Hey all! Guest contributor Kirsten Lepore here! Thought I’d put together an occasional animation-themed post with some of my all-time favs, both old and new.

In the current landscape of computer generated and manipulated imagery, there’s still something so special about a pencil drawing on paper — or in the case of animation, thousands of them.  So these 5 films, all mostly or entirely hand drawn, have been some of the most inspiring for me over the years.

“Triange” by Grace Nayoon Rhee

Grace Nayoon Rhee is an amazingly talented young filmmaker, currently working towards her MFA at CalArts.  She imbues the characteristically harmless hand drawn medium with such a disturbing and cinematic quality, that I can’t help but get completely sucked in to the world she’s created.  The sound is incredible as well.

“All Consuming Love (Man in a Cat)” by Louis Hudson

Incredibly beautiful, perfectly strange, somehow still so relatable.

“Who I Am and What I Want” by Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley

This one’s from a few years back, and combines David’s Shrigley’s awesome drawing style and sensibilities with Chris Shepherd’s animation and filmmaking expertise.

“Killing of an Egg” by Paul Driessen

I think I first saw this animation on Nickelodeon when I was a really young kid, but it has remained one of my favorites since then.  My parents even have a video of me as an 8-year-old reciting the entire thing word-for-word, doing my best faux Italian accent.

“A Family Portrait” by Joseph Pierce

This was one of my favorites from Slamdance a few years ago.  Great concept and some gorgeous physics-defying animation.