If you live in the Denver area and were a reader of the Rocky Mountain News, please write to the editor of the Post and tell him they are running their comics too small! They can't expect loyal RMN readers to switch to a paper that runs microscopic comics. If they expect to double their circulation after the loss of the RMN, I say make 'em work for it! Now is the time, and there will never be a better opportunity to effect a positive change upon the state of comics in America!
Gregory L. Moore, Editor
The Denver Post
101 W. Colfax Ave.
Denver, Colorado, 80202
openforum@denverpost.com
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
When Pigs Fly
What with the Piggie-fest going on, I felt compelled to pig out myself. Sketched and nearly ruined in Sketchbook Pro.
Warm-Up Drawing.
Every morning I do a small warm-up drawing to get me in the right groove before I start painting the project that's on my drawing board.
Here's day's warm-up drawing, another pig.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Here you go!
This is scanned in at the actual size i did it. it's on Strathmore imperial 500. Most of the time I like the scan better than the original because it boosts the color. Not so much on this one.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Cooking with What?!?
After seeing Ted's moose book post, I thought I'd show one of my favorite books.
I'd like to think everyone who worked on this book giggled the whole time at the title.
I'd like to think everyone who worked on this book giggled the whole time at the title.
Ted's 90 degree trick.
There were times I scanned things in and i just couldn't understand why some scans were remarkably better than others. One of the solutions was simply looking at the grain of the paper and turning it 90 degrees on the scanner so those shadows didn't show up as they do with the one on the right. I need to thank Ted for solving this for me earlier in this post. I've had many happy scans since then.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
R.I.P.
My iBook is dead.
It's sad, really.
It was my engagement present from my wife.
It was a good laptop, until the logic board failed ... the first time.
Then Apple placed a recall on iBooks like mine and I got the repair for free.
I had to send it back to Apple THREE more times to get the same logic board issue fixed.
On the fourth time, the folks at Apple said if it fails again, they wouldn't fix it.
The logic board failed again and now the laptop refuses to come on when I push its Power Button.
It's finally dead. For good.
It has sentimental value, so I'll probably bury it somewhere in my studio.
I'll miss it.
Not sure if I can replace it with another.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust .....
Friday, February 6, 2009
BOOK BY BOOK: the making of a monkey man
Note the cameos.
BOOK BY BOOK: the making of a monkey man from Jarrett Krosoczka on Vimeo.
Hat tip: Guy Francis
BOOK BY BOOK: the making of a monkey man from Jarrett Krosoczka on Vimeo.
Hat tip: Guy Francis
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Obamicon
Everybody is doing it.
Click here to try it out!
Some of my favs:
The longest election season in memory is now over, and we wanted to help you unwind and express yourself as we head into the new era.
Make your own "Obamicon" — your image in a style inspired by Shepard Fairey's iconic poster. Regardless of your candidate of choice in the 2008 election, here's your chance to sound-off.
Take your picture with a webcam or upload a photo, choose your own message, and submit to the gallery.
Click here to try it out!
Some of my favs:
Milton Caniff - Escape Artist
In the big white house on Tor Ridge, west of the Hudson, a light burned all through the winter night. Inside, in a cavernous studio, it glared down on a drawing board where a heavyset, black-haired man put careful strokes on a paneled page. He ignored the accusing clock at his back, but sometimes paused for sips of coffee. Once he dozed off, and his 'pen scratched a crazy zigzag down the sheet. It was daylight when Milton Caniff took off his glasses, pushed his work away and stumbled off to bed.
Behind him, on the desk, he left his night's work: the last Sunday comic page of Terry and the Pirates he would ever draw. Its frames held deftly drawn figures, caught in the restrained gestures of a farewell. The fadeout was appropriately up-to-the-minute: a transport plane lifting into a sky that was streaked like the wan sunrise outside his studio.
Behind him, on the desk, he left his night's work: the last Sunday comic page of Terry and the Pirates he would ever draw. Its frames held deftly drawn figures, caught in the restrained gestures of a farewell. The fadeout was appropriately up-to-the-minute: a transport plane lifting into a sky that was streaked like the wan sunrise outside his studio.
