John Dickenson

I stumbled into John Dickenson's awesome concept artwork not long ago...and immediately asked if he would answer a few questions for tor.com. Check out the John Dickenson interview here.

Two Satudays of Animations

I missed last weeks so, a double header:

The God and She Who Measures.

The God: Everyone's got something that gets the better of them (A study in brilliant comic timing.)
She Who Measures: A wasteland of consumerism...told in a very WTFery way.
The Sand Castle and Zacharias Zombie
The Sand Castle: Sand Creatures building a sand castle. A quiet classic.
Zacharias Zombie: Poor Zacharias was born a zombie, chaos ensues.

Housekeeping

I've been hit with an unbelievable amount of comment spam....and it just keeps coming. I'll try to delete it all over the weekend. Please excuse the mess in the meantime.

If anyone has advice to get rid of it quickly and keep it from coming back, please let me know.

James Jean Wine Labels

Drink yourself up some James Jean.

Similo, short SF movie

This place has been all about the movies lately -- apologies for that. I'll get back to some great sf/f art soon, I promise. And I have post up my sleeve about plumbers that may interest. (no, really.) But...

I just posted a six minute science fiction movie on Tor.com titled Similo. The tone of it (although not it's message) reminds me of Gattica, one of my favorite movies. It's pretty powerful piece for just six minutes long.

Oscar for Best Animated Short: La Maison en petits cubes by Kunio Kato

Thanks to a heads up from Rene Walling at Frames Per Second, the Oscar winner for best animated short is...."La Maison en petits cubes" by Kunio Kato.

I've been avoiding posting movies that are split but this is just too good....

UPDATE: Apologies, the movie has been removed from Youtube.

Anita Kunz and Sam Weber at SCAD

The SCAD blog has a nice write up, and lots of pictures, from a visit from Anita Kunz and Sam Weber. Wish I was there to see this.

Chris Turnham and Coraline

An update to my list of Coraline artists. (Yes, this will be an obsession for a short while.)

Chris Turnham has started a blog specifically for his Coraline work.

Chris and the awesome Kevin Dart make up the Fleet Street Scandal. Their book, appropriately titled Fleet Street Scandal, is one of my favorite purchases from last year's San Diego Comic Con.

RELATED: Kevin Dart, Retro Fresh

Ezra Jack Keats

I knew it when I was five and I know it now: Ezra Jack Keats is amazing.

Some of the Coraline concept art reminded me of Keats' The Snowy Day, particularly Chris Appelhans' great work. Appelhans will be at Reverie, Concepart.org's workshop, in Dallas at the end of the month - I'm looking forward to singing his praises in person and asking him if Keats was an influence.

Coraline 3D, and Coraline Concept Art

If you haven't seen Coraline in 3D already, put down that computer and run to the theatre. Go. Now. It's freakin' amazing.

The concept art that has been popping up online has been making me sad that there doesn't seem to be an "Art of" book.

Chris Appelhans and Jon Klassen, in particular, have a lot of work showing that is just a joy to flip through. Also check out Katy Wu, Dan Krall.

Did I mention that the movie is incredible? It's incredible.

New Wesley Allbrook Comic

Check out Wesley Allbrook's latest comic, Montmartre a trois....a love story....of sorts.

Related:
Wesley's first comic, The Leviathan.
An interview.

Animation on Tor.com

This week on Tor.com's Saturday Morning Cartoons:

The Diary of Tortov Roddle: A Red Fruit
Tamu Townsend, of Frames Per Second, turned me on to Katou Kunio. Kunio has created a marvelous series of dreamscapes featuring a traveler and his horse-legged pig. There are over a half dozen of these little films. Each is quiet and elegant, with a subtle humor and beautifully drawn.

Strange Invaders
A wee outer-space bundle of...joy. As frantic as the above is serene. From Cordell Barker, the creator of the classic “The Cat Came Back.”

Dan Dos Santos DVD now available.

Massive Black is really cranking out the demos lately. Their latest, the long awaited Dan Dos Santos' book cover demo. Hurray for Dan! This has been eagerly awaited for some time now.

5 hours long.
$50.00
Available as a DVD or instant download.
It takes a book cover -- which happens to be Tor's Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson -- from concept to finish.

Order here.
The buzz here.
Preview below:
(Warning: I am in it briefly but you can fast forward through that.)

Barbara McClintock builds a picture book dummy.

This may be a bit of a tease, I'm not sure that anyone not "friended" can look at Facebook photos? But here goes anyway:

Barbara McClintock, amazing picture book artist, has a great series of photos showing her building a picture book dummy for Adel and Simon in China. This makes the job look like way too much fun.

