So Far, No Good

New job.

It's always a little stressful to start a new job on a new show that holds the hope of becoming a new hit series. It's exceptionally stressful to start said new job the week of a major skating tournament where one is captain of one of the teams participating.

Trying to do team lineups, sit out skaters, bring in skaters, do it with a minimum of butthurt feelings(had about a 60% success rate on that), learn a new drawing style, rethink how I do staging, cutting, acting(without a damn voice track, but the director was asking for acting points anyway), get to practice, get up early to do cross-training, check email constantly throughout the day to make sure I'm getting any and all pertinent information, go to production meetings, meet the intimidatingly-talented artists on the show, relearn the production software, realize that not having a "Save As" option on a program that's used primarily by artists has got to be the worst oversight EVAR, try to get the vibe in the new studio where everyone is there but quiet, feeling lost and not really knowing who I can talk to about getting my bearings...

In short, I'm mind-fucking myself pretty good, and I have to unfuck myself IMMEDIATELY.


I know I can do it, it's a matter of whether I can do it in the nick of time.

Or else I'll be ejected, like I did in one of the games at Battle on the Bank in San Diego this past weekend:

Cranky

Yeah, not exactly a surprise, but I'm cranky.

I feel overwhelmed again. There are a few times when I need someone at my back to help out. To just know that hey, it'd be nice in a partnership to be a partner and Be There. That isn't happening, and it's pissing me the hell off.  Why take on a job that one can't dedicate the time, thought processes and energy to? You can't get much prestige from said job if you fuck it up.

Just sayin'.

OK, got that out of my system for the moment. Below is a doodle I did while watching The Hills. Don't ask me why I was watching such a horrible show. It's a good thing funemployment is now over for me, don't you think?

Hahahahahaha...

Remix of a Derby Dolls intro from Saturday night:




I laughed mightily when the clip of me going up on to the track to smack PITA across the face came on.

Moar...

...silly photos from Saturday night:


Tagging AZDD team captain Cannibelle Corpse:

Ginger Mortis lookin' mighty fine in pink and blue:

This is what happens when AZDD goes shopping:

Me, Kitten Trax builder Bitchy Kitten and AZDD's Vintage Vixen:

Hard at work:

Frankie Fitz giggles a lot when she gets drawn on:

Derby Makes Life Interesting

This has been another interesting derby weekend.

Last night the Arizona Derby Dames came out to play the Derby Dolls' B team, the Aftershockers. To be honest, everyone knew the Aftershockers would win, it was just a matter by how much. It was close to a 100 point spread.

But the real story was the Derby Dames and their adventures in LA. They came out Friday night, and we had a meet and greet scrimmage at the track. That went well, and afterwards a bunch of the skaters went to a local drinking establishment for more socializing. Apparently a real honest-to-goodness crackhead came into the establishment and started treating one of the husbands with the AZDD entourage as if they were old friends. Uh, welcome to LA, kids!

Yesterday before the game, the AZDD girls were out and about the town, and came across their first sighting of a thrift store/HIV testing combo. Yep, they found Out Of The Closet. While there, they were subjected to a herd of nekkid bicyclists. Apparently that wasn't a pretty sight.

They skated their hearts out at the game, with me coachin--I mean, SCREAMING MY DAMNED HEAD OFF on the sidelines. I was loud. VERY loud. My voice was clearly heard on the live webcast. I'm now paying the price today with a very sore throat and almost no voice. Everyone is thrilled with that, btw.

We go to the afterparty and I drew all over them. It was fun, of course.

Then they go back to the house of a musician in a famous band. The musician is out of town. The girls are having fun swimming and whatever, when a Hollyweird Dooshbague shows up. Now, there's someone rooming in the upstairs portion of the house, so they didn't know if said dooshbague is with the roommate or what. It's figured out that he was merely crashing the party, and so he got "escorted" out. Harshly.

I really hope there's someone on this trip who will write up their full adventures in a blog or something, because they really had a helluva Only in LA adventure.

