Blue Moon Blog

I’m delighted that we’re beginning our second year doing comics stories for the outstanding Tzivos Hashem Kids magazine. Over 300,000 copies of each issue (in English) are distributed world-wide, and tens of thousands more in a variety of additional languages are sold. This strip is one of our favorite regular projects. I’m so pleased that clients like Tzivos Hashem are choosing to use comics to communicate their important messages, in this case to interest kids (ages 8-13) in their Jewish heritage and religion, teach them about their background and where they come from, in a manner that is fun, informative and that will speak to them.

Comics are an effective and entertaining medium. Not only do comics stand out and grab attention due to their visual nature, but because they combine words with pictures it’s easier to convey sometimes complex actions and concepts to readers of all ages and backgrounds.

Today I’m working on layouts for the next installment, and though I can’t share those yet, I can show some art from a previous issue.

I begin work on each issue with a rough layout, breaking down the plot or adapting the story into comic book pages. These breakdowns are a few inches tall, kept small so I don’t focus on detail yet, but rather on panel and page composition and storytelling. It may be difficult to tell anything from my chickenscratch, but trust me, I know what’s going on there, which may become more clear to others when compared side-by-side with the completed page.

I then proceed to larger layouts, working at print size. The  lower portion of the page was of particular interest to me, as I needed to show the hero, Joey, chasing a bunch of ice cream trucks through the city streets. Breaking these actions into a series of smaller panels, especially when followed by the larger title image, I found a fun and interesting juxtaposition. Instead of showing the whole city, which is suggested in snippets, we focus on the drama of Joey’s chase.

Between this layout stage, through the pencils and the final art stage, I changed the last panel to show better Joey’s reaction, as well as the the men beginning to unload the boxes from the trucks. This also builds suspense, as one has to turn the page to discover their destination.

The final pencils and inks are done at an enlarged size (124-140% depending on the project). Sometimes we have to finish these comics quickly on a tight deadline, and I’m feeding finished inked pages or sections to Mary, so she can scan and prepare them digitally to get started on coloring, while I pencil and ink more. Read all of the comics we’ve done so far for the magazine, and we’ll let you know here when the one which I’m working now is available.

A short while back, the Blue Moon Crew set up a still life for each member the family to paint, with the intention of decorating our kitchen/dining area. We chose fruit for the subjects, to be painted on a set of 10 x 10 pre-stretched canvases. Each of us picked what we wanted to paint and made our own arrangements. Mary and Laura were working in oils, Emily and I with gouache. None of us completely finished, but it was a rewarding afternoon.

The session was fun, especially because we were all four in one room together, painting away. That sense of activity and shared goals is exciting in a studio, each working at their own piece, but checking out each other’s progress. It reminded me of life drawing classes, except at home, and with my kids! It also offered Mary and I teaching opportunities, which may not have come our way at all or as naturally in other situations. We were on hand while working to answer questions about composition, contrast, color, lighting, and more.

I hadn’t done any painting in years, having had some experience with acrylics, watercolors and oils. It turned out many of my acrylics were dry, so I just used the gouache I had on hand. I’ve always liked using gouache as it can be used to achieve both transparent and opaque effects, but I found it a little dicey handling it on canvas. Next time, I’d either use gouache on illustration board, or try oils or acrylics if I stuck with canvas.

I sure enjoyed the day, and thought I got a good start. I wouldn’t mind finishing off this one, but we’ll see. If not, I’m looking forward to the next time we’ll all jump into the paint again and start fresh.

Our daughter Emily turned eight last week, and we had a blast celebrating her special day as a family. Then last night she had over a half dozen friends for a sleep over. Mary and I were surrounded by giggling and screaming girls as they bounced through the house, playing Twister and marbles and Pin-the-Hat-On-Harry, finally settling into their sleeping bags to watch a Harry Potter movie and chatter ’til sleep overtook them. They had a great time, and Mary and I seem to have recovered.

I can barely believe it’s been this long since she was born. Emily’s a great kid. She’s smart and funny, and seems to do everything with style and panache. Many of the qualities she displays now seem to have already been present when I did these drawings for her birth and baptism announcements.

She also has an artistic flair. You can see some of her drawings and sculpture here, and keep an eye out for some of her comics, which she’s working away at diligently. Happy Birthday, Emily!

Mark and Lisa Flora are a talented husband-and-wife Minneapolis musical duo whom I’ve known since 2000. After reading about their CD release in a local newspaper, I listened to some of their audio samples at their web site, ordered a CD, and the rest is history. Mark and I struck up a friendship, at first exchanging emails, and I’ve since illustrated a couple of their albums.

