This past weekend I was working on an illustration for the University of Dayton Magazine from Dayton, Ohio, to illustrate an editorial column by Thomas M. Columbus. It actually was quite a challenge. Thomas’ editorial deals with a lot of ethereal ideas about what we consider a relic in today’s society, often calling them “sacred”.
It was quite tough to pinpoint a direction for an accompanying illustration that would pull the page-flipping reader in to read what he has to say. He was talking about the average, everyday person as being a possible sacred relic. So, my initial thumbnail sketches explored that concept. I drew lots of mundane faces with halos. It felt kind of corny, but I could see it working in color.
Some preliminary thumbnail sketches for the University of Dayton Magazine’s editorial page.
I sent the above sketches to Art Director Frank Pauer because the deadline was looming, but it kept gnawing at me. While Frank was pondering the initial sketches, I was chatting with a friend about it when the idea hit me to sketch an idea that was less esoteric and more story-driven – why not have an Indiana Jones type character coming for a baseball signed by Babe Ruth? It’s more of a modern day type of relic, and made more of an editorial comment that complimented Mr. Columbus’ written words. So I worked up the following thumbnail:
The initial thumbnail sketch inspired by Indiana Jones from the famous scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
As I sent that off, the Art Director came back with the suggestion that I rework sketch C without the halos. So, while he pondered Indy, I did the following color thumbnail sketch of just four faces with a central halo-ish effect. (And yes, for those of you who know me and are wondering, that is me in the upper left corner.)
This is a second stab at the C idea from above. This time with some color splashed in with Photoshop.
As I sent this one off, the Art Director got back to me saying they liked the “Indiana Jones” angle. I was glad because that was clearly going to be the most fun for me to illustrate anyway. So, next, I worked up this final pencil drawing for approval. It got the thumbs up.
Here’s the final drawing of “Indiana Jones” prior to beginning the painting. You can click on it to see more detail.
Check back with me later this week. While the piece is all finished and turned in already, I’ll show you the painting stages and the final piece in my next post! Thanks to the University of Dayton Magazine for allowing me to show you these images!
Gallery Nucleus brings you the work of late illustrator Robert (Bob) Peak, a most prolific American illustrator whose extensive catalog of work delved into advertising, fashion, sports, fine art, and film – forever revolutionizing the look of the modern movie poster. Among the more than 130 films for which he did the posters were West Side Story, Camelot, My Fair Lady, Apocalypse Now, and five Star Trek features.
The World Premiere Exhibition will be the first solo show of Peak’s work spanning over three decades. The show will include a series of limited editions, and a special one-of-a-kind oversized edition of My Fair Lady to be auctioned off with all proceeds going to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.
Dubbed “the father of modern movie posters,” Peak’s design and color pallet were so fresh and vivid that it swept the Hollywood moguls off of their collective feet; leaving everyone wanting a Bob Peak designed movie campaign. During his lifetime, Peak, designed 20 covers for Time Magazine, 39 covers for T.V. Guide Magazine along with numerous star portraits including Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, and Spencer Tracy. A Hall of Fame member of the New York Society of Illustrators, he was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992 by The Hollywood Reporter for his remarkable contribution to the film industry.
“The one effective method of defending one’s own territory from an offensive by air is to destroy the enemy’s air power with the greatest possible speed.”
– Italian General Giulio Douhet (1869-1930)
Boy Scout Sean Sturrock being proudly promoted to the rank of Eagle Scout.
Well, this is the first time Drawn & Quoted has featured a full color sketch. It is actually a piece I did as a gift for a friend this past week. Sean Sturrock is a teenager I know who was just inducted into the rank of Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts last Saturday. I have been friends with his parents, Beth and Walt Sturrock for twenty years. It has been neat to see Sean go from birth to Eagle Scout. Of course, as a long-term friend, it was my obligation to poke a little fun at his fantastic achievement! Congratulations to Sean, and to his family including sister, Emily!
