Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Reason Why there's not more Wookie Jedis

I've been promising this for a couple weeks and here it is. Born from Random conversation with Josh Boeringa, Rob Forest, and his wife Kate Forest during the first day of C3.

So we're going to keep it short and sweet this week with just short comic, click on the image to open in a larger window, Enjoy.

Catch everyone back here next week.

-Jacot

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Combining Visual Art Mediums

Slight Change,

Do to unfortunate timing and some technical issues I'll be posting "The reason why there's not more Wookie Jedis" next week.

I ran into an interesting article that came out over this past weekend from The Boston Globe. It was about the great Art Spiegelman of MAUS fame. It appears the dance company Pilobolus has courted Mr. Spiegelman into creating a joint venture of Cartooning and dance. You can check out the amazing article here (or click on the image below.) Reading this made me smile. You see two years ago I had the pleasure of working with the Community Dance Project (CD Project for short, a project though Happendance) in doing the exact same thing, combining dance and cartooning. To read more about that project check out my old blog post here. The project with Pilobolus has gone the next step from what I had done with CD Project. Art has created an animation style "Seventh Dancer" to be projected with the other dancers. On top of that the dancers appear to take some time doing some silhouette/shadow work to "Interact" with the animation. I only hope I will get a chance to see this in video. I have a feeling it will be an incredible thing to witness.

Dancers from Pilobolus rehearse "Hapless Hooligan in 'Still Moving,'" a collaboration with cartoonist Art Spiegelman. (Matthew Cavanaugh for The Boston Globe)

It's seeing like this that make me wonder is there anything that art can't be applied too? What's the next meshing of art forms that's going to find a handhold? Never constrain yourself as to what you can create, the capabilities of creation are truly limitless.

On to another bit of subject matter, This is my birthday post, I'm officially 31 years of age today. Just as I expected it doesn't feel any different. But I digress.

The following is a poster I had way too much fun creating. It was for the 2010 Russel B. Nye Lecture at Michigan State University. This years Lecture was by Shelley Fisher Fishkin of Stanford University. She came and talked about American literature and how non-American scholars viewed it. Well, more particularly the prose on the body of work from the famous American author, Mark Twain. I think a quote I used on the poster sums it all up "The cultural conversation about Mark Twain that is most familiar to scholars in the U.S. happens in English. But writers have been reading and responding to Mark Twain in languages other than English for at least 138 years. This talk looks at what we can learn by seeking out and attending to writing on a canonical American author published outside the U.S. in languages other than English."



For the poster I wanted to create original art that would wrap the whole concept together. I created a quick illustration of Mark Twain with a strong shadow. Then I scanned in the piece, colored it, set up a background, and made my color choices. Now I still had incorporate the fact that this Lecture was based on non-English languages. So utilizing the shadow on Mark Twain I placed foreign book titles, that discussed the works of Mark Twain, in a slightly darker color. I really like this piece and wanted to share it sans text.


I should have all technical issues sorted out be next week and then I'll have a quick little Comic to share with everyone.

Until then,

-Jacot

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Four weeks and counting.

Welcome back!

I'm going to keep this post a little short this week... well shorter than normal.

I wanted to start off this post by just putting out a big thank you. Thank to Mike, Rob, and the crew from Top Comics for putting on this years Cherry Capital Con. Thanks to all the volunteers for helping to make it run as smooth as possible. The sponsors for helping get the word out and broadcasting from the con all weekend long. Thanks to all the exhibitors and and vendors for displaying fantastic art and wares everyone was able to witness/purchase over the weekend (though I'm not going to thank you for taking my money.) Lastly, thank you to all of the attendees from this past weekend, without you there wouldn't be a C3.

I had a fantastic time at Cherry Capital Con (C3). I got a chance to meet some incredible creators and touch base with many people I haven't seen or talked to since last years con. I had many great conversations with attendees including one who had the wonderful/unfortunate experience of Tony Miello and I recounting Ypsi Ink and Stein where we got on to the topic of Zombie Defecation. It's events like this that give me a chance to talk to people about my work. I really enjoy doing this stuff and I'm happy I can share it with others that may enjoy it as well. Speaking of sharing (well more of exchanging) I sold many prints this weekend to delighted attendees (many who couldn't help but pick up the Betty White vs. Wolverine), quite a few comics, and even managed a commission on Sunday (If I manage to get a copy of that commission I'll post it.)

Enough ranting and raving about C3... onto the art. With all art I post you can click on the image to view a larger version in a new window/tab.

Here's what I promised last week... Batman in color.


I also created a halftone/grayscalimage I wanted to share.



Now I'd like to take a moment to showcase one of my friends Dean Stahl. Dean is an incredible artist and creator who is constantly producing artwork and always impresses me with his new work. Earlier this year Dean started his own wrestling based web comic. You should take a moment to hop on over and check it out. Click on this link: http://www.headlocksandheadaches.com/ to check it out. I'm pretty sure Dean's work will keep you entertained. Dean also is the co-host of the podcast Ultra Friends Go! I just started listening to these and they're pretty darned good, it's a brand new show and has some technical difficulties to start with but they're getting better all the time. You can download it from Itunes or their website: http://ultrafriendsgo.com/.

