The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyWhat do fish sellers and cartoonists have in common? They both fill paper with fish.
Here’s a page from my sketchbook that I drew during a fall visit to Kitty Hawk, NC. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Outer Banks over the years beginning when I was ten years old. Ironically, I don’t fish when I’m there, but I have been known to do some crabbing once in a while. Take that however you wish.
My friend James Martin teaches at the Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida, where they are currently having an exhibition of work by a cartooning hero of mine, Jack Davis.
Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture shows a variety of Jack’s work over a 60+ year career and will be on display until December 6. What James alerted me to, is that an illustration I did as a gift for Jack thirteen years ago happens to also be in the exhibit!
If I’m not mistaken, it looks like the drawing to the left of mine could be an original Mort Drucker sketch, and on the right might be a Dan Piraro. Yikes! Heavy company to be in.
Let that be a lesson to you, kids – when you do a doodle for a friend, make sure it is the best doodle you can possibly do. It just might end up in a museum!
By the way, HERE is a very complimentary review by Marty Fugate in the Herald Tribune newspaper that shows some of Jack’s work in the show. If you are in the vicinity of Sarasota, Florida, get out to see this show!!!
A dog is man’s best friend. Even though Superman is technically an alien, he looks like a man, so the same rule applies.
Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires – not woodland creatures who dress like Boy Scouts. They are utterly powerless in these situations.
They say it is Inktober beginning today – the month when many artists post an ink drawing each day. I don’t generally participate since I usually shake my fist at bandwagons, but I’ll likely have a few other ink drawings scattered around the next 30 days as I often do each month.
For an Inktober drawing to be valid, it has to be inked with genuine, real ink. None of this digital stuff. Donald here was inked primarily with my trusty ol’ Pentel brush pen, and a few other mechanical pens. Somehow, I managed to not require any white-out.
Today is Jim Henson’s birthday. He would have been 83. Never had a chance to meet him, but sure have been appreciative of his imagination.
I actually tried getting work at the Jim Henson Company after graduating from university, but alas, never did get hired. At least it led to a visit at the Henson brownstone offices in Manhattan that no longer exist. What a thrill to a kid ready to take on the world, however, my path eventually led to a career in animation instead of puppets.
This ink drawing was worked up in my sketchbook, then scanned and colored in Photoshop.
By the way, back in June during my travels on the east coast of the United States, my mother and I stopped by the campus of the University of Maryland, Jim Henson’s alma mater, where we posed for a picture with him.
I belong to the National Cartoonists Society, and specifically am a part of the Los Angeles Chapter called NCS LA. Affectionately, our chapter is known as The Order of Cornelius.
Cornelius is a bear who reportedly saved the life of California cartoonist George Herriman from hurtling over a cliff on a runaway toboggan. He later saved the lives of several other cartoonists, too, and thus earned his place as the patron saint of NCS LA after his passing. He’s now remembered as an angel bear who continues to look after the well-being of LA cartoonists.
Under the leadership of The New Yorker Magazine cartoonist Matt Diffee, NCS LA began giving annual awards for career achievement and for volunteerism to our members. We began giving the awards without actually having the physical awards to give. After a couple of years, I was tasked with designing The Cornelius Award (the one for volunteerism), while Diffee and Spencer Ramsey set about designing The Dingy (given for career achievement).
I looked to classic Art Deco medal designs of yesteryear to attempt to give The Corny an aged provenance of sorts. Cornelius was depicted in a more realistic manner, with his stylized angel wings and halo. Add a few lightning bolt accents, and we had our design!
The next step was getting the medals made, which proved to be challenging. One of our members, Drew Aquilina, found a Los Angeles based maker of custom medals, so I reached out to them only to discover that while they had an LA office, they were actually based in the Philippines which is where the sales representative was.
There was much back and forth via e-mail to make sure the specifics of the design were met with their production people, and then the order was placed. The medals turned out beautifully! They measure a large three inches across, and came with a plaid ribbon of our design long enough so this can hang around the recipient’s neck.
Of course, you have to take a look at The Dingy Award, too! Named after NCS LA founder Ding Daniels, it is given once a year to the member who has T.I.U.A.N. – Taken It Up A Notch – in their career. Diffee and Ramsey did a nice job on this one, too.
Earlier this summer after both medals were completed, NCS LA had a special medal ceremony to give the medals to the six people who had earned them over the past few years. The three recipients of The Dingy were children’s book illustrator Marla Frazee, cartoonist of the online comic Bacon Lonnie Millsap, and former MAD Magazine editor-in-chief Bill Morrison.
The Corny was given to Spencer Ramsey, Frank Hansen, and as a big surprise, yours truly. It felt kind of weird to be given the medal I designed, but it’s neat to have one.
While a lot of schools may have started already, that doesn’t mean summer is over. It’s still pretty hot out there, and that heat can really slow down a superhero. There’s a reason Batman only goes out at night.
About that topic of schools starting in August – bleah! School started in my adopted town of Los Angeles back on August 13!!! When I was a kid, I’d still be splashing around in a pool, lake, or lawn sprinkler at that time of year! For me, school always started after Labor Day. (For you folks in other countries, Labor Day is a holiday we have here in the USA in early September.) I’m not sure what the rationale was for starting later, except maybe because most of our schools where I grew up in New Jersey did NOT have air conditioning. Even in early September, it could be toasty, but it would soon cool down as fall encroached upon our summer.
Of course, now I don’t go to school at all. So there!