Whether Terry Lee and Jane Allen would ever meet again, their creator did not know. He had surrendered his godlike right over them and their actions, which he had guided for eleven years past. Next week, in 220 newspapers including papers as far away as the Times of Seoul, Korea, Milton Caniff's byline will appear on a new comic strip, to be known as Steve Canyon.
In the never-never world of the funnies, this was the news of the year—comparable to Henry Ford quitting his motor company and setting up shop in competition across the street. It was a move involving three of the biggest U.S. press lords: the Chicago Tribune's Colonel Robert Rutherford McCormick (who lost Caniff), and Marshall Field and William Randolph Hearst, who gained him. For Caniff himself, it meant a guarantee of $520,000 for his next five years' work, and a stiff challenge—to outdo the best of his past. . .
In the never-never world of the funnies, this was the news of the year—comparable to Henry Ford quitting his motor company and setting up shop in competition across the street. It was a move involving three of the biggest U.S. press lords: the Chicago Tribune's Colonel Robert Rutherford McCormick (who lost Caniff), and Marshall Field and William Randolph Hearst, who gained him. For Caniff himself, it meant a guarantee of $520,000 for his next five years' work, and a stiff challenge—to outdo the best of his past. . .
Full Article at TIME
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Free Personalized Font Generator - YourFonts
Hat tip to Matt over at Drawn! for the heads up on YourFonts:
YourFonts.com is a FREE online font generator that allows you to create your own TrueType fonts within a couple of minutes. Go make your own handwriting as a font!
- Your own handwriting turned into your very own font for free
- Optionally include your signature
- You'll have your very own font within 15 minutes
- Make as many fonts as you like
- Use your fonts on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
If you are a blogger / journalist willing to write a fair review about YourFonts.com, please contact us and let us know the link to your blog and we'll send you a FREE license for MainType, one of the best font managers for Windows.
YourFonts allows you to upload large templates (up to 4000 x 5000 pixels) and it has the most advanced raster to vector conversion algorithm. Together this results in unbeatable high quality personal fonts. It's easy and fun to digitize your handwriting, so go make your own font now!
Link
Professional Hygiene at Home
Today I'd like to discuss something that's very important to any illustrator or cartoonist working at home: Hygiene. Well, it's not necessarily that important to us, but it can be to one's spouse. Ask around, and you'll find that 9 out of ten wives prefer a husband who doesn't stink to high heaven. This statistic interestingly coincides with the percentage of women (ten percent) who suffer from Anosmia, the inability to perceive smells.
This topic has been on my mind because I have been spending the last couple of hours or so trying to motivate myself to take a shower. As I recollect, the last time I showered was approximately three or twelve days ago. It's a bit hard to keep track of time when one works at home, because terms like "Monday," "Time to get up," and "laundry basket" become ethereal concepts that have little meaning to one grasped by the entrepreneurial spirit.
Thus it becomes important to rely on one's young children; you won't be able to find anyone else in the world besides a 7-year-old who will actually come up to you when you say, "Smell my armpit and see if it's stinky." Of course, if you have a dog, he will faithfully execute said command, but you won't be able to tell if it really stinks or not, because dogs like things that stink, and besides, it tickles.
As the sole proprietor of your business, it is important to create a schedule for daily domestic duties, just as we're supposed to do for professional duties. For those of you whose eyes just glazed over, "Domestic Duties" include household tasks such as Putting the cap on the tube of toothpaste; Putting beer bottles in the recycle bin; Finding the remote control; and Making sure there is always at least one square of toilet paper left on the roll for the next person. These tasks can be just as important as those we schedule for work.
If you don't do either, then another trick of the trade is to attach unrelated tasks to others that you are sure to remember (or be reminded of) such as setting the garbage out at the curb. This particular chore works well for me because, while taking out the trash and taking a shower may on the surface seem unrelated, for some reason I draw a mental parallel between the two. So this ensures that I will take a shower at least once a week, every Wednesday. Or Friday. Maybe Thursday?
