I idolized the idea of the adventure of life, I don't get to be the person who draws the maps. Instead, my role is to chart the best course within them. For as much as I admired the Fellowship, courageously carrying the ring to Mordor, I had forgotten that Frodo never asked for such a quest. Sure, I wanted an adventure, one with excitement and challenge and risk, but ultimately one that built the skills I already wanted to learn, took me to places I already wanted to go, and satisfied the ambitions I had already set in place. But I'm not sure adult life, or adventures work quite like that. 

Looking out a the beginning of 2021 I was unsure of the "terrain" of my life. Where would I be living? Who would I be working for? And my college friends - would we be able to stay in touch? And although I've now found the answers to those questions, they didn't all come from me. They came from covid restrictions, community blessings, application rejections, job offers, and ultimately, God's plan. 

Now looking out on 2022, I've scouted out the terrain, but now need to decide what route I'll be taking. I know what I'll be doing this year, but what do I want to do? Are the grand ambitions I coddled in college worth keeping around? What am I willing to give up to be an artist - and is it worth it? 

For despite the big, existential questions that usually resurface when writing for my blog (or watching tick, tick... BOOM!), my day-to-day life in 2021 was actually pretty fantastic:

• I practiced hospitality now that I had my own space
• I learned how to cook all kinds of new things
• I have several artists in my life who could make great mentors and help me learn
• I have a fantastic community of artists and non-artist peers who encourage me every day
• I learned what it takes to get hired in animation
• I joined in on the sea shanty trend, an ashamedly non-hipster move for me
• Also started listening to a lot of musical soundtracks
• I'm officially in the time of my life where I get to attend a bunch of weddings, and even co-best manned in one
• Had a big Italian phase this summer after watching Luca
• Had a big Lord of the Ring phase this fall because I want to live in the Shire
• I ran my best 5k ever, placing surprisingly well in my age group
• Went on big, adventurous trips to the Smoky Mountains and the Virgin Islands
• Spent months primarily working on personal work
• Polished my swing dancing skills alongside a live big band
• Got really into board games
• Ate tacos on Mondays
• Played trivia on Tuesdays
• Got to the final round of internship interviews for a LA studio
• And then actually got a job in animation, for a studio that admires the good and true and beautiful

It's tough to reconcile the everyday goods with the big-picture worries. It's going to be weird to pass from a year characterized by transition, potential, and instability into one that promises to be predictable, defined, and stable (at least in my personal life. The world at large is still pretty wack.) I'm still not used to it, still just as bad with commitment, but I'll keep on fumbling my through it. I'm thankful for where I'm at, excited to see what's next, and ready to keep on learning. I may have finished my formal education, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I still have more to learn than ever. 

To learning, to fumbling, to good cheer and the friends that walk with us.

To 2022!

-dh

A Merrie Yuletide to You All

the north pole air control!

Hello Bloggerfolk! And a Merry Christmastide to you!

Although it pains me to have missed the hallowed, two-years-strong tradition of a post precisely on Christmas Eve night, I have my reasons... For one, this year's Christmas illustration wasn't ready until 1 AM Christmas Day, despite sneaking in some drawing during every holiday movie marathon. But sometimes you just got to risk Santa's wrath if it gives you extra time to trial-and-error your way through adding highlights (curse you material rendering!!!!) Additionally, I always struggle to find the right balance of pleasant work (this blog, the above illustration, Bearpuncher) and the decidedly non-work (spending time with family, looking at sunsets, The Office reruns) while on breaks. And this year, I have struck out a little more on the non-work side. 

But excuses aside, Merry Christmas! For this year's illustration I bring you Ivan and Holly, two (mostly) tireless workers at the North Pole Air Control. Since they do work at the Christmas HQ, I dabbled in some self-indulgent research of vintage outfits and a warm Christmas palette - (have you guys ever realized HOW GOOD Christmas colors are? if you doubt me, watch Robin Robin.)

