David Chelsea's Blog, page 41

Juvenalia: David Chelsea Saves the Whales

Flyer for The Whale Show, 1976

I define juvenalia as anything I drew before moving to New York City in 1977; this flyer dates from the year before that (it's signed `David Celsi'- my professional alias was still several years in the future). It advertises a play whose subtle message was "SAVE THE WHALES!", presented at Mountain Moving Cafe, a radical feminist watering hole located at what was then Southeast 39th Avenue (now César E. Chávez Blvd) and Stark Street in Portland. The location is now an office of Volunteers Of America.

David Chelsea is reading:

Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive ScrabblePlayers

by Stefan Fatsis





My only copy bears a censor's mark. The play's director didn't appreciate the addition of a sign reading "Boycott Nips" (my cheeky way of referencing a then-current boycott of Japanese products by the Save The Whales movement) on the whale/blimp's gondola, and ordered the offending words blacked out on all copies.

Boycott Nothing!

Despite its 1976 vintage, this flyer is soon to appear in a book about Portland in the 1960s by local author Polina Olsen (The 60s took a few years longer to die here).

You can view this image big at Comics Lifestyle

Check out this David Celsi/Chelsea juvenalia album at Comics Lifestyle

Just Felt Like Sharing: Pictures I Posted On Facebook

David Chelsea is watching:

Penn & Teller - Bullsh*t! The Complete Second Season

NOT a good name for a realtor:

Separated At Birth? They even kind of rhyme: Elena Kagan and Melanie Mayron.

My favorite punning Thai restaurant name ever:

Peter Lorre Will Never Die- not as long as they need voices for cartoons…

Proving there is life after the Rat Pack, Peter Lawford advertises a classy brand of styrofoam dishware:

Who drew the best Beardsley-inspired black-haired nudes, Frank Frazetta, Leroy Neiman or Jeffrey Jones? You decide:

Bekannter Karikaturist malt Wargolshausen

David Chelsea is reading:

The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media

by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld

My friends Eva and Albert Warmuth just sent me this story that ran in their local paper, Goldbach-Post, which covers news in the Bavarian villages of Wargolshausen and Junkershausen. The whole family visited them in their straw-bale house last summer, and I posted some drawings from my sketchbook on the site then. This story prints a couple of those drawings, along with what looks like a biographical sketch and photo of their American visitor. It's difficult to be sure, since I don't understand German:

Bekannter Karikaturist malt Wargolshausen

Seine Karikaturen sind in allen großen US-Zeitungen zu finden. Die New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Press, Seattle Weekly, Chicago Tribune und Reader's Digest drucken regelmäßig seine Bilder ab. Die Rede ist von David Chelsea, einem US-Amerikaner, den Eva Warmuth während ihres Studiums in New York in den Jahren 1989/1990 kennengelemt hatte. Im vergangenen Sommer machte der Küntstler während seiner Europareise auch in Wargolshausen Station. Es hat ibm hier ausgesprochen gut gefallen, so Eva Warmuth, Das oltene Land, das Wargolshäuser Schwimmbad, die Ruhe auf dem Land hat er gemeinsam mit seinen Kindem genossen. Der mehrfache Buchautor, hält seine Umwelt ständig zeichnend fest. Auch im Rahmen der Ausflüge, die Eva und Albert Warmuth mit Chelsea gemacht haben, wurde dies deutlich., ,,Irgendwie", so Eva Warmuth, ,,wird das Leben in seiner Umgebung verlangsamt". Wenngleicher mit nur wenigen Strichen ein Objekt leslhalten kann, dauert esdoch etwas länger, als eine Szene mit dem Fotoapparat einzufangen. Das Ergebnis sind dann diese Skizzen, Karikaturen und Zeichnungen, die mittelweile bei ihm unendlich viele Bucher füllen.

