I’m busy drawing a lot of political caricatures right now for a series of character designs that will be modeled into 3D animations for a  documentary film, so I have been doing a lot of studies of past and present politicians in the sketchbook. These studies are helpful in trying to “figure out” the faces, so I can transfer the observations I am making to the animated character designs. Here’s one of those studies, this one of former president Bill Clinton.

I had a few people ask me about what I termed the “Donovan McNabb Disaster” when I blogged about the release of the Obama bobblehead I designed for a documentary film promo.

What I was referring too was a project I did many years ago similar to the recent Obama bobblehead, but that did not turn out so well. The client was a private entrepreneur who was trying to develop a business making sports team giveaway items… you know the sort of stuff that pro teams give away to the first 10,00 people through the gates at a given game. These folks were from Philadelphia, so they naturally concentrated on Philly teams. Their product idea was for a “mug” made into the likeness of one of the stars of each team. I did several designs for players like the Phillie’s Chase Utley and Pete Rose, tennis star Andy Roddick and Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. The McNabb one was the only one they made a prototype out of.

Here’s my color conceptual drawing:

Here is the prototype “mug”:

As you can see the mug bears little resemblance to the drawing I did, and even less to McNabb himself. In fairness to the client and manufacturer they had to squash the proportions to make it into a functional mug, but the end results weren’t very successful. I assume the eagles brass didn’t like it as they didn’t pick it up.

Maybe they should resubmit it, and say it’s a mug of Michael Vick! Looks more like him than McNabb.

I think I might be getting typecast with this bobblehead thing.

First there was the iPhone App with the virtual caricature bobbleheads I did of all the members of the U.S. Congress. Now I’m starting to do actual bobblehead dolls.

Here is another of those weird little jobs that come along for a freelance illustrator that are pretty cool when they actually are followed through with. I’ve designed some 3D caricatures for merchandise before, but other than a prototype Donovan McNabb/ Philadelphia Eagles mug that didn’t end up much resembling the artwork I did this is the first one that actually got manufactured.

The same guy who I did the Bobble Rep iPhone app for, filmaker Ray Griggs, had me draw a “turnaround” caricature/bobblehead design of Obama as “Uncle Sam”. He had 5,000 of them made to promote his documentary “I Want Your Money”, for which I am also doing a considerable amount of artwork including the movie poster, storyboards and some 3D animated character design.

Unlike that Donovan McNabb disaster, I thought the sculptors did a great job transfering my drawings into three dimensions. Here are the final concept drawings:

I think I can still see a lot of my drawings in the final product:

The doll is about 5 inches tall. It’s pretty nicely made as well. It’s fun to see it all completed.

Q: Is there any way you could explain the way you apply line weight (when inking) and why you would do it in a particular place?

A: You can find out a little bit about line weights and variations in my tutorial on inking part one and part two, but I don’t touch on it too deeply. I do say the following:

You add weight to a line to make something seem heavier or more substantial, or to place it solidly in front of another object, or to emphasize a light source.

. . . which really is 90% of the concept of line weight. Basically the idea is that the variation of the weight of inked lines adds visual interest, life, movement and volume to your drawing. Lines that are all the same thickness become flat, lifeless and boring. The inker must not consider their lines nothing but contours that define the edges of forms and objects. These lines also help define the volume of the objects drawn. The question here is when and where do you apply line weight differences?

1. Establishing a light source- Traditional thinking is that comic book inkers treat line weight as a way to suggest volume by using the line weights to describe the lightsourse on the object being inked. In its simplest form this means keeping line weight thin on the side closest to the light source (the part being “hit” with the light) and thick on the side away from the light source (the “shadow” side). You can quite effectively indicate light and volume using this basic approach:

Line weight isn’t that simplistic, though. There are other instances where you might make a line thicker or thinner.

