Continue reading »]]>
George Webber and I are arranging this months InkDrinkDraw at The Grove on October 14, 2011. The location is right downtown (same block as the Cartoon Art Museum and the MoAD) and easily accessible by MUNI and BART.

Location: The GROVE
690 Mission St. San Francisco CA
Corner of 3rd St & Mission St (across the street from the MoAD between Peets Coffee and A.G. Ferrari)

Date: Friday Oct 14, 2011 — Time: 6:30 pm to Whenever Pm

Event cost is FREE, but we would appreciate your supporting the business by purchasing at least a snack & drink.

Bring: Samples of your work, favorite art materials, samples of other peoples work, and your spirit and creativity too.

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!

October’s inkDrinkDraw Projects:

“MAKEOVER” Challenge:
More then ever artist are re-interpreting pop culture in new and exciting ways. Our theme for the evening is on giving the familiar a make over and transforming it into something new. For our main challenge you can join a small team in re-casting a short classic comic story with new setting, characters and attitude.

A Share and Tell Special Event:
Come see and hear how George Webber ‘s latest short story ALLEY CATS evolved from some rough character sketches, to an even rougher story outline and finally a book. See the original full sized inked pages and the final printed book.

“Open Projects & Share and Tell”
Come and just sit with us, come have fun with us!
Sketch, draw or bring your current projects, copies of your comics and art prints and share with us. 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!

“Other projects”
We’ll have some of the past projects on hand too, so there’s always something fun to do.

To stay in touch you can:
On Twitter Follow:
@inkDrinkDraw or @NoCashComics & @AtomicBearPress

Read the inkDrinkDraw
Blog at inkDrinkDraw.weebly.com

Continue reading »]]> This short animation was created as part of the 3rd year of CAM-JAM artist events at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco CA. Produced on Sun May 22, 2011 in 6 hours for the art and then composited in After Effects later. Each event is an art jam with a different theme, from comics about tiki’s to tarot cards to paper toy monsters.

- The event started with some warm-up animation drawn on a white board (purchased at Daiso America store)  and filmed with a iStopMotion.

- Then each artist started drawing a sequence of animation which were then were strung together thanks to some storyboarding by Rick Lucey. The mini animation drawings were composited in Adobe After Effects.

Take a look…

You can see an announcement and find out what our goals were HERE

Artists: Karen Luk, Rick Lucey, Mouser, Brian Kolm and Jeff Plotkin

Technique inspiration: Fran Krause’s sketchbook animation ‘Nosy Bear’ – frankrause.com
editing and compositing: Brian Kolm
music: Kevin MacLeod/incompetech.com
Sound Effects: soundfx-free.com, soundbible.comMike Koenig, pacdv.com
with thanks to: Heather Plunkett and the Cartoon Art Museum and Bookstore/Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco

Continue reading »]]> I will be representing the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco in organizing a third year of CAM-JAM events with the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore. The event is on Sunday May 22, 2011 from 11am to 5pm and the theme will be ANIMATION.

Yes, you heard that right! Our challenge will be to produce 30 seconds of DIY animation goodness that will use technology and old school art skills together to make something cool. We will have stations to do: Flipbooks, Wipe Board Animation and Sketchbook Animation.

The technique I am most looking forward too working with is the Sketchbook Animation which I blogged about HERE and HERE. The technique is to draw all the art for a couple seconds of animation in your sketchbook which is then composited on the computer into a short video.

In fact I created this sample the other night by drawing about 4 pages of art on 8.5″x11″ card stock (I need a new sketchbook, sigh) in about 2.5 hours and then spent about 2 to 2.5 hours scanning and compositing the work together. I am very pleased with the results.

CAM-JAM 2011- No1 Animation Jam – Sunday May 22, 2011 at the Cartoon Art Museum from Brian Kolm on Vimeo.

So come on out and join a bunch of crazy cartoonist and make some animation. Artist of all levels are welcome.

The final work will be posted here on my blog after the event.

On May 22, 2011 the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco and the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore will be kicking off the third year of CAM-JAM’s, cartoonist collaboration events. The CAM-JAM’s have tried different themes in the past such as Tikis and Samurais, but this time we will go with something a bit more challenging…Animation. With a mix of old school drawing goodness and desk top video technology we will attempt to collaborate and create 30 seconds of animation within the length of the event from 11am to 5pm.

Will you come and join us?

