SEGMENT EPISODE! We have two interviews, a discussion about the uncredited animator pushback on “Sausage Party” and one epic story. Enjoy this show, you won’t be forgetting it anytime soon… I know I won’t

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Media Referenced During this Episode:

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Stephen Brooks
Rob Yulfo

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INTERVIEW! This week we talk with illustrator and animator Robert Valley who just released an amazing Indie Animated Film “Pear Cider and Cigarettes” on Vimeo. We discussed the Kickstarter back in episode 109 and in it we said that we’d love to get him on the show… fast forward 6 months TO THE DAY (that episode was released Feb 10th and this is August 10th) and here he is! We talk the impact of music, the importance of editing, animating in photoshop, superhero oversaturation, using Kickstarter, loops, black frames, creaking doors, and coughing into your mouth (it’ll make sense).

Be sure to check out Robert Valley around the internet:
Website
Vimeo
Twitter
Instagram

Preorder my book coming out in 2016:

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

 
You can even listen via YouTube (soon)!

Topics & Timestamps:

Media Referenced During this Episode:

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks
Rob Yulfo

Preorder Stephen’s Animation Tutorial Book:

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
 Subscribe on SoundCloud 
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post RubberOnion Interviews Robert Valley: “Pear Cider & Cigarettes” Indie Animated Film, animating in Photoshop, and the importance of editing and music – RubberOnion Animation Podcast #145 appeared first on Artiholics.

SEGMENT EPISODE! It has been 2 full months since our last one of these so if you don’t remember, these are explicit episodes… thar be swears! And there’s kind of a lot to swear about. The Fine Brothers really pissed off the internet last week when they tried to trademark “React” for title use, and Marvel yanked fanimation series “X-Men: Danger Room Protocols.” On the fun side, Robert Valley finished animation on his animated short film “Pear Cider and Cigarettes” and is using Kickstarted to finish post-production, but what we’ve seen so far looks awesome. We talk about all the trailers we missed in our time away from animation news discussion, our first animation battle has concluded and was awesome, and we return for RAPID FIRE! Enjoy the show

 
Preorder my book coming out in July 2016:
“Tradigital Flash: 12 Principles of Animation in Adobe Flash”

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

 
And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps:

Media Referenced During this Episode:

#RubberOnionBattle Jan 2016 (1:25:11)

Our Paranorman video review (35:51)

PeeWee on Netflix (14:03)

Secret Life of Pets trailer #2 (20:48)

Trolls teaser (29:07)

Kubo and the Two Strings trailer(32:47)

This is Sparta speedpaint (43:30)

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks
Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
 Subscribe on SoundCloud 
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post Fine Brothers trademark fiasco, “X-Men: Danger Room Protocols” yanked from YouTube, & Robert Valley made a movie – RubberOnion Animation Podcast #119 “It’s Fine, Bro” appeared first on Artiholics.

This week I bring you a very special interview with DON BLUTH (Dragon’s Lair, Secret of NIMH, American Tale, Land Before Time). His Indie GoGo campaign to make a sizzle reel for a “Dragon’s Lair” movie pitch closes this Friday, January 15, so if you want some of the perks like autographs, tutorials, animation cells, a masterclass, and more you should check out the page!

We talk about his time at Disney and decision to leave, his thoughts on sequels, CGI, the current landscape of animation and the internet, the importance of not dumbing things down for kids, and a bunch more stuff. We also took some of your questions so thanks to those of you who submitted!
Check out the Indie GoGo campaign by clicking the image below and enjoy the show!

Listen for animatronics, dog sneeze, cgi and hormones, Gary’s playboys, and death… this was a fun episode!

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

Also be sure to check out Don’s Website and definitely like him on facebook!

And you can now check us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps:

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks
Rob Yulfo

Preorder Stephen’s Animation Tutorial Book:

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
 Subscribe on SoundCloud 
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post Interview with Don Bluth – Dragon’s Lair the movie, Secret of NIMH, and his departure from Disney – Episode 115 of the RubberOnion Animation Podcast appeared first on Artiholics.

This week we saw Glen Keane (the master animator behind Ariel from “The Little Mermaid”) draw in Virtual Reality, and then Batman et al beat up sea creatures (including Ariel) in the new Batmetal animated music video. We finally get to see what “Wabbit,” Bugs Bunny’s new series, will look like and learn about a Spongebob Squarepants musical and a possible Avengers-style teamup movie of your favorite 90s NickToons. These next two episodes are a little special, and not just because they precede our 100th episode LIVE show! With Stephen traveling this week, two episodes were recorded in one session. The split between them is a cliffhanger of epic proportions (I may be overselling that)! Enjoy and leave the evening of Sunday, September 27 open to join us for our 100th episode, LIVE!

Annotations:

… and?

 
Glen Keane sketching characters in Virtual Reality with an HTC Vive headset in this short, “Step Into The Page”

 
BATMETAL RETURNS

 
Trailer for WABBIT, the new Bugs Bunny series

 
NerdWriter video essay on “Children of Men” camera narrative (referenced at 14:41)

 
Adam Phillips’ fan-made music video for Ween’s “Transdermal Celebration” (referenced at 29:24)

 
Check out more of your hosts:
Stephen Brooks (@RubberOnion)
Rob Yulfo (@RobYulfo)
Pat Ryan (@TheBadPatRyan)

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post Disney Animator Glen Keane drawing in Virtual Reality, BATMETAL Returns, and a new Bugs Bunny show WABBIT gets a trailer appeared first on Artiholics.

This week we have a very special interview: Alan Becker, creator of the hit “Animator vs Animation” stick-fight series joins us to talk about his experience with Kickstarter, what happened when his first short went viral, and how he actually does the things he does! There’s a lot of really great stuff here for young and old animators from the Indie scene, especially when he starts talking about when and how he had to navigate the murky waters of a viral hit. And be sure to check out his work embedded below!

Annotations:

 
“Animator vs Animation 4”

 
Behind the scenes video

 
His Flash tutorials

 
“Animator vs Animation 3”

 
“Animator vs Animation 2”

 
“Animator vs Animation 1”

 
“If Water Had Eyes”

 
Spirited Away MineCraft project

 
Check out more of your hosts:
Stephen Brooks (@RubberOnion)
Rob Yulfo (@RobYulfo)
Pat Ryan (@TheBadPatRyan)

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post Interview with Alan Becker, creator of viral “Animator vs Animation” stick-fight series appeared first on Artiholics.

We have a monster of an episode this week! Two weeks of stories jam packed into one awesome episode with the entire crew: Stephen, Rob, & Pat. We talk about an email exchange between a writer and a producer, Glen Keane’s new animated short “Duet,” and some kid made a Kickstarter campaign to make potato salad and for some reason has earned $70,000+ (as of this post). Oh also, Rob met Shaggy and made a new animated short (not related)! Enjoy this delicious 2 hour episode… we hope it’s as fun to listen to as it was to record!

