On the Cartoonist's Drawing Board

Happy Spring! (But watch out for opportunistic scallawags in the shadows.)

(Clicken to embiggen) 

Lots of things on the drawing board right now, including illustrations for a couple of children's books, a humor book, and several corporate humor writing and illustrating jobs. Just stopping by to share a few things, starting with the above piece for Silicon Valley IT security firm, CGNet.

--------

After a month of interviews, and competing with several other cartoonists, and a final multiple-party Zoom meeting, I began writing and drawing a series of cartoons for Fidelity Investments. It features a comic strip, and stand alone illustrations for twice-monthly newsletters and emails to their corporate customers. The themes will center around technology and IT security for investors.

It looks fun, particularly since I'll have some freedom to choose subject matter and write humor. (Of course, as always with a client of that nature, the language and concepts will need to steer clear of controversial subjects and be business-friendly.) I'm looking forward to trying to make their customers laugh, every two weeks. 

-------

Due to my usual corporate and book illustration work, I don't create as many political cartoons these days as I once did. So, I was humbled, and honored to receive First Place in the Society of Professional Journalists' TOR awards for Political Cartoons in 2024 (also last year, 2023). This covers over 85 newspapers in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. This was a  surprise, since I didn't enter - an editor submitted on my behalf, both years. (link)

An excerpt of an article From the Denver Post:

2024 Society of Professional Journalists TOR Awards Winners

MAY 4, 2024 / COLORADOSPJ

The Society of Professional Journalists has announced the winners of the annual TOR Excellence in Journalism competition.

This year, more than 85 news media outlets from Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico entered the contest, which was judged by the Los Angeles Press Club. In all, the contest saw more than 1,900 entries.

“The competition grows each year, and with that, we honor outstanding journalism throughout the four-state region,” said contest coordinator Deb Hurley Brobst. “It’s an honor to recognize the hard work of these journalists."

On the Digital drawing Board: New schtuff

I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving.

It's been a while since I posted, and after an eventful Autumn, here's a very quick highlighting of recent art and humor on the drawing board...

A couple of years back, I created a series of caricatures and humor for the Ralph Lauren Polo Bar restaurant in New York City. It was a project that continued for a while, tying in with RL's advertising and social media. (My process for writing the humor for them can be found here.)

The owner of a new, upscale dinner club in Norwalk, Connecticut had seen these cartoons and caricatures, and contacted me in October. He wanted something similar (in terms of caricatures) for his establishment, and we discussed the scope and terms of the project.

After discussing this and the intended purpose of the drawings, we decided to use a little less distortion and to make an effort capture more likeness in the style. I began with a larger format 18" x 24" piece depicting the owner's grandparents, (who inspired the restaurant). It is being framed and hung in the entry area, near the maître d'. Now, I am doing 8"x10" illustrations of the dining club's members, which will be also framed and hung throughout the restaurant. (Each couple will also receive a framed print of their own.)

(The owner's grandparents)

                                     

(The owner, with some of the framed caricature illustrations)

I'm drawing these by hand, but digitally, using my Wacom Cintiq. With the latest digital brushes, I can create India ink drawings and watercolor washes, which allows me to create artwork identical in appearance to things I created with traditional brushes, ink and bristol for years. This saves time and effort, (particularly versus packing and shipping physical art). I email the high resolution artwork to the client, and he has them printed at a top notch local printer, and then matted and framed.

There will be 70 framed caricature pieces with roughly 125 people, in total. I'm about halfway through at this point. 

A couple of early reviews of the establishment:

https://www.thehour.com/food/article/josie-and-tonys-supper-club-opening-norwalk-18554115.php

https://www.ctbites.com/blog/2023/11/9/josie-amp-tonys-italian-deli-and-supper-club

The last article mentions me, and oddly, the reporter said that I worked at Pixar...not sure where he got that…(I am currently illustrating a book for a Pixar executive, detailed in an earlier blog post.) Typical journalism these days. :)

Sounds like good food.