When: Sunday May 22, 2011

11am to 5pm

Where: Cartoon Art Museum – 655 Mission St San Francisco CA

Cost: FREE for participating artists

What to bring: Sketchbook and any drawing tools that you like. There will be materials available to use at the event, but it’s always fun to share how you like to draw with your fellow artists.

The event will feature…

- Wipe Board animation – filmed with a digital camera and stop motion software artist will create animation by drawing on that office favorite the wipe board.

- Flipbooks

- “sketchbook” animation – inspired by the technique used on the short film animated “Nosy Bear” created with small drawings on a few pages of a sketchbook that are then composite digitally.

- Samples of animation by local artists

- Prizes

- Networking

- Treats

- Fun

Our hope is that cartoonist and artist of all caliber will join in the fun and help create animation on-the-spot.

To sign-up ahead of time, email the Cartoon Art Museum bookstore at bookstore@cartoonart.org or sign-in the day of the event at the front desk

BONUS: ANY ARTIST who shows their sketchbook on the day of the event will receive 10% off their purchase in the museum bookstore. Note: a few items are not applicable for discount.

For more information or questions contact:

Brian Kolm from the Cartoonist Conpiracy – staff@atomicbearpress.com

Heather at the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore – bookstore@cartoonart.org

Continue reading »]]>
On new years eve I joined a bunch of artist to draw into the New Year. My cohorts were T, Nick Paz, Jeff Plotkin and Jeff Walker.

We meet at Japan Town Center in San Francisco for dinner at Mifune (http://mifune.com/) for noodles then after walking around the mall we headed to Johnny Rockets on nearby Filmore St. where we drew until 11:30, eating fries and drinking shakes. Then we headed down town and into the new year.

A great way to start 2011.

Overheard at Johnny Rockets: (a drunk regular was talking with the staff near 11:30 and one of the waiters told him to “talk with your inside voice” like a school kid. LOL

Continue reading »]]> On October 24, 2010 I will be part of another CAM-JAM at the Cartoon Art Museum as part of their 1st annual ‘Ghoultide Gathering’. I am helping to organize the event and I will be creating art as well. The challenge will be for each participating artist to draw one of the cards of the Tarot deck which will be scanned on the spot and will be added to a poster that will show all the cards and be fore sale as a fundraiser for the museum at the bookstore in November.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE to the GHOULTIDE GATHERING….(details are subject to change)

WATCH: the Tarot Card Comic Art Jam -all day
Watch as local artist draw the cards of the Tarot for a special fundraiser art print for the museum.LEARN: Try your hand at drawing creepy creatures at our in-gallery art table. 

EXPERIENCE: STORM of “Heroic Tarot” doing X-Men Tarot readings all day.
STORM was voted SF Weekly BEST OF AWARD and is the author of the comic “Princess Witch Boy”. (stormantic.com)

MEET: Jeff Baham signing his book “An Unofficial History of Disney’s Haunted Mansion”
Jeff is founder of Doombuggies.com and co-host of Mousetalgia podcast (mousetalgia.com)

DELIGHT in Johnny Dismal’s cute and creepy creations he will be selling as prints and stuffies. (dismalthings.com)

WOW: There will be treats, tricks and prizes! Don’t miss this devilishly good time!

Continue reading »]]>

Hey all, I thought it was time to give a bit of a follow-up to the CAM-JAM comic jam at the Cartoon Art Museum that I helped organize with the museum’s bookstore.

I would say it’s the most successful event yet with 16 participants helping create a 40 page mini comic. There is a link at the bottom of this post to read it on-line.

First off, we did not reach one of our goals of printing the book in time for folks to take home with them. We have tried twice and at this point we will probably re-think that part. It was also raining, but that is something we can not control…yet.

Sunday Feb 21, 2010 was  a rainy day, perfect to sit inside and draw with new and old friends. We had just the right amount of artists to fill the lobby at the CAM. Most folks arrived promptly which was nice. When you don’t know how many people are attending, having 5 show up right on-time is a relief.

The event was really energizing, fun, and everyone created amazing work. The theme was Samurai and Superheroes, but no one drew any superheroes.

Here is a video of my taken by Cathy. I wish my voice did not sound like a Muppet on recordings.

11:30 am- We started with a character design mash-up warm-up which was great. The drawings feature mixing up established pop culture icons which are twisted in different ways to make something new. Samples can be seen below or in the web-edition of our comic. Thanks to Marti for scanning the drawings during the event.