Annotations:

 
BATMETAL

 
Rob Yulfo’s new short “Wait for it…”

 
Guillermo del Toro’s Special Message about Pacific Rim

 
Glen Keane’s new animated short “Duet”

 
Asterix & Obelix teaser trailer (in French)

 
Check out more of your hosts:
Stephen Brooks (@RubberOnion)
Rob Yulfo (@RobYulfo)
Pat Ryan (@TheBadPatRyan)

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

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Marina Andrijčić-Ojeda and Catarina Ferreira are the artists and co-founders of The Penitentiary, a collaborative site-specific art exhibition to take place in abandoned war-era prisons throughout Eastern Europe.  They will operate a series of independent projects to transform each prison’s standing structure and explore its personal history by extending the use and availability of unrestricted public art.

It is a very ambitious project, and they will include varying types of art in the exhibit.

“The Battery Project” will take place at Soviet-era Patarei Prison in Tallinn, Estonia during the upcoming summer months. A portion of the prison will be dedicated to a consistent rotation of art exhibitions during this three month period, starting in May.

The point of the exhibition is to address the issues of wrongful imprisonment and the deliberate suppression of a regime, and an excellent venue to demonstrate that than an abandoned prison. Through the domain of historical structure, we are connecting most closely to these theories by using the very result of its presence, says the founders. (Source)

Artists will each pay tribute to the space by reflecting on its history through the use of their own style. This will progress as the artists spend more time in the prison and experience the space firsthand.

The project is extremely inspired by Patarei’s rich history, and the content is amplified by Estonia’s struggle for independence. Tallinn has an incredible art scene that they are planning on tapping into.

They’re inviting the community of Tallinn to view and interact with the art displayed.

“We’re hoping to transform Patarei into a temple in which one can resolve personal yet universal conflicts. Where one can embrace the darker history, and react in a positive light. We’re also inviting the International community to participate, as we will be live-streaming all performances and events.” – M & C

They raised over ten grand on kickstarter, drawing from 126 backers to fund the project.

Prison adventure is a 3-hour program during which the Patarei visitor follows every procedure of someone being incarcerated (fingerprints, photography etc.) followed by a tour and meal with a small schnapps. Price EUR 40 per person.

Culture Park Patarei presents the history of Patarei sea fortress-prison and also carries out various events throughout the year.

History

In 1828 Nicholas I of Russia mandated the building of the sea fortress of Patarei. Completed in 1840, it is located on area of 4 hectares (10 acres). Over the years it has had different functions – in 1867 functioning as barracks, in 1920 as a prison and since 2007 as a Culture Park.

This unique 19th century example of Tallinn’s top architecture has now in the 21st century changed from a longtime symbol of repressions to a favorite place for residents of the nation’s capital and visitors, a multifunctional place to spend free time.

We’re hoping to transform Patarei into a temple in which one can resolve personal yet universal conflicts. Where one can embrace the darker history, and react in a positive light. We’re also inviting the International community to participate, as we will be live-streaming all performances and events.

“Under this title, we will operate a series of independent projects to transform each prison’s standing structure and explore its personal history by extending the use and availability of unrestricted public art. “The Battery Project” will be the first of this series, and will take place at Soviet-era Patarei Prison in Tallinn, Estonia during the upcoming summer months. A portion of the prison will be dedicated to a consistent rotation of art exhibitions during this three month period.

During The Battery Project we will install our own work while curating that of other artists worldwide to show alongside us. Artworks will span various mediums and occupy the abandoned, open spaces Patarei lends to us. Additionally, we will host performances, lectures, screenings, and dinners. We wish to invite the community and artists alike in re-introducing Patarei as a venue for creative response through fine art.”

 Written by Andrew Kaminski

The post Cold War Era Soviet Penitentiary Is Being Transformed Into An Art Hub appeared first on Artiholics.

With just five days into the Kickstarter campaign, founders Maxwell Bogue, Daniel Cowen and Peter Dilworth got over $1.9 million in pledges and undoubtedly surpassed their goal of only $30,000… (you can see our initial report here).

So, what is the 3Doodler you might ask?

The 3Doodler is a pen which heats up plastic sticks and releases them.  Once the plastic comes out of the pen, it cools really quickly and solidifies into wherever you lead the pen!  This allows you to “draw in 3D”.

Brilliant!

To develop such creative technology, it undeniably takes minds that are programmed to think outside of a box.

So, I got to ask the founders Maxwell, Daniel and Peter exactly how they did it:

What inspired you with the idea to create the 3Doodler pen?  How was it birthed?

The idea came about as we frequently use our own 3D printers for rapid prototyping.  We wanted to see if the process could be sped up and made “freer” by placing the parts of the 3D printer in a pen form.  The first iteration was called the teacup, basically an extruder with a handle.  It worked horribly, but it did work.  The team then added to this, creating a unique cooling mechanism and evolving to the 3Doodler you see today.

Are you developing any new products?  If so, how do you find time to develop them?

Yes, we recently announced some new products at CES.  The first is a holder for the pen, which makes storing the 3Doodler in between doodling easier, while also doubling as a moveable platform to allow you to create larger structures with far less hassle.  3Doodler will also be launching the first in a series of changeable nozzles, allowing users to extrude plastic in different shapes and sizes; as well as DoodleBlocks™; silicon molds that can be easily “filled in” with the ABS or PLA plastic from the pen.  The molds come in various shapes including stars, numbers, and letters, making it effortless to create perfectly shaped objects.

What were your biggest challenges leading up to the launch of the 3Doodler?  And any advice to our readers with product ideas of their own?

Prepare, prepare, prepare.  If you think you have something that could get very big, I’d recommend reaching out to media before the launch.  The idea that you can just throw it up there and see how it does might work for smaller projects, but for something really big, you need to reach out.  Logistics are important as well – you need an idea or a basic plan for how you’re going to deal with the craziness.  If you’re thinking of launching on Kickstarter, talking to a Kickstarter veteran is helpful as well.  I spoke to Joe Schlesinger (of Arcbotics) a lot about the pitfalls he hit with Kickstarter. You’re going to get a ton of emails.  My girlfriend took a few weeks off from work, just to help us answer them.  We had some amazing help to strategize and execute the whole campaign.  In short: it’s really important to prepare completely – have exactly the right hands and brains on deck.  There aren’t really any negative points about our Kickstarter experience – but if we were to give advice for those considering it, we’d say be prepared for the amount of emails and publicity, and try and get back to all enquiries if you can!

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and process with us!  If you would like to purchase your own 3Doodler, check it out here:  www.the3doodler.com

Written by Laura West

The post Into The Minds of the Creators: 3Doodler appeared first on Artiholics.

