Continue reading »]]>  Click here to see a bigger image at Flickr.com

I have been a big fan of the master French comic artist Mobius (aka Jean Giraud) since my college days where I was inspired by his style, technique and color use. With his recent passing I thought I would, like so many around the world, draw a tribute to the master.

My piece is based on Mobius 1985 “Starwatcher II” which many have been doing their version of in the last few years. To read more I would recommend the Tumbler Blog ‘Quenched Consciousness’ which has been my favorite place to follow the work of Mobius.

Visit the official Mobius website http://www.moebius.fr/ 

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I am helping to organize a special inkDrinkDraw San Francisco event on Saturday May 26, 2012, Mini-Comic Day. The event is FREE and open to anyone interested in joining us.

WHEN: Saturday May 26, 2012 – 11am to 5:30pm
WHERE: The Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore
655 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94105
(between 3rd street and New Montgomery St., two blocks from Montgomery St. BART) (415) CAR-TOON – http://www.cartoonart.org

COST: FREE!

DETAILS: Mini-Comic Day at the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore
For the May inkDrinkDraw we will return to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco for
Mini-Comic Day. Come join us and take the challenge to create and publish your own Mini-Comic with your fellow artists in a day or less. Paper, pens, pencils, and long neck stapler will be provided as well as printed templates to help make your book and there are two copy shops in walking
distance to make copies to trade and share with your fellow creators. (Sorry, you will have to pay for your own copies.)

From the official
site http://www.minicomics.org :
“On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists from around the world will write, draw, and print copies of a mini-comic, completing the entire process from start to finish in a day or less. Anyone in the world can participate. Mini-comics have been democratizing the art of
making comic books since the 70?s or earlier… with the popularization of photocopiers, it became apparent that anyone with an inclination and some spare change could print a little comic book. Wildly varying in both form and content, mini-comics are a wonderful synthesis of cartooning and hand-made art objects.

Guidelines: To participate, create a mini-comic from start to finish on May 26th, 2012 (including writing, drawing and printing it). You can make your mini-comic by yourself or with other artists.
…” (visit the official site for more guidelines for the event)

So, come on down, grab a seat and make a comic. And don’t be shy about bringing down your mini-comics you have all ready made too!

The Two Copy Shops nearby are:

Copy Central 22 3rd street, San Francisco, CA 0.1 mi W (415) 882-7377 ? · copycentral.com - 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Fed-Ex Kinkos – need to verify location do to wonky web listings.

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Cartoonist Jeffery Brown (jeffreybrowncomics.com) has a new book called Darth Vader and Son, which the trailer above promotes. I wanted to post the trailer here at MotionComicMagic.com since it’s a great example of taking existing art from a book and re-purposes it for animation, plus it’s really cool.

What if Darth Vader took an active role in raising his son? In this hilarious and sweet comic reimagining, Darth Vader is a dad like any other—except with all the baggage of being the Dark Lord of the Sith. Celebrated artist Jeffrey Brown’s delightful illustrations give classic Star Wars® moments a fresh twist, presenting the trials and joys of parenting through the lens of a galaxy far, far away. Life lessons include lightsaber batting practice, using the Force to raid the cookie jar, Take Your Child to Work Day on the Death Star (“Er, he looks just like you, Lord Vader!”), and the special bond shared between any father and son.

Jeffrey Brown is the author of numerous graphic novels and comics, including Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Cats Are Weird. A lifelong Star Wars fan, he lives in Chicago with his wife and five-year-old son.

Plus: You can see the artwork for the book at the Cartoon Art Museum this summer (in San Francisco) April 28 – August 5, 2012!

…the 18-piece exhibition Darth Vader and Son, featuring artwork by award-winning cartoonist Jeffrey Brown. This exhibit opens on Saturday, April 28. Brown will sign copies of his book at the Cartoon Art Museum on Thursday, May 17, 2012 from 7:00-9:00pm.

A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

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A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

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

Any Empire Trailer

Bande annonce Pablo – Max Jacobs T1

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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. You can find me in Artist Alley AA 607.

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-

Continue reading »]]> 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

Continue reading »]]>

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.

Kid Lucky (from Dargaud)

Continue reading »]]> 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‘ for Disney.

(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 on Amazon or click the book cover images in the article.

