I was messing with some backgrounds for the new short. Here are some early ideas:

I like the idea of sort of finding small things that resemble bigger things. Maybe it can make the environments look more like they just exist, rather than having been drawn by anyone… The pictures you get at the end of a roll of film have that weird film-end thing. I don’t know what causes it, but if you zoom in really close, it can look like a horizon, or a sky.

Then you mess with the color and combine them with other things, like torn paper, concrete, and ink-soaked blotter paper…

…And you start to get things that look like weird, distant landscapes. I’ve got a long way to go to figure out how this all fits together, but these have potential I think:

I’m adding some new designs to the new shop. One of the Learn Self Defense designs required dumping an entire bottle of Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star India Ink on my desk.

This lovely image is going on a poster and some shirts. I hope someone orders one so I can afford to replace my inky desk.

I’m working on a new cartoon. God help us all.

I thought of this idea a couple years ago, and it has evolved a lot during the writing process. I can’t really describe it, but it has something to do with making a living. (That is, the subject of the short is making a living– I doubt any actual living will be made by me from the short).

As I go I’ll post bits and pieces here, and at the Mystery Work In Progress page. Years from now, reading this log will be like going on an archeological excavation through sedimentary layers of creative detritus. (fitting, as this project is unfolding on a geological time scale)

Here are some of the very first thumbnail sketches made for this project. Crude! Crass! I like it already.

CLUES:

What’s the cartoon called?

The title will go unannounced until we’re sure this thing is really going to work out. Stay tuned.

What’s the story about?

Making a living.

When will it be finished?

Sometime in 2007 is our best guess.

May contain one or more of the following:

- satellites
- private moments
- burning at the stake
- birds, dead and alive (also, owls & wild dogs)
- fluorescent lighting
- farmers “doing it”
- the water
- fear, boredom, transcendence, hypocrisy

As usual, almost all sketches are done on lined notebook paper, using Chris Harding’s drawing tool of choice: the Sanford Uni-Ball Onyx Micro rollerball pen. A glorious instrument.

We’ve been redesigning this Web site for the past several months. The old site was all hand coded html, and a real pain in the ass to update. What we needed was a clean, simple site that kind of runs itself. So Lester and I had to learn a bit of php, css, cdc, aarp, cmyk… all that crap. Believe me, that was no small feat. For we are retarded– especially Lester.

It’s finally done. And it’s all dynamic and running on blogging software called WordPress. All I have to do is think of something, and WordPress makes it show up on my Web site. It’s like magic, only clunkier.

Also, we have a couple new nifty things to check out:
- This very Production Log
- The Chris Harding Animation Dispatch mailing list
- A New Shop with actual products
- A Work In Progress page that will one day hold the newest cartoon film

Since it’s been down for about 8 years, here’s a reminder of what the old site looked like. Not bad, actually. Why did we rebuild this again?