The Social Networks.

Have you ever tried juggling?  I have, a few times, but I'm not very good at it.  I tried juggling bean bags, but I dropped them.  I tried juggling pieces of fire wood but I almost rendered myself unconscious.  And I once tried juggling chainsaws in Mexico and had to flee the country to avoid a manslaughter charge.  Okay I made that last one up...I've generally avoided juggling chainsaws regardless of my geographical position.  These days this is all the juggling I do...

One of the biggest things for any kind of artist is getting your stuff seen by people.  That used to be pretty much impossible to pull off unless you were lucky or had an agent or something to book appearances and gallery shows.  That was back when you had to wear a beret and a smock at all times so that people knew you were an artist.  In today's world that means the internet, and everything that comes with it.  You can only hold out for so long when a new Social Networking site crops up before jumping on the bandwagon.  Truth be told I actually have some fun with all of these sites.  YouTube lets me post my animation for the world to see.  I like writing and ranting on Blogger.  I like looking at art of all kinds on Deviant Art.  I like posting rapid project updates and smart ass commentary on Twitter.  I like the reach of Facebook and keeping it active with stuff.  And Tumblr...well I'm new to Tumblr but I'm sure I'll have fun with it too.  There's just so many of them!  And I'm sure there's more to come too.  Here they are if you wanna check out, or join or follow or what not.

You can see my official Outhouse Cartoons website here.
You can become a fan on Facebook here.
You can follow me on Twitter here.
You can watch me on Deviant Art here.
You can subscribe to me on YouTube here.
You can follow me on Blogger here.  No link for this one...you're already on Blogger you nut!
You can follow me on Tumblr here.

And while I'm at it too.  You can also follow my twice weekly webcomic, "Cowman" via Blogger here.  And become a fan of my film, "The Case of the Midnight Murderer" on Facebook here.

Vancouver International Film Festival

I just finished my fourth volunteer stint at VIFF.

I actually drew this shortly after last year's festival.  My intention at the time, I think, was to actually send this to VIFF in case they wanted to use it to promote when they were looking for volunteers.  Of course I completely forgot about it and never even sent it.  I found the drawing when I was cleaning up not long after I'd already signed up for this year's volunteer roster and a day or two later they were done looking and we were getting our schedules.  I still liked the drawing though so I scanned it and coloured it and even sent it to a couple of local newspapers just before the festival started...but I don't think anybody printed it.  If they did, they should've told me.  VIFF runs for two weeks and as a volunteer you get a free pass to all of the movies that you can fit into your schedule.  I didn't see a ton this year but I've packed in a lot in passed years.  Some people manage to see over a hundred, I don't know how they do it.  Even with my small amount of movies, it's still two weeks of shift work, running from theater to theater and eating mounds upon mounds of fast food.  It's fun but I'm always glad when it's done.

Welcome to the Outhouse

I don't know what's taken me so long to get into blogging.  It seems so natural for a cartoonist...it's the perfect place to post and share stuff.  I can't make excuses...but I can tell you that I've recently gotten addicted to the blogs of a ton and half of talented artists and that more than anything is what has finally made me start.  Actually, I'm lying to you already...this isn't actually my first blog...a couple weeks ago I started a webcomic and I decided do it in blog form, it's called Cowman, you can check it out here.  That's the last time you'll catch me in a lie though, I promise.  I'm making the 'scout's honour' hand signal right now, I was never a scout though, so I can't be sure I'm doing it right.  See.  Honesty. 

I can also tell you that I've been keeping pretty busy.  I'm a freelance animator and cartoonist and a few years ago I decided to attempt the impossible and make a feature length animated movie called "The Case of the Midnight Murderer," which as you may assume has eaten up a lot of my time.  Cowman was something I started whenever I needed a break from that project in order to keep myself sane.  One annoying habit I've had my entire life though is consuming myself with projects like that and not giving myself enough time to doodle.  You come up with some pretty cool stuff when you just let yourself riff on a piece of paper and I'm hoping this blog will help encourage me to do more of that.  I get inspired sometimes to draw something that looks great in my head and then just don't take the time to do it because I keep my plate so full all the time.  Well this movie of mine is almost finished folks so I'm hoping to make up for some lost drawing.  I'm working on sound mixing the flick right now so it might take me a while to start posting with any regularity but it should happen.  I'll be making an effort anyway!  And dammit I'm gonna have some fun too!  In the meantime here's a behind the scenes Newsreel of myself at Outhouse Cartoons: