Jan
18
2012
A few NEW trailers for publications, with the actual published art brought to life through digital animation. Some are more elaborately done and some are more simple.
BONE: Quest for the Spark BOOK 2 Video
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 Movie Intro (fan made) – with art by Dave Peterson.
“a Monster Calls” – animation by Eric Guémise. Illustrations by Jim Kay.
Zero the Hero book trailer
Bande annonce Pablo – Max Jacobs T1
Jan
18
2012
I will be attending the Image Expo on February 24-25-26, 2012. I will be sharing a table with talented artist Rae Wood in Artist Alley. It’s a brand new convention, so it will be interesting to see the attendance.
Dates: Friday February 24 to Sunday February 26, 2012
Location: Oakland Convention Center – 550 10th Street – Oakland, CA 94607
Website: http://www.imagecomicexpo.com
Attending: Image Creators included: Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri, Todd McFarlane, Jim Valentino, Rob Liefeld, Brian K Vaughan and artists/creators Eric Shanower, Andrew Farego, Jeff Walker, Karen Luk Illustrations, Llyn Hunter, and Rae Wood
IMAGE EXPO is a three-day celebration of creator-owned comics happening at the Oakland Convention Center. Image partners Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino, will be the guests of honor, appearing throughout the weekend for signings, panels, and special events. Other special guests include Image founders Rob Liefeld, and Whilce Portacio, plus the creators of today’s best creator-owned comics, including: Joe Casey, Jay Faerber, Jonathan Hickman, Ryan Ottley, Richard Starkings, Fiona Staples, and Brian K. Vaughan.
IMAGE EXPO is Northern California’s premiere comic con experience in 2012. The three-day event takes place at the Oakland Convention Center in the heart of the bustling nightlife and restaurant center of downtown Oakland, CA on February 24-25-26.
IMAGE EXPO isn’t just about Image Comics, it’s a celebration of independent creativity in comics. The exhibit floor is open to anyone who makes creator-owned comics. We’re also going to be hosting unique programming for fans, aspiring creators, and library professionals. We’ll be continuing our tradition of supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s important work to protect creators and retailers by hosting special events including a massive benefit auction.
More info at: http://www.imagecomics.com/news/120/EXPERIENCE-CREATIVITY-AT-IMAGE-EXPO-A-3-DAY-CELEBRATION-OF-CREATOR-OWNED-COMICS-
Nov
23
2011
Hey all, here it is the last of the CAM-JAM 2011 events I am organizing with the Bookstore at the Cartoon Art Museum and inkDrinkDraw San Francisco. The events this year have really been quite fantastic with the final results being Animation and Paper Toy Monsters! But for this one we will be using the inspiration of the new Wizard of Oz Comic exhibit at the museum to draw our version of the iconic characters as well as having a Cartoonist Boutique! The Cartoonist Boutique will allow museum guests to buy work directly from the artists as well as get customized Holiday Cards and Mini-Buttons. (more info below the poster image)
WHEN: Saturday December 3rd. 2011 12 noon to 5pm
WERE: Cartoon Art Museum – 655 Mission St. San Francisco CA
COST: FREE with admission to the museum
Brought to you by inkdrinkdraw.weebly.com
On Saturday December 3rd, 2011 the Bookstore at the Cartoon Art Museum and InkDrinkDraw San Francisco will present the Holiday Cam-Jam and Cartoonist Art Boutique. The Cam-Jams are a series of artist collaborative events that happen a few times of year, but this December a new element is added…our Art Boutique.
Guests visiting the museum will have the chance to watch artist creating work inspired both by the winter holidays as well as the new Wizard of Oz comic exhibit. A selection of great holiday gifts will be for sale directly from their creators including:
- The premier of the first anthology from InkDrinkDraw SF
- One-of-a-kind Holiday Cards and buttons made while you wait
- Personalized comic books, prints, cards and more!
Another bonus is the artist-in-residence Kraig Rasmussen (www.monkeygong.com) will be located in the museum’s lobby signing his books and demonstrating how he creates his work from 1pm to 3pm.
So come on down between 12 noon and 5:00 pm and check out the current exhibits (Archie 70th and Wizard of Oz) while meeting some very talented artists and celebrate the season cartoon-style.
ARTIST:
Artist wishing to participate in the CAM-Jam can sign-up by contacting me at the links below or showing up at the day of the event. Participating artist get free admission into the museum.
Artist wishing to sell some of their home grown items need to contact me by December 2nd, 2011.
We will be making custom cards and buttons to sell to guests, but a donation for materials will be required with a sale.
Contact info: staff (AT) atomicbearpress.com or DM at https://twitter.com/#!/AtomicBearPress
Nov
19
2011
A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation
For today’s Motion Comic Magic post I just wanted to share a few nice trailers for comic books from France/Belgium and Germany. I am still surprised that the major US companies don’t create more trailers for their books.
The first one is a Franco-Belgian BD comic trailer that features a story of three comic artists and their trip to America. Jijé is the creator of Spirou et Fantasio and Jerry Spring, Morris is the creator of Lucky Luke, and André Franquin is the creator of the comics Gaston and Marsupilami.
Gringos Locos (editions Dupuis)
The journey of Franco-Belgian artists Jijé, Morris and Franquin throughout the United States and Mexico.
Concerned about the advance of communism in Europe, artist Jijé decided to leave the Old World with his family. Franquin and Morris decided to follow him, with them all arrived in New York in 1948. Having acquired a Hudson Ford, they travel the U.S. from east coast to west coast, hoping to get hired by Disney Studios. Not a chance, at a time when Disney has laid off more than he was hiring. Seeing his tourist visa expired, Jijé decided to move several months to Mexico with his family and is soon joined by Franquin and Morris.
After the success of “Groom verdigris,” the duo of Yann and Schwartz addresses the picaresque adventures of three monuments of the Franco-Belgian comics.
The next two trailers are from the Berlin based company Stenarts who are a studio that creates art for all sorts of projects including comics. Where the first trailer for Vol 1 below features art from the comic the second trailer looks as it’s art has been created specificly for it. Both of the trailers are especially nice with the second being really impressive.
Ria: Lightclan Chronicles (by Stenarts)
And lastly we head back to Franco-Belgian BD comics this one featuring the classic comic cowboy character Lucky Luke as a kid. That’s right, it’s Kid Luck which should not be confused with Alexis Fajardo’s comic Kid Beowulf (which I do production work on BTW) though I would love to think they stole the idea for him. The creator of Lucky Luke is Morris is who is a character in the trailer for Gringo Loco above.
The trailer does a nice job of animating the characters from the comic art with quite a bit of cleaver movement.
Oct
29
2011
The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco revealed a new logo recently as they re-brand the museum for the future. The new logo is this upside-down ‘A’ below which at first had me baffled, but as they describe….
Why did you change your logo?
The museum is reinventing itself to engage a broader audience. While the logo is a visible part of our new brand, the real change is in how we’re rethinking the experiences we deliver. Our focus has shifted from presenting stunning artworks to delivering captivating art experiences centered around stunning artworks.
…
Why is your logo an upside-down A?You recognize the symbol, but you’re looking at it in a new way. This is what our curators do in creating art experiences. Our logo catches attention, clearly communicates a new perspective, and is a welcome sign to all. We LOVE that an upside-down A is the mathematical symbol signifying “for all.” Our Asian art experience is for everyone. For all. At the end of the day, it’s all about standing out, and triggering interest, discussion and visits.
…which makes sense. The design does stand out and smartly designed it to be modified with colors and patterns which make it customizable inside a simple bold graphic that will age gracefully and last for a very long time. It’s nice to see a graphic that is functional in such a strong way.
But the Museum also took another bold step to attract new/young audiences who sometimes avoid things that don’t look fun with special branding of their new exhibit ‘Maharaja’ featuring the illustration work of Sanjay Patel (gheehappy.com) who has published books with his clean digital art of Indian themes as well as worked at PIXAR animation studios. The move was bold and exciting to not show the actual historical pieces in advertising, but modern illustration art that is very graphic in nature and could reach out to new audiences.
For me the changes have worked and I think this represents the way of the future as art presentation shifts to being “captivating art experiences”,but that also means that the lines to what is art is also changing too with merchandising, multimedia and theatrical flair thrown into the mix.
Interesting and exciting time are ahead.
(above) Outside the building is list with pink lights that match the color on Sanjays illustrations like the one below…
(above) The illustrations look to be drawn in a vector based program like Adobe Illustrator and feel very much like they are inspired by the work of artists from the 50′s and 6o’s like the Mary Blair who designed the look of ‘It’s a Small World‘ and ‘Saludos Amigos / Three Caballeros
(above) The color pallet is browns and pinks and blues and golds. Unusual mixes of colors that work great.
(above/below) Tight pencil drawings are blown up as decals on the walls for a stunning effect. To find out more about planning the use of the designs, check out this post on the official blog.
(above) Love the elephant.
(above) One of the murals inside the museum.
Click here to find more Books by Sanjay Patel
Oct
15
2011
On September 28, 2011 I had the pleasure to attended a talk by Craig Thompson as he talked about his eagerly awaited graphic novel Habibi at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. I am a huge fan of Thompson’s art and have been following the creation of Habibi on his blog. Nathan Parker was nice enough to post some short clips from the talk on his YouTube page which I have posted below.
It’s inspiring to hear the artist/author talking about his processes as well as the artistic growth that were part of the process.
