Disney Animals

I've been slowly watching through all of the Disney animated movies, or at least almost all of them.
By slowly, I mean it's taking a few years. Because as I watch each movie, I pick out at least one, usually several, sketches to do of different animals. It's a fun way to practice different poses and different animals.
I'm going through my collection alphabetically, so I don't lose track of what movies I've already done (as I said, it's taking a long time).
I just hit 'The Little Mermaid."

Whenever I see an animal I'd like to draw, I'll go through the scene frame by frame to find the most interesting shot. And in doing so I've really gotten to appreciate how amazing the hand-drawn animal animation is.
Like the way Bagheera moves through the trees. Especially after watching the lions, tigers, and snow leoaprds at work.


And then most recently, Max. Prince Eric's sheepdog. I slowed down the frames of Max running, and watching his shaggy fur fly up and down with every pace is hilarious.

Predicting the Future

I just updated my computer, and it messed up a bunch of stuff. So I'm dealing with another computer nightmare. Yeesh.
Anyway, I've been going through my old videos to make sure everything still works. And I just watched the video of my thesis defense.

Ugh, I hate listening to recordings of my voice.
But that's not what I wanted to say.
During my talk, I explain the story I wrote from my graduate project. In my story, a big disaster happened when wastewater injection (used in fossil fuel mining) caused a big earthquake. That earthquake destroyed a big oil facility, wiping out most of the oil reserves for the US (Leading society to collapse).

A couple weeks before my thesis defense, wastewater injection (used in fossil fuel mining) caused a big earthquake that hit a town.
So, that was freaky.

And during my graduate talk, I discuss novels that include overpopulation. And one of the novels wiped out most of humanity with a human-made disease. I said that I didn't want to rely on a pandemic to solve overpopulation.
It was bizarre to hear myself say that in a speech a few years ago.


Mandrill monkeys. The big male is checking out his toes.

No Music!

During quarantine, I signed up for a month of Disney Plus.
I watched some of the Disney cartoon sequels that I never cared to try before. I mostly just wanted some fluff to listen to while I was painting (Though I was amazed to find myself enjoying the Tinker Bell movies. I've never even like Tinker Bell!).
One of the movies I watched was "Ariel's Beginning." The prequel to The Little Mermaid.

Get this. Ariel's dad had a traumatic experience involving music, so he banned music in the kingdom. Except Ariel loved music, so she continued to sing behind her father's back.

Hmm. Why does that sound familiar?

Why do we like Villains?

Here's an interesting video about villains!

So Good to have Feedback

I recently learned that one of my zoo buddies studied creative writing in college. I asked if she wanted to do a critique exchange and I sent her the first chapter of Evva's story.
Plenty of people say they'll read one of my chapters, and half or more never do. So I was thrilled that a few days later I received a long email full of questions and comments.
She even singled out one detail and asked if it was going to be an important theme. She was right!

Aaah, it's so great to get feedback from someone who can catch stuff like that!

She said she wants to read the next chapter too! Even better!If this goes on, it's going to make me edit faster to keep up with her. XD
Good motivation, in many ways.

Have some magellenic penguins.

The white penguin with his girlfriend. And their chick is on one of the photos too! (these are from a few months ago)

Always Taking Longer than Expected

So, as I've mentioned, my current writing project is an edit of Evva's story.
And as usual, it's taking longer than I expected. I thought the plot was in pretty good shape, so this rewrite would be faster.
But now I'm focusing on the writing itself. Spending twenty minutes on just a couple paragraphs, trying to make every word and phrase as clear and descriptive as I can.
I'm actually amazed how much polishing that needs. I'm pretty much rewriting everything.


Peahen and peachicks (what you call female and baby peacocks)

Writing Commission

A few days ago I posted a chapter of my Pokémon fanfic onto my Deviantart account. And right after, I got a question asking if I took writing commissions.
It's the first request I've ever gotten for a writing commission, which was exciting.
But then he said he wanted it NSFW. So I turned it down. I'm no good at that kind of writing anyway.


Komodo dragon

Last Line

The last line of Evva's story never really popped out at me. It just felt like a typical ending.
But as I was editing the first few chapters, an idea popped into my head. A new last line.
And it fits perfectly with the title of the story!
Whoo, I love those magic ideas that pop into your head.


Black rhino
I love these photos! Let me explain. Many animals have an organ on top of their mouth that helps them smell. That's why snakes stick their tongues out - to pull smell onto that organ. Cats, horses, giraffes, and rhinos have this organ too. So when they smell something really good, they open their mouth (that stink-face cats make) to smell it better. That's what this rhino is doing!
Look at that big kissy face!

The Cold Doesn't Compute

It's been a hot week.
I've watched a couple movies this week, where the characters are cold and shivering. My brain can't process it. It goes, "Cold? I don't remember what it means to be cold."

How quickly we forget things. @_@


Black bear (she was literally twirling her bamboo like a baton. It was adorable).

Strange Cartoons

There are some movies that I like, but they're a bit strange.
Sometimes I wonder if you have to watch those movies when you're a kid to really fall in love with them. I don't know, maybe you're young enough that you don't pay much attention to the strange parts?
Although I may just think that because I've tried showing them to people a couple times, and they never seemed to catch on.

For example, the animated movie of Watership Down.
Or Yellow Submarine.
Or The Last Unicorn (except my dad loves that movie, and he wasn't a kid when he first saw it. Even Mom likes it).


River Otters