This weekend there will be a lot of neat goings-on for Minnesota comic book and cartoon fans. For starters, the North Central Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society will be holding it's annual get-together here in Minneapolis. As part of the event, NCS president and local illustrator Tom Richmond has put together a special event for the public on Friday, October...
Last month I was hired by Minneapolis ad agency Olson-Denali to work up some color comps for a pitch to Best Buy. They wanted to suggest some possible photography ideas built around a specific theme. The left third of each image was left open for insertion of text. The deadline was tight—actual working turnaround was about 24 hours. Eventually Best Buy decided...
Lately I've been trying to brush up on my character design skills. I'm planning to attend the CTN Animation Expo in Burbank this November and I'd like to walk through the doors with a beefed-up portfolio under my arm. To get ready I've recently taken a character design workshop from Nate Wragg at the new CGMW online school, I've attended a...
Play Illustration, a portfolio website for artists in the toy and game industries, recently held their 2011 International Art Competition which I entered. I'm pleased to announce that they've given me a Silver Award (second place) in the category of Concept Art for Toy or Children's Product. I found out on my birthday, which makes it extra-nice news. It's definitely more...
A few months ago I created a large batch of illustrations for Patch Products, a leading toy and game company. They had a series of puzzles for very young children that needed a refresh, complete with new artwork. Today a package arrived containing all thirty of the updated puzzles, bundled in packs of three. I'm told that they'll be popping up...
Google recently launched a new service called Reverse Image Search which should be of tremendous value to artists. Among other things it allows you to quickly and easily find unauthorized uses of your artwork from all over the web. Simply go to the Google Image Search page, drag an image into the search box, and Google will show you just...