Continue reading »]]> 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.

Continue reading »]]> 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 X

Location: 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 & @AtomicBearPress

Read the inkDrinkDraw
Blog at inkDrinkDraw.weebly.com

Hope to see you there!

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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.

Continue reading »]]> The other night we had the second InkDrinkDraw event in San Francisco. The events are the brain child of George Webber (No Cash Comics) and myself and are monthly artist events that encourage creativity and comradery.

To find out more, visit the InkDrinkDraw page!

For this month’s meeting our theme was drawing faces. As artist it can be easy to end up drawing similar characters over and over again. These exercises were designed for us to work outside our comfort zone and try new things.

We started with a warm-up exercises where we drew a page of shapes and then passed them around and had others make them into faces/heads.

Here is the sheet that I got back after everyone had drawn on it:

Then we did a handout that George found through Deviant-Art called 25 expressions which is a popular meem. DOWNLOAD IT HERE There are other versions of the sheet on-line, but with facial expressions in more Manga (Japaneses Comics) vibe.

Here is an old west prospector characters that I drew based on the head-shape sketch by Jeff Plotkin.

Next we changed gears and did an exercises of evolving/devolving a character based on a photo. This was something I saw in How to draw comic book heroes and villains by Christopher Hart , but the samples were actually drawn by the late great comic artist Gray Morrow. See more of Gray’s work HERE.

My first attempt was using a photo of classic actor ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle which I sketched on my paper and then worked to modify it till there was still a hint of the character, but maybe not obvious unless someone was looking for similarity. I like the result, even though the drawings are kind of rough and lopsided.

Here are a few more I did…

Last I did a few more drawings based on the Shape Heads that were drawn on my sheet at the start.

These ones below were drawn riding BART home from the city.

Want to give the exercises a try? Here is what we did.

1) Shape-Heads: Each artist participating drew some basic shapes on a sheet of paper. Hearts, stars, rectangles, squares, circles, ovals, wedges, etc. Pass around the sheets of paper and have different artists make the shapes into faces. For ours artist did more then one per sheet sometimes and the artist who drew the shapes also added a few as needed.

2) 25 Facial Expressions: Next we picked a Shape-Head from (1) or had someone else pick one for us. We then filled in a pre-printed handout that was labeled with all the expressions to draw. It’s OK to draw hands and bodies in the shot too. DOWNLOAD HANDOUT HERE.

3) Face Evolution/Devolution: Take a sheet of paper and some photo reference and draw on the Left side one of the faces, trying to capture a decent likeness of the person. Moving to the Right take the head you just drew as reference and modify it into a new character by changing some details. Then draw one or more heads just using the second drawing you did and trying to make it into something new.

4) Take your Shape-Heads and try to draw them again with a body, different expression, etc.

Continue reading »]]> My buddy George Webber (No Cash Comics) and I are planning another InkDrinkDraw artist get together for Monday August 22, 2011 at the Church St. Cafe, starting at 6:30pm. This is a chance for Bay Area/San Francisco artist who are interesting in Cartooning, Comics, Illustration, Animation and similar art forms to meet up, hang out, network, work and create. The last meet-up two months ago at Hooters San Francisco was a blast, and this location is easier to get too as well.

The cafe is an old favorite being a former location for the Cartoonist Conspiracy SF to meet and is lively and fun.

Below is the press release from the official blog:

LOCATION UPDATE !

Hello Everyone,

From George Webber / NoCashComics & Brian Kolm of AtomicBearPress !

OK, so here’s the FINAL inkDrinkDraw Meet-up UPDATE !!!

SF Pizzeria could not accommodate our meeting this time around, SO .. New Location ….

LOCATION:
Church St Cafe (260 Church St – between 15th St & Market St – San Francisco, CA94114 (Neighborhood: Castro)

http://www.yelp.com/biz/church-street-cafe-san-francisco

DATE:
August 22nd

TIME:
6:30 to Whenever (10 / 10:30 most likely)

HERE’S WHAT WILL BE HAPPENING:
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!

(While It’s not “required” to participate in any of these particular activities, we’ll have them on hand if you wish too.)