Dumbo, Brooklyn, NYC – Thursday, December 12, 2013

On December 8th, I embarked on a long journey to Brooklyn to take a free workshop that was being hosted by the Master Dabblers. The Silent Retreat Workshop for Creatives – a two hour long event dealing with the ‘creative flow’. I arrived on time… which is shocking for me – and was given fresh juice and fruits and mingled with a few of the other people attending the workshop.

After speaking to Jessica Kung Dreyfus and Stéphane Dreyfus I was instantly inspired. You can tell right away that they love what they do and they were very excited to share some of their ‘silent’ techniques with us. Jessica comes from an art background while Stéphane comes from a yoga background. I myself am an artist as well as a practicing yogi so I was especially excited that this workshop involved merging those two worlds together.

We started the workshop by turning off our phones, and putting them in plastic bags that were hung on the metal staircase. Part of the silent retreat was to truly be in this moment, in your body, here and now. This is something that I think everyone needs to try — even just for a couple hours. It’s crazy how instant the effects of being silent kick in right when you turn your phone off.

Next we created the sacred space. This is something I think a lot of artists do without realizing it — sort of like the feeling you get when you walk into your studio or set up your space to start working. We put markers on the north, south, east, and west walls to keep out any negative energy from coming into the room. After we set up the space, Stéphane lead us in a guided meditation to ground out bodies and open our second chakra (an energy center just below the navel). This is the area of the body where, metaphysically speaking, your creative energy flows from. The energy in the room totally shifted as the meditation proceeded. My work often involves meditation (either before I work or while I’m working) — I was very excited that this technique was something that others use as well. If you’ve never tried meditating before you begin painting/sculpting/writing/drawing I highly recommend you try it!

Once the meditation was complete, it was time to be silent.

On tables throughout the space were various art supplies for drawing alone, drawing collaboratively, writing, sculpting, and a space for dancing. You could tell everyone was deep into their silence. We all moved to different work stations improving as we worked with various materials. Working silently – no phones, no music, no conversation – was an experience I have never felt. Usually when I work I play some music or I’ll be texting or have the TV on. Truly working silently made the whole experience feel like a moving meditation – each pencil stroke felt significant, each choice felt like it had purpose. It was quite a bonding experience as well – I went in not knowing anyone else in the group and I feel like after sharing that moment with those people I’m connected to them.

Each of us got to leave with a kit so we can set up a silent space at home and continue to work silently. Jessica and Stéphane recommend at least 24 hours of silence within the space – that’s the minimum amount of time you’ll need to really feel the effects.

Some of the people who’ve done 24-48 hours of silence say that they really learned a lot about themselves… stuff that is easy to bury down and not deal with suddenly pops up into your conscious because there’s nothing around to distract you.

I feel totally inspired by the experience and I am definitely going to try 24 hours of silence next weekend when I’m off work. If you’re interested in learning more about the workshop or if you’re interested in getting a kit for yourself check out their website: https://www.masterdabblers.com/

They also have a Kickstarter account.

Written by Jessica Slagle

The post #ArtExperiment – Making A Masterpiece…In Dead Silence appeared first on Artiholics.

New York City – Tuesday, November 12, 2013

If  you’ve never seen the art doc THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON about the artist / musician who created his own genre of music which has been covered by some of the world’s best bands, add it to your que ASAP.   His insane life of art, recording cassettes over and over manually…as in, pressing record, then singing and playing the songs in order,  over and over for each cassette he would make, and hand drawing the cassette cover (because he didn’t access to a two cassette capable machine).

Followed by his dark slide into madness spurred by a bad acid trip at a butthole surfers concert.  It is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen.  The cinematography is so crisp, the story plays out brilliantly.  I have seen thousands of documentaries and dozens of artist specific documentaries and this film is what they all should aspire to.

All this being said, a group of filmmakers are collaborating with Daniel Johnston to create a psychedelic short film narrative mashing-up interviews with Daniel talking to his younger self, and his art and music coming to life.  The bar has already been set pretty high.  But this may just be the follow-up documentary fans of the original have been waiting for   They trying to raise $35,000 on Kickstarter to fund this project.  At the time of this posting they have raised $3,331.

The rewards are pretty great, including original Daniel Johnston drawings for $500, or for just $500 more a commissioned Daniel Johnston portrait of yourself.

“It’s been a fun seance, but if it goes any further, believe me…we could go crazy.” – Daniel Johnston

Written by Cojo

The post Hi, How Are You – The Daniel Johnston Short Film – Kickstarter appeared first on Artiholics.

Only one week left to crowfund-to-own a piece of the Manhattan jigsaw puzzle on Kickstarter.  A massive art undertaking that needs financial support if it is to ever exist. Artist Marshall Roshto explained the concept to me:

“The project is to create 500 large puzzle-piece sculptures that all connect to form the island of Manhattan.  In doing so, each supporter essentially “owns” a piece of the city while being connected to all the other supporters as well.  Each piece is a completely unique piece of artwork, and will be about 2.5 feet wide and 2.5 feet long.  They will be made out of 1 inch thick MDF (medium-density fiberboard), which gives the real look of a puzzle piece while providing durability that will last a very long time.  The artwork itself is a stylized map of Manhattan using black and gray tones, and will be applied to the MDF using a vinyl laminate.” -Marshall Roshto

Unlike buying miniature Manhattan buildings in the Queens Museum, you would actually own your puzzle piece (which could be 3 blocks wide), and hell, if you have enough money you could buy up all of central park, or your entire neighborhood.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roshto/puzzle-piece-sculptures-a-nyc-community-through-ar
https://www.facebook.com/whatpieceareyou

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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If you don’t recognize the legendary humor cartoonist Rick Parker by name or by his face, you’ve seen his work.  If you were a fan of Marvel comics in the 90s you’ve seen it whether you realize it or not.  His 1-3 panel Bullpen Bulletin strips were printed on the fan page in every Marvel Comic book during the comic book boom.  In modern technological jargon, that’s billions of impressions. He’s penciled, inked, or lettered over 30,000 comic book pages, and although Rick is extremely humble about it, he’s literally one of the most published cartoonists in modern history.

Rick and his family recently moved from a NYC suburb to Fallmouth, Maine, an artsy town just a mile or two above Portland where he’s now somewhat of a local art celebrity.  As Rick put it “It is a very cool place full of artists and cartoonists… a city with character and balls.”

Although he’s far away from NYC, Rick maintains his very active social media presence, posting several times daily to Facebook.  Always humorous, entertaining, informative or funny his posts are usually image heavy: New drawings, photos from art shows, pictures of book signings, or retro photos of himself in his NYC Fine Art days of the 70s and 80s.

  A set of wooden shelves stacked to the brim with binders full of drawings.

