Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Interview with the Biographer of Caravaggio


 A bunch of us heard this interview with Andrew Graham-Dixon about his biography of Caravaggio called Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane on the Diane Rehm Show today before lunch. Really interesting stuff... I will have to read the book now. Check it out.

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-12-28/andrew-graham-dixon-caravaggio-rebroadcast

Sunday, December 25, 2011

The X-mas Card That Wasn't




Every year, for Christmas, we spend a weekend baking gingerbread cookies, and another weekend rushing out the standard photo Christmas card from Wal-Mart with a picture of the girls —usually taken on summer vacation.

This year, I thought I'd tie the two chores together with a single fishy theme. The cookies would be starfish, dolphins, seahorses and turtles, and for the card, I planned to create some custom art showing the household as a a family of fish. We got the cookies done, and I even got Anne Marie to approve the sketch above for the card. But sadly, that's as far as I got.

Maybe next year.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Card Gnome Illustration



Merry Christmas!  
Happy Holidays! 
& Happy New Year!

The Batmobile Lost Its Wheel


I can never shop for my dad and brother. So this year, I decided to take them both to go see the new Batman movie when it comes out, and buy them dinner.

Here are the cards I made for them.

I hope everyone has a beautiful and loving Christmas day tomorrow!

Friday, December 23, 2011


A quick (and late, of course) little painting for Nate's graduation announcement this year...now going out with Christmas cards...sorry to have missed the shindig at Slatts - looks like a good time was had by all. Have a wonderful Holiday everyone!

Ornaman and Ornama'am



Happy Holidays one and all! I handed these out at the Christmas party, but not sure everyone got one.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Debby saves me from Nightmare in Photoshop

I spent most of the morning & afternoon before the Christmas party battling new glitches in Photoshop. All my selection tools turned to the "feather" setting, so I had to laboriously erase everything from around any element I wanted to copy and set into my holiday card. Then when I shrunk things down to 4 by 6 for printing, everything digitalized.

Luckily, I sat next to Debby at the Christmas party, and she told me to Google "selection tool problem with feather setting in Photoshop." I did, and it turns out it's a permanent problem d/t a glitch in Photoshop, but you can eliminate the feather effects by going up to Select, then choose "Refine edges", and set “feather” to zero, and set contrast up to 100%. Debby also described how to avoid pixilation when shrinking images by making sure resolution is set at 300 pixels/inch when you change "image size", and choosing the bottom option under bicubic (“sharper best for reduction”)

So yesterday, I was able to make a much better version of the 2011 Holiday Shark Card. Anybody who got a lousy blurry card from me Sunday night can get one of the new ones from me if you come to the lunches.

Thanks so much Debby!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Christmas Party 2011-The Evidence!
















It was nice seeing everyone at the party this year. Daryll and Jerry got a lot of great pictures!

Jerry has more on his blog...

http://web.me.com/kenstewartphoto/DOWLING_2/Dowling_Blog/Entries/2011/12/20_HO_HO_HO!.html

The party starts with dinner and then the restaurant lets us lay out or art from the year on tables. I am glad they got good pictures because mine were all blurry.

I will bring my good camera next year and we will get a big group shot! Happy holidays everyone!






Monday, December 19, 2011

Sketchy Sketches

'ello again.

It was nice seeing everyone at last night's Christmas party. Lots of new faces. New to me, anyway. Then again, maybe I'm the new face.

Anyhoo, I thought I'd follow Chuck's advice and post some pics for your peepers.

These are preliminary sketches I did the night before last for a friend who's writing a book about not being a slacker during your post-graduate years. Ironic she chose me, huh?

Hope you enjoy them. Have an awesome Christmas, Flag Day, or whatever you celebrate.

Here's to 2012; may the Mayans be wrong!





Breaking the Ice: Holiday/Christmas Cards

Hopefully this will encourage others to post their cards. *hint*

I was really short on time this year so did this quickie ink drawing I colored in Photoshop. Next year, I hope to do something more elaborate...

I am painting a lot of animals in snow right now, so Arctic foxes were on the brain (although I was painting wolves when I did this).

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Showing tonight of "No More Blood" at the Esquire Tonight

The movie Woody did the credits and art for "No More Blood" is showing tonight at the Esquire at Midnight. Check it out!

More info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/243212539075680/

Here are the credits using Woody's art animated by Joe Busam: 

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Justin's back!



This is another illustration (mostly graphite, with the wagon and most of its passengers borrowed from the cover painting) from the last book in the Shaker Kids series. It shows Colonel Barker seen from behind, left foreground. As blog-spotters will recall, Justin posed in several layers of historic costume in 90-degree heat to give me the resource photos for that sleazy character. This is not to say that Justin is a sleazy character: au contraire, BEAR! Justin’s own character is totally sleazeless. Thanks again, Justin.
-Pam

Monday, December 12, 2011

This Week's Illustrators Lunch: LeBoxx December 14th

Join us this week on Wednesday, December 14th at 11:30 am for lunch at:

Le Boxx Cafe

(513) 721-5638

819 Vine St Map
Cincinnati, OH 45202
 
Across from the library downtown...

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Society6 Submission for the "US AND THEM" Collaboration: They Have Weapons

I've been putting some drawings on Society6. They do "collaborations" and self-publish a zine from time to time. The most recent one is themed "Us and Them". Below is my take on it.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

To Do or Not Do a Christmas/Holiday Card and Cool Podcasts

2009 Edition
It comes down to the wire every year... Whether or not to do a card. I am planning on something quick and simple and will post soon.

Do you all do one every year? Are you just emailing them or printing them?

Post your cards if you do them....




In Other News...

I know a lot of us listen to audiobooks and podcasts while working. I recently stumbled on this new one by Sam Weber last night and it is pretty good. It is just starting; so the show is still working out the rough edges (like so many podcasts).

http://yourdreamsmynightmares.com/episodes

He basically sits down and talks with different illustrators and art directors each Wednesday. It is part of the lineup for WSVA (a radio station for the School of Visual Arts in NYC) but anyone can listen.

Another excellent podcast is the series on Escape from Illustration Island. http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/podcast/

 It has 80 episodes so far and includes interviews with Scott Hull, Drew Struzan, Brian Despain, Elizabeth Dulemba, Anita Kunz, Dave McKean, and many others...

Monday, December 5, 2011

The Hungry Housewives Finally Finished!

The series is finally finished! It will be in the Slam Bang Comic Anthology Femme Fatales issue in 2012. (I will have a link up soon.)

It is the Hunger Games meets The Real Housewives in a series I would so watch on television. The Real Housewives show has an almost Othello quality where everyone is the character of honest Iago.

Also, kudos if you get the sci-fi movie reference on page 3...

The jokes just write themselves... Yes, my dream is to be a writer for the Simpsons or work for Mad Magazine...

The Hungry Housewives, Page 1

The Hungry Housewives, Page 2

The Hungry Housewives, Page 3

The Hungry Housewives, Page 4

This Week's Illustrators Lunch: Chi-natti's December 7th


Join us this week on Wednesday, December 7th at 11:30 am for lunch at:

Chi-nnati's Pizza

7980 Hosbrook Road
Cincinnati, OH 45243-1720

There is a Half Price Book Store next door, just saying... Re the discussion on gifts for illustrators, they often have great art books!