2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning [feedly]

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2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
// Andertoons Cartoon Blog

This past weekend I attended the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning for the first time, but it certainly won't be my last! (More on that later…)

It was an amazing weekend put together by John & Anne Morse Hambrock. I can't imagine all the time and work (and cake baking) that went into this. And apparently there's a lot of pent up demand for something like this because it was enthusiastically, overwhelmingly well-attended!

And it was so nice to see so many old cartoony friends and make some new ones too. Pretty much it was just awesome.

OK, on to the details and plenty of pics:

Gallery Show

First there was the terrific comic & cartoon art exhibition, More Than Funny 2.

Here's just a sampling of what was on display:

Jules Feiffer

Virgil Partch

Todd Clark

Terri Libenson

Lincoln Peirce

Scott Stantis

Jack Kirby

Tom Richmond

Mort Drucker

Sergio Aragones

 Bill Sienkiewicz

Guest Speakers

Then there was a great selection of cartoonists talking at length and answering questions about their art and careers:

Rick Stromoski

Todd Clark

Denis Kitchen, Paul Buhle & George Hagenauer

Lincoln Peirce

Terri Libenson

Scott Stantis

Jeff Keane

And I had a front row seat to it all! Mostly because of this:

There need to be more chairs like that everywhere!

Cartoon Auction

Then there was the auction of original art and more raising money for the Children's Hospital Clinic and Open Wings school. Again, a sampling:

Had I a place to put this in our home I would have totally gotten this. (I did draw on the back though.)

This and 2 other Andertoons cartoons sold. WOO!

I did end up winning two items: some original Big Nate art from Lincoln Peirce, and a Farley stuffed animal and two signed children's books from Lynn Johnston. (The kids were thrilled!)

2015

And here's the best news – not only is it happening again in 2015 (September 17-19), but I'm going to be a guest speaker!

So mark your calendars, and come on up and see me. I can't wait to go again!

Wanna see more about the weekend? Click here, and here.

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Sketching Techniques: Drawing From the Outside In [feedly]

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Sketching Techniques: Drawing From the Outside In
// Artist's Network

Today's newsletter features Marc Taro Holmes, who has worked as an art director and conceptual designer at studios such as Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Disney. Now you can learn to sketch with his new book, The Urban Sketcher: Techniques for Seeing and Drawing on Location. 

Now, I'd like to make a special request…Will you please take a minute to complete this short survey about a different (but likely familiar) kind of art? We're trying to determine how much interest there is so we can decide how to proceed with our coverage and offerings. You'll receive a 10% OFF promo code for North Light Shop for participating. Please click here to begin: http://svy.mk/1qveuRZ.

Thank you!
Cherie

Lisbon, Jeronimos Interior (pen, ink and watercolor on 140-lb. Canson Montval block, 15×20) by Marc Taro Holmes

From The Urban Sketcher by Marc Taro Holmes

"Urban sketching is about observing the world, witnessing and recording. Thus, we want to be able to draw reasonably accurately. That does not mean photographically real–that kind of drawing is for studio artists who want to spend a great deal of time on a drawing. As urban sketchers, we want to simply sketch in a descriptive way to show people our stories. We want them to not only see what we've seen, but also to feel what it was like to be there.

"To that end, we must be able to draw anything we might encounter. We can't be good at faces but not at architecture, or avoid cars because their shapes are complex. We need an all-around comfort with drawing, where any subject is equally achievable.

Sight Measuring and Angle Checking: You're probably familiar with the image of the artist with his arm extended, holding a brush upright, thumb up like a hitchhiker. This is not just a funny stereotype of an artist–it's a real measuring technique. In this shot I am checking things like the angle of the sloped street, and the height of the windows.

"Drawing from the outside in is a principle I've adopted in approaching all my sketches. The idea is to work larger-to-smaller, establishing the big shapes before investing time on the details. It's a very fast way to sketch and a lot of problems with these outside shapes can be solved by doing corrections when things are still simple outlines.

Try to spot any errors in proportion in the first few minutes of a sketch. There's nothing more frustrating than drawing in a lot of interesting details, only to realize you've drawn an important element out of scale. Or that you haven't judged the height right, and you're about to go off the edge of the page. That has happened to me many times, but there are two simple techniques I call "sight measuring" and "angle checking" that can help you spot these issues early on. They're a simplified version of what is taught in fine-art ateliers as sight-size drawing.