Oh, and while you're here... I thought this might be a good time to talk a little about process, particularly the sketching phase! One of my favorite Twitter trends from earlier this year was the #sketchvsfinal, where people would post an artsy "before and after" - first sketch alongside the finished images. While some sketches were suspiciously excellent, many looked like mine, which is to say, unimpressive. Here's what mine look like:

When I drew this, I had just gotten the idea and was trying to record it before it left my head. There's no detail, and only the loosest indications of anatomy or perspective. Heck, he doesn't even have a left arm! But what is beginning to appear is shape and force (the energy "flow" of the drawing). Those are usually the two most exciting parts of the image for me, and I'm willing to bend anything else to suit those factors. Shape and force are how I show the emotion of the character, and the appeal of the drawing itself. It may be different for you, but that's where I personally like to start! For this character, I knew he would be a burned-out, over-tired, call-center kind of guy, so he'd be defined by a big slouch and in a very casual pose.

Once I had this basic idea on the page, the rest of the process becomes sculpting that sketch into something that makes better sense anatomically, has more specific details, and more thoughtfully exaggerated shapes. Justin Oaksford talks about in this tweet the importance of redrawing and refining on top of your sketch, and I totally agree! Although I sometimes get impatient and just do it all on one layer. But for me, drawing is mostly a long process of pushing around the rough, uncarved "clay" of the initial sketch, finding opportunities to make it better through multiple small revisions. This keeps it from feeling overwhelming or that you have to nail it on the first try. (Which most artists CANNOT do! Which is a relief to all of us.) 

Go go draw boldly! And gently! And enjoy the "excess of Chronos" that is this strange, sluggish, reflective week between now and New Year's. I hope you may find friends, family, and/or eggnog close at hand.

merrily yours,

dh

Recommendations:

Nicola Saviori made this incredible reindeer drawing that inspired me to create mine (though his is much less of a desk-jockey)

The song of this Christmas season for me has been the classic version of It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, I think due to the way it was expertly cut into the Hawkeye trailer (also a good show btw!)

How Animation Taught Me to Love Musicals (and Centaurworld)

I used to be a musical hater. Okay, well maybe not a hater, but more of a reluctant tolerator.  Because whenever the music would swell and a character would bust into song, I couldn't help but find it jarringly unrealistic. If someone tried to do that in real life they would be given some stern stares, or worse, assumed to be a theater kid. 

However, now as a world-weary and jaded 23-year-old, I welcome the musical genre. I haven't watched all the classics, but I no longer roll my eyes at dance numbers, "I Want" songs, or operatic solos. I get especially excited when I find a musical TV show, because somehow the six to fourteen songs they can fit in a typical movie isn't enough for me anymore. I need multi-album soundtracks. Numerous songs by extras you will never see again. More duets. Sad, romantic, and battle duets. I'll take them all. 

You may chalk this sudden (and perhaps humiliating) change up to a general longing for anything hopeful and wholesome, an impulse I imagine to be pretty common among young adults growing up through these Covid-times. But as this change has been going on for a while, I think there was another reason, and it won't come as a surprise: my study of animation.  To explain, let's take a not-so-brief foray into some armchair aesthetic philosophy. 

At its core, animation is communication, just like any other form of art. The best animation captures a real person, idea, or experience and brings it to the viewer in a direct and interesting way. But as the majority of concert videos in my Instagram stories prove, just because a real experience is being recorded doesn't mean the viewer will actually experience what it was really like. I've generally found that when designing and animating, trying to exactly copy life won't actually produce results that look real, and never ones that look appealing. Something gets lost in translation. So to actually make something that feels believable, you have to overshoot reality - exaggerate. We have to actively work against the atrophy that comes along with the artificiality of animation. We stretch, saturate, and simplify. We're tightening our message down to what is most important, in a way that the audience can easily recognize. 

Animation doesn't have to be stylized. But I think it's most delightful when it is. In a post I will reference time and time again, Nicholas Kole describes why stylization is so important when designing for animation:

"We notice, and we point people's attention to the details we love most. That's what makes stylization so alluring- we are simplifying the visual statement to direct your attention to this-kind-of-arm or that-kind-of-smile. We create patterns from our love and attention."

Animation will always be to some extent, unreal. But if we lean even harder into that unreality through stylization, we can communicate something real in a striking and direct way. And even more exciting-ly, we can communicate a very specific view of something real. We stylize out of our own personal point of view. What we love will be large, contrasting, central. What we hate will be even more corrupted. What we're apathetic about may be omitted entirely. Good stylized designs tell you what to pay attention to, and the best ones even suggest how you should feel about it. 

