Tuesday, December 25, 2007

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Happy Christmas everyone!This year we spent Christmas with Josh's sister Lani, who came from Hawaii!
Ever wanted to see Josh in a kilt? No? Well, too bad.This is when we attended the Christmas party for the Scottish bagpipe band where Katie plays a snare drum.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

North Pole Workshop (Part 2)

I’m trying to make an annual tradition for myself to design themed attractions for different seasons. I have one for St. Patrick’s Day and one for Christmas. This is an interior attraction/experience which acts like a small theme park. It allows visitors to explore Santa’s Workshop in the North Pole, while also providing educational attractions that explain various elements of the Christmas season. This post picks up where my last post from Christmas 2006 left off (click HERE to read last year’s).
I’m starting to paint my rough drawings from last year. Here is the North Pole landmark.And the exterior of the Entrance Building/Room.The Entrance Building/Room contains all kinds of Christmas imagery such as toy soldiers, nutcrackers, Christmas trees, lights, toys, etc. Everything is deigned to look like it’s made of wood using large round friendly shapes. The room is one big circle where the visitors enter from large double doors on the south side. On the north side is a large, round, stylized Christmas tree that appears to be halfway embedded in the wall. On the east side is a very large fire place that actually functions as the Front Desk.On the west side is a solider box and inside stands a large six foot tall Nutcracker.Four large toy soldiers stand against the walls.This room will come to life with various forms of effects and animatronics. A secret entrance through the Christmas Tree will be revealed and lead the visitors to the Workshop.Till next year ...

Saturday, December 15, 2007

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Here she is in her 2001: A Space Odyssey pose.Yes, she has feet.Yes, she has hands.And the first obligatory embarrassing naked picture.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Last Christmas Nut

Last Christmas I made a fake teaser trailer for The Nutcracker as if it was a live action film based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's book. You can read more about it HERE.

If you missed seeing it or would like to see it again, you can watch this version in Quicktime:

Or this version I have on YouTube:

If you would like to have a high res version please send me an email at jkkenfield@gmail.com.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

IT IS READY!

I’ve finally finished my little project which is currently titled "Plato Journey."
This is a short comic booklet that acts a proposal piece for a graphic novel.Once the reader goes through the short wordless comic they will come across the following text:

This is a project I have wanted to attempt ever since I was a junior in college, and it has gone through various forms of evolution to become what you see now. This booklet is a proposal piece for a graphic novel that I would like to fully develop. I wanted to use a creative platform to present comparisons between Plato’s philosophy and Christian Theology. The idea began as a book where Plato would have a night long discussion with an angelic being over a fire in some ruins. (For a time I thought it could also become a two man play.)
But one day I drew this sketch and I realized that the topic of this book could be explored through more than simply a dialogue between two characters.It could be a journey filled with locations, creatures, people, and events that present the discussions in the book both visually, and through the text/dialogue.
The angelic being will also act as a guardian protecting and guiding Plato through this journey against evil/demonic forces that seek to either destroy or convert him. There is no complete script written for this project because I lack the skills and knowledge of both Plato’s work and Christian Theology to create such a story. What I seek is a person who can provide the topics/issues that should be discussed and how those discussions should be played out. If possible, I also seek a capable author who can work with me in developing the complete narrative, while I provide all needed visuals. Together we would decide on the most effective way to tell the story, utilizing images and dialogue to portray these complex concepts.
Due to the subject matter, this book may not be a mainstream seller; instead I see it being of use in more educational circles. By making it a graphic novel, I hope to draw interest from a broader audience than just philosophy and theology majors. These drawings are not final nor are the character designs. I plan to apply a more stylized design for the look of the settings and characters.

So with all this I’m basically saying, this is what I can do, but I need other people’s skills to help in creating a complete graphic novel.
It’s been an interesting learning process working on this project. I have learned the more proper way of inking a page even though I drew the entire project using a regular ballpoint pen. If I actually get to work on the real graphic novel, I plan to use more appropriate inking tools.

If any of you would like to have a copy of this booklet or if you know someone who would, please send me an email at: jkkenfield@gmail.com It’s available both as a printed booklet and a PDF document. If possible, a donation of $5 would be helpful to cover the cost of printing and mailing.

Come out of the cave.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Kenfield Trivia Question of the Day

How many people are in this picture?
Here's a hint, the answer can be found in our previous post.

