ISIDTA 7 : Christmas Tragedy

ISIDTA 7 : Christmas Tragedy
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Better late than never. Kit, if you're reading this later this week, please understand that there must be something wrong with the system clock on Blogger. This was posted WELL before 10:00 am this morning. And, um...don't bother reading that earlier post.

This really happened, and it gets brought up every Christmas (and usually other times during the year as well). I do tend to be a morose and worrisome fellow, as well as being amazingly literal.

This was laid out with photo references, then several sketches were made in my official ISIDTA Moleskine before I pencilled it on the Bristol in a blue Col-Erase. I inked on top of that with several different Tachikawa nibs (the 44, the 357, and the school pen for details like my grandparents). I used a nib holder my mom gave me for Christmas, one of the ones she used in art school (I love it so much more than these modern crap-pens.) Something else new this week: I used a ruler to make the house and the road straight, as well as a nice attempt at speed lines for the truck.

After I finished this, I realized I drew my hair wrong. My hair wasn't that long when I was four. I did have the ridiculous bangs, though.

See the full picture here.
See past ISIDTAs here.
See Kit's entry for today here. And read about the origin of the name of his strip! NOT a hoax! NOT an imaginary story! NOT a dream! This is part of Kit canon!

Gold Plumbing

Here's an amusing PSA that depicts visual representations of various slang terms. Can people help me identify them all? I think I must be missing about half of them. (I don't want to mention the ones I know here; that'd ruin the surprise of what the PSA is about.) Watch it through one time and laugh, then go back and see how many terms you can recognize.

ISIDTA (Almost)

christmas layout
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Well, Kit was late last week, so maybe it's not a complete tragedy that I'm late this week. Maybe it's my gift to Kit, to show him it was okay to be a little tardy. Yeah, that's it, it's a GIFT! Hmm...or maybe I'll just take this post down later before he can see it, and swear you all to secrecy.

So I should've had plenty of time to do this week's strip, what with Tuesday being a vacation day and all, but I blame the overindulgence in turkey, the trip to Cary to buy a cake (and the subsequent getting-lost-and-ending-up-in-Wake-Forest), the one-night-only appearance of Ethan Kaye, and a reuniting with an old internet friend. OF course, the REAL reason this week's drawing didn't get done on time is because I'm a bad planner and a great procrastinator.

So what we have here is the panel layout and photo references I'll be using for this week's strip. I've also written the script and lettered the captions, measured and pencilled the borders on the Bristol board, and hand-lettered the title. At lunch today, I plan on sketching out the figures, and after work, I'll blueline the whole thing and ink it, and have it up tonight. C'mon back.

Animals Feel The Danger

Razor Ramon HG is one of the more hilarious and entertaining Japanese stars currently going through his fifteen minutes of fame. In a country of over-the-top media stars, Razor Ramon HG is the over-the-toppest. He's a standup comedian, that plays the part of a pro wrestler, that also does tv magazine segements wandering around Japanese cities acting like a lunatic. His trademark cry is "Hooooo!!!" which he screams aloud as he gyrates his leather-clad crotch at people. Oh, and the HG stands for "Hard Gay".

I just discovered a video I hadn't seen before, "Father's Day", which cracked me up. There's a lot more of his stuff on YouTube. If you haven't seen HG's "Trip to the Yahoo Offices", you must stop by and check it out. He shows up announced at the Yahoo Japan headquarters, claiming they stole his "Hooooo!!" catchphrase. It's always hilarious to see conservative people embarrassed by the very colourful Razor Ramon HG.

Only in Japan.

Mr. M*crophone

This is hilarious. A microphone with a little plastic window that "mosaics" you, like you were on Cops or something. Only in Japan!

Ain't He Unglamourous?

The opening credits for the famously bad Marvel cartoons of 1966:

• The Mighty Thor
• The Sub-Mariner
• Captain America
• Iron Man
• The Hulk
  
• compilation of all of them

This guy has some of the Hulk cartoons for viewing. Amazing, state-of-the-art animation. (Hey, at least they used the cool Kirby art!)

Quinn Martinesque

So I stumbled across some great YouTubeness. Here we have a selection of trailers and opening sequences for 1960s and 70s British tv series, many of which are in the Quinn Martin vein. I love 'em.

• Before the X-Files, there was...Department S!
• I love the silhouette-y effects in the opening to Seaway.
• The Saint has a classic Saul Bass-type feel to it.
• I've never been a big fan of Supermarionation, but have always liked Gerry Anderson's design ideas. The end titles to Joe 90 are enticing because of their crisp colour and use of iconic props from the show.
• The Avengers always had a classy, arty beginning. Good use of still photos.
  

ISIDTA Week 6 : Thanks Joe

Thanks Joe
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

This week's I'm Sorry I'll Draw That Again sort of had to be a tribute to Joe Barbera, who passed away this week. The three big influences of my childhood were comic books, pro wrestling, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. So here we have a really weak portrait of Joe, surrounded by some of my favourite Hanna-Barbera characters.

Click here for the full-size picture
Click here to see the inks.
Click here for Kit's offering for today's ISIDTA.

