Ruffy Launch

 RUFFY HAS LAUNCHED: LINK

I want to start using this blog as the central hub where I share my thoughts. Yeah, it's like I'm stuck in 2009, but this was the appeal - It's not as restrictive as Twitter, more customizable than Facebook, not as hopelessly obscure as DeviantArt's journals, and also it isn't Facebook.

So yeah, launched a second channel! I've had the idea for Ruffy in the back of my mind for a while now.

This was my very first sketch of her - I was trying out different bird species, both Canadian and British, but I'm kinda partial towards Ruffed Grouse for multiple reasons. First off, they're chooks. They're lil chikkens. Who doesn't love a lil chikken.

The first place I heard of the Ruffed Grouse was probably The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat, which my dad read to me when I was little. In the scene, a man expreses doubt at Mutt's skill as a hunter. Farley's father, insulted, takes out a rifle, mocks firing it, and Mutt takes off - never mind that this scene takes place in the middle of town, far from any wild game.

But Mutt is still victorius - he comes back with a Ruffed Grouse, "already stuffed and mounted".

I could only assume that the Ruffed Grouse was a particularly magnificent bird.

 

I've actually seen a Ruffed Grouse. Once. It was at our friends' cottage and I was able to get some very blurry photos of it. I think Ruffy was in the blueprint stages at this point so I was very excited to see one in real life.

 

Originally I was going to animate Ruffy in plasticine (which is the reason she's almost entirely orange), but that's like pulling teeth, yo. I have so much respect for Will Vinton, who worked almost exclusively in plasticine. I might pursue a stop-motion route if I can come up with a sturdier puppet, but I imagine lip syncing in plasticine is a nightmare.

So yeah, I want to try and use this blog more. Still to talk about my interests, but perhaps also to house my life updates as well.