And though I know much less about music than I do about drawing, I think songs in musicals serve the same purpose. In most musicals (but famously excepting Cats, a long rabbit trail I am happy to talk about later), song sequences are stylized ways of presenting narrative moments. And therefore, they are decidedly non-realistic and non-literal. For many people, that's enough to take them out of the narrative. So why risk a song? For the same reason we stylize. In art, we must fight to say things as clearly and as specifically as possible, and a song does just that. The limited lyrics confined in meter focuses our attention only where it needs to go. And it's impossible to beat music in its ability to inform how we should feel about something. Yip Harburg, lyricist for The Wizard of Oz, puts it this way: 

"Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought."

I think that's incredible - in musicals, we get the chance to feel a thought. To experience a character's feelings almost as if you were them. So now, I don't mind whenever a character bursts into song, because if it's done well, we're seeing an incredible metaphor that's putting us not just into a story moment, but the very mind of the character experiencing it. I love musicals for the same reason that I love stylized characters in animation - they are fantastical, entertaining, and highly effective ways to communicate something real. 

So it's maybe no surprise that a medium with a grounding in visual stylization is often paired with a genre known for its narrative stylization. That may be largely due to Disney's catalog, but I wanted to highlight a recent exceptional example since I've been obsessed with it for the past week: Netflix's Centaurworld.

some wammawink fanart because her songs are SO GOOD

I don't think Centaurworld would work without its rooting in musical theater. In fact, the show is inspired by the creator's accidental enrollment in show choir while in school. And when describing it to friends, I've said that whatever you don't like about musical theater you won't like about this show, but whatever you do like, you'll really enjoy. For example, the show is unabashedly weird and flamboyant, but the emotional moments hit much harder for all the musical reasons I spent several paragraphs just describing. The music pulls the story along on this very satisfying narrative arc. The songs grow more desperate and sad as our heroes near the end of their journey, while a chill-inducing lullaby pulls us ever closer to the final showdown with the Nowhere King. Overall, the show is one of the most cohesive and well-serialized animated shows I have ever seen, and if it wasn't so long I would easily enjoy watching it in a single sitting. It reminds me a lot of how Steven Universe transitioned into being pretty much a musical over the course of its lifespan, and how grand, serious stories aren't necessarily cheapened by the addition of songs at pivotal moments. 

And thankfully in a show where singing is this important, the voice performances are fantastic, with obvious Broadway experience. It definitely falls into the trope of "cute world with a dark underbelly" we've seen in shows like Adventure Time and Pibbi, but its insistence that the fragile, kind things would be what ultimately redeems it was refreshing. 

There's a lot of other things to like here too, from some of the best rigged horse animation I have ever seen (Mercury Filmworks continues to amaze in their rigs department), to a surreal and Undertale-esque sense of humor, but I always find myself coming back to the powerful (and delightfully lengthy!) soundtrack as the element that ties it all together. If you can manage to look past the giraffe man with nipples (which is difficult, I know), you'll be rewarded with a surprisingly emotional story and some new tracks to add to your showtunes playlist.

(yes, I know about that.) 

(and I now have one too.)

thanks for your readership -

-dh

I Have a Job and a Place! Wow!

 So... things have been happening... and after a summer of wandering, unemployment, and a side of freelance, I am happy to announce that I have a job! In animation! And also an apartment! All in the same week! And if I'm using perhaps too many exclamation points it's because I'm fairly sleep deprived and probably the most busy and frazzled I've been in months! 

Some context: over the summer I'd been doing scattered temp work and test assignments for a new show called The Wingfeather Saga. It's a fantasy adventure show based on a series of books I loved as a kid, and crewed by a team full of familiar and friendly faces. And now many emails, several sketches, and brief stint PA-ing later, I'm a Production Associate for the design team! Still kinda figuring out exactly what that means, but right now it's been a bunch of meeting scheduling, asset organizing, and macaroon eating. I'm told this last task will not be a permanent part of the job :(

I'm not getting to do much art in this role (yet), but I'm hoping to be able to sneak in a few designs when our team gets overbooked. Wingfeather is made by a pretty small studio with a lot of artists in production/admin roles, so there's a chance that could happen (which would not be the case at a bigger studio.) Of course, my PA responsibilities come first, but it would be a delight to point at the screen, declaring loudly to the whole audience gathered in the theater: "I DESIGNED that MUG!!!" (To which, they would jubilantly respond, "SHHHHHH.") I guess after more than a week of having no time to draw I'm chomping at the bit to figure out how to bring that discipline back into my life. The really cool thing about being in production is that I am getting a really good sense of how people are hired and how to make yourself competitive as an artist. I also get to sit in on all the art review meetings and soak in all those notes and knowledge. Now I just need to figure out how to put all that into practice, in a schedule that now has drastically less free time.

