Friday, March 02, 2007

The New Phone Book is Here! The New Phone Book is Here!

Obviously I'm not exactly what you'd call a celebrity, far from it, but I do get the occasional fan mail. Not a lot, maybe 2 or 3 a month, and to be honest, they're not my fans, but fans of projects I've worked on. Still, I do my best to answer everyone who writes -- in fact, there are several people who I now consider friends and colleagues who first contacted me as fans.
Anyhow, I've been putting in a lot of hours in the studio recently, lots of solitary late nights, and sometimes I start to wonder if it's really worth it. Well, the other day I received the following e-mail from a high school student somewhere on the other side of the country -- and yes, it is worth it:

"Hi,
My name is (name removed), I'm a senior, and I have always wanted to go to art school. This past fall it was time to register for college and I felt myself being pushed towards an engineering path and forced to let my dreams go. However when I opened my Spanish book I found some animations you had drawn for the En Espanol! series, they made me fall back in love with art and I am now going to live my dream and go to school for art. So, thank you so much for your animations."

I'm posting this here not as a gratuitous pat on the back to myself, although you could accuse me of that, but as a reminder to all of us artists and creators that even though we don't always see it, our work can have a profound effect on others, and we should always remain grateful for that opportunity.

1 Comments:

Blogger a guy in a gorilla suit said...

I am currently sitting in a training to become a Linux Service Technician. The government is paying this training, so I shouldn't moan. Just annotate, that I asked for a training to become a professional artist in the advertising business. Nothing about drawing or sketching but more the 'hardware' skills like DTP for Pro's and stuff. Anyhow - I'm making the best of what I can get.

My main interest is in stop-motion animation and making short films, eventually with 'real' people. Animation Blogs like yours are such a big help for me, because I learn a lot about walk cycles, character design, stances, expression - and sketching.
I personally have a friend of mine to help me with sketches and storyboards, and she is also incredible skilled in sculpting. A big help.

But here and from you I can learn so very much. And I really like your drawing style. It is always a great help to look over the shoulders of pros like you - but especially in your case, I also really like your style. I am saving copies of the posted images as personal references and for my very own training - and some day I will enlarge some of your sketches for my personal use: decorating my workplace.

Great work. Thank you so very much for sharing all this great sketches and doodles. It is really helpful. And very kind of you.

You rock, Mr. D. Seriously. Solidly.

M.

2:40 AM, April 15, 2010  

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