My other websites.
Welcome to
Neil Griffith's
HOMEPAGE
Hello, and welcome to my homepage.
A completely narcissitic self-indulgent creation totally dedicated to myself and how incredible I think I am.
So let's get on with the amazing tour that is me, shall we?
My Portrait Art
I have been doing special portrait art for 15 years. I first learned it at the Ontario
College of Art but really honed my skills at George Brown where I made the portrait to the left. Clicking
the image leads to a webpage dedicated to my portrait art where it lists many of my stiles, my best being pen
and ink done in a style called "Stipling" which is labor intensive but very effective.I am an art instructor at Michael's in Abbotsford along South Fraser Way at West Oaks Mall and teach classes in water colors and illustration. I later plan to teach life drawing later this year.
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My Animation
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When people ask me, "Neil what is that amazing thing that you do? That only you can do, so well?" I tell them I make animated cartoons that could get me arrested by the child welfare department if they ever caught a whiff of what I think of 19th century street urchins. I like to pound on them like Wyle E. Coyote. I hate them, I really do, and I think it's great comedy to push their rusty little wheelchairs into the Thames River. |
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However, when I'm not pounding on street urchins, I like to make cartoons of
voluptuous mice. Sometimes
just dancing or bouncing around like an animated Russel Myer film. This little vixen to my left is actually
a conceptual design for an animated series that never got off the ground. The idea was to do an adult animated
cartoon like John Callahan's "Quads" or Todd McFarlane's "Spawn". The mouse to the right was a
19th Century courtesan (an extremely high priced prostitute who served as a disposable mistress for kings and other
wealthy noblemen).
Her life would sort of mimic that of Mata Hari with the story coming to a tragic close during the final days of WW I. However,
producers were somewhat miffed at the idea of creating weekly cartoons for adults (even though WB's Batman was in full
swing at the time) and they suggested if we were so interested in 19th century era stories why couldn't we do an
animated "Oliver", which has basically been done to death. This killed the project and led to my somewhat irrational hatred of anything
to do with 19th Century street urchins and I pound on them whenever I get the chance. By a funny coincidence if this did go into production
it would have come out around the same time as Moulin Rouge did, which really could have coincided with audience's fascination with
1900 Parisian bordellos.
The picture below has a link to the only animation ever done of this character. It was a screen test experimenting with PC desktop animation
for television. It shows her sunbathing in the nude on a rather modern looking deck chair. It was done to show the animation we had in
mind could be done far quicker and cheaper than using the old ink and paint technique which unbelievably was still being used in some production
companies in Toronto.
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My Acting
If you know an animator who can't act, then you probably have someone who should be working in the ink and paint department.
For the past year I have been acting in live production plays at Gallery 7 Theatre.
The most recent production I starred in was Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The character I landed was the cold and
indifferent Howard Wagner, the man who fires Willy Loman during the play. If you click here, or on the photo of me, you can see some of the production
photos and a short video of my performance.
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Personal Interests
I play classical violin. I like to experiment with computer languages to create my own programs. I also enjoy staying physically fit with weightlifting and aerobics and go to the gym 4 or 5 days a week. I watch extremely little TV to have time to do all of this.
Allow me to introduce you to a personal obsession, big honkin' motorcycles.
If you click the link below you will see some webpages dedicated to my most recent visit to the Tradex Motorcycle Show 2003.