This is my first ever 9-5 (8-5 in this case) job, and so it's been a huge adjustment to pivot away from the self-styled living of a freelance/mostly unemployed artist to a schedule that is largely already set each day. Adults, how do you do this? How do you accomplish all the many things you get done in the hours from 6PM-12AM? Because I have not figured that one out yet. So far, I've figured out how to hang out with friends and occasionally make dinner. But reading? Practicing music? Watching TV even? No idea. This maaay be because I also got an apartment the week before I started my job, and dang do you need a lot of things for an apartment to function. I thought you just need a table and sofa or something. But it turns out you need at least: silverware, wifi, a real mattress, floor lights, and a shower curtain (all of which I did not have upon moving in. I will not soon forget that first night...)

However, each day, my apartment is getting a little more livable, and I'm getting a little more capable at my job. This is a picture from my first day ever working in The Industry and it DEFINITELY captures the fact that despite having a job, you might still be just as clueless, awkward, and amateur as you were in school (or in my case, more so.)

boy does this guy look ready for an exciting career

I remember reading somewhere that as you advance through life you'll often go from the very top to the very bottom of the ladder. High school seniors go from ruling the school to being freshmen again in college. I had gotten really comfortable being a college senior, but this is my freshman year of studio work. Things aren't going to go perfectly, my ego will be crushed quickly, and my footing may be shaky. I definitely feel like the nerdy freshman I was four years ago, and four years before that. But through the process, I'm rediscovering a bit of that freshman zeal and eagerness that I had ashamedly forgotten as a jaded senior.

So here's to going back to school - I'm just glad my new classmates are the best (and that there are sometimes macaroons.)

-dh

Skipping Art for Sea Turtles, and Other Nautical Tales

sailor dan in perhaps his truest form, with fellow wayfarer joe mulligan

Hello Bloggerfolk!

I'm back again, fresh from the airport, a bit more tan, a lot more tired, and very glad to be home, or at least some semblance of it. My nomadic summer continues, having spent the most recent stint of it in the bays around the island of St. John! Inspired by our previous trip to the southern seas, my dad and I decided again to go sailing. Only this time, the boat was significantly bigger, the bathrooms were slightly less scary, and the crew was made of old high school friends (both my dad's and one of my own!)  It was my big hurrah to celebrate having finished four years of college and being 99% graduated (I shake my fist angrily at my remaining summer credits). And before you get too jealous, I'll have you know that I was covered in sunscreen most of the time (icky), had a major case of sea legs (wobbly), and got stranded at least once (more on that below). But I'm not gonna lie - it was a great trip and a major blessing. Getting to swim in blue water under jungle hills dotted with pirate-era ruins is pretty much how I’d want to spend any summer ever. Sailing is a lot like camping, in that there's danger and uncomfort which is then traded to experience a beautiful place about as closely as you can. Unless you have a 5-mil+ yacht. But I don't think that will be happening for me anytime soon.

I promised art in my last post, and did my best to deliver. But it wasn't as straightforward as I had hoped. Drawing while on this trip was surprisingly difficult, as my drawing process typically includes two things: lots of reference, and lots of time. And I didn't have much of either on this trip. With limited cell service, I was cut off from the illustrations and art styles I often reference while drawing. All I was left with was the scenery, my natural instincts, and what I could remember. Which perhaps is a good look into where I'm actually at artistically, when I'm not borrowing tools from and measuring myself against other illustrators. But the perfectionist side of me was never really happy with how the pictures were turning out, which made me even more disappointed in the amount of time it was taking to draw them.

me and the pad

Drawing is fairly isolating - working on my iPad meant I was out of the sun and away from the fun for extended periods of time, and I began to feel like I was missing out on the trip in the same way that a tourist misses out on his when he's too focused on taking photos. In fact, drawing often fills that same desire for me as photos do for the tourist: the desire to take some part of the place you're visiting back with you. But in doing so, you miss out on actually experiencing the place firsthand. There was a distinct point on the trip when I was struggling to draw some dang shoreline because I didn't have the time or reference to really nail it, while my friends were out swimming with freaking sea turtles and I thought what am I doing??? is having a nice picture really worth missing out on that?  So I ditched art for the rest of the trip, swam with two sea turtles, and it was wonderful. 