2. Create depth of field- Heavier lines attract the eye more than thin ones, and objects inked with heavier lines will usually be read as closer to the viewer than ones using lighter, thinner lines. You can create depth of field or atmospheric perspective by using thinner, lighter and less varied lines in objects in the background than those in the foreground of your drawing:

3. Separate objects from one another- Since bolder lines are more noticeable and “stick out” more you can beef up a line to make the object it defines be more separated from the objects around it:

4. Place focus on an object- Using the boldest lines of your drawing on a single object or area with draw the eye to that area, and will help place the focus of the viewer on that area. The inker can use this to emphasize the most important part of their drawing.

It’s also important to understand that choosing to make lines thinner is also using line weight. You can create a wispy or fragile look to an object by using thinner lines to define it.

Personally I don’t over-think using line weight when I ink, but rather begin using a simple but consistent approach. I start by inking the foreground and most important elements of a drawing and establish a consistent light source and use nice bold lines in the “away” areas. Then, as I go farther and farther into the background of the image, I use lighter and less varied lines. Once I am done with the main inking, I go back in and beef up lines I feel need to be bolder in order to make things pop out here and there. I can also reduce the thickness of a line with white out (which these days I do digitally after scanning) if I feel I need to.

I’ve learned over the years with inking that you cannot approach a drawing being timid or too analytical. You need to look it over once, get an idea of what you want to do and then attack it with the ink, using confident pen or brush strokes and knowing that any mistakes or missteps can be corrected later.

Thanks to Reggie Ferguson 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!

According to Diamond Distribution and Hypergeek.com, everybody’s favorite speedy/brilliant cartoonist Sergio Aragonés has created the artwork for the first “Free Comic Book Day” commemorative T-Shirt. The shirts will go on sales in comic books shops in April, 2010, with proceeds going assist the FCBD promotion and $1 from each sale going to Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Here’s the press release:

(BALTIMORE, MD) — (December 18, 2009) — Legendary artist and creator Sergio Aragonés has lent his considerable artistic talents to create the first-ever Free Comic Book Day Commemorative Artist T-shirt.

“We wanted to create a unique annual event T-shirt and who better to start with than Sergio?” commented FCBD spokesperson Elissa Lynch. “We think he’s done a beautiful job of capturing the excitement and personalities found in comic shops and on Free Comic Book Day.”

Perfect for celebrating this year’s Free Comic Book Day, the FCBD Commemorative Artist T-Shirt is the start of a new tradition, with a new artist to provide artwork for the special design each year.

“I’m very proud, of course,” said Sergio about being the first FCBD artist. “The art is not based on any one comic book shop, it is my imagination—it is how I think shops look like, full of young readers, moms, super heroes reading and buying comics.”

This year’s shirt from the fan-favorite Groo creator and MAD Magazine legend will be available in white, black, and purple, in sizes ranging from Small through XXL. Proceeds from the sale of the shirts will go to support FCBD10’s marketing and promotional efforts, with $1 from each T-shirt sale also being donated to Sergio’s elected charity, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

T-shirts will be available in comic book shops starting early April, 2010.

For additional information about these commemorative T-shirts and other FCBD10 merchandise, be sure to visit your local comic book ship and pick up the January issue of Diamond’s PREVIEWS catalog, in stores on January 6, 2010

Look for more FCBD news and updates on the FCBD website, www.freecomicbookday.com.; become a fan at Facebook ; and follow us on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FCBD10.

Wow. The response has been overwhelming for The Great Art Blowout sale… I am practically sold out and people are clamoring for more.

I don’t have a whole lot more of these Marlin poster illustrations (I lost a lot of them over the years) , but I did have about ten that I did not include in the original blowout sale for various reasons. Some was because I felt that too much of the work had been done on the digital end, and the inked image didn’t make a lot of sense. For those I did a little filling in here and there where possible so I could scan them and add them to the list.

A few others are a little bit weirder, but maybe weird is good! These particular three I held out because they have images on the front AND back of the board… must have been out of illustration board when I got these assignments:

This one (marlin58a and b) are two illustrations on one board, front and back:

This one (marlin60a and b), the did the background on one side and foreground on another as the client wanted a layered file for animation purposes for another application:

This one is again two different illustrations front and back on one board (marlin61a and b):

You’ll find those three and eight others added… and those are all the originals I have that will be added to the Great Art Blowout… so when they are gone they are gone. Many thanks to everyone who bought one (or more) of the originals!

