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lines and colors :: a blog about drawing, painting, illustration, comics, webcomics, cartoons, concept art and other visual arts

Juxtapoz ArchivesToday

Juxtapoz is an alternative art and culture magazine, loosely dedicated to outsider art, urban contemporary art and “lowbrow art” (or “pop surrealism”).

The magazine was started by Robert Williams, who was at one time an assistant to Ed, “Big Daddy” Roth. Williams was also a pioneering underground cartoonist (one of my favorites) and contributor to the original Zap Comix with Robert Crumb and the gang, and is currently a “pop surrealist” painter.

Juxtapoz has actually been going since 1994 (surprised me to realize that), The magazine has an active online presence and has recently been putting full archives of its early issues online. They are now up to issue #10.

The first issue (images above) contains articles about issue #13 of Zap Comix (which was sort of a reunion issue, that sadly also marked the loss of pioneering west coast artist Rick Griffin, and was dedicated to his memory), as

Bill Perkins and Stephen Silver WorkshopJanuary 5

Sorry for the short notice on this one, but I received short notice myself.

There is a digital design workshop titled Visualizing Characters and Environments for Games and Animation tomorrow, January 6, 2009, at the Art Institute of California, Island Empire in San Bernardino, CA, from 4pm to 8pm.

It features Bill Perkins, art director, production designer, visual development and layout artist for Disney, Warner Brothers and Dreamworks (image above, left), and Stephen Silver, character development artist and character supervisor for Disney Television Animation and Nickelodeon (image above, right).

The event is free, but you must register ahead of time at 909 915-2100.

60 Photoshop TutorialsJanuary 5

Noupe has aggregated a list of 60 Photoshop Tutorials from various sources. The list includes links to other lists of tutorials, so it’s actually a few hundred links and tutorials.

Some of them are directed specifically at creating digital art in Photoshop, like these 100 that I mentioned in a previous post (more here), and some of the ones here.

Others are more general, with effects, textures, patterns, downloadable brushes and PSD files, cheat sheets, keyboard shortcuts, actions and generally enough Photoshop links and resources to keep you knee deep in colorful pixels for several months.

Have fun, and don’t forget to come back up for air.

[Via Digg]

Coraline Graphic NovelJanuary 4

Since the jolt of receiving my Coraline Mystery Box I’ve been understandably curious about the upcoming animated movie, and equally frustrated that I can’t yet find a significant repository of Coraline concept art (though I did come across some very early concept drawings here).

I’ve also noticed that the Coraline movie web site is now active, with a nicely responsive Flash interface and lots of stuff to explore and download; and the ASFIA-Hollywood Animation Archive has added a few more Coraline Mystery Boxes to its tally.

In the meanwhile, I’ve been happily feeding my Coraline fascination with the excellent graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel by veteran comics artist P. Craig Russell, which Santa, and/or my stepdaug

Mike HernandezJanuary 3

I’ll start with a slight disclaimer, in that Gallery Nucleus, which is currently having a solo exhibition of Mike Hernandez’ work, is also currently an advertiser on Lines and Colors.

That being said, when I check in on Gallery Nucleus, it often turns out that they have something on exhibit that is interesting to the point where I want to tell you about it, and I’m trying to do that while the show is current and those in the area can still catch it.

Mike Hernandez is a concept artist and art director at Dreamworks Animation. He has worked on projects like Shreck, Sinbad and Bee Movie. You can see some concept art for Sinbad and Bee Movie on his blog.

Most of the artwork on his blog, though, is his personal work — beautiful small landscapes in gouache, a few somewhat larger ones in oil, charcoal drawings, and marker and ink drawings, often with versions colored after the fact in Photoshop.

Hernandez apparently paints and sketches either on the way to and from work, or perhaps on his lunch hour, as many of the small landscapes are of the area around or even on the Dreamworks