Hand Drawn Revolution

i-erry Yule blessings

2011-12-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

JAH Bless,

Tis the Season for Blog Lag Time....

2011-12-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again... between the turkey day haze, gift grabbing fog and the blur of final projects, tis' once again the season of hasty updates.

Since my last post, I established a Twitter account in order to give updates on my life and statements of solidarity to "Occupiers" I support.

Let me digress a second on the Occupy topic... I support Occupations that follow the same 2 rules that I do in my own self-Occupation.

1. No Violence
2. No Destruction of Property

OK, back to my life... Below are some draft pictures for my final project for a class in "Teaching Math, Science and Social Studies concepts in Early Childhood Education"

The book is designed to help children understand the concept of how our environment has changed over time and how our actions can impact the future.

It's based on a story from my life when my childhood friend and myself were going to our favorite spot in the creek near our neighborhood only to run into the final phase of the construction of the Herndon Parkway by surprise.

I use progressive imagery in the book to show how the North Virginia landscape has changed over a thousand years (the following are some highlights from that segment of the draft book)

Unless "Change" rolls through again, this will probably be my next big personal project.

Otherwise... I have been continuing my tutoring activities in Herndon (despite not living there anymore)

Here is a photo I took of my portable Rock and Mineral collection in use during one of my enrichment activities.

I've also brought in my Moog Little Phatty and attached it to a Oscilloscope to let the kids have some creative free play with sound waves.

The Jams still continue on Thursday... The walks in the woods have not been as annual as I'd like, but as my schoolwork and weekend contract jobs wrap up, I hope to get back into more woodland Shamanry.

I have two new illustrations in the works that should be posted here sometime after the Holiday Break.

Until then..

Peace, Love and Blessings to 100% of all human beings... I hope your 2012 transformations will go smoothly this time next year.

-r

Sun Dancing At LEAF

2011-10-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

SOoOo I just floated back from LEAF a couple days ago...

LEAF stands for the Lake Eden Arts Festival which is held in the Spring and Fall of each year.

By far, LEAF is my most favorite festival series (just one above Floydfest)

I brought the iPad and got some media...
Here was my humble abode for the four days I stayed there...

Here is my medicine bundle with my flutes and the Shaman singing bowl (rumored to be made of clay from a near by sacred valley)

Here is a clip of community family encampment nestled among the golden trees in the sacred valley...

Here are some brave youth preforming the initial sacrificial descent into the frozen waters of the holy lake in order to call blessings upon the festival (it was 32 degrees the night before)...

Here is another shot of the holy placid lake as seen from Eden Hall...

And here's a short clip of me giving thanks for being alive, healthy and partaking in the most beautiful festival I have ever attended...

Find out more about LEAF here.

Peace, Love and Blessings

-R

Moving On...

2011-09-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

So 26 years in my old house in Herndon was getting a bit stifling so I decided to move on out and get a place of my own.

My own Kitchen...

My own art studio...

My own living room...

My own cottage in the woods...

"...My own life is all I can hope to control
So let my life
Be lived for the good of my soul...

and let it bring peace...

sweet peace...

peace will come...

and let it begin with me..."

(exerpt) Peace Will Come -Tom Paxton

Floydfest X

2011-08-12T05:53:00.001-07:00

You know how it goes for me at these things... I get all my camera cards cleared and ready to document every unforgettable moment...

Only to come back with a handful of boring pics.

Yup...
This is Floydfest X
5 days of camping on a mountain top
11 stages of local and global music
14,000 people
8 police officers

And No Judgment!

I have a special place in my heart for the free children of Appalachia, we share common roots.

(obligatory backstage access gloating)

I have a lot of artistic visions I picked up here, so I may return to this theme in the future.

Peace

Love

Freedom

Blessings

Forever

-r

24 hours...

2011-07-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

I bought a VIP pass for Floydfest 10 back in December 2010.
Ever since then I have counted down the months, the weeks and the days...
up to this moment...

in about 24 hours, I will be in Floyd (Jah Willing).

Now if I can just make it through the day without getting fired for giving dirty looks to people who get between me and my journey, I'll be all set...

Birthday Parties, Kayaks and other Hippie games...

2011-07-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

My buddy Jax had a Birthday last weekend so I made him a party shirt...

but I think he was more interested in the iPad...

After he settled down for the night, the grow-ups went for a little midnight Kayak ride (the iPad stayed in the car)

I got some memory shots the next morning... here's the tents

Here's the camp fire...

Here are the Kayaks by the river...

