I rarely promote other people’s Kickstarter projects here on my blog, but boy howdy, I’m excited about this one!
My friend Greg Preston is a photographer. Over many years he has been taking photographs of cartoonists, illustrators, and animators in their home studios. His first collection of them was published in a beautiful coffee table book by Dark Horse Comics a few years ago called The Artist Within, and was a huge hit at San Diego Comic Con where it had its debut.
Well, Greg is ready with his second batch of photos and has decided to self-publish them in a second volume called The Artist Within 2! I am excited because I love Greg’s work, and can’t wait to see more friends and colleagues portrayed in this way.
The second big reason I am excited is because I will be in this book, too! Yep, a few years back, Greg came to my place and took my photo for his collection – the SAME DAY that he took a photo of famous illustrator Drew Struzan!
Other such great folks in the book are Ollie Johnston (one of Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men), character designer Stephen Silver, fantasy illustrator Donato Giancola, The Family Circus‘ Jeff Keane, his brother and former Disney animator Glen Keane, John Lasseter, Disney animation director John Musker, comic book guys Steve Rude, Carmine Infantino, animation director Chris Sanders, and the list goes on. He even has the world record holder for longest working cartoonist, the 96 year old Al Jaffee who continues to do the fold-ins for MAD Magazine. I feel very honored to be in such company.
Here’s the Kickstarter video describing the book:
So, the book itself is a real prize, but there are also extra special things you can pick up through this Kickstarter that the artists have been donating – things such as this one-of-a-kind original art I created with ink, watercolor, and colored pencil!
Or perhaps you’d like the opportunity to acquire one of three prints of my Frankenlisa painting, prints that have never before been offered for sale. I chronicled the step-by-step making of this painting here on the ol’ blog back in 2009 (CLICK HERE for a refresher), and it just so happens to be the painting sitting on my drafting table in my photographic portrait that will be in The Artist Within 2!
So, please consider pre-ordering a book through Kickstarter so this amazing tome can be published. I plan to order a few myself! You only have until April 27, 2017, to do so! Here is the handy-dandy link: The Artist Within 2!