Another Sarah Palin cartoon

Today's offering. Sarah Palin: parrot of the radical right.

Remember, retweets really help me out. If you like this cartoon, please be sure to click the green retweet button at the top of the post to share with your Twitter followers.

Thanks!

-Ed

Moleskine Monday

We had our weekly figure drawing session last night at Matt and Dat's studio. Same model as last week, so I decided to mix it up a bit by drawing the drawers while they were drawing. I think I might continue this series - it keeps things interesting for me. I'll post my "non-Moleskine" warm-up drawing first and then the three pages from the Moleskine. Enjoy, and as always, let me hear from you!

Also wanted to welcome all new followers to the blog. If you'd like to sign up to get updates, you can click on the "follow" button at the bottom of the page. Also remember that retweets really help me out, so be sure to hit the green "retweet button above.

Thanks!

Cheers,

-Ed

Local cartoon with an Easter Tea Party twist

We've got a local TEA Party here in Baker County, and they have decided that they don't want taxpayer $ going to expand the size of a proposed park. Even though a publicly run park would probably bring in revenue from campers, fishermen, and canoes, they are opposed to having the County run any such entity. Problem is, the very thing they are opposing (a public park), is one of the venues for their rallies (a public park). Our editor's story on this last week generated some terse emails, so this one should get a rise as well. He ended his last blog post with "feathers ruffled - check."

Today's cartoon

I sketched this up on Saturday, but wanted to wait until today to post it.

Thanks for visiting the blog, and remember, retweets really help me & my cartoons to get legs. You can click on the green "retweet" button at the top of this post to send to your Twitter postings.

Cheers!

-E

New Cartoon

Here's the last cartoon of the week. When I read that "Sarah Pac" was organizing to oust the laundry list of legislators who voted for Obamacare, and she started using words like "salvo" and "hit list" I have to admit I got a little scared. And, to me, those flying monkeys are about the scariest thing I can remember from being a kid, soooo...

Have a happy weekend, and keep your head down.

-Ed

First syndicate cartoon of the week

We've taken the medicine, now let's see how long it takes to work.

New Figure Drawings

I attended a small figure drawing workshop last night at Dat & Matt's studio. We hired a model for 3 hours, and I managed a nice page of gestures, and a couple of decent drawings in my Moleskine. Thanks for looking and remember, retweets really help me out!

Cheers,

Ed

Tuesday morning Moleskine + Free Muffins!

Starbucks was offering free pastry today, so we visited our favorite barista for a morning cup, a danish, and some sketching. This guy was working feverishly on some important deadline (or studying - I'm not sure which), and kept looking back and forth from his papers to his laptop. It was also a good chance for me to get a cartoon idea for today's deadline (stay tooned for that). I also attended a figure drawing session last night. I'll post the results of that shortly.

-Ed

Reviewing the Sakura Gelly Roll Pen

Today I’m going to be reviewing the Gelly Roll Medium Black pen, just one in a long line of quality products by Japanese parent company Sakura of Osaka Japan. For more on Sakura products you can visit their web site at: http://sakuraofamerica.com/ I use this pen almost exclusively for cross-hatching in my editorial cartoons. After the initial pencil drawing, and subsequent brush inking, it’s the first thing I reach for. They also have a white ink version, which I will be reviewing in the future. For this review (and subsequent reviews) I will be breaking down my critique into four parts: Ergonomics, tip and ink flow, quality of line, and durability.

First let’s start with the ergonomics of the pen.
It feels pretty hefty in your hand (which I like), and is round and smooth in circumference; lacking the flat ridges of most other pens and pencils. The manufacturers have made up for this by using a matte finish plastic. Even with this though, the pen can slip in your hand sometimes, and one recommendation I would have is for the makers to experiment with some perpendicular ridges near the tip for better gripping. With the cover slipped onto the back of the pen, the balance is even and the weight is distributed evenly across the pen’s length. As I said before, I like a little "heft" in the pens I use. I tend to work heavy, so I like a drawing instrument that is also heavy.

Now the tip.
The tip produces a medium line weight and feels really comfortable as it hits the paper. With some other pens you can get a "spotting" effect either at the beginning or end of your line art. There is none of this with the Gelly Roll. I find the line to be fluid and smooth; without any clumping or "dotting." The ink leaves the pen tip in a fluid and even manner with no bleed or overflow.

Quality of Line.
This is where the pen really excels. The Sakura Gelly Roll pen is a roller ball, which uses a patented, Gel, archival ink. The line is consistent and even, yet you can still vary the line weight from light to medium by how much pressure you put on the pen tip. I'll include a detail of one of my cartoons inked with the Gelly Roll pen, so that you can see the quality of line in a finished piece of art.

Longevity and Durability.
This pen is built like a tank. The plastic barrel is hefty and the cap clicks securely onto the tip end. The tip can take a fall from a drawing table easily and keep working well. The ink also seems to hold up really well over time. Cartoons that I’ve done 10 years ago still maintain the clarity in the blacks, and there is absolutely no yellowing around the lines. I can usually get about 5-10 cartoons out of one pen, depending on how much cross-hatching is involved.

