Forgot His Helmet

Invisible Tea Pot

Girl in the Hat

I NEED MY OWN COUNTRY!

I had the privilege of working on the incredibly talented Rick Walton's "I NEED MY OWN COUNTRY".  The books came in last week and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out.  The team at Bloomsbury was just great.

I was invited in to some classrooms at my kids elementary school and blasted the book spreads across a huge screen with an overhead.  I love how they responded to it. It's such a fun read.

-W.

The Naughty Leprechaun Story book

Cover sketch

© Ted Dawson

A bit of everything.

Ted introduced me to Artrage a while back. A digital art program that simulates oils and acrylics amazingly well. See his amazing work here.

This is a closeup of a traditional piece I did below, but once it was scanned in I was able to keep throwing strokes down here and there when I saw a need. It works well with photoshop if you export the file right.

Fun little addition to my tool collection.

-Wes

Interview with Stacy Curtis!

A great interview with our pal Stacy over at Tom Racine's Tall Tale Radio. Stacy began inking duties for Richard Thompson's "Cul de Sac" not long ago. I think John Glynn at Universal made a great choice in seeking out Stacy for one of the best strips going. Both Richard and Stacy have that scratchy zaniness in their lines that I just love.

I think the best part of this interview was learning how Dueling Banjo Pigs was started with Guy Francis.

-W.

Buddies

Sketches

You might not see it, but I felt a little of Wes's influence on this sketch of the chef.

Some faces.

Fun with creating a character for an upcoming book.

Jump rope

Sketch

Slowing down.

Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday. Arizona is usually beautiful this time of year. This year, not so much. So it's indoors for a while.

-W.

Pro tip maybe?

We've discussed the nuances of scanning watercolor paper quite a bit on this blog in the past. Ted observed that turning a watercolor paper 90 degrees helps at times if a scan is not showing up well. I have a trick I'd like to add

To get a "flat" scan on bigger pieces that might have a few visible bumps in your scans just turn the paper art side down on a towel and mist it with water, soak up any small pools with another towel and then repeat until the paper gives in and lays flat. Then just scan it in slightly wet.

Obviously, be careful to not get the art side wet in any way. It should feel dry.

-W.

Digital Illustration

Geeky Teeth

A video compilation of my son's Geeky Teeth blog.

Maze

I like this painting that I ran across by James Jean.

Stan Lynde - Rick O'Shay

On my father’s ranch I learned that no task was beneath me, and that if a job needed doing, somebody needed to do it.

I was born in the heart of the Great Depression. Dad considered himself fortunate to find work herding sheep at $30 a month on the open ranges of the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana. With my mother and me, Dad followed the sheep to new grass and a variety of temporary homes—sheep wagons, tents, dugouts, cabins and ranch houses.

When I was about five, I found out comics were written and drawn by people called cartoonists. It had never occurred to me that a person actually wrote and drew comic strips; I’d thought they were some kind of a natural wonder, like Old Faithful or the Grand Canyon. I resolved from that day . . . 

Full article at True West Magazine online

Jack Davis Original Art

MAD Magazine's Jack Davis designed the characters for the 1970's Jackson Five animated television series. 

Unused Cover Sketch

Occupy Design

Occupy Design: Visual Tools for the 99 Percent

Last weekend, San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C. hosted spontaneous "Hackathons" to brainstorm how to use various platforms to help Occupy Wall Street. One of the ideas hatched was Occupy Design, a new website that gives a "visual language" to protesters across the country. Jake Levitas, a designer from San Francisco who's heading up the project, says it's a chance to fight back at media who characterize the movement as directionless.

"These are people who have valid concerns grounded in reality and grounded in data that can be communicated visually," Levitas says. "If we get these signs on CNN instead of the ones that say 'Screw capitalism' on a piece of cardboard," viewers don't see a generic grievance but "exactly how people are being screwed and by how much. It’s a lot harder to argue with statistics than it is with talking points."

The site provides big-think infographics that illustrate data on the wealth gap, symbols for overarching concepts like "justice" and "community," and practical signs to use on the ground like "toilet" and "landfill." Levitas says it's a chance for designers and techies to contribute to the movement, even if they can't make it to a protest.

"There’s all this untapped potential for people who are extremely talented," he says. "It's essentially a way to connect occupiers and designers. Everyone has a different role in this movement."

--The Daily Good

Jim Henson's "Tale of Sand"

Read a preview of Jim Henson's "new" graphic novel, Tale of Sand.

Cropped section of a book I'm working on at the moment. More later.

The text is really fun.

We all put our pants on one leg at a time...

... and sometimes, that's just the beginning...

Wacom Inkling

If you don't have 200 bucks lying around somewhere, I bet you'll find it real fast.

White Board Animation

This is a more recent white board 'animation', or presentation, which I call Graffideo. These sped-up white board illustrations are becoming popular for presentations and as marketing tools.

Captain America - Avengers

Here's a shot of Chris Evans as Captain America in his modern uniform, from the filming of The Avengers movie. I haven't seen Captain America yet, but I like the premise, and the amazing result of making Chris Evans a 97-lb. weakling.

Maybe some day they'll make a superhero movie I can watch with my kids . . .

Monster designs

(Click to enlarge)

The Dragon Stone

Stacy Curtis has a new book out in September, 2011: The Rocky Cave Kids - The Dragon Stone, written by Dian Curtis Regan.

