Algonquin College, Grad Show and Sketch Nights

Spent a few hours out at Algonquin College yesterday catching up with old friends and seeing what the latest crop of grads have to offer. The same conversations keep popping up about the industry, but people are hopeful and most are still working. As far as the grads are concerned, this looks like another good year. I haven't had a chance to go through everything yet, but I have to take a moment to single out the work of three students: Collin Tsandilis, Mayrhosby Yeoshen, and Trent Correy. These guys pulled off a great little film called "Charged". Solid design, typical, but well executed animation, and great colour theory. I'd love to stick these kids with a seasoned mentor to work on a film together. The film does reveal their inexperience in small ways, but it approaches professional quality, at least on the level of, let's say, "Eight Crazy Nights". I understand it's been sent off to the Ottawa Festival, and submitted to Disney/Pixar for their intern program.
I really hope these kids get to keep working together and don't get lost in the grind of the TV industry.
Sadly, the other fine work on display was overshadowed by Charged. That's not to say that there isn't an excellent level of quality coming out of Algonquin this year. Solid portfolios full of good drafting and character work, some very promising 3D animation, and a growing number of actual films being completed by the students. Our hometown school has a great program, and everybody deserves a big congratulations on another successful graduating class. Good luck to everyone!

That being said, there's a Tuesday night Sketch group meeting at 7pm at Portable Feast, in the B building at the college. Tonight's the first night, so I'll wait to hear back how the turnout looks.
Rich Lauzon has a Facebook Group running to keep folks updated. Here's what he had to say:

We meet Tuesday nights to Sketch. Just for the fun of it. Bring Friends. Bring food. Bring books! All who love drawing and talking about drawing are invited. FREE PARKING!!!!!! You'll have access to my books in my office. It will be throughout the summer starting Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 up until College kicks in again in September. By subscribing to this group, you will receive weekly updates/changes as they come. Hope to see you there!

And:

Hey guys, Thanks for joining the group!! This Week's Theme: None. We're just drawing, OK? But it would be great if you could post something on your blog/website/whatever and show us what you did. BTW, Bring a book or two that you bought from Labyrinth. We'll compare notes and I'll get to add titles to my book wish list. I'm already in deep trouble from last week... I now accept donations to the Rich's Library fund! For those of you that are new, the rules are simple: 1. Show Up and sign in. 2. Bring Sketching materials, food, books and friends (last three are optional). 3. Draw, eat and talk! 4. When you had your fill... you leave. 5. Don't for get to sign in!! We don't expect you to show up for every Tuesday. But if you can, that is awesome. Encourage others to come. We'll have recent PreAnim Grads, Animation Students, teachers and working artists... A great networking opportunity! PARKING IS FREE If you have any questions, feel free to ask. See you Tuesday!! Rich

Apparently parking is free.

These kinds of groups are great. We've also got a comic jam getting launched here in Ottawa by Sue Marsden. You can find info on that here.

So no excuse not to draw. Have fun everyone.