And here is my early morning music meditation...

Your Gonna Lively Up Yourself

2011-06-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

iPad syncing in nature

LivelyCast "Sunday By The River"

LivelyCast "Friday After Work"

There is some livity to be had in the quiet corners of NOVA, during the quiet hours of the day. You just need to be in the right place at the right time...

LEAF 2011

2011-05-25T03:46:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Lake Eden Arts Festival...
..aka..

-LEAF-

http://www.theleaf.com/

It's essentially a music festival that uses it's proceeds to fund art and music programs for children in poverty stricken areas, both locally (North Carolina) and internationally.

^this description does not do this festival justice. Check out the link above for more info...

Peace, Love and Blessings to our brother and sister organizers at LEAF, they are worthy of abundant positive karma.

=UPDATE=

Director's Cut
06/08/11

...Comfortably numb, I shot the Sheriff.

2011-05-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

Sooooooo Back on April 8th, the band was invited to attend a live sound stage recording event at NOVA in the Waddell Theater. The recording class sections got their gear together and recorded the live performances of some bands (us included) and the students worked on the mixes as their final projects.

Here's a big thanks to the NOVA Loudoun recording team for their hard work.

Here is the video footage of two of our recordings:

COVER: "I Shot The Sheriff" -Bob Marley

COVER: "Comfortably Numb" -Pink Floyd

Namdar on Guitar/ Vocals
Alejo on Bass
Brian on Drums
Rodger on Keyboards/ Vocals

-ONE LOVE and Belated Beltane Blessings

-RajJAH

peace rocks

2011-04-05T03:24:00.000-07:00

Met up with my friend deven over the weekend... and he had a camera!

First we went down to the mystical spot by the river where I maintain a medicine circle and noticed that someone had turned it into a peace sign.

So we decided to gather some different stones to add to the circle.
This is a flood plane, so all of this will wash away eventually.

I may build my circle on higher ground, but I like the way it looks now...

Hope our children can say the same thing.

Peace - Love -Blessings

-R

Longing for Floyd

2011-03-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

Ahh spring is in the air, the little red buds are about to explode into flowers as nature's process of re-creation starts up. It'll be about 5 more months until FloydFest 2011 and I'm looking forward to it...

I'm looking forward to it so much, I've decided to change some words around on Joni Mitchel's "Woodstock" and call for Global Human Freedom Concerts to happen around the world to sync up with Floyd.

I made this Yesterday

I'm working with my Jam tribe now to do a larger cover of this...

more soon... for now, I gotta get ready to start my next class.

-Peace

Springing Up to the next milestone

2011-03-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

So I've been taking classes again and thus, I have been splitting my "mindforce" between my incredibly evolving jam band and my Early Childhood Education classes.

I've been writing a lot of papers, working on a lot of group projects and learning a lot of really useful things.

On Thursday nights I meet up with my jam group and each day we have met up, we have learned a little more and improved our talents.

So there has been little room for art.

I did manage to make these...

These 2 illustrations were for a quick PowerPoint on the need for more men in Early Childhood Education.

(Though it looked more like a 5 second highlight on the issue of how men fear being judged the wrong way for working with young children...)

I've been going over different studies in anthropology, census data, history, academics and a bunch of other fields. The results are indicating to me that very young humans around the world basically do better if they have an equal balance of honest men and women in their lives.

So hopefully I can do what I can to restore balance (aka: Social Equilibrium)

I made it through my first ECE introduction course pretty successfully. The course was not easy. But I mean that in a good way because it was designed to give you a taste of what you can expect in workloads should you seek a career in Early Childhood Education. In some ways it felt more like a gatekeeper course because only hard workers and team players are going to make it through. Another good thing about the introducation class was it's ability to be done while working a full 9-5 on the side. Yes it was worth it! The teacher is one of the few I have had in my life who is quite honest with the class and knows what she is talking about. She is also very approachable and communicates a lot with her students.

I feel confident that I can continue my education in ECE and eventually work in the field (Though I'm still not quite certain on where my talents could serve best...).

Oh well, I've reached another milestone on the path, I can see the next one on the top of yonder hill... I lift my foot and move forward.

-Peace, Love and Blessings

-R, Mar11

To the people of Libya

2011-02-23T13:45:00.000-08:00

I no longer have a message for the "leader" because you have none. The Tyrant Ghadafi has sealed his fate, the sands of the desert await the return of his body.

I call upon all Libyan's to join together as ONE. This is your new dawn. This is your crossroads.

Look to your children. You now have all the power to see that they live in peace and freedom.

