General
January 14th, 2014 | Posted in General
I got this email the other day from caricaturist Mike Giblin: I’ve been reading extensively on your blog (and other sources) about Caricature and the Right of Publicity, and though a lot of it still has my brain in knots I’m beginning to see the distinction in what’s advisable and what’s not. My question is to do with subject matter, specifically citing your Secret Agent Man artwork as an example. I understand that by offering the illustration as original artwork AND a limited edition print run, you’ve made a solid case for the fine art angle – and as such, there are no likely legal… READ MORE
January 12th, 2014 | Posted in General
Q: You write in your book and on your blog how important it is that everything in an illustration has the same style, look, and feel, for instance background people. How do you make something part of your universe, when you’ve never drawn it before? For instance a camel or a horse (like on the splash page of The Hunger Pains)? Do you need a lot of extra sketches or can you just draw everything right away with the help of some photo references? A: That’s a good question, I hadn’t ever really thought about it before. First off, the oft-given advice referred to above… READ MORE
January 10th, 2014 | Posted in General
Clicky to Embiggen… The MAD show on Cartoon Network aired their 100th episode in November, and to commemorate the event the show’s creator Kevin Shinick commissioned me to do a MAD Magazine style splash page in the “A MAD Peek Behind the Scenes of…” tradition featuring the show’s creative team. Everybody got a print of it for Christmas, and Kevin got the original inked art. Kevin wrote the jokes and gave me information on each of the folks in the scene to work with. This was a challenging project, because I had to to the layouts, header graphics and text and box placement as well… READ MORE
January 3rd, 2014 | Posted in General
A blog reader emailed me the other day to ask if I’d heard about this news story concerning the copyright regarding the Sherlock Holmes characters. I had, in fact. Being a Sherlockian myself (#1 in Minnesota, #9 in U.S. in Holmes Trivia on “QuizUp”… just sayin’), and someone who has a vested interest in things like copyrights, I found it to be a very interesting turn of events. Some background: Sherlock Holmes has been in the public domain in Britain for years, but not completely so in the United States. The holdup in the U.S. has been the ten stories that Doyle published after 1922.… READ MORE
January 2nd, 2014 | Posted in General
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibiObtFLGyE[/youtube] If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s worth a look. This is a promotional video for Wacom’s portable devices featuring Dilbert‘s Scott Adams and Pearl Before Swine‘s Stephan Pastis. It shows you how the guys and gals behind the comics are often just as funny in person (or on video). BTW, I originally saw this on The Daily Cartoonist, so a tip o’the hat to Alan Gardner and that terrific resource. READ MORE
January 1st, 2014 | Posted in General
Here’s wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2014! READ MORE
December 31st, 2013 | Posted in General
Regular readers of my blog know that I almost never accept personal commissions. This has nothing to do with my not wanting to do them, it’s a simple question of not having enough physical time in a day to do it all. Every once and awhile the stars align and I am able to accept something of that nature… a lull in my work on the drawing board coupled with a stretch of my not traveling anywhere and a commission subject that is intriguing plus a client who is not in a hurry to get the art. This all happened a few weeks back when… READ MORE
December 27th, 2013 | Posted in General
I have been meaning to post a review of this innovative sketchbook from illustrator and cartoonist Cedric Hohnstadt for some time but just keep on not getting to it. Today I rectify that oversight. Cedric is a fellow Minnesota based illustrator and National Cartoonist Society member, and has a lot of experience in animation character design, creating cartoon characters for advertising, storytelling and illustration in general. Back in August Cedric did a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of a unique kind of sketchbook he calls a “Sparkbook“. Cedric sent me a copy for review. First off, if you are looking for a book… READ MORE