Okay, so let's say it's Trash Day, and you've been successful in remembering to take a shower. You're clean and can now face your spouse with confidence. But wait! I'm afraid there's more to good personal hygiene than just taking a shower, my friend. Now it's time to take inventory of migrant hairs... those hairs that, as we become more mature and verile over time, begin growing in various orifices of the body, such as the nose and ears. There are other areas of the body faced with rampant and rebellious hair growth, but today we will focus only on these two.
It is important to choose the proper tools for trimming hair that grows in the nose holes and outer-inner ear. Many fine tools designed especially for these tasks are readily available at fine establishments such as Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Ace Hardware. Now you'd think that someone who puts quite a bit of energy into selecting the proper brushes, the best suitable paper, and the least abrasive eraser (made of baby dander), would put the same effort into what the best implement is for trimming nose hairs. But this is sadly not the case. For many men, the nearest available implement with a semi-sharp edge will do... hedge clippers, safety scissors, squaring shears, whatever gets the job done. It can easily resemble the process used by ancient Egyptians when removing the brain through the nasal cavity in preparation for the mummification process.
Well, I still haven't taken a shower, even after taking an hour break in writing this. I'm putting it off even further. It's 22 degrees outside and (I just checked) the tile on the bathroom floor is -47 degrees. I believe that people who live in older, quaint homes probably shower less than people who live in new homes. Let's face it, getting naked and wet in the middle of winter in an older home is just not as enjoyable as it is in a newer home. I did, however, start a small fire in the bathroom wastebasket so the temperature should be more tolerable in a short while. It is trash day, after all.
This topic has been on my mind because I have been spending the last couple of hours or so trying to motivate myself to take a shower. As I recollect, the last time I showered was approximately three or twelve days ago. It's a bit hard to keep track of time when one works at home, because terms like "Monday," "Time to get up," and "laundry basket" become ethereal concepts that have little meaning to one grasped by the entrepreneurial spirit.
Thus it becomes important to rely on one's young children; you won't be able to find anyone else in the world besides a 7-year-old who will actually come up to you when you say, "Smell my armpit and see if it's stinky." Of course, if you have a dog, he will faithfully execute said command, but you won't be able to tell if it really stinks or not, because dogs like things that stink, and besides, it tickles.
As the sole proprietor of your business, it is important to create a schedule for daily domestic duties, just as we're supposed to do for professional duties. For those of you whose eyes just glazed over, "Domestic Duties" include household tasks such as Putting the cap on the tube of toothpaste; Putting beer bottles in the recycle bin; Finding the remote control; and Making sure there is always at least one square of toilet paper left on the roll for the next person. These tasks can be just as important as those we schedule for work.
If you don't do either, then another trick of the trade is to attach unrelated tasks to others that you are sure to remember (or be reminded of) such as setting the garbage out at the curb. This particular chore works well for me because, while taking out the trash and taking a shower may on the surface seem unrelated, for some reason I draw a mental parallel between the two. So this ensures that I will take a shower at least once a week, every Wednesday. Or Friday. Maybe Thursday?
Okay, so let's say it's Trash Day, and you've been successful in remembering to take a shower. You're clean and can now face your spouse with confidence. But wait! I'm afraid there's more to good personal hygiene than just taking a shower, my friend. Now it's time to take inventory of migrant hairs... those hairs that, as we become more mature and verile over time, begin growing in various orifices of the body, such as the nose and ears. There are other areas of the body faced with rampant and rebellious hair growth, but today we will focus only on these two.
It is important to choose the proper tools for trimming hair that grows in the nose holes and outer-inner ear. Many fine tools designed especially for these tasks are readily available at fine establishments such as Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Ace Hardware. Now you'd think that someone who puts quite a bit of energy into selecting the proper brushes, the best suitable paper, and the least abrasive eraser (made of baby dander), would put the same effort into what the best implement is for trimming nose hairs. But this is sadly not the case. For many men, the nearest available implement with a semi-sharp edge will do... hedge clippers, safety scissors, squaring shears, whatever gets the job done. It can easily resemble the process used by ancient Egyptians when removing the brain through the nasal cavity in preparation for the mummification process.
