Student Spotlight: Jonah Newman

 

One of my GOAT students, Jonah Newman, has a graphic novel about to hit bookstores. It’s a beautifully illustrated and emotionally moving story of mastering baseball and coming out in high school. It’s already notching rave reviews.

When Jonah took my figure drawing for cartoonists class at SVA, he had already completed a graphic novel set in Napoleonic Europe. So I can’t pretend to have taught him much of what he knows. But I was able to coach him on figures holding baseball bats and twisting as they swing ‘n stuff like that. I’ll pat myself on the back for that one piece of it. Below are some of Jonah's other assignments:

character turnarounds and sample poses

cafe and subway observational sketching

drawing from life models

Check out Out of Left Field, coming from Andrews McMeel Kids imprint in March and join Jonah for the Launch event at Bluestockings, 116 Suffolk St., New York, NY. March 26 @ 7:30 pm ET. 

Meanwhile, my spring classes start soon. Let me help you draw figures in action and put them in comics.

Summer Classes are Enrolling Now!

 

This summer, study Short Form Comics, Thinking in Ink, Figure Drawing for Cartoonists Online and Live in Manhattan, Cartooning Basics Online and Live.   And there’ll be another free Daredoodling event on May 12.

Pandemic or no, online courses are a rare opportunity for artists all over the world to learn from SVA instructors. The School of Visual Arts has been ground-zero for cartooning instruction since its founding in the 1940s. I’ve taught hundreds of New Yorkers and visitors over the years, but now I can help you, too, wherever you are.

That said, it will be nice to be back in the classroom for Figure Drawing and Cartooning Basics. The live experience offers more one-on-one instruction opportunities and in the Figure class, we have live models every second week.

Let’s make comics!

Thinking In Ink!

Come see me this Monday at the SVA Illustration & Cartooning information session and learn about my newest course, Thinking In Ink.

This course builds on techniques and topics from my previous inking comics course. It'll be edifying for beginners and returning students alike.

We'll look at bunches of bravura and master cartooning examples to get a sense of the effects that are possible and what the effects are useful for.

I'll offer a menu of unusual challenges including coloring book pages and stencil cutting.

We'll explore unusual tools and methods, building on traditional approaches to go beyond them. 

Thinking In Ink meets on Tuesdays, 6:30-9:30 pm at the School of Visual Arts, beginning January 28. Also enrolling are my Wednesday course, Figure Drawing for Cartoonists, and on Thursdays, Cartooning Basics. Come talk to me this Monday, or shoot me an email with your questions.

Cartooning Camps for Kids

I'm teaching a couple of cartooning camps for kids this summer.

The first is a weeklong "mini camp" for grades 3-8 at Hootenanny Art House, afternoons in late July.

The second is a two week camp for grades 3-5 in the mornings at Parsons, early August.

Tell your kids and your friends and your friends' kids.

Thank you.

Making MiniComics!

I'm conducting a cartooning workshop for middle schoolers on Saturday afternoons in Park Slope, Making MiniComics.

We have lots of fun jamming, brainstorming, experimenting, and self-publishing. This one really is a joy to teach.

The new session starts tomorrow (short notice, sorry) but I believe they'll prorate students who join later. That said, space is limited, so you should act fast, I reckon.

2500 Doodles!

http://yourdailydoodle.tumblr.com/archive

The Unica Factor

Well friends, are you looking for an oddball obligatory gift to easily send someone this holiday?

https://society6.com/cartooniologist

If you order something from my shop at Society 6, I can virtually guarantee it will be the only one of its kind in existence. They don't make these things unless somebody orders one, and who would do that? So that's an angle? Right?

So you could get somebody this phone case or this pattern of monsters printed on a shirt or backpack or, I dunno, pillow,...

There's coffee mugs & travel mugs, and stuff like that.

Hell, I could take requests if there's some image from one of my websites you'd like printed on some object they offer. Message me.

https://society6.com/cartooniologist

Place an order on my birthday: Sunday Nov. 25th, or the following Cyber Monday, the 26th, using their code CMSHIP, and get deep discounts: 50% to 30% off, depending on the item, and free shipping on most stuff.

And have a happy holiday!

