03/12/08 - Lexington Comic Show 2008

In case you haven't heard; there will be a Comic Show in Lexington on Saturday April 5th 2008. This is the third year running for this event! This one day show runs from 10AM to 4PM and is being hosted by Comic City Comics out of Nashville TN. Here is a link to their site with more info about the show.

Show guests (always subject to change) include - Lexington comics writer, Robert Kirkman, Lexington cartoonists, Kenn Minter, and Mark Kidwell.

Look for us, the Lexington Comic Creators Group (or CCG) to have a table at the show! Please come by and say "Hi", meet some of our members and learn more about our group.

Here is a link to the hotel (UPDATED) where the show will be held:

Ramada Conference Center of Lexington

2143 N Broadway

Exit 113 I-64 & I-75

Lexington, KY, 40505 US

Phone:	859-299-1261
Fax:	859-293-0048

E-Mail:

ramadainnlexky@aol.com

03/12/08 - 2008 Gem City Comic Con in Dayton

Wow, two local comic conventions in one weekend!

Besides the Lexington Comic Show on Saturday April 5th 2008 there is second convention (luckily the next day!) that weekend in Dayton OH. The Gem City Comic Con is having it's third annual event Sunday at the Student Union at Wright State University, Dayton OH. Here is the link to their website.

Scheduled guests include popular Image comic artist, Billy Tan, and famous Marvel and DC comics writer, Marv Wolfman. A rare chance to attend a convention so close to home!

Street Fighter Tribute!

Udon Entertainment has announced an open call to illustrators and artists to submit artwork in a contest for the new Street Fighter Tribute artbook. Udon is a Canada-based art collective, affectionately dubbed the "Udon Crew," that has been around since 2000. Their artwork appears in magazines, table-top RPGs, collectable card games, and numerous official Capcom artbooks and comics. (That's just to name a few.) Their artbooks always include such diverse artistic styles that even if you're not familiar with the franchises they illustrate for, you can still find joy in the work found in their pages.

Most of the artists can be found on Deviant art through Udon's postings, and being able to get your work published under Udon is almost garaunteed recognition and great exposure. I recommend browsing them to get a feel for what they might be looking for in an artist. For full contest details, go here: http://www.udonentertainment.com/blog/?p=87

03/05/08 - Blue Line Pro Charity Event this Saturday

One of the few art supply companies catering to the comic book market is actually headquartered here in Kentucky! Blue Line Pro has been making comic art boards and selling specialized art supplies for more than 15 years now. They are also the publisher of one of the top How To magazines targeted to comic creators: Sketch Magazine.
Their home base is located in Florence, KY where they share their building with a comic store - Comics2Games. This Saturday, March 8th, Blue Line Pro and Comic2Games are hosting a Sketch Card Gallery Show and American Cancer Society Benefit Auction. The Show starts at 10am and runs till 5pm. There will be artist appearances running from 5 -8pm (see the Comic2Cards website for who might be there). The online auction will start at 5pm and run for one week on E-bay. Here is the link to the store's page about this event, with complete information and directions to the store: http://www.comics2cars.com/sketchcardshow.htm


Let's support all the creators participating in this worthy event by making a strong presence at this Saturday's show and auction. Post a comment here or send an email if you are interested in attending, have more questions or want to inquire about ride sharing from the Lexington area.

03/03/08 - Lexington KY setting for Syndicated Comic Strip

Did any of you know Lexington was the setting for a nationally syndicated comic strip? I know I was pleasantly surprised to find out about this strip and the "discovery" of another great artist from the past!

From 1948 to 1959 Francis "Frank" Godwin drew "Rusty Riley" a wonderfully rendered comic strip. The title character is a young orphan boy who finds work as horse groom... where else but in the horse capital of the world! Frank Godwin was influenced by two famous contemporaries: James Montgomery Flagg (artist of the the "I want you for the US Army" recruitment poster with "Uncle Sam") and Charles Dana Gibson (the Gibson Girl artist). All three are consummate pen and ink men. With Godwin adding the brush to his tool set to produce black and white art that managed to create a great deal of of tone with just the use of line.

Godwin produced editorial art , commercial advertising art, illustrated stories and novels as well as drawing comics: most notably for the ground-breaking "Connie" about a strong, independent woman in the working world (1927-1944) during a time this was not the common portrayal. (The Art Lortie Connie site linked and mentioned on www.bpip.com as being comprehensive is no longer active apparently?)

