A quick study of Saturday Night Live‘s Andy Samberg. He’s got this incredibly thick neck and small cranial mass. An interesting face to draw.

FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) is the term for any strategy intended to make a company’s customers insecure about future product plans with the purpose of discouraging them from adopting competitors’ products. FUD is also an internet term for rumors or emotional responses to issues that are passed off as facts.

In the last week or so the term “FUD” has been bandied about over the reactions to the proposed and recently released Orphan Works Act of 2008, with many people accusing folks like me of emotional reactions to imaginary issues. While some of that has been going on, there is plenty about the actual bills, now in final form and available for study, to be deeply concerned about. That said, I’m afraid I’m a little guilty of spreading some FUD about the Orphan Works Act of 2008, albeit not on purpose. I relied on the information others were sharing, and I have found some of that to be misinterpreted and some flat out erroneous.

I downloaded and throughly read the bill(s), and while I do not think they are a very good solution to the “problem” of orphaned works, it is not exactly the orge that many people have been saying it is. I’ve been vocal in my opposition to the acts mostly based on information I’ve read from others. I am still opposed to the bills in their current form as I think they are too ambiguous and will still do some damage to professional illustrators and other creative professionals. However there are some attempts to prevent that damage… they just do not do the job.

Here are the facts on H.R. 5889 The Orphan Works Act of 2008 and S 2913 The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008, the house and senate versions of the bill respectively… what they try do and what they one can reasonably expect them to do: (more…)

Artwork by Jay Kennedy Scholarship winner Juana Medina

A few days ago I wrote a brief post about last year’s dual recipients of the National Cartoonist Society Foundation’s scholarships. This year the NCSF awarded the first Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, an award established by a donation to the NSCF by KingFeatures in memory of the late jay Kennedy, to Juana Medina, a sophomore at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

From The Daily Cartoonist:

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) announced the winner of the first annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, Juana Medina, a sophomore at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Medina edged out almost two hundred applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000.00 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award convention. She was chosen by a jury of ten of the nation’s top cartoonists.

Juana Medina was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. She completed high school in 1998 then moved to the U.S.A. where she has lived since. For two years, she studied at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C. and is now majoring in Graphic Design at RISD. She is a regular contributor to the College Hill Independent, a weekly magazine produced by students at Brown University and RISD. Her work has appeared in publications in South America and has been part of collective exhibitions in Colombia and Mexico.

In her application for the award, Medina wrote: “I grew up in a country where war has been a constant since long before I was born. Our voices have been quieted by terrorist acts and constant threats from both governmental and clandestine groups, up to a point where the smell of gunpowder and the countless bomb threats became a part of our daily life … I found situations where there is little I can do to change reality, but I have found in cartooning a voice that strongly reflects my feelings and intentions. I have found a way to raise consciousness without scolding, fuming or losing my stomach to an ulcer.”

Medina will receive her award and meet the professional cartoonists who selected her at the National Cartoonists Society’s Annual Reuben Awards banquet in New Orleans on May 24th.

As one of the NCSF scholarship committee members who juried the many submissions for this award, I can tell you the choice was not an easy one. There were many terrific submissions from a lot of talented and deserving students of cartooning. Picking one was no easy task.

Congratulations to Juana and to all the participants for making it such a tough decision. I hope we’ll see just as big a group next year. Visit the NCSF scholarship page to watch for details on the 2009 scholarship, to be released soon.

Q: After working overseas as an illustrator for a while, I made the mistake of moving back home to Scotland. In short, there was no work. At all. So, like any plucky young cartoonist, I hung up my brushes and moved on to other work (editing magazines.). Now I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, and I’m finding it hard to draw again (it’s been a little over 18 months now). Any tips on getting my skills back to a decent level?

A: That’s really impossible to answer as it’s very different for everybody. I can only tell you what I would do personally.

The only way I’ve found to to sharpen your art skills is to draw, draw draw. It sounds simple and cliche, but that is the bottom line. If I’ve had an extended break from working (and I’ve never had a real break in 20 years… I’m talking a week or two), I spend more time in the sketchbook. A warm up drawing every day is essential. Working up a few life drawings is also a good way to get into the groove.

Back when I did live caricature full time during the summers I would hang up the caricature pencils for the off season and switch to art school mode. At my particular college cartooning was a no-no in most cases and I had little occasion to do caricatures. When I would return to it in the early summer, I was very rusty and would struggle for the first day or so. However it quickly came back and I actually found some of my skills had sharpened a little having been away from it for a while… the fresh eyes and so forth. Live caricature is kind of a different animal, though, as it’s execution is a skill and craft that requires you to be well in practice with sharp hand/eye coordination to pull off. Not the greatest example.

After that long a time off? I guess it will just take longer, but drawing has more to do with your brain that in does with your hand so you never lose too much. Yes, mechanically you can get rusty but that is the easy part to get back. Just working on your drawing will quickly get you back in the swing of it, and shortly you won’t remember being away.

Good luck!

Thanks to Tom Green of Scotland 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.

