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 »]]>
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 »]]> Last month on September 11, 2011 I helped organize another CAM-Jam with the Bookstore at Cartoon Art Museum and InkDrinkDraw. These art jam events happen around 3 times a year for the past 3 years and always have a different theme. You can read up on past events HERE.

This CAM-Jam we decided to have artist make customizable paper toys.

In the last few years there has been a big trend of customizable art with everything from cities filled with animal statues to galleries of DIY painted urban vinyl. The basic idea is to have a blank basic form which then you as an artist customize to make it into something more. Part of this trend is paper toys in which you can print out, cut out and fold, like THESE. But there are also artist who can take a basic form and make it something unique.

The event was great with over 20 artist attending as well as some of the museum’s guests joining in the fun making Paper Action Figures like these…

You can also check out the photos on the Bookstore at the Cartoon Art Museum’s facebook page HERE. If you have photos from the event you want to share, comment below.

Some of the templates we used are:
P.D. Paper Dude / http://www.custompapertoys.com/2007/10/pd-blank-paper-toy-template.html
Paper Toy Adventures / http://papertoyadventures.com/downloads-2
AARC BLANK PAPER TOY / http://www.morgangleave.co.uk/aarc-blank-paper-toy.html
and Nice Paper Toys blog / http://www.nicepapertoys.com/

And…one I had created myself using Blender 3D to help make the pattern. If you click the image below you can download a PDF of my pattern that is free to use for non-commercial use. It’s not fancy, but it works OK with your imagination.

Note: there is not a pattern for the arms which I just cut out of scraps and used double-stick tape to attach them.

Download the template for my basic blank paper action figure.

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!

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 »]]> Just an update of where you can find me this Spring and Summer

Looney Toons Family Fun Day at the Cartoon Art Museum – San Francisco CA (ages 10-14)
Saturday April 30 – all ages with admission to museum

CAM-JAM 2011 : Animation – Cartoon Art Museum – San Francisco CA (ages 10-14)
May 22, 2011 – Artist event

Cartoon Boot Camp at the Cartoon Art Museum – San Francisco CA (ages 10-14)
June 6-10, 2011 – Story Board to Animatic
June 13-17, 2011 – Intro to Stop-Motion
June 20-24, 2011 – Dynamic Character Design

Kids on Campus at Chabot College - Hayward Ca
June 20-24: Cartooning: Monsters & Critters
June 27-July 1: Cartooning: Star Wars Art

Schulz Museum – Santa Rosa CA
July 11-15, 2011 – Drawing 101

July 21-23, 2011 – appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con

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 »]]> Last year on October 24, 2010 I helped organize a Halloween Comic/Art Jam at the Cartoon Art Museum 11-4. We like to call them CAM-JAM’s and they have been going on since 2009. We had called it the Ghoultide Gathering, but we were told at the last minuet that someone else clams the trade mark on that name. It was really fun.

Artist who participated were asked to draw on of the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot fortune telling card deck. It was a really fun challenge and everyone did a great job. Sadly life got in the way of preparing the work to be presented. But now the world can see the final results…

Click above for a bigger image at Flickr.com

Here are the artist and their websites (when available)…

Fool – Caryl Foote

Magician – David Mann

High Priestess – Brian Kolm – www.atomicbearpress.com

Empress- George Webber – www.nocashcomics.com

Emperor – Tommy Ong – kyo888.deviantart.com/

Hierophant – STORM – stormantic.wordpress.com

Lovers – Karen Luk – paperdragonpress.blogspot.com

Chariot – Amy Horton

Strength – Nick Paz – flusky-wolf.deviantart.com/

Hermit – M. Schorr

Wheel of Fortune – Brian Kolm – see above

Justice – Caryl Foote

Hanged Man – Audrey Soffa – thebunnysystem.com

Death – Reed Wu

Temperance – Rick Lucey – www.drawrick.com

Devil – Heather Plunkett

Tower – Rachel Kate Wall-Polin

Star – Audrey Soffa – see above

Moon – Destiny Stone – inuyashassexywife.deviantart.com/

Sun – Brian Kolm – see above

Judgement – Rick Lucey – see above

World – STORM – see above

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 »]]>
Well, another 24 Hour Comic Book Day has come and gone. It was only yesterday that I arrived at Mission: Comics and Art to set up and now the final results are here on-line.