Sight size, when done in the traditional manner, is a technique for the perfectionist. The artist must stand at a set distance from the subject and draw the subject to the scale it appears from that distance–the exact size that is in sight. The drawing is positioned vertically on an easel, directly parallel to the model. Precise measurements (using calipers and plumb lines) can be accurately checked between the drawing and the subject. It gives you a perfect drawing, but it it's only for the most patient and determined of artists. ~M.T.H.

Learn more about Holmes's sketching techniques in The Urban Sketcher: Techniques for Seeing and Drawing on Location.

The post Sketching Techniques: Drawing From the Outside In appeared first on Artist's Network.

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Tony Auth, 1942-2014 [feedly]

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Tony Auth, 1942-2014
// lines and colors

For over 40 years, Tony Auth was a glimmer of sanity amid the news of the day, in the form of his cartoons on the opinion pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In 2012, Auth — a winner of the Pulitzer and Herblock Prizes — moved to the local PBS affiliate, bringing his cartoons to their NewsWorks website.

Auth's cartoons, drawn with a wonderfully sketchy line, and little pretense, carried his commentary straight to the point, often skewering left and right alike, though most would count his politics as liberal (if only because he wasn't rabidly right wing).

Auth died this month, on September 14, 2014, at the age of 72.

Tony Auth was also an illustrator of children's books. You can find a number of them, along with collections of his editorial cartoons, on Amazon.

I, for one, will miss his visual voice and that occasional breath of sanity amid the screaming and finger-pointing, particularly now.

For more, see my previous post on Tony Auth (from 2006).

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The Battle of Five Armies: Round 2 [feedly]

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The Battle of Five Armies: Round 2
// Muddy Colors

by Justin Gerard

As some of you may recall, a few years ago I took a stab at a battle scene which was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's Battle of Five Armies from "The Hobbit."  

I had originally decided to do a version of "the Hobbit" for myself, both out of love of the story, and also so I could nail down my own ideas about it before Peter Jackson and the good folks over at Weta released theirs, (and risk having it possibly influence, or even replace, my own ideas). 

To see the original series I did on "The Hobbit," visit the collection here.

Now it is several years later and Jackson and co. are about to release the third and final installment of their films based on "The Hobbit." This one will almost certainly feature a particular scene that I have always wanted to paint.  One that Bilbo never even sees, but that nonetheless was one of the most interesting little side events from the story.  

Beorne's final showdown with Bolg

It's only mentioned very briefly, but yet it always held my imagination. I've always wanted to paint it.

So now I am going about drawing all of my various heroes, villains, miscreants and warriors.  There are so many interesting little moments to work with in a battle scene like this.  Especially a battle scene where so much interesting development has occurred throughout the book leading up to this moment.    

I'm hoping to have the painting finished long before the final installment hits...  but after working out my rough sketches, I am realizing that I have more than 50 figures performing some kind of action in the scene.  Maybe I've lost my mind... I mean, there comes a point when you have to ask, 'how many goblins is too many goblins?'

But I can't wait to jump in and start painting them.  

The Battle of Five Armies 2014
BE PREPARED FOR MADNESS.

One last note for those wondering: We finally have our print store back up! Check them out at GalleryGerard.com.  

To follow the developmental work from my original series on "The Hobbit," visit the Hobbit posts on my old blog at quickhidehere.

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Tweet from chocobo joe (@joevgreathead)

	chocobo joe (@joevgreathead)
9/3/14, 1:02 PM #whatIDoOnMyBreaks Today. pic.twitter.com/yvrdnnvXZQ

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Move Over MacGyver. I’ve Got a Painting Studio Gadget for You! [feedly]

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Move Over MacGyver. I've Got a Painting Studio Gadget for You!
// Artist Daily

I was on a studio visit the other day to artist Daniel Baltzer's place in Harlem and the first thing that grabbed my attention—even before looking at his paintings (!)—was this cool little contraption he had in the middle of his studio, with brushes sticking out of it and an inset groove on the tabletop surface to hold his glass plate palette.

Reacting to my interest, Dan told me that the table was actually one of those bedside tables you'd see in a hospital room. You know the ones—where you pull a lever under the tabletop and you can adjust its height. Dan got his from another artist and customized it with his painting supplies for the small studio in his home.

Daniel Baltzer's repurposed hospital table makes a great transportable palette, storage container, and brush holder all in one.

Essentially it is a portable art case with everything he needs to work with in a day of painting: brushes, painting palette, paper towels (in a dispenser made by the artist at the base of the table) and rigged out with a few drawers for the rest of his supplies. Plus it is still on wheels, so it can be pulled wherever it needs to go.