Let us all join together with ONE LOVE and heal the world so that our children, and thier children and all the generations beyond the sight of your dreams have a chance to live in peace with one another in gardens such have never been seen since the dawn of creation.

Let us help the Earth to become ONE with the paradise that awaits in the after life.

May the Creator and Sustainer of life aid you in your struggle to live in peace.

To Bahrain

2011-02-18T07:42:00.000-08:00

To the king of Bahrain...

God sees all that you have done and will collect the debt you owe in this life or the next, you have no choice but surrender and do the right thing.

To the people of Bahrain... Trust in yourselves, organize as one. Light a Peace of flame in your hearts and glow brightly in your unity. Let the light expose the haters in the dark so that the world may see them. Surround them with love and force them to surrender. You are at the crossroads...like your brothers and sisters in Egypt, Tunisia and in free nations around the world.

Oppressed peoples of the world, stand together for your human rights! You have nothing to loose but your chains!

FREE-Jam

2011-02-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

This is a clip from a free jam I did with my friends at our secret studio (Voodoo Cookie Jamroom)

All the artists in the jam taught themselves how to play the instruments that they play. Most of us can't read or write in classical music notation, we just play by ear. We have a basic melody that we grow into elaborate rhythms for some of our material, but a lot of this is made up on the fly.

How do we communicate?

Well, sometimes I can hear someone change their beat or key and I adjust my own playing to harmonize. Sometimes I make eye contact, but honestly it's getting to the point where where all the senses and changes happen so quickly, it's almost as if everything is done through a 6th sense of cognitive communication.

it's another miracle of human evolution, people just need to learn to tap it.

to the pharaho in Egypt.

2011-01-28T16:04:00.000-08:00

-GOD command's you pharaoh, set His Children FREE!

and to the people of Egypt;

Peace is the flame we hold in our hands...
use it as a torch to guide, not a torch to burn.

look to yourselves, look to the brothers and sisters around you.

UNITE AS ONE

ONE LOVE

ONE HEART

Beat the song of One Love upon your heart;
If you beat it always in Truth, you will have freedom.

And the rest of us will be inspired to join you.
You have reached the crossroads now.

Musical Improv

2011-01-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, I try to record an improv solo performance as an musical evolution marker. This one I made last night I was pretty happy with because I did it in one take and was able to preform without being conscious of the camera recording.

So here is "One Love-One Take" also known as "One Take-One Love"

Good Medicine

2010-12-27T09:48:00.001-08:00

Here are some photos Alejo took when we conducted the healing ceremony for a forgotten spiritual site next to the Potomac River.

We used stone ground cornmeal and aligned our intentions with our Brothers and Sisters in Guatemala and around the world.

Who shall light a Peace of flame in their hearts
this New Year?

Happy New Year brothers and sisters.

PEACE WITH EARTH

2010-12-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

In the name of JAH,
Lord, Creator and Sustainer
of all positive existence...

I and I
Pray the Creator shall awaken you.
That you may gather together
As ONE tribe
And you will live in harmony
With ONE love
For every living thing.

I and I
Pray you shall make
-Peace With Earth-
And receive her simple blessings

-To humanity

-From Rodger Perry

The beginning of the end...

2010-11-30T06:31:00.001-08:00

...of the year has begun.

Happy Pre-Holidays

Medicine Circle Production Art 01

2010-11-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

Bobby calls to the Western Kachina.

Full Circle

2010-11-12T06:01:00.000-08:00

2010 is proving to be a year of transition.

Transition of consciousness, of health, of appearance, of attitude and now I'm making the transition into a new animation project...

I'm not going to go into all the details, but the general story is based on interpretations of the Medicine Circle.

Here are some initial character sketches for now.

"Bobby" ver.1 dimensions

"Bobby" ver.1 emotions

"Bobby" ver.1 Ink Trial

"Bobby" ver.1 tone map

"Spirit Kachina" ver.02 Character Dimensions

First page of the new sketch book for 2011-2012

...which I took out of the book to prevent damage (go figure)

-PEACE-

The Gathering Of The Peacemakers...

2010-10-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

I made this poster/logo for Robert Roskind's

Gathering Of The Peacemakers

I did one of these this year and it was pretty uplifting...pretty soul enlightening. I spent the first few days in September high up in the sacred Black Mountains of North Carolina. I meditated upon the interconnected beauty among various groups of humans arcoss the planet. How the One Love vibe of Bob Marley's music was so strong, it reached out across the world and touched the souls of many. It revealed the inner spirit connections humans have with each other.

