Nate's First Comic

While I was out, my four-year-old son made his first comic book. He made four pages of story and then ran around the house looking for tape to put it together. He even used speech balloons to show who was talking. He told me what was going on in the story, so I'll narrate the comic with his words.

1. Mary Jane is falling off a building. Spider-man is catching her with his webs.
2. Now Peter Parker is saying words to Mary Jane.
3. Mary Jane is falling off a building again. Spider-man says, "I saved you!" The "Green Glob-lin" is flying in the sky on his glider.

4. Now the Green Glob-lin is in jail. Peter Parker is there with Mary Jane.

Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Here is a photo of my latest artwork in progress. You can see that I sometimes begin by collecting images from various sources and assembling them into a collage. In this case, seven different sources. The collage on the left is the source for the drawing on the right.

At first the choices are random, but sometimes a theme emerges. In this case, I had been trying to reread Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Kandinsky. This is a book that I don't understand very much of. What I do understand of it I don't even necessarily agree with.

However, what I was thinking about while I made this artwork is that you often hear someone say, "I used to enjoy making art but I stopped because I wasn't making any money." I think this is tragic, and I think there are other reasons for making art than just for financial profit. Many times that is the first thing someone will ask an artist: "Are you able to make money doing this?" What I was thinking about while I drew this is that often the ancient people created art with spiritual motivations. I wanted to contrast examples of this with some kind of imagery that shouted "Art for Money!"

Kandinsky contrasted the spiritual artist with the materialistic one. I decided Mr. Materialistic would be drawn superimposed over ads for artists that appealed to speed in creating art for financial gain. By no means am I against commercial art! I just felt like making a statement about my own reflections on artistic motivations.


To get the right shape, my classroom window became a makeshift light box. By turning off the light in my room, the hall light made it possible for me to trace the shape I needed.

I pasted the ads down over part of the drawing paper. Now I was reading to add color to Mr. Materialism.
I wanted the ads to be seen with varying degrees of obscurity -- just barely readable in some places. This had to become a mixed media piece since colored pencil didn't do the job.

Concerning the Spiritual in Art
Mixed Media (Colored Pencil & Acrylic)
2010

The drawing above is the finished work. Unfortunately, the photograph didn't turn out as well as I hoped.

As I said, Kandinsky's book is hard to read -- though it does have some good ideas to ponder. A better one on art and spirituality that has inspired me is The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

Comics Art Lesson

My daughter Anna taught a lesson on comics as part of her Art in the Elementary class at Mansfield University. Part of the class involves teaching lessons to children in the community at Saturday Morning Art classes. The students really seemed to enjoy it!

Contemplation

Contemplation (2010). Colored pencil.

I don't think I've ever done a realistic self-portrait, so I did this one in colored pencil. I called it Contemplation, because it's inspired by Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer by Rembrandt.

This drawing table surface shows the process.
Here I am with the finished product. Come to think of it, this photograph is a Triple Self-Portrait. Boy, this one is going to be hard to draw!

The Power of Yes

The Power of Yes
Colored Pencil

The Pop artists showed us that we can appropriate imagery from commercial sources -- changing the context changes the meaning. Something I enjoy doing is collecting various images from multiple sources and moving them around to see how new meanings can be created. Once the collage is finished, I can use it as a reference for drawing. I finished this one this week.

Father

This is a charcoal portrait of my father, George Wales. While drawing it, I thought about all he has meant to me in my life. He is the man I admire most.

Mural

Roadkill

Good Night Kiss

I've got a whole list of things that Nathan has said that would make great comics. Here's one.

That Darn Beyonder

Sketchbook comic -- a reinterpretation of a Marvel story. I did this, just for practice, to try out some various points of view and tricks.

The Bacon Strips

As I mentioned in my previous post, I just presented a two-day teen comics workshop. As we were working, some of the participants started talking about the comedian Jim Gaffigan's "Bacon" routine. They got everybody laughing and soon we all had ideas for comics about the irresistible power of this breakfast food. This led to a mini-comic in which everybody contributed one page. I believe that it is the first comic ever in which every single page is about bacon!

Here are some of the comics that we made during the workshop.

Cover by Shannon

Andrew

by Melinda Georgeson, Chief Educator NRM

The Package by William

One Day in the Kitchen by Lia

Chewy by Marissa

Advertisement by DavidMy contribution was a Halcolm story that I've been working on, but that I refurbished a little. I also did the bonus strip below that describes a real funny moment from the workshop.

Got Ink? Comics Workshop at the Norman Rockwell Museum

I just got back from Massachusetts, where I presented a two-day comics workshop for teens at the Norman Rockwell Museum. The event was called Got Ink? I showed the participants how to create original characters, and tricks for keeping a character's look consistent throughout a story. We also completed activities important in making comics: developing ideas, drawing rough sketches or thumbnails, laying out pages, penciling and inking with pen and ink. The workshop will continue this week with Tim Callahan (fantastic comics writer) teaching other comics making skills.

As we were working, some of the participants started talking about the comedian Jim Gaffigan's "Bacon" routine. They got everybody laughing and soon we all had ideas for comics about the irresistible power of this breakfast food. This led to a mini-comic in which everybody contributed one page. I believe that it is the first comic ever in which every single page is about bacon!

Below are some pictures of the workshop. Comics created will follow in a future post!

Call to Action in the Dead of Night

This is a comic by my daughter Anna. She made it as a Father's Day gift. The story is mostly true -- although I do not sleep in my Mighty Andar suit.

My Boy

This comic is to commemorate my son Daniel's graduation from high school. Over the years, as I've watched him grow, I've often thought of the song My Boy by Neil Young. The words to this comic are the lyrics to that song. You can hear that song here. The drawings show just how quick a little boy grows to be a man - just about this fast!

Halcolm & The Evaluator's Quest

As Halcolm so wisely shows us, many times the answers we seek are within ourselves!

The Disciples of Halcolm

Here is another of Halcolm's Research Parables by Michael Patton, illustrated by me.

The News Today

The Morning Times was nice enough to put info in today's paper about the Comic Art Show at Heroes this weekend.

Comic Book Art Show & Release Party

If you are in the neighborhood on Saturday night, stop in at Heroes Your Mom Threw Out Comic Shop at 128 W. 14th Street in Elmira Heights. It is a really great comic shop, and is hosting an art show and party celebrating the recent release of the latest issue of Eclectic Comics. I'll have some of the original art from that issue on display, and some of my other recent projects. The event will be from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

The Challenge to Care in Schools

This comic is my submission to a proposed book called Letters to Nell. It is a book of letters from educators to Nell Noddings, author of a great book called The Challenge to Care in Schools. Teacher College Press says that the book:

envisions a school system built on the idea that different people have different strengths, and that these strengths should be cultivated in an environment of caring, not of competition. She suggests that if we make the responsiveness characteristic of caring more basic than accountability, we can accommodate both traditional and progressive preferences in one school system to the benefit of all . . . especially the children.

My "letter" is in comic strip form. The kind of teaching described by Noddings reminded me of my high school art teacher, Kathryn Rice-Cummings. This comic is my tribute to teachers like her!