It is time for another CONTEST! Over on Facebook I have a Chad Frye • Illustration Guy Fan Page where from time to time I host contests with real prizes. I’ve given away a couple of drawings so far, and this time I’ll be giving away a copy of my 1998 children’s book Jonah and the Very Big Fish complete with a sketch and autograph inside!
This book illustrated by Chad will be the prize in the new caption contest.
And HOW, pray tell, can you have the opportunity to win such an item? Well, first you have to join Facebook if you are not already among the millions who are regular FB users. Then, join the Fan Page by first going to the page by clicking HERE, and then underneath the image you see there on the left, click on “Become a Fan”.
If you have done both of those things, then you can add your comments to the contest! Just go to the Rocket Ship Caption Contest photo album, read over the rules, and submit your captions! Easy peasy! Contest ends on June 9 at 12 noon P.S.T.!
And here’s the drawing that you can submit a caption for in the contest over on Facebook!
Well, there you have it! Come join the fun over on Facebook!
And just so there is no confusion, I am turning off the comments feature for this blog post. NO CAPTIONS can be left here! Only on the Facebook Fan Page! Thanks!
Each Memorial Day weekend, I look forward to the National Cartoonists Society’s (NCS) Reuben Award convention. It’s a time when cartoonists of all persuasions can gather, talk shop, hear some lectures, give each other awards, and socialize ’til all hours of the night. And boy howdy, do we ever!
This year’s Reubens were held at the Renaissance Hotel located at the Hollywood & Highland complex right next to the famed Graumann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California. Cartoonists from all over the world converged on this hotel for some professional elbow-rubbing and rib-tickling. NCS President and “Family Circus” artist Jeff Keane (together with his lovely wife Melinda) put together a terrific three days that may require an additional three-day recovery period.
FRIDAY, MAY 22
The events got underway on Friday with a talk given by Steve Moore who draws the comic panel “In the Bleachers”. He brought along with him a creative executive from Nickelodeon and a producer of the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are movie to talk primarily about how to pitch animation ideas to the studios.
Following Steve was the great Eric Goldberg whom I had the pleasure of introducing to the audience. While Eric is widely known for his animation work for Disney (the Genie in Aladdin, co-directing Pocahontas, directing two sequences in Fantasia 2000, etc.), he gave a great talk about much of his career leading up to and including his time at Disney Feature Animation. His great experience can be read in his book Character Animation Crash Course!
Rounding out Friday’s talks was Drew Struzan, well-known for his movie poster illustration work (Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Star Wars, etc.). Drew shared slides of his work peppered with anecdotes from behind-the-scenes of many images we all know and love. I was also honored to introduce Drew and assist with his slides.
Famed illustrator Drew Struzan chatting about his work to the cartoonists. You can barely see Chad Frye, but there he is behind that head on the right.
Friday night the convention goers enjoyed an opening night reception sponsored in part by Creators Syndicate around the rooftop pool of the Renaissance. Cartoonists and their families all gathered for some carved prime rib, turkey, shrimp, sushi, and other items as we greeted old friends and began friendships with new folks. One might see Bill Amend (“Fox Trot”), Vic Lee (“Pardon My Planet”), Stan Goldberg (Archie comics), Scott Adams (“Dilbert”), Sergio Aragonès (MAD Magazine), or Barbara Dale (greeting cards), Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott (“Baby Blues”), Chris Browne (“Hagar the Horrible”), Stephan Pastis (“Pearls Before Swine”) or Sandra Boynton (cards & books). It was a who’s who all weekend long.
As things wound down at the pool party, the party continued down in the lobby of the hotel where almost every seat was taken by a cartoonist. In fact, if there wasn’t a scheduled social event throughout the weekend, the lobby lounge was the default meeting place for friends to gather.
SATURDAY, MAY 23
Saturday was a busy day. With a breakfast served to everyone in the pool area once again, I was able to gulp down a quick bite with my friend Michael Ramirez (editorial cartoonist for Investor’s Business Daily) and then ran off the to the annual member business meeting where many new faces were added to the board with Jeff Keane serving another two years as our fearless leader.
