Kontroll and Taxedermia

Me and Val have been in search of good Hungarian films to watch lately. We came across two movies that we thought would be interesting.


The first was Kontroll.















I absolutely loved this movie. It's about the control officers in the Budapest metro. It's very funny and stays light even when things get intense. It is a dark comedy so if you like that kind of thing check it out. It is also very beautiful, cinematicaly, and also heavy on the symbolism. Great movie!



The second was a movie called Taxedermia.












Although the picture doesn't seem it, this movie was INCREDIBLY disturbing. From vomiting to masturbation, the movie never ceased to push the limits of what can be shown in a movie. It is, after all, not rated. However, this movie is very beautiful. Colors are used very intentionally and it doesn't seem that anything is unnecessary for any one scene. Like Kontroll the movie is heavy on symbolism, showing representations of all the different eras of Hungary from World War 2 to modern times. Brilliant and provocative, I say see this movie once.... maybe. If you don't have a strong constitution, pass it up. Although it was amazing, the sheer darkness and vulgar nature of the film really stop you from enjoying the movie too often but for all you film people out there, check it out.


Also, if anyone knows of some light hearted Hungarian films, let me know!

Sketchbook #2

I was gonna post this tomorrow because I did my last one then but I drew this and was pretty happy with it so I thought I would post it now. I haven't been in a drawing class for a while so I was worried about trying to draw an actual face. I think it came out pretty well. I didn't want to draw the person's eyes that they had so I drew my own creepy ones. Kinda looks like a zombie now. :D So this will be two pages of my sketchbook.

Getting Antsy

I am starting to realize that I want to do a LOT of things for two reasons.
1. I really can not wait to move to Budapest.
and 2. I feel like I'm just sitting around so I want to do something more active.

I am very excited to move and I am not too happy about waiting until August to leave. Of course I will miss everyone but this is going to be the start of our lives. Also, seeing images of people there, the things we've heard, and the thought of living in such an exciting place is driving me crazy. I can't wait to move to such a beautiful city and meet the many hungarians that I'm sure we'll become friends with..... I hope :P.

Learning to Animate: The Animator's Survival Kit

I got this book called The Animator's Survival Kit for Christmas this past year. I have been meaning to read it but have not had the chance since it accidentally got put into storage. Anyways, I thought that I would start reading it after I found it and was totally blown away by the first few pages! I have heard from other people and read on blogs that it was an absolute necessity but never really took it to heart. I think I will now. I feel as if I will learn more from this than the 4 years I had in college! I'm going to continue to read it but as a VERY quick exercise I decided to try my hand at a quick animation to see how it would work out. I made it into a GIF but couldn't post it so here was what the process looked like.

Update: I did another animation. This one was not nearly as jumpy as the first and that's why I'm uploading this one and not the other one.

Leah's Sketchbook

I showed my 7 year old neice, Leah, my sketchbook drawings. She loved them so much that she wanted to make some of her own. I taught her some techniques for shading and this is what she drew!

Weekly Sketchbook 1

This is some of my sketchbook that I just recently found during Val and I's excursion into our shed. Although I like people to see some of my sketches this is mainly to catalog my sketchbook as I am terrified of losing and losing all of my pictures. It has happened MANY MANY times before.

Have You Taken A Door Off Its Hinges Today?

Today was an unusually boring day. That is until Val, Leah, and I decided to get some of Val and I's stuff out of our outside storage shed. We went out to open it and, what do ya know, it wouldn't open.... of course :P. So we began a very rigid search for a solution. We tried some graphite lubricant that we had. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Next we tried some WD-40. Again, it was a big fat failure. Since none of the basics worked we decided to try some drastic measures. We looked up ways to fix the problem and saw that you could just remove the door knob. Duh! It seemed so obvious! Unfortunately, the screws were on the inside of the door. Great.... So we decided to go for the only thing that would work, taking the hinges off the door. So this is what we did! In order to properly document our process and leave notes for future knowledge seekers of door removal, Leah made a list. Here it is:

Oh! and don't forget the "hi five". It's probably the MOST important step!


I also found some of my old sketch books and thought it would be fun to post some pictures! I'll start that tomorrow. Val also found some of her old journals and plans on emailing our old hostesses in France that we lived with! How exciting is that!