General
January 16th, 2007 | Posted in Freelancing
Way back in August I wrote about my very first freelance job and how it went horribly awry. I promised more nightmare stories in the future, but honestly there aren’t that many of them. Most jobs have a few challenges mixed in, and as a professional I have to roll with the punches at times to get the job done. Few have the hallmarks of a nightmare job. Most of the real problems that might arise result from the very beginning… meaning the art director of a project made the wrong choice in choosing a certain artist for their job. That doesn’t mean they got… READ MORE
January 15th, 2007 | Posted in General
The blog might be down a few times over the next week as it gets upgraded to the latest WordPress version. The downtime should be brief, but if you experience any trouble accessing the blog I apologize. It seems the older version had some security issues that may have contributed to a minor but annoying hack of the blog that happened last week. No data lost or anything, and the problem may not have anything to do with WordPress’s security… but better safe than sorry. I suspect the problem may have been with a computer we sold via Craigslist a week or so ago. It… READ MORE
January 12th, 2007 | Posted in General
I’ve met some terrific artists through the National Caricaturists Network, and one of the best is a young man named Joe Bluhm. Joe is a tremendously talented illustrator who is one of the best caricaturists I’ve ever seen. He won the NCN’s highest honor, Caricaturist of the Year in his first year of competing and has been busy as a hard working NCN member, both as an officer and editor of their magazine Exaggerated Features, as well as getting his illustration career rolling. Joe recently moved from Orlando and the theme park caricature scene to New York City to work full time for the animation… READ MORE
January 9th, 2007 | Posted in General
Between the lovely Anna and three teenage daughters, our house is a little heavy in the estrogen department. It’s just myself and my 10 year old son Tommy to hold up grand man traditions like belching out loud, scratching our privates at will and trying to pretend we heard everything the women were saying when we were really watching TV and didn’t even realize they were even talking to us. No easy task but the boy and I do our best. It occurred to me recently that Tommy and I don’t get enough man time, especially in the winter when we can’t go outside and… READ MORE
January 8th, 2007 | Posted in General
A lot of people are interested in digital painting and using the computer for color illustration. I am putting together an extensive tutorial on my line art coloring process, complete with screen capture video, for later this month, so look for that soon. In the meantime, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the tools I use for digital painting, specifically the Wacom Cintiq and how it differs from the traditional graphics tablet. I took the plunge about 3 years ago, and while I have never regretted it there are a few things I would like to see improved with the Cintiq. For years I… READ MORE
January 6th, 2007 | Posted in General
As I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions, I listen to audiobooks in the studio when I am inking or coloring illustration work. It helps keep me focused for long periods when I might otherwise get distracted. I might spend 50 plus hours inking and coloring on a 6 or 7 page MAD job… enough time to listen to the entire unabridged Lord of the Rings trilogy! As I also have mentioned before, I can only listen to books I have already read, so I don’t have to spend that much of my attention on it and am able to zone in and out if needed. I… READ MORE
January 5th, 2007 | Posted in General
It weird how things you think and talk about sometimes have a tendency to pop up suddenly again in the oddest places. In the last week or so I wrote about my workout philosophies and routines, and also about how Saturday mornings used to be when I was a kid with competing network lineups of cartoons and other shows aimed at kids. I mentioned Sid and Marty Krofft shows like HR Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost as staples of my generation’s kid experience. Yesterday the lovely Anna showed me a feature story in our local paper entitled “Lords of the Gym”, talking about the… READ MORE
January 4th, 2007 | Posted in General
I got this link courtesy of the National Caricaturist Network message board forum, which is frequented by a lot of theme park caricaturists! Theme Park Review is a website that… well… reviews theme parks. Created by Robb & Elissa Alvey, it has hundreds of pictures and commentary about theme parks all over the world. According to their bio: “Robb & Elissa Alvey have been roller coaster and theme park “enthusiasts” for over 20 years. Combined, they have traveled the world for theme parks and have ridden more than 1,500 different roller coasters.” I knew theme parks existed in other countries, and they are not just… READ MORE
