Tuesday, May 05, 2009

05/05/09 - Educational Opportunities

Some comic/cartooning educational opportunities coming up this month (don't wait to check this out as these classes will fill quickly!).

School of Visual Arts (SVU) instructors and authors of Writing Pictures and Drawing Words, Matt Madden and Jessica Abel will lead a two week Summer Intensive Comics Seminar at SVU in NYC:
http://mattmadden.blogspot.com/2009/05/pre-mocca-art-festival-class-summer.html

Matt is a good teacher (I attended his one-day workshop at OSU's Wexner Center last summer) and can help you get through the inertia often stymieing a new cartoonist. Some additional info taken from Matt's blog:

Starting the day after Memorial Day, Jessica and I are offering an intensive 2-week class at SVA, the goal of which is to learn how to make comics by writing, drawing, and printing a minicomic in time for the MoCCA Art Festival the weekend of June 6-7. We'll teach in the mornings and afternoons will alternate between open studio time and visits from a group of stellar guest cartoonists: David Mazzucchelli, Becky Cloonan, Tom Hart, Gary Panter, and Kim Deitch! Each will have a three hour session that will be a combination workshop/craft talk/crit.

The roster's filling up fast so sign up sooner rather than later. Info below, registration info here.



If you can't travel to New York then this may be for you: Bobby Chiu's Schoolism is offering a "Build a Powerful Comic Book Portfolio" online course taught by Alvin Lee:
https://www.schoolism.com/
Click on the sample video link to see and hear Alvin critiquing a students work. There are two tuition rates: you can get reduced rate if you opt out of instructor feedback. This "self taught" option saves you more than half the cost of the regular rate!

05/05/09 - NPR Story on Adults and Drawing

When did you stop drawing for fun? If you are the average adult you probably stopped sometime in your Elementary School years. Somewhere along the line many decide they just aren't "good enough" and stop.

NPR ran a story today (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103818071) about why adults stop drawing and Mo Willems, a cartoonist and children books illustrator wants to get adults back to drawing and doodling. To quote Mo, who has been working with NPR on their Radio Cartoonist series: " Cartooning doesn't have to be realistic...if you can write your name, you can draw a cartoon. Your name is series of letters in the right order and a cartoon is just a series of shapes in the right order".

Visit
the web link for an audio archive or maybe you can catch the story today on your local NPR radio station. Here is a link to Mo's blog with even more content: http://mowillemsdoodles.blogspot.com/

Friday, May 01, 2009

05/0109 - Wolverine Movie Opens and Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow! The new Wolverine movie opens today! Here is a video talking about both!



Here is a list of Kentucky comic shops - visit with your friends, family and young ones!