Here's what Google Translate makes of it:

Well-known cartoonist draws Wargolshausen

His caricatures are found in all major U.S. newspapers. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Press, Seattle Weekly, Chicago Tribune, and Reader's Digest print regularly from his pictures. We are talking about had kennengelemt by David Chelsea, a U.S. citizen, the Eva Warmuth while studying in New York in the years 1989/1990. Last summer, the Küntstler made ​​during his trip to Europe in Wargolshausen station. It has fallen here ibm extremely well, says Eva Warmuth, The oltene country Wargolshäuser swimming pool, the rest of the country he has enjoyed in common with his Kindem. The multiple author keeps his environment constantly drawing. Also made in the context of the trips, the Eva and Albert Warmuth with Chelsea was this clear.,,, Somehow, "said Eva Warmuth, will slow down the life around him." When can leslhalten Same with a few strokes of an object takes esdoch little longer than capture a scene with the camera. The results are then these sketches, cartoons and drawings that fill infinite medium while in his many books.

My son Ben is taking freshman German in high school- maybe I'll have him look and see if he can make more sense of it.

Brunetti Part 2: The Plan

I hope everyone liked that last blog post, in which I took Ivan Brunetti's recent New Yorker cover, (which mixes elevation and vertical oblique projection) and created all-elevation and vertical oblique versions in Photoshop, because I had so much fun that I decided to take it one step further and create a new version in plan view, that is, as if seen from overhead by an observer at an infinite distance (with the roof removed, of course).

David Chelsea is watching:

Raising Hope: The Complete First Season

Plan views, usually paired with elevations, are an essential part of architectural drawing. All planes parallel to the ground (like a tabletop) are shown as true shapes, and all planes perpendicular to the ground (like a vertical wall) are invisible. Photographs taken from directly overhead with a long lens approach a plan view's lack of apparent depth, and satellite photographs such as those displayed on Google Earth come even closer.

And of course, maps are plan views:

Plan view images are still unusual in illustration and cartooning. When they do appear the point is often that they are difficult to read, like this Droodles sketch. What is it?

A chinaman on a bicycle!

Often, a plan view is used for a one-off gag like this sketch of Osama Bin Laden by Salt Lake Tribune cartoonist Pat Bagley:

Ditto this Roz Chast riff on satellite photos:

One would think that plan views would come naturally to the schematically-minded cartoonist Chris Ware, but I wasn't actually able to find one. This Jimmy Corrigan panel is about as close as he gets.

Tralalajahal artist Pierre Clément usually favors elevations but works equally well in plan:

The crime scene illustration by Jérôme Huguenin for Stir Crazy Killing resembles a preliminary sketch I did to work out perspective for a noirish illustration job.

Returning to Brunetti, converting his vertical oblique original into a plan was a fairly simple matter. My first step was to scale up the floor area until the ellipses representing the foreshortened tops of paint cans fattened into circles, then I shifted the circles onto their bases, eliminating the sides of the cans.

Imagining how these two human figures would look from above was a challenge- fortunately their large ovoid heads cover a lot of detail.

I had to imagine what the fixture inside the ceiling lamp looked like from above. I was free to place the lamp anywhere in a direct vertical line from its original position, since Brunetti's drawing offers no clue how far it is from the wall.

And here is the final result:

Of course, it works equally well upside-down:

Perspective Police!: Brunetti

New Yorker Cover by Ivan Brunetti

When I first saw this recent New Yorker cover by Chicago cartoonist Ivan Brunetti, its perspective just looked WRONG to me- a random jumble of elements seen from a variety of inconsistent viewpoints. However, on second look it all fell into place and I realized that a subtle and (mostly) consistent scheme is at work. This becomes clearer when we divide the picture in two:

Brunetti has drawn the top area as an elevation, a type of parallel line drawing corresponding to a view facing one wall directly from an infinite distance away. This method is standard in architectural rendering but is also used from time in time in fine art and illustration.