Thanks to Jason Lambert (monitor for Sunday UK figure drawing sessions) for this post idea.

2/18/08 - Colors!

We all know the vast potential of computer tablets and such programs as Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop in the creation of digital paintings and drawings. Those of us that drool over the next big thing in digital art know all about the delights of the Wacom Cintiq and tablet PCs. But, what we probably wouldn’t expect is that a Nintendo DS could be turned into a portable digital sketchbook.

Colors is a homebrew program designed for use with a capable Nintendo DS or DS Lite. By capable, I mean you likely need an R4 Slot-1 Solution for your DS and a micro-SD flash card. You download the program to the root menu of your SD card, plug it into the R4, and put that in Slot 1 of your DS unit. Once you open the program, you find that it really is like a very simplified version of Painter. You use your stylus as the brush pen and paint using the DS touch screen. You toggle to the color selection screen, and there you’ll find you have settings for either a hard-edged brush or a soft edge. You can also change the opacity and brush size, as well as set those attributes to be pressure sensitive. There is a zoom option for creating more intricate illustrative details, and you can even play back the finished product from start to finish.

Once you’ve made your painting or sketch, getting it to your PC is a simple matter. Just remove your SD card and pop it into a card reader. The files are stored as .PNG’s with a fairly decent resolution. It really leaves little excuse for doing sketches on the fly if you have no paper or pencil, but have your DS on hand. It does take some getting use to, though. You’ll be toggling constantly to and from the color/brush selection and zooming. But because there are so few features right now, it’s easy to just jump right in. The only thing it lacks is an undo or eraser feature. So, in that sense I think the lack makes colors a great learning tool for those of us who need to hone their more painterly abilities. Any mistake you make either has to be worked back over, or become a part of some new evolution in the painting. It makes you think ahead and problem solve when programs like Photoshop have the handy Ctrl+Z and the problem goes away. I recommend everyone with a compatible DS give this program a try. It’s, at least, a fun way to while the time away.

Colors can be downloaded here: http://www.collectingsmiles.com/colors/


View the Colors community gallery here: http://colors.brombra.net/

Credit to "Moatdd" and "Tsenzen" for the illustrations found in the Colors gallery.

02/17/08 - Happy President's Day

Here's a little Photoshop painting to commemorate President's Day. I've been recuperating from a lengthy sick spell so I've had time to work on my digital painting skills. Word to all you interested in this - I hope to set up some get togethers and or workshops covering digital art in the coming year. Let me know if you want to participate or know more.

02/14/08 - Coloring Tutorial

Lisbon, Portugal creator Ginmau serves up an interesting mini-tutorial on coloring within Photoshop. By reading his primer I picked up a few tricks for working with images and I'm sharing as it's an interesting approach.

Check out the full tutorial over on Ginmau's Deviant Art page located here. (Click the image when you get there to see the full size image of the tutorial.)

Also, for a fun visual drawing tutorial check out Draw Like a Ralph from the drawing board of Brian Ralph. It's a great little toon that can be found here.

01/29/08 - Illustration Events - Summer 2008

Even though comics dominate our posts here we do want to support illustrators and animators as well. Here are some exciting opportunities for Illustrators to learn and network at some summer workshops/conferences/seminars: (click on the event title to visit the official site)

The Illustration Master Class, June 16-22, 2008, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts.

Join fantasy illustrators for a week long intensive seminar open to various skill levels. Instructors include Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Donato Giancola, Rebecca Guay, Dan DosSantos, and Scott Fischer. "Attendees will benefit from a full schedule of classes in figure drawing from an illustration perspective, use of reference, drawing from the imagination, digital and traditional painting technique, live demos and industry q&a, as well as extensive individual one on one critique from 10am to midnight each day." Register by 2/15/08 to receive $100 discount off tuition.

Guild of Natural Science Illustrators' 2008 Summer Workshop, June 15-28, 2008, Hastings, Michigan

Here is the description of this event from the official website:

"This coming Summer in 2008, the GNSI Summer Workshop will once again be held at the Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, a privately-run ecological education/research station set in a beautiful area of Barry County, Michigan with 661 acres encompassing an amazing variety of habitats, flora and fauna.

