So as we celebrate our nation here in the USA, I present a video I found on YouTube. I hope you enjoy it and even sing along. I know I will.
You can read a history of the show at 2719 Hyperion blog as well.

Technorati Tags: america sings, Disney, disneyland

Why not check out the Disney and More blog to see original artwork from Disneyland’s ‘America on Parade’ show from the bicentennial. I have faint memories of seeing the show when I was a kid.

Have a great day.

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“Estimates are that 40% of homeless youth identity as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgenders or queer. Considering LGBT youth make up only 5-10% of the population in general, the fact that so many homeless youth are queer is troubling. But what can be done to prevent LGBT homelessness?”

I did not have time to alter the art for the client, so it was done by someone else. I have included it for posterity sake.

click for bigger images at Flickr

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The Cartoon Art Museum Sketch-A-Thon at San Diego Comic-Con needs your help!

San Diego Comic-Con International is fast approaching, and the Cartoon Art Museum needs your help! In order to raise funds and raise awareness of the Cartoon Art Museum, we’ll be hosting our second annual Sketch-A-Thon at this year’s Comic-Con.

We’re looking for artists to sit at our table for one-hour sessions, drawing sketches for Comic-Con attendees in exchange for donations to the Cartoon Art Museum. Past guest artists included Alison Bechdel, Tom Beland, Daryl Cagle, Rick Geary, Derek Kirk Kim, Keith Knight, Batton Lash, Steve Lieber and Eric Powell, among others, and we’re hoping to put together another all-star line-up for this year. This year’s guest list already includes Marvel Comics artist & letterer Rick Parker, mini-comics creator Karen Luk and underground comix legend Bobby London, with more surprises to come.

Artists of all shapes, sizes and skill levels are welcome, so please don’t be intimidated by the list that I’ve posted. We’re hoping to have one veteran artist and one up-and-comer at the table at all times, which will allow the younger artists to learn from the older ones (and vice versa).

We set a new fundraising record at last year’s Comic-Con, and we’re hoping to top that total this year.

Thanks very much for your consideration. If you’re able to give some of your time at this year’s Comic-Con, please send me an e-mail and I’ll fill you in on the details and start working out a schedule. If you’ll be on-site but unable to leave your table and you’d still like to contribute a sketch or a signed book, please let me know and I’ll add you to our sign-up list.

Best,

Andrew Farago
–
Gallery Manager/Curator
Cartoon Art Museum
655 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) CAR-TOON, ext. 314
www.cartoonart.org

Technorati Tags: 2009, art, artist, comic com, sdcc, sketch, Sketch-A-Thon, sketchathon

You can see all the museums videos on YOUTUBE here.

Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: animatic, boot camp, cam, Cartoon, Cartoon Art Museum, kids, storyboard, students

I post updates on classes and events that I am part of. Also I have just installed a plug-in on my site that will (hopfully) Tweet when I post a blog post here.

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Here is a cool scary puppet, Bunrakboo Puppetry Illusions by www.gore-galore.com:

Here is Big Bird from Sesame Street singing “It’s not easy being Green” at the memorial for Jim Henson. Puppeteer Carol Spinny is obviously doing a pretty good job to stay in character and convey his emotions through the puppet. Very touching.

And here the key performers sing some of Mr. Henson’s favorite songs at the memorial. It’s fun to see the puppeteers doing the voices with out the puppets. Then at the end all the puppeteer come in with furry puppets on their hands.

And how about Dumbo flying over the castle at Disneyland. Pretty cute:

and last but not least is ‘Abba The Last Video Stockholm 1974 (2004)’ This is really cool and cleaver way to make a music video with out the actual singers.

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The panels/pages were pre-printed and then sketched out of order to start. I added colors in Adobe Photoshop later on.

The images are posted at Flickr and you can see it all HERE.

click for a larger image…

TOO BE CONTINUED?

Technorati Tags: art, Asian Art Museum, comic, comic jam

Pretty amazing animatronic. I wonder if it can be “puppeted” or just played back as a show. See some more photos by Jeff Lang HERE.

