Illustration Friday: Baby

This week’s topic over at Illustration Friday is “Baby”. This is an old doodle from my files, I just added a quick splash of color. It’s part of a concept piece I did for a client project last year that never got off the ground. At the time our sweet, adorable daughter Anna was only four months old so I was drawing from personal experience.

Speaking of babies, I should also mention that a few weeks ago my wife and I learned we are expecting baby #2 in January. We learned Jennie was pregnant with Anna on Easter Sunday, with the due date falling on Christmas Eve.  This time we learned we were pregnant on Mother’s Day. Insert your own Hallmark joke here.

Illustration Friday is free and anyone can take part. Check out their website for more info or to see what other artists are doing with each week’s topic.

This and That

I’m still swamped with freelance work. Besides putting in long (but fun!) hours on a summer-long animation project, I’m designing toys for one client and designing a mascot for another. I’ve got a few other possible projects in the works as well. But I want to make sure I still post regular updates to this here blog.

I’ve recently finished up some artwork for a few other projects but have to wait until the clients give the OK before I can post any. I’m hoping that will be sooner rather than later. There’s some fun stuff to show!

In the mean time, here’s some misc. odds and ends:

Congrats to the NCS Award Winners — Three cartoonists I happen to know won divisional awards recently at the National Cartoonists Society annual awards dinner in New Orleans. Tom Richmond won for his advertising illustrations (Tom has a great blog you should check out). Hallmark artist David Mowder won an award for his greeting card work (check out David’s Flickr gallery). Stephen Silver won an animation award for his character design work on Disney’s Kim Possible. (Silver also teaches a fantastic character design course online at Schoolism.com). Kudos guys!

Harvey Korman R.I.P. — The Emmy-winning comic actor from The Carol Burnett Show has passed away. I was just a little kid when The Carol Burnett Show was on prime time, but I have fond memories of giggling at their antics. The skits were performed live and I’ve since learned that it was always one of Tim Conway’s goals to try and crack up Harvey in front of the audience. There’s nothing like watching two comic geniuses trying to keep straight faces as the wheels come off. My sympathies to Korman’s family and friends.

The Freeloader’s Toolbelt — If you are pinching pennies or just like to get stuff free, you might be interested in this long list of resources for snagging freebies.

Stuff I’m Reading — I picked up a couple of books recently under the delusion that one day I’ll actually have time to relax and read them.

Hey Whipple, Squeeze This (3rd Edition) (Amazon.com link) is a best-selling book on advertising by Luke Sullivan. I saw Mr. Sullivan give a presentation recently in the Minneapolis area and really enjoyed it. He talked about the challenges of producing above-average creative work in advertising while still meeting the strict needs and limited budgets of un-creative clients. Hey Whipple is a great read for anyone interested in the creative side of the advertising industry.

Sit, Ubu, Sit by Gary David Goldberg (Amazon.com link) is a new autobiography-slash-instruction manual from one of the big names in 1980′s television. Goldberg’s long list of credits includes The Bob Newhart Show, Lou Grant, M*A*S*H and Brooklyn Bridge, but he is best-known as the creator of Family Ties. The dust jacket includes accolades from none other than Stephen Spielberg. I’m fascinated by books that give insights into behind-the-scenes Hollywood and I’m really looking forward to this one.

Coming Soon: Facial Expressions Babies To Teens

A couple of years ago author Mark Simon released a terrific reference book for artists, simply titled Facial Expressions. The 256-page book contains over 3,000 photos of 50 male and female “models” (mostly friends of the author, I suspect) making a variety of facial expressions from various angles. There’s also a section of mouth phonemes and a few pages showcasing hats and headgear. The acting and photography is a bit amateurish at times but overall it’s a very helpful book. I’ve found myself cracking it open often. There are many photo reference books available to artists, but this is the only modern photo book I’m aware of that focuses solely on facial expressions. That makes it a valuable resource.

Simon is now releasing a follow-up volume, Facial Expressions Babies to Teens. Like many artists, I sometimes struggle to draw children of various ages (for instance, making a nine-year-old look different from a twelve-year-old). So I’m really looking forward to this book. It also has sections on phonemes and hats, and something called an “age progression gallery”, so it should be very helpful. According to Amazon.com, the book will be released on June 10.

You can order both volumes from Amazon.com through my Recommended Resources page.