David Chelsea is reading:

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

by David Foster Wallace

Elevation is a particular favorite of Tralalajahal artist Pierre Clément, who creates a sense of depth without perspective by his deft use of shadows:

Drawing by Pierre Clement

The floor area may at first look like a plan view, (that is, seen from directly overhead at an infinite distance), but if it were then the paint cans, dishes and tape roll would all appear as circles and we would not see their sides at all. Instead, this is a vertical oblique projection, a tipped view somewhere between an elevation and a plan.

Vertical oblique is not much seen in Western Art, but it turns up frequently in Islamic Art pieces such as this Persian miniature:

Persian Miniature

The difference between Brunetti's two approaches can be clearly seen by comparing the vertical oblique paint can on the floor with the elevation paint can on the ladder. The transition between the two halves of the drawing could be likened to a song changing key, or a sentence that changes tense in the middle. (Quick word from our sponsor: I thoroughly explain the construction of both elevation and vertical oblique in my recent book Extreme Perspective!)

I thought it would be amusing and instructive to rework Brunetti's drawing as he might have done it using a single method throughout- first as an all-elevation, then as an all-vertical oblique. I created two altered versions in Photoshop. Here is the elevation:

Brunetti cover redone as elevation

To convert the entire drawing to elevation I reduced the floor to a horizontal bottom line and placed all the objects sitting on it in a foreshortened cluster. It does make the room look very high-ceilinged and rather empty.

Brunetti bends the rules in his treatment of the window- since we observers are already infinitely distant from the scene, the buildings seen through the window cannot appear reduced in scale any further. Instead, we would see an exactly window-sized section of the nearest building, even if it were miles away. I decided not to correct this, but to regard it as if we were looking at a miniature diorama through the window.

I did change the canopy of the ceiling fixture- it looks as if Brunetti has drawn the ceiling section as a vertical oblique looking up. To bring it in line with the rest of the drawing I drew the canopy in edge-on view and treated that light gray section as if it were a strip of wall above the molding rather than part of the ceiling.

Changing the drawing to all-vertical oblique means that we are now looking at the entire room from overhead:

Brunetti cover as vertical oblique

This required me to include elements that were not visible in the original version- the roofs of buildings and the bulbs inside the ceiling fixture- I hope in a way consistent with Brunetti's style.

I changed what I regard as one glaring inconsistency- the paint roller and pan appear to be drawn in strict plan, with no side depth. Possibly Brunetti was unsure how they would look in vertical oblique, particularly with the roller lying diagonally, but I'm not afraid to take a crack at it:

The two human figures recapitulate the entire drawing's divided method- their heads are seen in flat profile elevation, while their bodies are viewed from above in vertical oblique projection. To obtain tipped views of the heads I decided to have a little fun and construct them as ellipsoid models in CGI, mapping Brunetti's original drawings on them as textures.

Finally I restored the floor areas damaged by pulling off the address label. There's one detail I didn't correct but which bothers me nonetheless- the paint spots on the floor. Didn't these people ever hear of drop cloths?

Got an example of iffy perspective to show? Be a whistleblower! Send an e-mail to me at davidchelsea(at)comcast(dot)net and include Perspective Police! in the subject line.

Paper-Tiger Takes Notice

Nice review of Anapest: The Minicomic on UK cartoonist Sean Tiger's Paper-Tiger Comix biog this week. This all-rhyming 12 pager combines three of my online Anapest strips with a longer story, "Chastity Blasé", written by me and illustrated by Chad Essley.

David Chelsea is reading:

Is That All There Is?

by Joost Swarte

This little booklet may be the scarcest Chelsea comic of all- I ran out of printer ink after running off just four copies before Stumptown last year and have run off only a couple of review copies since, so circulation remains in the single digits. I promise to have plenty on hand at this coming Stumptown in April, and anyone within reach of this blog is welcome to request a copy by sending me an e-mail through the site (not the most streamlined method, I know; I'm still getting used to online commerce).