UPDATE: Rogers sent me this amusing article.

PCQOTD : 12-20-06

Plebian:
"Ask the local gentry and they will say it's elementary."

Erudite 1:
"Wants a girl who's dreamy, wants a girl who's creamy."

PCQOTD : 12-19-06

Plebian:
"This is life, the one you get, so go and have a ball."

Erudite:
"I brought my pencil. Gimme something to write on, man."

PCQOTD : 12-18-06

Plebian:
"Why do we always come here? I guess we'll never know."

Erudite:
"Dance into the fire to fatal sounds of broken dreams."

Rorshach's Nightmares

I just came across a mention of Stefan G. Bucher's Daily Monster and thought I'd share it here. I love the idea of "forced motivation" and having a requirement or rules that push you towards being creative. (That's what the whole I'm Sorry, I'll Draw That Again weekly project is based on!) In The Daily Monster, Bucher drops some ink on a page and blows on it, then examines the resulting squiggles and draws a monster based on the design. The really great thing is, he videotapes the whole process and shares it with us each day. Very cool.

PCQOTD : 12-15-06

Plebian:
"Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?"

Erudite:
"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."

Corey Brown Is Funnier Than I Am

Corey Brown comes up with another one of his fun ninja cartoons. I love the little details in this one, and the final panel reminds me of early Zonker from Doonesbury.

I needs to find me a regular subject for my cartoons soon. Corey's doing exactly what I'd like to be doing, in many ways.

BONUS Guest PCQOTD : 12-14-06

>From: "H. Wade Minter"
>Sent: Dec 14, 2006 1:03 PM
>To: "Ted Hobgood"
>Subject: Pop culture quote of the day
>
>I don't know why this just popped into my head, but I thought I'd
>send it your way.
>
>Plebian: "No! No! I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-
>Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!"
>
>Erudite: "E Pluribus Unum"
>
>Can you make the connection?

Wayd Minter stumped me. Can anyone do better than me?

Super Tuxedo

Only Ray will have the slightest clue why this is included here. For everyone else, just enjoy the weirdness that is tv commercials from the 1960s.

PCQOTD : 12-14-06

Plebian:
"The way she looked was way beyond compare."

Erudite:
"'Children, behave!' That's what they say when we're together."

PCQOTD : 12-13-06

I completely forgot to post this this morning.

Plebian:
"When you were young and your heart was an open book."

Erudite:
"You put your hand on your head, put your foot in the air, then you hop around in the room in your underwear."

ISIDTA Week 5: ISIRTA

ISIDTA: Death By Lethal Inflection
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

This week involves a lot of experiments. First of all, Kit and I got together last week and each drew a header, and then had to do a comic based on what the other person came up with. After thinking about the title Kit gave me ("Death By Lethal Inflection") I was inspired to use an existing script from a sketch called "The Murder of the English Language," culled, interestingly enough, from the 1968 radio show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again from whence Kit and I got the name of our challenge.

Another experiment this week involves using very few drawings. I wanted to see what repetition looked like, and this comic was made using only four drawings resized and moved about. And finally, I tried inking with a brush pen instead of my trusted Tachikawa 44. I like the variation in line width you get with the brush, but can't control it for shit.

The full-size version of this comic can be found here.
If you'd like to listen to the original radio sketch that this was taken from, I've uploaded it as an mp3 here.
Past cartoons are here.
Kit's ISIDTA offering is here.

PS: Corey Brown is now starting to make his own webcomic! Check out his first as-yet-unnamed strip here.

Cereal Violence

I just discovered this webcomic. Very clever. Nice layouts, good art. Creepy and nostalgic. Breakfast of the Gods.

PCQOTD : 12-12-06

Plebian:
"Riddle me this, boy wonder!"

Erudite:
"Scotch was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad. "

PCQOTD : 12-11-06

After a self-imposed vacation, we're back.

Plebian:
"I wanna wake up in a city that doesn't sleep."

Erudite:
"That boy ain't right."

Ryloc

Ryan Locante has a new film up. Ryan amuses and astounds me. I wish I could be as seemingly carefree as him.

Also see his previous film here.

I wish I could see him win on Wheel Of Fortune, but I have no tv.

Another Inking/Colouring Tutorial

Here we have another inking and colouring tutorial in Photoshop, this one with a voiceover explaining his tools and methods. This one is fairly extensive, broken into ten parts.

Tutorial: How PVP Is Coloured

Here's a GREAT video of how Scott Kurtz colours his webcomic, PVP. The demonstration of how he adds shading is particularly intriguing. He's actually got another colouring video and a drawing video here, and both are well worth watching. Through his YouTube homepage, I found this fabulous demonstration of digital inking by CWGabe. I wish I knew how he got such even line variation in his Photoshopping. I want to learn how to do that.

Digital Art Tutorial: Bob MacNeil

Here's another interesting art tutorial, focusing on how Bob MacNeil goes about tackling a project on the computer. He has sketches and Photoshop captures, and has more illustrations of his process on his blog.

Jackson, I think you'll like his style. Sort of Mary Blairish.