“Meet & Greet with a Nosh”
Come on by and hang out with other artists, talk shop, share what your working on and have some food and drinks too !
The Church St Cafe has nice sandwiches, cookies & coffee, but you might want to have dinner before hand and have desert at Church St Cafe as they don’t have big dinner type meals.

“Working with Faces”
It seems that one of the major challenges with many artists is being able to draw a unique cast of characters without drawing the same character over and over again with just minor differences, so we came up with a few different challenges having to do with drawing faces.

There is NO simple smiley face drawings in these challenges (try one or all of them):
1. “25 Character Expressions” challenge.
2. “Book of Faces” challenge.
3. “iPhone Face Off” challenge for those with nerves of steel.

ALSO feel free to bring some photos of faces that you would like to share with the group as we work to increase our mental database.

“Working with Copic Markers Demos”
George Webber be geared up to do his Copic Demo for anyone that wants to learn about these markers and he’ll have some extra markers on hand for people to try them out a little.

“Open Projects”
As always “Open Projects” is working on whatever project you brought 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 & @AtomicBearPress
Read the inkDrinkDraw Blog at inkDrinkDraw.weebly.com for updates.

Make sure we have your email so we can keep you up dated !
P.S. please let me know if you got this email, it’s a new list and need to make sure it’s working.

thanks
gWebber & Brian Kolm

inkDrinkDraw Meet-Ups & Events

Continue reading »]]> When I was at the San Diego Comic-Con 2011 (July 20-23) I got a few sketches to add to my collection that were drawn in a cool blank picture book I got at Artist and Craftsman Supply. Some I got from the booth of certain artists and some I bought during the Cartoon Art Museum Sketch-A-Thon. All are very cool.

The art is by Chris Giarrusso, creator of the all-ages comics G-Man. The comic is really fun and a good read.

- www.chrisgcomics.com/

The art is by Dan Goodsell creator of Mr. Toast. I got the sketch when I bought a small book of the Mr. Toast characters as superheros. (BUY IT HERE)

- www.theimaginaryworld.com

The art is by Chris Houghton the artist on a great new all-ages comic series about Reed Gunther and his best friend and steed Sterling the Bear. I got the first three issues of the comic and have read and re-read and keep enjoying them.

- reedgunther.com/

The art is by T.Cypress who is the creator of Rodd Racer, a new graphic novel. I love Toby’s style which I feel inspired by with my own work with brush and ink. This drawing is marker, dry brush, splattered ink, and charcoal. It was really great to watch him create it.

- www.tobycypress.daportfolio.com

The art is by Scott Shaw who is just super-dupper-awesome. He has done everything from storyboards and animation to comic books. See more of her work on this post on the Sketch-A-Thon.

- www.shawcartoons.com/

The art is by Jamaica Dyer who is a talented bay area artist. See more of her work on this post on the Sketch-A-Thon.

- www.jamaicad.com/

The art is by Travis Hanson the creator of the web-comic “the Bean” which you can buy from his website or even better, help out with a current Kickstarter fundraiser.  The comic is really a great read for all-ages.

- www.beanleafpress.com/

The art is by Kostas Kiriakakis is just amazing. I saw his first sketch during the Sketch-A-Thon and knew I wanted one. I had to quickly figure out what I wanted him to draw and so I had him draw Samurai from the Superfriends cartoon series. He has work in the new issue of the comic anthology Flight.

- wwww.kiriakakis.net

AND as a bonus, here is a cool drawing of Sabrina the Teen Witch last weekend at the Cartoon Art Museum’s Archie Family Fun Day. The exhibit that it celebrates is really good and here is a review.

The art is by Rich Koslowski who did free sketches to everyone who came to the event which was really really cool. He is a very versatile artist, so go check out his work at the URL below.

- www.richkoslowski.com

Continue reading »]]> So here is the second chunk of photos from the first day of the Cartoon Art Museum Sketch-a-Thon at the San Diego Comic-Con 2011. We were doing a fundraiser to help the museum by having artist rotate ever hour and create original art pieces for donation of $10 or more. As you can tell that most folks got their money’s worth.

To go back and see PART 1, FOLLOW THIS LINK.

Anthony Hon busy drawing.

Scott Shaw’s Captain Carrot.

A drawing I got of Fred Flintstone as Batman.

Another amazing drawing by Mike Dubisch.