Ahhhhh, I love LA!















As you can see from the photos, I did my hair last night. It's part of my experimentation with pincurls. I can't seem to comb them out correctly...they end up being frizzy as all getout, which is annoying and creates a Hairdo Emergency. As you can see, that happened yesterday. So up the hair went into victory rolls. Add two barettes with flowers on them and voila, instant passable hairdo.

And I still wish I took a good photo...

600

This is my 600th post for my blog.

600 posts.

Holy crap.

I sure have had a lot of nothing to say in the past four or so years!

Last night I went to a Dr. Sketchy's drawing session in Eagle Rock. There are times I have fun at these events, and times when I feel like an anti-social non-talented jerkface. It started out with me feeling like an anti-social non-talented jerkface, but I ended up having a great time. Mainly because I ended up sitting next to famous cartoonist Carol Lay. She's funny as hell and told great stories. She even told a Robert Crumb story!

There were two drawing stages in the backyard of Miss Mindy's house where Dr. Sketchy's was being hosted, and so while Carol was telling funny stories, she of course made me laugh.

Loudly.

I know, SHOCKING.

Apparently the other artists at the other stage were intrigued. Intrigued enough for the guy who runs the LA Dr. Sketchy's to make an announcement at one of the breaks that there was a contest with a prize. Oh boy, I like prizes! I thought to myself. He then says, "We usually award the prize based on whichever art piece is being done here grabs us the most." Welp, that leaves me out, I think to myself.

"But by unanimous decision, we're giving the prize away based on the loudest laughter we've heard tonight."

WHAT?!

Yeah, I got a prize for being...ME!

WHO KNEW?!?!?!

My prize was a book by Brandi Milne called, "So Good for Little Bunnies". She even signed the book for me! How cool is that?!

Side note: I've worked with Miss Mindy before at Warner Bros. about five years ago. Since I was freelance, it wasn't like we hung out every day or anything. But we've talked a few times and she's even commented here before. Anyway, when it was announced that the Loud Person Gets the Book, Miss Mindy says, "Introduce yourself!" so I did. She says, "Sandra Frame?! OH CRAP!" Isn't that what anyone wants to hear when they're identified?

But she actually said that because she didn't recognize me earlier when I first came in. But it's still a hilarious reaction.


Another day, another doodle. I don't know what I was thinking about when I drew this critter, but it's kinda cute. In a way.

Doing Stuff

I've been off and on about Doing Useful Stuff. I certainly could be more useful than I have been, but I've been taking funemployment a little too seriously.

The one Actually Useful Thing I'm doing is going to donate platelets tomorrow for an animator named Pres Romanillos. He's worked on a lot of features and is battling leukemia. While he's waiting for a second bone marrow transplant(he's on go-around numero two-o with the leukemia), he's in need of blood and platelet donations. The animation union is even doing an art show/silent auction to help cover his medical costs since his life savings were wiped out when this happened the first time.

The thing is, I don't know this dude. Never met him, never heard of him until this. I've donated platelets twice before in my life through the Red Cross, and I hated it each time. It was most likely because during the two hours it takes to gather the platelets from my blood, I watched movies that are not good donation-themed romps. The first time I watched Million Dollar Baby, and the second was Igby Goes Down. See what I mean?

So...why now? Because I should. Hard to explain exactly, because it's not like I'm feeling obligated to someone I don't know, but I just...should. It's literally the least yet best I can do. Animation has been a shitty business to be in for the past few years, and doing something nice for someone else is a heartening change of pace. Donating money while funemployed isn't in the cards. Donating my own art is useless and I don't have other art to donate to the silent auction. I can't donate blood because I'm a different blood type than what's needed, so that leaves platelets.

As an added bonus, I get to take the murdersickle to Duarte for this. GODDAM, WHAT A NICE PERSON I AM.

I keed, I keed.

In the meantime, here's another doodle. I'm so fucking proud of myself for continuing to fucking draw. Maybe one of these days I'll get good at it.