Oh well, I could go on all night about the conscious relaxation I had by the tranquil turquoise lake, under the willow trees where the warm brother sun makes the days comfortable and the glistening purity of the Tree of the Universe (the Milky Way galaxy) illuminates the cool sacred nights. We stayed warm by the Rasta Fires and danced to the rhythm of the drums.

Ridiculously delicious all natural Veegan Food

Did it hook you?

yes you should go

http://www.onelovepress.com/

Peace...

G and the Dream Dragons...

2010-09-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

G. and the Dream Dragons.

Just to break it down, I had a cluster of profound spiritual experiences happen to me last week at a "Gathering of the Peace Makers." These experiences have really opened up my mind and heart and have given me some clarity of vision for what I must do next.

This Image is dedicated to G & N

May peace and love and blessings be with you always.

-RP 09-11-10

2010-08-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

Information is data that is in formation.

home is...

2010-08-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I drove seven hours to discover that you can never call a place a your home unless it has your heart.

Today I drove eight hours back to meditate over the amount of heart that is in my own home.

(100% cintiq+photoshop)

"soulfields of the spirits"

FloydFest2010

2010-07-30T07:29:00.001-07:00

So last weekend I hit a milestone in my life and went to FloydFest 2010. It was the first time I have ever attended an event of this magnitude. It was the first time in 17 years that I had set up my own tent and slept in it outside.
My good friend deven came on down as well along with his camera and took the few photos I have here. The fact that there are no more photos than these testifies that we were too engaged in the beauty of the earth music to fulfill our "tourist" duties.
My life is changed...

It hit me around 1:45am on Sunday as the children of the earth were dancing around a campfire under the light of the full moon that we are all part of one big soul...we are all connected to this world and the few of us who are awake to this need truth need to do all we can to reconcile the relationship between our mother earth and the rest of her lost children.

I'm not fearful that humans will wipe out the earth, we don't have the power, but if we don't stop acting as a cancer on the planet, the planet's immune system will kick in and wipe us all out and replace us with a species that has more respect for the host.

I have seen Floyd, I KNOW we can live a sustainable Green life.

The chorus of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" comes to mind

"We are Starlight,

We are Golden,

And we have to get ourselves back to the garden."

Peace and Love brothers and sisters!

-RP

Star Field

2010-06-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

For Maurice...

Musical Interlude

2010-05-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hey, I ain't all business all the time...

Here's some highlights from a couple recent home recordings of me jamming out with my Roland FP-7. This is all pretty much improv...

I can be found jamming with others in an undisclosed warehouse in an office park near my house every Thursday night.

BP oil spill

2010-05-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've tried to avoid making outright political statements on this blog (you can bet they are subtly implied through most of my artwork) but it's irritating to keep my thoughts on this issue bottled up inside...

When you have the "Cleanest/ most Eco-friendly/ Socially minded" oil corporation of them all create such a environmentally catastrophic event through their complete greedy disregard for any type of life and continue to epically fail in their response....

You get these moments where you tell yourself that your "progressive" views probably don't have a full rooting in reality, that your judgement of these global corporations is a bit biased... I mean look at BP, look how much money the give to land preservation funds and Eco-friendly groups! Now they can't be all that bad?

It's all a lie, they donate massive amounts of money to keep the environmentalists out of their business. They don't give a flying fizgig about you as a human... if a billion people have to die to turn a profit, so be it!

I'd rail out that this is all the fault of capitalism, but let's face it, if Adam Smith were still alive, he would probably be calling for justice to be granted to these corporate criminals.

Humans of the world unite! you have nothing to loose but your chains!

New Pencil Test

2010-05-22T07:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a few seconds of the long 3 minute sequence from "MKT"

Ana's Story

2010-05-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

So in late December 2009 I was asked volunteer some illustrations to go with a story written by a 12 year old girl from the area.

It was called Ana's Story

She wrote about how circumstances in her family situation had forced her mother, younger sister and herself out into the street.

She went on to write about the difficulties of moving around and trying to have a normal social life at school. What do you tell your friends when they want to have a sleepover at your house...

...When your house is a homeless shelter?

...or the street?

She also wrote about the things and people in her life that inspired her to persevere through the hard times.

Her family was fortunate enough to get into a transitional housing program and eventually move on to affordable housing.