Or just click HERE!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Happy Anniversary To Us!

This past Tuesday (October 23) marked three years of wedded bliss for us! As is our tradition, we ceremonially mutilated a gourde to commemorate this joyous time of year. There is nothing quite like carving your love into an unsuspecting pumpkin and then forcing it to pose for pictures, here's the best one...Also, as some of you know, "our song" is by the most bestest band in the entire universe and we thought it would be fun to share it with you all this year. Please enjoy....

Friday, October 26, 2007

Why Sean Missed His Spanish Test - by Katie

I realized today that I’ve been car accident free for over a year now! It boggles my mind that it was only a short year ago when I unwittingly plowed into another car causing expensive enough damage for our then insurance company to eventually send me a nasty letter. Basically the letter was to inform me that they were breaking up with me because I’m a hazard to myself and others. They would have been happy to keep my husband who has no record of speeding tickets or at fault collisions but me, I was out. What jerks! I decided to take my business and my husband’s perfect driving record elsewhere, saving time and money (just like the commercial says), and vowed that I would never crash into anyone again. So far I’ve kept my word.Looking at these pictures, it seems like so long ago. Mostly because so much has changed since then. At the time of this accident, I was stressed out, on my way to a job I hated. I hadn’t even made a dent in that day’s thirty mile commute when the traffic on Malvern Avenue stopped inexplicably. I’m not sure what exactly distracted me but it was in the two seconds that my eyes weren’t on the road that I managed to cause about $3,000 of combined damage to the front of our Corolla and the rear bumper of some poor guy’s brand new Honda Civic (the guy’s American name was Sean and he missed his first Spanish test of the semester at Fullerton College because of my reckless behavior). I find it a little annoying that at the moment of impact I had both hands on the wheel, I was not on the phone, I did not have a drink or food in my lap, I don’t think I was even listening to the radio- and this was when I got in an accident? Normally I’m eating a cheeseburger, changing a CD, and practically doing my taxes while I’m driving but somehow I had managed to avert disaster every other time I was behind the wheel until that day. The tow truck guy, who was way cool and had Jesus tattoos all over his arms and neck, towed my crippled car back to our house (instead of the insurance company’s lot- it was the Thursday before a holiday weekend and apparently the insurance company’s whole office had already taken off because after the basic report was taken, I wasn’t able to get a hold of a person there until Wednesday of the next week- again, what jerks!) and parked it on the curb in its usual spot. Josh had ridden with the carpool that morning so I was able to drive our other car into work. Yes, you read that right, I still went into work that day because it was the end of the month and I was the only one who could do the end of the month invoices so that the company hit its billing goals- as I said before, I hated that job!

The end to a "perfect" day was getting home that evening after hating my job all day and finding a parking ticket on the wrecked Corolla- A PARKING TICKET!!! Apparently, the street sweeper, showing no mercy even though the car was obviously having as bad a day as I was, decided that the inconvenience of having to drive around my broken car was worth $75 to the city of La Mirada. Personally, I would rather have the gutters filled with dead animals and rotting sewage than give the city the satisfaction of charging me to park on the curb but, then again, I grew up on a street that didn’t even have sidewalks so I guess I’m just going to have to get used to these fancy city folk. Where I come from, it was perfectly acceptable to park your fifteen primer grey Chevy Novas on the dirt in front of your house whenever you wanted. No one pitched a fit, no one issued you a ticket, and you could barely smell the dead animals and rotting sewage.

Believe it or not, this story has several happy endings. For one, our current insurance company doesn’t consider me to be a menace to society and secondly, somehow we managed to dig up enough money to pay our deductible with the old insurance company and the Corolla ended up better than ever after all of the repairs were done. I decided to fight "the man" by contesting the parking ticket. By writing this letter to the city:

I also sent a copy of the towing receipt and the above wrecked car pictures. It worked! My whining paid off and they excused the ticket. It was empowering. So empowering that two months later, I had worked up enough courage to quit my horrible job. I gave them a month’s notice though- I wasn’t empowered enough to shove everything off my desk and storm out in a fit of rage like I should have. Either way, I’m glad to be free of my "end of the month invoice processing prison." I can only hope that Sean went on to ace his Spanish class, paving the way for an academic scholarship that made it possible for him to win a Nobel Prize in something. Or, perhaps he was an evil genius and by causing him to miss his Spanish test, I thwarted his plans to take over the world. We may never know.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Josh's Update

