Incredible Ideas in Sustainable Design (Go China!)

Great design can and should be incredible to look at and have a positive effect on all levels of life. We forget that, and make it mostly serviceable and utilitarian. Want inspiration to reach further check this video out.

Oh, and watch until the end so you can see why in fifty years China will be the country that went from most polluted to most progressive. McDonough's ideas should be required study for all corporations and city planners.



(Thanks to Matt Forsythe for bringing this to my attention on Twitter)

Steve Bissette vs King Kong vs Godzilla

Do you know who comics great and modern comics legend Steve Bissette is? If you answered no, we must get you on to a healthier diet of good comics. You can start your new highly nutritional diet by going out and getting the excellent Saga of the Swamp Thing hardcover (by Alan Moore) that was recently released. Y'know, the same Swamp Thing hardcover I gave away back in my first contest.


Mr. Bissette (along with a very talented roster of associates) is the artist that really brought Mr. Moore's vision of Swampy to life in those pages. He has of course gone on to do many great things, and has become an even more accomplished artist, but his Swamp Thing run is a great place to start. If you are not only interested in the comics themselves, but the fascinating history behind them, including the not so well-known ways Alan Moore revolutionized the medium behind the scenes, you should definitely check out Bissete's excellent blog entries about first working on Swamp Thing.

There is of course another way you can see Mr. Bissette's work. By owning it and looking at it everyday as it hangs gloriously on your wall. The easy way to do this is by going straight over to his website and dropping some cash for an original sketch. But the easy way is not quite as fun as the King Kong vs Godzilla way of doing things.

©2009 SR Bissette, all rights reserved.

Yes, I said King Kong vs Godzilla! If you want a chance to win this beautiful piece of original Bissette art, and an incredible night out at the movies, you really need to come to the Colonial Theater in Keene, NH on April 24th. For there will be held the second ever Spooktacular, featuring a brand new print of classic beast vs beast throwdown, King Kong vs Godzilla! All hosted by Scarewolf and his Saturday Fright Special goons, who will be hamming it up and dishing out the film knowledge and giveaways!

Friday, April 24, 2009 at 7:00 PM
The Colonial Theatre
95 Main Street Keene, NH 03431
Phone: (603) 352-2033
www.thecolonial.org
info@thecolonial.org
Map & Directions

And to top it all off, I believe Mr. Bissette will actually be there. So, you can put your fanboy pants on and tell him how much you like his work while he just tries to quietly enjoy the movie. Good times.

Secres of "Meat Tray" Printing REVEALED!

This is just a quick howdy-do to point you in the direction of a great revelation. The dark art of "Meat Tray Printing" has been laid out for you step by step, by a wombat, over at www.moocowfanclub.com! Of course since they are a bunch of animals over there, they call it the more genteel "foam tray printing," but I just don't think that has the same catchy ring to it. Anyway it is a detailed step by step with some good tips and tricks at the end too. If you want to try some super easy printmaking this is something you definitely need to check out. Great thing to do on a rainy April afternoon too.

The Popcorn Book - Stage 3

A work in progress.

This is a book that was originally made by Mary Goldthwaite for her friend, and "broke: Affordable Arts Fair" partner, Ryan Wilson (me). She used a popcorn bucket found on the day of broke as the cover. Ryan added his own touch (mostly meat tray prints) to it and gave it back to her for her birthday. She added lots more and returned it to him once again. A thing was begun. We are now at Stage 3 and I will be documenting each stage from here on.

This is a great project to undertake with a art friend. Although, I've really slowed up the whole process (I've had it for months), I am really happy with how it's going.

In lovely downtown Peterborough, NH

Speaking of "broke," did you know it's almost time for the next one? You really should make every effort to get to it. Each one is getting better and better. I'm not organizing this one, so I can really talk it up without sounding egotistical (that really didn't stop me before). It's during The Thing In the Spring weekend here in Peterborough, NH. Lots of awesome music and art events. If you are are on Facebook or Myspace you can friend both The Thing in the Spring and broke arts and keep yourself updated or visit Mary and Eric's blog.

Hot Amateur Photos!!

You may have noticed the two little slide shows I've got going over there on the side bar. One makes sense for this blog, I'm an illustrator so I'm showing some recent illustrations, but the other might seem a little out of place. What can I say, except, if I have a chance to subject people to my amateur photography I always take it.

Sometimes I think maybe I was meant to be a photographer instead of an illustrator. Not because I'm particularly good at it, but more because it gives me such joy and is never anything but fun for me. I even gravitated toward cinematography in film school. It seemed like the "easy" part of film making because you basically were just a guy taking a ton of pictures! It turned out to much more stressful than that. So, I'll stick to regular old photography thanks. I never have very good equipment (just standard digital cameras that are sometimes half broken, and now a Holga) but that never stops me from snapping away.

I was just going through all my pictures from the last few years and I've come to realize that while I feel like I take pictures of anything and everything, I seem to largely gravitate towards certain subjects and themes. Which are, in no particular order (click on any to see full size) ...

Our Yurt



Cats Dramatically Lit



Weird Objects Dramatically Lit



Light Trails



Ice & Glass



SPIDERS!