Mascot For MaroonHelmet.com

Sorry for the slowdown in blog posts this week. Things have been pretty crazy here. I’m putting in a lot of hours on an animation project, plus this week I also whipped together some storyboards for a major retailer, did some character design sketches for a major food company, and finished up designing a mascot character for a small business in Virginia called MaroonHelmet.com.

(Artwork copyright © MaroonHelmet.com.)

MaroonHelmet.com is a specialty retailer for fans of the Virginia Tech Hokies, a popular college team. Their primary customer base is football fans and they wanted a mascot for their company.

They didn’t want to use the actual Hokie mascot (I’m not sure but my guess is there might be trademark issues involved). The client originally suggested that I take a maroon football helmet and put a cartoon face on it. Although I considered the idea, it would have been difficult to make it work convincingly. One idea I suggested instead was having a cartoon football wear the helmet.

The client also asked that their mascot look fun but tough. They didn’t want him to look mean, but they did want him to have a strong and aggressive attitude similar to the Fighting Irish mascot. So I did my best to capture that in the football’s expression.

I just turned in the final artwork yesterday, so it isn’t up on the MaroonHelmet.com site yet. But I did get the client’s permission to post my work for them online.

Creative Freelancer Conference

I just received a brochure in the mail about a new conference tailored for creative freelancers (i.e. illustrators, designers, photographers, copyrighters, etc.) The 2008 Creative Freelancer Conference will be held Augut 27-29 in Chicago.

The conference is presented by HOW Magazine and Marketing Mentor. Topics to be discussed will include:

• How do I balance finding work with doing work?
• What niche should I target, and how do I position myself within it?
• How do I create a continuous stream of good prospects?
• How do I find out a client’s budget?
• Am I charging too much or too little?
• What should my contract include?

Two of the speakers are Ilise Benun and Peleg Top. They’ve previously given some very helpful webinars through HOW magazine, and have a real knack for making the business side of being a freelancer feel less intimidating, even fun. Benun’s website, Marketing-Mentor.com, also has some very helpful resources for freelancers.

If you are a freelancer and you only go to one conference this year, this would probably be the one. More info can be found at the conference website: CreativeFreelancerConference.com

Art Books For Sale

Last week I mentioned that I was cleaning out my studio closets and selling a few misc. art and animation books on Amazon.com. I received some requests to know what I’m selling, so here’s the list. If anyone is interested, just click on the item to buy. There’s some good deals if you don’t mind books that are slightly used.

Blogging Takes The Back Seat

Since July of 2007 I’ve been committed to posting something new every weekday. It’s a lot of fun and I’m glad that so many of you have found my humble ramblings helpful.

However, there are only so many hours in the day and lately I’ve been feeling the squeeze. I’m blessed with a lot of wonderful people and projects to fill up my day, and at the moment it’s overflowing. I’m about to start work on a very large animation project which, along with my regular client work, will mean spending more than a few evenings and weekends at the drawing board during the next three months.

At the same time my baby daughter is becoming a toddler, which means Daddy needs to be more available to spend one-on-one time interacting with her. I believe strongly that there are few things in life more important than family, and I want to be careful not to fall into the trap of putting my career ahead of my wife and daughter (especially when I think about how fast she will grow up). It would be very easy for me to become a workaholic dad, and I have to work hard to guard myself against spending too much time on things that ultimately aren’t that important. If it’s a choice between my daughter or this blog, my daughter wins hands down.

It was a tough decision but I’ve decided that, at least for now, it would be unwise for me to keep blogging at my current pace. I’m pushing the limits of my schedule as it is, and something’s gotta give.

I’m not giving up blogging. I still plan to post regularly, it just won’t be every day. Some weeks I still may write five posts, other weeks I may only write one or two. I want this blog to remain a fun project and not turn into a heavy burden. I’d also rather write a few quality posts than a lot of mediocre ones.

To my regular blog readers, I want to say thanks for your interest and support. I hope you can understand where I’m coming from, and I hope you will keep enjoying this blog. It sounds cliche, but I really do appreciate the fact that so many of you take time to read my ramblings. I look forward to posting more fun and (hopefully) helpful posts….it just won’t be quite as often.

Superman: Cover to Cover

My wife and I are having a garage sale this weekend and I’m unloading a few art books. While thumbing through my collection I came across a terrific book for Superman fans: Superman: Cover to Cover

Superman has always been my favorite Superhero. I fell in love with the Christopher Reeve movies as a young boy in the mid-80′s and soon started reading the comics. In sixth grade I saved up enough money for a year’s subscription to Superman (back then I think it cost $9.00). Every time an issue showed up in my mailbox it was an indescribable thrill. I was practically walking—no, running on air all the way home from the Post Office.

