some sort of pirate ship

still drawing this day

2012-02-01T23:37:00.000-08:00

still drawing fashion doodles over at draw this day

the listener fish

2012-02-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

another gif from the listener fish series. (open it in a new tab and let it load)

small waves near a tiny house

2012-01-30T22:53:00.000-08:00

another experimental gif, from a short story The Listener Fish. Hopefully I can illustrate it soon.
open in a new tab, let it load.

it's a frame story

2012-01-29T23:28:00.000-08:00

gotta practice your witch sight somehow

blondin, wirewalker

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

another gif experiment. open in a new tab, give 'er time to load, the usual!
based a bit on the excellent gareth liddiard song, blondin makes an omelette.

tiny little dinosaur

2012-01-25T23:19:00.000-08:00

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

another large backpack

2012-01-23T23:24:00.000-08:00

I seem to have a fixation with travelers

a car window

2012-01-21T12:43:00.000-08:00

she could sit for hours, with only the comfort of the buzzing in her bones.

(another gif, open in a new tab and let it load)

the man on the train

2012-01-18T23:06:00.000-08:00

he sat there in perfect silence, and if you didn't look closely, you could almost imagine that he wasn't watching your every move.

(another gif experiment, open in a new tab and give it sometime to load, it's a biggun)

a blog of clothings

2012-01-15T15:03:00.000-08:00

I've started a blog where I'll be documenting clothes I wear on a semi regular basis. draw me today.

more ezekiel

2012-01-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

ezekiel continues his journey through st. kilda.

draw this day

2012-01-12T21:54:00.000-08:00

at least two or three times a week i'll be drawing what i'm wearing.

starting from last week, a new year, a new christmas sweater.

an insomniac at twilight

2012-01-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

an experiment that burned down partway through.
(it's a gif, so open in a new tab, and give it some time to load)

another longer story

2012-01-11T14:29:00.000-08:00

in an old train station.

matryoshka monday returns

2012-01-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

ga-noam

2012-01-07T14:52:00.000-08:00

my gnome friend noam, who masquerades as a human.

ezekiel and the floating shoe

2012-01-05T22:04:00.000-08:00

he followed the shoe right out of town, and it was only years later that he realized that it wasn't a real shoe at all.

it was a metaphor.

happy new year!

2012-01-01T16:26:00.000-08:00

goodbye elevenses, it's been fun.

hello, preteens? twelves? I think you're going to be great.

(pardon my absence from this blog as of late, I spent most of december on airplanes, shuttling between LA, Vancouver, Auckland, and Melbourne. photos to follow)

a short postcard

2011-11-16T22:47:00.001-08:00

i have taken to sending painted postcards, usually something quick and that will survive the mail system.

worklife

2011-11-07T21:18:00.001-08:00

thirties/ones

painter by numbers

2011-11-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

I went to paint the venice canals with some friends.

There were ducks, and I fed them. Life is pretty good.

words with pictures

2011-10-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

The last week, I've been working on how to combine written stories with art... A side effect of taking a writing class, I suppose. The medium is really interesting- I feel like there are so possibilities to explore. It's like a picture book for adults, each word has to be absolutely sparse and perfect

My first doodle, which was written after I spent a night knee deep in the ocean at night, watching the phosphorescent tide roll in.

(it's a pdf link, so probably best to right-click download!)
"They Came in Tiny Teacups and Saucers"

funny things coming next, certainly. :)

index card life drawing

2011-10-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

I only draw on 3 by 5 index cards anymore. Fight the man?

go forth, my giant salamander steed

2011-10-23T11:15:00.001-07:00

I forgot to mention that giant salamanders sleep most of the time.

jibjabliblab!

2011-10-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

A while ago, at work, we had the opportunity to take a few days and explore something creative.
Everyone who works at jibjab is insanely talented, and it was really inspiring to see what everyone came up with.

I collaborated with Trish and we had a freaking blast.
The first day, she made a plushie, and I painted an illustration, and the second day, we swapped what we'd created. She made a plushie of the monster I painted, and I painted the monster she made.

This is Geoffrey, Trish's plushie. He's the world's best dad, and he likes red.

This is my monster, Spots, he likes the color purple and school.

Nate, one of my newer coworkers, and an all-around COOL DUDE, made a maquette of my painting "folk insomnia", which you can see over at the jibjab blog: Here!

