It’s been a very long time since I’ve written for this blog.  My apologies! We’ve all been working very hard to get the school ready for the expansion.  The new space at 1139 College Street West is all set up and waiting for classes to begin!  Roksolana is taking charge of the new gallery: the first show will feature work by our faculty and will be on exhibit for the first two weeks in September.

Expansion also means making sure that all our administrative operations have been upgraded. We need to be more efficient. We need to develop our original mandate to provide both professional development and general interest workshops . We will now have the space to play more of a role in both these areas.

We also have plans to finally get our website into the shape we need it in to share the wonderful events and work that is being produced by our community. I guess you can all understand why we’re tired!

Suggestions for workshops, lectures and/or other services you would like us to perform will be greatly appreciated.

Max the Mutt, once again, is undergoing a transformation.

Do visit the school to see the 2011 student work. I can hardly wait until our website is functional and we can pout up the massive amount of work we want to share wtih you!

Max the Mutt has been very fortunate in attracting a wonderful and dedicated group of artists to its faculty. Now another great concept artist is joining our community.  Branislav Perkovic has art directed on animated features (Anne of Green Gables, Pippi Longstocking) as well as video games. He’s been in Vancouver for some time, and is now moving back to Toronto. We are really excited that he’ll be joining us.

Tina and I drove to Daemen College, Amherst New York (Buffalo) last Thursday and delivered the student artwork for the Max the Mutt gallery show. We really are perfect schools to partner with each other! Daemen students seem professional (IE well mannered, focused, attentive). Their classes are small,  and they  are encouraged to take the work seriously while remaining humble.  The faculty, The Academic Dean, Ed Clausen, and the college president were all present at the opening, and excited about our partnership.

Our partnership with Daemen will  include, among other things, work  opportunities for Max the Mutt faculty and graduates. Max the Mutt will also offer workshops for Daemen students, and will  be involved in some international plans. Synergy is a wonderful thing. When the right forces join together exciting things can happen.

In the meantime, if you’re in or around the Amherst/Buffalo area, do visit the gallery and take a look at the
show!

After a surprise visit to Max the Mutt, to our delight Ken Steacy announced that he is very impressed with the quality of art work our students are producing and would be very interested in teaching here! The timing couldn’t have been better. Rob Walton has had to withdraw as an instructor for this semester, and Ken, a highly respected Canadian professional comic book artist, is the ideal person to instruct Cinematic Storytelling! Welcome to the Max the Mutt community, Ken, or as you refer to us, “the kennel.”

Ken has written and illustrated the exploits of practically every popular character you could name, including Astro Boy, Harry Potter, Batman, Superman, Spider-man, and the X-Men. His four major works in print are “The Sacred and The Profane” ( co-authored by Dean Motter), “Night and The Enemy,” (stories by Harlan Ellison), “Megapowers (written by physicist Jack Weyland), and “Tempus Fugitive.” He has also produced, directed and illustrated an interactive edutainment CD Rom series for kids ,”Adventures of Victor Vector & Yondo,” He has worked for many years with Lucasfilm, producing stories and computer rendered illustrations for Star Wars books and prints, and has collaborated on numerous occasions with author Doug Coupland. There is much more !

Welcome, Ken.

We are happy to announce that Alex Ahilov will teach a major Max the Mutt  Concept Art course,  “Advanced Environment Design and Painting in Photoshop. “  Alex was a senior level designer, environment artist and concept artist at Pseudo Interactive, and is currently Senior Layout Artist and Concept Designer at Digital Extremes where he is currently working on Bioshock 2 Multiplayer.

Alex is also an exhibiting artist. He received his education at The Academy of fine Arts in Sofia,  Bulgaria.

We are very sorry to announce that Ty Templeton is leaving us. We all appreciate his expertise and the tremendous contribution he made to Max the Mutt. Ty will be teaching private workshops and has emailed me that he continues to recommend the Sequential Arts Diploma program.

On the positive side, this week we will be putting together a list of faculty teaching in each diploma with a small bio of each instructor. This will be emailed to all students and also will be posted on the blog. The faculty is growing and I think you’ll share my excitement at the depth of their backgrounds and achievements.