Then a few weeks ago, from out of the blue he posted this picture with a shocking status description:

FOR SALE: My Life’s Work. Thousands of pages of drawings, ideas, sketches, writing, photographs, comics strips, comic art, scripts, sculpture, collage, lithographs, mementos, etc. going back forty years many published, many unpublished. All in binders and various suitcases and portfolios. Includes basically everything I have done worth keeping in my adult life plus a great deal more of original comics pages, sculpture and paintings. $1,000,000 to a good home. Please share. Thanks.
– Rick Parker

I asked him if this was serious. He told me he was.  He is looking to retire his life’s worth of work to the right art collector or institution.

I instantly thought of cartoonist R.Crumb (pictured above) when, as documented as part of the 1994 art biopic CRUMB,  he traded six sketch books for a house in the South of France where him and his wife still live to this day (talk about the original one red paperclip).

From the looks of the bookshelves full of work (which is just the tip of the iceberg), Rick seemed to be putting a lot more on the table than six sketch books. His entire career’s worth of work in one fell swoop.

But I knew if I were to write a story about this and let the world know that this offer was on the table, it would be smart to be able to categorically break down in pictures and words “What exactly is in all of those binders?”

Portraits by Micha Hamilton.

It’s not easy to set the table for the possible sale of a drawing collection this massive and broad in scope. Being an amazing writer, among his other talents, Rick got back to me with what you are about to read after only a few hours of requesting it from him.  He decided to fully explain his long and storied career in the NY art scene and Marvel comic books in a story (punctuated by images). His life story in art, section by section, work by work.

I was not only honored that he put the time into this for us, but also astonished that he had never actually written this stuff down before. It’s basically an outline for one of the great artist autobiographies that has yet to be written.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did, and if you are a serious collector, this could be an opportunity of a lifetime.

DRAWING A CROWD by Rick Parker

The “million dollar offer” basically includes most all of the work I have done since moving to New York City to attend graduate school at Pratt in 1973. To me, my arrival in New York to “find myself as an artist” and pursue my “fame and fortune” as an artist really started then. I knew no one in New York so when I wasn’t attending classes, I was “holed up” in an empty basement apartment in Bedford Stuyvesant doing watercolor paintings of wrestlers which I improvised from my head. There are about 50 of those. At the same time, I did collages on blank postcards I obtained from the post office on the corner for 5 cents each and pasted words and pictures on them which I cut out of newspapers and magazines.

I mailed these postcards to friends and family down South. I began receiving postcards of a similar nature from my former painting professor at the University of Georgia and subsequently began directing two or three cards to him each day. All in all I probably sent him over 700 cards. He mounted a show of many of them at The University in 1974 called “Correspondence”. I did not attend the opening as I was living in NY at the time and had very limited resources.

The next phase of my development was multi-pronged and explorational. While still a student, I produced a series of lithographs using the traditional approach to lithography by drawing on Barvarian Limestone and printing editions of twenty or twenty-five images based on words and images from the New York Newspapers.

I also did large realistic paintings of people, the most interesting one of which is of the smiling face of a man, which I attached to the outside of my building which was next to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway near the Navy Yard. Traffic often came to a standstill and I could see the faces of bored motorists from my bedroom about 100 feet from the roadway.

I thought I would mount an impromptu exhibition just for them. At the same time I was also walking the streets of Brooklyn and picking up flattened out cans and prying lost heel plates from the streets which had become embedded in the tar.

These things I nailed or tacked to 3/4″ plywood rectangles until the surface was completely covered in a tin collage. I do not have any photos of these. The next phase of my work consisted of a series of hundreds of different “window Installations” at my studio at 46 Grand Street. We called it the Barking Dog Museum.

These installations consisted of found objects combined with words and were visible to passersby on the street. I kept this up for 12 years–even after I had begun working at Marvel full time. A prominent New York Art Dealer came to the show and told my ex-wife I had a “great mind”. I believed her.

Working at Marvel was just a way for me to make some money and I still thought of myself as a fine artist, although I could draw very well since was a young boy. I had done a couple of covers for SCREW in New York, because I saw that Wally Wood was doing that so I thought it must be a good thing. Wood was one of the artists whose work I had seen as a child and I thought he was the greatest. I showed these as samples when I tried to get art at Marvel in ’74. Dan Adkins was not impressed and looked at me like I was crazy.

Later I saw an ad in the NYT for a letterer and because I had once dated a girl who did that for Marvel I applied for the job. It turned out to be for Marvel and they hired me and I set about working very hard for them doing lettering, although I felt like I was not living up to my potential. My fine art gradually tapered off as I spent more and more time lettering comics for money.
It is interesting now, especially at my age, to think about the overall trajectory of my “art career”. I now see relationships between what came before and what resulted–how one thing led to another….which I find interesting.

I dabbled in logo design briefly, but never enjoyed the “competitive” aspect of it. I was never comfortable when they picked my design over others and was even more uncomfortable when they didn’t. However, since I was asked to letter the interior of the Silver Surfer book by Stan Lee and John Byrne, they let me design the logo. Thirty-three years later they’re still using a modification of my design (which I don’t like) and I designed my own version of the character.

The most active period of the Barking Dog Museum was from 1976 until around 1982 by which time I was staying at the office (after working an 8 hour day) doing freelance lettering and paste-ups until the cleaning lady turned out the lights about 11:30. During this period I suppose you could say I found an outlet for my “creative” side by “re-writing” the dialogue in existing comics stories and using the office’s photocopier to produce “notices” which I would place on the office doors or bulletin boards around the company.

One example would be TAKE ONE and then six or seven pieces of paper with the words FUCK YOU easily torn off using the dotted lines. Another might be just the words, “WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1983” in big bold letters on a piece of paper. These were done using “Press Type”. I would also do drawings of faces and then move the paper around on the press bed of the photocopier to distort it randomly.

Perhaps the best photocopy art that came out of this form of exploration was a cardboard box containing 100 photocopies of a starched and pressed ragged old shirt. These “prints” were then wrapped up in brown paper and tied with a string and a Chinese Laundry ticket attached to it. Then this was photocopied on brown wrapping paper and this was wrapped around the whole. It was like an Egyptian mummy in a way.
In 1977 I applied for and was the recipient of a grant from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (a CAPS grant) which was intended to subsidize my exhibitions at the Barking Dog Museum. By this time I was making good money at Marvel and had a staff job. I spent the grant money on a motorcycle, which I drove into my ground floor apartment in NYC each evening.

In 1981, I did about a dozen cartoon strips based on a very eccentric friend I had met in Brooklyn. It was called “George” and I was surprised when an editor at Marvel expressed an interest in it. That editor was Jim Salicrup, who later proved to be a very important person in my development and gave me many of my first “breaks” as an artist as well as keeping me supplied with much-needed freelance work. Around 1983 I decided to do a cartoon strip featuring a stick figure (“Stick-Man”) and several of his wacky associates (Stinky The Clam, Professor McNutt, Mr. Happy and Fat Man). These I posted on various office doors and bulletin boards at night. My fellow employees would come in the next morning and seemed amused by them. I produced 100 copies of a spiral bound “Stick Man Calendar for 1984” and gave everyone in the office a copy and mailed out many others to people like Art Spiegelman and Russ Cochran.