Hi everyone, Josh here! Long-time-no-post!
Much has happened or is happening.
I got to draw my first coloring book! It was a fun little project for a surfing themed book designed to resemble a surfing sport magazine.There is also a small project that I worked on a while ago but I forgot to post about it. I got to storyboard my first infomercial! This was done within a 24 hour period, in that I got called by the advertising company one morning and they wanted the storyboards done around the same time the following day. The infomercial was for a device called a Jog’R, which is a strap that’s designed to help you jog-in-place.Currently, I am wrapping up work on my Plato project! I’ve been slowly working on this for about a year now, mainly because I was unable to touch it for an almost two semester period. It’s so nice to finally have time to sit down and focus on this without other jobs getting in the way. I’ll create a post explaining all about this personal project as soon as it’s done.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

Today is August 2, which means it is my Grandma Hansen’s birthday. No one knows how old she actually is because she has been turning "39" years old every year for as long as I can remember. My parents love to tell the story about the time we were at an "Over the Hill" party for a church friend, Cliff, who was turning 40. Using my second grade powers of deduction, I proudly announced my observation to the whole room exclaiming, "Wow, Cliff is older than grandma!" Kids really do say the darndest things, don’t they? Anyway, the above picture of my mom and grandma was taken last November at my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding. Not bad for "39" huh? HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Comic Con, As Viewed From Beneath Princess Leia's Buns (by Katie)

For me Comic Con was really just an excuse to draw the envious gazes of fellow geeks with my knit Princess Leia hat. Even Michael Cera (who played George Michael on the hit TV show Arrested Development) made the comment, "Cool hat," as he and his entourage passed us while we stood in line for the Fururama panel. I posed for about a hundred pictures with strangers and had to explain to just about everyone I talked to that, "Yes, I did knit it myself. No, you can’t buy them already made. No, I can’t knit one and sell it to you because it’s not my own design but if you want to purchase the pattern and knit one for yourself, go to www.ansleydavies.etsy.com." I’m actually going to contact Ansley Davies, creator of the knit Leia, and find out if she would be interested in having a booth next year. If we both started knitting now, we could have at least a hundred hats ready to sell at Comic Con '08. We could make a killing! We’ll see.
Anyway, as Josh mentioned yesterday, the overall Comic Con highlight for me was getting to shake the hand of the brilliantly funny and talented Mike Nelson. He was pleasant and personable and smelled good too- a welcome respite from some of the unearthly body odor I came into contact with throughout the weekend. He signed the DVD we bought from his booth- Night of the Living Dead, complete with his own witty and entertaining running commentary- and thanked us for being such big fans. Yeah, just big fans- it’s probably good that he doesn’t know I was mildly stalking him for a few months last year. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him I guess. Anyway, Josh and I failed to capture any proof of this friendly exchange between us and one of our favorite people due to the fact that the camera was sitting in Matt Wilson’s car about eight blocks away, so I guess you’ll just have to take our word for it. The following moments; however, were preserved for posterity and are presented here for your viewing pleasure… Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, I’m surrounded by geeks in San Diego.
Would somebody get this walking pile of Legos out of my way? Does anybody else smell that?Q: What’s better than one knit Leia?A: Three knit Leias!We tried to bum some pipe weed off this guy but he was fresh out…hmmm, why am I not surprised?Is that what my hair looks like from the back?If I kiss it, will it turn into a prince?No, it will just try to eat Josh……and so will this thing if he’s not careful.
Some of the other amusing sights at Comic Con ’07 were…Spongebob and the voice of Spongebob - try to guess which one is made of Legos!A guy dressed as a half-witted robot dressed as a green dog - so disturbing, yet so profound.MUPPETS! Josh is just inches away from touching Kermit inappropriately but if you could see who was just out of frame trying to touch Josh inappropriately, you’d be horrified.It was quite a weekend. Even The Flash needed a nap by the end of it.
All in all, it was a fabulous weekend of the geekiest indulgences. Thanks again to our friend Matt Wilson for letting us stay with him Saturday night (on Mickey's dime)- that hotel room was bigger than our house! I hope next year we can go for the full four day experience (even if it is on our own dime). You are all invited to join us- I’ll even give you a discount on a knit Leia!