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Technorati Tags: cat, comic, sticky note, Valhalla

- My adult cartooning class this last weekend was fantastic. Thanks to all my students for their hard work and great enthusiasm.

- Right now I am teaching the first week of the Cartoon Art Museum Cartoon Boot Camp with a theme of Superheroes. I will post some samples of the work in the next few weeks. This week is just jam packed with teaching and activities that is keeping me on my toes.

- I will be teaching at the Schulz Museum July 6-10, 2009.

- I have some freelance projects finishing and also starting up and that is a nice feeling. Here is one that I am just finished up HERE.

- I finally got to get a “Doc Popular” sandwich at Ike’s in San Francisco. A bit pricey, but they bake the bread fresh per sandwich which makes it pretty special. If you go during their ‘happy hour’ you can get a free drink and chips with your sandwich is a good deal. http://www.ilikeikesplace.com/

- I will be at the San Deigo Comic Con 2009, more information coming soon.

Technorati Tags: cam, Cartoon Art Museum, class, san francisco, sandwhich

Defining the Project
Instructor: Brian Kolm
Level: Beginning/Intermediate - Adult
Days: June 13-14, 2009

Are you thinking about working on a personal comic or cartoon project? Do you need some motivation to get the ball rolling? Come to this hands-on workshop where like-minded creators can work on their projects together. We will go through exercises that will help you explore ideas for stories, settings, and characters for your projects. We will then learn how to take our projects to the next level. We will learn how to outline our stories, as well as design the characters and settings that will help bring the story and character ideas to life.

Technorati Tags: art project, cam, cartooning, comic

- I will be teaching an Adult level class on this weekend June 13-14, 200:

Defining the Project
Instructor: Brian Kolm
Level: Beginning/Intermediate - Adult
Days: June 13-14, 2009

Are you thinking about working on a personal comic or cartoon project? Do you need some motivation to get the ball rolling? Come to this hands-on workshop where like-minded creators can work on their projects together. We will go through exercises that will help you explore ideas for stories, settings, and characters for your projects. We will then learn how to take our projects to the next level. We will learn how to outline our stories, as well as design the characters and settings that will help bring the story and character ideas to life.

- The following week is my first Cartoon Boot Camp at the Cartoon Art Musuem in San Francisco. A second class and one in July follow:

Intermediate ages 10-14:

June 15-19: Designing Superheroes

Superheroes are a big part of American pop culture with characters as diverse as Batman, Wonder Woman, Mr. Incredible and Diaperman. Students will learn to draw these and their own brightly colored lads and ladies who fight crime. The class will teach the students how to draw humanoid heroes in pose, physique, personality, costume and presentation.

June 22-26: From Storyboard to Animatic

In this class students learn to draw storyboards just like the ones used in movies and television shows. Once the storyboards are created students will develop them into an animated piece. The class will explore drawing, camera moves and lighting, timing and communication, and applying simple animation and camera moves to give a simulation of what a final film would look like.

July 13-17: Storytelling for Comics

Students will explore the process of creating a story including writing an outline, developing the structure of the story, creating characters, and making rough layouts.

Beginner level ages 7-14:

August 3-7: Cartoon Craft

Young students will participate in a fun week of cartoon and crafts combined, including the creation of projects that explore collage, flipbooks, zoetrope, paper dolls, puppets, and robots.

- I am now AllAbouttheMouseketeer  #857. ‘All About the Mouse’ is a Disney podcast I really enjoy listening too. Find out more at: www.allaboutthemouse.com

- I am also a fan of Window to the Magic, Mouse Station, and Mousetalgia!

- I have a few new freelance art gigs coming up and that makes me happy.

- I will be at the San Diego Comic-Con Thursday through Sunday at the Cartoon Art Museum booth or wondering the floor and networking.

Technorati Tags: art, cam, Cartoon Art Museum, cartooning, classes, comic-con, Disney, podcast, sdcc

Check out more samples of the prolog on Lex’s blog: http://www.kidbeowulf.com/?p=821

Click to see more. Artwork is ©2009 Alexis E. Fajardo

Technorati Tags: Alexis Fajardo, Brian Kolm, comic, epid, graphic novel, Kid Beowulf, watercolor

Sticky Note Comic JamHistory: We first did it at the Cartoonist Conspiracy meet on Thursday May 28, 2009 with added printed template layouts on May 31, 2009 at the Cartoon Art Museum Jam.