A little birdie told me that the cover of MAD #490 has been appearing on the internet in a few places, apparently leaked by some Time Warner employee calling himself “Deep Schmuck”. Cover above is from movie blogsite /Film.

Interestingly, an actual article from the magazine is also shown on that /Film page:

Click to see a close up from /Film

Being a good boy respectful of copyright, I will wait until the issue actually comes out to post the contents and some peeks at my piece in it, which I won’t tell you is a parody of 30 Rock, so don’t ask.

EDIT- Having read the actual bills on release, I have a number of corrections and futher information in accordance to the actual bill’s language and content. I’d recommend reading this more recent blog post to separate the facts from the FUD.

Tuesday the Illustrator’s Partnership received draft copies of the 2008 version of the Orphan Works bill I’ve discussed so often here. The bill itself was released yesterday. I’ve read and blogged a lot about this issue. Here’s a link to the articles I’ve done on this horrifically misguided piece of legislation.

A week or two ago I found this sarcastic but reasonably well written and equally misguided “Six Misconceptions about Orphaned Works” post that tries to debunk the proposed Orphan Works legislation as not being the monstrosity creators think it is. The author is incredibly naive in that she believes the Orphan Works bill won’t change US Copyrights in a fundamental way, and she cites current copyright law in her debunking attempts when those laws will no longer apply in several real ways if the Orphan Works bill becomes law. She sees it as a way to be able to archive and possibly preserve works that would otherwise be lost in time because they are truly “orphaned”, like Grandma’s family photos. That is of course one of the simple reasons behind the legislation, but nothing is simple and this proposed law is like giving someone the right to scratch an itch they have but they need to use a sledgehammer to do it.

Let’s debunk her “misconceptions”. Please note I did not copy her entire text here, so please visit the original post for the entirety of her arguments. By the way, in this context my use of her copyrighted text is considered “fair use”:

Myth #1: “There’s legislation before Congress right now that will enact major changes in US copyright law regarding orphaned works! We have to act immediately!”

She says: Actually, no, there isn’t. There may very well be a bill introduced this legislative session, but no such bill has surfaced yet.

That was true until yesterday, but what did that have to do with anything? Bills are lobbied for and votes assessed long before they are introduced officially. It’s over late to lock the barn door after the horses have run off. Previously proposed bills HAVE been introduced and were not passed, and there is no reason to believe there is any major changes to the new bill’s language. Those who may be lobbying for the Orphan Works act weren’t waiting for it to be introduced to start working on getting votes for it. Why would we who are going to be seriously affected by it wait? Anyway it’s out now, so it’s a moot point.

Myth #2. “If I want the copyright on my art to be recognized, I’ll have to pay to register each piece!”

She says: That isn’t the case now, and it isn’t likely to be the case even if an orphan works bill passes. In current copyright law, copyright protection exists “from the time the work is created in fixed form” — in other words, the instant I hit “post” on the form I’m typing this blog post in, the instant you step away from the canvas, the instant you hit “save” in Photoshop, that work is “in fixed form” and protected by copyright. This applies to all literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, video, audiovisual, and architectural works, as well as sound recordings.

Huh? Nobody is arguing that the work itself isn’t copyrighted just like it as before. It’s how that copyright is protected that is at issue here. The ongoing discussion is how to create a way that someone wanting to find the creator of a piece of artwork be able to do so under a strictly defined guideline. The 2006 Orphan Works Report specifically talks about the establishment of a registry (page 106), and how they believe a private registry (i.e. a company that does it as a business) is the best way to go.

Most of her “arguments” against the perceived misconceptions of the Orphan Works bill are predicated on the fact that it will not change existing copyrights as they are applied to creative works. She repeatedly restates this. She’s right, it only changes how those copyrights are protected. Under Orphan Works logic, even though it’s still illegal to steal a car if you can show you didn’t know who owned it and made a “reasonably diligent search” to find the owner but couldn’t, then it’s okay if you drove it around for a weekend or two… but I digress.

The entire fiasco of the Orphan Works idea hinges on the vague description of a “reasonably diligent search” that needs to be performed by a party wanting use a creative property they have found somewhere that they do not have an immediate way of finding the creator. What is a “reasonably diligent search”? A Google search for “guy who did this cool caricature of Bono?” Discussion of creating a registry for creative works has been a part of this whole thing since day one. The logistics alone of individually registering each piece of art I’ve ever done is staggering, let alone my having to possibly pay a fee. It’s a pipe dream to think that an Orphan Works bill can exist without a clear definition of what constitutes a “reasonably diligent search”. She’s right in that it’s not what the proposers of the Orphan Works bill want… they want anyone to be able to use anything they find without paying and place the onus on the creator to prove they have infringed on them WITHOUT making some effort to find them.

According to the Illustrator’s Partnership’s examination of the actual bill:

The language in the draft confirms our warnings. If this bill passes, you’ll be forced to clear all your secondary licensing rights through at least two government certified databases – or risk orphaning your art.

