Phosphorescent Dreams an Evening of Fantastical Shorts!

Steven Mayerson and the S.O.U. Art Department present: Phosphorescent Dreams an Evening of Fantastical Shorts, this Saturday, October 3rd at 7:00 p.m. in Meese Auditorium,

located in the S.O.U. Arts Building. This is a FREE show. The program will be otherworldly and exotic. It will include some rare vintage animation, a modern science fiction adventure designed in "steam-punk/goth" style, French fantasy shorts from 1900-1908 and a Bollywood production number among other things.

The show is not designed for kids. If they are under ten you be the judge. This is the first show of our sixth season of film programs at Meese Auditorium. Steven introduces each short and welcomes comments from the audience. Come ten minuets early for the best seats.

Meathaus, Lost At E Minor, contemporary creative inspiration sites

Looks interesting, people. . . Meathaus: "Comics, Cartooning, Art, Inspiration" Dig it!

Also: Lost At E Minor features a huge range of contemporary hip artsy stuff. Here's an image by contemporary illustrator Hope Gangloff to prove it. . .

UGLY DOLLS Interview!

A Crown Dozen interview with David Horvath creator of the Ugly Dolls. I'm resisting the urge to go buy all of the figures. Better go take a walk.

NYT Interactive on Comics & Clowes PDF

A very nice interactive feature on comics in the New York Times from way back in 2004(!) featuring Seth, Chris Ware, Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman, and Chester Brown.

Also in the NYT, a free Daniel Clowes story, Mister Wonderful, in PDF format! Huzzah!

Guest Speaker! Steve Mayerson!

4:30 Thursday, Oct 1, we'll have a guest lecture on Abstract Animation from Steve Mayerson. Steve will be doing a fabulous free film presentation in the Meese Auditorium on Saturday, Oct 3 at 7:00 p.m.

Dan Clowes

panels excerpted from Dan Clowes, The Happy Fisherman

Read Dan Clowes' stuff again last night. I'd kind of forgotten how good he is. Jeez. Depressing for me, but good for you. Pick up anything of his you can get your hands on. The more the merrier. "The Happy Fisherman" (see image above) changed me forever and is available in the Twentieth Century Eightball collection. He's just pure quality.

On a stupid note, here he is doing a commercial for Apple that is actually pretty damn funny if you are condemned to making comics.

Three Cheers For Robot Frog

Sad Sack, Misreading, and The Anxiety of Influence

After reading Derf's swell Punk Rock and Trailer Parks (here's a link to my post, and another link to a nice interview), I started thinking about why I was drawn to his work. I mentioned the Don Martin vibe, but the more I thought, the more I found myself thinking about the Sad Sack work of Fred Rhoads and George Baker. Derf's work definitely has a 'Sack vibe, and so I got to thinking about how much I loved those Sad Sack comics in the 70's. I haven's seen any since then, as they don't seem to have gotten the glamorous retro love as of yet. I will posit Sad Sack as an eery harbinger of Arms and Ether. Weird military types, and lots of beat-downs. Compare the above strip by Fred Rhoads with my 21st century effort. (I know, Rhoads kicks my ass.)
Anyhow, hooray, and here's a link to a blog that gets into some of the deeper nuances of Sad Sack. Okay, back to work.

Dig Some Derf

Just finished Derf's Punk Rock and Trailer Parks which I thoroughly enjoyed. Here's Derf's website: derfcity.com. (Hey, kinda like Inadaville!). Thoroughly dig his Don Martin-inspired visual style. The writing is also top notch as is his musical taste. And finally. . . OHIO. Check out his weekly strip, The City.

Milton Bradley--as in the 1860 board game designer

Interesting article on old school game designer Milton Bradley and "The Checkered Game of Life," written by Jill Lepore in the New Yorker. You have to subscribe to read the article, but you could also track it down in the library for freesies.

Also, an interesting interview with Jill Lepore who turns out to be a Harvard history prof. Some people like working out or fixing up their houses, but me, I like reading about folks who took a while to figure out what they wanted to do.

Miyazaki, folks

Jen Harlow attended the "you don't get to see this guy every day," Hayao Miyazaki lecture in L.A. this summer. She's posted a transcript of the Q and A on her blog! Read and learn. Catbus ftw!

Graphic Memoir by David Small

Just out and reviewed in the NYT is picture book illustrator David Small's graphic memoir, Stitches.
Dig it, or at least read about it via the link!

Two Nice Links to Groovy Sites

tor.com has a really splendid sampling of interesting independent animation.

Vintage Children's Books My Kid Loves focuses on some classic picture books with lots of nice visual samples.

Get inspired. Thanks to Jen Harlow for the links!

Someone Should Go Work Here

Here are job listings for Bethesda. Makers of Fallout 3 n' Oblivion.

FINAL!

Final Critique is Monday, June 8 at 5:30 p.m.

JOB for you graduatin' types

Good morning SOU Art Dept!
This is Megan Holmes - I graduated from SOU (finally) last March. The Agency I've been working at for the last eight years is looking for a new designer (my husband Jeremy is finally leaving to start his own agency - yey!). I know you have students that will be graduating in the next week or so.

Could you send this out to students in the design program, or if you know of any especially talented students that may be interested, can you have them contact me? We will be interviewing next week. The job description is listed below. Hope you all had a great term. Thanks!


megan angele holmes
agency director of marketing and client services
the maentz agency inc.
541.857.8443 • 541.618.0502
megana@maentz.com


Looking for creative artist to work at fast-paced, full-service advertising agency. Requires proficiency in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat at CS2 or higher. Experience with Quark, Corel Draw and PowerPoint and other Microsoft Office programs a plus. Applicants experienced in Dreamweaver, Flash and the latest web-design technologies will have an advantage.