Score.

Overall I would give the Sakura Gelly Roll pen a score of 9.5 out of 10. Other than a few tweaks to the ergonomics of the barrel, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Moleskine page of kid & kin

My brother asked me to watch his kids last night, so I decided it would be a good opportunity for me to draw them again. I haven't sketched them since they were babies, and since my niece had a book to read, and the nephew was busy with his "Lego Project," they sat relatively still long enough for me to catch a likeness. After "wolfing" down a large pie at Napoli's, we came back to the house, and their respective projects, and I started drawing. These kids have some definite Hall features too - esp. around the mouth and nose. Made me a little sad though, because I can now see both my Mom and Dad very clearly in their faces. Anyway here they are.

On a separate note, I've been asked by two pen companies to write reviews on some of the pens that I use. Look for that later in the week.

-Ed

Sketching at "Off the Grid"

Jacksonville Arts held an event last night called "Off the Grid." Basically 3 galleries were opened up for an invitation only viewing of artwork by local artists. We had a pretty good crowd, and for our little space we brought in a live model, and a few of us sketched it up. Here's what I came up with. She wore a leotard because it was a public event, but I think we'll be sketching her again Monday, nude. Stay tooned for that, and, as always, Happy weekend!

-Ed

PS - Don't forget that you can sign up to be a follower of this blog at the bottom of the page. That way you'll be notified every time there's an update. -E

End of the week syndicate toon

Got this idea yesterday around 2PM. That left me only 3 hours to ink it before last night's opening, but I got it in for today's syndicate post. Whew! First time drawing Michelle Obama too. She has a really lovely face for caricature. I'm looking forward to sketching her again.

Happy weekend everybody!

-Ed

Mo' Moleskine!

Here are a couple more pages out of my new Moleskine. I haven't been going to figure drawing classes lately, so I've been working in here. I pretty much carry it with me everywhere I go now. This first page was sketched at Barnes & Noble. I tend to sketch people from behind, so I don't get busted. The second page is from a couple of photos I found of musicians over the weekend. I exaggerated the forms somewhat, and played with the positioning of the figurative elements. Speaking of figure drawing, there IS a class tonight that I MIGHT be attending downtown. If I do, look for the results in the morning.
Thanks, and let me hear from you!

Cheers,

Ed

Love me some Screenr & Naruto! Takes a sec to load - be patient.

Government in the Sunshine Week

This cartoon is my Govt. in The Sunshine cartoon submission for 2010. If you'd like to know more about this worthwhile cause, you can click the link below, but basically it's a week where open Government is celebrated and encouraged. I think I've done a cartoon for Sunshine Week for the last 5 or 6 years, and in 2008 I won the First Amendment Foundation's cartoon contest for Sunshine Week.

You can see all of this year's cartoon submissions here: http://www.sunshineweek.org/Toolkits/EditorialCartoons.aspx

Moleskine Monday

No figure drawing again this weekend, so I worked in the Moleskine. Here's a page with a Sarah Palin sketch. I went ahead and worked it up in Photoshop as a caricature for the syndicate.

-E

Last cartoon of the week

NPR has awakened me every morning this week with news of Greece's collapsing economy. I finally did a cartoon on it yesterday. This morning came news that Italy's/Berlusconi government is now totally corrupt, and young people are fleeing the country in droves. WTH is up with Europe? There was a time when we thought we might like to live there (esp. Italy). Not anymore.

We may attend figure sketch on Sunday. Not quite sure yet. If so, I should have some new figurative work to post on Monday.

Have a great weekend.

-Ed

Made the Daily Beast again!

As this site has gained in popularity, it's becoming more prestigious to get picked for their weekly roundup. Thanks Ted! Click here to see the cartoon.

Wednesday night coffee with Henry & Dat

Dat joined us for coffee last night, so I decided to sketch him up. That's him on the right. The day before yesterday I had started drawing a girl's hand holding a cigarette, but she got up before I could finish. Luckily Dat's face ended up in the perfect position to put said cigarette in his mouth, so - wah lah! He's a smoker now!

That old dude was reading behind Dat. He kept nodding off.

Let me hear from you!

Cheers,

Ed

Valentine's Day Palm

I sketched and photographed this during an excursion to the river on Valentine's Day. Then I morphed the two in Photoshop. Don't know why it's taken me this long to post it.

Now it's off to coffee with Henry.

More drawerings tomorrow!

Cheers,

Ed

Moleskine, moleskine, moleskine

I've been working in my Moleskine a lot lately; sketching anything that catches my eye, and I'm really enjoying it. We had our weekly figure drawing session at the Art Coop last night, and, of course, the model didn't show. So one of the attendees volunteered to pose clothed. This didn't intrigue me much, so I spent the time sketching the other people in the class. I enjoyed this because it seems that when people are drawing they don't really move too much, and the little bit that they do move translates into the drawings somehow - interesting. Also, if they are serious about what they are doing & focused, they never know they're being drawn. That helps.

