Okay!

As requested, I drew another character demo. This one is of a screwball character- I call him Wolfie…

I narrated my way through this clip (as requested).

As with the last demo I begin with simple forms and then keep adding and adding and adding.

Here is the finished drawing.

Here is Wolfie

Still Animated!

Hey!
Here is a character demo I did yesterday as a test for some upcoming ingridients for my website…more on that later.

How this works is that I just turned on the camera and went to it - freehand- without a net!!!!

Its important to construct your characters. I began with the feet and worked upward - using simple forms and then added to them- bit by bit. The simple forms are good construction tools because the character has to be able to turn.

This was very good fun…I will have to do more…any suggestions for other characters?

Ty B. Bear is just floating away during the River Run Festival

This past week was another “burner”. We drove up to Winston-Salem, NC. for the River Run International Film Festival and our son Matt was performing as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet at NCSA. Both events were amazing!

The

This is a composite sketch over a 1/2 hour stretch of time. These people in line, just came and went. The fellow is the ball cap is drawn twice

Here are some folks from Performance Place on the NCSA campus

In the the case of the rather “plump” security guard- I couldn’t stand there and draw - as an artist. I was attracted by the line from his spine down and around to his bum - that was my starting point (once I sat down in inside the theater).

The last location on this drawing is inside Leapold’s Ice Cream Parlor. Stratton Leopold’s father and brothers had a store 40 or 50 years ago and about three years ago Strattan and his wife Mary recreated the store. Strattan is a film producer, SUM of ALL FEARS, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 to name just a couple. Anyhow… that’s where the movieola came from…

STILL ANIMATED!!!

I had never met an animator, never even spoken to an animator – and yet here I was headed to Los Angeles to go to college with the intention of being an animator.

Less than a month before I was discharged from the 1^st Battalion (Reinforced) 3rd Infantry, The Old Guard, stationed at Fort Myer in northern Virginia. The last six months in the service I had spent assigned to the Public Information Office (PIO).

I was no longer pulling details as a member of the ceremonial unit and escort to the President of the United States; I had relinquished my sergeant stripes as an AJ and returned to SP4 status. I was preparing for my next life. I spent the time working on my portfolio and obtaining information about what elements I needed to submit - to gain entry into an art college. Sergeant Wayne Treichel, art director, for the PIO, walked me through the process- without Wayne’s assistance; I would never have gotten into Art Center.

Now, I was free …life was more than good! I zoomed across the desert with an uhaul trailer and no speed limits. Well, maybe “zoomed” isn’t the correct word - but in my mind I “zoomed”. The possibilities seemed endless!

Arriving in L.A., I found an apartment and settled in for the night. The next morning there was an earthquake. It wasn’t a huge earthquake – just a kind of “welcome to Los Angeles, first timer” garden variety type of earthquake. Enough to be make one aware that living in L.A. would mean living on the edge.

The prospects of the new day coupled with the fact that I had just lived through my first earthquake – brought me to a firm decision. I had to talk to an animator!

Here it was Saturday, the studios were closed and yet I had to talk to an animator. I was in L.A.; the capital of animation…animators had to be everywhere!

So, I picked up the Los Angeles phone book and started leafing through the pages of its 13 million inhabitants confident that animator’s names and numbers would be falling out of the book.

I began with the A’s. I thought and pondered and could not think of one animator whose last name started with an A. So…I went to the B’s. As I studied the pages of blurred entries- animator with a beginning B came to mind… Babbit…Art Babbit.  Art Babbit who had brought the world so many incredible animated moments on the screen- such as the dance of the Chinese mushrooms in Fantasia. I scurried through the pages and sure enough- there was a Babbit listed…an Arthur Babbit and his phone number was listed!

Yours truly circa 1973 - trying to find an animator

I was beside myself. I was so excited I grab the phone and dialed the number. Art Babbit – how amazing, I thought?

After two rings someone, a man, picked up the phone and said, Hello?”

I blurted, ‘Hello Larry Lauria, this is Art Babbit!!!”

There was a long pause………………….

What had I done, what had I said, I can’t believe I …

“No, said the voice on the other end, I’m Art Babbit”.

What could have been a catastrophe turned out to be a great icebreaker. We had a good laugh over my introduction. Art was most gracious and he gave information about classes at the Union, local 839, and ASIFA Hollywood and other useful tidbits about surviving in Los Angeles.

All in all, we had a wonderful conversation!

I learned that if you make a fool of yourself – it’s okay. As long as you are willing to put yourself out there. Most folks, at one time or another have been in the same position- so they understand.

Other than talk on the phone, I never met Art Babbit in person. He moved to London and worked for, animation director, Richard Williams. Mr. Babbit taught his studio the art of animation from the ground up. I have copies from two different individuals of Art’s lectures.

Thanks Art!

HEY!

This Saturday, I am off to Statesboro, GA. to the Art Fest (its 25th year). I am borrowing a shelter and some other stuff and I am taking my wares on the road. I call my work The Wandering Artist Salon (WAS) because most of it is done plein air (without a net). I really enjoy drawing and painting on location.
What makes me enthusiastic about this Festival is that this is the first time I am taking my oil paintings

Here is an oil painitng - still drying- the first I began in my class and the last finished

This is Fisher and Friend at Sunrise, another oil

I will have my normal inventory of cards, prints and watercolors. If you are in the area stop by- it is on the campus of Georgia Southern University - again, in Statesboro on Sweethearts Circle. There will be about 35 other artists with demonstrations (10:00 am - 7:00 pm) BBQ and musicians on two stages with entertainment all day -and a concert beginning at 7:00 pm…did I mention BBQ?

This the final of the plein air painting I did with Glenn Vilppu

This my favorite painting- I used complimentary underpaints for almost everything

As mentioned in the caption. This painting I experimented with complimentary colors for almost every area of the underpaint. I used a burnt orange for the water, a red for the trees and a blue for the sand. You should have seen the looks I got from folks walking along the beach. I think they thought I was color blind.

I call this one BBQ at alley #3, it ls an oil, plein air

Yes, this is another plein air painting. Here I met Jerry, the father of the famed “walking Mary” ( Mary is out every day - she is petite but really swings those arms and legs). Jerry rode up on his bike and we talked for a bit. Later he returned with some gourds for me to paint….so next week, I try to paint on them…should be fun.

Stop by the Festival if your in Georgia!!!