Check out these art and cartooning related sites if you have some time to wander the net aimlessly, in search of creative inspiration and enlightenment.
On the website Drawger, Lou Brooks has a fun gallery of tools that
are no longer, or hardly ever, 
used by artists anymore. With the rise of scanners and computers, a lot of the mechanical devices that required skill and instruction on how to use them, have become obsolete. Believe it or not, I have used some of these tooks. I guess I'm showing my age. Click on the logo above to take you to this fun page. Each picture has a descripton of what the tool is for.
24 Hour Comics Day - October 3 2009Each year there's an event in which cartoonists all over the world will be accepting the challenge of creating an entire 24-page comic book in just one day. Click on the link above to visit the official site for this event, and check out the links below as well:
New Mexico - A Flickr set of cartoonists laboring around the clock to complete their comics
Group Pool - A Flickr set of work from comic book artists participating in this event
Banned Books Week
National Banned Books Week, a movement sponsored by the American Library Association is dedicated to intellectual freedom in American libraries. The aim of Banned Books Week is to raise awareness of people who try to have books removed from libraries (and sometimes even book stores!) because they object to their content. Such actions threaten the very fabric of freedom we enjoy in this country, and silence views of writers who do not conform to mainstream thinking.
According to the American Library Association, there were over 500 challenges in 2008.
In my cartooning classes I do not introduce politics, but this is an issue that directly affects artists because it is a form of censorship. And censorship, in any form, is bad for artistic freedom, and for society as a whole.
Censorship is the banning of speech, or eliminating any kind of material which may be considered harmful, threatening, sensitive or inconvenient. There are many different kinds of, and reasons for, censorship, but this event deals specifically with one person or group trying to have a book removed from a library so no one else will be able to read that book. If a book is removed, it silences the voice of the author, and interferes with your right to read what you want.
To find a book offensive or objectionable is not the issue; trying to keep others from reading it is the issue. People who try to have books removed from libraries often justify their challenges as good parenting, or, even more ironic, that it's their First Amendment right to challenge books. Their challenges are an attack on the First Amendment, not a support of it.
Check out the links below for more information on National Banned Books Week:
Why Banned Books Week Matters
The Banned Books Week Wikipedia Page
Celebrating The Freedom To Read
The Bubble Project
This is something different and fun. Everywhere you turn there are corporate ads on almost everything, a constant barrage of advertising, intruding into spaces that were once considered public, but which are now being taken over by corporations to advertise. The Bubble Project transforms these intrusions of corporate advertising into public commentary using cartoon balloons with hand written messages on them. It's a way for the public to share their thoughts and opinions as a way to counteract the ever-increasing invasion of huge corporations, to take back the spaces in the name of the public.
The Bubble Project Home Page
The Toy Zone
The Toy Zone This is a very cool website that has galleries of pictures from all sorts of things; Star Wars sketches, images made only of food, bizarre motorcycle side cars, graffiti, images that look like photographs but are actually paintings...lots of good browsing here. A small number of galleries may not be suitable for children, just a head's up.
The Toy Zone
This is a guy who seriously needs to buy some canvas and start painting!
Scott Wade creates fantastic images on the dirty windows of cars. That's right, out of filthy car windows he creates these fantastic works of art. Check out the gallery here.
Twisted Disney Princesses
Illustrator Jeffrey Thomas has created a set of pictures of Disney heroines redone to look twisted, evil, and downright scary. They are awesome! Check it out HERE.
New Mexico - A Flickr set of cartoonists laboring around the clock to complete their comics
Group Pool - A Flickr set of work from comic book artists participating in this event
Banned Books Week
National Banned Books Week, a movement sponsored by the American Library Association is dedicated to intellectual freedom in American libraries. The aim of Banned Books Week is to raise awareness of people who try to have books removed from libraries (and sometimes even book stores!) because they object to their content. Such actions threaten the very fabric of freedom we enjoy in this country, and silence views of writers who do not conform to mainstream thinking.Why would someone challenge, or try to have removed, a book from a library? Because they object to its content and don't want anyone else to be able to read it. This forces their morality, views and, in many cases, intolerance, on the rest of society. People have challenged books because they were too violent, there were sexual references, or there were objectionable portrayals in the books.
According to the American Library Association, there were over 500 challenges in 2008.
In my cartooning classes I do not introduce politics, but this is an issue that directly affects artists because it is a form of censorship. And censorship, in any form, is bad for artistic freedom, and for society as a whole.
Censorship is the banning of speech, or eliminating any kind of material which may be considered harmful, threatening, sensitive or inconvenient. There are many different kinds of, and reasons for, censorship, but this event deals specifically with one person or group trying to have a book removed from a library so no one else will be able to read that book. If a book is removed, it silences the voice of the author, and interferes with your right to read what you want.
To find a book offensive or objectionable is not the issue; trying to keep others from reading it is the issue. People who try to have books removed from libraries often justify their challenges as good parenting, or, even more ironic, that it's their First Amendment right to challenge books. Their challenges are an attack on the First Amendment, not a support of it.
Check out the links below for more information on National Banned Books Week:
Why Banned Books Week Matters
The Banned Books Week Wikipedia Page
Celebrating The Freedom To Read
The Bubble Project
This is something different and fun. Everywhere you turn there are corporate ads on almost everything, a constant barrage of advertising, intruding into spaces that were once considered public, but which are now being taken over by corporations to advertise. The Bubble Project transforms these intrusions of corporate advertising into public commentary using cartoon balloons with hand written messages on them. It's a way for the public to share their thoughts and opinions as a way to counteract the ever-increasing invasion of huge corporations, to take back the spaces in the name of the public.
The Bubble Project Home Page
The Toy Zone
The Toy Zone This is a very cool website that has galleries of pictures from all sorts of things; Star Wars sketches, images made only of food, bizarre motorcycle side cars, graffiti, images that look like photographs but are actually paintings...lots of good browsing here. A small number of galleries may not be suitable for children, just a head's up.
The Toy Zone
This is a guy who seriously needs to buy some canvas and start painting!Scott Wade creates fantastic images on the dirty windows of cars. That's right, out of filthy car windows he creates these fantastic works of art. Check out the gallery here.
Twisted Disney PrincessesIllustrator Jeffrey Thomas has created a set of pictures of Disney heroines redone to look twisted, evil, and downright scary. They are awesome! Check it out HERE.
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