8 posts tagged “cartoons”

Another lovely vid by Zee....

January 12, 2009

With the new year comes new opportunities and challenges. That's the way you ought to start off a new year, right?

I got my first rejection letter of the year... from UClick. I loved their wording:

 "I regret to inform you that while we enjoyed reading your submission, we do not feel strongly enough about your work to take it on here at uclick."

It's okay though. I am earning my stripes one by one. I was reminded by my friend Cheryl that Dr. Seuss was rejected 80 times before getting published. I keep all my rejection notices in a binder. It will remind me someday of just how hard I worked to get "Squid Row" out there.

So that was the "challenge" part (you know, not to give up!), and the opportunity part is a show at my friend Greg's new art studio in Oldtown Salinas. It's a new art space in an old building. There are lime green walls, terra cotta colored floors and inviting hanging plants by the front window.

The show's name is "You Gatta Draw the Line Somewhere" Drawings and Cartoons by Bridgett Spicer. I have been spending the last two weeks drawing feverishly and planning and buying frames. I've decided to frame some "Squidies" with the original black and white toon on top, and the finished colored print on the bottom. I am also doing some new Squid originals in pen and ink and watercolor.

Besides Squid stuff, I will have the next drawing in the series "Woe Is Me Theatre"... it's called "Hallelujah Playhouse, Count Your Blessings". It's hardcore cross-hatching and linework. There's no room for mistakes, so I am taking my time with it.

 
Meanwhile... I'm falling behind on Squid!!! 

December 3, 2008

The first friday of December is this week. This means that it is time to make merry on First Fridays, Oldtown Salinas. Grab a sweater and some Christmas cheer (or prepared to be cheered) and come downtown and upstairs to the Cartoonery for some jolly holiday-ness.
 

October 6, 2008...

I could spend hours in bookstores... Yesterday, Judy and I casually lunched, sipped our americanos, and poured over books at the Sand City Borders. I prefer locally owned and operated bookstores, but if you've been to the Monterey Peninsula, you know there ain't many left (Bookshop Santa Cruz and Capitola Book Cafe, I miss you!). Anyhow, I tend to haunt the art book section, as well as the excessively crowded graphic novel area. The humor section is always a horrid mess with Calvin & Hobbes books thrown haphazzardly on the shelves (it's as if one doesn't know how to return a book to it's proper location.... sorry, mini-rant)... alas.... I check my 'toon competition, as it were.

So this is what we walked away with.... A copy of Roget's Desk Thesaurus (we failed to have a copy here at the house... I have a few at the office. Usually I carry a pocket thesarus with me, but even it lacks at times). We also got a kid's book of Halloweenish nature, In The Haunted House by Eve Bunting... we preordered Tales of Beedle and the Bard by that famous person...

What I shouldv'e walked out of the store with was.... Stray Sock Sewing...

I fell in love with the nutty creatures created with "lost" socks.... Judy and I laughed our way thru the book right there in the art section.... but Jude insisted that she could make these by just gazing thru the book. I like visual aid! None-the-less, we forwent the book... and I proceeded to find it online... and plot buying it thru Amazon.

Meanwhile Judy's on the couch making one of the darn things.... here's the almost complete first go at it...

We haven't yet named him yet and goofily thru some "Alaska-ish" names at it. But we were only joshing with one another.

September 16, 2008

You hear writers say that in their novel writing, that "the story began to go somewhere they'd not intended"... or that "the novel started writing itself." I always thought that funny. YOU'RE writing it... make it GO where YOU want it to go. Well, today I experienced that little phenom. As I wrote the latest installments of Squid, I found the story taking on a different twist. So Kai's band, Spookhouse, plays creepy tunes with samples of eerie sound effects and "Monster Mash-like" sillyness.... So Randie sits in on a band practice,  but I found that Randie is creeped out not so much by the music as by the band members themselves... each one has something oddly disturbing about them. In turn, they don't much care for her "sketching" them.... and that makes them uncomfortable. I didn't intend this on the outset.... it sorta just "jumped in" as it were... one small little thought, one tail of inspiration leads on to somewhere you didn't expect to go... but I like where it landed ....and so I am a believer of sorts.

Here's an early idea for the Spookhouse logo that Randie is working on...

THIS THE NEW CARTOONIST-AT-LARGE CARTOONOOZ SECTION...

... and a landfill for all the crazy stuff that is going on in this silly cartoonist's head. It ought to be a good place to dump news and photos and 'tooning-type material. I welcome correspondence, feedback, and a cheery hello anytime!

That said...

I have been pinned to my drawing board lately... crouched over it sketching and inking the latest Squid Row comic strips. I have had fun reinventing Randie and her gang, giving them shades of gray where they once were only black and white. The added dimension is fun... but adds quite a bit of time to the process. It also stresses out my ol' Mac PowerBook with the huge files... Martha is becoming a bit cranky... sigh. Anyhow, new and improved Squids will show up in mid January (that's '08 already!)... look for them.

Whilst at the drawing board, I have been listening to Comics Coast to Coast, an online show that covers the goings ons of the comic strip and webcomic worlds... the guys are wacky and fun to listen to... they do interviews with cartoonists and share tips and share advice to fellow comic-ers... and don't miss comic strip theater!... go on... give them a listen... comicscoasttocoast.com is where to find them.... ingenious, non?

FUN RECENT ART EVENT: This past saturday the fine artists at 711 Cannery Row held an art to-do. All the studios were open with mouth-watering munchies and Bargetto wine... Kevin Miller (amazing paper cuts... go to littleboats.org), Christine Johnson  (oil abstracts and doorfronts), and Dick Crispo (acrylics), among others,  had their doors open and their artworks for sale. It was also a benefit for YAC... the Youth Arts Collective here in Monterey. Good cause!

...STAY TOONED.