Pandas

While watching a BBC documentary on pandas. They are so squishy I had to doodle some.

Animal Sketches

These are a collection of some animal sketches I did last week. We got some mandrill monkeys, a chimpanzee, a golden handed tamarin, a spotted hyena, a north american cougar, a grizzly bear, a cheetah, a couple of black bears, two sketches of a horse, a house cat, and a white rhinoceros.

Louis the Fish

Louis the Fish from Matthew Kalinauskas on Vimeo.

I was on my honeymoon and I drew a fish with a big mouth on the shower door. I thought is would be fun to see this fish sing the last bit of "What a Wonderful World". The song itself was first recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1968 and it was written by Bob Thiele (who, at the time, went by George Douglas) and George Weiss.

This Project was just ment to used as an animation exercise. I wanted to figure out some technics to help me with a 4 minute animated short that I am working on.

Two by Two... again

Yes yes, I understand that I have indeed posed my Student film, "Two by Two", on my blog before... however I have been reviewing my online uploads and it occurred to me that I don't really use my hotmail account anymore. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just, I now use Gmail. The ONLY problem that I face now is what do I do with my old YouTube account [the one that I set up when my email address read something like (but not literally) centaur362@hotmail.com?]

This all had come to the surface this week and here's why: I was just going to upload a new 30 second animation exercise I recently completed (still to come). I went on my old YouTube account and found that I had messages waiting for me from TWO YEARS AGO! Like, personal ones, from creative developers and stuff! LAME... SAUCE! I felt like an idiot. So now I need to streamline this online stuff.

Some people may say, "Dude, just get a Vimeo accunt, they rock." And to those people I would say, "Thanks I have one of those but I am only able to upload, like 500 MG a week or something... and I don't want to pay $10 a month... not yet anyway. I'm still kinda on a spending freeze."

Other might say, "Hey bra, just make a new YouTube account through Gmail." And to THOSE people I would say, "Thanks, but what about my first account? It has almost 4,000 views and I am vain."
*sad-face

I deliberated long and hard and have come up with a solution.

I am going to upload to Vimeo AND YouTube! Streamline!

I'll keep the original posting of Two by Two up there because, you know, gotta reach 4,000, but for all my new stuff I'll have it up on my new YouTube and Vimeo.

This was a long and somewhat unnecessary post just to say, I am reposting Two by Two AND it has been slightly improved for your viewing pleasure.

Facebook Banner

Wellp, I guess Facebook wins again (they always win dang it). In the wake of the official launch of the new Facebook page format that all of us Facebook users have been forced into using I have made this image as a "banner pic" for my Facebook profile.

Yes, to all of you who are better than the rest of us and don't have a Facebook account, I care about that stuff...

... I feel icky.

-Matt

Obviously

This is a sketch did for a project I've been working on for a little while now. Ever since third year at Sheridan College I have been trying to come up with a short story that could fit in a one minute film. I have failed. The biggest problem with trying to tell a decent story in one minute or less is that it's really really hard. *Sigh, I mean unless you're some awesome comedian or some story just smacks you right in the brain it can be almost impossible.

Well I'm no (insert favorite comedian here) so I went with the Jiminy Cricket technique. I thought and thought and then finally, late at night (possibly looking at some stars) sitting on a bus on my way back to Toronto from Orillia, it hit me. A Yeti showing off to some rabbits through the means of extreme tobogganing... OBVIOUSLY! Am I right? Am I right?! Hilarious! At least it all works up in my head. Now I just have to get it all out on paper. I guess that's the other realy hard part.

-Matt

The Black Cat (Le Chat Noir)

These are some sketches I did while I had some free time here at the Guru Animation Studios. I guess I was thinking of the "Le Chat Noir" posters at the time. Cats are so great to draw because they're so stretchy and squishy and lazy. They can be fat, thin, stiff, smooth, whatever!

These are just doodles. I want to get some more finished stuff up soon. I have a pile of half finished stuff but there just hasn't been enough time to get it all done. That being said... I hear the little voice in my head reciting old Amway motivational tapes to me, saying, "Excuses are useless!"

Oh well, it's going to just be doodles for now. I'll be back soon!

-Matt

"A" is for African Hunting Dog

This is another drawing I did for my The ABCs of Animals Book... book. I was looking through many of the pencil drawings I have done so far for this book, and I have realized that many of these animals are listed as "Endangered Species". All the interesting animals are the endangered ones (humanity fail).

I'll be posting more from The ABCs of Animals Book book soon. Also, I have some sketches I've been doing while sitting at the mall, riding the TTC, and watching squirrels in High Park with Nadine. When I get those together and organized I'll post them soon.

In the meantime, keep in mind that there were once approximately 500,000 African Hunting Dogs (a.k.a. African Wild Dog, African Painted Dog, Painted Dog, Cape Hunting Dog, Ornate Wolf, Painted Wold, and Mbwa Mwitu) spread over 39 countries, and that packs of 100 or more were not uncommon. Now there are estimated to be only 3,000 to 5,000 in less than 25 countries. #depressing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Wild_Dog

Later!