C'est Animation Excellente

This guy has some great videos on YouTube; old animated commercials from Europe and Africa from the 1950s. My favourites so far are this fanciful tour of the Orangina factory, and this rollicking commercial for Azur Gasoline.

Another Trove Of Information

I've got a number of drawing and animation resources bookmarked, and I'm trying to include them here on The Transmutation Effect for others to enjoy and learn from. The Temple of The Seven Golden Camels is, first of all, a really cool name for a blog. However, that alone would not merit inclusion here. The contents of said blog, however, are fabulous. The masthead describes The Temple as being "everything I know about the art of storyboarding", but really, there's so much more here. I'm particularly drawn to an insightful article about using colour to distinguish figures and draw the eye to the focus of a scene. Great reading; highly recommended.

The Motherlode

This is the motherlode of animation information. The International Animated Film Society is building a webpage of information that is unparalleled. If all they had online were scans of Norman Rockwell's Famous Artists Course, well, it would still be the best web resource ever. But they have so much more. John Kricfalusi is joining up with this site to produce the $100,000 Animation Drawing Course, featuring scans of classic Preston Blair instruction books. The course is worth $100,000, but it is in fact free. And Kricfalusi will critique your work online. Jesus.

That's not all. The site also features art from classic Golden Books (I'm looking at you now, Jackson!), layouts and model sheets (some of my favourite things), classic newspaper cartoons and comics, interviews and biographies, downloadable classic cartoons (I'm getting Chiquita Banana right now), and tons more.

Run, don't walk.

How To Make Comics

Scott McCloud's books are pretty much required reading for anybody interested in comic books, whether you read them or create them. He started off with Understanding Comics, expanded his vision in Reinventing Comics, and then capped it all off with his most recent work, a fabulous treatise on how to create comics and graphic novels, Making Comics. I don't make a lot of "must have" recommendations, but I would say that if you enjoy comics, or want to make your own comics, you really should own all of these. Don't borrow them, buy them. They're worth having at hand.

This week, McCloud finally released his promised online "Chapter 5 1/2" for Making Comics, which specifically deals with webcomics and the unique needs and processes that this form deals with. Well worth a read.

Hanna-Barbera Backgrounds

John Kricfalusi is the creator of (among a zillion other things) Ren & Stimpy, and that would be more than enough to make him a cool guy. IN addition to all that, however, he has a kickass blog where he frequently spotlights how animation art is made. His scans of old art instruction manuals are truly fabulous, and should all be downloaded and studied. (There are bunches more; just look for 'em.) In yesterday's entry, John has an article by Hanna-Barbera background artist Art Lozzi, explaining how he created backgrounds for such cartoons as Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. Animation background art is one of the frequently-overlooked joys of cartoons, and having a peek behind the curtain at how these were made is a treat. This article was written by Lozzi in response to an earlier post from Kricfalusi which is also well worth reading.

Basically, everything John Kricfalusi puts on his blog is worth reading. Do it now.

Watching Hirschfeld

An amazing and inspiring, yet very simple video. The video camera watches master caricaturist Al Hirschfeld sketch and ink a Paul Newman portrait. Very interesting to see how he works and how he draws.

Check it out here.

ISIDTA: Woody Allen The Shrimp

It's Wednesday, and that means it's time for another edition of I'm Sorry, I'll Draw That Again, the cartoon challenge that drives myself and Kit FitzSimons each and every week.

First, view the cartoon here.

This week's is an odd one. I had an idea for something to do this week, but it quickly drew to something that couldn't be done on deadline. So I was stuck, and went out to dinner with a friend of mine. Telling him of my woes, he said "Do a cartoon about a sweet-and-sour shrimp trying to escape a Chinese restaurant." I said, "And what is my punchline supposed to be." He replies, "Improv one up. Okay, make the shrimp think he's Woody Allen if you can't come up with a punchline." No, I have no idea where that combination of ideas came from either, but here it is.

This time I made it black and white on purpose. I had actually planned to lay it out four panels across, but forgot to do that when I scanned it. I think the layout looks better this way anyway, what with the huge title and all. This week's experiment was to draw the strip in Col-Erase blue pencil, and I was really happy with the way it turned out. The blue pencil, as advertised, does not scan at all. Inking was done with the Tachikawa 44 and a Winsor-Newton Brush, and the panel borders were done with a ratty old bamboo pen. Another experiment this week was the lettering, which was done by dragging a low-res copy of the strip into Macromedia FreeHand, drawing the balloons there, and then copy-and-pasting them back into the original Photoshop file. This worked fabulously, and I'm very happy with the results. I used a Photoshop mask to put the balloon "behind" the pirate's hand and crop it at the panel border.

Oh, and I'm stunned at how well Pegleg Pete turned out. Stunned.

The full size version of this strip can be seen here.
Past ISIDTA entries can be found here.
Kit's ISIDTA entries are here.

Mashin' It With Grandma Flava

This is an excellent mashup of Public Enemy and Herb Alpert, with an excellent video. Grandma bakes a cake, punctuated by fly b&w graphics.

Pretty much everything the Evolution Control Committee does is great, though. I first learned of them through the amazing Rocked By Rape, and was hooked. Download their mp3s, and buy their albums. I did.