In North Virginia, affordable housing has become a sad political issue. We have a very large population of people making less than 25K a year. These people need places to live, but the housing market in North Virginia is ridiculously expensive, what few plots of land that are left are generally turned into lots of high priced professional condos or "McMansions". This means employees in the service sector have to move farther and farther out of the area to find an affordable home adding to their transportation costs.

What's even more disturbing is local politicians and groups of local home owners have been working together to suppress development of affordable housing. They believe that a close proximity of affordable housing or rental properties near their wealthy neighborhoods will cause their own housing value to drop making it harder for them to sell off their properties for more than what they are physically worth when they decide to retire.

It's unfortunate that the greedy nature of these individuals creates such hardships for the lower income workers in the area. The lower income workers often work longer, harder hours in the foundation services that keep the higher end of the local economy afloat.

It is my hope that this book will bring awareness to the plight of the lower income workers and their families. These are the hands that truly built and maintain our communities and they have just as much right to live in the communities where they work as anyone else. If the current residents cannot comprehend this, then I hope their children can.

As Ana says about being homeless...

"It is not a choice
It can happen to Anyone
If we work Together, we can overcome Homelessness"

We are still working out how we will distribute this book, so I don't have a listing for where you can see the full story and set of illustrations at this time, however, I'll update this blog on that info when a decision is reached.

In the meantime if you are interested in Reston Interfaith and the critical and varied social services they do in the Herndon/ Reston areas of North Virginia please visit there website...

www.restoninterfaith.org

Sketchbook Update Feb, Mar, Whatever...

2010-03-24T10:19:00.001-07:00

Yeah, I've been busy with stuff and have not had too much to add to the Sketch book in the last 2 months, I do still draw, but it's mostly when I'm cracking down on the animation which ain't gonna draw itself.

I worked on this slowly between February and March. I want to give it a real scan and color detail it when I get a chance.

Sendakesqe...

Alice In Wonderland

2010-03-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

No this is not some movie review or fan art tribute, I have not even gone to see it yet...

nope, I got commissioned by a local ballet director to design a backdrop for an upcoming recital interpretation of Carrol's classic novel.

I've opted out of trying to paint the backdrop myself, it's about 30 feet long and 18 feet high and I just don't have the time or mindset to attempt something that large (let alone a studio big enough to handle it.

I also am interested to see how others will be able to render it out, I'll try to get pictures when it is done.

The Ax

2010-03-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

In yet another delayed posting...

Following the rants of other artist who felt the cold betrayal of Mac in it's release of the iPad, I found a link to the Axiotron Modbook package and had to get one.

I got it last month.

Downsides: -Does not last very long on battery when running Photoshop

-Screen is not very that bright and has some polarization issues.

-Drawing surface is not the strongest, already got some scratches that I did not expect to get so soon (now I'm more careful with it)

Upside: It's a portable Cintiq dude... I can draw/color/ animate where ever I want (as long as there is electricity)

Definitely worth the money, but make sure you take care of the screen if you follow the same path. The revolution is not gentle and some things need to take a beating. The Ax is a very nice tool, but when compared to the pen and paper, it still has some evolution to go through. Climbing a mountain on foot and and hoping to fully render out a scene with the Ax, is just not that quite doable yet.

On Inner Inspiration (late snomagden observance)

2010-03-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes our minds are apt to imagine our souls in places..

Where our Earthly Body's do not currently reside.

ENOUGH!

Bring on the spring!

Siberia

2010-02-03T15:06:00.001-08:00

So I got an e-mail from a good friend who just moved to Southern Thailand with lot's of pictures of tropical birds, decorative temples, exotic beaches...

Well I have all that too...

...Somewhere in a past life.

A frosty greeting to MF from sunny NOVA.

Sketchbook Jan.2010

2010-01-27T08:07:00.000-08:00

It's that time again...

Some kids, some mud

some kids at lunch w\ randomness

Idea for a new "Read" poster

Samurai drawn while waiting for interview...

and the all popular potty pic.

Onward to February...

Lunch Box Update

2010-01-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

I finally had some time to kick out the lunch box track into the computer so I could give you this update of Mankind Triumphant progress.

Some of these Pencil Tests are mine and some are from my student workers at VCU.

Echos of the Hexagon...

2010-01-19T03:33:00.000-08:00

Continued practice with nothing but Photoshop on the Cintiq

Erich

2010-01-12T15:27:00.000-08:00

Was messing with the Cintiq and did this portrait of my brother in the revolution.

-word

Chixilation

2010-01-05T12:34:00.000-08:00

So I drove up to Richmond on the 1st day of 2010 to chill with my good friend deven and we got to theorizing on how a stop motion pixilation animation would look if we placed a motion stabilizer on a certain point.