Before I had that "screw it" moment, I did get in two pictures that I liked, both done in a polygonal style based on my memories of Laura Bifano's work, which I recently discovered and really like. It's a novel, very digital approach to landscape painting, but for some reason, it was the only style that really felt natural at the time. I'm also including the shoreline that caused the epiphany because if I can't feel comfortable sharing bad art here, then I won't anywhere. 

golden hour at leinster point and tortola

i just love clouds so. freaking. much.

ugh

Drawing issues aside, the trip was great. The main island we sailed around, St. John, is mostly national park, meaning that the views are relatively unspoiled and it truly felt more wild. I'm not the biggest fan of resort vacations or overdeveloped places... give me ancient ruins and trees any day! This trip had them in spades - we even discovered ruins of a resort house on this quiet beach! 

That tower up behind me is, you guessed it, MORE ruins (pirate-era dutch windmill tower). And while it wasn't on the itinerary, we also got to snorkel over a shipwreck (checks that one off the bucket list) Pardon me while I geek out about ruins for a moment... how have I never talked about this on the blog before??? 

We had a few close shaves, mostly due to the assumption that “we wouldn’t ever run out of gas for the dinghy boat.” (small boat that gets you from the bigger boat to the shore) And that assumption was put most strongly to the test one night when we decided to dinghy 20 minutes across the bay with a more than full passenger load just in the hopes of a seafood dinner. Instead of a seafood dinner, we were greeted with no easy place to park (and for some reason we settled on the smelliest part of the whole harbor to disembark), no seafood (the only place nearby was a hamburger place where we waited literally two hours for food), and barely any gas (as this was the only harbor that had no gas station). By the time we were leaving, the sun had more than set, we were pretty much out of gas, and we still had a 20 minute drive back, against current, in the dark. Dad and I were pounded by the oncoming swells as we pondered what to do in the very real possibility of running out of gas, wrecking on shore, or any number of unsavory outcomes. Thankfully, those outcomes remained hypothetical and were able to make it back. But when the dinghy ran out of gas the next day, stranding us on an entirely different island, we realized just how close we had been to a legitimately dangerous situation. (shoutout to the Alabama guys who got us off that other island). 

And while those dinghy trips made me never want to step foot off of the boat again (for fear of being stranded on yet another island), eventually we did and headed back to the states. It's quite nice to be on the mainland again, and I'm ready to settle into my new place where I'll spend the next couple weeks (this one has a pool! yay!) Hopefully it won't distract me too much from the mountain of Bearpuncher work that needs to be completed but... we'll see ;)

wishing you a great summer of ruin-exploring adventures!

-dh

Music Recommendation: The two songs that were pretty much always in my head the whole trip were Calypso by John Denver and the Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire dive theme. Which are very likely NOT the first two songs that come to most people's minds when it comes to seafaring, but are both incredibly nostalgic for me. (sorry not sorry, beach country music)

Report from Week 2 on the Freelance Front

Hey Bloggerfriends -

I’m coming at you fresh off my first two weeks of post-college-and-rather-more-adult life! I have planned and cooked meals. I have joined an awesome trivia team which consistently tanks in the second half (curse you, sports and cars questions!!!) I have been putting serious work into Bearpuncher, translating dozens of hours drawing into whole seconds of animation (woah!!! don’t get too excited, people!) But with each day the film is getting more done and some day it will be all done and that will be a good day! But for now, I’m keeping my head down and trying to maximize this time I have to focus (nearly) single-mindedly on this thing.

The transition away from school initially hit me pretty hard. I spent the first few days after graduation just wondering is this it??? Do I just work all day and then hang out with friends at night? IS THIS ALL THERE IS FOREVER?? Compared to college, where there’s always things going on, long luncheons on the lawn, and different classes every day, life seemed too quiet, too simple, and too repetitive. Especially since I’m currently living the life of an indie animator/freelance artist, and working only by myself. I missed having coworkers, or some kind of social interaction during the working hours. Although I thought I could manage living the freelance hermit life on a farm somewhere, my extrovert side is pulling me towards the bustle and camaraderie of studio life. Now if only there were a studio that would let me in…

golden hour light doing its thing

Eventually, I got used to it. And as the weeks led on I treasured the time alone when I could really focus on getting stuff done. It even got to the point where I started to tire quickly of social interaction, and prefer a quiet evening in, animating and watching The Bad Batch. Perhaps I had adjusted too well. Yet this nomadic time of my life prevents me from getting too comfortable - I’m heading off on my graduation trip and then housesitting for a few weeks. And then after that, no idea! I’m not going to lie - it would be awesome to do some studio work and know where to live. But I also am really grateful for the chance to finish this important story and not have to commit just yet. Can’t have good things without commitment, but I’m not ready… just yet…

