I’m really under the gun trying to get my latest MAD parody job wrapped up. Sorry, but no “How to Draw Caricatures” post this week. Next week for certain, though.

I’ve written several times about the Orphan Works legislation, and it’s implications on freelance illustrators. This post describes it best, but here it is in brief: The Orphan Works Act is a change to copyright law that allows any party (publishers, advertisers) to use a piece of intellectual property (a photo, illustration, cartoon, etc.) if the owner of the copyright of said piece of intellectual property cannot be identified or located. The law requires a ‘reasonable effort’ to search for the copyright owner, but does not define what a ‘reasonable search’ entails. The law also limits the money that can be recouped by the copyright owner even in they notice their copyrighted work was used without being contacted, and somehow prove the user did not make a ‘reasonable effort’ to find them.

Yes, it’s that bad. A license to steal and then claim that a “reasonable effort” was made to find the owner of the original copyright if busted.

The original bill died in congress, but it turns out it was just hibernating.

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

It’s Back!

Just when you thought it was safe to draw a picture without putting a copyright symbol on it, the Orphan Works bill has returned.

Orphan Works “will likely be a priority…this spring” for the House Judiciary Committee, writes Andrew Noyes in the National Journal, Feb. 21, 2008

According to Noyes, “American Library Association copyright specialist Carrie Russell said her members are ‘excited about having orphan works legislation’ move this session,” adding that if it does, “‘we’ll be dancing in the streets.’” But the article notes that “last time around,” artists did a different kind of dance:

“The Illustrators’ Partnership of America argued in letters to lawmakers last time around that the bill was written too broadly and would have exposed artists’ work to infringement upon creation.”

And so it would have.

While we won’t judge the new bill until we’ve seen it, we’re still concerned that it may be written so broadly as to force artists to rely on registries or other formalities as a condition of protecting their copyrights. Forcing artists to rely on registries by exposing unregistered work to infringement is coerced registration. And coerced registration is at the heart of the orphan works debate.

Coerced registration violates the spirit of international copyright laws and trade agreements. It invites retaliation from overseas. It would turn artists into bookkeepers. It would force us to spend countless hours filing and maintaining countless copyright registrations in a futile effort to monitor infringements — futile because no registry can ever protect artists from infringement, which can occur anytime, anywhere in the world.

Since 2006, when the first bill was called back to the shop for repairs, registries have become a hot topic among those wishing to sugarcoat it for quick passage this fall. We’ll have more to say about coerced registration in future emails. We think it will be central to the debate over Orphan Works this time around.

— Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership

For additional information about Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists

A quick pencil study of “My Name is Earl” star Jason Lee.

Here’s an entire illustration project from start to finish. The steps are not frequent enough for this to be a “how to”, but it does illustrate the process pretty thoroughly.

The client is “The Marlin Company”, which produces workplace and employer communication subscription materials. Part of their products are posters that communicate important workplace ideas and concepts like “Teamwork” and “Quality”, etc. I do art for a humorous line of these posters almost every month. I get the concept and description of the ‘scene’ I need to illustrate. My job is to create an image that is humorous yet gets the message across clearly. This is a typical project for them:

1. The Initial Project Concept-

I get an e-mail from the art director describing the project for me, including the text and any specifics they want to make sure are included:

( 12 x 17 (horiz) Cartoon showing an office of five to six older workers – men and women, diversity in race, please. Enthusiastic types who are concentrating intently. Sign on the wall says ‘HighTech Enterprises.’ They all have flat-panel monitors, and jazzy new computers – everything shiny and modern. But there’s one young geeky-looking white guy in the middle. He’s got a Royal-style manual typewriter and is typing away. A few dozen pieces of crumpled-up paper are on the floor. His desk is an old gray metal one, propped up by telephone books in one corner because a leg has been sheered off. He also has a crank phone attached to a post. He’s sitting on an old straight-back metal chair.):

Text: Got the right tools for the job?

For us to work at maximum efficiency, let’s correct any deficiency. Please take the initiative to speak up if you need something – as soon as you notice a hiccup, rather that waiting until we develop major heartburn. You’ll keep the work – and your blood – flowing at a healthy pace!