Praise for Cartozia Tales

Here's a recent, substantial review of Cartozia Tales from Rob Clough's blog, High-Low.

Rob praises the series for its "ambition, playfulness, formal daring and fun"  and goes on to say, "that level of sincerity, effort and creativity is a remarkable tonic to the level of cynical, money-making tropes that I see in so much YA fiction."

He names me the creative team's secret weapon, for my "relentless commitment to formal experimentation" and "proclivity for whimsy and wordplay" (though he still doesn't like my scratchy ink work).

It's been a great run, but we're winding it down now.

We're working away at our climactic final issue (honest!), but we need more subscribers to get over the finish line. Please join us and tell your friends, too. They make great gifts for literate kids, y'know.

MoCCA Sketches

Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman urge you to submit to the second volume of their political anthology, Resist!

 I managed to do some sketches at this year's MoCCA Fest and include them in a blogpost I wrote for the School of Visual Arts' Continuing Education blog.

Speaking of, my summer CE courses begin in June and are enrolling right now: Inking Comics is on Tuesdays this summer, Figure Drawing for Cartoonists is on Wednesdays, and Cartooning Basics, Thursdays. I'll be at the info session May 18th. Come join the fun!

The panel, Teaching Comics Internationally with Ben Katchor, Jessica Abel,  Merav Soloman, and Bill Kartalopolous.

MoCCA Guest of Honor, Blutch, also spoke at the New York Comics and Picture Story Symposium.

What are your plans for Inktober?

A drawing I made during a demo on inking basics on the first day of my Cartooning Basics course. I always cover ink right away, so the students will appreciate what their penciling decisions are for.

#Inktober is a hashtag that's been running for a couple of years now on social media. Artists interested in mastering ink technique use the occasion to push themselves to create and post one ink drawing per day for one month. In my case it means adding a hashtag to the ink drawings I post twice a day all year, but whatever.

It's striking that despite continuing advances in digital media, ink drawing thus far remains the primary medium for cartoonists. Even those making comics on tablets need to understand brush and ink, as it's the look their cursors are designed to mimic.

This year, there appears another hashtag challenge for October, #Drawlloween2016:

I think I'll give this a shot, using ink, of course. Please follow my Tumblr and see how I'm doing.

Continuing my roundup of recent student work, I'm quite sure these gentleman will fill their Octobers with exciting panels and pages:

Geoffrey Class sent his two page final from Inking Comics. Nice, eh?

Self taught neurosurgeon, Justin Peele sends the first three pages of a new story in color,  "JoJo and Lars Get Yeezys." Follow the link to see more of his timely, hilarious ink work

 

The biggest reason to learn cartooning is that it provides a way to get your funny (or otherwise) ideas  down on paper. Peter Yuschak routinely sends spontaneous gag cartoons to his network of friends.

Joe Wessely works constantly at making comics and filling his sketchbook. He also cohosts the Comics for Grownups podcast, with Josh Malbin and Alex Rothman.

I cover inking in all 3 of my cartooning courses at SVA. They start this week, making this the last chance to enroll for fall. Embrace the challenge.

Here are views of the final critique in the Figure Drawing for Cartoonists course last summer. A lot of nice inking, am I right?

Aline the Alien collection for SPX

I remade this page for the new collection. I think it works much better than the first version. 

I'll be at SPX this weekend, at the Cartozia Tales table, L1-2A, and I'm bringing a small number of copies of this new collection of Aline the Alien Miscadventures. Catch 'em before they're gone.

Cartozia Tales #8: The Voyage of the Verbeekens

The following story is a recipient of a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators in this year's Short Form Comics category. It's an homage to the Upside Downs of Gustave Verbeek from 1903-1905. You read the four pages to the end, then flip the comic over and read back to the beginning. I present it here upside down and downside up, halved for web display:

Many thanks to the Society and the jury for choosing to honor my work, and to Cartozia Tales editor, Isaac Cates for daring me to try it! There will be an awards ceremony on June 17 and original pages will be on display from July 19 to August 20.

Addendum, Sept. 2016, here are the photos I snapped of the pages on the wall:

Curious how these cartooning tricks are done? I'd love to show you all the secrets! My summer courses are enrolling right now at SVA.