Leaving a Disney Show to Teach Kids How to Draw | Brad Ferguson

Brad Ferguson spent years building an animation career most people would never walk away from. Emmy-winning shows. Directing for Disney. Showrunning over 180 episodes of animated television. Then he quit to teach kids how to draw in Barrie, Ontario.

In this conversation, Brad talks about getting rejected from Sheridan College twice before getting in on his third try, what it actually takes to work in animation, and why he believes anyone can learn to draw. He gets honest about the perfectionism he sees in young artists growing up on social media, why embracing mistakes is the whole point of the creative process, and how his childhood in the middle of nowhere shaped everything he makes today. He also shares how Upchuckle Education’s student sponsorship program is making creative learning accessible to families in the community who wouldn’t otherwise have access to it.

Please note that this transcript was made through a software and it may not be entirely accurate.

00;00;02;14 – 00;00;11;21
Unknown
You’re listening to the Behind the Village podcast, where we invite you to join us on a journey to understand how to live a life worth living.

00;00;11;24 – 00;00;29;15
Unknown
Today we’re chatting with Brad Ferguson from Upchuckle Education. Brad is a talented artist who, after an incredible career in animation, is now focused on education and teaching people of all ages and skill levels. But animation wasn’t what he originally thought he would be doing.

00;00;29;18 – 00;00;50;11
Unknown
I spent my entire childhood and high school years wanting to actually be an actor movie star. I loved entertaining people, but I could always draw to, you know, I was the guy that my friends would kind of come to, oh, can you do me a doodle of this or whatever? And I grew up loving the draw. Garfield and my best friend loved to draw Odie, so we worked together and kind of made our own comics.

00;00;50;11 – 00;01;16;06
Unknown
That was a lot of fun. You know, so again, I grew up watching Looney Tunes and Disney and had all of them memorized. You know, I’d be the guy that had Megadeth on my playlist along with every Disney soundtrack, you know, and singing. I’ll sing it along with the tune and, but it was time, you know, nearing the end of high school to kind of decide, hey, what?

00;01;16;08 – 00;01;46;11
Unknown
I need to get real here. What am I going to do with my life? And, and go to college for prefer whatever passion I was, I could find, so I was thinking about applying for theater and all those things, did a lot of high school theater, and it made my thank goodness YouTube wasn’t around when I was a kid because, well, we got we rented the camera from the media department, and there are some short films out there on VHS that, I’m sure would be some good blackmail material.

00;01;46;13 – 00;02;06;05
Unknown
I was it was awesome that we had so much fun. Did a lot of improv and and all that kind of thing. So anyway, I got distracted there. So as I was saying, you know, I had to decide, what am I going to go to college for? So it was actually my high school drama teacher that said, you know, Brad, there’s an animation program down at Sheridan.

00;02;06;05 – 00;02;29;09
Unknown
And I was like, it was bizarre to me because that never clicked for a moment that people actually do that for a living. You know, you know, I grew up again watching all these Looney Tunes and, and Disney movies, but I forgot that, yeah, people actually do that for a career. So I applied to Sheridan, which at the time was, you know, touted as one of the world’s best animation schools.

00;02;29;12 – 00;02;55;18
Unknown
And of course, being a self-taught artist from a small town with no training whatsoever, I got rejected. Of course, I’m sure my first portfolio was laughable. But then the stubborn Scotsman and me kind of kicked in, and now I needed it more than anything. So I, I got very passionate and and took a year and trained myself how to draw and what they were looking for, all these things.

00;02;55;20 – 00;03;28;03
Unknown
And then I got on the waiting list, so I got closer to my goal. Then I took yet another year off, continued teaching myself, and then got in on the third try. So three, three times a term. Went to Sheridan, loved animating, loved character design. I did really well, storyboarding, and started my career and started, working on television for show I ever animated on was called Peep and the Big Wide World, which won the Emmy Award for Best Animated Series.

00;03;28;05 – 00;03;51;29
Unknown
Had a lot of fun there. I actually met my wife on that show. So, yeah, a lot of a lot of, great time. So I, you know, animated on multiple TV shows, and I did character design, I storyboarded, and eventually at the same studio started directing and showrunning. So as kind of overseeing every aspect of, a comedy show called Almost Naked Animals, which was a blast to work on.

