Loving the RAINBOW!!!!

I was looking through 'Ninja', a book by colorful doodle virtuoso Brian Chippendale, and felt inspired to take one of my scenes from drab to fab via the power of rainbow!!! I used my favorite highlighters to create this fun plaid pattern.
This was going to be a simple scene of two staircases, one going up and one going down, with characters marching on each one. But thanks to inspiration from Ninja, the whole thing freed itself and went nutso! The characters just sort of meander in the general direction they need to go, but I love the loss of structure and even the permission I gave myself to have fun with nonsensical character design...

Snapshot from the studio...

Re-shooting the beginning of the animation 'Scripture Skits'. Thought I'd share this snap from today's work... In this scene we are introduced to the three main characters in my music video who can't seem to grow up and get a grip.
Aesthetically I'm trying to walk that delicate line between homemade looking and slick... where to stop and nit pick? Where to leave things as they looked at the very first try? Finally I decided that LIGHTING was not one of those areas I wanted to leave to chance, so I went out and finally bought some great professional lights. After almost burning myself and having to wear sunglasses while I worked, my good husband came in and used his genius move of turning the light away from my face and making it bounce at the ceiling. Aaah! No more melting hair and camera! Thanks Kah Leong!

MC Chris - Nrrrd Grrrl music video

Okay everybody!!! So I made my first rap song for a soundtrack of an animation I'm making. My friend Mike G, who also produced my 'Tis the Night of Halloween'soundtrack, helped me record my song and added a little somethin' special with his beats and flava'... and now I'm so obsessed with writing rhymes!!! The day after we recorded, my dance workshop teacher introduced me to hip hop dance and challenged us all to write our own 'swagga' rhymes, statements about how AWESOME we all are... so now my week has been a big cloud of rhyming and booty shaking... Felt a bit self conscious at first, but my friends clued me in that I'm not the first nerdy white girl to embark into this journey of hip hop...Now I've been looking around the internet for some more examples of 'nerd rap'... I've seen housewives audition tapes, tween homework assignments, and some very rare and surprising stuff... Here's one I'm posting just cause it's clean and fun... stay tuned for my song which will I will post a clip of within the month when the music video is ready!!!

xoxo
Annie
aka
Paper Cut

These performers at BYU use every part of the piano to create their song. The technique is called 'bowed piano' because of they use strings of rosin to create 'bows' that they draw across the strings inside the gut of the instrument. Their use of the whole piano reminds me of Chinese cooking. Such an eerie song, it sounds to me like the change of seasons from summer to fall...

Mercibeaucoup!!!!

Was in a magazine shop and saw some designs by japanese designer MERCIBEAUCOUP on the cover, fell to pieces in bliss! So silly, so fun, would love to look great in every one!
Their statement is to 'everyday cherish the precious feeling of appreciation and thank.'

Teen Agent Mystery!

My character Miss Periwinkle, the artist and psychic on the Fred Flare 'Teen Agent' campaign was invited to create a series of watercolors of keys for use as backdrops to this mysterious story... I love how they look sprinkled in the background of these photos. These watercolors are inspired by old skeleton keys. Actually to be more truthful they are inspired by the one key I have held in my mind's eye from the book 'The Secret Garden', which fascinated me as a child. Now I have a walled garden out my window and I always imagine what it is like inside, I am just like the little girl in the book! To make these watercolors I took simple designs and added curlies and fanciful twisty tendrils to my heart's delight! Overworked? Absolutely. And for sale I might add! I created about 25, here are some examples...