Meet Me in St. Louie

The National Caricaturist Network occasionally sanctions “mini-cons” put on by either local chapters or groups of members where they have some guest speakers, do workshops and have the usual draw-a-thon with artists plastering the walls with their caricature art. These are always fun and high energy.

Unlike the main convention , these minicons are open to non members of the NCN, giving those interested in caricature and cartooning the chance to attend and participate. In fact, they encourage non-members to attend to give others a look at the organization and to promote the art of caricature.

Just such an event will be held March 2nd-5th, 2008 in St. Louis MO. I don’t do a lot of public speaking outside of some art colleges and such, but I’ll be there as the main speaker for the St. Louis Mini-Con and also doing a workshop on inking. There are also going to be other guest speakers including illustrators Court Jones and Ed Steckley, both of whom will have some terrific knowledge and techniques to impart.

My presentation will include a PowerPoint show with examples of live caricature, illustration and my MAD work, a breakdown of a MAD job in all stages from beginning to end and a live demonstration of my PhotoShop painting technique. Nothing new there but hopefully I won’t put anyone to sleep and might get a few laughs along the way.

The inking workshop, however, is a little different. While inking is mostly about cartooning and not about caricature, I thought it was something people might be interested in learning about as there is not a lot of opportunity to learn hands on about traditional pen and brush inking techniques. The workshop will consist of drawing and inking a caricature illustration of the same subject. We will talk about the approach to a pencil drawing that is going to be inked, techniques in both brush and dip pen, tips, tricks and other useful info on the way to producing an inked caricature illustration. There is an option to purchase all the materials so they will be waiting for you, or you can bring your own stuff. Here is the materials list:

• Board: 15″ x 22″ Strathmore 4 ply vellum Bristol
• Ink: Pelikan’s Drawing Ink A
• Nib: Gillott 303 (2)
• Brush: #2 Synthetic Sable Watercolor Brush
• Holder: Universal Acrylic Holder

All that stuff for only $17.00. If you are interested in attending, you can get more info here and even register on-line. If you want to purchase the materials from me, you’ll need to commit to that by the 5th of February so I can get an accurate head count and get the right amount of stuff. If you want to bring your own materials all I ask is you being a board about that size. It doesn’t matter what nib, brush or ink you prefer. Bring what you want to work with.

This should be fun and I hope we get a good crowd there. Visit the St. Louis NCN Chapter website for more info.