During the business meeting, we had a presentation from Bill Hoogterp about the non-profit group The League requesting that cartoonists mention something about participation in public service in their strips and shows at a date in the fall. To drive home his point, he brought along with him Star Trek director J.J. Abrams who mentioned that his shows LOST and Fringe will be participating in this big effort.
Rick Kirkman (“Baby Blues”), Greg Evans (“Luann”) and Daryl Cagle (MSNBC.com’s editorial cartoonist) at the Hollywood & Highland complex in Hollywood, CA.An impromptu lunch at a computer cafè where you had to order through the built-in computers on the tables. Daryl Cagle, Betty & Greg Evans, Rick Kirkman, and John Kovaleski.
Saturday afternoon began with a seminar about the state of syndicated comic strips with panelists from PARADE Magazine, King Features Syndicate, United Media and others. The big question on everyone’s minds was what the future holds for comics when newspapers seem to be failing left and right and the internet, where content is usually always available for free, is the primary source for information. Quite frankly, there were no real answers or decent suggestions brought up during the talk. Perhaps each syndicate has their own plan and didn’t wish to reveal it to the competition sitting next to them.
The second seminar was with the two time Pulitzer award winning editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez who shared his approach to his work. While he draws his opinions from the Right (even his new book is titled Everyone Has the RIGHT to My Opinion), the brilliance his work was appreciated by Righties and Lefties both in the audience.
Can you spare a dollar? Economic times are tough for a cartoonist. Actually, I was sitting there with Rick Detorie (“One Big Happy”) when Michael Ramirez dropped a dollar at our feet in pity. Cartoonist Rob Smith dropped a twenty. I should have stayed there the rest of the afternoon! Probably could have covered my gas and parking.
Saturday night the strictly black tie Reuben Awards banquet was held in the Renaissance’s huge ballroom with a cocktail hour hosted by King Features Syndicate and a dinner catered by Wolfgang Puck’s company. This ballroom is right outside the upper exit doors of the Kodak Theater where the Oscars are held every year, and is, in fact, the ballroom where the Oscar’s Governor’s Ball is held.
Hosted by another Pulitzer winning editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich (his work often appears in Newsweek Magazine), the evening went on with awards given for all forms of cartooning. I’ll let the photos do the talking, but here is a list of the winners that should be announced shortly on the NCS’ official website www.Reuben.org:
The first award to be handed out was the NCS Foundation’s Jay Kennedy Scholarship award winner Chris Houghton whom I blogged about a few weeks ago. Chris was on hand to accept his award, and turned out to not only be talented, but also a pretty nice guy.
Jay Kennedy Scholarship award winner Chris Houghton with Usagi Yojimbo’s Stan Sakai, his wife Sharon, and Chad Frye.
Kicking off the awards, Bil Keane (“Family Circus”) and Mell Lazarus (“Momma” and “Miss Peach”) were awarded the Gold Key Award, their induction into the NCS’ Hall of Fame.
Greeting Card Division: Jem Sullivan
Comic Book Division: Cyril Pedrosa (Three Shadows)
Advertising Illustration Division: Craig McKay
Gag Cartoon Division: Mort Gerberg (New Yorker magazine)
Television Animation Division: Sandra Equihua and Jorge Gutierrez (El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera)
Feature Animation Division: Nicolas Marlet (character designs on Kung Fu Panda)
Magazine Illustration Division: Sam Viviano (MAD Magazine)
Magazine Illustration Division Award winner Sam Viviano flanked on either side by his wife Diane Bloomfield and Sergio Aragonès.
Newspaper Illustration Division: Mark Marturello
Book Illustration Division: Mike Lester
Editorial Cartoon Division: Michael Ramirez (Investor’s Business Daily)
Newspaper Panel Division: Mark Parisi (“Off the Mark”)
Newspaper Strip Division: Mark Tatulli (“Lìo”)
And the Reuben Award, the NCS’ highest honor for the best cartoonist of the year, was awarded to Dave Coverly who draws the comic panel “Speed Bump”.
