The Maxx

The Maxx is a cartoon that aired on MTV back in the 90s based on Sam Keith's comic of the same name.
Here's a link to some episodes on youtube.

I never got into the comic series, but I thought Keith's art style was really interesting. Cartoonish, but occasionally crazy violent-- I don't know him but I seem to remember doing a convention with him many years ago and he was really tiny-- so maybe he has some aggression issues, but the MTV show really stuck with me.

It's dark and disturbing but it's done in such a way that it really holds your interest and I often use it as noise in my studio when I'm working.
Check it out-- I think it will appeal to some of my darker secreted students.

On another note, Irena and I talked about the idea of getting graphic novel art as a course at MassArt-- I know it's a little late for you guys, but it's still cool anyway.
Andy

Sowa Boston Art Market Last Sunday 10.26.08

This Sunday, October 26th is the final SoWa Open Market of the 2008 season. If you haven’t yet experienced the Market definitely take this chance as your initiation, and then be sure to return next season (beginning in May) every Sunday. The SoWa Open Market offers a shopping experience like no other in Boston. With an ever-changing group of artists, artisans, and craftspeople, and the chance to feel the sun on your face while you browse, it's a venue worth exploring. The Market offers the opportunity to meet the artists behind the work, and every week there are different and unique one-of-a-kind and limited edition works to be seen and collected.

The Market hosts a wide variety of vendors, whether you're looking for hand-crafted accessories, original art, antiques or just a fresh loaf of bread, you'll find painters, sculptors, photographers, clothing and jewelry designers, milliners, handbag designers, house wares, antique dealers, florists, bakers, local farmer's produce, and much more every week.

A special draw for visitors to this Sunday’s show is the annual "Market of the Living Dead". In keeping with tradition, the SoWa Open Market will hold their Vendor Costume and Pumpkin Carving Contests, as well as games, music, and lots of prizes will be given out during the market. The Vendor Costume Contest is now in it's fifth year, and is sure to keep up the reputation as celebrating the most horrifying zombie artisans on Harrison Ave.

The Market is held from 10am – 4pm and has free admission and parking at 540 Harrison Avenue in Boston's South End neighborhood.

detour

hey girls and guys, these are some comps for Detour. the points of interest will be the freak character and the screens, but i'm having trouble deciding a formula for what's on the screens. What would you like to see on them? what would fit? i'm going for commentary / making fun of the mile-a-minute ADHD nature our society nurtures, so that's the goal. video games? news-figures? movies? binary?

thoughts and comments appreciated. thanks.

-ross

I FIX!

Okay, so recently I've been having this problem with uploading my color pieces to my blog. When I would upload them, they'd look all washed out! Well I talked with Andy about it and he figured out it was a browser problem with Firefox. Now today I figured out how to actually fix it and I will tell you guys how too:

Remember, this is only for Firefox.

First, in the bar where you type the url, type: about:config

It will promp you to be careful. You will be so click okay!

In the search bar at the top of the page it takes you to, type in: color_management

If it says "false" next to the item, double click it to change it to "true". Then restart firefox.

There you go, now all your colors will be managed appropriately, instead of aggravatingly.

-Lindsay

PS. ::fist shake:: Firefoooooox!

Woo hoo! Yah boi! Hooray!

This deserves to be reposted here on the Illo 4 Blog! Go get 'em Allison! Give the little lady a big round of applause-- besides posting work in progress let's also get some work success! Show us your published works!
Woo hoo! I'm proud of you Bammy.
Andy

Detour

Hey guys, I'm sure this is a little repetitive, but oh well. Here is my finished linework composition along with my first color sketch. I'm going to try many different color combinations to see if I want to go in a realistic or imaginary direction with this. Any feedback would be great, I'm also going to be redrawing the DETOUR part (I tried it in Photoshop this afternoon and it didn't work out so great) - Thanks dudes, Sarah Kim

From Andy

Hey Everyone-- 'ello from the 24 hour comic challenge. I SHOULD be working.
I just want to make clear that the DEADLINE for GLOBAL Warming is a soft one for this Tuesday, but if you need time to make the piece sweet then I'll give you the extra TWO WEEKS and you can bring it on Nov 4th. I'd rather the piece is good than rushed.
This Tuesday hard pencil prelims are due for A3 and we will review your progress on A2.
Andy

palin

hey, ross here. this is my final for global warming.

this is the core piece from which i can go in many directions, time permitting. i can incorporate background elements, color, text, etc. i have ideas for all three, but i'm very behind in my other classes so i don't know if i'll get to it by next class. anyway, enjoy the fresh polar bear meat.

global freakin warmin!

