Adrian Tomine

Adrian Tomine, New Yorker cover, Dec 7, 2020
Adrian Tomine, New Yorker cover, Dec 7, 2020

Originally from California, Adrian Tomine is an illustrator and cartoonist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Tomine has taken to his adopted city so well that he has become a reader favorite contributor to the New Yorker.

His New Yorker covers, as well as many of his other illustrations and drawings, have that wonderful combination of evocative artwork and wry observation that exemplify the best of the magazine’s cover art. His artwork uses a streamlined line and color fill approach, reminiscent of the European ligne claire style of comics art.

As a case in point, his cover for the new December 7, 2020 issue of the New Yorker (images above, top) pretty well catches the whimsical side of the 2020 zeitgeist.

The New Yorker has a wonderful new online feature called Cover Story in which they give you background on the creation of the current issue’s cover; here is the one for Tomine’s December 7, 2020 cover.

Tomine is the author/illustrator of a number of books of drawings and comics, many of which are published by Drawn & Quarterly, and the latest of which is The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist (Bookshop.org link).

There is a video overview of some of his titles by “panellogy 080” on YouTube.

Tomine’s website contains examples of his illustrations and information about his books and comics, as well as offering prints and original art for sale.

Unfortunately, his online gallery is of the wearisome “pop up and close, pop up and close” variety, which discourages casual browsing, and the images offered are small. You might find it helpful to augment your visit to his website with this Google image search I’ve set up for Tomine’s work on newyorker.com.

 
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How to Draw a T.rex Cartoon Dinosaur

How to Draw a T.rex Cartoon Dinosaur, how to video
As some long time readers are aware, in addition to writing Lines and Colors, I’m also a designer, painter and cartoonist.

I’ve just taken my first run at creating an instructional YouTube video in support of my book, Dinosaur Cartoons.

How to Draw a T.rex Cartoon Dinosaur is an 11 minute step-by-step tutorial in which I go through the process of drawing a cartoon in the manner most often used by professional cartoonists and illustrators — working out the drawing first with simple shapes and construction lines in pencil, creating the finished drawing over that in ink (or marker) and erasing the pencil out from under the ink as one might do with a drawing intended for reproduction.

When the book was originally released, I did a number signing sessions in Barnes & Noble stores and independent bookstores in which I taught kids how to draw cartoon dinosaurs. I’ve tried to adapt that approach here.

Though I’ve created a dinosaur cartoon drawing tutorial before as a web animation, this is the first in what I hope to be a continuing series on how-to videos, that will have their own YouTube channel.

My first video is a little rough around the edges (perhaps I went a little too “Bob Ross” in my soft spoken voice-over), but I’m just learning how to make instructional art videos. As I go on, I’ll try to report back with some of what I’m learning about that process.

I will say that the first thing I’ve learned, unsurprisingly, is that it’s a lot of work to try and do something like this right.

There are any number of art instruction videos on YouTube with poor production values, low quality sound and little or no evidence of editing.

I’ve tried to take my cue from artists who are producing their own art videos, but putting in the effort and attention necessary to bring them up as closely as possible to a professional level (a prime case in point being James Gurney, whose self-produced videos are wonderfully done).

As I go on, I’ll announce new videos in the series in the Lines and Colors sidebar, and when I have enough information about the process of creating DIY art instruction videos, I’ll try to collect that in another post.

 
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Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld
Tom Gauld is a Scottish cartoonist and illustrator whose deceptively simple style is simply delightful and simply perfect accompaniment to his wry sense of humor.

Gauld is a regular contributor to the (most excellent) British newspaper The Guardian, where his “cultural cartoons” are often literary in subject matter, and New Scientist, where they are obviously science themes, as well as The New York Times.

Gauld’s quirky turns on subjects both historic and contemporary (often mixed) can give you a delightful simultaneous brain tweak and laugh.

His website portfolio is not extensive, you can find more on the Guardian site or on his Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter feeds.

The image above, bottom, is part of this amusement on The Laurence Sterne Trust, in which you can assemble sections of it multiple ways.

Gauld is the author/illustrator of a number of books, including: You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack (cartoons), Goliath (graphic novel) and Mooncop (graphic novel).

His latest book of cartoons is Baking With Kafka.

Those in LA, can see Tom Gauld interviewed by Mark Frauenfelder tonight, November 6, 2017 at Skylight Books in Silver Lake at 7:30 pm.

 
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Inktober

Inktober 2017, Jake Parker, Moemai, Max Dunbar, Meredith Dillman, Abbe Branberg, Camille Marie, Chordephra, Loish, Alyssa Tallent, Jason Chan, Mack Chater, Sweeny Boo, Yuko Shimizu, Paul Heaston, Nick Nikopoulos, Stoaty Weasel, Ian McQue, Ira Sluyterman van Langeweyde
Inktober started as a challenge illustrator and cartoonist Jake Parker set himself in October of 2009, to draw 31 ink drawings in 31 days.