00;03;51;29 – 00;04;21;18
Unknown
Such a fun show and then directed a show called Numb Chucks, slapstick comedy about two woodchuck brothers that weren’t very bright, but that they knew kung fu. So they’d go around our town of Ding-a-Ling Springs, trying to protect people from crimes that weren’t happening, had a had a lot of fun. So. But that’s a, that’s a that’s of the brief story of, you know, what I did in animation, you know, bounced around to a few different studios after that, I wanted to get into CG, I wanted to get into feature film.

00;04;21;18 – 00;04;40;08
Unknown
So I was, you know, I was trying some different things. But how I got into education, which is what I’m focusing on now, I reached out to a private animation college and, and, you know, just said, hey, this is my experience, but I really love educating people, you know, how would you how would you recommend?

00;04;40;08 – 00;05;01;19
Unknown
I kind of veer my career toward education. And, the response I got was, do you want to start in two weeks? Which I almost said no to, just out of pure stage fright like I was, despite the theater background and everything, I just, like you, walk into a class and you’re like, hi, class. Yeah. And then that was, you know, I had no idea.

00;05;01;19 – 00;05;25;24
Unknown
And I was shooting blind, so. But thank goodness I said. Yeah, because fell in love with a job immediately. As soon as I thought of, you know, creative kids and was working with, and, and, it wasn’t long, but director of the entire four year animation diploma program as well. So coordinating and, you know, rewriting curriculum and doing all these wonderful things to make this, you know, the program as strong as it could be.

00;05;25;26 – 00;05;49;05
Unknown
But it was a private college and, and unfortunately got sold, very unexpectedly. And a bunch of us found ourselves back on the street and, looking for work. So, I did return to the animation industry. And as much as I loved it before I started teaching, I was miserable. I missed, it killed me inside to leave my students.

00;05;49;05 – 00;06;05;28
Unknown
You know, here I am, working with all these great young minds. And, you know, seeing that passion and being passionate with them about their film. And so that was really difficult being back at, in the industry and leaving my students behind. And, and, I just happened to be evicted from my place in Toronto at the same time.

00;06;05;28 – 00;06;28;00
Unknown
So, I decided to tuck tail and, return to Barrie and, living on my sister’s couch and realizing how miserable I was being back in the industry and, decided I wanted to start my own school. So I was assistant director on a Disney show, and I was just like, it doesn’t. I need to step away from this.

00;06;28;00 – 00;06;48;13
Unknown
I need to build my own thing so I know my name is a little strange Upchuckle Education. But I used to be Upchuckle Entertainment. That was my production company. And education became a division of that production company, which is now myself. Okay. So, you know, because my eventual goal, I’m not going to be Upchuckle Education forever.

00;06;48;13 – 00;07;11;28
Unknown
One day I will be an accredited private college for arts, animation and entertainment studies here in Barrie as well. So that is my long term goal, the joy and the fun that I’ve had building Upchuckle Education is basically the programs I’ve developed, the offerings that I’ve created, from a place of man. I wish that existed when I was growing up as a young artist.

00;07;11;28 – 00;07;36;14
Unknown
I grew up solo. I didn’t have the supports. I didn’t have the training. Again, I was, trying to get into Sheridan multiple rounds, you know, spending literally years of my life trying to figure this out on my own with no support or guidance. Upchuckle Education provides what I wish I had, and I know many of my colleagues from the industry wish existed for them as well.

00;07;36;17 – 00;07;58;08
Unknown
You know, I run something called Cartoon Camp, which is, you know, day march break, summer camps and stuff like that for, children, you know, all with a different focus and different theme to kind of give them the foundation they need to if they’re interested in pursuing that further and, and learning and, and just creating together, having fun, being open to brainstorming and working as a team.

00;07;58;08 – 00;08;21;05
Unknown
All these great qualities that go into everything we do. You know, when you’re creating animated television shows, and then I know I created something called family Art lessons purely because I thought, how wonderful would it be as a child? And I’m talking 40 year old children and their parents to a kid I started I recently started an after school program.