Justin, who paints like it's going out of style, did some totally cool bigfoot paintings at his blog

Jeff made a music video, cos he likes music and he even likes videos, and it's pretty grand, on the youtubes.

There's more at the JibJab blog, including an awesome model of Carthage. I love you, JibJab.

the penthouse

2011-10-10T21:43:00.000-07:00

i don't remember how the song went, but it was short, and sweet, and quietly neat.

a long walk off a short pier, or the listening fish

2011-10-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

this is starting to coalesce in my brain into something. i'm not sure what yet, but it is something

more people of venice

2011-10-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

three ladders

2011-10-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

a friend was explaining some ladder system, somehow, i think i missed the message

a wombat and capybara

2011-10-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

scoops the wombat, and noodles the capybara

thursday night sketching

2011-09-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

they are my friends despite these drawings

a little comic book

2011-09-28T21:14:00.001-07:00

see the forest for its trees

2011-09-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

doodles. more later.

there's something about mary

2011-09-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

she's never seen the color red before

folk insomnia

2011-09-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

more masks

2011-09-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

probably someone from series eleven

venice-

2011-09-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

living in venice, pretty much everyone I see wears exclusively bikinis. even the dudes. especially the dudes.

on that note, here are a few more coworker sketches from our thursday night escapades...

keep running.

2011-09-04T21:35:00.001-07:00

regular posting resumes...

2011-09-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, huh?

In the last month, I ran the first ever online 24 hour manimate film festival.
You can see my result, "Beach Etiquette", here.
And you can see the winners at the official Manimate site, ashlyna.com/manimate

I also moved from Santa Monica, California, just down the road to Venice, California. Next week I start a full time gig at JibJab as a story artist. Phew! It's been a crazy couple of months since graduation, and I'm looking forward for the opportunity for things to settle a bit.

So, regular posting should be resuming from now on (2-3 times a week!)

a long walk off a short pier

2011-08-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

i had a conversation with a friend on the beach, about the phrase, a long walk off a short pier...

what is a bolt but a glorified screw?

2011-08-03T23:07:00.001-07:00

eddie

2011-07-28T22:48:00.001-07:00

the irreplaceable, rascally eddie west

markers

2011-07-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

finally got my markers back... aaah feels good.

jess and the sandwich monster

2011-07-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

she took the sandwich from her pocket and began to eat it, slowly.

the monster looked at her. stared. kept staring.

always with the same, happy face.

i wanna be a roller derby girl

2011-07-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

bunnies

2011-07-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

i imagine that lopeared playboy bunnies are not as popular

pugs da word

2011-07-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

what pugnacious little puggers

news

2011-07-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

Some general life updates- I'm working on the MANIMATE 24 hour film fest website. The whole shebang will take place Aug 6/7 on the interwebs. There will be an assortment of odd prizes (I mean truly odd prizes!!). I'm hoping to gather a lot of people from everywhere around the world, so if you've been thinking about making a 24 hour film, now's the time! Manimate on the web

I got a new domain sometime last week, and that's going to serve as my comics portal... I've been working on a few side projects, so that should be up sometime soon as well.

Aaaand that should just about cover it. Should be less scatterbrained now that I've properly settled from my moving insanity that happened a few months ago. (Toronto to Vancouver to LA). You'll be seeing more of me!

Also a couple of blog posts ago was my 200th (!!) blog post. I've had this blog for... almost 5 years. hmm

a true story

2011-07-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

cafe sketching, the return of

2011-07-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

almost caught up on my cafe sketch posts- these are from last week.

cafe sketching

2011-07-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

i love cafe sketching, but it's doubly fun with friends

elizabeth, sean, and chechik

the giant's bathtub

2011-07-01T22:42:00.000-07:00

wednesday lifedrawing

2011-06-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

red and teal

2011-06-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

roadside sketching

2011-06-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

myself and Amanda went sketching by the side of the road a couple of weeks ago...

still shaking off the post grad rusties.

summertime

2011-06-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

costume life drawing

2011-06-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

oh how i missed thee.

quick little poster

2011-06-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

fiddling around with photoshop.

some process gifs.

from the song "torpor and spleen" from glenn richards' lovely album glimjack.

it's nice to have photoshop up and running again! I've moved from Toronto to Vancouver to Santa Monica in the last month, so it'll be nice to stay in one place for a while

painted thank you cards

2011-06-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

I made these cards for some of the amazing faculty from Sheridan College-

they are cut foam and gouache

Ollie Ollie Oxen Free Maquette

2011-05-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

Over the next couple of months, I should be posting design sheets and boards from my thesis film, "How to Get the Girl."