We did some tests then looped certain sections to make the video above.

We'll see if this goes anywhere.

Happy new decade...

2010-01-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

Hooray, it's 2010 and I'm back in the good ole office, cleaning all the class room projectors and taking stats on their bulb life, while re-loading the OS on a fried MBPro and burning some language CD's for ESL.

I wonder what fun new things this new decade will bring? Over the course of the last 10 years, I watched America get reduced to half the man it used to be.

Is it all up from here, or will we fall right back into the slime and be forced to re-evolve?

The Studio...

2009-12-27T09:27:00.000-08:00

After taking a break from the light box, I decided to take some shots of the good ole home studio so you can see where the revolution currently goes down.

Above you can see the hole punch, the sequence organizers and a bit of the lunch box and copy stand where everything is shot in pencil test or in final. You might also note all my father's books lining the basement walls, in all we have about 10,000 now lining every inch ong the little house.

Here is the "Cock pit" where I draw everything. Currently I'm working on a WS sequence, so i have the bulky light box in place. I have a table top wheel I use for my regular sequences. All my x-sheets are lined up on the music stand and my character prop charts are on the left. My storyboards are printed out in a little booklet that I keep on a clipboard that I move around the studio. There is not one single wall in my house big enough to pin up all the boards.

Upstairs we have the comfy computer room where the Cintiq lives for all the touch ups. This is also my main editing machine, thus the mixer and monitors.

Here's a closer view of the machine with the wheel in the background being prepped for some ink transfer to pass the time away.

The Revolution goes on comrades!

The Party's Over

2009-12-27T09:20:00.000-08:00

(messing with Wacom a la prima)

OK, the Glog has been drunk, the presents opened, the candles blown out, the candy boxes half emptied and the hangover is fading away.

I have a week before I have to be back in the office, but I have to spend as much of it animating my sequences as possible. Soon I'll be heading another production workshop at VCU and I've got a lot of sequences to prep and lesson plans to write.

So back to work...

The White Out...

2009-12-19T12:40:00.000-08:00

I still have memories about the blizzard of '96 which buried this area in almost 5 feet of snow and closed the schools for a week and a half. Those were some golden childhood memories...

But now I am a man... and these memories will not sit well.

I went to Richmond yesterday to take care of some business and last night enjoyed a fine snowy evening with my friends. This morning the snow had tapered off a little and I prepare for the long drive back to NOVA. I was very foolish not to check the weather news for after trudging along an un-plowed interstate 95, it began to snow again around Fredricksburg. The roads turned into anarchy with many cars and trucks suddenly stopping or swirling out of control. I wanted to pull off and pull into a hotel a couple times but to my horror the unploughed exit ramps were blocked by accidents or trapped cars. I finally found a clear exit in Stafford VA and after narrowly escaping the parking lot of one fully booked hotel, I got my car somewhat parked into a parking lot of the Wingate which had a substantial amount of rooms.

I'm still in a bit of shock, but that was undoubtedly the most dangerous drive I've ever taken so far.

December Sketchbook Round Up

2009-12-16T10:50:00.000-08:00

Messing with the mythological.

Stupid Mistletoe

And finally

Christmas 2009, The Escape

The Reality

2009 has not been a kind year, but for all my petty problems, I know there are people out there living in a nightmare this Christmas.

Here's to hoping we can pull ourselves together in 2010 and learn to live with less.

Otherwise by 2012 we may all be forced to live on nothing.

El Zorro...

2009-12-15T05:25:00.000-08:00

Found some pics from our 2006 production of Zorro.

The trippy colors really pop out when I put the black lights on .

Happier days back then.

Jerry Budwig and me.

Starshine Theater Posters

2009-12-14T06:48:00.000-08:00

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn"

2003

Per my last entry, here are a few posters I managed to document before sale of the originals.

"The Van Gogh Cafe"
2005?

"The Honorable History Society Mystery"

2005

"The Odyssey"
2006

All the originals were put up for silent auction during the nights of their show and 90% were purchased by one bidder.

The sales helped prevent me from starving during my college years.

Show Business..

2009-12-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

Before I broke up with her in pursuit of my current love, I used to be infatuated with lighting design for plays. I joined the theater tech crew in High School and in 1997 I picked up a side job being a light technician for a children's theater company called.

Starshine Theater.