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Comic Con 2007 - Josh

Josh here to tell you guys about my Hero Worship Experience at Comic Con ’07.
For starters, we met with the creator of Sam and Max (S&M), Steve Purcell! He was still setting up his booth when we saw him and was kind enough to chat for a short while, autograph a sketch book and take a picture.Steve has a great ongoing S&M adventure comic online at the Telltalegames website. Telltalegames has been making since last year a new computer game of S&M, and it is being released in a series of episodes like a cartoon show. Speaking of which, S&M the animated series will finally be released on DVD, based on the original comic book series.S&M was created by Purcell back in the 80’s. After that time Steve went to join Lucas Arts as a head artist and with them created a great computer game based on his characters called “Sam and Max Hit the Road.” Steve will also have a republication of the S&M comics in one book at some point in the fall!Just across the isle from Steve was Doug TenNapel,who is most famous for creating the video game and cartoon series of “Earth Worm Jim!” Doug, for several years now, has been creating a series of graphic novels such as “Creature Tec.” His latest novel “Back Cherry” was released at Comic Con and so I of course asked for a copy and had it signed!As Doug was handing it to me he spoke in a low cautionary voice warning me that this is his first rated R story. I tried to assure him that my friends and I are not easily offended by such material, but he still seemed concerned. Dough is a Christian and incorporates his beliefs into just about everything he creates which is why he was so concerned about his readers. I have not yet had the chance to read through “Black Cherry” but so far Doug has done a great job in all his works so I’m sure I’m going to enjoy it.

My next hero visit was with the great and shiny Rob Scrab! Rob is a real Renaissance Man who got his start with a cult hit comic book series call “Scud: The Disposable Assassin.” The series came to a sudden end and left many fans upset that there was no real completion. Rob got into comedy and joined an improv. group for a while called “The Dead Alewives” who are most famous for their “Dungeons and Dragons” sketch. (“Where are the Cheetos?” is Rob’s voice!) After sometime Rob came to LA and made a big hit online short film called (please pardon the wording) “Robot Bastard” (RB). It’s a fun action packed flick with a creative production design made of cardboard and other junk. Following this Rob somehow co-wrote an animated film based on an idea of his titled “Monster House.”These days Rob is a writer/director of a Comedy Central series called “The Sarah Silverman Program” and he is finally creating the last chapter of his Scud comics series! WHEW! Rob is also good friends with Doug Tennaple and has worked with Joel Hogson (former host of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or MST3K) who helped him create effects for RB. Aside from Joel, Rob has also worked with a few other famous MST3K members, which leads to my next set of heroes. (CAUTION: I have provided some links to Rob Scrab’s website and other related sites but be warned there is material that you may find offensive.)

Right there on the coast of sunny San Diego, Katie and I had a fun little chat with Minnesotan comedy hero, Michael J. Nelson!(Sadly we did not have a camera with us.) Mike, as some of you may know, is the other former host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, my favorite TV series of all time! Katie loves MST3K as well but she is more of a fan of Mike, so both of us were thrilled to meet him. At the time we saw him there was no one else around, so it was a kind of intimate relaxing environment. After hosting MST3K for many years Mike has gone on to write books and worked on other various comedy projects. Recently Mike move to San Diego and created a great online project called Rifftrax. Basically what they do is create a series of audio commentary tracks for various films in the style of MST3K. But it is up to the viewer to provide the movie either by renting it or purchasing it. The audio track can easily sync up with the film and HIGHKEEBA! you’ve got a comedy track! Mike has also teamed up with Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo) and Bill Corbertt (Crow T. Robot & Brain Guy) who are two other members of MST3K, to create The Film Crew. It’s basically the same idea as MST3K only it’s just these three “nuts” and no silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. This time they are making fun of Public Domain films which means no headaches in keeping the rights to a film, a big problem with the MST3K series. We got to see The Film Crew at a panel presenting their latest project to a large crowd of excited fans.It was the most fun I have ever had at a panel in Comic Con! These guys are better live then on TV! I hope they come back next year because the crowd was eating them up!
I can’t end this post without thanking my dear friend Matt Wilson. We have been attending Comic Con together for many years and this time he treated us like royalty. Thank you Wilson!!! Well, there you have it. My nerdum is all worn out. Till next year!