(Update 2/14: The owner just requested 30 more illustrations. I'll get to have some more fun).

-----------------

This is a large 18" X 24" humorous illustration created for a longtime client, global technology  leader, Capgemini, headquartered in Paris, France. I have worked with their Vice President in charge of Marketing several times on previous pieces, and this was written and drawn for a retiring executive. After discussing the life and accomplishments of the gentleman to be depicted, the various vignettes were written, sketched, and then approved. 

I created the color artwork, and finally, I sent a high res CMYK (publishing standard 4-color process) file, which the client had printed locally and then matted and framed for a party in Denmark, for the guest of honor.

-----------

The publisher of FREESKIER  (a magazine I've read since I was in college) launched a new magazine called "The Grom Guide", for kids and and families. The magazine editor contacted me in September to discuss a cartoon feature, starting with a two-page in the first issue. 

I was given the freedom to write and draw whatever I wanted, as long as it covered skiing and snowboarding, depicting kids with their families. As someone who has skied and snowboarded since I was a kid, this was right up my alley, and I had a great time playing with it. 

The first issue is in news stands, drug stores, ski shops, and other tawdry establishments.

-------------

Over the past several years, I’ve been working with a large group of medical doctors in California who have been in the midst of a battle with the state government regarding health insurance coverage for patient treatment. Many prominent insurance companies, including Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and United healthcare have been lobbying for lower patient visits and placing a severe cap on reimbursement for appointment charges. The companies have pushed and lobbied for legislation that requires extensive paperwork for each patient visit, making it a money losing proposition for many of these physicians, and their medical practices.

Here’s the latest in the series of political cartoons created for the fight against this...

Update: Three weeks after the cartoon was created, the physician's group called me with terrific news...The legislation was killed shortly after the editorials appeared. Victory!

-----------

A piece created for regular client, Thrive in San Francisco.

----------

I’m currently working on illustrations for a book of humor, and the arrangement this time around is a little different than usual. Rather than being hired by a publisher or author, I am partnering with a publisher and a poet. The publisher contacted me, and their idea was to do something along the lines of the popular humor book by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss. After reading some of the poems by the humorous poet, and I was taken in by his wit and range. I am having fun with it, and need to fit more of it onto my drawing board to make the agreed upon schedule.

----------

Another advertising cartoon for California biotech firm, List Labs. This one is aimed at their clientele...people who spend time behind a microscope. It takes me back to my time as a biology major at the University of Illinois...but we didn't have attachments of smartphones, allowing for easy photos of those microbes, etc.

----------

 A couple more 'New Yorker' cartoons, (also shared with the folks who market them for me at Cartoonstock.) ...

 https://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoon?searchID=CS448172

---------

Some photos from a Fall trip to the Summit Area for some mountain biking.

The Aspens were ablaze with color, and we spent a few days unwinding.

--------

Lastly, I sent our family Christmas card off to my printer in California. (One of the few printers that still uses CMYK process for accurate color - not just the RGB colors on one's monitor.)

Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship for college cartoonists

                               

 

Every year the National Cartoonists Society awards the Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship to one talented college student pursuing a career in cartooning. 

This includes comic strips, political cartoons, comic books, animation, graphic novels, editorial illustration…any cartooning discipline. 

The scholarship award is $5,000 and a trip to the NCS Reuben Awards.

Submissions are judged by a panel and an award is given to the best college cartoonist. This memorial scholarship is the sort of thing that can launch a young cartoonist's career. 

If you think that might be you, enter now! Below is the info on submitting.

The winner will receive:

• $5,000
• Expense paid trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Awards Convention.

To enter:

• 8 samples of your own cartooning artwork (copies only); noting if and where the work has been published — either in print or on the Web.
• Print out the samples AND copy them to digital media.
• Files should be no larger than 8.5×11″ and no more than 300 dpi.
• DO NOT send original artwork.
• Completed entry form.
• Download the PDF of the entry form for more details.

