• coveredblog.blogspot.com / Robert Goodin

Calvin and Hobbes by Chris Hoobler

The New Mutants by Ptricio Oliver

The Amazing Spiderman by Dan Lehane

The Spider-Woman by Paul Sizer

Star Trek by Alex Fine

Tank Girl by Nic Cowan

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Covered Blog: Comics Revised!

Calvin: “I’ve been thinking, Hobbes.”
Hobbes: “On a weekend?”
Calvin: “Well it wasn’t on purpose…”
- The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes, p155

I wanted to be Stupendous Man, and Spaceman Spiff, and I wanted to solve crimes as Tracer Bullet. And I can safely say that at ten years old, my large(ish) vocabulary was almost entirely due to trying to imitate Calvin’s memorable personality. He was the highlight of every Sunday.

People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don’t realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.
- The Revenge of the Baby-Sat, p100

Dear Mr. Watterson

Since the final strip was published in 1995, the popularity of the Bill Watterson’s beloved comic has not waned. On October 26, 2006, rumors began of a documentary in the making called Dear Mr. Watterson. The following year, the still-strong Calvin and Hobbes community learned that very early pre-production had been started and that filming was now in the works. At the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, those behind the project came forward to talk more about what they had in mind, and we met the faces behind it: Joel Schroeder, Andrew Waruszewski, Matt Mcusic, and Christopher Browne. Last year, the crew released a teaser trailer with interviews from Seth Green, Berkeley Breathed, and other cartoonists, and the project picked up momentum. On December 15, 2009, Dear Mr. Watterson put out a call for help; they wanted to raise at least $12,000 to cover the cost of production. They hoped to raise it in 90 days.

Twenty-one days later, they had surpassed their goal, thanks to the support of Calvin and Hobbes fans worldwide. As of today, they have well over $13,000 and donations are still coming in.

I can’t tell if that’s funny or really scary.
- The Days are Just Packed, p64

This project just goes to show how large of an impact Bill Watterson’s creation has had on the lives of so many people. The books that contain the most beloved of these comics are still selling strong at every bookstore, and it is rare to find anyone who has not read at least one strip and smiled. It is easy to see even a little of one’s self in Calvin. He is every child – even the best of us.

I’M SIGNIFICANT! … screamed the dust speck.
- There’s Treasure Everywhere, p30

Links to the Project

For more information about the Dear Mr. Watterson project, please visit any of the following links:

• DearMrWatterson.com
• @dearmrwatterson
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Donate to the Project!

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For the Love of Calvin

• Are you afraid of social networking?
• Do you see it as a relentless time-suck with no quantifiable payoff?

Your fears are shared by many, and they are justified. Even in our increasingly online world, some creative professionals are still wary of using social networking as part of their self-promotion efforts. Some artists dismiss the idea as a superficial or detached way of trying to make connections and secure future work, while others just see it as the latest passing fad. However, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify these perspectives as more and more Art Directors, Agents, Illustrators, and Designers are finding success at building relationships and creating fame through the use of social networking.

12 Simple Steps

Contrary to what some may think, making proper use of the more common social networking sites can boost your profile and spread the word about how great you are, while making potentially lasting relationships with others in your field. Here are some tips that might help you to network online to the best effect:

• Pick a few that work. While it can be valuable to have a profile on as many sites as possible, it’s more practical and effective to devote your time and energy to the ones that are working for you.
• Be genuine. You may have noticed that I’ve used the word “relationships” a couple of times already. While this might seem like an odd way to describe the often impersonal interactions that take place over the internet, real connections do happen. Start genuine relationships with people rather than spam everyone you meet.
• Be generous. Share your knowledge and help those less experienced than yourself. This will help to make the types of connections mentioned above while presenting yourself as an expert in your field. People are searching online to have their needs met, and they will remember those who help them along the way.
• Broaden your scope. You may find yourself interacting with your artistic peers, and that’s great. However, it’s important to avoid the mistake of only networking with your fellow creators. This can lead to some great relationships, but it can also be limiting when it comes to attempting to promote your Illustration or Design business. Try to seek out and connect with Art Directors and others who hire people like you.
• Stay active. Submit regular updates to the few sites that you are most active on. It’s a good idea to stay on everyone’s radar and remind them that you’re an active, working artist, rather than a lifeless robot who posted a profile years ago never to return. No one is going to remember a name on a screen, but they will remember someone who is doing things that pique their interest, or even inspire them, on a regular basis.
• Be professional. It can be easy to overstep the line and start talking about your family, your favorite pet, and what you ate for breakfast. Unless you are providing something of value to people, they will quickly tune you out. Set clear boundaries for yourself to keep too much of your personal life from creeping in.
• Be personal. Balance the last tip with a healthy dose of humanity to remind people that you’re a real person. While it’s not a good idea to divulge to much personal information, real-life stories can be inspiring and helpful to others, as well as a deeper look into who you really are.
• Present a consistent brand. Try to make every aspect of your online presence visually cohesive through the use of logos, images, and color schemes whenever possible. That way, when someone stumbles upon your profile at any given social networking site, you will not only be planting yourself deeper in their memory banks, but you will also be showing yourself to be a professional business.
• Link to your website. Strangely enough, this step is often overlooked., but it’s one of the most important things you can do to draw someone into your world and present your brand and services. Your portfolio website is where you have the most control over your message and your efforts to convince your visitors to contact or hire you.
• Manage Your Time. One of the biggest dangers of social networking is losing yourself in an endless stream of friend requests and useless distractions. This is one of the things that gives social networking a bad name. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Set aside a few hours a week for this part of your business, and try not to overdo it at the expense of your valuable time. Some artists choose one day each week for social networking.
• Combine with offline efforts. Online networking is great, but don’t lose sight of the value of face-to-face connections and print promotions. Pay attention to any announcements of local networking events, and try to connect with other like-minded creators who live in your area.
• Don’t force it. Even with all these tips, social networking isn’t for everybody. You may find that certain sites are just not a good fit for your brand, your aesthetic sensibilities, or your personality. As with any part of your business, ditch anything that simply isn’t working for you and keep up with what is showing positive results.

Everything’s Going to Be Okay.

Social networking is not going to kill you, or your business. In fact, it can be quite the contrary. Social networking is changing the way the world does business, but it doesn’t mean that you have to abandon everything you’ve learned before. Rather, it’s just another set of tools to choose from in your daily promotional efforts. It can be extremely valuable to try and approach social networking as an opportunity to open some doors and see what lies on the other side.

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Social Networking Won’t Kill You: A Skeptical Artist’s Guide to Online Promotion

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Happy Winter from FYillo

Michael Jackson

(credit: Edel Rodriguez)

If 2009 was rough on illustrators, it was really rough on celebrities, every week it seemed there was a report that a movie star, socialite or politician had passed away, the most iconic of them being the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. News outlets couldn’t get enough of the story, and illustrators didn’t disappoint, all the while Thriller playing loudly in the background.
- MJ collection from drawger.

Cliched Themes

While starting a new illustration project is usually exciting, inevitably you get the call or email, read the article, and now have to figure out for the umpteenth time how not to draw windmills, euros or a medical bag. Yes, we’re talking about the assignment featuring the global financial crisis, the healthcare debate, or environmental jobs. All important topics of discussion….but please, don’t make us draw anymore dollar signs!

Death of Print

Unfortunately, this year we saw the shuttering of more magazines and newspapers. While calling it the death of print is a bit overstated, it’s sad to see them go for a number reasons, not least of which that these are an illustrator’s bread and butter. We wish magazines and newspapers better health in 2010.

Where The Wild Things Are

(credit: wikipedia )

Okay, okay, technically, this book is not from 2009, but it’s reemergence is. With the excitement that came from the release of the movie by Spike Jonze, Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book re-won it’s way into our heart, with drawings and story that are still as magical as ever.

U2 – I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight

Here’s a brief musical interlude featuring our favorite illustrated/animated video of the year. Full disclosure, we don’t even like the song, which speaks to how good it looks.

The Twitters

Like everyone else, we love our social networking, particularly twitter. Whether showcasing a new piece, complaining about a deadline, or mostly (and preferably) simple irreverence, we illustrators love us some twitter. Here are some of our favorite chatty illustrators (aka, twitterstrators) from 2009: @jenniferdaniel, @TheHeadsofState, @dirtbagg, @uberkraaft.

Radiolab

(credit: Jez Burrows)

Working in the vacuum of freelance illustration, we all need something to listen to. While music is constantly in rotation, if you ask illustrators about podcasts, someone will always pop up and ask, ‘ooh, do you listen to Radiolab!?’ Heck, they even had a series of posters made for them.

Portfolios

Trends for online portfolios come and go, and this year we have seen the rise of two services allowing illustrators to post their work online with a familiar look. Some of us love the tech, some of us hate it, but there sure are a lot of us using indexhibit and cargo.