00;08;21;05 – 00;08;51;25
Unknown
So, you know, for, for cartoon camp and, you know, I think that’s another great opportunity. I do private lessons, so like a, like a piano teacher. But for our animation, storytelling, whatever you want to learn, tailored to, you know, your learning style and what you want to focus on. So, again, just coming from a place of what I, what I really would have loved to have had when I was growing up and starting out.

00;08;51;28 – 00;09;05;13
Unknown
The creative process is so fascinating. Brad connects to his inner childhood self and encourages embracing mistakes in order to experience continuous breakthrough moments. Throughout your artistic career.

00;09;05;16 – 00;09;30;26
Unknown
I’m a grown up and I like very clearly remember what it was like to not be a grown up, you know, before that time. And it doesn’t feel so far away. So it’s, I think it’s staying connected with my childhood with that, with that mindset and that outlook of looking at the world and everything and that and coming up with those ideas.

00;09;30;28 – 00;09;53;26
Unknown
I think it’s a place of expression. I think that’s, you know, that’s a big, big part of everything creative. And it’s it’s not just expressing how you feel and your own thoughts, but it’s also, expressing what you want to get out there to the world to to, to, to entertain people, to make them think, to make them see something in a different way.

00;09;53;26 – 00;10;13;11
Unknown
So it comes from all these different places. And then at the end of the day, it’s just about pure, you know, animation. It’s often about just having fun, just just exploring and coming up with ideas, having an imagination in the first place. As a child, I grew up in the middle of nowhere. We lived on a country highway that I couldn’t.

00;10;13;11 – 00;10;33;23
Unknown
I could never take it. I could ride my bike on the driveway. That was it. None of my friends lived anywhere. That was, was less than a car ride away, you know? So, you know, we backed on the wood. So I would spend my time in the forest just using my imagination. You know, pretending I was going out back and playing with the air for half an afternoon.

00;10;33;25 – 00;10;56;10
Unknown
I think it comes from having an understanding, an excuse me, an understanding of the foundations. I think, what resonates with an audience, you having having that in your back pocket? Kind of. I mean, you always want to think outside the box. Yeah. I am somebody that I. I never want to copy anybody else’s idea. Usually, if I think something, I’m doing it too similar to somebody else’s.

00;10;56;10 – 00;11;23;18
Unknown
I’ll. I’ll go and do the opposite. Just to to change it up and make it original. So but I think at its core, when you’re creating animation or comic books or graphic novels or even writing a story or a poem, I think it you need to understand the the foundation of what resonates with an audience. How how can you communicate successfully, visually, or through a story to make something that works?

00;11;23;18 – 00;11;51;29
Unknown
Essentially, not to say that, you know, new ground can’t be covered by, you know, thinking outside that box and, and doing innovative things. But at its core, I think if you don’t know the basics of, say, storyboarding or cinematography, people are going to watch the film that you made and that’s it’s going to be confusing. That’s not going to make sense, because there are foundational, elements that go into creating that, that I think need to be learned.

00;11;51;29 – 00;12;15;21
Unknown
First, try everything. Don’t don’t go into it with a preconceived notion. I only want to do this and not and close off the rest of the world. I wanted to be a movie star my entire life. And then I got into animation. It’s being a sponge, soaking up everything. And finding out for yourself what works for you, what doesn’t what?

00;12;15;22 – 00;12;38;01
Unknown
What are you passionate about? That has the potential to get your interest? If you practice more and practice more, you know, not throwing in the towel early. Seeing what happens. I remember again when I was teaching at the college, I loved it because I had a student that, you know, rigging and 3D animation is something that’s very, very technical.

00;12;38;01 – 00;13;01;12
Unknown
It’s very specialized. And you’re basically building the skeleton of the puppet and telling the computer, this is how the arm moves when you lift it at the shoulder. And then that twist, you know, from the forearm down and you know, you’re building that rig. And I had a student that thought he wanted to be an animator, and, but for the for the fourth year film, he was assigned to the rigging department.

00;13;01;12 – 00;13;19;26
Unknown
He fell in love with rigging. He. This is a passion that he had that he never knew existed until he gave it a shot and tried it out, and. And then that’s what he wanted to do for his career. So there’s so many things that are just under the surface that I think I think don’t be closed off to learning any of them.