Scott Shaw and Chari Pere busy drawing for their fans.

Anthony’s awesome Hulk drawing.

Dirk Tiede draws Batgirl.

Museum Curator, author and artist Andrew Farago draws his version of Daffy Duck.

Brad Rader’s drawing of Goliath from the TV show Gargoyles which he worked on.

Wow, someone got a drawing by Chari and Scott. Lucky lucky lucky.

My first ‘kick butt’ Disney Princess drawing.

The amazing Jamaica Dyer gives us the mysterious adversary of Batman, Poison Ivy.

And one more from Seamus Smith.

To go back and see PART 1, FOLLOW THIS LINK.

Continue reading »]]> This year I again volunteered to help one of my most favorite organization at the San Diego Comic-Con 2011, the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco. I can only wonder around the convention so much before getting burned-out and this was a way to also promote my art as well as help a great non-profit.

The idea is that the Museum has artist scheduled every hour to do original art for a donation of $10 or more. The art was amazing and it was great to hang out with other artist.

These photos are from the first full day of the convention Wen July 21, 2011. I did not get photos of everyone and every drawing I am sad to say. This is just the start of posting a lot of images of the artist at work as well as the final results.

Enjoy.

a drawing by…Me of Adventure Time characters

a drawing by Seamus Smith

Rick Lucey and Renee making art

The fabled Hat Box Ghost from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland by…Me.

Andrew Farago draws Captain America

Mike Dubisch painting a very cool dragon.

World famous Captain America from Marvel Comics and the new movie.

Continue reading »]]> So, for my first post on the San Diego Comic-Con 2011 (SDCC) I thought I would post some pictures and talk about an exciting trend that, to me seems to be altering the convention forever.

These pictures are from my first day in San Diego, Wen July 20, 2011. The convention was going to kick of with it’s Wednesday Preview Night and I had arrived early enough to sight see and take some time to explore. I arrived at where I was staying in the Gas Lamp district and the first thing I saw was this…

note: click on the images to see a bigger version at Flickr.com

At the top of the building is an inflatable of two of the most popular animated characters on TV today, Jake the morphing dog and Finn a funny kid with a hat with bear ears from Adventure Time! They are best friends and live in the land of Ooo where they have adventures fighting monsters and rescuing princesses. The show is one of the best things on TV today and it’s fresh and original and attracts fans of all ages. I am myself a big fan.

Let me take a few steps back to the last time I was at the SDCC, in 2009. One of the new things that year was that the Sci-Fi Channel (SyFi) had partnered with a local restaurant a block from the convention center to transform the business into Cafe Diem from the series TV Eureka. That meant that instead of having a big booth in the convention center, they choose to basically have a restaurant as their temporary home. That meant that they were not dictated by the rules and hours at the convention center and the business they partnered with stood out even more then they would with out the new branding. CLICK HERE to see what it looked like this year.

The idea of breaking out of the convention center into downtown was so cool and different…fast forward to this Summer, 2011. Now there are many of these temporary pop-up businesses that have skipped the convention center and partnered with local businesses. This year there was the 3rd year for SyFi Channel  joined by Spike TV, Conan O’Brian, South Park/Comedy Central, EA Games, some Marvel monster truck thing, a stand alone video game convention and more. But there are two pop-up businesses that stood out to me…

The characters above were part of Cartoon Network’s take over Ciro’s Pizza to the hit show Adventure Time. Outside you are meant with graphics that feature a graphic of Lady Rainacorn (a magical creature and girlfriend of Jake the Dog) and an inflatable candy person (the Candy Kingdom is a major location in the show). Inside all the walls were covered with a digitally printed mural of the locations and characters and enhanced with colored lighting and TV’s played clips from the show as well as interviews with the creators and fans. Here on the walls we see images of the snowy kingdom of the evil Ice King bathed in blue and purple lighting by the Soda Machines and then transitioning to more bright and sunny lighting at Finn and Jake’s tree house and over to the Candy Kingdom.

And to even stand out more, they had a group of young guys who were dressed as Finn and passing out tokens for a free slice of Pizza and a Drink from 2pm to 4pm every day of the con, how cool is that.

And they also have a parade of characters from the show twice a day for a meet and greet.

Most of this would have been impossible to do in the crowded convention center, but this temporary business was one of the stand-out elements of the event.