Thumbing through Superman: Cover to Cover brought back a lot of memories, and at the same time showcased some astounding artwork. It’s no secret that comic book publishers save their best artwork for the covers. This 240-page hardcover book, printed in full-color, showcases over 270 of the greatest Superman covers of all time. Samples range from the early drawings of Joe Shuster (Superman’s co-creator) all the way to the modern painterly stylings of Alex Ross. It’s not just a hefty dose of nostalgia; it’s also a who’s-who of DC’s greatest artists. Some of my favorites such as John Byrne, Curt Swan, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, George Perez, Jerry Ordway, Gil Kane, and even Adam Hughes all have samples showcasing some of their best work.

The book has only a limited amount of text. Every few pages features an acclaimed Superman writer, artist, or editor commenting on his/her favorite cover. There are thoughtful mini-essays from industry giants such as Alex Ross, Jerry Ordway, Janette Kahn, Mike Carlin, Marv Wolfman, etc. Even movie directors Richard Donner and Bryan Singer share some brief thoughts.

One of the challenges of crafting stories for Superman is that he is literally the perfect superhero. His powers are virtually unlimited and he has no character flaws. While I find his strength and character refreshing in our cynical age, nevertheless it creates a problem: How do you find worthy challenges for someone so fantastically perfect without getting absurd? Thumbing through the book, it’s fascinating to see how Superman’s creators dealt with the problem through various story lines, some mundane and others outright bizarre. It’s also fun to observe the various twists and turns the Superman mythology has taken over the decades. Superman has at times been ultra-cool, other times ultra-corny. His story lines have ranged from the brilliant to the bizarre. But he was always the model hero every kid could look up to.

But I digress. Superman: Cover to Cover is a perfect item for any Superman fan to add to his collection.

Loads of Logos

Like logos? You’re gonna love this.

My friend Sherwin Schwartzrock is a super-talented illustrative designer. One of his specialties is designing logos, and he’s very good at it. Several of his logos will be published in the newest edition of the Logo Lounge series, Logo Lounge 5.

To celebrate, Sherwin recently created a poster showcasing nearly 200 of the logos he’s created over the last few years. Give it a looksee over at his blog.

RSS Basics: How To Never Miss A Blog Post

Blogs are becoming more and more popular. Not only are blogs popping up literally by the millions, but blog readership is skyrocketing too. Chances are most of you have at least one favorite blog that you read on a daily or semi-daily basis.

Most people still read blogs by typing in the URL and actually visiting the blog website to see what’s new. Problem is, not all blogs update themselves every day. (Even this here blog has seen a couple of hiccups in the posting schedule over the last week or so.) It can be disappointing, maybe even frustrating, to visit a site only to find there’s no new content. Wouldn’t it be great if you could know instantly when new content has been added to your favorite blogs without actually visiting their websites?

Have no fear. RSS can help!

What is RSS you ask? It stands for Really Simple Syndication. Here’s how it works:

Every blog has something called a “feed”, that is, a list of all the latest posts. Every time a new post is added to the blog, the feed is updated immediately. By subscribing to the feed, you computer can tell you when your favorite blog (or blogs) have added new content. It’s very similar to how your computer checks for new email messages. In one click you can download all the new content from your favorite blogs.

All you need to get started is an RSS reader, which is a software application designed to read and organize RSS feeds. Google and Yahoo! both offer free RSS readers. If you have a Mac you already have an RSS reader in Safari (if you use OSX 10.4) or in Mail (if you use OSX 10.5), although in my experience neither one has proven to be overly reliable. My favorite RSS reader is NetNewsWire. There are many other options as well. Just do a Google search for “Free RSS Reader”.

Once you’ve set up your RSS reader, simply tell it which blogs you want to keep track of. Most blogs have an RSS symbol that looks like this:

Just click on the symbol, or look for the words “RSS feed” (or on some blogs it may say “XML feed”, but it’s the same thing). Your blog reader should latch onto the feed, and from then on you can read all the latest posts using your RSS reader. It will download and organize the feeds in a way very similar to how your computer downloads and organizes your email. Its much faster and easier that visiting each blog directly, and it will help ensure that you never miss a blog post.

If you want to give it a try, my RSS icon is at the top of the page just beneath the cartoon pig.

Happy blog reading!