KangaRuegg

Laser Fish!

2011-12-30T14:18:00.000-08:00

While I was at our family cabin earlier this week I heard strange, other-worldly noises bouncing around underneath the frozen lake. Supposedly this is caused by the ice freezing and expanding and stuff. I think I have a better explanation:

Montreal Sketches 08: Bird Resting On A Horse

2011-12-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

So this is somewhat late, but here is my last Montreal sketch. Yet another statue in the city, but it is more interesting if you pretend that it is a real horse and a very calm, Zen-like bird...

Fishmas In July

2011-07-25T17:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah, this is probably one of the weirdest and stupidest things I've posted so far... Have fun!

Montreal Sketches 07: near Atwater metro

2011-07-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a very messy sketch (appropriate for the subject matter? Or maybe just an excuse for my crappy drawing...) of a rather disturbing and sad scene in a small park that was full of drunk people on a Sunday afternoon.

Finally some animation, sheesh!

2011-05-15T19:25:00.000-07:00

Yeah, this blog has been lacking in animation, even though the description at the left promises "animation and messy drawings." So here is some of my more recent "recreational" animation work.

First up: Using characters and assets from the game we were finishing up at Gameloft, I came up with this silly scenario during some down time. The youtube compression made the shadows much darker than the original, oh well. Also, keep in mind that these are low-res models that were not meant to be seen from a close distance or at this angle. So think of it as more of an "animation sketch" more than a polished rendering...

Next up: "This one goes to 11." I got 11th place for the monthly "11 second club" competition during the 11th month of the year 2010 (Doh! If only I waited until November 2011). Anyway, I shared this one on facebook a while back, so it's probably just redundant for most people that visit here... But this post is meant to compile my latest animations and these are my only 2 good examples, so there! ;)

Drawing Inspiration From Music

2011-04-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

Easter is approaching! I know this is pretty heavy-handed and obvious, but the song that I was inspired by IS fairly heavy and straightforward (in a good way! I can almost feel the literal 'weight' in the music). Anyway, listen to the song and maybe the drawing makes a tiny bit more sense... "He Never Said a Mumblin' Word" by The Welcome Wagon (great album by the way! If you like quality "church music"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J7w5TZe-iY

For some reason when I listen to it I imagine a silhouetted Jesus carrying the cross with dis-embodied singing cartoon heads materializing above him during the chorus. I don't know, it makes sense to me... :-) Maybe it's because I was working on an animated direct-to-video cartoon about the life and death of Jesus when I first started listening to the album. I always found it odd that such a profound and important event (not to mention the gruesome details of suffering and death on the cross) was being cheaply produced into a simplified cartoon for small children...

Anyway, I would definitely file this as a "messy" and "crude" drawing, although in my defense I think that kind of fits the subject matter...

Montreal Sketches 07: Popeye The Sailor Street Musician

2011-03-03T18:14:00.000-08:00

Montreal Sketches 06: The Metro (aka "subway" in other cities)

2011-02-20T19:34:00.000-08:00

So I did it, I conquered the metro yesterday, yay. Yeah, I know, it's about as exciting as these fellow passenger's faces. But just think of how sneaky I have to be to draw them! Like a spy! Sort of... It's always awkward when you try to draw people in public...

By the way, what I mean by "conquered" is that I traveled on every metro line in Montreal from one end to the other, as illustrated by my crude defacing of the metro map below. I wonder how long it would take to do this for the subway system in New York?

Montreal Sketches 05: Beer Sled

2010-12-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

While my hometown in Minnesota was rocked by a huge blizzard recently (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxuxNLf87_Y Wow!), we got quite a bit of snow in Montreal too! I learned that Canadians are definitely prepared for this weather. This is maybe one of the best uses for a sled that I've seen so far. :)

I also saw a few parents using sleds to drag their kids around town as they were shopping. Why haven't people thought of this in Minnesota? I don't know maybe they have, I just haven't seen it before...

Montreal Sketches 04: Nouille!

2010-12-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Disney's new animated feature "Tangled" (it's awesome, go see it!), I tried to draw the girl's face in a Disney-fied style...


The old lady asks: "What's your name?" The little girl responds: "Noodle!"

Montreal Sketches 03: Singing Bus Man

2010-11-20T16:32:00.000-08:00

Montreal Sketches 02: Statues in the City

2010-11-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the internet I can make this post seem educational! I hope wikipedia is accurate...

