Friday, October 31, 2008

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!



We love halloween! Its been a little preoccupying this past week. Here's an invite I put together for the party tonight. Yes it is screen printed and yes that is silver ink. Its actually, silver, pink, and black on black French paper. I hope everyone enjoys my favorite holiday!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Second


I'm not quite sure whether this one is about intimacy, uncertainty, or just about how much I love hair.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Giclee VS. Printmaking

Kelly Alder directed me to this post recently on the Fantagraphics Blog. It was written by Jacob Covey who has been organizing an all hand-made print show with art and related art from the book BEASTS!, which is a gorgeous book that Rawn and Meg Gandy shared with me earlier this past year.

The issue is that Mr. Covey has excluded digital prints including giclee prints from this show in favor of hand-made print such as letterpress, etchings, lithographs, and of course one of our favorites: screen prints. He makes a great point about the value of a digital print vs. any hand made print. Read his post to get his full opinion, but in my crass paraphrasing he is making the case that because digital prints can be so reliably executed at a moments notice, with very little human interaction they are worth little more than the paper and ink involved. That may seem harsh especially if you happen to be a digital artist and a giclee may be your only physical manifestation of your work, but I think Mr. Covey is really only referring to digital reproductions and the hollow posturing of the 'limited edition' print run of a digital print who's printing and reprinting is really not limited in any way.

Here's my take: A limited print run is supposed to reflect how the execution of a single handmade run will yield a finite number of prints that share the same preparations. For example, if it is screen printing, they will share the same batch of hand mixed inks, the same transparency preparations and screen exposures, as well as a similar state of environment they are printed under, possibly including the weather that day and the artist's mood, or how much their carpel tunnel was acting up (just ask Rawn or Meg about that one). On the flip side, a digital print could be printed on two different printers, on two different parts of the globe with the simple push of a button and reliably yield indistinguishable results.

The point is although a digital print can be a work of art and certainly there are variables to be creatively manipulated and unique ways of expression to be achieved, a digital reproduction is a rather effortless reflection of the original that does not hold any artistic value of its own. A handmade print, requiring the human hand and human consideration all throughout the process does yield its own original works of art, each one its own unique piece affected by the artist.

Jan Van Eyck's Cat's

This past weekend I was a groomsman in the wedding of my very good friends, Neal Iwan and Kristen Lowery. It was a ton of fun, I went golfing for the first time, and drank too much Maker's Mark at the reception. But the greatest part of all was making the bride cry for 30 minutes. No, I didn't ream her out for trying to steal my friend from me, and no I did not object to their union by feigning a seizure in the middle of the aisle. What I did do was give them a really good wedding present.

Neal and Kristen have two cats, Charlie and Kitten, who they both adore, so I decided to redo Jan Van Eyck's famous "The Arnolfini Marriage" with their cat's heads switched with the people's in the painting and Neal's with the dog's. Unbeknown to me that painting happened to be Kristen's all time favorite, so when she opened it, my altered version moved her quite a bit.

Apparently, Kitten didn't like it as much they did. Neal reported when they got home, he sat the framed illo on their kitchen counter, and Kitten jumped on it thus knocking it onto the floor, breaking the frame. Oh well... So here's the piece:

BARF COMICS # 1


Jim has finally put his mega awesome art book up for sale online. Its a full color, 48 page collection of short comics, record covers, and all sorts of other crap, in a limited print run of 250 copies. It also features the very same cover we used for his Barf Comics six color 25 inch poster. Buy the comic HERE for like ten smackers.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Plan 9 Anniversary T-Shirt... That wasn't




I did this a year or so ago, whenever Plan 9's 25th anniversary was. It was something I did pro-bono for Jim Bland, owner of Plan 9 Music, because he's one of the nicest guy's I know and he has one of the state's coolest music stores. I don't remember if he approached me or if I approached him? I guess it doesn't really matter, but for some reason he's never really made clear, he decided not to use it. On occasion I'll ask him if he intends to use it and he'll say "yes" he does. We'll see. Maybe one day I'll get around to doing something with it myself.

The color's are reduced to just 3 because the original use was to be a t-shirt and I wanted to keep it simple and inexpensive. If I were to make a silk screen poster I now know that I could add another 3 or 4 colors, could be fun, we'll see.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Frans Boukas!

Frans we met at Small Press Expo a few years ago. We met back up with him at the comic con in New York this past spring. Turns out he had been drawing like a maniac the whole time. On his blog you can check out Pumpkin Man, the Goon, Bogged Down At Bush Street story, some posters and hats and tons more. Of, course we had to beg him to do a silk screened poster with us, which hopefully will be previewing here soon, and I've overheard him and Matt Deans plotting some insanely large mash up poster project. Here's a taste:




Friday, October 17, 2008

People Have been Busy.

It seems that a few of the Team Eight regulars have eeked out enough downtime to toss some of their fevered drawlings up on their respective flickr pages. They missed that deadline to post them and they also skipped lunch, so you better appreciate it.