CAM-JAM character mash-ups

12:00 am- Next up was a break and then Kristin Barrett of General Pencil Co. demonstrated their brand of watercolor pencils and gave everyone a set. She did a great job and was really fun and interesting. You can find out more about their products at http://www.generalpencil.com. A big thank goes out for there sponsorship.

- We broke into groups of 2-4 artists. Everyone started their comic by working from a randomly created Haiku poem generated on-line. This seemed to be a good limitation to get the juices flowing and then we just started to create our comics. We drew actual size on 5.5″ x 8.5″ cover stock and we had a selection of brush pens, ink and brushes to use. BTW Brush and Ink was one of our themes for the event.

- Around 5pm we stopped our work with 5 unique stories of the Samurai. I tried to tape down the pages into a dummy of the book so we could go and make copies at Copy Central, but it too long. But we did have a long Mini Comic of 40 pages, including a snazzy cover to show for our hard work.

We packed up all our materials and put away the tables and chairs. Thanks to Amy and David for helping us and for giving us a bit more time after their quitting time. Afterward a group of us went to Mel’s for some food.

The next week I scanned the files and had them printed at Costco Business (great service and prices) and stappled them in time for the Cartoonist Conspiracy SF comic jam on Thursday Feb 25, 2010.  I handed some out at the jam and then mailed others the next day. The book is really amazing and we should all be proud of what we created together.

A big thank you has to go out to Heather Plunkett and the staff of the Cartoon Art Museum and Bookstore for their support, space and help. A shout out to Kirstin Barrett for sharing her products and the wonderful samples. And of course a big thank you to everyone who participated…

Cameron Forsley, Maggie Tran, Lindsey Stapleton, Eric Haddad, Aurora Sofia Alcantar, Jeff Nevins, Rick Lucey, George Webber, Pat Tong, Mike Scagliotti, Audry Soffa, Jeff Plotkin, David Mann, Rena Simon-Igra, Alan Groening, and Cathy Notter.

So, here is the final book: click on the picture below to give it a read. (flash required)

Continue reading »]]> Just a reminder that the CAM-JAM event is happening this coming Sunday Feb 21, 2010. To find out more, VISIT THIS LINK.

Since the themes for this CAM-JAM Comic Jam are Samurai/Superhero and Brush and Ink here are a few good inspirational links.

http://www.gallerysamurai.com/ – Photos of Samurai artifacts and armor.

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/ – Examples of Superheros from around the world.

http://pulphope.blogspot.com/ – A great master of brush inking, Paul Pope

http://www.timsale1.com/ – The talented Tim Sale.

Continue reading »]]> OK, folks. I am representing the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco in setting up another comic jam at the Cartoon Art Museum with help of the museum’s bookstore. Yep, this is my ‘baby’. So if you are in the area and love to draw, come on down and join us.

Come and draw with us on Feb 21, 2010

The Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco and the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore present CAM-JAM 2010 – #1 on Sunday February 21, 2010! 11:30 am to 5:30 pm

It’s a New Year and time for more collaborative comic jam fun with the artist from the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco. Spend the day drawing and creating with a local talent while we challenge ourselves to create and print a mini-comic with the events theme(s) by the end of the day. The themes for this CAM-JAM are: Brush and Ink, Samurai and Superhero, Poetic and Wordless.

Where: Lobby of the Cartoon Art Museum, 655 Mission St. San Francisco CA

When: Sunday February 21, 2010 – 11:30 am to 5:30 pm

Cost: FREE, but copies of the final mini comic will cost the price of printing. ++

What (to bring): Yourself and your favorite drawing tools, especially your favorite brush pen. Feel free to bring clippings/copies of reference that fits the theme as well as your networking paraphernalia.

How – Schedule below: (note: you are not required to attend the whole day, but you are encouraged too)

11:00 am – Set-up and schmooze.

11:30 am – Warm-Up Jam: Group Mash-up Character Design.

12:00 pm – Our Warm-up Jam drawings will taken and scanned while we set up for the mini-comic jam. Note: If you worked on the Warm-Up Jam drawings and stay till the end, you get to take a drawing home with you. Free art, woot!

Feel free to bring printouts/clippings of inspiration based on this sessions themes to share.

Set up to draw. Take a break for a quick lunch or snack.

12:30 pm Start the Comic Jam!

