I’m currently illustrating a graphic novel for Stone Arch Books, designed to help elementary school kids improve their reading skills. The book is called “Day of the Field Trip Zombies”. Here’s a couple of rough pages:

My DrawerGeeks submission for this week.

After lots of research and deliberation, I took the plunge and ordered a Cintiq. It arrived yesterday, and I was so excited waiting for the FedEx truck that I could barely focus on my projects. Each time I heard a big vehicle drive by, I would literally jump out of my chair in anticipation.

I have a Wacom tablet which I’ve used for digital painting, but drawing on a Wacom just isn’t as natural as drawing on a Cintiq. For example, I can actually rotate the Cintiq just like I would rotate a piece of paper while drawing or inking, something you can’t do with a tablet. The CIntiq is large, sturdy, and amazingly natural to draw on. No more drawing on paper means no more time wasted scanning and cleaning up drawings. I can also make changes faster on the computer than on paper, and the Cintiq has several programable buttons and a touch pad for scrolling/zooming that will definitely make my workflow more efficient. It’s amazing, I tell ya! Once I get the hang of it, over time ths machine will definitely pay for itself.

I spent a couple of hours last evening getting it set up and playing around with it. Above is the first piece of artwork I created on the Cinitq.

So far I’ve only discovered one glitch in this otherwise perfect machine. I tried some inking and discovered that, when making vertical brush strokes in Photoshop, the line gets visibly jagged unless I make the stroke really fast. The slower I draw, the more jagged the line looks. But this doesn’t seem to be the case with horizontal or curved brush strokes. Strange. I’ve tried swapping pen nibs and adjusting the settings, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. The lines aren’t terribly jagged, but enough that it will take a little fussing to get a smooth vertical stroke.

I’m also having difficulty figuring out how to calibrate the color on the Cintiq without affecting the color on my main monitor, but I’m sure that can be solved with a little more putzing as well. (EDIT: Figured it out, piece of cake.)

Also, the Cintiq is plenty big. In fact, it’s just a few inches too big for my computer desk. So for now I’ve got it set up on an adjoining drawing table and I’m shuffling the keyboard back and forth between the two stations. Looks like eventually I’ll be making a trip to the office supply store for a new desk.

Still, the Cintiq is a beautiful machine and I am extremely fortunate to have one. Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice and feedback on the decision.

John K has written an article on his blog entitled “Dan Gordon and What Makes a Cartoonist”. John briefly surveys the history of animation and cartoons, pointing out the difference between cartoonists who can draw well structurally but tend to use cliched poses and expressions versus cartoonists who perhaps can’t draw quite as well but who bring a heightened sense of believabilty and authenticity to their characters. Fascinating stuff.

While I don’t agree with John entirely, I do see what he’s getting at. If I were to be honest, I probably see myself a lot more in the “cliche” camp of cartoonists and not enough in the other, perhaps because when I draw I tend to think structually first and emotionally second. But I don’t want to stay where I’m at, I want to keep growing and maturing to the point where I can put more personality and gut-level believability into my drawings.

John K’s blog has some great stuff. It you haven’t lately, give it a read.

Last fall I was approached by Houghton-Mifflin about possibly doing a Curious George project. They were looking for an artist who could replicate the style of H.A. Rey, the writer/artist who created Curious George. This is what I submitted. (EDIT: The images have been removed at Houghton-Mifflin’s request until their Curious George project is completed.)

It’s not uncommon for larger publishers to approach several different artists at once and then pick their favorite for a project. In this case, ultimately a different artist was chosen. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all.

Someone recently wrote me asking if it is hard to land a job working with licensed characters. Well, this marks the fifth time in my career I’ve been approached to work on a major licensed character, but each time either the project fizzled or another artist was ultimately chosen. Hopefully 2007 will be my year!

You can now download a condensed version of my portfolio in PDF form. If you are an art director (or you know someone who is), just print the PDF and you’ll have some of my character designs and illustrations for your files. Pretty neat, huh? The mini-portfolio is five pages and contains 25 pieces of art from 13 recent projects. It’s 7MB so it might take a minute or two to download depending on your connection speed.

You can also request a free hard-copy of my portfolio in the form of a glossy booklet by joining my mailing list. Just check the box on my sign-up form and I’ll be happy to pop one in the mail.

Ain’t technology grand?