This is at the east side Mont Royal, the large hill/park in the middle of the

city. The statue is a monument to the Canadian historical figure

George-Etienne Cartier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George-%C3%89tienne_Cartier

I like how roughly this statue was sculpted, and yes, the proportions are
very awkward (probably intentional?), it was kind of creepy... Apparently
this statue and small park pays tribute to a Canadian painter and sculptor
from Quebec named Jean Paul Riopelle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Riopelle

Montreal Sketches 01: Interesting People

2010-11-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

Some Older Sketches

2010-10-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

THE CLEVER DRAWING
Here is my crude little tribute to Escher! Unfortunately the cleverness has to be explained: Each hand was literally drawn by itself, which means I drew the right hand with my right hand, the left hand with my left hand, and both hands with both of my hands, just as they are depicted. This is why the lines get progressively more "yucky."

THE DISTURBING DRAWINGS
This might be surprising to some, because I generally don't have a dark imagination... So I found a few of my most freaky, weird, disturbing sketches and mashed them all together! Yeah, some are more extreme than others, and you'll notice that despite all the craziness I am still uncomfortable with swearing, even in my sketchbook. :)

Road Trip Sketches #8

2010-08-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

The last road trip drawing! My self-imposed rule was that all the faces had to be ones that I saw in the rocks around the black hills near Rushmore. Also, it doesn't follow any lighting logic... How many faces can you find?

Road Trip Sketches #7

2010-08-13T22:28:00.000-07:00

I'm posting the rest a little faster because I'm moving into an apartment in the next couple of days and I don't know how much internet access I will have...

Here are a couple more for the "seeing things in abstract shapes" theme:

Road Trip Sketches #6

2010-08-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

Road Trip Sketches #5

2010-08-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some views from the road. Look closely to find out what state they're in...

Road Trip Sketches #4

2010-08-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the audio recording!

Road Trip Sketches #3

2010-08-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

It seems like another "theme" in these road trip drawings, besides faces, is seeing things in abstract shapes. This of course is the classic "what do you see in the clouds?" idea!

Road Trip Sketches #2

2010-08-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

So I noticed that I drew a lot of faces on this trip. I like drawing portraits! Even if they're not totally accurate... By the way, you can check out Ellen's lovely musical frog illustrations and other work here: http://www.ellenmurray.net/ Sorry, I have no links for Diane or Glenn... Unless they have ones to give me...

Road Trip Sketches #1

2010-08-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hello, I've got some new drawings to post! I went on a really fun road trip in mid-July with my aunt Lesley (as well as my aunt Jill for part of the way). Lesley and I both agreed that the best road-trippers are people who can "sit for hours doing nothing..." So between doing nothing and seeing the sights I also made some drawings in my sketchbook, and I thought I'd post them here for y'all to enjoy! If you get lost just refer to the map above. :)

To start things off, here is some cool weather we saw from the car:

11 second club entries!

2010-05-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

The results are in! Check out all the entries for the April 2010 11 second club here:
http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/april10/

There are some really great animations in there, including a stop-motion one, which you don't see a lot of in these monthly competitions. I was voted 26th out of 177 entries, so I think that's a pretty good place to be!

11 second club animation: finished!

2010-04-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

Yay! So here is what I submitted for the April 11 second club contest:

Feel free to still give me feedback, I may keep working on it... Now it's off to Florida for a week! :) Thanks to everyone who helped me by giving your critiques and suggestions!

11 second club animation: lip-sync

2010-04-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

Added lip-sync and tweaks. Less than a week left!

link to .avi file: http://www.kangaruegg.com/video/Kyle_11secClub_April2010_03.avi

11 second club animation: 2nd Pass

2010-04-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

Here's the progress I've made:

link to .avi file: http://www.kangaruegg.com/video/Kyle_11secClub_April2010_02.avi

I worked on the first couple shots the most. I changed her acting a little bit, and I made the guy more cautious. I still have a lot of lipsync and more tweaking to do... Tell me what you think!

11 Second Club Animation blocked out!

2010-04-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

I tried this a year ago last April and failed to make the deadline (though I did eventually finish the animation...) Now that I am unemployed I should have enough time to get it done by the April 30th competition deadline, and hopefully it will be something good to put on my reel... By the way, here's a link to the competition for those who don't know: www.11secondclub.com

Anyway, this is my blocked out animation with just the key poses (I figured out how to embed a quicktime! woo!):

Link to the .avi file: http://www.kangaruegg.com/video/Kyle_11secClub_April2010_01.avi

So please give me feedback in the comments or e-mail me! Does it make sense? Do the shots work? Does the acting work? Anything I should change to make it better? I hope to post more progress in the next couple of weeks!