Well that's it for this week (I guess it really wasn't that short,) be sure to tune in next week when I display the reason why you don't see many wookie jedi knights.

-Jacot

Sunday, June 6, 2010

CHERRY CAPITAL CON and STUFF

This year I will once again be attending the Cherry Capital Con (C3 for short). It's taking place this weekend June 12-13 at The Grand Traverse Resort in beautiful Traverse City, MI.

Here's a little blurb from the C3 website to set the tone for the show: "Cherry Capital Con (C3) is a comic book convention that celebrates the medium of comics, rather than a specific genre. At C3, all comics are equal; as are their creators and their fans. The organizers of C3 intend to prove to the world that comic conventions—just like comics fans and the comics, themselves—don’t have to be “this” or “that”. They can just be what they are…which is simply “cool”."

This is the second year of the show and if it is anything like last year the show is going to be amazing. It was one of the best shows I attended last year. The promotional material and coverage was absolutely amazing. This year appears to be even better with over three times the exhibitors. If you're in the area or willing to make a little road trip it'll be worth it. Of course it doesn't hurt that if you do come out you'll be in Traverse City, during the summer, looking out on lake Michigan... but who would want that? For more information about the Cherry Capital Con go to their website www.cherrycapitalcon.com or click on the banner to the upper left.

Speaking of C3 here's the new poster I'm working on for debut at the show.


I have been playing around for a while with this image concept and decided it was time to just get it out of the way. The piece will be in full color and I'll post the finished piece next week.

This past March I helped organize the third annual Michigan State University Comics Forum. We had twenty-six Michigan based comic related creators in this years artist alley. This included the amazing Guy Davis. Guy is an amazing comics creator some of his past work includes Bakerstreet, Sandman Mystery Theater, The Nevermen, B.P.R.D., and The Marquis. For more info on Guy Davis take a moment to enjoy his website www.guydavisartworks.com. Guy Davis was kind enough to be this years keynote speaker for the MSU Comics Forum. He did a fantastic job on the keynote and I wanted to give him a special "thank you" gift. Here's a piece I did of his character The Marquis.



I'm finishing up this image digitally with some tones. Once that's done I'll post it here. If you want to see how the MSU Comics Forum went then scoot on over to the following live blog - http://ievolvedintothis.com/?p=93.

That's about all at this point in time. I'll be back next week... same blog time... same blog channel.

-Jay Jacot

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

On Schedule... WOO HOO!!!

Well this is the first post of the regularly scheduled programming on Tuesday nights, as promised.

I was trying to think of something good to go over, something… useful. Something that people could learn from. Now, as I was thinking about this I began to realize a lot of the stuff has already been covered by one of my good friends, Ryan Claytor. So I thought I would take a moment to pimp out his website http://www.elephanteater.com/... (insert shameless plug here, well maybe just the image from his new bookmark. Click on the image to open his website in a new window.)


At his website you will find his weekly postings, musings, and his shop for comics/merchandise. He just finished posting "And then one day #8" (his most recent issue, to be printed soon), be sure to check out all the instollments of "And Then One Day", they're worth the read. Ryan (at the time of this post) is mainly an auto-biographical comics creator. He's used his series "And Then One Day" to push the boundaries and provoke thoughts on the concept of Auto-Biographies and the comics medium. He currently teaches Comic Studio courses at Michigan State University and University of Michigan - Flint. Be sure to take a moment to check out his resources page it includes one of my favorite topics - Small Press Professionalism.

Now this doesn't mean I won't be posting my own musings and information on the Comics medium. There’s plenty of time for me to write about that in the future.

I previously mentioned information on some of the projects that I’ve been working on and I thought I would share an image or two of the concept work.

First off… Space Teddy Roosevelt. This concept came from an old high school friend, Benjamin M. Sidou. Just the thought of a real life over-the-top character, such as Teddy Roosevelt, going on a space safari made me smile. The classic image of Teddy’s toothy grin framed inside a space helmet was too much to take. I started sketching some Ideas and this was actually the first piece I produced. I’ve cleaned it up a bit from my initial rough and am currently designing a mock cover to set the tone and direction for the project. I’ll post the final cover concept in a future post.


Now here's a little something from a great monthly gathering, Ypsi Ink & Stein. This is a monthly gathering of creator's and friends to have a good time and produce work in a highly creative environment. I was lucky enough to be able to attend this past month's Ink & Stein (it was moved to the same weekend as the Motor City Comic Con.) Once everyone settled in it didn't take long for the conversation to take a turn to the lower end of the comedy spectrum (pun intended, what do you expect after a long day at a convention?.) Of course this could have been due to the amazing company of Jay Fosgitt, Ryan Estrada, Adam Talley, Tony Miello, and Brett Pinson. With a line-up like that you can only guess what came next.

The subject: Zombies
The question: "Do Zombies Defecate?"

The debate started... Hilarity ensued... and here's what I threw into the "pot" of creativity.


Well that's about the end of this weeks segment.

Looking forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday night.

-Jacot