New Yorker Cover

(credit: Jorge Colombo)

One of the more entertaining discussions in the illustration world this year was over the New Yorker covers by Jorge Colombo using only his iphone, his finger, and the brushes app. Are they inspired drawings from real life? Technical masterpieces? IPhone overload? Was the New Yorker giving all its reader the finger? The debate was most entertaining.

Happy New Year everyone.

WANT MORE?

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Best of 2009 in the Illustration Industry

Ok, lets see if I can make two points at the same time.

When I first graduated and was ready to take the illustration world by storm a well-respected art director at The Times gave me the advice, “when it comes to clients, start at the top and work your way back.”

It’s great advice, especially to those people who are saying to themselves ‘oh I’ll just send stuff to my local weekly newspapers… “Smaller publications”… because it will be easier to get work from them…’. (here comes the first point) If you are beginning an illustration career you should not see ‘small’ clients as the only places you are worthy to work for just because you are new to the business; In general terms getting work is not about time spent as a professional, it is about the quality of your product. Plain and simple.

Now the other side of the coin.

The pervious advice should be bullet point number one on any new illustrator’s business plan, but it doesn’t mean a person should discard the so-called small stuff either. What I propose is to see the landscape of illustration clients on a level plain, treat the Philadelphia City Paper with equal respect and importance as Rolling Stone Magazine; my reasoning:

It is true that we as business owners want to do work for places that provide the most joy and fulfillment, but let’s be honest, we also want to make as much money as possible. Arguably the bigger clients will pay more money per illustration, especially when compared to a small B/W spot from a weekly paper. This is a logical approach, but don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. A magazine such as Rolling Stone can offer a nice payday for an illustration, but as a monthly magazine you can assume they are not going to call you more than 1-3 times a year (*average estimate). While these jobs are exactly what we all want, don’t brush off the importance of the smaller stuff.

Consider this: A weekly occurs 4 times more a month than a monthly, based on numbers alone, your likelihood of having steady work or at least more frequent offers from weeklies is much higher. Sure $100 sounds small compared to a nice $2000 pay day, but remember if you cultivate a good relationship with the weekly client and you get one spot a month you’re looking at an extra $1200 for the year. Now imagine you land 2 of these clients…$2400…you get the picture. Believe me, at the end of the day it makes a difference.

With the variety of pay scale that we as illustrators deal with, the smartest business decision is to look past the pyramid of clients and take it all on a level playing field. Each client you work for, whether big or small, will present its own set of benefits to your career and business. The idea is to keep your head up and always consider the long term. Don’t underestimate the power of the ‘smaller jobs’, but don’t think that’s all you are good for either.

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Business 101: Big fish, Small Fish

His style and language with this medium continue to grow as can be seen in the more intricate interpretation of the Empire State building at the bottom of this page. And just to give you an idea of the work involved, at the time of the photo the piece was made up of “Approx. 40+ hrs work so far, 1500 holes pierced, 33m of cotton stitched.” to which we respond, dammmn.

• www.petercrawley.co.uk / @petercrawley

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Peter Crawley’s Stitched Illustrations

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Happy Turkey

Wrap a fish in one today!

• More information available at www.thepencilfactory.org

Participating artists include Kim Bost, Josh Cochran, Jennifer Daniel, Gilbert Ford, Jessica Hische, Grady McFerrin, Ted McGrath, Alex Eben Meyer, Chris Silas Neal, Zacharia O’Hora, Leif Parsons, Rachel Salomon, Joel Speasmaker, Jillian Tamaki, and Sam Weber.

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15 Uses for Newsprint

Also, if you know of someone that NEEDS to be a #fff contestant, leave a comment with a link to their beautiful work. We’re always on the lookout for more talented folk.

Astrid Yskout

p e l l e t

pedro hamdan

ken garduno art

remed_art

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Five Flickr Friday

• Library of Congress on Flickr, Illustrated Newspaper Supplements
• Library of Congress Website

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Library of Congress: “My Sweet Doggie”

The concept of time is a hard one to become comfortable with and accepting it is a major obstacle that young illustrators have to face. It’s the first hurdle and if it cannot be cleared you will never move on in the race. To clarify, when I say ‘get comfortable with it’ that by no means implies you should put the drive in cruise control under the assumption that a full time career will take a ‘forever’ to reach. Still try hard, bust your ass, be frantic (but professional!), be anxious; just respect the effort it will take.