My one shot for a photo with Dave Coverly with his trophy, and the photographer cut off Dave’s head and trophy. Yay.“Red and Rover” cartoonist Brian Bassett with Chad Frye.Cartoonists Keelan Parham, Sam Viviano, Tom Richmond and Chad Frye.New Jersey cartoonists Tom Stemmle, Chad Frye (who used to live in New Jersey), Don Wimmer (“Rose Is Rose”), Patrick McDonnell (“Mutts”) and Peter Gallagher (“Heathcliff”). That’s as mafia as we get.Melinda Keane (wife of Jeff) with Chad Frye.Chad Frye with animation guru Glen Keane who was present for his father’s (Bil Keane) induction into the NCS Hall of Fame. Bil got to meet his first great grandaughter (Glen’s grandaughter) for the first time that night.Greg Evans (“Luann”), Dave Coverly, and Betty Evans with Dave’s brand spankin’ new Reuben Award designed by the late, great Rube Goldberg.A more formal shot of Greg Evans, Dave Coverly, the lovely Betty Evans, photographer Greg Preston (who shot the photos for the amazing “The Artist Within” coffee table book, Todd Miller (Greg’s assistant), and Chad Frye.Kayre & Bill Morrison (Bongo Comics) along with The Simpsons Movie director David Silverman at one of the Reuben after parties.The great Bil Keane (“Family Circus”) and the so-so Chad Frye.Reuben winner Dave Coverly, Jay Stephens (“Tutenstein” creator), Paul Gilligan (“Pooch Cafè”) with his back to us, and another Canadian cartoonist, John Martz.Bill Amend (“Fox Trot”), Rick Kirkman (“Baby Blues”), Sean Kelly (an illustrator nominated for the Newspaper Illustration Division this year), Mike Peters (“Mother Goose and Grimm”) and Bill Schorr (editorial cartoonist) enjoying a 3am moment in the Presidential Suite.Two two-timing cartoonists! Mell Lazarus (“Momma” and “Miss Peach”) and Darrin Bell (“Rudy Park” and “Candorville”). This is probably one of the rare times neither of them are writing or drawing something to meet a deadline!Chad Frye with a David Silverman shoulder growth.NCS President Jeff Keane (“Family Circus”) chatting with editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez (Investors Business Daily).
SUNDAY, MAY 24
Usually the Saturday evening festivities go really late. I ended up hanging out at the hotel until about 4am just chatting with folks, only to return again for a 10:30am meeting with the non-profit NCS Foundation of which I am a board member. It was Sunday afternoon that held a special time, though.
Cathy Guisewite, the creator of the comic strip “Cathy”, hosted everyone at a soirèe held at her Los Angeles home. She welcomed all 350 of us with open arms and a copy of one of her books while inviting us to visit every nook and cranny of her beautiful abode. Most of the cartoonists made a beeline to see her elegant studio which was housed in an upper room in the main house.
Stephen Silver and Greg Evans at left having a look at Cathy Guisewite’s upper room studio.A closer look at Cathy Guiswite’s desk. She had little black placards taking us step-by-step through her process. Not sure how much of that time she has her head on the desk as the Cathy doll is positioned.In a lower room of Cathy Guiswite’s studio, she houses her flat files and some other mementos such as her Reuben Award on the left and an Emmy Award on the right. I have an old tennis trophy on the back of my toilet. Not the same thing at all, really.This is the view from Cathy Guisewite’s studio looking down towards her tennis court (behind the tall hedge) where the guests were enjoying their dinner.
Down on her tennis court, Cathy had tables set for us all to enjoy a Mexican food dinner accompanied by a Spanish guitar player. The weather was just perfect, and cartoonists young and old enjoyed their time in her lovely and secluded backyard. That was an event that will be spoken of for years to come. Her generosity in having us as her guests was truly a special and memorable afternoon.