The goal, as in any exercise of this sort, was to get better end develop a more consistent working practice.

He repeated the idea the next year, promoting the notion that others should join him, and since then it has grown into a worldwide endeavor.

If you search on Twitter, Instagram or other social media platforms for #inktober, or #inktober2017, you’ll find the stream of those currently participating.

There is a lot of variation in style and level of ability, from novice to professional, and that’s part of what makes it such a great practice. There is no barrier to entry.

It’s not a contest, there are no real requirements or central authority deciding who can participate.

The rules, such as there are, are simple: do an ink drawing and post it online with the hashtags #inktober and #inktober2017 — repeat every day in October.

Even though this is the fifth day, it’s not too late to join in, I see lots of posts that say “late to the party” or “just joining in”. If you want to, you can throw in a few extra drawings along the way to come up with 31 by the end of the month.

You don’t have to use a dip pen or anything fancy; anything that makes marks in ink counts: ballpoint pens, markers, brush pens, whatever. The drawings don’t have to be elaborate or finished, and you can add color or not as you choose.

If you need suggestions for subject matter, there is an official prompt of 31 subjects on the Inktober website.

You don’t have to follow it, though. Lots of people make their own prompt list, or choose to do a single subject (e.g. cats, cars, portraits or monsters….), or just do whatever comes to you.

You can look through the social media feeds to see what others are doing, or simply for the enjoyment of it.

You will encounter a lot of work by beginners, and this is a Good Thing; part of the value of the practice is encouraging folks to get started. If you’re looking through with the thought of finding professional work, you might do better to seek the more curated experience of following Jake Parker’s Twitter feed, or the @inktober feed.

The images above are just some examples (mostly by professionals) that caught my eye. I particularly enjoy those images in which the artist has included their drawing tools in the photo with the drawing.

(Images above [some of these names are just Twitter handles]: Jake Parker, Moemai, Max Dunbar, Meredith Dillman, Abbe Branberg, Camille Marie, Chordephra, Loish, Alyssa Tallent, Jason Chan, Mack Chater, Sweeny Boo, Yuko Shimizu, Paul Heaston, Nick Nikopoulos, Stoaty Weasel, Ian McQue, Ira Sluyterman van Langeweyde)

 
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Leo (L.J.) Jordaan

Leo (L.J.) Jordaan, anti-fascist art, andi-nazi art
Leo (L.J.) Jordaan was a Dutch anti-fascist artist and political cartoonist who was living and woking in Amsterdm at the time of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in 1940.

Prior to the invasion, Jordaan has been working for the magazine Green. The Nazi occupiers shut down the magazine, along with most of what could be called a free press — always an enemy to fascists — and Jordaan took his work to underground publications.

Jordaan had a powerful graphic style, emphasized by his use of both dark and light hatching. He showed the Nazis a bringers of death, terror and pestilence to his beloved Netherlands, and was particularly harsh on Dutch fascist sympathizers, who he portrayed as shooting loyal Dutch in the back.

His most famous image was “De Robot” (images above, third from the bottom), which portrayed the Nazi war machine as an unstoppable robot trampling Dutch soldiers beneath its metal boots. It was published in the underground newspaper De Groene Amsterdamme (“The Green Amsterdamer”) during the occupation.

His portrayal of Hitler as a brooding Lucifer (above, second from bottom) seems to give a nod to Gustave Doré’s image of the Ninth Circle of Hell. The image of Christ in thorns above him refers to an image I’ve seen before, but I don’t actually know its origin. It may be a Gothic or early Renaissance icon.

In the image above, bottom, we find Jordaan mocking the Nazis’ attempt to appropriate Dutch culture — and Rembrandt in particular — as part of “Aryan Heritage”.

Jordaan survived the occupation, and after the war became a noted film critic.

The best source for images of Jordaan’s work is the Illustration Art blog, which has comments under some of the images that put them in context. Also good is this post on Dr. Tenge whhich features large images.

 
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Jack Davis, 1924-2016

Jack Davis, cartoonist, caricaturist, comics artist illustrator
Cartoonist, caricaturist, comics artist and illustrator illustrator Jack Davis had a pen that connected directly to the funny bone.

Noted for his horror comics work for EC Comics and Warren magazines, his movie posters, TV Guide covers, celebrity caricatures and, in particular, his loopy, wild, frenetic, over-the-top and uncannily hilarious comics and covers for Cracked and MAD Magazine, Davis influenced cartoonists and comics artists across the board.

Davis often left his readers in simultaneous paroxysms of laughter and wide-eyed admiration for his drawing skills, producing contorted reading positions that looked like.. well, like jack Davis illustrations.

Jack Davis died on July 27, 2016 at the age of 92.

The links below are mostly to recent obits and articles. For more links to image resources, see my previous post on Jack Davis.

 
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