The first page shown here is from a bike ride to Starbucks two days ago, but the last three are from last night. I did finally get around to sketching the model on the last page, and I think it came out alright. Enjoy.

I will be meeting Henry for coffee tonight, and I'll probably sketch more people amping up on caffeine, so stay tuned for that.

Cheers,
Ed

Local toon

This cartoon deals with a new initiative in St. Johns county to keep kids in school.

From the article:
Students in St. Johns County who skip school will soon taste justice inside a real courtroom.
Beginning March 23 the Student Services division of the county school district in conjunction with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and the St. Johns Juvenile Court system will begin holding students accountable for too many unexcused absences in truancy court.

New syndicate cartoon

I found it interesting that a poll on the BCP website this week shows that most people don't care if Saturday Postal delivery is nixed. I wonder if this has anything to do with it?

Portrait sketch demo posted on Helen south's blog

Helen South is an Australian artist working in graphite, charcoal, watercolor and mixed media. She has been the About.com Guide to Drawing and Sketching since 2003. She has a B.A. in printmaking, and has also studied photography and art history.

Helen has been very kind to me in the past; both through her words, and by showing my work on her blog.

I was totally jazzed to do this project for her. Enjoy. -Ed

http://drawsketch.about.com/od/drawingportraits/ss/portrait-sketching.htm

More Moleskine pages

I'll post these as I finish them. Went to Starbucks yesterday and sat, drank coffee & sketched people. Thinking now that maybe Saturdays would be better to meet up with Henry for midday light. We'll see. Also sketched people today while waiting for her car at Midas. I'm going to start taking every advantage now to sketch in my Moleskine - keeping it with me at all times. Still liking these new pens.

-E

First page of new Moleskine - using new pen!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Here are some portrait sketches I did at Artwalk, and last Wednesday at Starbucks. I'm liking these new pens.

BTW, I wanted to remind everyone that there is an auction for one of my original drawings closing at 10pm tonight. There are several people following this one, so be sure to place your bids early. Here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/yczzkyt

Thanks in advance,

Ed

Another drawing up for auction this weekend

After a successful auction last week, I thought I'd throw another one up this weekend. It's a short run auction though, with bidding opening up on Saturday at 7:00pm and closing on Sunday at 7:00pm (for the drawing shown here). So click here to place a bid after 7:00pm tomorrow: http://myworld.ebay.com/halltoons2qr3

Thanks!

-Ed

Last cartoon of the week

Not sure what happened this week, but I kept getting ideas, so I kept drawing. Here's one I finished up last night at around midnight. This morning it's off to the eye doctor, and then pizza for lunch. Enjoy, and happy weekend!

-Ed

Today's syndicate cartoon

I didn't have time to post this yesterday, so here it is. Artwalk was fun last night, albeit a bit cold. I shivered and sketched the passersby, and afterward we had dinner with Henry and Tatiana - good times. Anyway, not sure if I'll be going to Sunday sketch this weekend. If not, we plan to go to Tuesday night sketch at The Art Coop. More cartoons later in the week. My monthly deadlines are coming up, so I'll probably be working furiously to get those out. Let me hear from you.

Cheers,

Ed

New syndicate toon

The cartoon ideas are coming fast and furious today. Look for a couple more by tomorrow.

-Ed

New Faces - first pen experiment

Here are a couple more faces I sketched very quickly today. I've got to clear my head for my next syndicate cartoon, and what better way than to experiment with my new pens? I've yet to break out the new Moleskine (maybe tonight), but I'm interested to see how that paper reacts to these new pens. Stay tooned.

Local/State cartoon

One of our reporters shot some footage of a State Representative here last week, talking about the budget and the challenges facing both State and County Governments. He kept saying things like, "we're gonna make this work," and "if I can balance my household budget, surely the State can balance it's as well..." He also said basically that there's no money left, so in my opinion, the only option is to call in Gandalf right?

More faces & misc.

Here's a few more head and face studies from the last few days. I've been drawing these quickly in charcoal from interesting faces I find on the internet, and then tightening them up in Photoshop as needed.

I'm extremely excited about the new pens I have arriving in the mail today. It took a bit of hunting to find them, but I finally tracked them down to the one repository in the United States. I'll be experimenting with them, drawing faces in my new Moleskine over the next few weeks, so stay tooned for that. Also, just found out that my buddy Henry has secured us a spot on Hemming Plaza for Artwalk Wednesday night. We'll be drawing and selling sketches across from the main library, so if you're in the area, stop by and say hello!

All best,

Ed

Back to Sunday Sketch

We attended Sunday Sketch yesterday after a two week hiatus. After knocking the initial rust off with some gestures, I settled in for a few hours of figure drawing. I'll post the gestures first and then the 20 minute poses. We finished off with an hour long pose.

For this one I experimented with the picture plane a bit; sending her feet way up into the left hand corner, and breaking the picture plane in the foreground with her back. I like this effect and I may use it again.

Look for this drawing on Ebay in the coming week, and don't forget, I've got another auction closing tomorrow: Click here for that.

Let me hear from you!

Cheers,

Ed