Matt Deans:



Matt has been working hard at his full time day job while also trying to keep his ink brush wet and the stream of gooey illustrations flowing. Oh yeah, and he's in this band that plays shows and practices two to three times a week. No time for whining.


And Mr. Callahan:




Jim likes puppy dogs and pizza and long rides on his skateboard at dusk. SDWP - ISO - GSOH

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Richmond Zine Fest

Whew, third in row of summer/fall shows! Luckily, this one was in our home town of Richmond, VA and just down the street from T8 headquarters. Held at the GRRC, the Richmond Zine fest was a lot more laid back than the previous shows this month. We were actually able to have a conversation with just about everyone who came up to the table, so we met a lot of new friends most of which were from out of town. There were also a lot of great panels, including a great one on mini comics with comics creator Rob Ullman, publisher Sparkplug comics, and a representative from Team Eight who I think learned more than he provided.

Friday, October 10, 2008

New Review


I wrote a review for the new graphic novel sensation, 'The Alcoholic."  Check it out:
http://www.brickweekly.com/index.php/booksprint/article/comics_the_alcoholic/702

Thursday, October 9, 2008

OMG Posters!

Just found this blog chock full of sweet sweet silk screened art and other stuff. Check it out:

http://omgposters.com/

..

ROB ULLMAN PRINTS!


Rob was able to finish this one up just in time for SPX. We nailed the printing all in one day, with perhaps the tightest registration of any poster we've yet done. Here's what Rob had to say about the print and the process:

"The setting is based on my local coffee shop (called Stir Crazy, 'natch), which is just around the corner from my house and sorta doubles as my office...before our daughter was born, it was a daily stop...and often still is. I've been wanting to do this project for a long time, and the rush I got finally seeing it in print and finished was fantastic, indeed.

"The printing itself was a true collaborative effort, the lion's share of the process ably handled by the talented Spencer Hansen of Team 8 Press (you can peep more of their spectacular work on their blog). Spencer's contributed to several screenprinted jobs I've done in the past, and he always does a swell job. However, this was the first time I'd been on-site for the process, actually pulling a good amount of two colors myself, and it was a lot of fun."

You can find Rob's print for sale here team8press.com/stircrazy or here rkullman.blogspot.com, along with more of Rob's work.



Tuesday, October 7, 2008

SKULLS

SKULLS, the book based on my Skull-A-Day project is officially in US stores today!



Look for it at your local independent book store. You can also find it online at all the usual places like: Amazon.com, Powells, and Barnes & Noble.

Back From SPX

Alright! We're back from the Small Press Expo. Thanks to everyone who came out and good luck to those of you who took the risk in these financially perilous times and purchased one of our fine works. First off here's a pic of some of the rascals manning our table. Check out those hats! ( thanks Frans)


Peeps peruse our products


And the floor was packed


As usual we stumbled across some stuff we hadn't seen before and we liked it. Here's some:

Robert Goodin. I love this guy's cartooning and his simple brushy line. His humour is also very subtle and random and hilarious. He's got more comics on his blog.


POHADKY by Marek Colek and Pat Shewchuck. Wow. This book is full of gorgeously rendered and colored images that I think cover Grimm fairy tales. Very beautiful stuff. These two have an animation studio as well.


And this last one isn't a comic or Illustrator, but we found her book and it was wild. Shary Boyle is a scultpor among other things and her book Otherworld Uprising shows her porcelain figures that she fashioned using traditional techniques. Unsettling and amazing.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

SPX!




Come Check out the Lovely people of TEAM 8 Press, Odd God Press and Pop Idiot at the last day of the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. Yesterday was an awesome event with so many really cool artists and individuals to get to meet and talk to. I found my fare share of really cool mini comics mostly detailing my love for birdies and Boobies!! It really is worth taking the time to come and support your local small press and have a great experience.

Now GO!

Maria Carra Rose
Face Metal Design

Friday, October 3, 2008

New Stuff

Here are some new illos that I've completed. The first one was for an article in Plenty Magazine about the politics of salmon. It dealt with how politicians block legislation to help save salmon populations and put in measures that might destroy their habitats. I had a great time with the content (of course) this illo, but drawing the the environment around the figures and handling of the color was a lot of fun to play with too.

The second drawing is just another portrait that was intended was promo mailing. It's of Vladamir Putin.





Paper Parade at SPX!!



Come check out Team 8 Press at Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD! They will be there this weekend and in full swing. I have been busy working with Spencer and some of the other members on my hot new paper pendants made from test print samples from several artists work. These one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces will be available this weekend at SPX at Team 8's table. Come and spend the day with many of the east coasts premier print artists. Thanks!

Maria Carra Rose
Face Metal Design

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Mariya Pantyukhina - Richmond City Sketches



Mariyah recently posted these and many other sketches on her blog, mariawithstories.blogspot.com. They are gorgeous and I had to bring them to everyone's attention. She is a great example of why we should all be sketching as frequently as possible, which for many of us is probably more than we are now.