00;13;19;26 – 00;13;43;24
Unknown
And for anybody that’s really interested in getting into the entertainment industry, the animation industry, you have to be a Jack or Jill of all trades. You can’t just specialize in one thing. You know, this industry is built, jumping from production to production, jumping from contract to contract. If you say I only do this one thing and that’s it, you’re going to spend the majority of your career out of work, you know, on unemployment.

00;13;43;24 – 00;14;06;17
Unknown
So you need to be able to say, oh, I did character design for this show. Then I bounced over. Oh, they needed support in the animation department. I did that for this show. You know, the more you can soak up, the more you can learn and be good at, It’s really beneficial. One of my favorite, my favorite film of all time, whether it be out of live action movies, animated doesn’t matter is Ratatouille.

00;14;06;20 – 00;14;30;20
Unknown
And if you remember the philosophy behind that was anyone can cook and I share that. And I love one of the there’s so many reasons that movie resonated with me, but that philosophy is how I feel about creativity, and about honing those drawing skills. And I think anybody to me that says, oh, I can’t draw. I can’t tell you how often I hear, I can’t even draw a stick figure.

00;14;30;20 – 00;14;51;02
Unknown
And every time I say, yes, you can, it’s just a matter of putting pencil to paper, taking the time to do it. I had to learn what worries me about this generation growing up in this digital age of social media and all this other stuff, which is are fantastic tools, right? Like they’re so great for getting your work out there.

00;14;51;04 – 00;15;08;18
Unknown
But you know, and I see a lot of it in my cartoon camp, students that come in the sense of perfectionism, like, I’ve never seen it. I used to be a perfectionist. And so I got in the industry and, you know, schedule is king. You need to meet your deadlines. And so your perfectionism kind of has to get set aside sometimes.

00;15;08;18 – 00;15;41;27
Unknown
But the problem with the social media and what I’m seeing is the sense that everything that everybody else does is perfect. You’re aware. And so I’m no good. And what you’re not seeing, what I, what I tell all my students, what they’re not seeing is the thousands of hours, the thousands of bad drawings that went in to build to that level of quote unquote, perfectionism, or in that piece of art.

00;15;41;27 – 00;16;05;27
Unknown
And as much as it’s a wonderful tool, it’s a very discouraging thing. If you don’t have that mindset and you don’t see that. So, I mean, the reason I love teaching and one of the many reasons I love teaching is, you know, say, for example, at a cartoon camp, people are watching me draw on my I plug my iPad into the TV, they can all see what I’m drawing.

00;16;06;00 – 00;16;30;18
Unknown
And I screw up all the time, you know, they see my mistakes. They see me go, oh, that’s an ugly drawing. Because that is part of the process. That is being creative. That is being. You don’t know until you put that pencil to paper and cry. And that’s where so many people give up is the starting line, you know, so I think it’s just a matter of trying.

00;16;30;18 – 00;16;47;27
Unknown
How am I, you know, it breaks my heart when, you know, an adult comes to me and says, oh, I used to draw all the time as a kid, and I haven’t touched it since. It’s like, bring it back. It doesn’t take as much work as you think to just sit there and doodle something, you know, and see what comes out.

00;16;47;27 – 00;17;13;12
Unknown
It is such a great form of expression and maybe expressing emotions that you don’t even know are there until you dig them out. And and it’s it’s incredible how how much good it can do for a person. So, you know, I again, I tell my students, embrace the mistakes, but if I, I don’t know everything. I will never know everything.

00;17;13;15 – 00;17;36;07
Unknown
And I’m good with that. That’s part of the journey of being an artist. If, if, if I. If I knew at all if I could just close my eyes and draw a beautiful drawing, I’d be like, okay, I’m done. That one where the passion is going to come from, but what’s the point? But it is that journey. It is that, that experience, that joy that comes from those breakthrough moments.

00;17;36;07 – 00;17;43;06
Unknown
And you want to have multiple breakthrough moments your entire life that doesn’t just end at one.

00;17;43;09 – 00;17;51;12
Unknown
Let’s get into the evolution of animation that Brad experienced and some nuance of animating for television.

