07/24/09 - July CCG Meeting/Workshop and Sal Villagran

Just in case some of you don't know the CCG has monthly meeting/workshops. These are typically the last Sunday of each month and usually are held at a Lexington Public Library Branch between 1:30 and 4:30pm. The link in the right navigation bar for the CCG Calendar has the most current information about where, when and who will be at the next meeting.

This coming Sunday, I am excited to tell, we will host a guest speaker: Sal Villagran. Following is brief listing of his accomplishments as an artist:

• He is a classically instructed/influenced figurative artist, specializing in drawing and oil painting. see his site here:(http://www.salvillagranart.com/)
• He is a recent winner (3rd best in show) Art Renewal Center 2008/2009 Salon Competition. (http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2009/Salon/winners1.asp#Best%20in%20Show)
• His commercial illustration clients include Wizards of the Coast (magic cards) (http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/193, https://www.abugames.com/buylist.cgi?command=showdetails&itemid=177899&invid=301496)
  
• He is a drawing/painting instructor (UK Art Department and private) here in Lexington

Sal will give a brief talk about his working process for commercial illustration art, specifically his recent pieces for Wizards of the Coast Magic Cards. I am sure many of you will find this of particular interest and value.

A little more about our meeting/workshop format.

• The first segment - the meeting - has the usual announcements of upcoming events, guest speakers, recent events of interest that someone attended and reports on, group business and planning.
• Then we have a break (sometimes with some light refreshments) and next we are on to - the workshop portion. Here we can do round table reviews of new work that has been brought in. Constructive criticism is the goal here - input that is of benefit for the cartoonist. This is one of the primary benefits of meeting with other comic creators and is a good way to promote learning and growth. We will often have some creative exercises and or a jam comic. Jam comics are a group effort with one person starting the page with a title or the opening panel and passing it on to someone else in the exercise. This continues until the page is full and hopefully comes to some sort of (usually humorous) ending. We are currently reviewing two "structured curriculum" to include either as a regular part of the monthly CCG meeting/workshop or possibly as break off meetings. The two programs we are looking at are the Famous Artists Cartooning Course (FAS CC) and Drawing Words & Writing Pictures (DW&WP) by Matt Madden and Jessica Abel. Both are excellent resources (and I know I will continue to use both to advance my personal learning).

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!