Still killing myself working on a brutally involved, short deadline job for MAD, so no time this week for a proper “sketch o’the week”. Here is a quick study of former vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin done as a preliminary part of an upcoming project. READ MORE
One last post on the Orphan Works / Illustrator’s Partnership front, then no more for a while, I promise. It’s hard to believe, but the Graphic Artist’s Guild, that venerable organization that is supposed to be looking out for the needs and rights of artists everywhere, is actually suing the Illustrator’s Partnership of America and five specific defendants for damages of a million dollars for what they call “defamatory public comments about GAG’s activities and use of industry reprographic royalties”. I have tried to read up on the issue, which involved funds the GAG has apparently been collecting for years for “reprographic royalties”, which are… READ MORE
Used with permission Regular readers of my blog know I have been very vocal in opposing the Orphan Works Act in it’s various forms. It’s my opinion that only someone with another agenda to serve would believe this law is a good thing for anyone but those seeking to use intellectual property without paying the creator for the right to use it, or those who want to profit by forcing those creators to pay to register all their work in private databases. The poor excuse of being able to legally copy great grandma’s wedding pictures and to archive deteriorating creative works is not enough to… READ MORE
More background info and history on the Orphan Works Act: FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP Orphan Works: A Lame Duck Countdown: Part II. The Legislative Blueprint 12.02.08 The “legislative blueprint” for the Orphan Works Act was not drafted by the Copyright Office after their year-long Orphan Works study, but before it, by law students at the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic. Their Copyright Clearance Initiative (CCI) is the document that first proposed the “limitation on remedies” that would radically change international copyright law. From page 5 of the CCI proposal: “Under no circumstances will Sec. 504(c) statutory damages, attorney’s fees, damages based on the user’s profits… READ MORE
I just received the following from the Illustrator’s Partnership. Lot’s of sneaky stuff happens during lame duck sessions of congress, so let’s hope there are no fast ones pulled like they did in the senate: FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP Orphan Works: Lame Duck Countdown 12.01.08 Part I. Little Known Facts Congress will reconvene for a lame duck session next week. That means Orphan Works backers may try again to pass their bill by suspending the rules. We believe this bill is too controversial to be passed by backroom dealing. It would let commercial interests harvest and monetize the personal property of ordinary citizens without their… READ MORE
Q: I’m curious about how your creative process has evolved since you were a newbie. I’m fresh out of school myself, and I’ve landed a few low-profile illustration gigs, but I’m often pretty clueless about how to proceed after I’m hired. How do you go about working up your initial roughs? What processes are involved immediately after you get the greenlight? How much time do you spend brainstorming, looking up references … how much work do you put into your initial roughs? And how has this changed since you were as clueless as someone like me? A: My process from beginning stage to final art… READ MORE
The new book above by former New York Times Op-Ed art director of 13 years Jerelle Kraus promises to be an interesting look into the thought process, decision making and insider information of the approval (or rejection) of illustration in the Times’ Op-Ed pages. The book’s description states that within you will find: Episodic essays accompanied by illustrations re-create the battles between art directors and editors that have raged since the Times created the world’s first op-ed page in 1970. The works of famous Times illustrators like Brad Holland and Roland Topor, are enriched by Kraus’s presentation of the controversies associated with their publication or… READ MORE
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