Stage Fright, 9/9/2025
September 9th, 2025
I’ve been feeling very edgy all day because it is the first day of the semester– my first time teaching a class in the evening. The session is supposed to go from 5:45-9:05 P.M. Who can get anything done at that hour? I just had a Dr. Pepper so hopefully I can keep the energy up, and hopefully all my students aren’t asleep the second they arrive. I do like that this evening schedule gives me the entire day to myself, though. I made lots of progress in little ways today even though not everything went as planned.
I got into the studio at maybe 9:30 this morning, with Karla. I can tell I was feeling really scattered because I forgot to put her leash on this morning. I just plopped her in the carrying bag and got on the bus. She was really restless all morning. When I got here the first thing I did was try and put some finishing touches on that stage/shadow painting I was describing yesterday. Here’s where it currently stands:
All I really ended up doing was scratching those flower shapes in the bottom edge of the painting with my palette knife. Something still doesn’t feel quite finished to me. I think the shadow maybe needs to be darker/more opaque in places where it crosses the stage, and Frog’s right leg a bit more defined. I could go back in and add some highlights. I don’t really want to mess with it any more, but there is something bothering me about the face on the figure, too. When I stand far away from the painting, the face looks exceptionally odd. I’m going to let this painting face the wall for a week or two then see where I’m at.
I worked on that painting for maybe half an hour then I worked on straightening up some lines on the red house/blue girl painting I’ve been working on. It needs some dimension between the facade of the house and the interiors. Window frames or something. I also can’t figure out what to do with the texture of the front facade of the house. Maybe I’ll lay down a darker layer on top of what I have now then go at it with a palette knife.
After fussing around with both of those paintings for about two hours, Karla’s restlessness and lack of leash was really starting to bug me, so I got on the bus and headed home. I wanted to have some lunch, take a shower, and get myself decent because I had planned to go meet the printmaking instructor at the Art Students League. I recently won a merit scholarship to study there for the next 9 months and I really want to use it to have access to a printmaking studio. I’m thinking etching and litho to start. I wonder how I might use printmaking in an animation process… I am thinking I could potentially make backgrounds for animation using printmaking techniques. It’s exciting to think about a whole new world of potential surfaces + techniques to make images with.
Anyways, in order to register for this printmaking class at the league, you have to interview with the instructor, who is only in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which is why I had planned to go meet with him today at 1 P.M. Unfortunately when I arrived at 1, they told me he only meets students at 4:15 P.M. I didn’t feel like waiting around that long so I hopped back on the N train and came back to the studio, where I am now. I’ll meet with the printmaking guy tomorrow.
Since I got back here I’ve been working on the watercolor background for my rotoscope animation experiment. Layers do seem to be the trick, here. One good thing that came out of my trip to the League today was that I got to see a really masterful watercolor painting by instructor Frank Webster up close. It was hanging in the lobby. It seems like he used a combination of graphite, watercolor, and gouache to accomplish the graphic and realistic look of his painting. All of these mediums were layered quite liberally. So, I’m taking that knowledge with me as I continue to approach this background art. I’m clearly no Frank Webster or Disney animation layout artist, but we’re getting somewhere:
Also to the end of my rotoscoping experiment, I photocopied each frame of my motion test and reduced them to 75%. Now they will fit in perfectly with the background I’m painting. Once I finish the background I will need to turn the frames, which currently exist on copy paper, into transparent full-color cels. I can either manually trace the lines onto acetate with a brush, or I can try to figure out how to print onto acetate and just fill in the color. I’m leaning towards manual brush lines just for a darker, cleaner look. However, this will take much longer. It’s only 24 frames, I guess….
Now I have to go teach. I can’t tell you how much I have been dreading this day. I always get a feeling similar to stage fright for hours leading up to a class. Not just before the first class of the semester, but before every class of the semester. I guess it’s good for me to always be doing something that scares me, though I wish I didn’t have to! Wish me luck.
To recap:
Wrote Frog Ephemera for 15 minutes.
Ostensibly finished Stage Fright painting.
Re-aligned Red House/Blue Girl painting
Worked on watercolor background for rotoscope animation.
Reduced animation frames to the correct size for tracing onto cels.
–Finn
