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Tribute

As all over the animation community today I found out that Ollie Johnson passed away. A friend of mine at work read it first and he told us. I was surprised how shocked and sad I was as I yelled out "NOOO!!!" into the silence. As I started reading and watching videos I actually started to cry.

Why was I so sad? This great man had lived a full life till the age of 95. I didn't know Ollie personally, all I knew were stories about his life and like most of you I admired his work. And still somehow I felt this great loss.

Of course the deaths of Andy Knight, Peter Bateman, Justin Wright, Dan Lee, Joe Ranft and so many others are much more tragic, as they were all so young and deserved so much more time with their families and friends.

It seems like it's been a sad few month for the animation community. I think through blogs we are all much more connected then we were before and it makes these losses somehow more intimate. Of course none of us will feel it as much as the families and friends will. It is to them that my heart and my best wishes go out to today.

And to Ollie,
Thank you for all the inspiration, laughter and love.

Sign Pen

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Random Sketches

Kappa

This is my interpretation of a 'Kappa', a Japanese water spirit. They are said to pull children under the water and drown them. From what I read a kappa's head must always be wet and they cannot survive being from water for too long. So I thought it would be really interesting if the top of their head actually shows a beautiful woman, to entice the children to come down to the water. I really like that concept, so I'll keep trying to do some visuals for it. Here is one for now.