Anyways, see you when I get back! Likely with stories, probably with art!

the best to you and yours,

dh

Goodbye, Lipscomb (Or, Into the Interim)

So this past weekend I graduated from college.

Wow.

It's still taking a while to sink in completely, especially since the transition has been so gradual (and is in fact, still continuing!) There was the last in-person class, last online class, last exam. A goodbye to these friends, those friends, visiting family, and a muted goodbye to those who will be staying in Tennessee with me for the next little while. And throughout it all, there was way too much excellent food, many excuses to dress nice and wear suspenders, and enough beautiful weather for the first in-person graduation since Covid. As the bagpipes processed down the arena floor during commencement, I thought back on unlikely friendships, nights in my oddly nostalgic 1990's era dorm, laughter and struggle and tacos every Monday. 

What an incredible four years. 

It's no understatement to say that Lipscomb built me as an artist. Unless we're counting the influence of Steven Universe or the precious few principles I was able to remember from my single high school art class, I learned everything right there on campus. It's where I discovered (and sometimes met!) my art heroes. It's where I first learned about gesture and design. And most importantly, it's where I found a community of people who care about cartoons (and each other) in a real, inspiring way. I still remember the moment when I knew I was among my people - stepping into the (now repurposed) animation lab in Hughes and seeing Bill Cipher on the whiteboard as Sam and Naomi showed me their work. Grown adults, talking intelligently about cartoons they liked! That was something I never experienced in high school, and a blessing I've been able to share for the past four years. 

lu animation seniors class of 2021

the one and only tom bancroft

My Lipscomb experience has been about more than just animation (insert liberal arts joke here). At Lipscomb I rediscovered a love for nature during an Aaron Blaise talk, Biology & Literature, and Ornithology classes. I learned what empathy really means as an RA. I went to Hutchmoot (two times! snuck in!) and Lightbox Expo. I've been a victim of the overflowing hospitality of the Warren, the Bothy, and Toad Hall (this is why you should name your houses, people). The people I met at Lipscomb number as my dearest friends, closest collaborators, and nearest confidants. 

And now that the fanfare is over, the feasts have been supped, and the celebration subsides, I find myself thinking - what now? In one way, I have a clear answer. My first order of business is to finish Bearpuncher. It's a monster of a project, but it's gotta be done, and be done well. And in a generous display of grace I'll be able to focus on it full time. Because until it's done, it will be hard to feel like I can really move on to the next step (and technically, I'm not graduated until I get summer credit for working on it.) So I'll be doing that.

Yet despite this, I still feel very much un-settled. I don't have a normal job to work at. I'm not in an apartment, or even back home in NC. My Disney mugs are boxed away in a storage unit. And my friends are off in their own homes, miles away. I don't have classes to ground me, a cafeteria to feed me, and a consistent place to stay. It's all those usual summertime feelings except I won't be heading back to campus in the fall. Although it was perhaps unrealistic to think that I would hop straight from college into a new studio, home, and rhythm of life... I still expected it anyways.  It's the end of the era, but the beginning of the next one is murky and uncomfortably gradual. Never have I felt the title of this blog to be more apt - I have entered the Wayfaring Years.

Lipscomb has been such a blessing, and it's hard to think that the future could be just as full of friendship, growth, and good times as the past four years have been. But I know I couldn't have imagined these four years while in high school, so I'm hoping my expectations for post-grad will be delightfully shattered as well. I don't know where my home will be, or what the future is like, but I'm excited to find out.

And while this is a goodbye to my time at Lipscomb, it's not a goodbye to the people I met there, especially my junior friends who are watching all of us old dudes leave. Still trying to figure out how to reconcile that paradox, but you will be the first to know when I do, because we will still be hanging out.

Onward!

your wayfarer-in-chief,

dh

day 1

fin