Experience is not necessary, but skill and creativity are a must. Send resume and 3 examples of your work (print or web) to the email below. Have portfolio ready for review. We will be interviewing qualified candidates starting July 6th. Full-time position available.

Creating An Online Comic - Arms and Ether Style

Oft, I start with a scrappy sketch done in the doldrums of a faculty meeting or while fidgeting about the Beanery in caffeine-stoked reverie. Here's the initial sketch for a recent strip.


With some strips, I'll scan the pencil sketch first, then bring it into Flash and draw over the top of it. Here's my first Arms and Ether strip. You can see the pencil sketch scans, my first "ink" lines drawn in Flash, and some Kaz and Achewood strips I brought in as references for setting up my template and comparing the visual quality of my work with theirs. Since Underworld and Achewood are popular on-line strips I figured they'd be good guides to getting my stuff "internet-ready."


Sometimes I start a strip without a preliminary drawing. Here, I just laid out the text (utilizing my award-winning Miles Inada 3000 font, of course) and made a quick sketch directly in Flash. The screen cap shows my template with pre-made panels and layers. The color layer contains the color swatches for the characters, so I can just grab 'em with the eye-dropper.



When I'm "inking", I'll take at least three passes through the strip. The first pass is to get the main idea blocked in. The second pass is to adjust proportion, composition and detail. The third pass is to clarify and simplify the lines. Here's a strip somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd pass.

After finishing up the inking, I do color passes. I'm a funky fellow, so I do this all in Flash. I like Flash because it's vector-based--a.k.a. resolution-independent. With a vector drawing, I can scale the drawings up and down to my heart's content and do big prints later on. For the most part, I make a quick outline of a color area and fill it with the paint bucket (don't do that in Photoshop--it'll be lousy). I find working in Flash much less fussy than working in Photoshop. In my first pass I go through and color in the main characters. I then make a few more layers and add in the background colors. If you look at the last panel, you'll see that I still haven't finished drawing in the students, even though I've proceeded with the coloring. Shirker.



Somewhere along the line I draw in the balloons, adjust text as needed and add any goofy marginalia. Yes, I just draw the balloons in Flash. No tricks. It looks better. I color them in using the ol' paintbucket. Here's the finished strip in all of its glory.

Illustration Gig

The folks below are looking for someone to work with them on illustrations for a picture book/comic book. If you're interested, email Jacqueline Sa at the following email address.

sixarcenciel@yahoo.com.

STORY LINE:

Through the twists and turns on the paths of lifetimes of two people who are committed to their spiritual work for humanity, they finally came together to serve a bigger cosmic cause than they could ever imagine… Mystical encounters, spiritual entrainment, overcoming dark forces, journeying to the underworld and the overworld, guided by the living Earth consciousness.

SCOPE OF WORK:

Looking for a student illustrator who is interested (hopefully passionate) about environmental issues and consciousness shifts, who has a refined sensitivity with the likes of Hayao Myasaki or Satoshi Kon (examples of their movies available on www.youtube.com and www.video.google.com such as : Howl’s Moving Castle, Millennium Actress) without the expectation of their mastery or over-complex drawings. We don’t want cute or dark gothic kinds of drawings.

The project is for the entire book; though we can start with a few pages on a trial basis. The work is ready immediately, and it will last this whole summer, full time. We need a serious person who is committed to focus and to take pride in delivering a quality book with us, and not abandon midway. Our budget is modest, and we are open to discuss various ways of compensation, as we fully intend to publish this book as soon as it’s completed, that will be of substantial contribution to humanity.

We thank you in advance for your help in finding such an ideal collaborator. Any questions or clarifications that might be needed, please contact me by email or phone. Look forward to hearing from you.

Warm Regards,

Jacqueline Sa

Job Opportunity

Web design types
part time job opportunity:
Hi Miles,

My name is Erin and I am an SOU alumni. I am working for Sunday Afternoons, a great local company in Talent, and we are looking to hire a part-time web designer. I noticed that you are teaching a Capstone class in graphic design, so I though some of students might be interested in this opportunity. Please forward this any students who are interested. Please feel free to contact me if you would like more information.

Thank you!
Erin @ Sunday Afternoons
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Opportunity with growing company in Talent, Oregon


Job Description:
Maintain an e-commerce web site (using X-Cart).
Update content on web site (inventory, product photos, copy, pricing, etc.).
Create and send email promotions.
Use 3rd party email marketing service (e.g. Constant Contact).
Work collaboratively and under the guidance of Graphic Designer.
Possibly edit/retouch/manipulate photos.

Requirement/Skills:
2–5 years relevant experience.
Familiar with Mac OS X Operating System.
Proficient in Adobe Photoshop (preferably CS2).
Strong understanding of web technologies (particularly HTML and FTP)
Proficient in GoLive or other WYSIWYG editor
Basic knowledge of ImageReady
Detail-oriented with excellent design sense
Organized

Starting as a part-time position. 16-24 hours a week. Photo editing is a plus, not required. If the person is proficient with photo editing, extra hours may be available.

Detail-oriented and organization is very important.
Hours can be somewhat flexible for student.

Please emial resume and a sample of your work to: lauren@sundayafternoons.com

Ashland Independent Film Festival starts THURSDAY!

Ashland Independent Film Festival student tickets are only $6 per screening--so GO. A unique opportunity to see things you likely won't see anywhere else. April 2-6. This is perfect material for you to write about in your blogs. Anyone even vaguely interested in film/video should go and check this out.