To get over this hurdle and others like it we as business owners (regardless of success) need to be able to play mental games with ourselves. The point here being the more you say something the more it begins to feel real. From day one treat illustration like a job. Sure it’s an amazing job that is a whole lot of fun, but it’s still a JOB and you are still running a business. Tell yourself that. Tell yourself constantly. Get up 5 days a week (although I would suggest more), start working at the same time each day, take 1 hour lunch breaks, hell, buy a punch clock if you have to ( I know people who do that), but most importantly tell others. When people ask what you do tell them. I don’t care if you have a part time job at Pet Co. or the local bar, tell them: “I have two jobs, I am a freelance illustrator and work a few days at Pet Co.”. These things sound awkward and trivial, but I promise it will make a huge impact on your attitude. Soon enough, after saying it out loud enough times it beings to settle in your brain that you are actually working as an illustrator regardless of making any money or not. As soon as you start believing that you are truly a working illustrator, the sooner the goal of being a financially sustained working illustrator will feel achievable.

On paper, working as an artist, getting paid to make pictures, sounds too good to be true. As a result many people don’t understand how it is possible. Overcoming that isn’t going to directly put cash in your account, but it is one piece of the puzzle to put you down the path that will.

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Business 101: If You Believe It, It Will Become

Flickr: h e i d i b u r t o n

Flickr: Skinny Ships

Flickr: andricongirl

Flickr: jaredchapman

Flickr: Juan▲Pez

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Five Flickr Friday: Halloween Edition

• Lander Gallery: Christopher James Tate

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Christopher James Tate

In America, hippies dreamed of a world full of love peace, and sharing. The Beatles were heard everywhere. Dylan began. Students were the driving force, effecting politics through peaceful demonstrations and colorful decorations.

The illustration scene was highlighted by much improved color printing. Drawing was freed from the constraints of realistic representation, and fantastic imagery flourished. Photography enriched texts, Illustrations combining graphic art and collage became a standard.

The counter culture of the 1960’s produced various independently published and distributed underground papers.

But the revolution that did happen in the 60’s wasn’t as a result of protests or manifests, but due to a technological development. The invention of the birth control pill led to a feminist assault on the old order. The Pill was first available only for married ladies who had enough children, but very quickly spread and became popular also amongst single women –who just wanted it have fun, without worrying about traditional pregnancy burden that was until the sixties forever placed on their backs.

Finally, they got a chance to fearlessly enjoy sexual experiences. The 1960s heralded a new culture of “free love” with millions of young people embracing the hippie ethos and preaching the power of love and the beauty of sex as a natural part of ordinary life.

Advertisement became more sophisticated, sometimes even taking an artistic approach. Ads in the late sixties were brightly colored, wavy and mystical, as seen earlier on the hippies’ painted Volkswagen. Posters portrayed a flowery gentle counterculture.

60’s illustrated books for children were at times as crazy as the decade itself. New York born Maurice Sendak published “Where the Wild Things Are” (1963), a story made of ten sentences only, displaying a surreal and menacing world of make-believe creatures.

The 1960’s offered a new kind of picture book, in which the illustrations dominate the text. Brian Wildsmith – a legendary author-illustrator from Yorkshire, England – made expressive use of intense, shiny colors for many works.

American Eric Carle introduced a new style of illustrations. His 1967 classic “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” included bright, bold collages – made from painted tissue – and has since been a preschool favorite.

The world seemed to have shrunk in the 1960s. For the first time, transcontinental and even intercontinental travel became easy and efficient. Advances in transportation and in communication, the two pillars of commerce, started turning the world into a global village.

By the ended of the eventful decade much of the optimism had gone out, especially in the US. The endless Vietnam War – along with a growing Cold War and a volatile economy plagued by inflation and tax increases – changed the atmosphere. A new and more rational age was coming to stage.

Sources:

• cwluherstory.com
• xroads.virginia.edu
• community.livejournal.com/vintage_ads/940963.html
• grainedit.com
• thepeoplehistory.com
• www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/topics/culture
• enotes.com
• infoplease.com
• wikipedia.org
• vi.sualize.us
• redtreetimes.wordpress.com

Image Credits:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/joan_thewlis/3816569911/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkponk/517262247/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/craftydogma
• http://mbeans.com/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/judibird
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/wardomatic/212631859/
• http://www.thevine.com.au
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/27688135@N08/3771257238/
• http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/
• http://www.posterclassics.com/Vintage-Exposition-posters.html
• http://www.bobtheil.com/psychotron/blacklight.htm
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/23023719@N04/2767310142/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/28628523@N08/2667056262/
• http://www.analucia.net/imsblog/Eric-Carle/
• http://www.scoresbyps.vic.edu.au/Content/Curriculum/Specialists/Library/library.htm
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/31493432@N08/2981532374/in/set-72157608301316031/

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1960’s Illustration: Freedom, Peace and Flower Power