Webtales

Picking up Mike and Kiwi where I left them- getting ready to toss them into more trouble.

This has been a great month for me to get to know a lot of people in the local cartoonist  scene. I’m pretty impressed with their talent.  The online hangout is

http://cartoonistconspiracysf.wordpress.com/

The past two meetings have been collaborative exercises. The most recent one can be seen here:

http://issuu.com/cartoonistconspiracysf/docs/timecop_ccsf_1-28-10

The basic idea is each person starts with a single panel and then passes it to their right to the next artist. Then, with two panels to go, the next artist to the right begins the process of reconciling the pages to each other. The last artist has the transition panel from one page to the next.

It is a fun exercise but it makes for a pretty rugged narrative. Still, the random nature of it has its charm.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. The production of this panel has been an interesting experience. After taking great care with the “high art” value of the background, I then drop some really wacky stuff into the mix. I remember a character from a play named Jacques Roux. My friends and I used to refer to him as Jack Rocks.  This is proof that no piece of goofiness goes unused. Can it be used at any time? To quote Roger Rabbit- “No! Only when it’s FUNNY!!”

The latest 3D stuff has been kicking my butt recently.

It seems like the more I know, the more complex and challenging the 3D becomes. This latest piece is part of a series of urban portraits of the Valencia Corridor, the spiritual home of “Not Quite Here.”

The portraits themselves are quite lovely. In addition to art prints, they will all be used as backgrounds in the second volume of the series.

Just putting the finishing touches on this one.

Now that the show is over, back to the business at hand. As part of the “In-3D” exhibit, I showed several new pieces from chapter two of  “Not Quite Here.”  I like to think the work has grown as this project marches on. I’ve learned quite a bit in the last year and it is taking me to more dangerous places than before. The richness of 3D as a storytelling medium is still unfolding before me.

NOT QUITE HERE: V2- “Old Business”

More pages in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

The first question people ask me most of the time is:

“How did you do that?”

The actual mechanical process for creating anaglyph images is pretty straightforward. The art lies with the writing, the layer composition, the images used. To satisfy the curiosity of those who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I will be holding a “how-to” workshop at Mission Comic and Arts on December 12 at 2PM. Participants  should bring their own laptop computers and image processing program like Photoshop or The Gimp. The workshop will run from 2-5PM.

“In 3D” got some local coverage. Pretty exciting!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/18/NSGF1AJITK.DTL

Thanks to all those who came out for opening night ! Looks like folks were having a lot of fun, which after all, was the whole idea.

And now, back to work on Book Two.

When I was a kid, one summer’s evening, I was looking at the stars.  At first glance, they all looked to be the same distance away from me but I knew that was not the case. What if could see the difference, I thought- and for a moment the heavens opened and I could imagine the tremendous depth of the sky. I had the illusion that gravity was a small force and I could just as easily fall off the planet and into the sky. I panicked and literally grabbed hold of the Earth so I would not fall.

And then it was all gone; that moment when the Universe opened and I could see something truly remarkable and stunning.

3D is like that for me.

I can look at an image and after a time it will open up to me. The depth takes on a convincing reality and it is easy enough to leave this world and visit another.

There are many reasons why I’ve fallen into working with 3D. This is another one.

In many works of fiction there is a moment where the main character steps through a door, or takes a trip or finds a passageway in the back of the closet that takes them from the real world to “somewhere else.”

In 3D, YOU are the main character and you move from this world to another by means of Magic Glasses.

I love the ritual of it all. Without the glasses, there is much that is invisible. With the glasses on, there is much that is revealed.

How cool is that?