7.31.2008

Ezra Thursday: Buzz, Woody & a Ghost Robot!

I think it's about time I change up Ava Thursday a bit -- since Ezra's doodling more and more lately, what I'll do is have Ezra Thursday from time to time. Maybe even do an Ava & Ezra Thursday every once in a while, where I'll post artwork from both my kids. Today, it's Ezra. Two drawings from a little boy who loves robots, Spider-Man, cars, superheroes, dinosaurs, and mostly boystuff.

Ezra Thursday: Buzz & Woody
Ezra draws everybody's favorite spaceman & cowboy buddy team: Buzz & Woody from TOY STORY. He was so proud of this drawing. Can't say that I blame him. I would be too! Love the helmet arc over Buzz's head. And Woody? Got those boots down, doesn't he?

Ezra Thursday: Ghost robot!
Part of a series of robot drawings that Ezra did one day, this one was different by the squiggly line coming off of the robot -- that's a ghost tail, Ezra tells me. This is a Ghost Robot! I just had to laugh -- could this be an homage to my buddies at Ghostbot? Hmmmm, you never know...! I say that they use this for their new logo.

Ezra turned 4 in June. Ava just turned 8 last weekend. My, how time flies.

7.29.2008

One last look at San Francisco

Powell St.
Finally got all my San Francisco pics uploaded. You can view them all here. All 89 of 'em. Yeah, it's taken me a month to finish it. I'm a terrible blogger/flickr-ite. I deeply apologize.

On that Thursday, we got to do the ultimate tourist-y thing and hopped on a bright red shiny cable car:
We got the bright red one
Hold on
Some of us held on tight.

Oooh boy
And here, you can see why.

Laughing Sal greets you
We took the cable car down to the Fisherman's Wharf and got to meet this happy gal at the wonderfully creepy and charming Musee Mecanique.

Praxinoscope
Amongst the old arcades and puppet shows, I found this wonderful device. Listed as the oldest machine there, it's a praxinoscope. The faceted nature of the mirrors gives off the same effect as a shutter for film -- very important in order to give off the optical illusion of 'persistence of vision'. The images projected from the drum onto the mirrors allowed you, the viewer to see the girl jumping rope, instead of becoming a big blur. It was so cool to watch one of these for reals.

Ava checks out the Praxinoscope
Ava really enjoyed watching this thing go.

Andrea and Ava
Further down the Wharf, we saw some sea lions lounging at the über-tourist trap, Pier 39.

On that Friday, we paid Chinatown a second visit to see what we could see.

The Art Co.
And what did we see? Well, some cool old signs, for starters.

A Wall of Wacky Wobblers
And a very impressive wall of Wacky Wobblers.

757
Stumbled upon some cool numbers, too.

Fortune cookies
Following the sweet smell of fortune cookies, we found a couple of women making them in a small shop in a back alleyway.

run boy run
Which was the perfect place for running around in.

Mr. Pouty
One last pouty session before we head out. We're quite used to this by now.

Goodbye
On our way out, the Golden Gate Bridge was cloaked in its usual attire.

So long, San Francisco! We had a fabulous time. Looking forward to visiting you again soon. One last big THANK YOU goes out to Leslie and Riley for sharing their home with us. You two are the coolest. Thank you.

My SF photos.
Andrea's SF photos.
Leslie's photos.

7.22.2008

7.19.2008

More San Fran

What more did we see in grand ol' San Fran? Well...

We saw some deliciously colorful murals...
adios forgiveness
freedom fighter
coyolxauhqui has something to say

...some nifty signs...
Whiz burgers
the nicaragua

...overlooked beauty...
patchy
sign
el capitan

...and a few other variousities...
head in street
rocker



Oh, and a master at work:
master at work

I'll be done with this soon enough. I promise. But I can't help myself. That town was just too cool to not share with you.

My SF.
Andrea's SF.

7.15.2008

San Francisco

We weren't going to go. It was one of those things where we nixed the notion of going on our family vacation immediately after the Big Bomb was dropped on us. We had been planning this thing for several weeks now, it was hard to throw all that preparation away. After a few days it was decided that maybe we can do a truncated version of our trip, maybe stay there for three days instead of a whole week. Yes, that's what we needed. A chance to get away.

And then, as luck would have it, one of Andrea's friends offered a place for us to stay for the entire week. So generous of Lesile and Riley to open up their home. So thankful to have good friends like them.

And you know, a week STILL didn't seem like enough time to get the full experience of San Francisco. We'll be back. That's a definite.

Below you'll find a few more of my shots of our trip, although Andrea does a much better job at capturing the soul of the City by the Bay. By all means check her on-going photoset. Beautiful images. You'll be thanking me.

Mt. Shasta
On the road trip, we passed by the beautiful Mt. Shasta in northern California.

She fell asleep like this
You know she fell asleep like this: with her finger on the button. I guess she's a true photographer now.

For our first big day, I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have anything to show for that day. But here's a shot of me with Harley Jessup at Pixar. Oh, yes. We visited the Emeryville studio and had lunch there. What a great treat.

Me & Harley
Harley, as you might recall, was the art director for Twice Upon a Time. He was the production designer for Ratatouille as well as for Presto, the new short film currently playing in front of Wall-E. To quote a fellow Pixarian, Harley's a class act. And he's absolutely right.

Oh, hey -- big ups to Sanjay, Erik, and the few others I had the great fortune of talking with during our visit to Pixar. What a remarkable place, guys. Thanks for the time.

On Tuesday, we took the ferry into the city:

ezra doing what he does best
Ezra doing what he does best: making his big sister laugh.

the Golden Gate Bridge
Your typical shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. And a boat.

sure he's cute
Sure he's cute, but tough as nails if you try and take his cupcake.

Taking it in

Vintage Streetcars
How cool is that? Vintage streetcars. This one was originally from Kansas City, and was in service from 1948 to 1988.

On Wednesday, we walked around the Mission District. So colorful. A couple of Andrea's friends (the very talented Mati and Kelly Rae) showed us a few hidden alleyways that boasted some amazing murals.

Mural
Ava looked at this mural for a long time.

Doorway
Cool doorway.

I'm still in the process of uploading more photos from our trip. I'll post more of them here later on.

The trip was definitely a shot in the arm for us. We had such a great time that we vowed to come back right away. I really mean that.

There are more photos to see in my SF photoset and in Andrea's SF photoset. Enjoy!

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I've been working on my portfolio website lately. Finally registered my domain name and will hopefully have the thing up and running soon. Things have been so-so with the new job hunt. Some slivers of opportunity here and there, but nothing's really solidified. I've done a few illustrations for Jib Jab, which was a lot of fun, and have done another illustration for the next Von Glitschka book (due out in early '09) -- but really, putting together a portfolio from scratch has proven to be incredibly time consuming and frustrating. I've been constantly changing the thing after each meeting or interview, which makes it even more time consuming.

I'm remaining optimistic, though. No sour grapes here, I promise. It's all a matter of finding the right opportunity at the right time. That's what I've always told people when I'd talk about the biz, and here I have to remind myself of this very thing. So, yeah. Need some storyboards done? How about some character designs? I'm here to help. I'll treat ya right. (How's that for some shameless promotion?)

More SF pics soon....