About this time, the Editor in Chief told my boss he was uncomfortable with the fact that I was doing freelance lettering in the office, even though I had finished all of my current work for which they had hired me and had been told when I was hired that when I finished the work for which I had been hired, and things were slow, I could make a little extra money doing freelance lettering” rather than just sit there.

If they weren’t going to let me work on freelance work at the office I couldn’t make very much money from my staff job, so I quit my full time job to be a freelancer. My boss graciously allowed me to continue to sit in the office and work on my freelance work for the company even though I was no longer a part of the staff. Finally they told me they needed my desk space and that I could work from home. They gave me a contract and told me they would send messengers back and forth for my output.

This turned me into quite a productive worker as all I had to do was stay home and work 12 to 14 hours a day. It also helped usher in a new phase of my work as it was during this time that the focus of my creativity switched from assembling objects in space to drawing pictures. I kept a big piece of paper next to my drawing board to test my pen on before setting it to work on the pages for Marvel. But instead of just making random marks they way one would normally test a pen, I would draw or doodle cartoon figures just standing there. Before long a crowd of hundreds of strange figures had started to appear. I was literally “drawing a crowd”.

When I covered most of the paper I looked at it and had an epiphany. It was a moment in time when I thought perhaps I should concentrate more on cartooning and less on fine art. There seemed to be a lot locked up inside me which needed to come out. I began doodling on the outside of the envelopes with the comics pages in them while waiting for he messengers to arrive. This was the beginning of another important phase in my development.

One day, many months later, when I was visiting the office, I was surprised to see that many of these casual doodles on the envelopes had been carefully cut out and preserved by some in the editorial department and I took this as all the encouragement I needed to continue doing it. Jim Salicrup, an editor at Marvel liked what I was doing and proposed I do a “Messenger Calendar” for 1990 and gave me a thousand dollars to have 1,000 copies printed up. We signed them and wrote the recipient’s name on each one to make it look like it had been printed on the calendar. We distributed these to everyone we knew or could think of who might be interested and sold some others at comic book shows.

Editors and others were starting to take note and offered me a few random assignments doing drawings or reprinting some of my work in the backs of their comics or doing an occasional cover or five page “back-up” story.

Inspired by Jim Salicrup’s dashed off parody of TOP GUN, a popular film at that time, I decided to produce a cartoon strip of his character TOP BUM. It was politically incorrect and featured a WC Fields-like man in a tattered tuxedo begging money along NYC’s Park Avenue and conning people and kids out of money which he then spent on expensive champagne to stay inebriated. Another strip I did about this time and showed to people was about two intellectually challenged twins who worked in the “moving business” transporting people’s property from one place to another. This was called “OAF Bros.”

Around this time I began drawing on blank matchbook covers which I had picked up from cigarette machines in bars that I frequented at night when my ex-wife and I would meet about 10:30 each night.

Photo Credit: Bangor Daily News.

I would draw a face on one side and write a mini-biography on the other. These were just imaginary people and many of them closely resembled inmates of penal institutions or escapes from mental wards. On nice days I would take a break from my work and sit at a TV tray in front of my apartment or in front of art galleries in my neighborhood doing these drawings and placing them on the TV tray . To my amazement people were buying them for “three dollars each, two for five and no reasonable offer is ever refused”.

I met many famous and notable people this way and began taking longer and more frequent breaks from my lettering work in comics. I began doing comics shows in NYC. By now several editors were interested in working with me but my personal life had deteriorated to the point where I was going through a messy divorce and finding a new place to live. The timing could have been better. A friend who ran an art gallery in New York offered me a show in 1990. I did twelve large drawings on foam core and called the show, “TWELVE UGLY DRAWINGS” mainly because my mother said my work was “ugly”.

Several young ambitious writers and editors wanted to work with me and I did a couple of stories which appeared here and there tucked away in various Marvel publications. One young fellow, Barry Dutter, had an idea for a humor book and asked me to do some sample illustrations for it. He very quickly succeeded in getting several publishers interested.

That book was “Everything I Really Need To Know, I Learned From Television” (Applause Theatre Books,1992). Along about that time, I met my wife, the love of my life and became a much happier person than I had ever been before.
A few things happened around this time which helped me establish myself in the eyes of my co-workers and comics fans. Executive Editor at Marvel, the late Mark Gruenwald approved of a single panel gag cartoon to appear on the editorial page of almost every title Marvel was publishing at the time. It was called “The Bullpen Bulletin” and featured Marvel characters in funny imaginary situations dreamed up by my former collaborator, Barry Dutter, and illustrated by me. Mark informed me that this made me the “most published” cartoonist in the history of the world as our cartoon was printed in approximately six million comic books each week!

The printed panel was in color and 2.75 inches square. I figured out that if someone was to cut out each panel and tape them all together in a long line it would stretch to the moon and possible beyond. I didn’t really have an affinity for superheroes and finally asked if I could be the one to come up with the ideas for the cartoon. Barry said it was okay with him, as he was being paid the same money for writing the whole page and it was less work if he didn’t have to come up with the ideas.

Mark agreed to let me do it and the focus shifted from the superheroes and villains to the fans themselves and various people who worked in comics. This gave rise to a black and white cartoon strip which appeared in Marvel Age called “The Bossmen”. It basically made fun of my boss and the people I worked with. It was edited by Steve Saffel and my co-workers seemed to mildly amused seeing themselves portrayed in humorous situations, although the main focus was on Tom DeFalco, the editor in chief at the time.

One of the young editors who had been an assistant in Jim Salicrup’s office and gotten a kick out of my drawings on the outside of envelopes, got promoted to editor. His name is Glenn Herdling and he once told me he liked what I was doing and if he ever got a chance, he would hire me to work with him on some project. Glenn was known as a funny guy and so when Beavis and Butt-Head came to Marvel, naturally, he was put in charge of it. He kept his promise and hired me to do the art. At the time it was the hottest entertainment property in the country and the timing could not have been better.

I started working on the first issue in October of 1993, right as our first child was being born and the first issue came out in January of 1994. It was the second best selling comic of the year and sold 600,000 copies. It sold for $1.75 and as the penciler and inker I made five cents on each issue sold once it surpassed 100,000 copies—or half a million nickels. That’s a lot of nickels. Fortunately, they paid me by check. I quit all other work, hired two assistants and I worked on that book exclusively for the next two and one half years.

During that time, I was asked by Joe Orlando to try out for Mad Magazine and didn’t give it the attention I should have. A decision I would soon regret and will regret for the rest of my life. The first 20 issues of Beavis and Butt-Head Comic Book were in the top 100 books sold each month. In those days there were about 10,000 things to choose from.

