Six Chix: The Comic Strip

Last Saturday I did an ArtHop at Ethan Allen (furniture store).  Local businesses open their doors at night to artists to display their work and the public is invited.  I don’t know the exact number of businesses that do this, but probably thirty or so in this area.

Here are the two displayed next to me.  I had 18 cartoons (photo prints) displayed on table easels.

All the blogs mentioned by Margaret, Isabella and Stephanie are wonderful entertaining and informative.  It’s hard to narrow them down, but here are my suggestions:

Jan Eliot is the cartoonist who does Stone Soup. http://www.stonesoupcartoons.com/ Check out her recent trips to Algiers for an exhibition, Morocco, then Thailand for a Habitat For Humanity which included lunch with Rosalynn Carter at “Women Build”.

Children’s book illustrator Patricia Storms’ blog Booklust is:  http://storms.typepad.com/booklust/2007/01/thought_for_the.html She has a wonderful account of her trip to Nunavut as part of Canadian Children’s Book Week.

And Richard Thompson’s  blog http://richardspooralmanac.blogspot.com/ He is the fantastic artist, illustrator and creator of Cul de Sac.

A couple things you didn’t know about me:

I do a Carl Sagan imitation.

I once sneezed 22 times in a row.

When I was a kid, I had a pet moth, named Murphy.

Painted bear outside Brookings, OR store

Stopped in Brookings, Oregon a month ago.  It is at the southernmost Oregon Coast  Their downtown had several painted bears in front of the shops.

Painted Pirate Bear

Here’s a pirate bear with a monkey.

Tsunami Warning Sign

These signs are all along the western coast, especially northwest California and all along the Oregon coast , Washington coast.

Here are a few pictures from Willow Creek, Humboldt County, northern California.  No Bigfoot sightings, but plenty of carved Bigfoot statues are spotted,  along with murals, store signs (Bigfoot Campgrounds, Bigfoot  Contractor Supply, Bigfoot Motel, Bigfoot Books).  There’s also a Bigfoot Times.

Carved bigfoot statue in Willow Creek, CA

Bigfoot Mural

We couldn’t resist.  We had to dress up the pug as a little pirate.  One millisecond after the picture was taken he tried to rip the hat apart.  If you look closely you can see the little Jonny Depp ringlets.  So Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween Pug Pirate

I’m interviewed today on Scott Nickel’s blog:  ”20 Questions”.  Take a look!

http://scottnickel.blogspot.com/

Various tools I use for drawing Six Chix.

From the top:  a feather to brush away eraser crumbs, No. 2 pencil, Le Plume pen by Marvy, Pigma Micron pens “08″ and “brush” size, ZIG Vellum Writer fine tip pen “0.5″, ZIG Writer dual sizes, ZIG Calligraphy pen for captions and printing, dual sizes, off to the left is an orange uni-ball I use to mark off cartoons I already drew, drafting tape, pink sticky note pad.  I use a different color every year so I can find paper copies of  cartoons faster, a heart shaped Valentine paper weight from my cousin, and finally, inside the drafting tape is the eraser I’ve used for seventeen years and a Cheerio I use as a reward for my assistant, Harley, who comes to “wanna go to work?”.

My first Sunday drop panel showing colors selected
for American Color.

Blurry pic of color chart from Vertis (American Color).
Each color has a number which refers to % of yellow, red and blue.

.

Color now done on computer.

Be sure to see Stephanie’s interview on Scott Nickel’s blog :

http://scottnickel.blogspot.com/2009/07/20-questions-with-stephanie-piro.html

Stephanie answers 20 questions on cartoons, art and herself.

Downtown Redding, CA has a Second Saturday ArtHop each month.  Each second Saturday of the month downtown businesses open their doors to the public at night, serve refreshments, greet people and show artist’s work. It’s great for business and artists and the public, too.  

This Saturday, May 9th, from 6-9pm I’ll have my cartoons on exhibit plus perform  Cartoon Improv with Phil Fountain, the other cartoonist in town. (he’s the one who got me into this!) We’re doing this at TAPAS-DOWNTOWN, a fabulous Spanish restaurant that serves great food.  If anyone is around northern California next Saturday night drop by!

The Cartoon Improv:  we draw what the audience asks in exchange for a donation to charity.  Example, someone asks, “Can you draw a funny picture about brewing beer?”  Then we draw that, hopefully, funny.  There is no way to prepare for it except the experience of fifteen years of drawing magazine gag cartoons.

Article in ENJOY MAGAZINE