One of the most exciting developments in the on-line animation world as of late is the emergence of animation artist blogs. These have been popping up left and right, and I have a feeling there's still many more of them to come. No doubt plenty of artists already have websites where they post their artwork and resumes, but these blogs are an entirely different animal. They are current and alive, not a static gallery of images, but a powerful communication medium - forums for sharing ideas and techniques, inspiring artwork, gripes and opinions, and educating one another about the art and business of cartoons. True to the personal nature of blogs, each one focuses on different aspects of the art, reflecting the tastes of the individuals running them, but what they all share in common is that they offer an utterly unique perspective on animation that can't be found anywhere else.
With animation so incompetently represented in the mainstream media (the most recent example, this article), blogs have the added benefit of allowing artists to directly communicate with and educate the public about cartoons, rather than relying on filtered and ineffective third-party reportage. Here are some of the newest arrivals on the scene: The Ward-O-Matic by director/designer Ward Jenkins (of Primal Screen in Atlanta), Punch Pants by the Ghostbot director/designer collective comprised of Roque Ballesteros, Alan Lau and Brad Rau, and Seward Street and Persistence of Vision by DreamWorks animators Jim Hull and Ethan Hurd.