(more…)

I use WordPress blog software for The MAD Blog, and while the only other software I’ve tried is Blogger I like WordPress a lot. It’s easy to use and maintain, and the extensive number of free plug in programs allows for a lot of flexibility to get the blog to do what I want it to do. The MAD blog is self hosted, meaning it’s not a WordPress.com based blog, so when updates to WordPress are released there is always a little anxiety when I finally take the plunge and do the update. A blog’s “theme”, meaning the format and look of the blog itself, sometimes needs updating as well to mesh with the new WordPress upgrade, and that represents a problem when using a custom theme like the one I had created with the redesign of my website almost two years ago. So far no major issues, but things like the lack of side widget support in my theme does limit it’s ability to take advantage of some of the newer features.

About three weeks ago I upgraded to WordPress 2.5, and have found it a worthwhile effort. One small issue with some server security features caused a problem with the new image uploader, but my web hosts quickly ironed that out. I’m quite pleased with this new version of WordPress. Here are some of the highlights of the new WordPress 2.5:

• Widget Based Dashboard- The main administration control panel is now cleaner and easier to use and navigate. It’s now made up of separate mini-programs called “widgets” that are customizable and interchangeable. All sorts of useful widgets can be added to show stats, recent comments, incoming links, Technorati data… you name it. There is easy one click access to your drafts, posts, links, comments and other areas of the blog. Pop up balloons (like the iPhone red circles) tell you how many comments await moderation and impart other info instantly. Imbedded info like your WordPress Blog Stats make for easy monitoring of information on your blog.
• Flash Based Image Uploader- The old uploader worked fine but was a little clunky and tedious. The new uploader uses Flash and adds features like uploading multiple images with one click. That feature alone is a huge timesaver. It also allows for easy blog-side editing of image titles, alternate and pop up text, url links for the image, layout placement, size choices, etc. There is also a quick and easy “add Gallery” feature that will allow you with one click to add all the pictures you’ve uploaded in that post’s gallery to a post as thumbnails that can be clicked on for full sized images. I can’t see using that feature myself but I can see how it would be handy. I wish you could configure the uploader to default to certain choices for these features so I could avoid changing them with each image insertion, however.
• Full Media Uploader and Organizer- Images are just the beginning. Now you can upload videos, sound files and other media into their own galleries and place them into your blog posts quickly and easily.
• Writing and Posting- For the most part the interface for writing and posting is also cleaner and more streamlined. Entering things like tags, categories and such are about the same but located in different places. The WYSIWYG interface has changed a little and is more word processor intuitive if not more powerful. The head scratcher for me is the burying of the changing the post date feature, which is hard to find and necessitates and extra step to change. I preferred the old method of having a clear date and time in place to change as you see fit.
• Semi-Automated Plug In Upgrades- Plug ins are another kind of mini-program you can get to add functionality and features to your WordPress blog. Version 2.5 will not only alert you when an update for your plug in is available, but will give you the option of doing the upgrade for you with only one click. Some self hosted blogs might need you to enter an FTP password as well.
• Bug Fixes- WordPress 2.3x and earlier had a lot of annoying problems with using the WYSIWYG interface, especially with respect to spacing and paragraphs around images. It would do odd things to your HTML code. Switching from WSIWYG to straight HTML code also had it’s issues. This release seems to have fixed most of those and I have had an easier time entering my posts. I have not tried to see if Safari is now compatible with the WordPress post interface (in previous versions it did bizarre things) but as I use Fixefox that does not matter to me. Sadly I still cannot post via the iPhone, except in a weird, roundabout way through an e-mail. Maybe if Apple finally adds Flash support on their iPhone version of Safari I will be able to get it to work.

I recommend WordPress to anyone interested in doing a blog. Version 2.5 is a continuation of some very good, functional easy to use and well supported free software.

Not very ambitious this week, but here’s a very quick and cartoony study of George W. Bush. It was actually one of several sketches I did early on in a product illustration job that I just wrapped up.

Back to the studio tonight, then back to the usual thing.

The freelance work doesn’t stop when I’m on the road, and this trip was no exception. I finished a product illustration job while here in Massachusetts using my Wacom tablet for part of it and borrowing my buddy Ed Steckley‘s new Cintiq portable for the last part. I have to say I thought it worked very well and may have to pick one of those up this summer.

I also did the above sketch for a workplace poster job while sitting at the theme park in between drawing caricatures and working with the new artists. Final will be done tomorrow and then on to other jobs already queued up.

I’ve been at my theme park operation at Six Flags New England since Friday. I’ll be returning tomorrow afternoon. It’s always a big job getting these things up and running… especially this one. Fortunately I’ve got good people taking care of things. I’ve been trying to work with the rookie artists and tweak the details all weekend. Here’s some pics of some of the various locations we have in this park doing caricatures, airbrush t-shirts and airbrush tattoos:

Our busiest caricature location in the Harbor area

Airbrush T-Shirts, hats and other apparel

Temporary Airbrush Tattoos- one of three locations. This one is
in the DC Comics Superheroes area

Superheroes Caricatures. This location can display up to 72 examples!!

Some Samples