New Blog Location

Just a note to let everyone know that my blog is moving over to my new website (www.brett-swanson.com)- You can check it out here and be sure to stay tuned in for new posts

Flora

My senior project film “Flora” is finally up online – enjoy!

Demo Reel September 2011

An updated reel

Summertime

Some beach photos from the summer

Art of Disguise

Second doodle united theme: Art of Disguise. I know this doesn’t follow the theme that closely, but my mind went from disguises, to masks, to facepaint, to this…. so I’m saying it fits! Check out the other submissions here

Doodle United

A group of people that I went to school with have decided to start up a drawing group called “Doodle United.” Basically it will be a mini version of Drawer Geeks. We get a theme, and have 2 weeks to make something. We’ve tried doing similar things like this in the past, but everyone always got too busy with school and they tended to die off. Hopefully now that we are all graduated we’ll have a little more time to keep it going! Since I’m not going back to school this fall, and not doing anything remotely artistic in my job, this will be a good way for me to keep practicing and trying to improve! Our first theme was a logo for the group. I didn’t have the time to pretty it up on the computer, but here’s my sketch. Check out the other submissions here

Animation Block Party

I was very excited to find out that my senior project film entitled “Flora” was accepted into the Animation Block Party Summerfest in NYC this summer! The festival is the largest animation festival on the East Coast, and my film was in the top 100 of over 650 entries (accompanied by Huntington University’s “Minstrel and the Duck”)! It was part of the “Animation for Kids” program that played on Friday and Sunday afternoon. It was definitely a big surprise to get in, but I was obviously super excited to have it accepted. Makes it feel like all the long hours and sleepless nights were worth it after all! The festival was this last weekend, but NYC is an expensive place for a student so I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend (weird to think about how many people have seen it now!)  Now I’m just really crossing my fingers that maybe it’ll get into the Seattle or Chicago Childrens Festivals so I would be able to be there to see it (and have a great excuse to visit all my Midwest friends!).  Hopefully the film will be online in the very near future, but you can see a synopsis at: www.vimeo.com/26878774

Graffiti

Went for a walk around Vancouver yesterday and found an alley full of the most GORGEOUS graffiti – wish I had a talent for it!

Click for high res versions

Theme Thursday: Castle

For Beginners

From Ira Glass, for new artists . . .

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”