00;17;51;14 – 00;18;14;23
Unknown
I was trained in classical animation. So that in itself is if you’ve seen the old footage of the old Disney animators flipping pages between their fingers, that is what traditional or classical animation it, it has changed huge since then and and a lot of ways, thank goodness it has because doing revisions would be a nightmare if we were animating that way.

00;18;14;23 – 00;18;39;02
Unknown
So we still now we animate in, in the computer. That that is really, really helped us speed things up and make things like revisions much, much, much easier. I couldn’t imagine doing it traditionally. Or that way. At the same time, anybody that anybody I know that was knows how to animate traditionally. We all miss that tangible feeling.

00;18;39;02 – 00;19;03;17
Unknown
I, I used to joke that on the side of my screen, I would keep that stuff so I could keep on rolling my fingers through sheets of paper. Yeah. You know, there’s something so, so tangible. You it’s there’s nothing between you and your artwork there, and, you know, at the beginning, I talked about my journey toward animation from wanting to be an actor my entire life.

00;19;03;17 – 00;19;27;08
Unknown
And something I forgot to add to that is, it wasn’t just my drama teacher telling me, hey, you could go to school for animation because animation truly is acting. What the path for you. If you want to draw a character that is emoting an emotion, or performing anything, you need to feel it in your heart. And that sounds cheesy until you can get into that zone.

00;19;27;11 – 00;19;57;22
Unknown
You don’t know. You know, people might not understand what it feels like, but it’s a real place, and it’s really a magical place because you are connected to what you are animating because it’s your emotion on the page. And so we are actors. We need to convince ourselves we are feeling what this character’s feeling, the evolution of animation that I’ve witnessed has been, of course, the, the, transition to drawing and producing animation in the computer versus hand-drawn animation.

00;19;57;24 – 00;20;23;27
Unknown
I still love the hand-drawn stuff. I still love creating the hand-drawn stuff. I actually have a cartoon camp coming up. That’s traditional animation flipping pages, because I think that’s a really good place for people to learn the basic, the principles of animation, and not have that computer in the way. So, it’s it’s a great thing, you know, and, I also I also do a lot of what’s called storyboarding.

00;20;23;27 – 00;20;49;27
Unknown
So that’s basically, you know, the transition from script to screen, the step in between that, to plan out every single shot, every single camera angle, every single performance is something called the storyboard. And we we create what’s called an animatic or a like a real from that where we time our storyboard to the to the duration of the film or the performance of the actors or what have you.

00;20;49;29 – 00;21;09;25
Unknown
So the storyboard, like a comic book, basically. And it’s one step below directing. It’s a step that leads to directing because you, you know, you are taking the vision of the script and making it come on screen. My point is that used to be done. I don’t have them here, but storyboard panels were done on paper.

00;21;09;27 – 00;21;36;27
Unknown
I am so thankful it’s not done on paper anymore. Like, really, I do that in the computer now because again, when you need to change something, it is so painstaking. Or if you have, say, six storyboard panels that take place in the same thing, that means you don’t change the background. So rather than having to draw the background on all six of those panels on paper, you can just use the same background when you’re working in the computer.

00;21;36;27 – 00;22;13;21
Unknown
So a time saving shortcuts like that, that really help it, plus being able to time it to the audio of the actors performing that’s are a really great tool. Essentially. Yeah, that was going to be my question too, is when you’re animating and I know voice will typically typically come at some point in that process, I wasn’t sure if your animating first voice comes in and then it’s finessed to the voice later or, you know, like where how does that often there are different approaches, but because the visual for me, my preference is always to be animating to the actor, because that’s how you get the nuances of their performance.

00;22;13;24 – 00;22;33;24
Unknown
You know, there are animations. Sometimes you’ll see them where there feels like there’s a disconnect between the facial expressions or the, you know, the the body movements and the actual audio performance. And that’s when they do what’s called ADR, where they record or they they put in the audio after it’s been animated, kind of have the actor try to match it.

00;22;33;26 – 00;22;56;14
Unknown
If you remember the opening shot to Mrs. Doubtfire, Robin Williams is kind of like, you know, really rapid fire in Robin Williams style. You know, matching his doing all the voices for this little Tweety and Sylvester rip off cartoon. And after it’s been animated, that would be a nightmare. Yeah, they would never do it. I mean, Robin Williams could do it that way, for sure.