Asleep

2010-04-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

Aw... This seems to be an appropriate drawing to post since my blog has been "asleep" for a while. It also relates to one of the only interesting things that I have been up to lately, which is babysitting my adorable cousin Island. Yes, her name really is "Island" and yes, the island jokes will probably get old fast, which is why I'm getting it out of the way now before she understands!

Anyway, I'm sure no one really pays attention to this blog right now, but I am working on some new animation and I plan on posting some of that in the near future. Maybe then I will alert some of my friends and ask for a bit of feedback and/or encouragement! Goodbye for now.

Kenya Sketch Journal #8

2009-10-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

So let me type a little bit about visiting the slums where the children that attend this school live. I know the standard response would be that it was an "eye-opening experience," which it certainly was, though I don't know how much that tells you about the experience. I guess you could say the same about my whole trip. In general it was humbling and at times I felt like a naive rich American invading people's homes... It was also a very tiring experience. I was actually reminded in a strange way of that passage in "A Christmas Carol" where the Ghost of Christmas Present guides Scrooge through the "surplus population" of the world to experience the conditions of the poor and the sick.

Our guide through the slums in Kisumu was Alex, who is the principal at Arise N' Shine. We were also accompanied by many of the children and one teacher (who is drawn above, she is actually very kind and has a warm smile, despite the stern look I gave her in the drawing). Alex knows many of the care-takers for the children that attend the school and he introduced us to them and helped to tell us their stories and history. This is one of the things that Alex does for his job. He talks to the care-takers so that he can keep a record of where each child is coming from, what happened to their parents, where they are living now and so on. Many of their stories were similar. The child's parents died or is dying of AIDS or some other disease, or they simply don't have the resources to take care of their child, so they are looked after by a relative or friend, who often already have children of their own to take care of.

The homes that we visited were very tiny, with dirt floors, mud walls, tin roofs, and no lights. It was usually very hot and dark sitting inside them, and a bit claustrophobic. Often there would be several kids sleeping on a dirt-floor bed that is barely big enough for one person. Outside there is trash littered everywhere, as well as the stench that comes with it. There is no real regard for sanitation, though usually the people we visited kept the inside of their homes as tidy as possible.

Most of the adults we met seemed tired to me (just like I already was). They didn't seem to express much happiness or sadness as they invited us into their homes and told us their stories (I suppose it's also a bit wierd to have foreign strangers visiting and listening to your life story). It felt like most people have simply resigned to the conditions they live in, and are surviving day to day. In contrast to this, the children we saw in the slums were full of excitement and smiles (that may sound overly dramatic or sentimental, but it really was like this! Part of it is because we are white, and they don't see many white guys in the slums, but in general the kids had more energy too). They followed us crazy white guys and they were eager to practice their english by constantly asking us "how are you?" This is why it was so good to see that Arise N' Shine is already taking care of some of these children by providing them with food for each day of school and probably more importantly, an education that will hopefully help them create a better life outside of the slums, even if the school is only able to help a small fraction of children in need. This also takes some of the burden off of the care-takers, helping them to take care of their own needs and the needs of their children more easily.

There you have it, I think I have maybe one or two pages left. Sorry for the inconsistent posts, I know I keep taking more and more time between each one... If anyone is interested to hear more details about what it's like over there and the work the organization is doing from another young white American guy's perspective, check out Matt's "Kenya Diaries" and videos on the Hope For The Child website (Matt also helped Sasha and I get set up for our trip):

*EDIT: the "Kenya Diaries" link no longer works, but this is the main website for the organization:
http://hopeforthechild.org/

Kenya Sketch Journal #7

2009-09-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

On the left are four of the kids that live with the Menyas, and on the right are drawings that the girls made! Everyone else was looking up when I was drawing them, but Rehema was too interested in watching me draw, so that is a drawing of her watching me draw that same drawing of her... Whoa, trippy! The three girls attend Arise & Shine Nursery School, while Moses is a little older and is attending a different school (Arise & Shine only has classes up to 1st grade so far, though they are planning on adding a 2nd grade class next year). The kids were shy at first, but they eventually warmed up a little to Sasha and I, and they were always laughing and giggling at us, probably because we were funny white guys from America. :) We also read some picture books with them and they enjoyed singing us songs from school. Rehema also liked showing us her hula-hooping skills! All of the kids we met were very excited and happy to be at school, and they were eager to learn and interact with their teachers. Once we saw where most of the kids live in the slums, we could understand why they liked being at school so much.