CLICK HERE to see photos from the event.

The challenge for 24 Hour Comic Book Day is to completely draw a 24 page comic in 24 hour. The comic can be in any style, size, or media. The challenge is a personal one with you competing against yourself to push your boundary, learn and grow. The challenge lets you see what you are capable of doing in a limited amount of time. The only rule is that you are to create (write, draw, plan) the comic during the event. The challenge is great since even if you don’t finish you still win by learning a lot about how you create.

This year, my meta-challenge was to do a holiday themed comic, possible based on the classic story of the Nutcracker. Besides reading a synopsis of the original story, I did nothing to influence the creation of the comic. I also new that I wanted to add some sci-fi/fantasy elements that were not in the original story. When the even started I started by doing some quick character drawings of Clara, the Nut Cracker, Uncle Drosselmeyer and the Rat King. To start with this was all ready getting to grand, but I still moved forward, excited for the challenge. I started penciling the pages with a light blue Color-Erase pencil on my templates (24HCBD_2010_template ) figuring out the Beginning and Ending. I quickly began to fill in the gaps, but with the story not working too well and the scale being bigger then 24 page it swelled to 30 pages. I knew that I wanted to start inking the story by 1/3 into the event and at that time I still had story gaps, but decided to ink/render the parts I knew were keepers hoping that inspiration and a better idea of how much time left would be my inspiration.

I started with a pass of inking the panel boarders and then cam back and tackled select panels that would help me get a fell of what the comic might be. Soon I was inking full pages with some relief after another one was completed. I also made an effort to jump around to render pages at the end of the comic too so the last thing someone sees would not be my worst work. The process worked and soon blank pages and holes were being filled. By sometime after midnight I knew that the comic would lack dialog since I had given myself so much art to do, but that is OK since I felt that the work would still be well worth the while. I was sure glad to have things pre-penciled since there is nothing like trying to figure out story when you are lacking sleep.

The final comic is far from perfect, but there are places where I really felt I was in ‘the Zone’ and that I was getting a lot of the process. At the bottom of this post are a few Do’s and Don’t that I got from the experience.

HERE IT IS! READ MY COMIC ON-LINE

(Click on the image below to read the comic, or follow this LINK) Feel free to comment below or on Facebook/Twitter and let me know what you think.

NEW Thought and Do’s and Don’ts for 2010:

- K.I.S.S
- Have and beginning and ending early on.
- Penciling first gives you structure to fall back on when you are tired. Keep it simple, but make sure you can understand what your trying to show/say
- I found that I did not use all the reference I loaded up on my iPod and with the stores Wi-Fi to find specific things it was not needed. I could see having 1 page of reference as part of Meta-Challenge though.
- Limit your art supplies. In the end I only used a Light Blue Color-Erase pencil, White-Out pen, Pentel Brush pen, PITT brush pen, small tip brush pen, a Sharpie Pen and that was it. I also had some black ink and brushes to do some washes if there was more time. I would not bring every tool you have, but have back-ups for when the ink runs out.
- Set a Meta-Challenge to help you get started and focused. This year there was: a Holiday story, a comic based on O Henry, a comic drawn with mostly Bic pens, and a 3D comic with photo material taken before hand. As long as the comic is written and drawn during the event, your OK.
- Bring a cushion to sit on cause folding chairs hurt your butt after 24 hours.
- Take breaks, stretch, eat, and drink water too.
- Go in with a positive attitude that you will get something out of the experience and don’t give-up.
- Have fun.

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 »]]> The other weekend (8/22-23/09) I was at San Francisco Zinefest 2009 thanks to my friend Romy who allowed me to hang at her table and promote my art as well as the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco. The convention is Free to the general public and features some of the best in home made comics and zines.