In a market dominated by superheroes, I thought this was a great accomplishment. I had taken as my guiding light, the work of Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder the two brilliant geniuses who had been the driving creative forces in early Mad Magazine. I had been a devotee of early Mad Magazine as a child growing up in the 1950’s. I understood juvenile humor very was as I had been one of those people who easily managed to keep his inner child alive. My inner child is permanently 12. That suited me well for the project.

Along with Mike Lackey, who wrote the first five issues, I traveled around the US meeting people and generally being treated like someone special. I must say, it was great to work on something which was so popular and well-received. I was beginning to think I could do anything when they called and cancelled the book.

Marvel had changed hands and the new owner was not particularly interested in the publishing part of the business and certainly not interested in paying people like me good money to draw comic books which he did not even control the rights to. After almost 20 years at Marvel, I was out of work. My income dropped from about $150,000 year to next to nothing.

I did illustrate a few dozen pages for DC Comics Big Book Series at half my normal rate. The pages were double size and took a long time to draw. One story for “The Big Book of Hoaxes” featured a multi-page story in which two con men conspired to have people invest money in a scheme to saw Manhattan in half. I began to wonder which was more difficult—sawing Manhattan in half—or drawing that story. Another story from that time was “Sadie The Goat and Her Pirate Gang” These were fun and challenging assignments but they took weeks and I couldn’t make any money doing them. Not that I didn’t try. Meanwhile, Marvel never called me again.

Just when I was really starting to get worried, from out of the blue I was contacted by a magazine publisher in California. He was a successful publisher of magazines and a good writer with a fine sense of humor and had always had it in his mind to publish a humor magazine. Now he had the money to make his dream come true. Thus was born Harpoon Magazine—a magazine of political satire. I don’t know where he saw my work but I was delighted to be working for him. My first story was “Frankengates” a long saga poking fun at Bill Gates and Microsoft and the various people who were pioneers in the computer industry. I did stories about The Monica Lewinsky Scandal and the O. J. Simpson trial. He paid me what I asked for and the magazine was in full color and had excellent production values. They carried the magazine at Hudson News in Penn Station. The problem was, I think, that it was impossible for any writer to top the absurdity of reality and those real-life situations. After a year or two of losing a small fortune, he pulled the plug. I have to hand it to him for trying, though. In the meantime computers came in big time and it became apparent that I was going to have to learn how to use one. I was immediately struck by how much the process of coloring would be improved.
I thought I would go into illustration. I contacted an old friend– a very successful illustrator. He told me I had picked the absolute worst time in the history of illustration to try and break into the business. Being one who has been too easily discouraged in the past, I produced a large color postcard with dozens of sample images on it and mailed it to a number of ad agencies and artists reps. Nothing came from it except one very nice rep told me she liked my work but was having trouble keeping her regular artists busy. It was discouraging to say the least.

Along about this time, I was asked by my son’s kindergarten teacher if I would come and talk to the kids about my work. Not having anything else to do that day, of course I agreed. I discovered something wonderful. There was a part of me I had forgotten existed. I had first sensed it when, as an army officer stationed near a remote town in Utah in 1968, I had given a Fourth of July address to a small group of Mormons on what it means to be an American. That day I discovered that I was part carnival barker and part evangelist preacher and I liked the sound of my own voice. Anyway, the kids in my son’s kindergarten class seemed to like what I had to say and when I demonstrated a little drawing on a pad of paper they seemed mesmerized. The teacher soon had me teaching in the After-School programs of several elementary and middle schools in my area of New Jersey.

I think I was good at it. I had experience and passion about the subject and amazed myself with the funny things I said and did. I had always liked children and they seemed to like me, too. In the beginning I thought I was doing them a favor but soon realized that I was getting more from the experience than they were. Whereas before, during the time that I was working full-time in comics, I relied on my innate talent and my own intuition to guide me, after talking to the kids, I began to realize that there were good reasons why some things worked and others didn’t. If you have to explain something to someone else, it makes you think of it in a way that you hadn’t thought of it before.

I began to really understand drawing, storytelling, and combining words and pictures to tell a story and that I could be very helpful in imparting those ideas to others. I began to see that I might be able to make a difference in some young person’s life when I saw the look on the face of a little boy from a very difficult background who was very quiet and reserved. I showed him how to draw a couple of facial expressions and suddenly his face lit up. It was like someone had given him something wonderful and no one could ever take it away from him. I’ll never forget that image in my mind. I kept this up for about 7 or 8 years.
In 2004, I received a call from the late Dwayne McDuffie who asked me to illustrate a graphic novel that he was developing for Hollywood along with Matt S. Wayne. It was called The Road To Hell. It took me a year to do the 164 pages. There was some good drawing in there. Dwayne said it was “stunning”. I’m not sure what he meant by that, but he had previously let me know what he thought of my cartooning, so I guess he liked it.

In 2005, we began to open up our home one day per year to the public as part of what is called The Artists’s Studio Tour. I felt like a minor celebrity in our little town. Kids would see me on the street and yell out, “Hey, Mr. Parker!” or I would meet an adult at a yard sale or at some local event and they would already have heard about me. I started taking a few private students whose parents had been looking for someone to mentor their gifted children. I continued to learn as much from them as they did from me.

In 2007, just when I thought I would never work in comics again , my old editor and friend, Jim Salicrup called and said his company was bringing back Tales From The Crypt and would I like to draw the Introductory Pages featuring the Crypt Keeper, The Vault Keeper and The Old Witch? It was like being saved from a desert island.

Of course I said yes. In a way it was the perfect assignment for me as I remember being strangely fascinated by the Crypt Keeper and his long white hair, as I read an old EC Comic book at the barbershop while I waited my turn for a haircut fifty years earlier. Also the characters had been drawn beautifully by one of my favorite artists as a child, the great Jack Davis, whose work had inspired me to want to be an artist, myself. Alas, the remake of Tales From The Crypt never really caught on with the new generation of comics readers the way Jim had hoped. The younger ones had never heard of it and the older ones seemed unhappy at Jim’s attempt to bring the Crypt keeper into the modern age by giving him a laptop and cell phone. I thought it was funny as Hell and wanted to do the entire book—not just the intro pages!

Rejuvenated, I spent the next year writing and drawing the first work of any length I have ever both written and drawn. I called Deadboy, and it’s somewhere in between The Wizard of Oz and Night of The Living Dead. It’s a print on demand book and also available as an ebook. It went largely unnoticed. But I learned a lot from the experience.
In late 2008, Dean Haspiel asked me to illustrate an 8 page story written by a young writer. Her story had been picked by Harvey Pekar as the winner in a contest. Her prize was that her story would be illustrated by a professional cartoonist. I said I’d do it. Dean apologized as he told me they could only pay $85. I said that’s all right. I thought he meant per page! I worked on it for three weeks. Dean loved it. Imagine my embarrassment when he called to tell me he’d received my bill for $680. He told me it was only $85 for the entire job! I didn’t realize it but I’d soon be working for Harvey Pekar for free—along with three other artists and an editor.

