Toronto Comic Jam

A couple of weeks ago, the S.O. and I visited our friends Marlo and Nick in the frozen North (Ontario, Canada). Okay, it wasn't frozen, we enjoyed some absolutely lovely late-summer weather. One of the fun things we did was go to a comic jam in the heart of Toronto, with other artists, some familiar and some not:

We commandeered some tables in a funky coffee shop and each person would draw the first panel in a comic, then pass it to someone else. And so on and so on, and so on...

This is one of the few non-racy ones...but it's still gross!  The second panel's mine. If you want to see more, click here: Toronto Comic Jam (warning: off-color but hilarious!) a Tumblr blog started by Seo Kim to show the best of them, colorized. The night we were there we probably drew 25 or more! 

Here's an online article about TCJ.

Carny Land.

This is our (Celestia Ward's and Emily Anthony's) 

comic magnum opus:

( click to enlarge)

Enjoy! We really crammed this one full.

It was published in the most recent edition of our ISCA trade magazine, Exaggerated Features.

Just for kicks, here is the actual Candy Land board game...

And here is a 2010 photo of Celestia, Vlad, myself,  my fiance John (who starred in last year's comic), and Paul at the fair:

We don't know how we can top this one...

Our 2nd full page comic strip, about being girl caricaturists at the State Fair of Texas...

... has been published in the ISCA quarterly, Exaggerated Features:



My comrade in caricature crime, Celestia Ward and I again cyber-worked on it from Vegas and Philly, respectively. It's actually our third collaborative comic effort, but the second was just a half page aside that didn't focus on our time in the Lone Star State. It was totally done in Photoshop using my Wacom Intuos and her Cintiq, which allowed for us to cram lots of details in, sometimes to the detriment of font size!

If you'd like to see the photos depicting some of the events and flavors shown in the comic, click here and here.
Here is the first year's version, fun to see how far we've grown in our craft!

It occurred to me that I have nerve calling myself a 'girl' in the title when I'm somebody's grandma now!! :-)

Sneak peek...

...at the next "Celestia and Emily: Girl Caricaturists in Texas" comic, which will be published in the upcoming issue of Exaggerated Features (the quarterly magazine for members of International Society of Caricature Artists).

Once again, Celestia and I collaborated digitally, from opposite ends of the country, to come up with a look at this year's State Fair shenanigans. When it's published (quite a ways off, though) I'll post it in its entirety here. Til then, you can ponder this snippet of one of the Fair's delicacies...

Sneak peek of my next comic

The International Society of Caricature Artists, of which I am a long-time member, publishes a quarterly newsletter in a full-color magazine format. My friend and fellow caricaturist, Celestia Ward, and I have finished and turned in our 2nd comic strip in an occasional series, "Girl Caricaturists." It's so hard to wait from that point until publication! And it's so neat to hold the finished product in our hands once it reaches our mailboxes. The first installment met with some high approval from our audience of peers...which motivated us to keep at it. Here's a tiny sliver from one of my panels. Once it's published, I will put the whole thing here on my blog.

Celestia is in Las Vegas, and of course I am here in the Philadelphia suburbs,so we collaborate over the internet and telephone late at night! Her method of choice is her Cintiq-- a computer screen you actualy draw on like paper. I use a Wacom Intuos, a small drawing tablet connected to my laptop. The big difference is that I look at my screen, not my hand while drawing, and Celestia can look at both (more like traditional drawing.)

Lar DeSouza--"Lartist" extraordinaire

This man is an inspiration in so many ways! His name is Lar DeSouza, and the photo above was taken at one of the many caricaturist conventions we've both attended (this particular one was the Midwest Caricature Convention, Bowling Green, Ohio, early 2007---so it's from my pre-blog life). He drew me in the style of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and it's one of my favorite drawings I've ever gotten. The drawing of him was one of my efforts at the big NCN convention later that year.

Lar is known for being warm, friendly and helpful; creative, hilarious and a snappy dresser; a big sci-fi fan and one of most versatile artists I've ever known. He is currently the artist behind two popular webcomics: Least I Could Do and Looking for Group. Both have huge online followings. Last Friday night, he made himself and his drawing skills accessible to the whole Internet by broadcasting live from his studio on a site called Ustream! What made it even more amazing was that he responded to comments and questions posed to him by dozens of people in a chatroom that ran alongside his live screenshot. Although it slowed down his working process alot, it was fun and enlightening to watch(and listen)to how he approached doing a comic.

Speaking of comics, I have to say that his accomplishments in that realm were a definite inspiration to Celestia and I with our Girl Caricaturists in Texas comic that was just published in our trade magazine. Here's what Lar had to say about it:
Hey ladeez!
I just got my EF today and had to write to tell you how much I enjoyed your comic adventure! :)) I hope this means I can look forward to future installments of the Girl Caricaturists. The look on Em's face as she was drawing the two rival Texans is priceless! But I think my fave is those carnies hitting on you two :)) Yew gots all yer teeth? What a pick up line!
Is it true what happens at the State Fair stays at the State Fair? Should John and Rob be worried? Hee hee hee
Congrats on a comic very very well done! :)
Much love,
Lar ;)

Finally, if you've noticed the Twitter widget I have just added to this blog, it's how you can find out when the next online-Lartist-session will be, or on the LICD homepage. I also decided to try Twitter for myself because the marketing universe is exploding on the Internet. Thanks, Lar, for everything and also to Paul McCall for spreading the word!

My first Caricature Comic!

Click to see a larger version.

Now that it's been published in Exaggerated Features-The Caricaturist's Quarterly and is arriving in NCN members' mailboxes world-wide, I can post my first comic work! Done jointly with fellow artist and friend Celestia Ward, it depicts some of the funnier moments during our stint at the State Fair of Texas last fall.
We had a blast creating it in Photoshop from opposite ends of the country via the Internet (she lives in Sin City--Las Vegas). We brainstormed what each panel would be, and divvied them between us. She took on the actual writing in her usual wry voice. Then, I used my Wacom Intuos drawing tablet and she used her Cintiq to create all the images. So far, several of my artist colleagues have been correct about who drew what panel :-)
We plan to do more in some format, because this was fun!

For more about Celestia, visit www.2headsstudios.com