At this point in my life, I seem to be circling back to what I love. For a long while, close to about five years or so through high school and starting into college, I didn't draw. For reasons I somewhat understand, my life just took me away from my love of drawing. I still remained creative and still pursued other avenues of my life, but I didn't draw and I lost something in the process. I wasn't entirely myself and I am saddened that I lost that time. I fear what my life would've been had I not kept going and been creative in other facets of my life. Had I not gone to writing and film and eventually into improv and attempting play-writing. I found this old blog post from my Myspace account and felt that it was a good way to start off the process of re-claiming my identity. Without further ado, here is an old blog post from Myspace (dated June 3, 2006)
For the past two and a half years, I have been making films regularly and for the past year I have made it my career goal. My whole life, I have been creative and this is how is the history of my creativity.
It started with the adventures Tweety, a stuffed Tweety doll whom was my best friend for most of second grade. He was the beginning of my obsession with being creative. I picked up a ton of books about animation and started on my way to becoming an animator. I couldn't really draw, but that didn't stop me. I just drew all of the time. I eventually made a small series of books about Tweety and the adventures him and all of the other Looney Tunes got into. One of the supporting characters was my other stuffed animal, my bear Teddy (the same bear featured in "Light Conversation"), who eventually took over my drawing focus. I spent hours with Teddy and his gang. To most people, they were just doodles on my homework. Big headed bears with little bodies that took up my time. Hardly anyone outside of my family knows how vast of a universe I made with them (and they only think I just had a lot of characters). But it was an actual world for me. I knew the relationships of all of the characters. Teddy, of course, was the main character. His best friend was Daniel, or as he was known, Duncey. Duncey always had a hat on and that started out as a Dunce cap only. Duncey's twin sister was named Luann and she was the love of Teddy's life. I have never said this, by she was based on the at the time love of my life, Justine Heston. Then there was Blinky, the brain and his brother Bobo, the jock. Then, the nemesis was found in Leon and his gang (whose names escape me). Then there was Downer and his brother Eerie and then Charlie, who was Teddy's cousin. And in another section was Teddy's brother Johny, who had an imaginary friend, Rex who worked for an imaginary friends corporation (complete with a Perry White/JJJ hard-ass boss) Nobody has any idea how many false starts I had on what was to be their epic "Teddy's Adventure", a road trip epic that had Duncey fall in love and his love die because she fell off of a cliff (because there has to be drama) and Teddy finally revealing his love to Luann and getting her. It would've been awesome.
The only creation to rival Teddy in time spent was The Dumb Snowman. What started off as a dumb story (pun intended) about a snow man who kept getting destroyed (which I loved to illustrate), became a franchise with four total books and eventually became my first cross-over with the Handsome Cherry, a character created for a writing contest in sixth grade. The cast of The Dumb Snowman was crazy (not to be confused with the Crazy Snowman). It was as follows: The Dumb Sonwman, The Normal Snowman, The Dumber Snowman, The Dumbest Snowman, The Scary Snowman, The Mental Snowman, The Smart Snowman, and The Cool Snowman (who no one liked). They even had an awesome van that they drove around in.
Around sixth grade (the year that led to a bear building and I got to make the yearly felt poster that was a tradtion in that class. On it: a big headed bear as the focus), I discovered one of my idols, Charles Schultz. That is when I knew what I would be: a cartoonist. I would make comic strips for a living and it would be awesome. I also discovered my all-time favorite strip, Calvin and Hobbes (if you have never read Calvin and Hobbes, stop now and go get it). I dove into comic strips and got tons of books on it. This led to multiple creations. The most notable is Leonard the Dog (or Leonard P. Dog). A slight rip-off of Garfield (maybe more with Get Fuzzy now), but it involved a dog and his owner and a bunch of Leonard's brothers and Wesley, the dwarf bear who the meet when he is holding a sign saying: Will Work for Pants (which he gets and wears for the rest of the strip).It also had my favorite name of a character, Coupon. I just liked it. Then there was Crossed Wires, a science comic strip and my other favorite: The Radicals, whose ideas I am slowly using in movies. It was about a group of freedom fighters fighting an slightly evil but highly eccentric mastermind, Patches (he had an eye patch).
And finally we have the period that is still kinda with me, comics. The greatest of American exports (when done right), comic books are so cool. Call me a nerd, call me dumb, but comic books can be as powerful as a no pics book any day of the week. But I discovered comic books my eighth grade year, when the book store, Jj Perry's was closing and everything, including comic books. I snatched up a ridiculous amount of books from there and ate them up. My focus went into writing comics. Not good ones, but it got me going. I poured hours into not studying into just thinking up all kinds of crazy ideas and it was fantastic.