This little dude guarded my table on industry day.

He's made from sculpey (with a wire and aluminum foil base) and a 50s style doll house chair I picked up at a garage sale.

GO GREASE LIGHTNING!!

2011-05-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

anthropomorphic

2011-05-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

my dear friend Vanessa runs an online RP site, and I did this for a contest she was running.
He's an fox/boy who is a little aloof and dreams of revolution.

At the end. BAA.

2011-05-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

I spent the last four years studying at Sheridan College. It's been an awesome four years, and culminated in a screening of our thesis films first at Industry Day, then for our friends and family.
I have a lot to write about my experience at Sheridan, and the people I met over four years... But for now, I leave you with the poster I made up (Designed originally by Agnes Salek)

And us on the steps.

And where I spent 8 months of my life.

Hip hip hooray! You can see some of my fellow grads work by browsing their blogs here at Sheridan Animation blog, run by our supreme overlord Mark Mayerson.

puppets

2011-05-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

I had another film project earlier in the year that never quite came to fruition. I made this puppets out of some fabric I had printed at spoonflower.com, and I built aluminum armatures on the inside. They're not the sturdiest puppets, but hopefully they have some character.
I absolutely love stop motion animation, though it's not my strong suit as a medium. (I had two awesome stop mo animators in my mentor group this year, Julia and Jen, and I loved watching their thesis films progress!). I love designing and boarding for stop mo though, because it's such a hands on medium. It's like you have a little stage to set up.

matryoshka bears

2011-05-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

he hibernates

beasties, again

2011-05-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

the bunyip is said to lurk in Aussie swamps and billabongs. I think he's just looking for a friend, really.

the okapi was thought to be extinct, but it's a wonder that it survived at all. how is it supposed to hide? are the stripes for camouflage? why are only its legs stripe-y? how does it even survive in any circumstance?

the chupacabra, or the goat sucker. we really don't have anything to fear from this little guy, because he really only likes livestock. just make sure your porch is well stocked with sheep and you'll be set.

more fire and hemlock

2011-05-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

Whatever will I do without Diana Wynne Jones?

"'Oh I see!' said Polly. 'NOWHERE! That's clever!' She moved sideways to look round the curve of the vases and found they still said NOWHERE, though this was because the left-hand vase now seemed to say NOW and the right-hand one HERE from where she had moved to. Both vases really said NOWHERE, but the letters were so arranged on them that you could never see the whole word at once on the same vase. Polly made sure, by going right up to them, ducking under Mr. Lynn's arm, and putting her head sideways to see the letters round the other side."

Well, screw it.

2011-04-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

the artist's dilemma.

a bit of a comic

2011-04-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was working on some portfolio pieces, and decided it was about time to tackle a bit from a longer project I have. I'm not quite sure when I'll be able to approach this with the attention it needs, so I decided to do eight pages and see how it works. I had fun doing this. I miss doing comics.

I've also got lots I would change for next time, so watch for some more comics sometime later :)

dylan and kathryn, part two

2011-04-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

dylan (http://dylanglynn.blogspot.com/) and kathryn (http://kdurst.blogspot.com/)
two current third years who i will miss immensely. graduate soon please!

Thesis film boards!

2011-04-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

Some more boards and some development work from my thesis film! Our industry day is April 28th, a week or so from now, and if you're not coming to that day, you are welcome to come to our Friends and Family Day screening, April 30th at Sheridan! If you're interested, shoot me an email and I can grab you a ticket :)

big city

2011-04-19T15:07:00.000-07:00

drawn in new york, sometime in february.

faces

2011-04-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

Did you know that I now have over fifty followers? Thanks to each and everyone one of you that stops by, and thanks for all the kind comments. I'm glad you guys take the time out of your lives to stop at my corner of the web.

any requests for drawings?

joy division

2011-04-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

word poems

2011-04-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

i wanted to do more of these but ended up getting my wisdom teeth out instead.

A storyboarding sequence...

2011-04-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

Another personal project - boarding a sequence from a slightly moodier story than my usual fare.

