Caricature Art Classes

This Wednesday and last I taught a two-hour long summer art workshop class for kids on the subject of caricatures. The first group was thirteen kids, ranging from kindergarten to third grade, and this last group of eleven was from fourth to eighth grade. Very different groups, I came to realize, but both were pleasant and wanted to draw. So to prepare, I drew a batch of celebrity caricatures, which you can see below.

























This seemed to work out well, since it got me warmed up for the class and provided examples for the kids to see. I also provided them with photographic portraits of anonymous people that I found through Google, so they could start practicing. Then, this would help work them into drawing live figures. (It's useful when trying to break into life drawing because: (1) the image flattens the figure, (2) the subject will stay perfectly still, and (3) they can take as much time as they like drawing, since they don't have the model's needs to consider, like needing breaks.)

It's been my personal experience that a demonstration can be very insightful, so for each class I had a volunteer student sit and pose for a caricature, letting the other kids watch as I drew. I'd like to think it was helpful to them, before they started on their own caricatured life drawings. The kids took turns drawing each other in pairs, as well as drawing those who posed in the center of the classroom, who were sitting primarily for me. After seeing the demonstration caricature, they each wanted their portrait drawn by me. I was more than happy to oblige, though we were limited on time and could only draw a portion of the class. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera on hand with the first class, but I was able to take pictures of those in my second class who volunteered as models (as seen below).

Motor City Comic Con '09

Yesterday was the last day of the weekend-long Motor City Comic Con held in Novi, a suburb of Detroit in Oakland county. This was my second year as a guest artist, setting up a table and displaying my work. Last year I shared a table with Jason Heuser and Matt Geerling, both classmates at Kendall College. Plans were made to do the same this time around, but ultimately Jason wound up at a different table with some friends of his while Matt was unable to attend. However, I was fortunate to share my table with Jason Westlake, also a former Kendall colleague, whose company I enjoyed immensely. And speaking of good company, I was able to see some other familiar faces, including: freelance artist couple Adam Withers and Comfort Love, Image Comics' The Astounding Wolfman artist Jason Howard, fellow Kendall alumni Scott Wygman, and Mouse Guard writer/artist David Petersen. While I've only met David Petersen briefly when he spoke as a guest at my college, the others I consider friends of mine or at the very least acquaintances.

Here's my table on Sunday near the convention's end.
Jason worked that day, so I spread out my material.

Fridays are always slow at the convention, as I've seen firsthand last year and heard from Adam and Comfort, so business was slim but not unexpected. I managed to sell one print, which I spent the pay on the latest issue of The Uniques, a comic written and illustrated by the a fore mentioned couple. While the goal of attending the convention is ultimately to earn money, it's hard not to spend a little of it. Besides, it's a personal belief of mine to support fellow artists, especially those that are your friends.

The Uniques, issue six

On Saturday it was like the floodgates had opened and the people just poured in. Still, business wasn't much better for Jason and myself, though we did sell some work and do a couple convention drawings. With the economy as it is, it's no real surprise. Even Adam and Comfort, who have been attending as guests for years at this convention and developed a following of regulars, have felt the pinch. Instead of buying a large print, someone buys a sketchbook. Instead of commissioning a full body drawing, someone commissions a portrait drawing. There was a noticeable pattern of people downgrading their purchases, Adam explained, and if they themselves didn't meet a bottom line quota of earnings, they might not come to Novi next year. I certainly hope that won't be the case.

To encourage my own sales I took a lesson from Jason, who did pretty well for himself by selling original artwork. Many of the comic dealers sell trade back graphic novels for half-price, which is a real steal, so I purchased Alan Moore's The Watchmen and did a few character drawings to add to the table. With the popularity of the recent movie, it seemed like a smart move. As luck would have it, however, none of them sold.

While this may be discouraging, I still enjoyed myself. There were plenty of good points that highlighted my time there that Saturday. For instance, my parents visited and took a look around. Before I started coming as a guest artist, my father had taken me, along with one or two friends, to the Motor City Comic Con a couple of times, so he was familiar with the convention scene. However, this was my mother's first time ever coming to one, so I can imagine how unusual some of the sights were, especially the cosplayers. But there were sights and people she did enjoy, like meeting actress Julie Newmar, who she grew up watching as a girl.

Julie Newmar -1960's tv series Batman

Eric Avari - tv series Heroes, The Mummy, Stargate, ...

John Schneider - tv series The Dukes of Hazzard, tv series Smallville, ...

No Motor City Comic Con is complete without a few Star Wars cosplayers.
Jason joked that it would make a good drinking game if we could take
a shot for every stormtrooper we saw.