We will break into small teams of 2-4 artists who will be tasked with creating a short 2-8 page comic using the themes of the event. Card stock will be provided to draw on and some ink and brushes to try, but feel free to bring your favorite tools too.

A few volunteers will be helping us to scan pages when your team finish one, so we should be able to get the work on-line/printed faster then last year.

4:30 pm STOP

While any last pages are quickly prepped/scanned to make copies, the group will work on the final cover.

Everyone cleans up! Shop at the bookstore!

A team of expert copiers will jet on over to the copy store while any remaining artist will help vote on their favorite Warm-Up Jam drawings that are now displayed on the Bookstore Wall. There might be a possible prize as well.

5:00 pm ish Book arrive for you to take home with samples of everyone’s work. **

** Each artist can get copy(s) of the final Mini-Comic at cost; a few extra copies will be available at the bookstore for a full price as our way of helping this wonderful non-profit museum out.

++ (Legal stuff) By participating in the Jam you are giving permission for your work to be placed on-line by the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco and that a limited number of books can be sold as a fundraiser for the Cartoon Art Museum through its bookstore. Every effort to give credit and promote the participants will be made.

Random Numbers will be given by anyone who did the Warm-Up and we will go in order with each person taking an original drawing home.

5:30 go out for food/drink and schmooze, draw more, network, have fun.

So, why not join us?

Questions: Contact the CCSF organizer Brian Kolm at staff (at) atomicbearpress.com

Hope to see you there.

Continue reading »]]> - In response to the comic jam on last Sunday, here are some thoughts from my friend Romy. She has nicely created a list of points that would be fit for a corroborate presentation. Romy also helped to keep the event flowing and brought a lot of spirit to the proceeding. Thanks Romy.

- I will be at San Francisco Zine Fest next weekend, but have not solidified any plans. They have lots of cool stuff going on. http://sfzinefest.com/

- “Look at me! Autobio Comics Read by Their Creators” There will be a pre-SFZinefest event at the Cartoon Art Museum on Friday August 21, 2009.

Cartoon Art Museum Event: Friday, August 21, 2009, from 7pm to 9pm
$5 Suggested Donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)

- My pal artist Alex Schumacher will be the artist is residence at the Cartoon Art Museum on Saturday August 22, 2009 from 1 to 3 pm. find out more at: http://www.cartoonart.org and  http://myworldisfunnier.blogspot.com/

Continue reading »]]> Check out the photos on the CCSF photo group on Flickr.

Well, today 26 people came to the Cartoon Art Museum to create comics and art. Members of the Cartoonist Conspiricy San Francisco joined with the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore for a Comic Jam.

Starting at 11 am artist begin to arrive at the Museum and were given a special custom lanyard while we finished setting up in the Museum’s lobby.

First off, artist were invited to help design the Bookstore’s online persona ‘Sparky Joe.’ Sparky Joe is a mash up of Olive Oyl, Wendy the good little witch, wolf girl from Lil’ Abner, and Disney’s version of Tinkerbell.

At noon we started the comic jams. One table did a series of illustrations that had an adventuring girl over the course of a day. The other table had two groups who worked on comics on Sticky Notes. The Sticky Notes allowed for us to create a collaborative story that can be rearranged and adjusted creating a more solid tale. The jams will be on-line in the next few weeks.

Later in the day we tried something new, Speed Comic Jams. We took pre-printed pages with three cinema scope panels and posted four of them on a tablet on a stand. The first time had each artist taking turns filling in the panels one by one with only one minutes per panel. We drew in pencil with a random theme with the words: Cinderella and Detective Tale. That produced loose rough drawings. The next version had two artist drawing two pages at the same time with two minutes per panel. The theme was Glam Rock Beach party. This time we drew with Sharpie pens which made the artist work simpler and cleaner. We did the challenges a few more times, finially returing to panel by panel at two minutes a time.

Around 4pm we had a few more artist finish some “Sparky Joe” drawings and then at 5pm we all voted along with shoppers in the Bookstore. Manager Heather had a hard time picking from all the designs so this made it easier. In the end there was a three way tie, so we had another round of voting with the winner being artist Audry Soffa (of the web comic the Bunny System) who’s art will be uploaded soon to Facebook.

If you want to be a friend of the Cartroon Art Museum Bookstore, just search Facebook for Sparky Joe or you can follow on Twitter as well.

It seemed that everyone had a really good time and we were really productive. We hope to have some comics on-line soon and look forward to returning to the museum sometime soon.