I refined it a little bit more and this is whats on my final piece of paper so far. The tufts are a little implied on here still, when they are done in watercolor I think that they'll read better. I am also going to post this again when I put his face in.
Silvia

If you go to open drawing...

...you may see this crazy lady.
S.KIM

Global Warming is over.

Hey guys, I finished the final and did the puddle over because it was not very puddle-esque (which is an important thing to a successful puddle). I hope you all can still see the world in it, if not I shall change the contrast a bit in Photoshop. I'm starting to build the article page to give a sense on context.
Thanks, Sarah

Oh Global Warming!

I did some more color comps for my Global Warming happy times. Which do people like better? I'm very open to doing more or swapping colors around if anyone has some insight. Thanks guys!

-Lindsay

Finished Global Warming piece

Herro, I finished my global warming piece to get it out of the way so I can think about my Detour cover. Hope you guys like it! Let me know if there's anything you see that can be improved upon.



Also, I'm not sure about the cropping. Should I just crop off the rough edges? I kind of like them, but the bottom doesn't match, as it extends to the end of the board. Any suggestions?


Thanks
Bamcat

Stretchiiiinng the idea.

I decided that I don't want to have the woman's head be another animal because it strays too far from my original idea and wouldn't be going in the direction I wanted. I though of two new additions to the image to pump it up, one: have here sitting on a walrus in a pin-uppy pose (giving the image a nautical theme), and two: to have one of the cute little birds I drew really huge standing behind her (I didn't actually draw this one yet, but I will post it soon once I do).

Lemme know what ya think, Sarah.

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

I've mentioned this 1919 silent film in passing in class, and I think enough of you are influenced by german expressionistic cinema whether you realize it or not.

The film's set are all done in a bizarre nightmarish style that works completely with the atmosphere of the movie.

It's available to view in an edited version on YouTube-- just search for Caligari
Andy

Carl Adams of ASSY McGEE

CARL ADAMS, PRINCIPAL OF CLAMBAKE ANIMATION STUDIO TO SPEAK AT FITCHBURG STATE COLLEGE.

Animation executive Carl Adams of Clambake Animation, Watertown, Mass, will lecture on the current state of popular animation at Fitchburg State College on Tuesday, October 21st at 7 p.m. The presentation will take place in the Ellis White Lecture Hall of the Hammond Student Center.

Adams, a graduate of Fitchburg State, currently co-produces “Assy McGee,” the hit over-the-top animated police series on “Adult Swim,” the late night block of the Turner Network’s Cartoon Network. Before that, Adams worked on “Home Movies,” another successful “Adult Swim” program.

Carl Adams began his career as an editor, story writer and director on Comedy Central’s “Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist” and “The Dick and Paula Celebrity Special.” He also produced animated segments for “Cosby” and co-created “O’Grady,” which airs on the Noggin Network.

Adams is also scheduled to visit several classes during the day on October 21st.

For further information, contact Thomas Murray, English Department, Fitchburg State College, (978) 665-3551.

If you even have an inkling of working in animation-- whether as an animator, a storyboard artist, or a background painter-- this might be a good opportunity for you.
Andy

Portland

I was in Portland, ME this weekend and went to the Portland Art Museum, which was pretty neat (small though). Anyway there is a show up now called "American Menagerie" featuring a lot of work by Dahlov Ipcar (well-known children's book artist). There was one artist named Roger Winter whose painting "Snow Moon" I totally fell in love with. I couldn't find an image of it online but here is an example of his work. And if you are interested in children's book stuff definitely check out Ipcar, you will realize that you have seen her work everywhere.

palin

hey it's ross. i changed my idea from the burning globe to something a bit more pointed. i've been watching with amusement and horror clips of this alaskan disaster. some golden quotes and facts:

"A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made."

Opposed protections for salmon from mining contamination. (Aug 2008)

Sue US government to stop listing polar bear as endangered. (Aug 2008)

We must encourage timber, mining, drilling, & fishing. (Jan 2008)

Feds shouldn't list beluga whales as endangered. (Aug 2007)

Convince the rest of the nation to open ANWR. (Jan 2007)

it goes on. needless to say, she isn't the most environmentally friendly candidate. the sketch above is the core idea... i'm debating on a minimal background or a wall full of the heads of endangered animals or some other amusing 'chicken fat.' any suggestions/comments appreciated.

Help please!

So, here is Al Gore with a sash and angel wings, and Al Gore with smoke as his sash and the smokestacks bowing. Which one reads better? Also it was bothering me that the smokestack to the right was not bowing like the others. Andy suggested putting the whole foot in it so its bowing too. Any suggestions? The little tuft of smoke to the left is how I am going to render the smoke. 

Thanks for your help guys! 

vince

This is the work of one of my friends' husband.  He shredded my neurons to bits.  