And, wow, what a lineup! We are excited to present our schedule to you in the links above. As with previous Summer Workshops, all of the sessions are meant to integrate and follow a unified theme. These sessions will focus on the creation of an illustration from pencil sketch to final illustration, using water-based media, and emphasizing the use of color and composition to accurately coordinate foreground and background. You may select any one segment for an excellent shorter program, or any combination for the more integrated approach. All 4 workshops will use the subject-rich surroundings at the Pierce Cedar Creek Institute (PCCI) for inspiration and reference, from collecting animal subjects to observation, photography, sketching, and plant collection for background subjects! One advantage of the 2008 Summer Workshop location is the extended daylight hours; we are on the far western edge of the time zone, and our workshop will coincide with the summer solstice; daylight extends to nearly 10 pm!"

2008 Guild of Natural Science Illustrators National Conference, July 20-26, 2008, Ithaca, New York.

There will gallery showings, lectures and workshops at this event. For further details please visit the link above for more information as it is posted..

01/22/08 - Starting a web comic?

Creating your own web comic has never been easier!

If you've ever thought about getting one rolling, all you have to do is click here for 50 resources that may just make the task a whole lot easier.

This list was compiled by Laura Milligan over at VirtualHosting and is one of the more comprehensive resource lists I've seen on the topic.

01/07/08 - Coloring Instruction

Interested in learning a few new coloring techniques? Steve Hamaker (who worked with Jeff Smith on Bone and has done a lot of independent stuff as well) has been posting a series of videos to his blog which offer some great tips, tricks and instruction. The series titled "Coloring the Steve Hamaker Way" can be found via these links...

Part 1: Tutorial walkthrough and tricks for coloring comics using Photoshop.
Part 2: Using keyboard short-cuts: Alt/Option + brush tool.
Part 3: Digital inking and coloring using Photoshop CS3.
Part 4: Creating depth, mood, and dramatic lighting by using layers and transparency.

12/30/07 - Free Graphic Programs

"There are a lot of excellent graphics programs on the market these days, but just because they come with a premium price tag doesn’t mean they are the only option." Are you currently doing at digitally? Interesting in expanding your tool set? Check out these 35 free graphic programs as served up by Mashable.com.

12/28/07 - Interested in print on demand publishing?

If you are thinking about self-publishing your next comic epic, you might want to take a look at Ka-Blam Digital Printing. They are one of two main "print-on-demand" comic producers (the other being ComixPress) and they recently shifted their business model eliminating set-up fees altogether. Admittedly, you have to serve up your pages per their digital specifications, but it's a straightforward way to see your title in print and on sale relatively quickly. Great for the individual comic creator trying to get started.

Get all the details on their killing their fees here and learn more at www.ka-blam.com. Comics printed by Ka-Blam can then be sold/marketed by their sister site IndyPlanet. Check out that site by visiting www.indyplanet.com.

To take a look at ComixPress (comparison shop!) just stop by www.comixpress.com.

12/26/07 - Need a Pen?

Are you an artist in need of a pen?
We may just have a site for you!

If you are interested in pens (both art and standard), I'm pleased to share a blog that takes a fairly thorough look at the subject. Found on the web at pens.h099.com, the blog is (according to their own site description) intended as a useful and practical resource for people who draw a lot.

Motto from the site: "Who Needs Friends … when you have pens."

Well worth a visit.

Get more comic creator targeted stories and site pointers at the Creators Corner and please visit the Lexington Comic Creator's Group forum located here. We'd love to hear from you so please log in, say hello and leave a thought or two!

12/17/07 - Happy Holidays!

There will be no December meeting as everyone is tied up with holiday celebrations and family activities. We'll regroup for a big meeting at the end of January 2008. (Illustration by Frank Daenen)

"Super World" in January '08 PREVIEWS!

"Super World"
by Kenn Minter & Clarence Pruitt
Published by Near Mint Press
24 pages, Black and White

- January 2008 PREVIEWS
- Item code is JAN083809
- Page 319
- Ships in March 2008

"Super World" is a new, one-shot anthology featuring short, snappy, satirical tales of self-absorbed and pathetic superheroes. In "Super World" you'll meet "Incredo-Lad," "the Z-Squad," "the ZZZip," Love Lantern,' plus many more!