I few months back I did a short post singing the praises of Tall Tale Radio, the podcast show that focuses on the cartooning and comics industry. I’m a big fan of the show and an avid listener.

Earlier this week I was interviewed by none other than Tom Racine, the host of TTR, and will be “appearing” (so to speak) as a guest on the show!

All of which leads to just one obvious conclusion:

Tall Tale Radio has hit the skids and is desperate for guests of any kind… why else would they sink this low?

Maybe Tom’s just run out of really fascinating people to talk with, like  Stephen Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), Jeff Keane (The Family Circus), John and Anne Hambrock (The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee), Mark Tatuli (Heart of the City, Lio), Dave Coverly (Speedbump), Andrew Farago of the San Fransisco Cartoon Art Museum, John Read of Stay Tooned magazine and many others.

Who knows? All I know is I managed to blather on for an hour or so, and Tom promised to edit me down to only the interesting things I had to say. Has Tall Tall Radio ever done a 5 minute interview before? I guess we’ll find out.

The episode with me is tentatively set for Monday, Dec. 28th. If nothing else, it will be a sure cure for insomnia, and I can only hope I don’t bring TTR down in flames with me.

EDIT- WOW, these are going FAST. Don’t wait around if you want to get your favorite.

In the process or remodeling my studio I had to clean out my flat files, and while doing so I came to the following conclusion:

I have way too much original artwork laying about.

To remedy this situation I have weeded through the immense pile of original inked illustration I have done over the last decade or so for The Marlin Company’s employee subscription posters and made fifty (that’s 50!!!) of them available for the low, low price of..

$25.00 each!

That’s right! Now you can own an original inked illustration by me (oh, boy… thrilling) and also help contribute to the college funds of my children. . . or at least buy them a few double espressos for those late night study sessions.

Here’s a few example of some of the pieces available at the Great Art Blowout Sale!:

There are a lot of different subject matters and themes to the illustrations. All are 17″ x 17″ (art size, except a few noted otherwise) and inked by brush and dip pen on Strathmore illustration board. All are good examples of inked line illustration. Visit the Great Art Blowout Sale page here to see what’s available and for more details. And, naturally, I will sign the artwork despite the buyer’s inevitable protestation that I do not.

This is the only one that is a little more . . . I am selling for $100: OOPs, this one sold!

. . . which is still a great deal as this is a fully painted 17′” x 17″ original done in watercolor ink and airbrush. It’s actually the only traditionally painted poster illustration I ever did for The Marlin Company, and is in fact the FIRST one I ever did for them years ago.

If you have have an interest in any of these originals, simply e-mail me.

The International Society of Caricature Artists (ISCA) of which I am a member, started a new tradition this year where they release their list of the ‘Top Ten Most Interesting Faces of the Year“. . . interesting as in most suited for caricature. It’s a fun idea and while everyone and their brother publishes a “Most Whatever of the Year” list in December it’s a pretty unique list compared to most. ISCA president Robert Bauer and the organization’s board tapped a few members to do a caricature of one of the list of ten.

Here’s the official press release:

Click for a closer look

A nice collection of art by ten different ISCA members including Lorin Bernsen, Lar DeSouza, Glenn Ferguson, Roger Hurtado, Court Jones, Ron Kantrowitz, Paul Moyse, Jason Seiler, Ed Steckley and myself. My contribution is an inked and colored version of a sketch I did of Susan Boyle this past spring:

The process of choosing the ten faces was based on examining both their impact/relevance on the year and the aesthetic nature of their faces, and included input from many members via the ISCA’s private online forum.

Like I said, a fun idea and nicely put together by the ISCA.

This week’s sketch is a LOOOOONG one of actress Megan Fox (don’t tell The Lovely Anna I drew Megan Fox . . . she thinks I have a “thing” for her). It was another interesting full body pose from a picture out of a recent issue of “US Weekly” Magazine. Drawing heads gets boring. Besides, I have been inspired recently by the terrific pin-up/caricature hybrid drawings and paintings of my good pal Ed Steckley.