2009, was Our Pekar Year. I had long been an admirer of his autobiographical work and secretly harbored a desire to be one of his artists. I had been a little jealous when Dean got the job to do a book with him for DC. But Harvey picked Dean and Dino! Did a great job. As one of the four artists on The Pekar Project, Harvey would dictate stories to us on the phone and we would draw them and send them in to be put on the web. Harvey was interesting as Hell and things got really interesting when I drove my car to Cleveland along with the project Editor, Jeff Newelt, Brian Heater of PC Magazine and the comics blog, The Daily Crosshatch and another fellow who was going to interview Harvey.

We celebrated his 70th and final birthday at an art gallery featuring our drawings of his stories which was held in an old building which had been a donut shop he frequented as a child. Harvey and his wife, Joyce Brabner stayed at the opening for four hours. It was a blast. I watched them walk away from the gallery that night and walk slowly out of sight disappearing into the Cleveland night like characters in one of his stories. Harvey died unexpectedly the next year, but working with him was a dream come true and an honor and a privilege. A fascinating writer and man.

Earlier in 2009, Jim had teamed me up with writer, Stefan Petrucha, and we did a spoof of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Ours was called Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid. It was a hit and based on that success Jim was determined to do parodies of other popular properties.

Working with Stefan Petrucha and with Jim as our editor, we produced 50 page full color Mad Magazine-style parodies entitled, “Harry Potty and The Deathly Boring”,

“Breaking Down” (a parody of twilight)

“Percy Jerkson and The Ovolactovegetarians”

“The Hunger Pains”

And my current project: “The Farting Dead”.

Rick Parker drawing in New York City, 1975

THE MILLION DOLLAR OFFER:

What you will be buying is the bulk of my lifetime’s work comprising several thousands of individual items including sketches, drawings, paintings, three-dimensional objects, photographs, Polaroid photographs, prints, collage, lithographs, mixed media construction, cartoons, comics pages, comic strips, multiples, collectible one-of-a-kind novelty items. It would take a long time do do an actual inventory of the entire collection.

I would be happy to answer individual questions in a general way. Anyone who is seriously interested would be allowed to come and see it for themselves. There is a great deal of work, both published and unpublished.  I would like to emphasize that it’s a quality body of work. The collector who buys this collection would not just be getting a quantity of work, but a high-quality quantity of work!

For Media Inquiries, or if are a serious collector, you can contact Rick Parker here:
rickparkerart@gmail.com

The post DRAWING A CROWD: Artist Rick Parker’s Life’s Work Is For Sale To The Right Collector for $1 Millon appeared first on Artiholics.

I met artist and graphic designer Pierre Bernard Jr. many years ago over Myspace when we were both two NYC based illustrators doing our thing in the big city.  Pierre at the time was an artist for Late Night with Conan O’Brien and I was the lead artist at Maxim Magazine.  Over the years we have kept in touch sporadically as he moved to California with Conan from Late Night to The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien, and now to Conan on TBS.  As Conan does with much of his staff, Pierre has been used as an on-air character, playing himself throughout the years.

 Some of you may remember on Late Night he had his own segment called “Pierre Bernard’s Recliner of Rage” where he would “rage” about different art related issues while sitting in a recliner.  Pierre is a very laid back and passive guy, so his version of raging never exceeded normal speaking voice levels, which is what made it hilarious.


I recently wrote about the various competing Drink n’ Draw live drawing sessions happening in NY, and apparently this isn’t just an East Coast fad.  For the past 3 years Pierre has been tightening up his drawing skills by attending multiple live drawing classes every week in Los Angeles. He is a huge proponent of drawing from live models, and even talked about the benefits of it with Conan on the air back in 2010 (see above video).  After three years of live sessions, and amassing a giant collection of drawings, Pierre has decided to make an art book:

18″x 24″ And Other Sizes:  A 3 Year Collection Of Life Drawings.
Pierre decided to take a swing at crowd sourced internet funding for the printing of this book, which is very dear to his heart. Five days ago Pierre’s   18″ x 24″ And Other Sizes Kickstarter campaign ended unsuccessfully, just shy of half way to his funding goal. In a facebook message to his fans following the Kickstarter closing Pierre posted:

“Sad news, I did all I could and many of you were there for me but it just wasn’t enough to make this campaign succeed. But it was a good fight and I can’t thank everyone of you enough for backing and believing in me and my book. That said, I am still pushing 18″ x 24” forward. This past week when I saw where the campaign was at, I started looking into alternative funding strategies and came up with one. I didn’t spend half a year working on this to quit now. What I’ve put together in my book is worth getting out to the public, not just for my dreams and passion towards life drawing but to help start defining an area of art that up till now very little has been publicly seen. I strongly believe once people see what’s been going on at these various events it just might encourage some to go out and take part in this creativity activity. So even though this campaign was a lost, you still backed a unique and inspiring project and in the end you will be glad you did so cause 18″ x 24″ will come into existence and it will be a winner! Again, thank you everyone, and keep watching, you haven’t seen nothing yet!“– Pierre Bernard

Undeterred Pierre is still confident that he can get this book printed before Summer is over.  I caught up with the artist, and asked him about the project, drawing from life, and his experience with the odd and sometimes cruel beast known as kickstarter.
Artiholics: “What got you into going to these live model drawing sessions? Was it because the show moved to LA and you didn’t know anybody?”

Pierre Bernard: “I was attending life drawing events in New York. The two that I knew about at the time was the Tuesday or Thursday night drawing at the Society of Illustrators and the Friday night drawing at the Art Student League. The league was very traditional, a nude model doing standard poses. At S.O.I., it was a little different. There was a small live jazz band but I always felt that the band was there because in a section of the space was a bar and though artist in the room did mingle, there was still an air of formality in the room.  

Here in L.A., there are formal classes but many of the places I attend are more like events then workshops. And the vibe of the rooms are far removed from formal drawing classes. I did start attending many of these drawing events as a way help me deal with the move at the time, I didn’t know a lot of people here and drawing has always been the one thing that makes me feel comfortable.”

Artiholics: “A lot of young artists might draw a lot from photo reference. What would you say is the benefit of drawing from a live human model?”

Pierre Bernard: “Drawing from photos is ok, not good. The reason I say this is that in this day and age a majority of printed images have been altered through photoshop. There was a time when looking at Playboy was worth while. Recently I saw a copy and the amount of distortions and anatomical mistakes that are in the pictures are insane. I can only assume that these images are the result of retouchers who don’t have a clue what correct anatomical proportions look like on a woman.
Drawing from a model forces you to look and study what the form really looks like, the limitations of the joints, etc. If you are shooting your own reference then you’re better off.”

