October Art Shows

Yesterday I setup two art shows in Spokane for the month of October. Both The Blue Door Theater and Giant Nerd Books are going to have my Horror Icons silkscreen posters on display! I was very excited to have this opportunity, it has been maybe seven years since my last art show for myself. This is also the first time I have had my silkscreen work exhibited anywhere. Most art shows I've done were of my acrylic work.

Browse through the walls displaying my art at Blue Door Theater, and the latter half of the photos are process pics at the screen printing press. Yes, I hand made the silkscreen press!

Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture

I'm so incredibly excited to be teaching cartooning to the kids at The MAC in Spokane again. If a genie were to ask me what job I could have, it would be do teach cartooning and art of all degrees to young aspiring artists. I was telling a friend earlier that if it were up to me I'd teach a workshop once a week and they'd record it on public access for schools, then do some art on a cart magic with schools around the area.
My first art teacher was on TV, Mark Kistler. He hosted Imagination Station, and I learned so many art techniques from his show. He got me even more motivated and excited. I always have adored his show to this day, and wish to leave a lasting impression on others like he did to me.

Passport to the Arts

I’m so incredibly excited to be a part of this event tomorrow at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture in Spokane, WA. I have a giant pad of paper with instructions on drawing Spongebob, I printed some giveaway booklets on cartooning, and a few prints of my work. I’ll be drawing with the kids and I will be wearing a shirt I screen printed, and have the press on display with the tools. This will be so much fun.
ARTS AND CULTURE: Garfield, Roosevelt, and Linwood elementary schools are introducing the arts to students this month with individual events at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.
The events celebrate all art forms and gives kids and their families an opportunity to engage in activities as well as meet working artists in a variety of professions –literary, music, visual, dance, and theater. Numerous artists from around the area will provide hands-on experiences for students.
Roosevelt launched the Passport to the Arts last year and, thanks to grants, the other two schools were able to sign on with MAC nights of their own this year.

Silkscreen SUCCESS!

Last night's attempt was a success. I think I found several small detailed hangups from previous attempts that I've corrected and made all the difference. Mainly you need some real pressure when spraying out the screen. I had a crummy dish sink hose.

Exposing the dry emulsion silkscreen to a 500 watt halogen work lamp (with removed UV filtering glass)

Using brown craft/mailing paper for testing. Giant roll of this for cheap at Staples.

Washed out image looks great on the screen.

 

Going to flood the screen with ink, then lay it down and pull a test.

Test image isn't too bad. The random spots of ink are from a previous test.

 

Now I'm using the nice black 11"x17" cardstock I ordered from PaperAndMore.com

 

Pulling ink, making some screen prints! My girlfriend said I have a ridiculous smile while doing this.

  I made a total of 16 Mega Hombre silkscreens

Some small labels I've stamped with the silkscreen title and my contact info for the backs

 

Front and back of a print.

 

I actually silkscreened the paper prints with acrylic titanium white ink. Hobby Lobby only carried Speedball Fabric Ink, so I improvised. Now I'm silkscreening a navy blue Mega Hombre shirt for myself, and drying the ink before I toss it in the oven to cure it.

 

Done! Not too bad, if I say so myself! It took a lot of attempts and learning, but it was worth it!

So now I'm going to attempt my other two designs as silkscreen prints, and a shirt each for the convention. I'm so ready for Spokane Comicon Saturday! See you there!

PS Im thinking I may write a tutorial covering everything I did, and list all the little details that I had to be aware of to get a proper screen.

Little Con of Horrors

I'm setting up at The Little Con of Horrors at Spokane Community College in #Spokane right now. 10am-4pm enjoy our first Halloween & Comic Convention!!

My "portfolio" review

So Saturday was probably the craziest day ever. My niece had a graduation party, her graduation, I had to help with her senior all nighter party, and right between it all I had to shoe horn in a portfolio review at the Saranac Arts Projects building. Sadly, I had to miss a portion of her lecture because I was so short on time.

Artist Jen Vaughn was having a little tour across the US, talking comics and cartooning, and doing portfolio reviews. Somehow this didn't end up on my radar until the night before, so instead of a traditional portfolio, I had her review my Clashing Swords comic. I kind of liked it that way, she was able to see a complete eight page story, my craftsmanship of putting together the book, and it was my most recent work.

She had a lot of great things to say too! I was kind of surprised by that. I guess after reading portfolio review horror stories for years, I imagined I was going to be fed to a mutant lion-shark. She was quite the opposite, she was very kind, and actually interested and engaged in everyone. She said that my toning was really great because it draws the eye where it needs to focus on. She liked my varying line weights. She also pointed out that I didn't use any dialogue captions to "explain" the story, and instead just stuck to dialogue on the sequential pages. She said it's always better to show than tell.

I told her that my next project I'm going to try hand lettering. She really liked that idea, because the balloons and text do stand out a bit, clashing against the hand drawn art. She liked that I free-handed the panels, because it helped carry the hand tooled feel of the art. I'd have to thank Gabriel Ba for that cue, sometimes you have to mimic those you are impressed by!

She also suggested I check out Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim's Dungeon graphic novels, Carl Bark's work on Uncle Scrooge comics, Little Lulu, and Archie. She said that the last three are really great at telling stories of various sizes.

I am glad I was able to make it downtown Saturday to meet up with her, she really boosted my confidence in making comics. Now it's time to get back to the drawing board. I want to have a couple more mini comics to show her at Emerald City Comicon next year!

Spokane Comicon 2012 Photos

Well Spokane Comicon 2012 came and went again, and it was a blast. I always say this because it's true, Comicons are like family reunions. It was awesome! Here are some photos from this year:

 Batman and Rorschach

My girlfriend, reading King City

Batman and Ramona Flowers

 Batman and Catwoman

Giving Cape Tips

Me and my booth

Me and my table mate Josh. My brother-in law Chuy is playing with the iPad

Lars Brown and Matt Brazee

 Matt Nelson of Catbeard the Pirate

DeLoreon

 My friend Aaron showed up!

The Crowds

 Zephan and Stevie!

 Me and my girlfriend!

 Crowds

 From Lars to Me!

Fem-Riddler?

Josh and I doing what we do!

 Snake Eyes snuck up on me at one point, a little startling

Mario and Luigi

Is that Creature from the Black Lagoon on the bottom?

 Zephan

 Rabbid Force, a webcomic

 Dead Supergirl... Unsettling.

 This girl has some cool art, kept meaning to say hi but didn't get a chance.

 Heroines of Spokane Comicon