Free Photoshop Brushes

Over at my blog I've posted a link to some free Photoshop brushes that do a good job of simulating pencil and chalk. If you work digitally, give it a looksee.

Caricature Mini-Con Reminder

Just a reminder for everybody about this terrific event coming up in a little over a month. Right now the deadline for room booking is less than a week away, and the organizers still need a few rooms booked to fill their quota.

This will be a terrific event, and I'd love to see a lot of cartoonists there as well as caricaturists. We spend a lot of time at these things just drawing and the sheer creative energy is worth the trip. Court Jones, one of the other guest speakers, is a world class digital painter and his seminar and workshop will be amazing and educational if you have any interest in applying digital color to your work.

Tell anyone interested in cartooning and caricature. It's rare that something like this happens in the midwest.

On The Stands: MAD #486

Check out this link for a list of the contents, and for God's sake buy a copy so I can feed my kids.

Ken Alvine TV Interview

Check out Ken Alvine's "Someone You Should Know" appearance on local TV in Sioux Falls, SD.
The web site is: http://www.kdlt.com/sysk.htm

New Toon Job

I just started a new project with a buddy of mine who owns the online community called the Golf Nut Society. I'll be doing a weekly golf-related cartoon that runs along the lines of: "You Know You're A Golf Nut...". Stop by the site weekly to see the latest cartoon, and if you're a REAL golf nut, make sure you sign up to join your fellow addicts!

The Smurfs are 50!

Those little blue cartoon forest vermin turn 50 this year, and their birthday celebration officially kicked off today.

The Smurfs were created in October 1958 by late cartoonist Pierre Culliford (aka "Peyo"), who first introduced the creatures in the comic strip "Johan and Pirlouit". The characters became an animated cartoon in the US in 1981, and became hugely successful in both media and merchandising.

I could never figure out how there could be so many smurfs when they only had one female. She must be a busy little woman.

LUTEFISK SUSHI VOLUME C- CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The third Cartoonist Conspiracy organized Lutefisk
Sushi event, Lutefisk Sushi Volume C will be happening
at Altered Esthetics in May 2008 (the month of
Art-A-Whirl!). For those of you who aren't familiar
with the previous events/compilations, you can see
more about them here and here.

We need submissions!

The focus of the show will again be around a big ol'
fancy hand-serigraphed box of mini-comics with a cover
by featured artist Kevin Cannon. It will be limited to
150 copies... every participant will receive one.

Only Minnesota artists are eligible. For a complete list of the rules of eligibility and submission, as well as the submission form and other details, visit this link!

Lutefisk Sushi Volume B is being sponsored and organized by The International Cartoonist Conspiracy (www.cartoonistconspiracy.com), Altered Esthetics (alteredesthetics.org) and Big Time Attic (www.bigtimeattic.com).

NCC's Ed Fischer Cartoon Exhibit

Image courtesy of postbulletin.com

NCC member Ed Fischer will have a retrospective exhibit of more than 50 of his cartoons from his 25 years as a full-time editorial cartoonist for the Rochester Post-Bulletin at the History Center of Olmstead County, Rochester, MN. The exhibit will open later this month and run though July.

Ed recently retired after 40 years and over 30,000 cartoons in the Post-Bulletin as well as earlier at the Omaha World-Herald, Tulsa Tribune and Minneapolis Star Tribune as well as many magazines and books.

Read this link for more information. Congratulations, Ed!

Caricature Artist Mini-Con

The National Caricaturist Network occasionally sanctions “mini-cons” put on by either local chapters or groups of members where they have some guest speakers, do workshops and have the usual draw-a-thon with artists plastering the walls with their caricature art. These are always fun and high energy.

Unlike the main convention , these minicons are open to non members of the NCN, giving those interested in caricature and cartooning the chance to attend and participate. In fact, they encourage non-members to attend to give others a look at the organization and to promote the art of caricature.

Just such an event will be held March 2nd-5th, 2008 in St. Louis MO. I don’t do a lot of public speaking outside of some art colleges and such, but I’ll be there as the main speaker for the St. Louis Mini-Con and also doing a workshop on inking. There are also going to be other guest speakers including illustrators Court Jones and Ed Steckley, both of whom will have some terrific knowledge and techniques to impart. There will laso me lots of other mini-workshops put on my long time caricature professionals.

My presentation will include a PowerPoint show with examples of live caricature, illustration and my MAD work, a breakdown of a MAD job in all stages from beginning to end and a live demonstration of my PhotoShop painting technique. Nothing new there but hopefully I won’t put anyone to sleep and might get a few laughs along the way.

The inking workshop, however, is a little different. While inking is mostly about cartooning and not about caricature, I thought it was something people might be interested in learning about as there is not a lot of opportunity to learn hands on about traditional pen and brush inking techniques. The workshop will consist of drawing and inking a caricature illustration of the same subject. We will talk about the approach to a pencil drawing that is going to be inked, techniques in both brush and dip pen, tips, tricks and other useful info on the way to producing an inked caricature illustration. There is an option to purchase all the materials so they will be waiting for you, or you can bring your own stuff. Here is the materials list:

• Board: 15″ x 22″ Strathmore 4 ply vellum Bristol
• Ink: Pelikan’s Drawing Ink A
• Nib: Gillott 303 (2)
• Brush: #2 Synthetic Sable Watercolor Brush
• Holder: Universal Acrylic Holder

All that stuff for only $17.00. If you are interested in attending, you can get more info here and even register on-line. If you want to purchase the materials from me, you’ll need to commit to that by the 5th of February so I can get an accurate head count and get the right amount of stuff. If you want to bring your own materials all I ask is you being a board about that size. It doesn’t matter what nib, brush or ink you prefer. Bring what you want to work with.

This should be fun and I hope we get a good crowd there. Visit the St. Louis NCN Chapter website for more info.