2011 February 01 - Postmortem Report on Xombie Nation! CCG Meeting/Workshop

Thriller Stage Show Halloween 2010
photo by Jennifer Miller

Xombie Nation! was held last Sunday for the first time. We started out with an incredible dance routine by the mysterious Silent Hill zombie nurse. While still in shock and awe from the fantastic improvisational dance we moved on to nearly an hour of expressive and challenging poses by our model and muse. Here is a link to a flickr group set up expressly for sharing and commenting on CCG Themed Life Drawing (TLD) work: artwork and photos. This was our pilot run at having these sessions - I want feedback from our artists! Look for another CCG TLD session in February!

Billy talks about how he got started...

"Creepiest Artist in America" and famed Zombie artist Billy Tackett and his wife Heather closed out the January meeting with an hour-long talk about business strategies for freelance artists. Many gems of wisdom from Billy and Heather's "school of hard knocks" were eagerly taken in by the assembled audience of cartoonists, illustrators, teachers and students.

The couple shared excellent marketing and branding strategies and explained how to actually make money on the convention circuit! Keep your naming simple and logical - cool names will often just cloud your branding and folks won't know why your studio name doesn't match your website name! The concept of keeping a common style and appearance throughout your marketing materials was brought up several times. They even set up an abbreviated con table presenting some of their better selling  merchandise. Billy advised to used your art and design skills to make your booth/table reflect your art aesthetic and branding themes.

Examples of some of Billy's artwork
translated onto merchandise.

Thanks Billy and Heather! I hope you will come back and visit us again soon! Check out Billy's excellent website for his schedule of appearances and upcoming publishing project!

Justin Stewart was awarded the inaugural annual award for "the local cartoonist who contributed the most to the local artistic community."

The 2010 CCG Stewie Award is named after Justin and will be awarded annually at our Holiday Dinner. Justin was not available to attend that function this year so this announcement had to wait till now. Join me in congratulating and thanking Justin for all his work with Live Drawing Events and his assistance with this years UP! Fair! We are proud of you, guy! Nominations for the 2011 CCG Stewie will be accepted in November!