The first, Sunshine Saturday is sometimes mistaken at first glance for a kids album, but that impression can be forgiven due to Mark’s vision for the Saturday morning cartoon/cereal box style I used. Though the music certainly is bright pop, it’s actually a full fledged, fun-for-all-ages festival in anticipation of the birth of their first daughter, McCartney. Featuring catchy melodies, layered harmonies and sprightly arrangements, this album evokes Brian Wilson’s Pet Sounds and Lindsey Buckingham at his best, while still all its own.

Once we had our visual and thematic hook, images sprang forth, as I reminisced on my own Saturday morning fun and early love of The Archies. I remember cutting out Archies records from the back of cereal boxes that could actually be played on a phonograph! The art for the CD itself is a recreation of those cardboard 45s. For the art behind the CD, I envisioned staring into the bowl of sunshine pictured on the front cover, stars and hearts and flowers flying from the bowl.

For the back of the CD case and the rest of the CD package, we threw in as many references of those wonderful Saturdays as we had room for and could think of. For Mark, that meant Evel Knievel, Jaws and Godzilla. For me it also meant cartoons, funny pages and comic strips, Johnny Bench and the Big Red Machine and playing softball for hours with my brother.

You can listen to audio samples and purchase the full CD package for your own self at the superb independent music site, CD Baby. I especially like For You Two (one of my favorite all-time songs), the toe-tapping instrumental, Doot Doo, bouncy You’re My Baby, and check out the more melancholy Once Upon a Saturday and Turn to You. It’s not all sugar, sugar.

For their next album, an enhanced Japanese re-release of that self same self-titled 1999 CD I’d ordered way back when, Mark asked for a superhero/Kiss look, which was fine with me, since I’ve always loved comics, and Kiss was my first rock concert. I employed a similar layout and structure to Sunshine Saturday for this next CD package, this time with a sweet-sounding pop super-siren, Elton John glasses and flame-spouting guitars.

After something of a hiatus, Mark’s feeling the musical itch again, and we’re already planning the next two CD projects, which I’ll be drawing and Mark and Lisa will be recording. Should be fun!

Having lunch with a fellow artist a couple years back, he described to me his working schedule. He had the same job all year, storyboarding a cartoon, doing about four-hundred drawings per cartoon each quarter, four cartoons a year. Given that, he could schedule his working time, balance it with home and family life, and basically work nine to five, easy as pie, just the way he liked it.

I then gave him the rundown of how things are in my studio, at our house. I work for a variety of clients during each year, sometimes juggling five-ten active jobs at once, oftentimes not knowing what I’ll be working on exactly next month, let alone the next week or next day. Our family has gotten used to being flexible, ready to adapt to a new schedule at a moment’s notice.

“That sounds awful!” he said.

And I had to laugh. I like it this way, and I think I’d get a bit antsy were I in his situation, which he obviously preferred.

And that’s the trick, really, when you’re a freelancer, artist or otherwise. You can get all kinds of advice about what kind of work you should do, what pays the best, that you should specialize in this or that, what’s the best schedule, etc. But when it comes down to it, you have figure out yourself what works for you. You need to think about and choose what you really want to do, how and when you want to work, then put it into action. If you’re not doing something you love, it makes everything that much harder. You have to like what you’re doing, and pinpoint when and how you best you perform, then put yourself in those situations more often than not so you’ll excel and succeed. For me, it sometimes took a while to learn about myself and my preferences, and I’m still learning, after freelancing now for twenty-three years.

Early in my career, I worked in the comic book industry, having spent years dreaming of doing exactly that. I met my goal fairly early, at age twenty-two, and drew hundreds of pages over several years. I started out by self publishing, drawing my own characters, then drawing superheroes for other, large publishers like DC Comics. Over time, I became less interested in putting in the many hours it takes to do comics. I realized I’d already achieved the dream. And the kind of comics I really wanted to create weren’t necessarily the type on which I could make the kind of living I envisioned. It was time to set new goals, find a new dream.

So I began searching for other kinds of work. It wasn’t easy at first making the transition, but I’ve found a nice balance between doing finished illustration, comics in other fields, and storyboards. Balancing between these three, I can work on long-term projects and those with a quick turnaround. Plus, working fast on storyboards helps me keep loose and think on my feet, not sweat the details, while finished illustration helps me keep that work tight and polished. And with it all, I’m applying the skills I learned in doing comics, what I love the most: telling stories and composing pictures.

Now, there are nights I put in time when I’d rather not, and there are weekends I’m working when I’d hoped to take it easy. But in every case or situation, I make the call. There are times when I’m bushed, would prefer to take a pass, and do. But after a busy weekend, I can always take a break in the middle of the week if and when things slow down. Juggling this way mixes it up, keeps things interesting, and helps me stay creatively fresh. I can also take on certain kinds of work that pay well which allow me to do others of interest that pay less.