Artiholics: “Is a live model session a good place to socialize? Possibly meet women?”

Pierre Bernard: “A live drawing event is a great place to socialize and meet people in general. I love meeting women at these events but if that’s your main reason for going, don’t bother. One of the things that usually happens at these drawing events is people learning from each other, studying the other peoples art work, getting a different perspective on what’s going on. If your only goal is to get numbers and not contribute, you’re just going to get in the way of others who are trying to get something out of the experience. And trust me, women can tell when you’re just wasting time.”

Artiholics: “So you had been live drawing at these weekly live drawing events for three years. What gave you the idea to put a book together?”

Pierre Bernard: “A friend of mine who moved out here back in August of last year came over to visit my new place. She wanted to see some of my artwork and after seeing a couple of box worth wanted to know what I was going to do with all the artwork and I told her I was planning to put it in storage. She said why not make an art book and that was the beginning of the idea.”

Artiholics: “Why is the book so dimensionally large? Do people in LA have giant shelves?”

Pierre Bernard: “Actually, the book isn’t all that big, the final size is 9″ x 12′. Originally, I wanted to do an actual 18″ x 24″ book (that was the thinking behind the title, 18″ x 24″ And Other Sizes), but the size and weigh of such a book wasn’t a great idea, scaling it down proportionally made since.”

View Pierre’s Kickstarter video interviews, where he introduces the various models he has drawn in the book.

Artiholics: “Did you make a book just so you could hug-up on all these art models?”

Pierre Bernard: “I didn’t need the book to hug-up on them, that was happening well before that started! Seriously, I’ve been going to so many of these events out here that the majority of the models working know me or know of me. Many of them have become close friends and as a result when we’re in a room together it take on an extra dimension of fun. The videos I shot for the Kickstarter were totally natural and unrehearsed. What you saw were real friends having fun and I think that’s what comes across in my drawings of them in the book.”

Artiholics: “When you are live drawing do you work in pencil and then color later, or do you work full color in real time? Also, do you think this intense live drawing practice has sharpened your on-air design skills? Has the quality of your work on Conan gotten better?”

Pierre Bernard: “My life drawings are in real time. In my book there are 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 and 25 minute poses. Often when people watch me draw they tell me afterwards that I am fast, I think its from working with Conan all these years. Everyday is a deadline with very little time so I’ve been trained to think and draw quickly over the years.  There’s no question that working with Conan has sharpened my skills as a draftsman. If I was a mutant, my powers is my quick skills of drawing and Conan is the Charles Xavier who help me develop them.”

Artiholics: “Since facebook was limiting in how many fans were viewing your messages about your Kickstarter, how do you plan to get the word out on the next go round?”

Pierre Bernard: “Kickstarter was an experience worth having, that said I wish I had given the funding part more thought, had I done so, I doubt Kickstarter would have been the path I’d chosen. The amount of over head that I had to tack on to the printing was the problem. Original reward printing, packing material, shipping cost and Kickstarter fees created a goal that couldn’t be reached easily, not to mention a lot of the people who said they’d back it, disappeared once the campaign started.  When the Kickstarter was down to 2 weeks left I saw where it was and decided to start looking into alternate ways to get the book done, something I should have done at the start. I came up with a personal solution that will work for me and so the book is still on track to get done hopefully before the summer is over.

My love for life drawing is deep. This book was a labor of love, everything I am as an artist in the last 3 years is in there. I put too much of my time into this project to allow any one or anything to get in the way of my finishing it.”

Artiholics: “Finally, everyone probably wants to know, when your Kickstarter didn’t get funded in time, were comfortable and angry?”

Pierre Bernard: “If ever there was a time I needed my recliner…”

To learn more about Pierre Bernard Jr., his art life, what he’s raging about, and the status of this book, be sure to follow him on twitter at twitter.com/pbdotman. You can also Like His Page on Facebook.   There is an underground Facebook Campaign to get Pierre on The Big Bang Theory.  And as always, keep an eye out for him on Conan, you never now what he’ll say next, but you will know it’s always funny.

Interview by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Pierre Bernard’s Kickstarter Of Rage appeared first on Artiholics.

Calvin & Hobbes have been a huge inspiration to me (as you can guess by my little collection) and at one point they almost inspired my career to spin into a different direction.  Back in 2004 I started roughing out ideas for a sequential 3-4 panel comic strip I was thinking of launching on ArtSucks.com.  Luckily, the idea of having to regularly ink and color paneled strips bored the shit out of me so I sidelined the project.

This morning I watched an amazing trailer video on Kotaku for a Calvin & Hobbes documentary: Dear Mr. Watterson, and it turns out I wasn’t the only one the strip had inspired.

The film, which seems to be a love letter in doc form from the comic strip community to Calvin & Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson seems to have enlisted some of the top talent in the industry to profess their admiration for that scruffy little imaginative kid and his sarcastic tiger.

The film was another successful FUND on Kickstarter with a goal of $50,000 they managed to raise nearly double that by the time their Kickstarter ended.

It’s been 10 years since Watterson retired the strip that launched a thousand careers, and millions of minds to wander, and although hardbound anthologies and collections keep coming out, no new strips are being produced, the run is done, as it were.

Watterson could have easily made a fortune selling Calvin & Hobbes merch ala The Simpsons, Star Wars, South Park, or any other chincy franchise, yet he has never let the corporate machine steam roll over him, and other than a few unlicensed t-shirts, window decals, and truck mudflaps of an evil looking Calvin pissing on the ground, the characters have remained pristine.

I look forward to seeing this documentary, and because I missed the boat on the Kickstarter, I’ll just have to wait till it comes to the local art house theatre or film festival.   Until then, remember :

“Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine and valleys of frustration and failure.” -Calvin

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

https://www.dearmrwatterson.com

The post Are You With Me Hobbes? appeared first on Artiholics.

Boston, Massachusetts – Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Max and Pete put up a kickstarter for their new product from WobbleWorks LLC. yesterday.  Just two toy inventors from Boston who created an art meets tech 3D drawing tool, and wanted to open it up to the masses for possible funding- little did they know it was about to go viral.  A pen unlike the world has ever seen,  which works much like a glue gun, but instead of glue, it feeds through quick drying plastic.  It writes like a pen pushing out puff paint, but isn’t limited to painting on a flat surface, it can also draw UP.

When they launched the Kickstarter Campaign on February 19th, they were only looking for $30,000 in funding.  One day later and they have already recorded over $806,050 in backer money, coming from over 9,092 backers (at the time this article was published).  This project still has 32 days to go on Kickstarter, if it keeps growing at this pace, they could be Kickstarter millionaires, literally overnight.

If you want your own 3Doodler, for $75 you can fund their Kickstarter HERE

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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