 

Jay Kennedy was my editor at King Features in New York for several years. He encouraged me with notes and phone calls when I began submitting comic strips for syndication. (King Features receives over 6,000 submissions per year and chooses just one or two. In the face of such daunting odds, encouragement was in short supply.) When Jay later offered me my first comic strip syndication contract, I began working with him daily in editing both my written humor and artwork for King Features. 

A few years later l was offered another contract by Tribune Media. None of it would have been possible without that initial time spent working with Jay Kennedy. It was essentially hands-on training, particularly in succinct humor writing and editing, something that was unavailable in any college or university. For a cartoonist, or any visual story teller, those skills are as important as drawing ability, (one could argue they are more important, as drawing skill is fairly common.)

Sadly, Jay Kennedy passed away in 2007 while vacationing in Costa Rica. (A little-known fact is that he died a hero, successfully saving his fiance who was caught in a riptide.) 

The annual Jay Kennedy Scholarship was established in his memory, and is funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional donations from professional cartoonists.

 

 

 

https://cartoonistfoundation.org/

A new book release...and some R&R

Happy MLK day! Are you off or are you working?

I have been away and I'm catching up in the studio, but thought I would pop in to post a couple of things...

First, I wanted to mention a book that I enjoyed working on this past year: Good Habits, Bad Habits - which was recently released. The author, Wendy Wood is Provost Professor of Psychology at The University of Southern California.

From the publisher: "She has written for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Time magazine, and USA Today, and on NPR."

I was interviewed and hired directly by Wendy (rather than the publisher) prior to the book going to final editing at MacMillan This was a little different than straight book illustration, in that each piece needed to have a written element to it: a concept to communicate the author's point and to make the grab the reader's attention with something funny. Slow down, stop skimming, this is a key point, etc. (This is what I do for corporate clients regularly, but not that often in book illustration.)

Wendy initially hired me for a test-run, to write a concept to explain and depict a sample theme. After doing one piece for her and making her laugh, I signed a contract to do the rest. 

I chatted with Wendy over the phone about some of the themes in her book, and then I wrote some more concepts, which were later turned into cartoons and chapter-leading illustrations for the book. An example below...

I enjoyed reading the author's manuscript even more than usual, as the subject matter is interesting to me. I am fascinated by the process of establishing habits, and had previously read other books in this genre, (including Charles Duhigg's now classic "The Power of Habit" as well as "Grit" by Angela Duckworth, who wrote the review blurb on this book's front cover).

I was recently notified that Good Habits, Bad Habits is off to a healthy start, with positive reviews and strong sales.

Several other jobs have been on the board, but I don't really want to type much more here, or risk boring you.

------------------------

Lastly, as I alluded to above, my family and I were out of town for two weeks, and we're now back home from a 3-generation family jaunt. After a long period of work, it was time to unwind.

We began by skiing right before Christmas...lots of early season snow has made the resorts and folks like me in Colorado quite happy. I snuck up for some runs with Julia before the crowds - and celebrations - descended.

Shortly afterward, we embarked into a different climate, on a tremendously enjoyable trip to the Caribbean. I'm not a big beach vacation guy. I saw the Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands years ago,  and though I appreciate warm climates, that sort of trip is not my first choice. You're more likely to see me skiing, biking, hiking, riding motorcycles, rock climbing or exploring - rather than sitting on a beach.

Also, my wife and I have never wanted to take a cruise. It just sounded too "prearranged" with little freedom to explore. But after my Mom and Brother implored us, we decided to try it. Wow, what a pleasant surprise.

My wife daughter and I joined my brother and his family along with my mother in San Juan Puerto Rico, and then boarded a ship that visited several island areas.  But this trip added a few elements that made it more active.