Doopdedoop

2011-04-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

A Midsummer Night's Dream

2011-04-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

A design conundrum- putting the characters of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 20's style cartoon.

I've spoken of my love for Shakespeare before, but I'll mention it again. I love the characters he creates- especially something as twisted as a man called Bottom with the head of an ass, or a sassy character like Hermia who says, when being called short, says:
"How low am I? I am not yet so low

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes."

And then her and Helena duke it out. Pretty darn neat!

yarrr

2011-04-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

yawn + a thesis film trailer

2011-04-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

How to Get the Girl
I've got a teaser up for my thesis film. It's pretty much wrapped up, but I won't be able to post it fully online for a couple of weeks or so. So I made this teaser trailer. If you want to see more educational films, check out the Prelinger Archives!

doodle

2011-03-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

I drew this while watching "Closer", which is an older movie, but has some great nasty dialogue between fighting couples. I was drawing/scripting a couple fight scene a couple days ago, so it coincided pretty well :)

we're off to see the wizard!

2011-03-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

if you haven't actually read the wizard of oz books (and there are about a million of them!), i'd recommend it. they're really charming.

cheyenne curtis

2011-03-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

cheyenne, who has a beautiful blog. les papiers perdus

faces

2011-03-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

I saw these people at a cafe

pile of stuff

2011-03-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

some random bits
i love roller derby girls

ladies again

2011-03-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

my sketchbook cover at the moment.

cubist girl

2011-03-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

cassandra

2011-03-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

she's a bibliophile

w scott forbes

2011-03-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

the ever handsome w scott forbes.
his blog

matryoshka swamp things

2011-03-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

the first one, it's not an owl, it's something else

Another 24 Hour Film

2011-03-05T15:58:00.000-08:00

I think this is the last one I’ll do as a student! What a journey it’s been making these- in my time at Sheridan, I’ve made five films (well, let’s say it’s a loose definition of “film”).
This one’s a little weird. I did figure out a lot of things in after effects, though!

Over here---→DEATH BUDGIE

Also- I just realized that between this and the music video (Here!) and my thesis, I’m a little burned out from film-making. Expect some more illustration-y type stuff in the next while, I need a change of pace.

And Lastly, and Leastly as well, I have a twitter page now! It’ll be mostly art related, so follow if you like! Twitter

marker doodle

2011-03-03T07:47:00.000-08:00

bits and bobs

matryoshka masks

2011-03-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

I love twisted beasties with masks.

catryoshka

2011-02-25T19:35:00.000-08:00

with apologies to david o'reilly for the octocat look-a-like on the bottom right.

pick up master

2011-02-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned this before, but I really love pickup lines. I collect them.
I think they are like puns- only the person saying them thinks they're going to work, which makes them way funnier.
if you have any good ones send them my way
wink wink

week seven, kind of like that

2011-02-24T19:37:00.000-08:00

no granny no

Moustache Matryoshka

2011-02-23T07:36:00.000-08:00

TRAIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNN - or when I made a music video.

2011-02-20T08:04:00.000-08:00

Sometime around December, I decided that I would get off my butt and make a music video. I had intended to for quite some time- a year or so maybe? So since December, each day when I got home from working on my thesis film, I would putter away on this side project for a half hour or so. I finished it up this week. While the last week or so was rough, it was an absolute blast to work on, and I learned so much.

I’ll try to put up a bit of making-of post up in the next couple of weeks. More info at the youtube link!

HERE

Tech specs too boring for youtube:
I drew all the boards traditionally on rice paper (for some reason. I think it was cheap paper?), and scanned ‘em all in. I painted them in PS, comped them all in premiere, and then did a final effects pass in after effects.
Random note: I thumbed this out, and drew all the boards without timing it to the music. I had an idea of where I wanted things to go, but as I was comping it the first time around, I was praying so much that it would fit okay. Somehow, it did.

another lady

2011-02-18T19:31:00.000-08:00

this girl at school has a fabulous sense of style, i totally dig it.

tumbleweed matryoshka and a quick note about films...

2011-02-18T06:40:00.000-08:00

I've only ever seen real tumbleweek once or twice in my life, and always in very weird places, like downtown oakville on a tuesday night, with an old friend.

I'm almost finished with my latest film (no, not my thesis film. but my other other film), so hopefully that will be up soon.