Kenya Sketch Journal #6

2009-09-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

Like I said, Jashon and Mary Menya are the founders of the school, and they also take care of a few orphaned children who live with them in their house. I will post some drawings of those children and drawings made by them shortly... The Menyas were very happy to see us and gave us such a warm welcome! Throughout our stay, Jashon really wanted to make sure that Sasha and I could see with our own eyes that the school was making a positive impact on these orphaned and abandoned children from the slums who would not otherwise recieve proper care or education, so that we could come back to the US and tell people about what we saw. This is one of the reasons I wanted to post these drawings and notes on my blog. Hopefully I'm being true to my word and telling y'all how it is over there...

Kenya Sketch Journal (+ Video) #5

2009-09-22T22:25:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Kisumu! We stayed with Jashon and Mary Menya, the founders of the Arise & Shine Nursery School, which is on their property. One of the first things Sasha and I noticed is that the classrooms are very small and there is not a lot space to add more classrooms as the kids advance to higher grades. This is why Hope for the Child has purchased a large plot of land where they hope to build more spacious and nicer facilities. Here is a video that Sasha took to give you a better look:

Kenya Sketch Journal (+ Photo...) #4

2009-09-17T12:36:00.001-07:00

We weren't able to go on a safari, so in Nairobi we went to an "Elephant Orphanage" and other zoo-like places to see various animals. I know she's not really smiling in my drawing, but I'm pretty sure Isabelle really liked seeing the animals! She was exhausted by the end though...

Kenya Sketch Journal #3

2009-09-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

^^Check out Denzel's drawings!^^

Kenya Sketch Journal #2

2009-09-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

We heard a lot about the corruption that occurs throughout the government, so I guess Kenyans are used to this kind of stuff. Also the driving there was crazy! Very aggressive and scary

Kenya "Sketch Journal"

2009-09-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

I took a trip to Kenya with my friend Sasha recently (Sasha is a guy. sorry for the parentheses but everyone who doesn't know him assumes that it's a girl's name...), and I thought it might be interesting to keep a sort of "sketch journal" with drawings and notes about my experiences there. I started out with a bit more notes and storytelling, but ended up drawing a lot of quick portraits of people I met there, because that seems to be the easiest thing for me to go to when I'm drawing... Anyway, here is the first post. The drawings are pretty quick and rough, nothing very polished or pretty. Also, forgive me for my ugly handwriting, hopefully you'll be able to read it...

Updated Animation! Updated Life! aaaaaaaaaaaah!

2009-08-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

Finally, a blog post! I told myself I was going to finish this darn animation before I left for Kenya (or at least post it, I don't know if I can really call it "finished," there are still some issues and tweaks that could be made...), so here it is! I'm leaving tomorrow so this is cutting it close...

This also seems to be eerily good timing since I just got laid off from my job yesterday... So I will need work on some new demo reel material... So please, critique away! I'm thinking the first half is stronger than the second half after he falls, so I might just cut the second part out for my demo reel if I don't get to improving it.

*EDIT: I replaced the original video for this post with the newest version as a youtube link. Many tweaks and improvements were made (maybe I was afraid someone might look back and think that ugly thing was the most final version or something, though I'll probably eventually cringe at this one too...).

11 second club animation work in progress

2008-04-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

I'm working on an animation for the April 11 second club, and thought I'd post my WIP:
Unfortunately I don't think I'll get it done in the couple days I have left... but I still plan on finishing it, so any critiques/comments are welcome!

Figure Drawings

2008-04-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the better drawings I did from the Wednesday night figure class I've been going to at the UW. They're mostly longer poses, though I wish there were more gestures...

...and one lonely gesture:

Tuesday Sketch Night

2007-09-27T23:51:00.000-07:00

Another Post! Here are the results of my first "Tuesday Sketch Night" with a couple Raven people:

a little more interesting...

2007-09-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

You know, I forgot that this blog of mine even existed for a while, but now I've remembered! I intend to use this to post my sketches, animations and possibly other random "interesting" stuff that friends might like to see. I don't know how disciplined I will be at updating frequently, but for now here are a slew of sketches from my tiny sketchpad:

Random people, and a caricature of Wynton Marsalis!

A Creepy Drawing of Jim, and the Monstrous thing on the right is based on the pilot's creepy voice during the flight to New York...

Poor Flamingo!

Kyle's First Blog

2007-06-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Kyle and this is my first blog! How interesting.