That Saturday I also met for the first time artist Guy Davis, who is especially known for his on-going work in Dark Horse Comics' B.P.R.D., a spin-off series to Hellboy. Despite being anxious, I knew I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to meet him. Intending initially to get his autograph on my copy of The Marquis: Danse Macabre, I expressed my admiration for his Marquis series. But when I saw him doing miniature convention drawings for free, I knew I had to have one of the Marquis. After Mike Wieringo's passing, who I never got the pleasure of meeting but had wanted to for some time, I've compelled myself to at least see these artists I admire if I'm able. You never know if the opportunity will come again.

Finally there was Sunday, the last day of the convention, which felt very much like a repeat of Friday with it's thinned attendance. However, comparatively, my sales were slightly better than those of the first day. Regardless of the the humdrum, the atmosphere was even more casual than before, which was pleasant. And as things wrapped up near the end, I was given a couple of prints: one from Adam and Comfort, the other from Alan Schell, who I first met that weekend. I didn't know of Alan or his work, but being a stranger didn't stop him from coming over to my table occasionally to make friendly conversation. He was a nice enough guy, who I hope I'll see again next year. After all, profits aside, part of going to the conventions is to make connections.

Hellboy pin-ups

Been working on a six-part series of Hellboy pin-ups, which can be pieced together to form one large picture in the background. (This was inspired by the '94 Fleer Marvel Cards of Spider-man, which did the same in sets of nine.) So far Abe Sapien, Hellboy, and Liz Sherman are available. Eventually this will include Johann Kraus, Roger the homunculus, and Captain Daimio. You can purchase a 10x15" gloss print for $5, plus an additional $4 for mailing costs. As an added incentive, you can purchase three prints for $12, plus $4 for mailing, which saves you a few dollars. I accept payment through PayPal.

Salad Days fan art

For a few years now, since around '07, I've been a fan of the manga-esque comic Salad Days as well as good friends with its creator, Nafisah Tung, better known as Tyshea in some circles. The motto of Nafisah's comic is "Salad Days: a time of youthful innocence... Yeah, right," which perfectly captures the overall feeling of the story. It is, as she describes it, "a slice-of-life comedy and drama about a supernatural high school that focuses on the silly exploits of four friends". These four friends include: Ashley "Ash" Reinhardt, a grouchy and sarcastic vampire; Autumn Yates, a gentle ghost with journalistic aspirations; Mint Talbot, a werewolf just bubbling over with sunshine; and Renee "Ren" Tunone, an awkward, tomboyish grim reaper. After initially seeing the conceptual art and preliminary comic drawings, I just fell head over heels in love with it.

This drawing was the one that started it all, my very first piece of Salad Days fan art. It was a two-for-one, as it was both an art trade with Nafisah and an entry into a Salad Days fan art contest, which incidentally won first place. Here is Ren with "were-puppy" Mint tucked into her hoodie, also including Ash's spastic younger brother, Tony, in the signature. (If you don't get the cabbage exclamation, that's understandable. It was an inside joke, based on a drawing of Nafisah's in which Tony is sitting in a shopping cart with a grocery bag on his head, making this remark to Ash.)
Similarly, this was for another Salad Days contest. It didn't win, but was given an honorable mention. Anyway, what makes this one special is the backstory it tells. For winning first place in the last contest, Nafisah let me create a custom character to be used in her comic. Thus was Drew O' Shire the cu sidhe made. You can think of him as similar to a werewolf with phantasmal powers. Which brings me to the actual werewolf, Mint Talbot. Nafisah and I both thought it would be adorable to have Drew and Mint be childhood friends, so this comic tells the abridged story of how they first met. Cute, no?
Here is a drawing with Drew O' Shire (right) with Wormwood High art teacher, Art Tunone the leprechaun (left), and a fellow student, Aria the banshee (back). Drew's outfit here was based on a design Nafisah created for him in another of her Salad Days drawings. I've become very impressed with her skill for fashion illustration.





Becoming an even bigger fan, I was compelled for a time to illustrate some Salad Days minor characters, as well as the main four, which you note in the third pair of illustrations seen here. I won't go into detail as to who is who, but excluding the central characters, the rest were created by fans. This is, in my personal opinion, one of the things that makes Salad Days so great: fans can develop their own original characters and create side stories within Wormwood High. After all, the setting of Salad Days is in a high school, which means there needs to be a student body, and that's a lot of characters for one person to create.