Previous blog post about Anapest: The Minicomic

Yet another blog post about Anapest: The Minicomic

Buy This Book:

INX BATTLE LINES: THREE DECADES OF POLITICAL ILLUSTRATION, that is- and not just because I have ten pieces in it and 1/4 of the cover.

In over 275 explosive illustrations, INX Battle Lines etches a searing picture history of the last three decades. These are the very best drawings from the files of the INX Group –– images that have been syndicated to journals of opinion in the U.S. and abroad since 1980.

The book contains brilliant black & white and color illustrations by Jean-François Allaux, Michelle Barnes, Melinda Beck, Paulette Bogan, Steve Brodner, Yvonne Buchanan, Horacio Cardo, Giora Carmi, David Chelsea, Paul Corio, Scott Cunningham, Bob Dahm, Henrik Drescher, Randall Enos, Vivienne Flesher, Bob Gale, Felipe Galindo, Glenn Head, David Gothard, Tom Hachtman, Rupert Howard, Jordin Isip, Ryan Inzana, Frances Jetter, Randy Jones, Susann Ferris Jones, Janusz Kapusta, Thomas Kerr, David Klein, Igor Kopelnitsky, Ira Korman, Martin Kozlowski, Peter Kuper, Liz Lomax, Matthew Martin, Mark Matcho, Robert Neubecker, Laird Ogden, Rick Reason, Bill Russell, Steven Salerno, Betsy Scheld, Sara Schwartz, Jill Karla Schwarz, David Shannon, Rob Shepperson, Brad Teare, Seth Tobocman, Peter Vey, Christophe Vorlet, Charles Waller, Ellen Weinstein, James Williamson, Glenn Wolff, and Robert Zimmerman.

Here are some samples scanned from my copy, which came in the mail today. First, this piece by David G. Klein:

Next, a fine Muammar Gaddafi by Martin Kozlowski:

Why a duck? Ask Peter Kuper:

This thoroughly creepy Frankenbush is by James Williamson:

And lastly, here's one of mine, an early George W. Bush done in the wake of the 2000 Election:

INX BATTLE LINES: THREE DECADES OF POLITICAL ILLUSTRATION

Martin Kozlowski (Editor)

Paperback, 110 pages

Publisher: Now What Media (February 3, 2012)

$27.99

Order INX Battle Lines: Three Decades of Political Illustration from Amazon

Brush With Greatness: Courtney Love

Courtney Love

I remember reading an article on Iceland's economic crisis a year or two ago which reported that it's no big deal in Reykjavik to have known Bjork before she was famous; Reykjavik has such a small scene that nearly everyone living there crossed paths with her at some point. For those who lived in Portland during the 1980s, Courtney Love is like that, a ubiquitous scenester whom everyone has a story about. I lived in New York for all of the 80s, but I maintained close ties with people back home and many of my friends were originally from there, so it's not at all that remarkable that I would meet Courtney when she passed through New York sometime in 1985 or 1986.

David Chelsea is watching:

Boardwalk Empire: The Complete First Season

My friend Anne Richardson, who writes a blog on Oregon and Oregon actors in film, uses my brief brush with greatness as the peg for a recent post on Courtney and her film career. Anne's post, my response and Anne's response to my response are quoted below (If the whole thing reads slightly garbled, it's because I correct a few errors that Anne has now deleted, the most notable being that I put a character based on Courtney in David Chelsea In Love):

"I first heard about Courtney Love from fellow Portlander David Chelsea, who was living in the East Village when he met her during a visit she was making to a mutual friend. This was before she had appeared in any film or made any records. Undaunted by her skimpy resume, she told him then she was going to be more famous than Madonna.

David tells me I remembered this all wrong!

Here's his corrections: I believe she had just filmed Sid And Nancy, but it had not been released. I don't remember her mentioning Madonna, but she did tell me she intended to become famous and have Belinda Carlisle for her best friend.