Tintin Poster

Weird Al NPR Interview

Al Yankovic talked with Weekend Edition at NPR about Wes's illustrations for When I Grow Up:

HANSEN: Yeah. Tell us a little bit about the illustrator, Wes Hargis.

Mr. YANKOVIC: When he was given the text, he wasn't told whose text it was. Harper Collins just gave him the text and said let's see some character designs based on this. He might have done a gorilla masseuse illustration for it and he thought, oh this is beautiful. And Harper Collins gave him the job after I'd signed off on it. And when he found out it was working for me, he was even more thrilled.

HANSEN: Well, the whole idea of the gorilla masseuse - I'll explain the picture - is this huge gorilla on a massage table and little Billy is up kind of working his shoulder blades. And there's also an illustration of him milking a giraffe, I believe?

Mr. YANKOVIC: Yes. Wes is really, really good at animal illustrations, portrait.

HANSEN: Yeah, yeah. And it's beautiful 'cause it's realistic yet impressionistic at the same time.

Mr. YANKOVIC: It is. And I love the detail in it. You know, it's the kind of illustration where a kid can stare at a two-page spread for an hour and just pick out little details and little funny gags here and there.

Source: NPR

I Know That Artist!

Carol Hinz, Editorial Director at Lerner Publishing Group, had this to say in a recent Lerner blog post:

I Know That Artist!
By Carol Hinz at 9:49 AM

Lately, I've been seeing references to Weird Al's picture book, When I Grow Up, all over the place. This weekend, NPR even had an interview with Mr. Yankovic. This interview included a discussion of the delightful illustrations, which are by Wes Hargis.

I'm not surprised at positive reactions to the artwork. After all, before he was Weird Al's illustrator, Wes charmed all of us with his illustrations for Jackson and Bud's Bumpy Ride, published in 2009. I especially like the way Wes brought the Bud the bulldog to life. Bud became the mascot for the very first successful cross-country automobile trip in 1903. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in automobile history, adorable bulldogs, or Wes Hargis's wonderful illustrations!

Wes Hargis Interview

The Eastern Arizona Courier recently interviewed Wes. Writer Jennifer Griffith writes on her blog:

"Well, I submitted my article and review of Wes Hargis's interview for the Yankovic illustration job, and she liked it. A lot. Enough to slap it on the front page of the Sunday paper."

Link

Mile 44

I ran across this December, 2010, article about Mile 44, the screen printing company that partners Stacy Curtis and Dave Windisch. Some folks know Stacy as an editorial cartoonist, others as a children's book illustrator, but if you've got an indie band, you probably know Stacy better for his posters.
Link: NUVO article

Kid Sketch

"When I Grow Up" iPad App

I just read a favorable write-up for Wes & Al's interactive iPad app for their picture book When I Grow Up.
Link: WIRED article

Healthy Cartooning

I try to draw several servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

CTE

Bad Guy

Hero

The Flash

CTE (Click to Enlarge)

Girl Sketch - Animation Style

Sketches

Amy Lou and the Chamber of Hargis

Drawn in ArtRage2. Electricity glow added in Photoshop.

Summer Reading Program

The kids and I wound up with our picture in the local paper while at the library participating in the Summer Reading Program. We generally hit the library every couple of weeks.

(Click to enlarge)

Recipes.

We're doing an update on the "When I Grow Up" app and one of the games needed some recipes from Billy, the protagonist. Here are some of them. They look delicious. -W.

Family Resemblance

Top Ten Influential People in Comic Books

10. Todd MacFarlane
9.   Carl Barks
8.   Will Eisner
7.   Steve Muffatti
6.   Osamu Tezuka
5.   Jack Kirby / Stan Lee
4.   Frederick Wertham
3.   Bob Montana
2.   Frank Miller
1.   Joe Shuster / Jerry Siegel

Comic Book Relief

From The Daily Good:

Laughter Is the Best Medicine: Comic Books to Help Joplin Kids Be Kids

Whether created to educate students in Kabul or fight unemployment in New York City, comic books have become a go-to creative instrument for tackling serious problems. Now a team of artists is putting comic books to work in support of the young people in Joplin, Missouri affected by last month's tornadoes, which killed more than 100 people and displaced thousands.

Dreamed up by a former editor at Nickelodeon Magazine, Comics Express is a limited-edition,  24-page comic book, to be distributed for free to Joplin's youth this July. While other relief agencies are helping adults in Joplin piece their community back together, this project aims to help children affected by tragedies by nourishing their sense of humor and their imagination. As Comics Express explains on their website, "The comic book will give young kids up to teens something more fun to think about than damaged neighborhoods and uprooted lives."

To get the project off the ground, Comics Express created a funding page on Indie Gogo, a platform for crowdsourcing funding. While the artists are donating their time and labor, shipping and printing will cost $6,000. A $20 donation will get you a copy of the magazine. Donate $100, and you'll get five copies, a poster, and your name included in an "original thank you poem" inside the comic book's front cover.

Things that didn't get in the App

A hearty welcome for any wandering visitors to Ted Dawson and Wes Hargis's Blog!

The App for "When I Grow Up" by author Al Yankovic that I (Wes) was helping with is over at the itunes store right now. It was just awesome to work with my favorite people at Harper and the talented gang at Bean Creative to bring Al's book to life.

I wanted to show any visitors here a few pieces that didn't get into the App!

These are game info pages and it sort of slowed kids down in getting to the games, so it was chucked for the betterment of the experience. Here's a few that only you guys get to see.

Wes