2. Roughs-

I read over the initial direction and read the text that will be on the poster carefully,and think about what the message is and how best to “sell it”, or to reinforce the message visually. I draw out a scaled down layout box and start working up a concept. I used to work up three or so different ideas, but after all the years we’ve worked together I know what they want, and just do one I know they will think is effective. Here’s the rough:

Click for a closer look…

This is obviously very rough and is meant only to establish the basic layout and concept for the piece. The client never sees this stage… it’s too rough to show them. I do this stage for myself as the basis for my pencil sketch. (more…)

The above is a very quick gag cartoon I did for a travel agent website that is now up and running. I was supposed to do regular cartoons as updates but I don’t know if that is going to happen. I’m just throwing it up here for the sake of having some art in this post, since as always I can’t share my latest jobs until they see publication.

I’m going out of town to St. Louis and the National Caricaturist Network Mini-Con on Sunday, so last week and this week have been/are crazy with my trying to get all my jobs out the door before I take off… I’d hate to have to spend time in the hotel room finishing a job but it looks increasingly like I may have to do that on Sunday night and Monday morning. Blecch.

Last week I finished or worked on:

• MAD TV Parody- Just finished the pencil rough stage, and have to do final pencils, inks and color before Sunday morning. Sleep will be a luxury this week.
• Movie Project- I finished two “set” paintings for the movie project I am working on. This movie job is very unique for me… I’ve never done work for a movie before but you’d be surprised how much art is involved in a movie production. The digital paintings I did are not part of the original scope of the work, but they needed two humorous images that look like oil paintings they planned on printing up at a huge size, framing and placing in the office of the main villain as part of that set. I am not sure how prominently they will appear in the film, but they were fun to do, even though I only got two days to do them in. I can’t show them to you yet, but the name of the movie is “Super Capers” and it’s up on IMDB with my name listed as “Illustrator” so I guess there’s no need to keep that part a secret. The main work I am doing has to do with the opening title sequence and some partially animated scenes in the film… I’ll be doing that in March.
• Retail Project- A political based retail project involving the major players from each party for some merchandise. Caricature illustrators have to love major election years… I’ve done three magazine cover jobs since the summer thanks to the elections, and they are still almost 9 months away!
• Workplace Poster- Finished up another of those regular poster projects.

When I did the workplace poster job early last week I took some extra time and saved a few steps along the way so I could do an abbreviated step by step of the process on the blog. I’ll post that tomorrow, starting with the initial art direction through the roughs, pencils, inks and color to final art. Check back tomorrow for the fun stuff.

Q: As a college art student, or a freelancer, one is faced with many late nights in a row working to meet deadlines. I’ve had many of these instances and I found myself very sleep deprived, but I still had to push on through. I found that the motor skills start to detiriorate after several days of little to no sleep. Inking becomes very difficult and even sketching can be a challenge, not to mention trying to be creative in such a state. Have you ever experienced this, and how do you deal with it.

A: Monster Lo-Carb.

Seriously, I know what you are saying. Yes, doing art is mentally demanding and requires sharp motor skills, especially at crucial times like when you are inking or painting. You have to be at your best during those times especially.

I try and save the late nights and all-nighters for those points in a job where I don’t need to be razor sharp to get things done. For my particular style of illustration, and especially the line and color stuff like I do for MAD, the coloring stage is one where I can kind of zone out and just render the crap out of whatever is in front of me. That I can stay up all night doing without the quality of the work suffering. Doing layouts and pencil work I can also do when I am getting tired as the pencil is very forgiving and I am somewhat loose at that point anyway.

It’s either when I am doing final pencils, inking or doing a full digital painting of something that I need to be alert and have all my faculties running at 100%. That work I try and save for late morning into the evening time when I am at my most focused. I also try to avoid caffeine and high carb foods during this time as they can make you either shaky or sleepy. I drink plain water or some sugar free and caffeine free beverage. You’d be surprised how much the food you eat affects your energy levels and motor skills.