Here’s some of the news!

As previously announced, award winning editorial illustrator and children’s book illustrator,  Dusan Petricic will be teaching year 3 Sequential Arts  students, and will conduct  an editorial illustration workshop later in the year.

We are happy to announce that Scott Caple,  environment designer for Disney and Pixar,  is returning  to Max the Mutt and is designing a Concept Art course for us that he will teach in September.

The programs at Max the Mutt continue to develop.  Concerning Sequential Arts,  our commitment to a solid skill base that will be applicable to mainstream comics and  graphic novels but will also provide graduates with the ability to apply that skill base to advertising and children’s books, remains.

Dave Ross, one of Canada’s best known comic artists, and illustrator/comic artist Kent Burles will be working together to pilot our first industry evening and graduation for Sequential Arts students. Kent will be the co-ordinator, and he and Dave together will look after the smooth functioning of all aspects of that program.

See you all soon!

Maxine

More changes: see new post on Ken Steacy, major Canadian comic book artist, who will be joining our faculty!  Scott Caple has decided that he prefers to teach a more concept oriented course and will not be teaching first semester, but we expect that he will mentor the year four advanced CA final project in the 2010/2011 academic year.

Max the Mutt™ Animation School has just returned from the Canadian Film and Television Trade Mission to Brazil where Van Olson, Admissions Director, met with major universities, colleges and trade delegates to discuss cooperation between the burgeoning animation community in Brazil and Canada’s established reputation as a leader in the training of professional animators. Max the Mutt was the only educational institution invited to participate in the trade mission and to join panel discussions at the Brazil-Canada Co-Production Conference on the current trends and opportunities in the animation sector.

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Ukrainian-born Oleg Dergachov met Maxine Schacker and Tina Seemann of Max the Mutt Animation School last summer. He had heard of the school’s stellar reputation, its philosophy regarding the importance of old-fashioned art fundamentals and the high quality of the work that its graduates produce.

Oleg Dergachov joined the staff at Max the Mutt in September. This academic year he is teaching anatomy and an introductory cartooning course. Oleg, a recognized, award-winning cartoonist and fine artist who received his training in Russia, is delighted with the curriculum that Max the Mutt offers. Max the Mutt students were thrilled to find out the College had added yet another internationally recognized cartoonist to its faculty!

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Ty Templeton, who has worked on comics like Batman Adventures, is part of Max the Mutt Animation School’s new diploma program focused on comic illustration and art.

Many of us remember those childhood games of dress up, tying a bed sheet around our necks for a cape, arms stretched out, dreaming about being our favorite superhero. For the students at Max the Mutt Animation School, these dreams have become reality.

“You have to love what you do,” says Ty Templeton, a professor of comic book production, writing, and illustration at Max the Mutt. “Comics are a viable career and it’s a fun industry to work in.”

Max the Mutt Animation School has created a new diploma program focused on comic illustration and art. They have been pushing the idea of a comic illustration diploma program since they founded the school in 1999. This May, they finally got the ball rolling.

With the help of well-known Canadian comic artists like Templeton, who has worked on DC Comics’ Batman Adventures and has illustrated many other titles, including the Justice League, the course is slated to create the comic artists of the future.

“There’s no such thing as talent. Talent is taught, and that’s what we’re teaching the students here,” Templeton says.

American design school, Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga.; was one of the few options for hopeful comic artists, with tuition at $22,950 US. Max the Mutt offers the only two-year diploma program for comic art in Canada. Now, Canadian artists don’t necessarily have to hop on a plane south of the border to get the education they want. And course tuition at Max the Mutt is at a bargain price of about $7,000 a year.

Daniel Tynan, a 26 year-old recent graduate of Max the Mutt’s three-year animation program, believes that their current animation program has helped him as an artist. He feels the comic program would be beneficial to artists.

“I’ve learned a lot here. We get to work on great stuff.” Even though the school year has ended, Tynan is ambitiously tinkering at an impressive animation he created using Maya software.

“It’s a lot of hard work, but in the end you make something you’re proud of.”