From the official website:
It’s a FREE annual two-day conference for independent and underground publishing. Exhibitors come from all over the West Coast, and while the focus is on zines, all walks of DIY life are represented — comics, arts and crafts, literary presses, and more. SF Zine Fest was founded in 2002 by Jenn of Starfiend Distro.

SF Zine Fest 2009 is brought to you by the hard-working folks at Family Style, Miromi, New Lights Press, Monkey & Seal, and many other wonderful volunteers.

The show was fantastic and there was so much great art and creativity in that room. I had a blast. I will be posting links to some of the creators I met at the show later this week.

Here is the table I was at…

Folks at the convention. Center is artist Karen Luk.

And to finish up, here is some drawings I did in copies I sold of my Maps, Magic and Menagerie portfolio.

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 »]]> Yesterday was the second Comic Jam that I arranged at the Cartoon Art Museum, CAM JAM 2. The event was nothing like the first one we did in May 2009, but it was very successful.

My main goal for the event was to create jam comics and then publish them as a zine the same day. You see last time we did some amazing work with a lot of people, but we did not get it finished and so lots of folks are still waiting to see what we came up with. So I was determined to have us complete comics and have everyone take a copy home with them the same day if possible. The amazing thing is that we did accomplish that goal, but if we had the number of artist drawing that we did on CAM JAM 1 then it would not have been possible due to the sheer amount of art produced.

You know you want to see the zines. So, before we go on, CLICK here to see the final product…. (photo by Romy)

We had six artist show up from my invitation, but that did not mean that we did not have others participate in our madness. Joe did an amazing job of inviting folks visiting the museum to come and draw for our contest. You see we started the event by doing a drawing warm up and contest with the prize being 10$ to spend at the museum bookstore. Artist had to draw their interpretation of a villain from a Disney animated feature and boy did we get some awesome work. CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME OF THE DRAWINGS I will be posting the drawings after I scan them, so stay tuned.

So after the core artists finished their villain drawings, we kept it going with a Speed Jam. That is we had each artist take turns to create a comic story by only spending two minuets per comic panel. I had pre-printed zine size pages with box printed on them taped to sheets of news print on the window of the bookstore. Then it was a matter of someone keeping time while artist jumped in and drew. One issue that always pops up with Jam comics is that ending them is a lot harder then starting them. So the cleaver artist at work went in and added not only an ending panel, but a few intermittent panels as well. So as we then moved forward again we had certain locked in elements that we had to make the work flow into. The result was a simple story, but a story none the less. CLICK here to see a picture of Joe in front of the speed jam pages. We ended by creating a title page with Chris doing pencils for five min and then Jeff inking it for five min.

Now all the while we had guest artist doing their villain drawings too which Jason in the bookstore tallied which ones the visitors liked best. Thanks Jason.

So next we tried to start a jam comic, but it ended up with us just doing our own thing. The art was again drawn on the pre printed zine size pages (5.5″ x 8.5″) The amazing Romy finished a short piece as well as our new artist friend Chris. Meanwhile Jeff started a beautiful piece with a group of nuns and I worked on a story of Pinocchio in the old west. Sadly my story was too long for me to finish at the jam, but it was still going pretty well.

So around 4:45pm I started to paste the pages into a dummy of the completed zine. I then ran over to Copy Central on Market St. and first made copies of the pages then fed them into the copy machine to make booklets. I had brought some card stock from home for the covers since the cost is usually less then buying it at the copy store. We finished the zines by bringing them back to the CAM and every one helped to staple them. So most everyone could bought a copy of the book (for only the price of printing) and take it home with them the same day. Copies of the book might be available at ZineFest SF next weekend, I am working on it.

So then everyone helped to clean up the space and then another Comic Jam had ended.

What did I learn? That the number of people changes what can be accomplished. That we can have a better understanding of how we work as artists and that others will jump in and help when you need it.

A big thanks to: Joe, Chris, Romy, Jeff, Audry, and all the visiting guest who participated.

I know there will be another event like this in the future, but who knows what form it might take.

TO SEE ALL OF ROMY’S PHOTOS, CLICK HERE