Sometimes there is no getting around having to do the finer work when you are exhausted due to deadlines. In that case I take moderate amounts of caffeine interspersed with water, still stay away from the carbs and try and stay as focused as I can. If I find my concentration slipping and the work getting sloppy, the only solution to that is a power nap. I’ve found that, in a deadline crunch, I can take one to two hour naps periodically and keep going for days. If I pull a full all-nighter, I need almost a full day to recover from it. The power nap doesn’t satisfy your need for sleep entirely, but it will give your body just enough rest to keep going and maintain an acceptable level of concentration.

Gotta go… I need a power nap…. and then a Monster Lo Carb.

Thanks to Marc Anderson for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here. I’m running low!

Still crazy busy with deadlines for multiple clients, so today I am just going to post this reminder again about my guest speaker appearance and inking workshop March 2-5th in St. Louis. It’s my last reminder, I promise… although I’ll be posting reports on the event after it’s over.

It’s not too late to register and attend… in fact you can do it at the door (just not with a credit card). You do not need to attend the entire three day event as they have special admission fees for just a workshop or some of the seminars that will be held. There are some good ones, including one on digital painting by illustrator Court Jones… one I intend to pay a lot of attention to… and several others including one by Joe Bluhm on digital work and podcasting. Ed Steckley‘s on the Psychology of Caricature should be very informative… Ed knows what he is talking about as he is definitely a certified psycho.

Don’t think you need to be a caricaturist to attend, either. My presentation and my inking workshop are very cartooning and illustration centric, and most of the other seminars also apply to non-caricature work. Just expect to catch the caricature bug if you are there for more than just the speakers… its hard not to.

Hope to see you there.

I’m paying the price right now for spending too much time doing tutorials on the blog. Ugh…

Meanwhile <insert shameless plug here> don’t forget to visit The MAD Blog Store to get your very own T-shirt, poster, clock or other piece of crap with the Dreaded Deadline Demon or The MAD Blog logo on it!

This series of “How to Draw Caricatures” tutorials are a just a small taste of a larger and much more in-depth book I wrote called The Mad Art of Caricature! The book is 175 full-color pages, lavishly illustrated and contains greatly expanded explanations of the concepts presented in these tutorials, as well and a great deal of additional material on caricaturing other facial features, posture, hands, expression and more, techniques on drawing from live models, doing caricature for freeplace illustration and for MAD Magazine. This is a must have book for anyone interested in caricature, cartooning or humorous illustration. You can order it online here.

Part Two: Relating the Features

Previously I mentioned how the relationships between features are the driving force behind caricature:

“Caricature is not about choosing one feature and making it bigger, it’s about all the features together and how they relate to one another.”

Actually caricature is about changing the relationships between features, meaning their distance, size and angle relative to one another, from what they truly are and what is considered “normal”. Deciding what relationships to change and how much to change them is one of the caricaturist’s most important jobs, and one of the most difficult to “learn”. The actual difference between the relationship of features of most humans does not add up to much in terms of physical measurements… a “big” nose may be only a fraction of an inch larger than a “normal” nose. Yet we can see different feature relationships on almost everybody, some which seem very pronounced. That is because we spend basically our entire lives looking into people’s faces… we go it when we interact, work, play, go shopping or to church… we are social beings and our faces are both our identities and our method of communication. Our ability to observe minute differences becomes very fine tuned. Mostly it’s unconscious, but we see that fraction of an inch larger nose as “big”, or we see this person’s eyes as large or this person’s mouth as small based not on physical measurements but on our overall perception of the features and how they relate to one another. Consciously making those observations, especially for those faces in which the unique aspects are not obvious, is the most difficult part of drawing caricatures. There are some techniques and methods you can use to help make those observations. (more…)

This week’s sketch is a quick study of “Firefly” and “Serenity” star Gina Torres. I never really watched the TV show but I did see the movie, and I find her face very fascinating… her eyes are sleepy but intense and her mouth has a perpetual pursed look to it. Lot’s of fun to draw.