I would love to do a formal review of Habibi, but I do not feel confident in writing it just yet, but I can tell you that I have read the whole 672 pages and it is pretty amazing. The book is pretty adult in nature and not for kids, but I can whole hardly recommended it. The art is beautiful and the pacing and storytelling flow effortlessly with the author controlling the flow to amazing effect. Even the book in it’s epic hard cover form is part of the experience.
Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, HABIBI tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them.
At once contemporary and timeless, HABIBI gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.
View the next parts at the videographers YouTube pages HERE.
Sep
09
2011
Once again I am helping organized another CAM-Jam with InkDrinkDraw San Francisco and the Bookstore at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco CA. Were calling it our Spectacular Super Sonic Paper Monster Party X. The theme will be making Paper Toy Monsters from basic shape constructed of card stock and decorated to add details the models do not have. See below for all the details or visit
Where we meet next:
InkDrinkDraw presents:
Spectacular Super Sonic PAPER MONSTER PARTY XLocation: Cartoon Art Museum
655 Mission St. San Francisco, CA http://www.cartoonart.org
Date: Sunday September 11, 2011
Time: 11:30am to 5:00 pm
Being an artist can be a solitary job, so we want to find a way to meet more like minded artists who are interested in Comics, Animation, Illustration, Video Games and more! After all what’s better than to meet, talk and network with people who “get” what you do as a creative!For our September InkDrinkDraw SF Meet we have teamed up with the Bookstore at the Cartoon Art Museum for another of their CAM-JAM events aimed at artists of all levels.
In the past we done everything from create animation to draw full mini-comics and even designed a tarot deck, but this session we will be having
a Spectacular Super Sonic PAPER MONSTER PARTY X.In last few years some new type of art forms have appeared, making customized toys with artistic flair. For us we will be cutting, folding and customizing simple paper shapes into characters, embracing the limitations and letting our imaginations go wild.
Participating artist can sign in at the front desk and then you will be able to come in and have some fun with us. Planning on coming, why not RSVP to us or to the Museum’s Bookstore at bookstore@cartoonart.org.
Note:
We are asking for a $2 donation from participating artists to help pay for the
materials (as well as some treats and surprises) The museums full admission is required for anyone who is not participating.“Paper Monster/character creation”
Come Cut, Fold and customize characters of paper and… maybe even with other materials. We will have plenty of blank, pre-printed shapes to use and will have some coloring tools too, but feel free to bring your own materials if you like and even your own customization projects.“Share and Tell”
Bring your current projects, copies of your comics and art prints and share with us and even visiting guests to the museum.“More monsters and open projects”
Come and just sit with us and draw and create all sorts of monsters and creatures or even just work on your own projects.(While It’s not “required” to participate in any of these particular activities, we’ll have them on hand if you wish too.)
“Open Projects”
As always “Open Projects” is working on whatever project you brough with you, want to try or are currently working on.
Please feel free to discuss your projects with the group! We love hearing about what people are working on and will gladly give feedback!To stay in touch you can:
On Twitter Follow:
@inkDrinkDraw or @NoCashComics & @AtomicBearPressRead the inkDrinkDraw
Blog at inkDrinkDraw.weebly.com
Hope to see you there!
Aug
28
2011
A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation
One thing that is exciting to me is how modern animation techniques to re-purpose images of all sorts can be used to recreate and explain the past, present and future. I just saw an example that, while simple is a good.
At the D23 Expo (official Disney Fan Club) last weekend in Anaheim Tony Baxter presented a simulation of a theme park attraction that was meant to be built at Walt Disney World (WDW) in Florida when the parked opened instead of the classic E-Ticket attraction…Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride would be a musical trip through a stylized old-west called The Western River Expedition that would feature many Audio Animatronic figures and a big flume drop at the end. The problem is that guest coming to WDW wanted to know where the Pirate ride that they had heard about was. So the new western themed ride idea was scrapped for a clone of the Disneyland pirate ride. Many Disney theme park fans are still hoping that someday the ride might become a reality in some form, but that is not so likely.
To see examples of the concept art and read about the history, visit HERE.
But thanks to Disney having a huge archive of concept art and rare footage that can put it together in a simple form with some background music and presented it as a visual discription of how the ride might have been. Below is a video of that presentation which features art by one of my favorites Marc Davis and with live narration by Imagineers Tony Baxter and Josh Shipley.
Below is the description from the youtube.com video…
On Sunday, August 21, Walt Disney Imagineers Tony Baxter and Josh Shipley lead a fascinating presentation of rare footage from 1950s and 1960s-era Disneyland for D23 Expo attendees. As part of the presentation, Tony and Josh took guests aboard a complete ride-through of the never-built Western River Expedition attraction, designed for the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida. Though never built, numerous conceptual renderings as well as a complete model of the attraction were built and have been preserved by Walt Disney Imagineering. This video is a ride-through of the attraction as guests would have experienced it, recreated with concept art and photos of the attraction model. Live commentary is provided by Tony Baxter and Josh Shipley.