00;22;56;17 – 00;23;19;22
Unknown
That’s about the only one, you know, so, yeah, it the times where the actor will try to match the already animated scene is if there was, the actor wasn’t available, maybe, or there was a line that kind of changed at some point before they could rerecord it, that kind of thing.

00;23;19;25 – 00;23;28;05
Unknown
For someone interested in beginning their journey with animation, where do you start? What do you start with?

00;23;28;07 – 00;23;29;28
Unknown
That’s a beauty of creativity.

00;23;29;28 – 00;23;57;26
Unknown
And see a above about scraping mud on cave walls, right? Like, you know, you don’t need the latest and greatest technology to create, so, you know, you can go to Dollarama and buy the pencils and the printer paper and start there. If you have an iPad, that’s the beautiful thing is, I’m so jealous of today’s generation in terms of how accessible this amazing technology is.

00;23;57;28 – 00;24;20;05
Unknown
You know, back in, you know, 1999 Y2K, when I was trying to, you know, figure out how to get a computer where I could film my paper animation and see it on the computer to make sure that it was right before I finished it up. And, like, that was unheard of. Like it was so hard to find a machine that could do that.

00;24;20;07 – 00;24;43;25
Unknown
Where now we all carry a phone in our pocket. I can do it like this, right? You download an app? Maybe they’re free. Sometimes the one I use, I think it cost 20 bucks. And that’s 20 forever. And that’s, an amazing bargain, for what it can do. So really, I mean, it’s whatever you’re into, your imagination tells you that you want to work with or to start playing with.

00;24;43;28 – 00;25;03;11
Unknown
There’s no reason it can’t involve. If you want to start drawing on paper and then you’re like, oh, that would make a great 3D character. Then start learning how to model something in blender, which is free software for 3D animation and so many other things. You know that there’s no limit to what you can learn or how you can learn it.

00;25;03;11 – 00;25;26;16
Unknown
That’s just what I suggest is it can be daunting not knowing where to start. It can be. It can without having that guidance. So, you know, it’s it’s a matter of knowing what the tools do, what you’re interested in, I think, not not not getting overwhelmed by I don’t know if I should learn Maya or Blender. I don’t know if I should learn Toon Boom or, you know, animate or whatever.

00;25;26;16 – 00;25;49;07
Unknown
Like, you know, reach out to me, email me. Just I can give you a, you know, tell me what you’re interested in and I’ll give you, hey, here’s a recommended, you know, free route. You could go or if you have a little bit of a budget, go this route. You know, one thing, if you’re working in the computer, what I will say is, I mean, the monitor I have below you guys right now is the monitor I can draw on.

00;25;49;12 – 00;26;10;26
Unknown
So that’s very important for working in the computer. And they’re actually called tablets or display tablets. But since the iPad came along, everybody thinks the tablet is an iPad. It’s not. It’s two different things. Yeah. You know, which again, iPads and tablets like that are fantastic for sitting on a park bench and doing an animation or a beautiful painting from there too.

00;26;10;26 – 00;26;29;25
Unknown
So there’s a lot of great things that come along with the technology in terms of where to start. For people that are just starting out, don’t. All I can say is don’t feel overwhelmed by all the choices. You have so many choices and I could imagine how overwhelming that might feel. But there’s ways to sort through that. Don’t.

00;26;29;25 – 00;27;03;18
Unknown
And don’t let that bog you down. Animation, by its very nature, is a very time consuming process. You know, you you do anywhere from 12 to 24 frames per second of footage. So whether that be drawing or stop motion, you know, it means you move something a little bit, take a picture, move something a little bit, take a picture, whether that be a sculpture or a Lego figure or, or you’re drawing that you’re creating that you move it either depending on how you shoot at 12 or 24 times for one second of footage.

00;27;03;18 – 00;27;24;27
Unknown
So it takes time to do this stuff and do it well. Takes even longer. I was I was obsessed, if any. If you remember the, traditionally drawn or traditionally animated Sword in the Stone Disney. Animated movie and the way they animated Merlin’s hands, that was Milt Kahl and just they’re this they were just so beautifully done. And then.