Karen O’Connell with her husband Patrick McDonnell (“Mutts”) chatting with Cathy Guisewite. Cathy’s studio is located in that upper room you see on the left side of the house.Ashley Smith with husband Dan Piraro (“Bizarro”) and comedian Stan Freberg with his wife Hunter enjoying a moment on Cathy Guisewite’s tennis court.Jim Borgman (“Zits”) doodling in Cathy Guisewite’s piano room.Stan Freberg along with cartoonist Jerry Van Amermongen standing before a print of one of Jerry’s paintings in Cathy Guisewite’s living room.Hilary Price (“Rhymes With Orange”) with Karen O’Connell, Patrick McDonnell (“Mutts”), and Chad Frye all kickin’ back on the steps of Cathy Guisewite’s guest house.Cathy Guisewite had a white child’s piano and a giant white pot on hand for the cartoonists to sign as a guest book. Here Vic Lee (“Pardon My Planet”) and Chad Frye are working on their submissions on the piano.Johnny Hart’s grandson and the new artist of the “B.C.” comic strip Mason Mastroianni adding his doodle to the giant pot as Chad Carpenter (“Tundra”) holds it for him. Stand Goldberg (Archie Comics) is in the background working on the piano.Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo comic books) along with Vic Lee (“Pardon My Planet”).Comedian Stan Freberg adding his moniker to the giant pot along with Bill Morrison (Bongo Comics) who is partially hidden, and Sam Viviano (MAD).Here’s a closer shot of the finished piano. I contributed the Mickey Mouse. You can click on this photo to see it bigger.Here’s a better shot of Bill Morrison with Heidi Silver, Chad Frye, Stan & Hunter Freberg and Brad Anderson (“Marmaduke”).One more of Stan & Hunter Freberg (I was helping them out by taking photos for them) along with Shelly and Scott Adams (“Dilbert”) and Sam Viviano (MAD Magazine) as they were in line for food.The great sports cartoonist Bill Gallo (New York Daily News) with Chad Frye holding a sketch Bill had just done for him in his monster themed sketchbook. Bill’s monster? George Steinbrenner.Animation folk Kim Patterson and Tom Sito outside of Cathy’s tennis court hedge.Our hostess Cathy Guisewite with Bil Keane. I’m beginning to wonder if Bil was emitting some radiation during the weekend as every shot I have of him came out blurry. Sigh.
Upon returning to the hotel, Bongo Comics hosted a final party at the Hollywood & Highland complex at which local cartoonist Michael Ramirez’s band played for awhile followed by karaoke. Many cartoonists seem to live for the karaoke. I am content to be an observer. Particularly when folks like “Lìo” and “Heart of the City” cartoonist Mark Tatulli set the bar so high when he comes in costume. While watching Mark and his son perform “Bella Notte” from Lady & the Tramp in full costume was entertaining, the most disturbing moment was when Mark came out in full fin and seashells to perform “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid.
Mark Tatulli (“Lìo”) performing “Bella Notte” during karaoke night with his son, and Amber & Rob Harrell (“Big Top” and “Adam @Home”) as the dogs.
The weekend as a whole was terrific fun! The photos say it all. If you are a fellow professional cartoonist in comics, animation, illustration – WHATEVER – I would encourage you to consider joining the NCS. There are local chapters all over the country (including one in Canada) that have their own events throughout the year, with the annual Reubens being a highlight of the year. I have attended 12 of the last 14 Reubens, and hate it when I have to miss one. Visit www.Reuben.org to learn more about the NCS!
Oh, and the title of this post indicates that this is only Part 1 of my Reuben report. Fear not. This is only the case because I have a feeling that within the next week I will have been given more photos from others that should be shared with you. So, stay tooned…..
If you would like to go back and see the other posts that led to this moment, feel free to do a search for “Wild Thing” here on the ol’ blog.
And as an added bonus, below are a few photos of my working environment during the production of this illustration. Enjoy!