Idea:This Jam was following up from the Index Card Comic Jam in which we had groups of two or three people join forces to create a story in a non-linear way by drawing each panel on a separate Sticky Notes and then deciding what order to put them in and sticking them to the template that is available on our download section. These type of jams’ strength lie in having less people and more control of the order of the panels helps make a more solid finished story. This might be a good way to develop a story you will re-draw with more elaborate panel boarders or just just what you make.

How does it work: Two or Three people get together and decide on a basic idea for a story. The original time we used the theme “Starting a Band”. Since the creators have no idea going in what will happen they might want to start by drawing a close up of a character or a establishing shot of the setting in pencil. The group works together to shape a story with sometimes having each artist focused on drawing one specific character (like in animated films). After the story is done or close to it another artist (or one of the creators) can go over with pen to solidify the drawings into consistent style.

Materials:

- Light colored Sticky Note
- (optional) Printed comic templates to ‘paste’ down your panels to give them boarders. You can just stick the Sticky Note panels on a sheet of paper and draw the boarders on top.
-  Regular or Blue pencil. Note the blue pencil on the yellow Sticky Notes with out inking made it very impossible to get a good scan.
- Inking tools.
- Two artist at least.
- A clean table to work on or someplace to stick the notes while your rearrange them.
- (optional) Way to get a random idea. We had printed slips of ideas generated from the website http://seventhsanctum.com/

Sample

- The artist sit down with there idea/theme.
- Decided if each artist will handle only a single character on each time it appears or that all the artist draws everything. It’s your choice.
- The group starts. We recommend having artist start with a close up or establishing shot to show the characters and setting.
- Have a sheet of paper or a clean surface to set down each Sticky Note Panel and you can rearrange them as you go to make a story.
- You might want to wait on adding dialog till after you have an order to place the Sticky Note Panels.
- Once you know what order you can stick the panels to the custom template of sheet of boarders or on a blank sheet of paper. If you work on blank paper, decided if you want to draw the boarders down too.
- Scan and/or copy the art to your website, zine, etc.

Sample Images:

Technorati Tags: cam, Cartoon Art Museum, Cartoonist Conspiracy, ccsf, comic jam, san francisco

History: First done at the Cartoon Art Museum Comic Jam on May 31, 2009

Idea: The idea of this jam is to work fast. Some of us artist have a habit of getting stuck on our comics projects and spending too much time. The jam produced interesting results and has some different variations. I could see this being a way to develop an idea with out getting stuck. You sort of just try to draw in ‘real time’.

How does it work: The idea of the jam is that each artist only takes a minuet or two to draw each panel We recommend that artist draw with pen since it forces us to not get too careful and work faster. We worked in a format based on Darwin Cookes’ “New Frontier” which features 3 CinemaScope panels per page. The wider panels requite some more details and storytelling sometimes, but also make the project go faster. We made copies of the template and then tapped them up on an easel.

We did the first jam in pencil with four artist, but that seemed to make it harder to follow, but it might be worth a try. See the variations below.

Materials:

- Printed comic templates. You can use any format you like or none at all, but we are not experience with it that way.
- Art materials, we recommended pens. Sharpies work well.
- Two artist at least
- Someone or Something to keep time. Watch, iPhone, Clock Watcher, etc.
- Easel or wall to put up the pages on. I think it’s better to stand and get lots of energy flowing.
- Way to get a random idea. We had printed slips of ideas generated from the website http://seventhsanctum.com/

Sample:

- Tape up 2, 4 or more of printed templates on the easel or the wall. Make sure you won’t damage the wall with your pens of choice.
- Pick one to a couple of random ideas, or just pick them from the audience or non-participating artist.
- Pick who goes first.
- The first artist draws for two minutes (one minutes is harder) the first panel.
- The second artist continues in the second panel.
- The first artist draws the third panel etc.
- Continue to the last panel on the last page. Can you have the story end on the last page?

