Happy Birthday, Rachelle!

Barrel Fever

I was skeptical, initially, that this book could be funnier than, "Me Talk Pretty One Day," which was my reigning Sedaris champion. My favorite shorts are by far, Jamboree (a tale about the formation of broken family), Barrel Fever (an alcoholic son, named Adolf), and the essay, Diary of a Smoker. Of course, also concluding this book, are the famed Santaland Diaries.

I had an interesting realization about character animation through reading this book. The way Sedaris writes and depicts his character is so vivid, and I think particularly effective, because each character TELLS you exactly who they are. Their dialogue conveys their personality and their intention at the same time. This leaves the secondary action in perfectly isolated additional sentences which flavor the characters. Moreover, most characters have little to no physical description.

Below is a short excerpt in which we meet the mother in the short, "Barrel Fever." There are plenty of stronger examples of my idea as it pertains to character acting/animation, but this was the first one I found at the time of writing... I apologize for my lack of commitment!

Anyway, here the mother is spending a week in the hospital with cancerous lymph nodes (btw Sedaris shorts are comedic- try not to get too concerned here), and her roommate is a lupus patient named Mrs. Gails. Mrs. Gails, "...never said a word but watched television constantly at top volume... Possessing no apparent standards she'd watch anything, expressing no more interest in a golf match than a nature program..."

Begin excerpt:
"You got any questions about the grazing habits of the adolescent North American bull moose?" my mother asked, fidgeting with the plastic bracelet on her wrist. "I complained to the nurses about the volume but all they do is point to their ears and whisper that she's got a hearing problem. If she's got such a hearing problem then why are they whispering about her? She can hear the food cart from down the hall. I've seen it with my own eyes. She perks up and rubs her hands together and over what? That foraging moose of hers will sit down to a better meal than anything she's likely to get in this place. I want that woman dead." (131-32)
End excerpt.

What I find so awesome about this style of writing characters, is the straight dialogue. You will notice there are no descriptions of the mother's age, appearance, or expressions. Nor are there reactions from the others in the room. The reader knows the all about the mother and that she is greatly irritated with just the dialogue. All of her character is given simply by what she is saying. There is only one piece of the section which is not spoken. Were this shot animated, this can be seen as a perfect peppering of secondary action, '...fidgeting with the plastic bracelet on her wrist.' The action enhances the characterization as irritated, an older lady, and probably really tacky. We can infer much more about the character just in the way she is getting her points across. The section is full of rhetorical questions and extremely pointed observations about the situation. She 'complains,' but we are also led to believe her complaints fall on deaf ears (in a humorous twist). The mother then also feels neglected, in addition to suspicious, spiteful and bitter.

All this with no physical description. Practically monologue. Awesome.

Blocking

Hi all- here is the current body mechanics shot I'm working on... please crit away on anything and everything! At this point, I'm starting to pepper in breakdowns, so if you see gapping holes- call 'em out! Thanks in advance!

Thurs the 3rd

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend for the 4th! Here are some drawings from the Thursday prior... I had a really tough time getting warmed-up... When that happens I switch colors and mediums like crazy. I also fallback on drawing superheros to try to loosen up. SUE ME.