Support Fellow Artists - Give their Work as Gifts

It's that time again, when media whips people into a shopping frenzy, then sits back and laughs as gift buying turns into a bloodsport.  Ha ha, suckers!  Once again, FLIP offers our readers a creative alternative.  Over the course of the past year, there have been many artists featured whose work is available for sale.  We present those items here for your convenient shopping.

Support animation artists, and get something unique for your loved ones!

First up, Richard Williams' classic book The Animator's Survival Kit is now available for the iPad.  FLIP wrote about it back in February.  Get yours here!

Vicki Banks' Sculptures are Something to Crow About

The inspiration for FLIP came from meeting industry people whose personal work far out-shined the studio projects they worked on.  Vicki Banks is a prime example of such an artist.  She did tons of top tier assistant work on films like Tron and Prince of Egypt, but sculpting is her passion, a passion which has become her full time work.  FLIP asked her about her new direction....

"Conversaton Piece"

FLIP: You went from animator to sculptor - was this a transition, a continuation, or a completely new path for you?

Vicki: I think that the new path of full time sculptor was really a transition from animation. Although Sculpture is 3D, I still employ many of the same skills I used in 2D animation. For example, my creatures are slightly anthropomorphic, my poses are kind of like in-betweens, and there are elements of humor and storytelling. The biggest difference is, I am a business owner with all the headaches as well as perks that accompany that role, and I'm the sole artistic decision maker.

Creating Castings for Fun and Brain Damage

I told you about my tiki room in an earlier post, and one of the last big touches was the creation of two tiki totems made of Minions from Despicable Me.  I worked on the original and the sequel.  Those little yellow freaks essentially paid for the tiki room, so I thought it would be fun to have them represented there.