Another of the standout elements of the SDCC was Trickster, a pop-up store featuring the art, comics and other goodies by some of the hottest artists today. The Trickster was set-up by a group of artist frustrated with the heavy movie/TV heavy attention at the convention and wanted to focus instead on art and artists. Inside a converted wine shop there was a FREE retail space filled with drool worthy merchandise and room for small classes that cost extra. At night they had live models, drinking and partying and someone outside was selling sushi. Words can not explain the energy in the place. Here are some photos at a quieter moment on Wednesday before the crowds invaded.

During the convention they had great artist signing books and meeting and greeting peers and fans alike. HP was on hand to print out files for free and the publisher of the Trickster hardcover book was on hand to discuss printing services. Simply an amazing achievement and possibly a game changer for the identity of the convention.

So, the question on my mind is where will this trend of pop-up businesses for the convention go next. I can clearly see it being doubled by next year as some of the biggest players forgo the convention center for a more visible spaces in the Gas Lamp district. That is good since there will be more room in the hall for some that could not get a space and the big companies can take their brand to new levels on the outside. We’ll see what happens in July 2012.

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A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

Hey all, it’s time for some more trailers for books. Today we get one picture book and two comic books. What do you think, would you read them after seeing these trailers?

I posted a trailer a while back for Lane Smith’s book It’s a Book! which was really well done. Well there is a sequel now It’s a SMALL Book! as well as a simple animated trailer for it.

Kagan McLeod (http://www.kaganmcleod.com) is a super great artist with a portfolio of amazing ink and brush work that contains not only illustrations for editorials, fashion and music, but also comics. His Infinite Kung Fu is pretty sweet looking comic and there is a pretty slick trailer to promote it. It’s amazing that he had sequences of drawings in the comic that could be timed for animation pretty smoothly. You can read a sample of the comic HERE.

Sardine in Outer Space is a series of fun looking books for kids with art by Joann Sfar (Little Vampire, Vampire Loves, and Le Chat du Rabbin) who is known for his distinctive style of art. The book was released in the US by First:Second, but this trailer is for the French edition. The trailer to promote the book features quite a bit of animation and is quite lively. It is released in France and Belgium by Dargaud.

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A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

The line between Art, Commerce, Marketing, and Storytelling is getting thinner and thinner all the time. Here are a sampling from around the web of using animation with art (mostly) created for another format and brought to life to promote and entertain. Like a trailer for a movie, an animated promotional video can quickly sell the idea of what a publication or product is about and sometimes is part of the product itself.

“A 30-second book trailer for The Spiderwick Chronicle’s bestselling centerpiece, “Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You” by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. 2006.” Tony is an amazingly talented artist and he has a brand spanking new website for you to check out. The trailer is very simple, but has a lot of nice touches that sells the story.

The comic Thorgal by Jean van Hamme and Grzegorz Rosinski from German publisher Splitter. Really nice movie style editing that conveys the epic quality of the work.

“The Sixth Gun is an epic supernatural western by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt.” Published by Oni Press. The trailer just sells the story and theme really well.

A trailer for the latest book featuring the classic BD characters Blake and Mortimer “The late Rene Sterne, author of the series Adler, Chantal Spiegeleer, author of the series Madila, and screenwriter of Largo Winch sign a story to match the myth of the 9th Art!”

“It’s a COMIC. it’s an APP, It’s a GAME – It’s Teenage Satan, created by Stephanie Buscema, Marsha Cooke and Candis Cooke. Animation by Darwyn Cooke . For more information visit http://teenagesatan.com …” A great example of media going in all sort of new directions by way of digital technology.

Hell-O Teenage Satan

The Sexy Spy YUKI 7 returns in another melding of art+animation featuring retro digital illustrations from Kevin Dart which are brought to life in a special animated short.. “The brand new Yuki 7 Adventure Book, written by Elizabeth Ito. Every copy comes with a DVD which includes both Yuki 7 shorts, “Looks That Kill” and “A Kiss From Tokyo”, as well as several bonus features. 72 pages, Paperback with Acetate Dust Jacket” Sexy! I wonder if the art is created in layers in Photoshop from the start so they can be animated?

Looks That Kill – HD from Yuki 7 on Vimeo.