Dan and I got to talking about how in a home studio, you've got to be creative with just about everything associated with how to paint—storage solutions, painting solutions, handling solutions—and that problem solving seems like the underlying trait that allows an artist to meet all those challenges. And it is well worth it because, in Daniel's case, his studio is conveniently located in his home so he can take care of his infant son while still being just a hallway down from his studio.

Inside the Art Studio features artists from all across the country not only sharing their working methods and painting processes, but also sharing the nuts and bolts of how they work day to day. And that covers a lot of interesting, informative territory. Enjoy! 

And if you have a great studio solution you want to share, leave a comment and let me know!

P.S. If you like peeking inside a fellow artist's studio as much as I do for ideas and inspiration, check out The Best of My World--a free eBook from Southwest Art on artists and their creative spaces.

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Tweet from banksy (@thereaIbanksy)

	banksy (@thereaIbanksy)
9/28/14, 7:49 PM pic.twitter.com/8fBLyfUh7i

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Tweet from Julia Cameron (@J_CameronLive)

	Julia Cameron (@J_CameronLive)
9/27/14, 7:15 AM A day when I write is a happy day. A day when I don't write is less happy. This is not discipline-- it is affection, enthusiasm, adventure.

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Drawings as an Archive of Oneself: the Freedom of the Unbuilt – SOCKS

socks-studio.com/2014/05/20/drawings-as-an-archive-of-oneself-the-freedom-of-the-unbuilt

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Tweet from Wacom (@wacom)

	Wacom (@wacom)
9/26/14, 12:09 PM . @monkey_mark took us behind the scenes of his comic. More What Wacom Users are creating: sm.wacom.com/FX9n pic.twitter.com/E5yHKi8PTv

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Tweet from Dan Des Eynon (@DanDesEynon)

	Dan Des Eynon (@DanDesEynon)
9/27/14, 3:08 AM Thank you @TheTinyPencil . Just received my beautiful book. It is full to the brim with intense and exciting work! pic.twitter.com/wzSsybk1qI

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	Vito (@Ikari_Gendo)
9/23/14, 10:01 AM "Some background design for Space Dandy's episode 21" by Santiago Montiel #s_dandy more: mondocanard.blogspot.com/2014/09/some-b… pic.twitter.com/RDWk34PB2w

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He Makes Scribbling Seem Worthwhile [feedly]

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He Makes Scribbling Seem Worthwhile
// Artist Daily

Some artists, you love what they draw. But with every landscape drawing of Georges Seurat, it is the way that he draws that makes all the difference. Take any of his sketches and chances are it is fairly simple in composition. There are very few elements in the drawings and usually they all add up to just three or four large shapes.

Drawbridge by Georges Seurat, 1882-83, conté crayon and white chalk drawing on paper, 9-5/8 x 12-1/4.

But despite the lack of amazing vistas, drawing landscapes the way Seurat does gives the natural world a powerful austerity that I find quite convincing. But, again, it isn't the places or objects that he picks--back roads, a small drawbridge, a humble lighthouse--that give his work character. It is his imagination. Look at the way he tones his paper so that the entire drawing is darker, dimmer, and more atmospheric. See how he reinforces interesting angles with light or dark passages. And look how there doesn't seem to be anything self-conscious about the way he draws.

So if you are thinking about how to draw landscapes with real oomph, don't think that you have to drag yourself from hill to hill looking for just the right vantage point. The power of the drawing is inside you! I know that sounds a bit fluffy, but I believe it wholeheartedly. The way you decide how to draw a landscape is much more important than what you draw. So spend time thinking and experimenting with the effects of your mark making or use of light and shadow, and I think you'll be rewarded with a good deal more confidence in what you are doing than when you started, and a sense of your artistic self that none of us ever nourish enough.

Approach to the Bridge at Courbevoie by Georges Seurat, 1886, conté crayon drawing, 9 1/8 x 11 3/4.		The Lighthouse at Honfleur by Georges Seurat, 1886, conté crayon drawing, 9 1/2 x 12 1/8.

In the same way, I'm always drawn to instructional guides that show me how much of a difference one skill can make when I use it the way I want to. The Urban Sketcher fits that bill. From sketching people passing by to drawing trees in the park for a quick five minute study, there's a sense that the potential for sketching is all around you--if you are open to putting your own mark on it. And I hope you are! Enjoy!

 

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1910-again: Alfred Cossmann, Lichen 1942 [feedly]

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1910-again: Alfred Cossmann, Lichen 1942
// The Curve in the Line

1910-again:

Alfred Cossmann, Lichen 1942

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