My desk at the conclusion of the Wild Thing painting prior to adding the colored pencil work.Paints and water. Yippy skippy. And my angelic airbrush. Don’t let the halo fool you. It sticks all the time.My drafting table looking the other way towards my computer. Sometimes I have movies playing on that while I draw or paint.
If you are a fellow Facebook enthusiast, I invite you to come on over and join my Fan Page there. My blog posts are regularly updated there, and from time to time I run contests from there with real, genuine, non-virtual prizes. I’m planning to get a new contest started within the next week or so and would love to have you come be a part of it.
Just a quick up-close and personal look at the colored pencil stage of my Where the Wild Things Are tribute watercolor painting for TerribleYellowEyes.com.
You can see that the Wild Thing’s skin received a variety of pencil colors applied in a hatching manner.The background leaves only received a light purple outline that helped define them, yet remain in the background.For the hair, I darkened some areas with an Indigo Blue pencil, and threw in some light purple highlights in other areas.Here’s a horn with some purple pencil and some yellowish pencil and some brown for good measure. While the outline is dark, it’s still just a dark blue. The only black (whether paint or pencil) in the whole piece is in the pupils of the eyes.And the arm. I have about four different pencil colors at work here. An orange, yellow, pale yellow, and purple.
Thanks for following along on these progress reports about my Wild Thing. One more post to go in which I’ll reveal those terrible yellow eyes!
In yesterday’s post about the creation of this Where the Wild Things Are inspired piece, I mentioned that once I laid in some colors on the beast, those background leaves seemed to be a bit competitive with the characters. The green color is just too bright. Those leaves need to support the characters, not distract from them. So, my new task is a road I didn’t want to go down. Yes, I’m talking about Frisket.
Why don’t I want to go down this road? The potential to mar the painting is great. Let me explain. Frisket is a fairly transparent plastic film with a gentle adhesive on one side. You stick some down on your artwork (it doesn’t hurt the art) so that the whole piece is covered. Then comes the tricky part – with a brand new Xacto blade, you gently cut holes exposing only parts of the painting while protecting the rest. If you cut too hard, you can have deep grooves in the paper that will be hard to disguise with a medium that paints transparently like watercolor.
Why would I do this? Because paint was about to fly. I cut away the leaf areas exposing them. With my handy dandy airbrush that doesn’t get out much anymore (I used to do LOTS of airbrush art), I mixed a cool blue-ish green tone to spray evenly over the leaves to soften them up a bit. Then I took a light purple and spritzed it all over the leaves with a toothbrush.
You can see that the left side has the more brilliantly toned greens in the leaves. The right side shows the cooled down version that the piece ended up with. It’s subtle, but necessary for the overall coloring to work well with each other.A close-up of the leaves’ texture.
You can see that the effect made a difference! The leaves are now “pushed back” a bit in space, even though we’re talking about a two dimensional medium. Since I had the Frisket out, I recovered the leaves with the pieces I had pulled away, and this time exposed the face keeping only the eyes, nose and teeth covered. The toothbrush thing is just too much fun. It’s as much Jackson Pollack as I allow myself to be. I flicked pink, yellow ochre, and purple onto the skin for a little fun texture.
A close-up of the monster’s skin showing the texturizing paint flicks.
Now, somewhere in there I added color to Max, and painted in the stripes on Wild Thing. The lighter area of the fur on top of the arms was achieved by painting with just plain ol’ water and dabbing up the paint with a paper towel.
The Wild Thing’s arm with highlights created by wiping paint away.
With watercolor paint, the removal of paint can be very effective in molding your subject matter. As you can see below, I employed this method again with pulling out some highlights in the monster’s mane.
The hair on the left with highlights created by removing paint. On the right is how it looked prior to that technique.
Well, that’s it for my painting explanation here in Part 6. Come back this afternoon when I’ll do a quick post in Part 7 about the colored penciling of this illustration. Just one more short tease before the grand unveiling of the finished piece tomorrow on TerribleYellowEyes.com.