From the same creative team that brought you "the Experts!"

Tell your favorite comic book shopkeeper to order hundreds of copies!

Thanks,
Kenn Minter

11/22/07 - Advice For Freelance Artists

This post was on the Drawn blog a couple of days ago and I think is worth reading by anyone who wants to or is making part of the livelihood from freelance illustration or contract comic work. There is good advice here for those just starting out about internships and developing a portfolio (traditional and on-line).

Dave Roman the author of the post linked above is an artist himself and has worked for Nickelodeon Magazine for nine years so he has some credibility on this topic.

This just reiterates what you should already know: people (clients, editors, art directors) like to work with pleasant, professional people that they know can deliver the requested work with a minimum of hand holding. Target your portfolio to your own strengths and interests. Strive to be able to take revisions with good humor - this is a winning ability and will get you more work later down the road.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

11/19/07 - Podcast Gurney Interview and Guide to Interning

These were two items that I thought might be of interest:
First a recent audio interview with Dinotopias's James Gurnery.
Second an enlightening post from James Apples' blog Visual Editors about getting your foot in the door at your local newspaper.

11/17/07 - Illustration Resources

Illustration

Pronunciation: \ˌi-ləs-ˈtrā-shən also i-ˌləs-\

Function: noun

Date:14th century

1 a: the action of illustrating : the condition of being illustrated barchaic : the action of making illustrious or honored or distinguished2: something that serves to illustrate: as a: an example or instance that helps make something clear b: a picture or diagram that helps make something clear or attractive

This post will hopefully be updated by lots of you on a regular basis. If you see something here that you don't agree with or feel is missing leave a comment.

Websites:
Illustration Art - David Apatoff really likes great pictures. Inspriation from some of the best.
Gurney Journey - James Gurney of Dinotopia fame frequently updates this excellent blog. Shares lots of his working methods and techniques.
Visual Editors - a group effort "the classroom of visual journalism". Great for technical illustrations or informative illustration (ala USA Today diagram).
Today's Inspiration - Leif Peng's labor of love and the source for 1940's and 1950's illustration information.

Books:
Illustrator's Bible - Rob Howard shares his tips for a wide variety of traditional media
Rendering in Pen and Ink - the classic by Arthur Guptill.
Digital Character Design and Painting - techniques for using Photoshop CS in digital illustration by Don Seegmiller, the middle of three similar books, the first deals with Painter, the latest with Photoshop CS3

Magazines:
Illustration Magazine - lots of the old masters covered
Illo - contemporary illustrators
ImagineFX - British import (pricey), DVD insert, trial software, artist profiles, tutorials
2DArtist - online PDF (inexpensive), lots of tutorials

Schools:

Traditional Colleges and Universities

Savannah School of Design (SCAD) - with campuses in Savannah, Georgia and Atlanta Georgia:Undergrad and Masters Degrees
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) - Undergrad only for Illustration
American Academy of Art - the school in Chicago that Alex Ross (and his mother) attended
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) - has a Medical Illustration degree (see Gurney Journey blog for his review)
University of Georgia - has a Scientific Illustration undergrad program and a Medical Illustration Masters Program through their Medical College.
Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) - this program is gaining in recognition. Chris Payne heads up the Illustration Department.

Summer Intensives, Online and Hybrid Courses

The Illustration Academy - summer intensives with working illustrators

The Art Department (TAD) - online/hybrid courses from the Illustration Academy and Massive Black/ConceptArt.org
Visual Literacy Program - online video tutorials from the Illustration Academy, ConceptArt.org and TAD instructors- has two options: adults and high school students

11/16/07 - Heading to Mid-Ohio-Con?

Are you planning to head to Mid-Ohio-Con next weekend? Be sure to arrive early enough to take in the pre-convention party Friday night.

"Unmasked," the 2nd annual free pre-convention party sponsored by Ferret Press and the PANEL collective, will take place from 8 p.m. - midnight on Friday, Nov. 23. The venue for this event will once again be Barley's Brewing Co., directly across from the convention center. The party serves as a place where comic book fans can mingle with comic book pros, chat, have a drink, and talk about comics, art, music, and more.

If you are thinking about attending the event, please either post word here, leave a comment following this post or drop an e-mail to Jonathan who is helping coordinate the Lexington KY Comic Creators Group pilgrimage north.