In tha Gadda da Vida

These are two rough drawings I did for a short film I'm working on about Adam and Eve, called... "Adam and Eve".

Aaaanywho, more stuff to come soon :)

J is for Jaguar

I've been working on a alphabet book where I'd pair an animal up with a letter of the alphabet... you know how it works... there's been at least 249 versions of this type of book in the last 5 years alone. But, it gives me an excuse to draw a bunch of animals that I wouldn't normally draw... not that a Jaguar would make that "never drawn" list, they're just super cool. Anywho, here is my entry for the letter "J".

-Matt

Where I'm From - Part 1

So, My name is Matthew Kalinauskas. I have red hair and fair skin... and I live in Canada. I am not Irish, though I do tend to fit right in on St. Patrick's Day, and I am not Greek (I get that a lot, for some reason). I thought it would be fun to do three little pieces on my ancestry and here is piece one. I am 1/4 Austrian (that's where the red hair is from), 1/4 French/French Canadian, 1/2 Lithuanian (that's where I got the last name from), and 100% Awesome! I mean, Canadian. That still sounded lame. Either way, I'm sure the National Geographic Human Genome Project would tell me I'm from Asia or something anyway.

I looked for a long time to try and find the meaning of the name "Kalinauskas" and from what I can tell, it seems as though my family was named after a flowering tree or something. It's nothing crazy or heroic, but I like it. And it's long which makes it fun hearing people try to sound out my name when they have to read it out for the first time.

"Is it, Kalimakus?"
"No, just sound it out. Every letter counts."
"Kamlinakos?"
"NO! Okay, just like in grade one. KA"
"Ka"
"LI"
"Li"
"NAU"
"How about just Matt K?"
"Sure, whatever."

I get my Lithuanian roots from my dad's side. His parents came to Toronto after World War 2. They both passed away before I was born, but sometimes I'll say or do something and my mom and dad will say that is exactly something your tėvukas (grand father) would say/do. I like hearing that. It's usually when I would have done something good, so it's nice to know he was a good guy. My dad's parents met here in the Toronto Lithuanian community, which is actually quite substantial. There's a park in the city called Lithuania Park. There are also two Lithuanian Catholic Churches, a credit union and bunch of other stuff. I was born in Toronto, but we moved up to the country when I was only four years old. If we stayed down in the city, I'm told I would have been put in Lithuanian school (Saturday mornings... not fun) and I would have been involved in the community and stuff (which would have been more fun). I always envy my friends who are part of an ethnic community. It seems like a neat common understanding they all have amongst their group. I'm just on the fridge, holding on by my last name. Needless to say I don't speak any Lithuanian other than hello, thank you, and thank you very much. Not an extensive vocabulary.

Well, that's part of me! The Lithuanian part! I'll have more later

-Matt

Rikki Tikki Tavi the Mongoose

Here is a mongoose I just drew this afternoon. I'm on a bit of a Rikki Tikki Tavy kick these days. Also I'm in the middle of starting a second animation scene with this character. I designed him and stuff, but the animation isn't at a place yet where I can post it. It would all just look like blurs and weird pencil lines. Whatever, here is my rendition of Rikki Tikki Tavi :)

-Matt

Super Pig and Cheese

These are a couple I did a while ago. Even before the Santa one. I was animating a mouse over the summer (it was actually supposed to be a shrew but... whatever) and this was one of the first drawings I did of it. It changed a lot over time. I tried to hone in more on the 'shrew-ness'. I liked this one so I posted it up.

The one on top was just a 'Super Pig' doodle on the GO Train on my ride home from House of Cool. Will it lead to a potential story? Maybe... we'll see. For now, it's just funny.

The Tortoise and the Hare

I'm just trying to leave work now. I'll write more later. But I think the picture kinda speaks for itself.

Thinking Ahead...

Thinking ahead is an important thing... It's important to know what you're going to say before you say it, or you could end up looking like quite the idiot. I just remember back when a friend of mine was shooting words around without much thought and this picture, the one you see before you, came to mind. I thought to my blagh and then some more blagh. I blaghed with the notion that blagh blagh blagh was in fact blagh blibble. Anker zan spot, if cambe tee dizzle. Blagh blimer bum to forgen boo. Anywho, and the zing-ba-blammer and blagh-boofer we all snorg. And that's why I don't like cottage cheese... Actually that's a lie, I do like cottage cheese, I just didn't know what else to say.

Elephants in the Room

Here's a doodle I did, just having fun with Photoshop. This is what came out. Hope you like it!

Under the Sea

Here's a new one, hope you like it. I drew this a few weeks ago but I only got to colouring it today. This was another one of those supply teaching projects. Fun, fun, fun :)

Be back soon!

Puppies!!! All in a day's work.

I was doing a bit of supply teaching these past few weeks at my old high school just to make some cash while looking for a job. It pays well though... if by payed well you mean drawing cartoons of whatever you want all day while you baby sit a class of grade 10 art students and getting 100 dollars at the end of the day. So this was one of those days... teenagers make up some of the best characters.

And the chimps

Long Necks

Now here are some Giraffes