We started in Barbados where we ended up doing some diving near a shipwreck off the coast of Bridgetown. My daughter Julia was amazed at the clear blue waters, allowing one to see well into the depths.

                                                     Exploring the reefs in Barbados

Next was Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis...snorkeling and swimming in shallow waters, with some friendly stingrays and sea turtles.

                                                                   St. Kitts



After that, Tortola and Virgin Gorda. Climbing through the stunning "Baths" rock formations was challenging and fun...The formations are closely related to those at Red Rocks amphitheater here in Colorado. It was my second time here, however the first visit allowed much less time for exploring...as it was just a quick boat drop for snorkeling.

The Baths rock formations at Virgin Gorda/Tortola 

The last stop was St. Thomas and nearby National park known as St. John. (Also our second visit here) We took in breathtaking beaches and snorkeled, swimming with brightly colored fish dancing beneath the waters along the reefs. After 9 days, Beth, Julia and I were less 'winter pale', a bit blonder, and despite all the activity, I hate to say it, a little less lean...it is hard to avoid when eating out continually.

This was a perfect family trip for three generations...lots to see, many beaches, activities for the kids and opportunities to choose among them for my Mom.

I'm happy to be back in the studio, refreshed and ready to go...(but first must empty sand from my shoes, and a desire to sit out in the sun from my mind.)

I hope your year is off to a fantastic start!

Lazy Sunday Morning

From Guinevere & Doozy

Did you wait in line today?

Romney & Obama cartoons

I don't know if you've been following the debates, or if you're planning to watch the final Presidential debate Monday night...but a new trend has been to show the "live" reactions of viewers to specific parts of the debates. Some of this is done via Twitter and others use electronic response units with small groups of people.  I was contacted recently by the CEO of a San Diego-based company, a developer of a new website that allows one to clap for a candidate's response,  online.

The website is called "Give them the clap.com" (Funny name, I must say.)

He wanted to buy license rights to use my caricatures of Romney, Obama, Biden & Ryan on the website...(and we negotiated a fee to make that happen.)  They will go live on Monday, during the third debate. (Click it and try it out...it's fun.) http://giveemtheclap.com/

Well, back to the board...be sure to vote!

Drawing Board wrap-up

It was a very hectic month, as evidenced by my lack of posting here. Here's a quick sampling of some of the recent work gracing my board: (Click images to enlarge).

One of a series of cartoons commissioned by a Seattle ad agency, for Vertafore Corporation.

-------------

A series of cartoons created for London-based IB corp. I worked with their executives to write and draw some cartoons for their international advertising campaigns.

------------------------

 

 A step-by-step process for a cartoon created for regular client, CGNet, a pioneer in cloud computing. 
I worked with the CEO on this, which was his vision; a busy Rube-Goldberg-like cartoon, 
showing how  services offered by his firm might otherwise be handled -- in an-old school manner.  

          1) A first draft with a rocket depicting cloud computing. 2) We decided a hot air balloon better fit the antiquated objects around it, (steam engine, carrier pidgeons, toy train). 3) The character who "built" the set-up was proud of himself and standing in a spotlight...also, the coloring was meant to look old. 4) We removed the spotlight, gave him some tools and then brightened the color scheme.

A cartoon on the Fed's spending policies, for Merk Funds (link)

-----------

A caricature commissioned for an awards cermony honoring Maurice Fiorio,
head of the Fiorio Hair Salons and School. (Being a guy with simple tastes
 in hair care, I wasn't sure who he was until I Googled him for reference photos).

 

 

 

 -----------------

 

 

One of 18 illustrations from a children's book going to the publisher this month...

-------------------

It's shaping up to be a busy summer...Several large projects are in line, including two children's book illustration jobs, along with a humor book about dating which will entail around 35 cartoons, and plenty of artwork and character design for a third animated video commissioned by Intel Corporation.

We'll try to have some fun here in between, with a caption contest or two, as well as some new features...