(Art by C.F. Payne. Copyright © Reader's Digest.) For the last four years every issue of Reader's Digest has featured an illustration by award-winning illustrator C. F. Payne on the back cover. Payne is an exceptional illustrator, and his charming pieces for Reader's Digest hearken back to the spirit of Norman Rockwell but with a modern twist. My wife and I...
Fanboy Radio is a weekly radio show/podcast devoted to comic books. I don't really read comic books anymore, but the industry has some amazing artists whose work I enjoy following. Fanboy Radio interviews a lot of them, and it can be inspirational to hear the various creators talk about the industry and their work. A few months ago Fanboy Radio did...
My friend and fellow illustrator Paul Fricke recently sent me a great link: Advice for building a career as a freelance artist and/or paid cartoonist by Dave Roman Dave Roman has been working at Nickelodeon Magazine for the last nine years. He is also a frequent lecturer at the School of Visual Arts. This article summarizes his advice for art students just...
I finally received my copy of the Pizza Math game with the packaging that I illustrated. It's actually a clever concept: It's similar to a deck of cards, but instead of rectangles the cards are shaped like triangle pizza slices and instead of suits you have a variety of pizza toppings (i.e. diamonds become pepporoni's, clubs become sausages bits, etc.)....
Since I'm still swamped with freelance work and no time to write, here's another re-post from the early days of my blog, way back in 2005 when only three people were reading it. (Readership has since doubled): Chris Browne (pictured) of "Hagar the Horrible" fame has posted some advice on how to break into cartooning. Should make an interesting read...
I recently purchased the special edition DVD of Disney's Jungle Book. It is widely regarded as one of the all-time classics of animation. Not because of the story. The plot is so simple that the movie should be a total bore. The movie is revered because of the characters. They are so incredibly entertaining and delightful to watch that you can't help but get caught up in the fun.
That is no small feat.