He's like this super shy unbelievably nice man with the most twisted mind.  It's amazing.

I have a flickr page, but I don't know if it's appropriate to post as a webpage.  If you want to see it, you can find it here.

If any of you have a dot com, what would you suggest is the best way to acquire one?

I want to be the next Arik Roper of watercolour.  I think I see a lot of Roger Dean influence in his work... it's just arikroper.com

--kerstin

Field Trip!

SO GO ON THE FIELD TRIP. It's free, it's on a Friday, we'll be back by 8, and it's the only one we're gonna get this semester, so take advantage of it! How many more field trips will you get to go on in college after this? What about the rest of your life?

So go!

-Bamcat

New Scarecrow Sketch

I have really been thinking about the whole idea of "liking" all the pieces in my portfolio. So I have been thinking of ways to change this global warming project to suit me so that I don't vomit all over it and throw it away after we graduate.

So here's a new sketch: not so much of a change in concept/composition, but I think it's a little funnier. At least it is to me. And it's all about me, right?

(Also, the scarecrow has his mouth open - it's kind of hard to tell.)

GIVE ME YOUR OPINIONS.

10.08.08 Class

I've got the blog up for the UCF Cover Assignment-- I will post the address here soon.

Yesterday's class was good. I was impressed with the work. I felt like a lot of you pushed through and gave the assignment(s) some serious thought. As much as I feel like I beat a dead horse it goes without my saying it again that the initial composition stage is probably the most important part of a successful illo. REMEMBER these pieces are for your portfolio FIRST, so make them fit.

I want to be like the straight version Tim Gunn of MassArt. "Make it work people." Although honestly, I think I'm more like the Larry Fine.

Bamcat sent me a fantastic email that we are going to make the next lesson; Contacting Important People. Is it cheating to ask me for a name?? Should you schlep your portfolio sight on cold calls to art directors?

The answers to these and other driving questions next week.
Andy

T-SHIRT CONTEST!

For all you amazing Illustration kids, it's time to get your work PRINTED and SEEN BY PEOPLE. So enter in the T-SHIRT CONTEST! The judges have yet to be announced (*ahem* asked to participate), but we'll be selecting up to 4 designs to have printed this year on shirts/sweatshirts to sell to raise money for the Illustration department for wonderful treats and trips.

Either way, starting tomorrow, Oct. 6th, you may leave a cd in the folder at my studio (#14 on the 9th floor) with A. YOUR NAME, B. YOUR EMAIL, and C. YOUR FAVORITE COLOR. Number of entries doesn't matter. FILES MAY NOT EXCEED 5MB. And you need to be able to picture them being printed smaller than 11" x 14". So try not to include too many crazy itty bitty sketch lines or teeny weeny screen tone patterns as they'll probably be lost in the process. And no gray scale! This is stark black and white, guys!

ALSO, if there's anyone who would be willing to help out with the silkscreening, it would healthily obliged. We'll give you a free shirt! Remember, Stephen and I are pretty much doing this crap on our own, so help out! We're just as stressed and tired as you! Love us!



You can reach me anytime at allym@techie.com for questions, or you can find me at my studio most of the time. If I'm not there, email or a note. Thanks again!! Good luck!


-Bamcat

Artist Derek Ring

Derek Ring is a friend of mine, and I am a big fan of his work.
He does a lot of Halloween themed stuff so you can imagine he's pretty busy right now. In addition to poster work he is also doing something for Vertigo.
His website, AbnormalBrain is great to check out-- and his BLOG features a lot of process work-- always valuable to see.
Take a look.
Andy

Mackenstein

This is kind of on topic, kind of not...

illustrative political commentary by Nina Saunders

I found them amusing.

Kerstin

Happy Saturday, kids.

Update from my boyfriend's house. Yay!


I've been working on some better ideas for the global warming assignment. I wanted to keep it light and keep my style present while still making the actual issue present.




I make frequent updates in my other blog with this kind of shizzle. So go check it out.

Yay for the new illustration blog!

-Bamcat

Fonts!

Hey guys,

Since people liked the fonts I had abrewin' on last weeks final, I thought I'd share the link where I get them all in case you don't have it already. It's a fantastic resource.

http://www.dafont.com

Anybody else sitting and stewing over their global warming piece?

-Lindsay

Illustration 4 with Andy Fish

Welcome to Mass College of Art Illustration 4 for Seniors with Andy Fish - blog.
This will be a place for us to upload sketches, prelims, links of interest, questions for the group, what have you.

As members of the class I have all emailed you the password and log-in for this blog. If you have a blog of your own please add it to BLOG LINKS on the right of the page.

Private questions and things you don't want shared with the group should still be emailed to me directly.
Andy