Aside from many adventures in home made lighting design with home made lights, my artistic talent began to bleed through. I started making (and selling) posters for all the shows and then one became emboldened to design and paint the backdrops for the various productions. During a musical version of "Lord of The Rings" I even made a set of backdrops with a white space in the middle where I rear projected some animated sequences to advance the long and winding plot.

My greatest achievement in backdropdom was during the production of "Hang-Gliding Through the Sky of Mind" which was a musical about the life and times of Leonardo DaVinci.

The Physical backdrops still exist, but tragically I did not take photos of them at the time and the musical has yet to be preformed a second time, but I did find my original concept art for the 3 drops.

This was a picture that was taken during the show.

With yours truly manning his light board...

I've since moved on to animation as my love obsession, but the theater and I parted on good terms and still can be found behind a lighting console or two now and then.

Carbon Copies?

2009-12-11T08:10:00.000-08:00

In 2003 I started my education at VCU School of the Arts and started to dabble in Charcoal and Pastels.
I'd go out on the net to photography sites and select a photo portrait to try an render with charcoal or pastels.

I enjoyed having high contrast figures in really dark settings.

At one point I took a class in Illustration, and showed my portfolio of portraits to my teacher.

She said all it meant was that I was a very talented copy machine...

I wonder how much money I paid just to have someone tell me that?

Old Politics...

2009-12-10T05:36:00.000-08:00

"Brave New World" (2003)

Growing up in the Murder capital of the world had an impact on most of my early work.
Around 1999 I ran into "God's Man" and "Wild Pilgrimage" by Lynn Ward, I was so fascinated by his technique and dark messages, I began to develop a similar style using pen and ink.

"Madonna and Child" 1999

Also around 99' I was more religious. I noted that many of the people in my community claimed to be Christian, but lead lives that went against much of what Jesus said in the gospels.

"The Passion of North Virginia" -2000

During the Internet boom years, many of the forests and parks I loved as a child were torn down to forge landscapes of condos, strip malls and over priced restaurants. McMansions mushroomed in every spare patch of green and covered the body of North Virginia like festering blisters during a terrible disease. The prices of everything went up, everyone had to pile up massive debt and many children were left alone at home, or with shifty babysitters as both parents had to work full time jobs in order to afford to live in the area.

"9-11-2001" -2001

Then came 9-11. The pentagon is in the edge of North VA so everyone took the attacks very seriously. Almost overnight, the old office buildings for all the defunct Internet companies turned into Northrop Grumman, or Lockheed Martin. Every U.S. Weapons Manufacturer or Defense contractor had at least one building in NOVA. Security was upgraded everywhere and the Neocons began to move into the area to take up all the contract jobs that would be needed for the inevitable war in Iraq that the administration kept harping on.

"WWJK" -2003

I made this in April of 2003 shortly before the last time I went to church.

The "Read" poster

2009-12-09T10:34:00.000-08:00

In 2003 I decided to make a "read" poster and donate it to my old Elementary School in Herndon. When I was growing up, the library and classrooms always had these posters of sports and movie stars with a book in their hands and the word "Read" at the top. I decided to make one of my own, only mine would be a complex mashing of different book characters in a 18 X 24 pen/color pencil hybrid. The piece hangs in the Hutchison Elementary School Library (as far as I know) to this day. Unfortunately I did not take very good pictures of it before giving it away.

The above is a close up on some of the detail, the characters are actually from a book I illustrated that was distributed locally called "Smart Alex"

Here is the full picture.

I've always been a big fan of reading and have always wanted to work on cartoons that promoted it. I fear the art of transforming symbols on paper into fantastic adventures you take in your mind is slowly being lost.

"Butterfly in the sky... I can go twice as high!"

Creative Burst

2009-12-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

Got home and colored it...

"Moony Mountains"

Rodger L. Perry
-12-08-09-

Pen ink and Photoshop.

Before it's lost forever...

2009-12-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

"Portrait of a Boy"

(sold)

Upon dusting off the old portfolio to prepare for yet another career jump, I realized that there is a massive amount of material that I have done over the years that is just not in it, some of it pretty good stuff.

My personal view on the value of my own art was very existential in that when it outlived its usefulness, I gave it away, tossed it in the garbage or just plain lost track of where it went. In the past few years I’ve been working hard to keep high quality copies of everything I do on commission.

In next few posts I plan to show some art that was sold, lost or is somewhere out there.

"Portrait of Morgan"

(commision)

Sketchbook November Sum up

2009-12-01T12:30:00.001-08:00

This is the "Dragon Boy" character I'm working on, I leaning toward calling him Toby...
If I wasn't so scared of poisonous water snakes, I'd totally love to do this on a nice summer day.

