Screen-Printing Workshop with Jeff Garcia

heya folks,

Jeff Garcia recently brought this to my attention:

I run a really fun, beginner to intermediate
screen-printing class for illustrators.

Check if out!
http://mangoepeeler.com/classes

The classes are held at my studio:
Contemporary Textile Studio Co-op
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 109, Toronto, Ontario

Mighty Inspiration: Link List

We all know about Drawn.ca but talking to some people students around school I've found that a lot of students illustration sites knowledge ends there.

So, my plan is to try and build a bigger illustration link list for those out there. A mix of sites that feature illustrators as well as illustrations, design/designers, and just good sites for those in the illustration field. Here's the catch: I don't want to just list out a huge list and have everyone copy it without anyone adding to it; the whole point of the mighty wall is to build a community and grow together. So, I will post 5 sites I know then leave the comments open for anyone to post up any sites they know. If we can get a decent list going I will keep on posting up more of my own links and together we can all build up a great list of sites to look at.

http://www.illustrophile.com/: almost daily features on illustrators. It's worth noting that illustrophile seems to love Sheridan illustrators and as of posting this 2 of the newest 3 posts are about Sheridan grads.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/ UK based blog that talks about various inspiring things in Europe right now. I find sites like this invaluable as their crappy commercials they've seen a million times are completely new to us.

http://thedailycrosshatch.com/: Comics news blog that focuses more on indie comics/comic creators and what is happening in the current indie comic industry.

http://art.blogging.la/ LA based blog with some reviews and previews about galleries and shows in the LA area. It's interesting to see what's happening on the west coast. And a good source of ideas for east coast shows.

http://linesandcolors.com/: It's basically the same idea as Drawn.ca but different articles and features. If you like Drawn then this is a good complementary site.

Ok, now it's your turn.

Mighty Inspiration: Design Inspiration

Design Inspiration is a really nice blog/site with a bunch of interviews of many popular designers and illustrators/artists. The questions in the interviews are actually really good questions like "What do you do to keep yourself motivated and avoid burn-out?" and "What makes a designed piece or illustration successful?" instead of some of the more quirky interview sites that ask things like "what is your favourite potato chip flavour?". The site hasn't been updated in a couple months but if you haven't checked out the site before it's certainly worth the read.

well, it looks like Design interviews is down. So if you didn't check out the site you might have lost your chance. To make up for the short lived post here is another good blog/site to look up. It's more design based then illustration, but it does have both illustrators and designers.

Bepo and Mimi have another show coming up! This one is called The First Sign of Spring. March 7-9 at the Gladstone Hotel (Toronto) with the opening being 7-10 on the Friday. Lots of Sheridan grads and teachers are in the show and looking at the teaser art work it looks like some really good stuff.

for more info check out:
http://www.bepoandmimi.com/shows.html

Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen st W
(it's right near a subway stop and easy to drive to)

Illustration Movie Nights! More and more!

This Friday at 6pm we have Raging Bull (in B124, just beside Tim Hortens). If you haven't seen it, and you enjoy anything that DeNiro has ever done then this is something you should see. Julia has also hooked me up with a list of tentative movies in no particular order:
*Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
*Ridley Scott's Blade Runner or Alien (haven't decided yet...)
*In the Realms of the Unreal - A documentary on Henry Darger, visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.
*Helvetica - A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture.
*All About Eve - a fantastic Bette Davis film
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard

This looks like a pretty solid list of movies covering pretty much every movie taste out there. And if nothing else you should check out Helvetica, I've heard so much positive reviews on the movie that I wouldn't pass it up.

Getting back on track

Sorry for taking a while to post things. I have been hit by cold after cold.
Anyways, things should pick up here again. There are a couple interesting things coming down that should be cool.

Freelance advice from a Freelance artist

This might be a bit old school for some of you as this was posted on a bunch of sites a few months ago. But I recently was going through some of my bookmarks and reread the article and I believe the information is extremely valuable.

Dave Roman is an amazingly talented artist who's work has appeared in such books as Flight, Agnes Quill, and Nickelodeon Magazine. Dave is also the associate editor, comics associate, and a writer for Nickelodeon Magazine. So in short, he has had more then a bit of experience in the illustration work and he knows his stuff.

The article itself is quite long and detailed but every word in the article is pure gold. Dave covers everything from portfolios to how to work with an art director, from media recommendations to how to advertise yourself online, and everything in between. And unlike many books out there which are years old, technophobic, or written from "old man" perspective/about the industry years ago, but Dave's article is about as current and relevant as possible.

So if you have a moment of free time then go and read the article. If you're busy at the moment then bookmark it and go back to it once you are free.

http://www.yaytime.com/guide_freelance.html

Free Friday Movies

Julia Breckenreid has started up Free Movie Fridays open to all illustration students. Each Friday the goal will be to show a classic or highly influential movie in B124 (up on the big screen, just like a theater).

Last week was ever classic Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. This week is to be determined but once Julia gets me the list of what's playing this/later weeks I will post it up here.