Jesper Ejsing visits

Somehow I doubled booked judging the Society's Student exhibit with a major Sales meeting. I knew both were on Tuesday morning, you think that would have tipped me off to the fact that I couldn't go to both. Thankfully, Jesper Ejsing was in town, visiting from Denmark, and he took my place. I was bummed to have missed the judging. The student show is in many ways more rewarding (or at least, interesting) than the pro show. It's a constant balance between judging ability and potential.

I was, however, able to catch lunch with the crew. Thank god. Me skipping a meal would be a sign that the end days are a'coming. Seen here: me, Donato (mostly hidden by my big head) Jesper Ejsing, Dan Dos Santos, and Sam Weber.

Afterwards Dan and Jesper stopped by to visit. There was some shenanigans with a sword but somehow all in the room left with ten fingers and toes each. I met Jesper at last year's Massive Black's workshop. His work was great then and even better now. He mentioned doing a major overhaul of his website later this month so, I'll point you to this interview with some great step-by-steps.

my donor card

A recent Twitter friend's tweet made me think it's not a bad idea to say: My donor card was signed in honor of Jenna Felice. Whose yours signed for?

Brad Holland Video

Over on RichardSolomon.com, a peak inside Brad Holland's studio, interview/demo. Very cool.

Related: Brad Holland Interview

Saturday Animations on Tor.com: "Tes lacets sont des fees" and "Sebastian’s Voodoo"

This week: one cute and funny, the other...not cute nor funny.

Tor.com Saturday Mornng Cartoons:

Tes lacets sont des fees
Proving the best revenge is livin’ good. This Dionysos video is delightful...and it has boobies! Drawn by Joann Sfar. Sfar wrote and drew The Rabbi’s Cat. Charles Vess told me I should read it. He was right. You should read it too.

Sebastian’s Voodoo
Joaquin Baldwin
As dark as the above is delightful. One voodoo doll's courage.

Gary Kelley Demo Download

Massive Black just released a 45 minute Gary Kelley pastel demo. $15.00 for instant download. Check out the preview above. I've seen Gary do a demo at the Society of Illustrators -- he's got a thousand great points to make. I'm looking forward to watching this.

Busy Me Convention Schedule

Egads. This is my convention schedule for the year. I think if I really go to all of these I'd end up hating the planet. I'm not this social. But theoretically, this is where I'll be:

New York Comic Con
February 6-8, center of the world
Tor.com panel on "New Media Publishing" on Saturday at 4:00

Boskone
February 13-15, Boston, MA

Reverie: Conceptart.org/Massive Black Workshop
March 28-31, Dallas, TX

Wiscon
May 22-25, Madison, WI

Illustration Master Class
June 15-21, Amherst, MA

San Diego Comic Con
July, 22-26 San Diego, CA

World Con
August 6-10, Montreal

World Fantasy
October, San Jose, CA

NY Comic Con is this weekend, here are five ways not to introduce yourself to an art director.

I've never re-posted anything before but with NY ComicCon coming up this Friday, I thought this was worth a repeat. Here are five things that happened to me last year that didn't exactly show the artist's best foot forward.

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

Five Ways Not to Introduce Yourself to an Art Director:

1) Don't give me your postcard and then take it back to cross out your web address because "the work there isn't good."

2) Don't let me flip through half a portfolio and then stop me mid way to say "the rest is older work, you're probably not interested, and it's not good anyway."

3) Don't show me one, and only one, image on an iPhone. In fact, unless you know I am very familiar with your work, don't show me an iPhone portfolio at all.

4) "Hello, my name is.....We're MySpace friends." Followed by silence thinking I'm going to remember you off the top of my head. Hell, I can hardly remember the names of people I actually meet.

5) 35mm slides!? I didn't think you could buy slide film anymore.

Guys, you’re at ComicCon. Chances of running into an art director are, well, high. You didn't just happen to run into the ADs for every major gaming, comic, movie, and publishing companies at a neighborhood barbecue, so get your ducks in a row before making that first impression.

Saturday Animations, The Fly and the Eye and Jan Svankmajer

This week, two tales of claustrophia, both absurd, both a little funny. The Fly and the Eye is quick and light. Jan Svankmajer's Darkness-Light-Darkness is a more powerhouse. Both on: Tor.com Saturday Morning Cartoons.

And, by the way, a link to index of all the animations shown thus far.

And, and, by the way. Suggestions! You got 'em? Then send them my way. Either in the comments or at irene.gallo-at-tor.com. I still have list in my head that keeps growing but nothing better than to have that derailed by something new (new to me, if not new-new) and exciting.