And finally to mis-quote deven james langston (who will never capitalize on his name)

"I can't think about anything more interesting than 'Anything' that came from my mind"

He came up with something like that a couple weeks ago during our Sat. night jam session, been on my mind ever since... may turn into something.

It that time again

2009-12-01T06:45:00.000-08:00

Taking antibiotics to combat the usual holiday bronchitis...
Got the last turkey sandwich in my lunch bag today...

Well I guess that means it's Christmas!

From one out of work animator to the rest and everyone else...

Happy Holidays!
From The Hand Drawn Revolution

Meet Skip

2009-11-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

This is Skipper Honeywell, more commonly known as Skip.

Skip is a very impressionable stereotypical cartoon boy who is the star of my latest project, "Mankind Triumphant." Mankind is a satirical propaganda cartoon made by a weapons manufacturers PAC to highlight the importance of mechanized lethality in the history of the human race...

...in short, a cartoon about why killing people is fun.

The satirical piece is scheduled to be exhibited in an online gallery of social artwork called "The Cluster Project." The main focus of the pieces is to draw attention to the use of cluster bombs and to ultimately call for a global ban on their production and use.

To get to know my character better, I had my friend deven give me a short list of random scenarios that I had to draw skip into, thus the above.

The pimple popping one was the most fun.

Sketchbook update II

2009-11-20T09:58:00.001-08:00

I realized how useful the pencil sharpner is as I hopped out the door last weekend and tried to do a color pencil pic without them.
Me on a normal day

A reminder that I suck at parties...

"Disneyfied"

I usally don't draw animals... this was the first Horse/Zeebra I ever tried.

Sketch Book Update I

2009-11-20T08:28:00.000-08:00

Been filling up my sketch book like a good little animator...

It's Fall here

Bears in Submarines

My Dream Dragon origional

DreamDragon Nov-2008

2009-11-19T14:58:00.001-08:00

-Because there is still love out there...

(Pen/Ink and Photoshop)

Some old work.

2009-11-17T11:35:00.000-08:00

I remember the days I could do nothing but draw all day long.

Found some old stuff on the HD

Figured I'd post it for fun...

Step One

2009-11-17T10:32:00.000-08:00

Well it's been many months now since I updated this thing... as a daily blogger I'm a failure...but with good reasons...

…The chief being I’m employed.

…just not as an animator.

Upon following other animator’s blogs, I see even in “The Industry” there is not much call for animators, even less for those who still animate by hand. What jobs there are in that field are offered in Brazil, Canada, India and such… North VA?

No…

If I’m going to work in an animation house making movies and shows of high artistic standards and deep engaging plots, I’m going to have to build the studio myself.

The game plan now is to get a job in Richmond. I see Richmond VA as being a fertile place to build an animation studio from scratch. Cost of living is decent, plenty of nice old stores and warehouses that can serve as an HQ. VCU is a big arts school, so there would be a nice talent pool and I’d be about an hour away from the beach or mountains.

If nothing else, the traffic is much better than LA or NY.

Anyway… Richmond is step one.

Greetings and justifications

2009-07-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

01/12/11 Note to the reader: The only constant in the course of life is "change" and this blog serves as more evidence to support that assertion. Below is the original mission statement I typed up upon creating this journal on Hand Drawn Animation, yet as you read along you will note the focus on Animation begins to spread out into other areas...

Right now I'm taking a Sabbatical from the craft, but hope to return to it when my energy is renewed.

-RP

Greetings to you, the random soul who has stumbled over this hastily created blog know as "Hand Drawn Revolution." So you may ask yourself, "what is the Hand Drawn Revolution..."

HDR is a communication blog set up by Rodger Loren Perry to:

communicate to his students about...
relate his progress in his pursuit of...
make critiques and share his personal views upon...
serve as a public archive displaying the technical guidelines and blueprints relevant to Mr. Perry's...

Hand Drawn Animation!

As for the "Revolution" part... well, in the course of my various disjointed rambling essay's, lectures, tirades and brief fits of absolute madness, my personal manifesto about the state of Hand Drawn animation in the era of the computer subsidized society will eventually shine through.

At this moment in time all that is relevant is that, I am an animator by night and employed with a Community College by day and as I get free time, this blog should (God Willing) grow and evolve into something more informative and entertaining. For now, I have no flashy graphics at my disposal, no videos ready to display and no knowledge of blogging what so ever.

All I have is my words, so enjoy, come back here now and then and be well...

-Rp