I also have some other themes, but I will spare you. Even realizing these things about my photo taking habits will not stop me. If I see a cat sitting in a pool of light I will still take a picture. If I see a cool spider I will still get down in the dirt to get yet another close up of an arachnid. And forget it if I see some cool lights I can use a slow shutter on, I'd push over my own mother for that.

Hmm, now how can I work my book cover obsession together with my photography obsession? I will have to work on that. I'm not even a big fan of photo covers, but maybe I can make an exception if the right thing comes along.

More photos at my Picasa page. Also more coming very soon.

A Healthy Lunch For a Starving Artist

Many people in the illustration and design world find themselves incredibly busy. This is because most of us we are either independent freelancers, or we work for a small companies. Having to be the illustrator/marketer/PR Rep/IT department/and on top of all that, the chef, can really start to wear me down after awhile. What's the first thing you'd probably skimp on when it comes to all those responsibilities? The cheffing, that's what. Before you know it you'd be eating stuff out of bags and cans. Thinking you'll have time to eat healthy later when you get paid big bucks just for signing Giclee prints.

I kept a sketchbook "meal journal" for a little while. It is an interesting way to examine what you eat. But if you do it as your food is actually sitting there you tend to eat cold meals.

Here at Moo-Cow Fan Club decided not to wait any longer to eat healthy. We recently started the process of cutting processed sugar, flour and caffeine out of our diet and eating lots of fruits and veggies. Now, smoothies and salad are only going to satisfy me for so long. Eventually I was going to have to break down and learn how to whip up some healthy food on the quick, for those too busy to bother days, when I need a hearty lunch that is delicious and actually not bad for me. An old standby was always grilled ham & cheese, but the healthiest thing about those were usually the thin slice of tomato. Then yesterday I realized I could make incredible grilled cheese sandwiches out of healthy stuff that actually even tastes better. And it takes ten minutes at the most! I give you my latest concoction...

The Grilled Applecado

you'll need:
2 slices of Ezekiel Bread*
1/2 of an apple
1/2 of an avocado
1 slice of provolone cheese
Dijon mustard
Honey
2 tbsp. of olive oil

Anyway, the sandwich is probably pretty self-explanatory but I'll break it down in case you've never made a grilled cheese in your life. Slice the apple and avocado into thin wedges. Put the cheese on one slice of bread, and smear a mixture of dijon mustard and honey on the other slice (I do this instead of using pre-made honey mustard which usually has sugar or corn syrup in it). Now lay your apple and avocado wedges on the cheese half and cover with the honey & mustard slice. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over med/high heat. Once the pan is hot put sandwich in and cook until both sides are toasty brown and the cheese is melted. Press down on the sandwich as it's finishing to make sure everything really squishes together. Then cut in half and eat (I'm a firm believer that cutting your grilled cheeses in half improves the taste).

I promise you, this is one of the best grilled cheeses ever! Now get back to work, those pictures aren't going to draw themselves! Where's my pen, I've got some prints to sign.

*Note: Ezekiel Bread is a type of bread that is made up of sprouted grains and legumes based on "God's recipe for bread" from the biblical myth of Ezekiel. It is incredibly good for you but also tastes excellent. It is best kept frozen, so I've been using it on sandwiches that get heated up, or as toast. Even if I start eating regular bread again, I will now always use Ezekiel bread for grilled cheeses.

Characters for an Epic Tale

The Chinese Creation god P'anku by Lark Pien

Back in its early days, Moo-Cow Fan Club magazine was really more of zine. Becky and I were just learning what it meant to make a magazine. The only thing either of us knew before that were the old fold and staple 8.5 x 5 zines, so that's what we made. Neither of us went to school for what we were trying to do (we were film majors) and we were both learning in the public eye, granted it was not a very big public. We got the zine to a point where it had a fancy color cover, some more professional layout, and content that was copy edited. We thought we were ready to go big time. So, we did what any big time magazine would do, we started to hire artists we liked to give the thing some variety. I thought my drawings were competent at the time (although looking back at it now you would swear a 6th grader did them) but I wanted our magazine to have art from some of the really cool people we were meeting at the indie comic shows like MoCCA and SPX.

Click to enlarge
Characters for an Epic Tale by Tom Gauld

So, what did we do for our first issue with guest artists, we hired James Kochalka, Tom Gauld and Lark Pien! This was like hiring They Might Be Giants, Radiohead and Bjork to do songs for your mixtape. Except, because it was the world of indie comics in 2002, we didn't have to pay them very much. It is ridiculous though to look back at that and think of the audacity I had putting drawings by (now) indie comic icons next to my mess (I'm really not being modest here I had only been drawing for a year or so at that point). But, it's very cool to think of all the incredible artwork we racked up over the years, by people who now have and rabid fan base. Evey so often I'll share some of these largely unseen images with you, and today you are lucky, because you are getting a bunch. Here, in this post, are all of the guest images from that first issue with freelance artists. The issue was "Mythology."

These 3 are the illustrations that James Kochalka did for the article "The Hero's Journey" Never published anywhere else and therefore pretty unseen until now!