Nafisah has found a brilliant solution that pleases her and the fans alike by letting them contribute to the comic in this way. In this sense, Salad Days becomes more than a comic, becoming something of an interactive story. A fan can create individual stories with their original characters or get together with other fans and collaborate, making stories together. After all, while Salad Days revolves around Ash, Autumn, Mint, and Ren, Wormwood High itself has many students, each with their own stories. It becomes so much more involved and expansive in this capacity.

(There's more fan art that I'll post, but I'm tired so that will have to wait for the time being.)

Children's Art Classes

Sometimes it's the little things that make something worthwhile. In this case, I'm referring to my occassional work with the Shiawassee Arts Council, where I've taught a couple of art classes for children. I'll admit it's not where I imagined myself after graduating college, but it's something for now. The work is simple, the pay is decent, and a few of the kids can make the experience particularly rewarding. But what really made my day was seeing this.













The Argus Press, a local newspaper, published an article about my most recent class. That Saturday, I was taken a bit by surprise when one of the paper's writers, Michael Peterson, showed up before my class started, wanting to talk and sit in during the class. Despite being unexpected, I felt very much at ease with Peterson's comfortable personality. It was a pleasant interview while I waited for my students to arrive. When class started, he sat and listened as I worked with the kids, sometimes taking pictures, and talked to each of them as well.

I was fairly flattered by the attention and afterward was looking somewhat forward to reading the article, expecting it likely to be tucked away somewhere in the middle or back of the paper. After all, it was a small art class, so I wasn't expecting it to be exceptionally newsworthy. So when we got a phone call today from an aunt of mine, saying how surprised she was to see me in the paper, I thought it a bit odd. When I was able to see a copy for myself, I understood when I saw the article featured on the front page. Not only that, but accompanied by a good-sized photograph of myself with my students. I know it's not a huge publication, but it still was still exciting and gratifying. It's nice to know that people take an interest in your work.

Pastels

Of the mediums I work with, pastels I can really get my hands into, quite literally. During my time at college, initially, I was discouraged from touching and blending with my fingers by my pastel professor, but after resisting for so long and seeing my results, she couldn't argue and let me be. But this is what makes pastels so unique from my other drawings, namely sculpting with the colors. If you know me personally, this is rather unusual as I am prone to work very clean and fine. To put it simply, I don't care to get my hands dirty. But despite my nature, I feel compelled to do otherwise with this medium. And I think the only comparison I can make to such a compulsion is the painter J.M.W. Turner.

"...Delacroix is taken aback that [Turner] looks rather like a farmer with unwashed hands. Oh, there's dirt under Turner's nails, all right, but it's likely to be gamboge yellow or Prussian blue, not farm muck. And the worst thing is that he seems to wear his unwashed hands like a badge of professional pride.

"When a young gentleman aspirant artist comes to see him, Turner grabs his lily-white hands and growls 'You're no artist'.

"Turner himself uses his fingers to make his art, keeps a nail deliberately untrimmed so he could wield it like a claw to cut into the paint surface."

-Simon Schama's Power of Art, "Turner"; BBC Video

Certainly I don't get as messy as Turner, and his work was with oil paints, not pastels, but there is a definite, mutual satisfaction in being able to touch and mold the medium on the surface; almost like working with clay, but in a two-dimensional sense. And after all, it's only natural to want to touch, isn't it?

Anyway, I've lingered long enough on my feeling towards the medium. Here are examples of my work in pastels. This collection will be updated, just like my paintings and the others.

Storyboards

Sometimes people can take you in directions you wouldn't have gone otherwise. The person responsible for getting me into storyboard illustration would be Jamie Hanks, now Mrs. Jamie Allison, who I knew from my high school years. It was during my first half of art college when she asked, on the behalf of "Team Zulu", a group consisting of two other film students, Scott Lynch and Nicole Davenport, to aid them in creating a short film called "ONE^3". They were in a tight spot, needing the storyboards done very soon and, as far as I know, without any other potential takers. How could I refuse? Needless to say, after a hectic week of school, storyboards, and sleep deprivation, I was tired but quite pleased with the work.

In the end, the unexpected rewards vastly outweighed one stressful week, as it earned us a trip to Japan in Microsoft's 2005 Imagine Cup short film competition. During this time I came to know Scott, who has since then has used my services to illustrate the storyboards for a short film, "Breathe", (it was, unfortunately, never made due to insufficient funds) and a Heinz Ketchup commercial contest entry, "The Artist". And as recently as this month, I've illustrated a storyboard for a short film in the works, "Dangerous", for Cameron Crosson, an acquaintance of Scott's, who wrote and directed "The Artist".

Storyboards:

• ONE^3 (2005)
  
• Breathe (2006?)
• The Artist (2007)
  
• Dangerous (2009)
• Bureau of Vital Statistics (2009)