Here is a sample of some of our jams by way of Flickr.

• This is my Mike Hales and Roberto who alternated panel by panel…

photo by Rick Lucy

• Variation: (below) Each artist drew their panels at the same time, but only on two pages per person. The theme was “Glam Rock Beach Party”…by Brian Kolm and Mike Hales.

photo by Rick Lucy

• Variation: Lots of people.

More then two people draw. One person per panel.

• Variation: Faster or slower. Use less time per panel or more time.

• Variation (not tried yet): Layered.

One person draws on the panel with a light pencil for one/two minutes. Then another artist goes over with ink for one/two minute. Then another artist adds the word balloons. Another adds the background. It really can be any variation mixed with the ideas above.

and You can have it so one artist starts with the first step and goes panel by panel at one/two minutes of time each and then the second person does not start till the first person moves to the next page.

– by Brian Kolm

P.S. please let me know if try this type of Jam and how your experience was.

Technorati Tags: art, artist, cam, Cartoon Art Museum, Cartoonist Conspiracy, ccsf, comic, comic jam, san francisco

Well, today 26 people came to the Cartoon Art Museum to create comics and art. Members of the Cartoonist Conspiricy San Francisco joined with the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore for a Comic Jam.

Starting at 11 am artist begin to arrive at the Museum and were given a special custom lanyard while we finished setting up in the Museum’s lobby.

First off, artist were invited to help design the Bookstore’s online persona ‘Sparky Joe.’ Sparky Joe is a mash up of Olive Oyl, Wendy the good little witch, wolf girl from Lil’ Abner, and Disney’s version of Tinkerbell.

At noon we started the comic jams. One table did a series of illustrations that had an adventuring girl over the course of a day. The other table had two groups who worked on comics on Sticky Notes. The Sticky Notes allowed for us to create a collaborative story that can be rearranged and adjusted creating a more solid tale. The jams will be on-line in the next few weeks.

Later in the day we tried something new, Speed Comic Jams. We took pre-printed pages with three cinema scope panels and posted four of them on a tablet on a stand. The first time had each artist taking turns filling in the panels one by one with only one minutes per panel. We drew in pencil with a random theme with the words: Cinderella and Detective Tale. That produced loose rough drawings. The next version had two artist drawing two pages at the same time with two minutes per panel. The theme was Glam Rock Beach party. This time we drew with Sharpie pens which made the artist work simpler and cleaner. We did the challenges a few more times, finially returing to panel by panel at two minutes a time.

Around 4pm we had a few more artist finish some “Sparky Joe” drawings and then at 5pm we all voted along with shoppers in the Bookstore. Manager Heather had a hard time picking from all the designs so this made it easier. In the end there was a three way tie, so we had another round of voting with the winner being artist Audry Soffa (of the web comic the Bunny System) who’s art will be uploaded soon to Facebook.

If you want to be a friend of the Cartroon Art Museum Bookstore, just search Facebook for Sparky Joe or you can follow on Twitter as well.

It seemed that everyone had a really good time and we were really productive. We hope to have some comics on-line soon and look forward to returning to the museum sometime soon.

TOMORROW is an event I have been helping put together for the Cartoonist Conspiricy San Francisco comic jam group. May 31, 2009. Sunday. We will have a comic jam in the lobby of the Cartoon Art Museum with our sponsor, the Museum’s own Bookstore.

The FREE event will begin at 11 am and end at 5pm and allow artist to come together and create comic stories. NOTE: Admission to the Museum is NOT free. It’ cost $6 for adults, $4 for students and seniors and $2 for kids.

Many local artist from the group will be there along with a lot of new people too. It’s going to be fun and exciting. So come on down and draw with us.

You can find photos from the event at Flicker HERE: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cartoonconspiracysf/

You can answer questions to get ideas on both TWITTER: http://twitter.com/CAMBookstore

and on FACEBOOK by friending SPARKY JOE: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=100000016205524&ref=ts

Technorati Tags: cam, Cartoon Art Museum, ccsf, comic, jam

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