When I am editing a video, I am still creating. A lot of people think that the way a film is made is writing a script and filming it, then you piece it together. Nope, the way a film is made is in editing. That is when everyting comes into place. It doesn't matter what you have written and what is filmed, when you edit a film is when you bring it to life and there is hardly any work out there more exciting then bring film to life. To see an idea surpass what is in your head in real life is what of the most satisfying feeling you can feel and with film, I am constantly able to do that where I failed with all my other outlets. I was born to be creative and have found my oultlet to do it and I got an award to prove it.
It started with the adventures Tweety, a stuffed Tweety doll whom was my best friend for most of second grade. He was the beginning of my obsession with being creative. I picked up a ton of books about animation and started on my way to becoming an animator. I couldn't really draw, but that didn't stop me. I just drew all of the time. I eventually made a small series of books about Tweety and the adventures him and all of the other Looney Tunes got into. One of the supporting characters was my other stuffed animal, my bear Teddy (the same bear featured in "Light Conversation"), who eventually took over my drawing focus. I spent hours with Teddy and his gang. To most people, they were just doodles on my homework. Big headed bears with little bodies that took up my time. Hardly anyone outside of my family knows how vast of a universe I made with them (and they only think I just had a lot of characters). But it was an actual world for me. I knew the relationships of all of the characters. Teddy, of course, was the main character. His best friend was Daniel, or as he was known, Duncey. Duncey always had a hat on and that started out as a Dunce cap only. Duncey's twin sister was named Luann and she was the love of Teddy's life. I have never said this, by she was based on the at the time love of my life, Justine Heston. Then there was Blinky, the brain and his brother Bobo, the jock. Then, the nemesis was found in Leon and his gang (whose names escape me). Then there was Downer and his brother Eerie and then Charlie, who was Teddy's cousin. And in another section was Teddy's brother Johny, who had an imaginary friend, Rex who worked for an imaginary friends corporation (complete with a Perry White/JJJ hard-ass boss) Nobody has any idea how many false starts I had on what was to be their epic "Teddy's Adventure", a road trip epic that had Duncey fall in love and his love die because she fell off of a cliff (because there has to be drama) and Teddy finally revealing his love to Luann and getting her. It would've been awesome.
The only creation to rival Teddy in time spent was The Dumb Snowman. What started off as a dumb story (pun intended) about a snow man who kept getting destroyed (which I loved to illustrate), became a franchise with four total books and eventually became my first cross-over with the Handsome Cherry, a character created for a writing contest in sixth grade. The cast of The Dumb Snowman was crazy (not to be confused with the Crazy Snowman). It was as follows: The Dumb Sonwman, The Normal Snowman, The Dumber Snowman, The Dumbest Snowman, The Scary Snowman, The Mental Snowman, The Smart Snowman, and The Cool Snowman (who no one liked). They even had an awesome van that they drove around in.
Around sixth grade (the year that led to a bear building and I got to make the yearly felt poster that was a tradtion in that class. On it: a big headed bear as the focus), I discovered one of my idols, Charles Schultz. That is when I knew what I would be: a cartoonist. I would make comic strips for a living and it would be awesome. I also discovered my all-time favorite strip, Calvin and Hobbes (if you have never read Calvin and Hobbes, stop now and go get it). I dove into comic strips and got tons of books on it. This led to multiple creations. The most notable is Leonard the Dog (or Leonard P. Dog). A slight rip-off of Garfield (maybe more with Get Fuzzy now), but it involved a dog and his owner and a bunch of Leonard's brothers and Wesley, the dwarf bear who the meet when he is holding a sign saying: Will Work for Pants (which he gets and wears for the rest of the strip).It also had my favorite name of a character, Coupon. I just liked it. Then there was Crossed Wires, a science comic strip and my other favorite: The Radicals, whose ideas I am slowly using in movies. It was about a group of freedom fighters fighting an slightly evil but highly eccentric mastermind, Patches (he had an eye patch).
And finally we have the period that is still kinda with me, comics. The greatest of American exports (when done right), comic books are so cool. Call me a nerd, call me dumb, but comic books can be as powerful as a no pics book any day of the week. But I discovered comic books my eighth grade year, when the book store, Jj Perry's was closing and everything, including comic books. I snatched up a ridiculous amount of books from there and ate them up. My focus went into writing comics. Not good ones, but it got me going. I poured hours into not studying into just thinking up all kinds of crazy ideas and it was fantastic.
When I am editing a video, I am still creating. A lot of people think that the way a film is made is writing a script and filming it, then you piece it together. Nope, the way a film is made is in editing. That is when everyting comes into place. It doesn't matter what you have written and what is filmed, when you edit a film is when you bring it to life and there is hardly any work out there more exciting then bring film to life. To see an idea surpass what is in your head in real life is what of the most satisfying feeling you can feel and with film, I am constantly able to do that where I failed with all my other outlets. I was born to be creative and have found my oultlet to do it and I got an award to prove it.
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