STAY TOONED!

Comic enthusiast and artist John Read has come out with issue 5 of his great publication, STAY TOONED! Magazine. The publication is clean, professional, and pays attention to cartoonists and comic artists. This time through, I'm honored to be a part of the issue and considered worthy of being printed on pages of such great cartoonists. John does a great job, and he does it ALL himself for the love of the art, so support him by subscribing to this truly unique publication.

My buddy Tom Richmond has been profiled, featured on the cover with his incredible illustration, and does a better job of running down what STAY TOONED! offers through past blog posts here.

Cartoonist Survey

Over at David's blog, you can read a quick survey he conducted on myself and many other cartoonists. He's really building up a BIG list, some friends, some artists I admire, and others I'm just now learning about. Very cool idea.

Shreveportians For Drawing!

YESSSSS.

Come one, Come all, Louisiana locals who care about your craft (or like to drink):

Doodlin'

I haven't been drawing much since we ended our shoot schedule for the short film (catching up on emails, etc) but I'll be drawing a bunch this weekend and also doing a painting for some dear friends. In the meantime, here are a few doodles/sketches that I grabbed from my sketchbook, from December (click to enlarge):

RIP David Levine (1926-2009) One of the rare Legends.

NPR Story of a true Master.

Salvador Dali warmup sketch

This was about 45 minutes this morning in Photoshop.

I was contemplating his mustache and decided to omit it from this sketch. I like the mystery of it... the humanity, rather than a 'character' that he always put on. He was so eccentric and character-like, and a large part of that was his 'costume', props, poses, expressions and his trademark mustache. I liked the idea of showing the human. Not hiding the expression though. He's so pensive, surely, while painting, I didn't want it to be mistaken for an 'artist' pose. This is somewhere in between, and I enjoy the simplicity of taking away his mustache.

This could almost be a death mask.

detail:

Sketch hour

I've been working hard on an animated short film lately, handling character and prop design, so in between work and life I try to still give myself at least a couple hours a week to just sketch for fun and practice. This is my time to relax, watch television and just let my brain wander... sort of stretching my sketch-muscles.

Here a sketchbook page from one such session a couple weeks ago:

(these are Prismacolor markers and Prismacolor colored pencils on paper)

Mural COMPLETE!

A local friend is opening a new bar soon, which is promising to be a good time, and something artsy and new for the city... called CITY BAR. The design was done by my pals
Bill, Adam, and I. We painted the mural at roughly 13' x 5', designed specifically for this space.


After a couple months and dozens of sessions pushing and pulling the colors, we are happy to say it is finished! You can check it out (if you're in the Shreveport area) this week, when CITY BAR opens its doors.

Also, drop in soon on a Wednesday night when they will be hosting an INDIE-NITE, with good indie rock and alt rock to dance to.

Sketchbooking

Here are some recent sketches from my sketchy von bookus. I am enjoying the errant line of the pen and how charming it can be on its own. Sometimes small areas are nice in their simplicity:

details:

30 minute cool-down sketch

I didn't get a chance to do a warmup sketch this morning, so after work (before heading home) I decided to paint the birthday sketch subject over at the ISCA members forum, Neil Young.

This is a 30 minute digital sketch. Again, trying to get loose with brushes, edges, and color: