Lead, follow or get out of the way.

When I found out I was getting laid off from my factory job at the end of January, I was excited to have time for the things the truely mattered in life, to be able to work on my art once again. Now I have alot of time to improve myself, not constrained to the idea of it looking picture perfect, but to do so the way I feel like it. Not being constrained by the conformity of schools, is allowing me to explore my own ideas and techniques. Like Bruce lee said "Put water into a bowl, it becomes the bowl. Put water into a cup it becomes the cup. Water is meant to flow and crash, be water." You can be taught all the technique in the world by great talented individuals, but once the teaching is done, how will you set yourself apart from the herd, if you have all been taught the same things. Your creativity will set you apart and unless you have that creativity you will crash and burn.

In my second year of school at Sheridan tech, a professor once said to me:

"Mike why are you here?"

"Why do you say that?" (I said some what frustrated)

"You should be in an art school."

"I'm at Sheridan to learn, to be an animator, isn't this an art school?"

"This isn't an art school, this place will only contrain your creativity, it's a commerical, technical school. You should be somewhere, were your creativity will be admired and encouraged."

I accept this now and see what he was talking about. I'm admittedly not the best technical artist (drawing, painting or otherwise), I have never been good at following the constraints and the guidelines put on me. I have always tried to push the guidlines and boundries of an assignment as far as I could get away with, seperating myself from the herd. I am also very stubborn, and refuse to give up on what I have started and now with the time on my hands I once needed I won't give up like so many others. Push away all expectations and do what feels right to me.

While I was in school I was always creating, not for an assignment but for myself, while others complained and sat around not touching their pencils outside of class, and taking off the summer to do nothing. It is in me to create, I can not live and not do so.

The following video is a small collection of my animation work from February 2010. I have completed my Groucho Marx Lip Sync but did not include it to do some last minute polishing. Through March I have pushed on, to dive into a much bigger project that is much more fruitfull.

Enjoy and critique my mistakes (Lagging arm swing), mistakes are made to be learned from.

Work in progress

Here is a little somthing I have been working on in between other projects and portfolios
It isn't perfected by any means, lip sync and expression needs work as well a more frames, but it always gives me joy to have alittle preview before the final is complete. Anyone recognize this master of comedy's, punchlines.?

you tried your best and failed miserably. the lesson is to never try.- Homer Simpson

For the last couple of weeks I have been utterly depressed. I have made many changes in my life to better myself.

It hurts when someone you love and care about says they don't want to be with you anymore, let's be friends. I have nothing but love and care to give but recieve little in return.

This animation was made in a matter of two days and illustrates how I have been feeling. A few edits are still needed but with all that going on in my life, being shut out emotionaly from someone I care deeply about I had to post it and get it out.

Open up that padded door and throw away the key.

Life can be very depressing. With the bad also comes the good. Tomarrow is my last day at my factory job.I used to race home after work to the things that really mattered in the world, to me. But now it's just me, and the rest of the world seems to be drifting away. I wake up in the morning and the reality of the world kicks in, and I think what's worth trying for. How much do you try and care before you cant go on anymore ?

My posted image is how I feel right now. I want to do or say something, but then I tell myself I can't and try to focus on something else, but I can't concentrate on one or the other. I can't eat or sleep and I can tell you trying to drink your thoughts away doesn't work it amplifies them. I hurt and feel the pain all day standing at a machine observing for 8 hours, it gives you alot of time to think. There is alot I have to try and accomplish in the next little bit which will determine if my future is a bust and I fade away into the fog of nevermore.

Thats me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight loosing my religion

I will post a guick vid other some of the stuff I have been working on this month, another round of "From the Mind of Mike Fyke"

Starving.. no ... no ... god no. I'M A HUNGRY ARTIST!

Its been almost 9 months without a blog update. Since the last post I have graduated from Sheridan College with an Advanced Diploma in Visual and Creative Arts, leaving me now with the choice of making great art or becoming a wannabe old fart.

Graduating in April, in the middle of this "Economic Crisis" wasn't the best situation since the art field has been suffering along with everyone else. I applied to countless jobs, receiving only one reply, which turned out to be a pyramid scheme, but they'll never admit it. After a few months I cast aside my integitty and applied at a labor agency like every other kind of people I encountered once I was within the doors.

This landed me a temp position at a factory that produces a well known product million of people enjoy every day (it's mmm mmm good stuff). The sterile smell of the factory floor flooded back the memories of my past work experience, night shifts, loading trucks at Purolator or boxing and packaging liqour and other booze, at a box factory. Below is a drawing of that box factory, showing a machine that I became very familair with, inserting unfolded boxes every 7 secs for 8 hours a night, to box a liqour that is named after a city in Califonia. Cough "malibu"

Night shift can leave an individual with little time or energy to start, work on or to complete, most of they're artisic ideas. That brings us now to our current time in space, where some thing phenomenal has occured.

I now walk among you. I eat when you eat, well maybe. That sun you see in that sky, I see it too. After 5 months I have now been transfered to day shift production. The change on my mind and body are like night and day (no pun or irony or what ever intended ... if it's not one of those I know it's something, fallacy maybe.) This has culminated in this update along with a peek of what I have been up to this summer with the " Mike Fyke 2009 Summer Collection" viewable below.

Thank you to my girlfriend for keeping me art minded through this difficult unenergetic time. And thanks to Joe Murray and JohnK for their educational and inspirational blogs all summer ( support joe murrays Kabooing at http://www.joemurraystudio.com/ ).

More to come

After 6 long weeks I present ... "The Fly"

After six long weeks, many sleepless nights I completed my first animation, with no training in animation. Throughout this process I had the opportunity to experience all the aspects of animation myself all at the same time. Sometimes feeling alittle overwhelmed, but in the end my passion helped me push through it and get it all together in the end. Somethings were cut because of issues I had with the time available to work, including an entirely different scene involving a cat and a whale. Somethings like the weeds moving, was cut from 15 frames down to 5 because of time issues. I also tried to use hold cells at a minimum, to try and train my hand to be steady, it was a very rewarding experience. I tried to keep it as traditional as possible, using an old fashioned pencil and paper.

After all the hard work I went to class eager to see what others had created, but more importantly to see how my animation was received, this was like a test screening. After the first group of presentations I clapped and sat back maybe alittle to comfortably, because before I knew it the lights were turning on and everyone was leaving class. I had fallen asleep !

So, I now present my creation, like a child to the world, I know it won't be all "O look at the baby, you've gotta see the baby" or " ... that babies breath taking.", there will be alot of negative things said as well. But only by getting a good mixture of the good and the bad can we really grow as artists, so I ask of you what do you think ?

I treated this experience as seriously as possible, because after all, I hope to someday be a professional animator. With no one to guide me, I will have to be tough on myself to refine my abilities, to be able to compete with artists who have degree's worth of experience.

"The Fly" by Mike Fyke

Special thank you, for the guidance, support and tolerance of my girlfriend and animator Lauren Partington.