Well, I still haven't taken a shower, even after taking an hour break in writing this. I'm putting it off even further. It's 22 degrees outside and (I just checked) the tile on the bathroom floor is -47 degrees. I believe that people who live in older, quaint homes probably shower less than people who live in new homes. Let's face it, getting naked and wet in the middle of winter in an older home is just not as enjoyable as it is in a newer home. I did, however, start a small fire in the bathroom wastebasket so the temperature should be more tolerable in a short while. It is trash day, after all.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Recipe
I had some free moments and I wanted to sketch these guys again. I'll have a few more of them in a bit.
p.s. There is an amazing "cottonish" feel to this particular batch of Strathmore 500 imperial. It soaks up the color strokes amazingly quick.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Your Career in Cartooning
Today I thought I would write about Cartooning, which I arguably know more about than anything else. Arguably, I say, because instead of cartooning, my wife would say "farting" or "saying the wrong thing at the wrong time." But she has her own blog dedicated to those subjects, so I'm gonna stick with Cartooning.
Cartooning is the art of exaggeration. This is in many ways very similar to Politics, which may be why the earliest members of our field were political cartoonists. Let's face it, the most fun part of cartooning is drawing someone in a less-than-favorable light. With the invention of the printing press, artists realized they could mass-produce those drawings, and that nobody could possibly tear up every single copy. Voila! Cartooning was born.
Cartooning is the art of exaggeration in more ways than one. You'd be hard-pressed to find a cartoonist who doesn't stretch the truth a little when it comes to where he or she has been published, what awards they've won, how much they made from selling cartoons last year, or how many times they've had a beer with Richard Thompson. About the only thing a cartoonist won't exaggerate is how attractive he or she is. We understand that some things are just beyond help.
I'm not saying that all cartoonists are ugly. Only most of us. No doubt physical disgustingness is a major factor in one deciding to become a cartoonist. How many professions allow one to live life as an antisocial monk? Well, besides that of being a monk. Which, I should add, does not lend itself well to cartooning. Drawing funny pictures of His Holiness is not smiled upon. Perhaps the Pope himself could have been a cartoonist at one point, but he made his choice long ago. So we'll leave it at that.
Curiously, I have already touched upon two taboo subjects without really getting into cartooning much at all. This leads me to believe I may not know as much about this grand art as I thought. Perhaps I've become one of those arrogant, self-appointed "experts" who likes to say he knows more than he really does. Yet, this does not preclude one from becoming a cartoonist any more than being relatively attractive does. And let's face it, my wife is much too hot to have married a complete goober-faced, liver-lipped, bug-eyed snot face. And now that I think about it, we're actually inviting some people over to the house for dinner in a few days.
Perhaps it is time for a career change.
Cartooning is the art of exaggeration. This is in many ways very similar to Politics, which may be why the earliest members of our field were political cartoonists. Let's face it, the most fun part of cartooning is drawing someone in a less-than-favorable light. With the invention of the printing press, artists realized they could mass-produce those drawings, and that nobody could possibly tear up every single copy. Voila! Cartooning was born.
Cartooning is the art of exaggeration in more ways than one. You'd be hard-pressed to find a cartoonist who doesn't stretch the truth a little when it comes to where he or she has been published, what awards they've won, how much they made from selling cartoons last year, or how many times they've had a beer with Richard Thompson. About the only thing a cartoonist won't exaggerate is how attractive he or she is. We understand that some things are just beyond help.
I'm not saying that all cartoonists are ugly. Only most of us. No doubt physical disgustingness is a major factor in one deciding to become a cartoonist. How many professions allow one to live life as an antisocial monk? Well, besides that of being a monk. Which, I should add, does not lend itself well to cartooning. Drawing funny pictures of His Holiness is not smiled upon. Perhaps the Pope himself could have been a cartoonist at one point, but he made his choice long ago. So we'll leave it at that.
Curiously, I have already touched upon two taboo subjects without really getting into cartooning much at all. This leads me to believe I may not know as much about this grand art as I thought. Perhaps I've become one of those arrogant, self-appointed "experts" who likes to say he knows more than he really does. Yet, this does not preclude one from becoming a cartoonist any more than being relatively attractive does. And let's face it, my wife is much too hot to have married a complete goober-faced, liver-lipped, bug-eyed snot face. And now that I think about it, we're actually inviting some people over to the house for dinner in a few days.
Perhaps it is time for a career change.
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