I understand some would find my working situation chaotic and make them crazy. Some might prefer more stability and a better expectation of what’s coming their way the next day, week, month or year. The key is to find what suits you best.

What’s your preference and temperament?

I do occasional logo work, and in one case last year was asked to draw up a graphic take on Albert Einstein, to be incorporated into the logo and all branding for my client, Think! Creative. They’ve since used my curly, swirly Einstein in quite inventive and fun ways at their web site. Check it out. It’s neat to see the art I created for a certain purpose expanded beyond my or the client’s original intention.

The challenge here was to keep the design simple, while graceful, lyrical and fun as possible, and still recognizably Einstein. But it was easy to find inspiration for him, as he’s so well known and such a character, visually. I sketched out the profile with the is first sketch below, then revised it to its final form. I also explored a version facing Albert straight on, and although I like it, the profile is what the client originally wanted and ended up choosing.

I’m learning more about Einstein, currently reading the fairly new biography by Walter Isaacson. I’ve always wanted to know more of such a monumental and intriguing figure, but hadn’t found the right book. Isaacson’s treatment brings his subject to life fully and personally, and presents the science inherent to the story in an approachable manner, especially for a scientific layman such as myself. Good stuff!

Since the Fall of 2006, we’ve been working on art for a sizable campaign for the National Kidney Foundation. The main portion of the project utilizes comic book or the graphic novella format as an informational tool to educate people about the diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease.

For this bi-monthly series of large (2′x 3′) comic book posters, I designed about ten characters (both patients and their healthcare team) who guide the reader through a typical dialysis center. I also provided art for collateral material, such as the logo, brochures, trade show displays and animation.

I’ve been working with comics for over twenty years, and though I’m not that active any longer in the comic book industry, I appreciate the opportunities when I get to apply the language of comics in other ways. The use of words and pictures is a powerful and effective communication tool, and we see more and more companies turning to this approach. We’re happy to see it, as we’re wholehearted proponents; it’s what we do!

Four (of six) completed posters can be viewed here.

I’m so used to and prefer drawing people that it’s a nice change of pace to draw other creatures. These are some sketches from a recent to trip to Discovery Bay at the Minnesota Zoo.

Yep, we really saw that dude in the tie!

For some comps for a client, I had to use this pre-existing character in different poses for potential print ads. He’s angry at an ATM machine in the first. These were quick and pretty fun.  Nice to draw a character in a different style, one I wouldn’t have come up with myself.

In a recent post, I covered my inking tool preferences. And like my friend, Pete Krause says, “I still love my pencil!” Though I’m told my Wacom Cintiq has shipped and is on its way, I figure I’ll still do a portion of my drawing at the drawing table, and you may, too, so here’s a list of my favorites.

In my teens, I started using a clicky mechanical pencil. Mostly, I liked not having to sharpen all the time, and didn’t mind it was so thin (o.5 mm) as I liked the level of detail I could achieve. Some years later, while working on a project with Brian Augustyn (who shortly after became our editor on my self published comic book, Trollords) advised I try a thicker pencil.

Boy, was he right! I switched to a 2mm leadholder, or “clutch pencil,” and never turned back. I’ve been using it for twenty-three years. The thicker lead helps me keep my drawings simpler. For a time I did my light sketching with a 2H and final pencils with HB, but use only HB now; I just draw more lightly in the first pass. I use this single leadholder for sketching, storyboards and illustration. For modeling, shadowing or filling in blacks, I simply turn the pencil on it’s side.

For more bold, dark and loose sketching I sometimes call on a woodless graphite pencil. It feels great in the hand, is super-thick since it’s covered with balck lacquer, you don’t get your fingers all dirty. I use only HB, for more full rendered drawings, one can get a full line, from hard to soft. I prefer the Pentalic, but there are other good brands, too. This pencil is sharpened in a standard pencil sharpener. For the leadholder, I sue the 2mm sharpener, with which you get a great tip as you like it, and no wood shavings, just lead, easily disposed.

For erasing large areas, I pull out a trusty Mars Plastic wedge. More standard Pink and others rub the paper, changing the drawing surface, or spread pencils across the paper instead of erasing. A plastic eraser is quicker, cleaner and faster. For smaller areas I use the Papermate Tuff Stuff Eraser Stick, a great little tool when you want to erase just one tiny line in a hard-to-get-to space.

With just these few, simple drawing tools, I can work on any number of projects, in the studio or out and about.

Every so often, take a break from the digital graphic tablet or clicking the mouse, and pick up the old pencil. There’s nothing like the feel and sound of pencil on paper for this sometimes-old-creative-dog. Happy Drawing!