Hey guys! Long time no type! I hope you're all doing fabulously! Me? I'm alright. Work's going swell, I wish I could show you all what I've been working on, but signed legal forms say no-can-do until my contract's up. So come August feel free to stop by the ol' blog and check out some character and bg designs. [link]

Other than that? Not too much. I'm pretty lethargic after work and spend my weekends cleaning house and cooking (I've developed quite a taste for cooking! It's actually really fun!) So yeah.. not too much on the updates. Starting in March though update's will probably be a bit scarcer as I'll be working weekends to make up for time that I'm hoping to take off in April for my FIRST EVER EUROPEAN ADVENTURE! YES! But yeah, I'll do a decent journal entry soon complete with some cool and interesting art links that I've found trekking around the internets. But first? FAQ!

Here’s an unnecessarily wordy compilation of some good ol’ FAQs that a lot of you have asked me. If you’ve got a question that I haven’t answered feel free to email me and I’ll answer it here in the FAQs... but I mean... as long as it isn’t too ridiculous, I’m trying to be informative here not rant about how much I love myself, I’ll just send you those emails personally

Where did you go to school?
Sheridan College; I attended the last of the 3 year classical-animation diploma program (before it became a degree). I met some incredible people there, whose dandy art blogs and websites you can check out on my own blog under the “Sheridan Folks” links. [link]

Aw, cool! I’m interested in getting into animation. Can you give me advice on where I should go to college?
Eeeeeeeh... I’m really not qualified to give anyone life-altering guidance-councilor advice, but I’ll try to give you some pointers. Sheridan worked for me; I had a lot of fun and learned a whole bunch, and the teachers and facilities were awesome. One of the major factors in applying there was because it was pretty close to where I lived at the time (I didn’t really want to leave home for college/university) so it was the only animation school I had my sites set on. That being said, I can only speak from experience of the classical-diploma program, I don’t really know much about the new classical/computer degree program. What I DO know is our old animation wing was demolished and so the program is now located in the pretty shiny new building *sniff*

A great site to check out is the Animation World Networks school data base: [link] It has detailed listings of over 900 schools in 54 countries, and what animation courses they offer. Super cool beans!

You’d be best to go to a school that teaches computer software (keeps on top of what the industry is using) as the majority of the television industry doesn’t do much classical these days and opts for flash/harmony/toon-boom animation (it’s cheaper for the studios and keeps work in-house rather than going over seas). Keep in mind I’m speaking from an Ontario, Canada experience, I’ve only been working for two and a half years and only in Ottawa and Toronto. If you’re in France or maybe Argentina there’s probably a much bigger classical animation source there (don’t quote me on that though, I’m just speaking from what I’ve heard. The last thing I need is some rage-filled email being sent from someone who had to relocate around the world for no reason.)

Where have you worked? What are you doing now?
My very first job right outta school was as a flash animator on “Caillou” (it was a good learning experience and I met some fabulous people there!) After that I went to do some key-posing on a classically animated cartoon called “The Secret World of Benjamin Bear” which was aaaaawesome. And again, so were my co-workers. I definitely learned a lot about drawing structure on that show (whether or not you see it in what I post online is irrelevant -__- ). When that wrapped I moved back to Toronto to work on a flash series called “Iggy Arbuckle” which was a lot of fun, and now I’m doing 2D art design on a 3D series for PBS called “Super Readers” (reading fun for the little ‘uns). Again... awesome.

I see... that’s cool. But I don’t really want to work in television, I want to work on animated feature films. Any advice?
Nope! But when you get in could you maybe drop a nice word in for me with your director? I’d love to work on a feature film some day!

What do you use to draw with?
Photoshop CS and an Intuos Wacom Tablet. I personally recommend intuos over graphire, as intuous is a sturdier professional grade device, and my old graphires kept getting weird and gittery which I suspect was due to radio waves or something equally invisible and annoying. On the rare occasion I’ll use pencil and ink on paper, but I’ve kind of gravitated away from traditional medium ever since I was introduced to photoshop in second year at Sheridan... not too sure what I think about that...

... Potterific?
I know! I know, I’m such a jerk about these! I wanted to do at least 50 but I’ve been so swamped with my day job that I have no desire to draw when I get home. Also... and I know this sounds awful... I’ve kind of drifted away from the Harry Potter universe; don’t get me wrong it was fun while it lasted! But now that the series is over there’s kind of even less motivation for me to make Potter comics. HOWEVER I do want to make a few more for those of you who started following me because of Potterific, so send me a “ ping” or “whut up” or “update dammit!” to simplypotterific@gmail.com and I will email you the newest strip jpg when it finally becomes available (in2015noimjokingnotreallyokprobablyJOKING!roflrofl)

Say, are you the same Kt Shy that drew that Shigure fanart in the Fruits Basket manga?
Yup! That's me. I just luuuuuv Shigure. It's kinda funny because the editors write that I've "Disney-fied" him, where as most american-style animators who look at my style (at least at the time) classified me as doing "that japanese anime stuff." Guess I'm stuck somewhere inbetween.

Why didn’t you respond to me???
I’m sorry! I’m so very grateful to all of you for stopping by and checking out my work. If I could freeze time and respond to everyone of you I would (actually if I could freeze time I’d probably do a lot of things...) but I spend 40 hours a week staring at a monitor so I can’t really bring myself to do so too often in my free time (brain would surely explode). If you email me directly I will get back to you. If I haven’t please let me know and I’ll check back through the emails, sometimes I miss a few, I’m really lucky to get so many from you guys. Again, thank you so much!

Any advice? Drawing tips?
Hahaha.. honestly I don't feel like I'm super qualified to give advice on this either as my tips tend to be more do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do BUT a major tip (that I don't do enough) is that you should do your best to carry a sketchbook around with you all the time. Use it to draw buildings, people, interesting clothes, faces, ideas, whatever you like, but keep practicing and keep drawing.

Also, while drawing and animating is awesome, be sure to be happy and do some other things too, don't immerse yourself too heavily as you might burn out and feel a bit like you're missing out on life. All things in balance, folks! It's the best way to live, at least, in my humble opinion.


Aaaaand... now I’m tired. I’ll add more FAQs to the list as they come to my poor squishy brain-thing.

G’night all!

***
Commission info here: [link]

Simply Potterific Mailing List: simplypotterific(at)gmail(dot)com

Shrub Monkeys questions and info: shrubmonkeys(at)gmail(dot)com