The Arctic

OK. Confession.... This is a huge embarrassment on my part, but my entire life....for the past 27 years, I have been mispronouncing 'Arctic'. That's right kids. There's a town named 'shame on me' and right now I'm its chief inhabitant. I have also been misspelling it, which puts us in this 'Chicken or the Egg' conundrum. This week at job-job we learned that Arctic is spelled as such and not known as the 'Artic'. My drawing-girl roots are so hurt.
I was a bit shocked. I considered hiding this indiscretion but it's less shameful if I admit it and move on. Seriously, though...I thought this part of my life was over! In the sixth grade a fight with Lahela Lindsey took a turn for the worse when it came to light that she was in fact correct. 'Pretzel' is not pronounced with a 'n'. Sorry kid, there is no such thing as a 'prentzel'. That's the last time I can clearly recall such a blow. In my defense which one of us is now living an awesome life in the 'pretzel' capitol of the world?! HUH? Take that Hawaii! So who really won that one? I think it's clear. Uh...yeah. In breaking this logic, I have no intention of ever moving to the Arctic. As a compromise I am thinking of christening my studio. It doesn't seem right that our universe wouldn't have some place called the "Artic". Could you think of somewhere more fitting or more sketchy? I for one, cannot.

The Arctic is cold. OK. I'm sure you knew that already. But it's really cold. We're talking negative 40 degrees Celsius. That's like normal winter but times 40! Actually, I have no idea what negative 40 degrees feels like -- but it's really, really bad.

In the summer it is hardly ever dark.

In the winter it is hardly ever light.

Sami and Inuit's live pretty happily in the Arctic. Honestly, I don't know know for sure that they're happy. I imagine things can get kind of dull. Sami live in these really adorable little villages. Maybe they have dances? Food isn't easy to find there. So they fish. It's starting to look like I'd make a really bad Arctic girl... What with the cold and the no sun and the catching and then eating of fish. They fish with nets, so maybe I'd take to that with a better attitude than fishing with bait. Gew. Bait. Gross.I would probably make a better Arctic flower. They are low to the ground with very shallow roots. Plus they're very pretty. They grow long hair that is wild and unruly. They're prickly on the outside but incredibly fragile once you get past the outer layer that they develop for protection. It's like this movie just wrote me a dating profile.

My favorite part about designing and animating this movie was all the cool animals I got to research and draw. I'm going to show you some of them now. Check it:

My art director and I got into a fight about this whale. He kept complaining about how it looked. I'd redesign and then he'd complain some more. I got SOOOOOOOO frustrated. Finally I realized that he was upset with the way that this whale actually looks, not with the way I was designing. After a lot of back and forth I got the last word with, "Dude, take it up with God."We talk a lot about how we're ruining the environment and doing bad stuff for the earth. I animate ice caps melting and glaciers moving. It's actually pretty sad. At one point we have a momma polar bear and a baby polar bear on seperate flats of ice as they float away from one another. It's enough to draw a tear.
Do I feel guilty after this Arctic movie has sunk in? A little.... but then I slap myself and pull up a chair in my perfectly temperature controlled studio and look at my blog stats for today. Let's be honest. The Arctic is hardly even looking at my blog! Maybe I'll go back to calling it the "Artic," afterall.