00;27;24;27 – 00;27;42;29
Unknown
So I would, as a kid, study the way I didn’t want to be an animation at the time, remember? I wanted to be a movie star, you know, but I was still so fascinated with how they did it that I would pause it and I would copy what I saw on TV and copy it is never a problem as long as you never claim credit for it.

00;27;42;29 – 00;28;10;17
Unknown
So that’s that’s where I think a lot of students kind of, get it wrong in a way, is where like, look what I drew all by myself with it. It’s clearly traced something, you know, that’s that’s where it’s wrong. But there is nothing wrong with learning through, you know, a talented artist who already went through the trouble of how to represent reality in this, this, this drawn form.

00;28;10;17 – 00;28;27;08
Unknown
As long as when you’re copying, you’re you’re not just like drawing a line, drawing a line, drawing a line. You’re thinking as you’re doing it, you’re asking yourself questions. You’re like, now why did the line curved that way? Why? Oh, I get it. It connects to this part. And that’s where the copying is really doing some good for you.

00;28;27;15 – 00;28;46;28
Unknown
Remember back in the olden days when phones were actually used to talk to people right on, on the phone? Yeah, I remember one speaker quality and microphone quality actually mattered. And, you know, you’d have a notepad that tied the phone. And as you’re on the phone, you would be there doodling. You would have a notepad full of doodles and you don’t know where it came from.

00;28;46;28 – 00;29;11;11
Unknown
You don’t know how it came out of you, but it’s there and then exist. Like, imagine taking that that that within you and nurturing it a little bit and letting it grow and evolve it into something. And looking at a little doodle of a character you did and go, I wonder what it would be like if I fleshed out a little bit more, you know, could that be a character for, an animated film or comic book or whatever?

00;29;11;11 – 00;29;35;21
Unknown
Just another drawing that you want to do. So I think in terms of ideas, nothing that we have in this world was it was created not by first starting with a blank piece of paper. Right. And so it’s just taking that first step, putting pencil to paper and seeing what comes out, not being afraid. I think that’s something I see a lot of.

00;29;35;21 – 00;29;52;09
Unknown
It’s being afraid to take that chance. What do you got to lose? It’s a piece of paper that’s, that’s the worst thing that’s going to happen, is you’re going to do a drawing that you throw in the recycle bin, like big deal, you know? So not be not having that fear, not having that anxiety and not putting that weight on every single line that you put down.

00;29;52;09 – 00;30;04;18
Unknown
Get messy, get your hands dirty, have fun with it. Like the whole reason that we create art is for the fun of it, the passion of it. So just see what happen.

00;30;04;21 – 00;30;12;06
Unknown
One thing we love about Brad and Upchuckle Education is the commitment to the local community.

00;30;12;08 – 00;30;27;29
Unknown
The actual student sponsorship program. So what, what we do is, you know, individuals or even businesses come in together as a, as a team, can sponsor children or adults experiencing hardship in the community.

00;30;28;02 – 00;30;47;29
Unknown
So I coordinate with, Simcoe Muskoka Family Connexions, Seasons Centre for Grieving Children. The Barrie Women and Children’s Shelter, as well as Glowing Hearts Charity. So what that means is you can send a kid to cartoon camp. You can send, you know, a mom living in the shelter with two kids to our family.

00;30;47;29 – 00;31;10;23
Unknown
Art lessons for a bonding experience, and then the healing experience. I’m really convinced of that. But beyond that. So the sponsorship rates are reduced to start with. But I also match every sponsorship. So if you sponsor one kid to go to the cartoon camp that turns the two children automatically. So it’s a it’s a really great program with up to 46 individuals in the community so far.

00;31;11;00 – 00;31;16;04
Unknown
I’m really proud of that.

00;31;16;06 – 00;31;30;23
Unknown
An incredible program and an incredible person. A big thank you to Brad for sharing his journey and his artistry with us. It was so interesting to hear the ins and outs of animation, and to learn about aspects of it that we’ve never considered before.

00;31;30;26 – 00;31;50;13
Unknown
Thank you for listening to the entire episode. All the links and info you heard in this conversation will be featured in the show notes on our website. If you’d like to know more about anything we mentioned in this episode, make sure to check Villager Magazine Talks Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you’re listening from.

00;31;50;15 – 00;31;59;07
Unknown
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