Courtney Michelle Harrison was born in San Francisco in 1964. She grew up in a commune in Marcola, Oregon, a tiny town no one ever heard of, and for which she holds no fondness. She wittily references her miserable childhood with her choice of hair accessory, above. After a brief incarceration in Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility, and multiple failed foster home placements, she moved to Portland where she hung out at Satyricon, volunteered at KBOO, attended Portland State University, and worked in strip clubs and gay clubs.

Satyricon, which no longer exists, is where she met both her future bandmate Kat Bjelland and her future husband Kurt Cobain.

Did Courtney become bigger than Madonna/Belinda? She did when it comes to the world of film. And in a strange but true coincidence, the man who guided Courtney to a 1996 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress in The People Vs. Larry Flynt, is himself an Oregon filmmaker. Milos Forman came to Oregon in 1974 to make One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

Courtney is still interested in being famous. But she has refined her attitude:

Being famous is just like being in high school. But I'm not interested in being the cheerleader. I'm not interested in being Gwen Stefani. She's the cheerleader, and I'm out in the smoker shed.

Courtney Love"

My comments:

"David Chelsea here. It's nice to be mentioned on the blog, but my memory differs from your report in a few details. I did meet Courtney Love in New York, but I never put her up in my own apartment- she was staying with my friend Libby Shapiro. I believe she had just filmed Sid And Nancy, but it had not been released. I don't remember her mentioning Madonna, but she did tell me she intended to become famous and have Belinda Carlisle for her best friend. Also, Courtney isn't in David Chelsea In Love, which covers an earlier period in my life, but I did eventually put a character based on her into a comic for Dark Horse Presents that hasn't appeared in print yet.

Did Courtney really meet Kurt Cobain at Satyricon? He seems like such a Seattle creature that it's odd to hear of him turning up in Portland, let alone meeting his wife there."

Anne Richardson

Anne's reply:

"Yes, she has said interview that she not only met Cobain in Satyricon, but that she knocked him down to the floor during that first meeting.

I wasn't in Portland during the Cobain/Love courtship, so don't look at me!

Here's an account of how it happened, on Jan. 12, 1990. You'll like this since it references R. Crumb."

Here is a frame from The Girl With The Keyhole Eyes, my upcoming story in Dark Horse Presents:

Just Published: INX BATTLE LINES: THREE DECADES OF POLITICAL ILLUSTRATION

This just in: A new collection of art from INX, the op-ed illustration syndication service that I am an occasional member of, edited by the great caricaturist Martin Kozlowski. I quote from the press release:

David Chelsea is reading:

Comics: Between the Panels

by Steve Duin and Mike Richardson

"In over 275 explosive illustrations, INX Battle Lines etches a searing picture history of the last three decades. These are the very best drawings from the files of the INX Group –– images that have been syndicated to journals of opinion in the U.S. and abroad since 1980.

The 55 renowned artists represented here are equal-opportunity offenders, and their work crosses party lines –– Red States run red and Blue States sing the blues in works that are by turns hilarious, harrowing, and haunting.

The book contains brilliant black & white and color illustrations by Jean-François Allaux, Michelle Barnes, Melinda Beck, Paulette Bogan, Steve Brodner, Yvonne Buchanan, Horacio Cardo, Giora Carmi, David Chelsea, Paul Corio, Scott Cunningham, Bob Dahm, Henrik Drescher, Randall Enos, Vivienne Flesher, Bob Gale, Felipe Galindo, Glenn Head, David Gothard, Tom Hachtman, Rupert Howard, Jordin Isip, Ryan Inzana, Frances Jetter, Randy Jones, Susann Ferris Jones, Janusz Kapusta, Thomas Kerr, David Klein, Igor Kopelnitsky, Ira Korman, Martin Kozlowski, Peter Kuper, Liz Lomax, Matthew Martin, Mark Matcho, Robert Neubecker, Laird Ogden, Rick Reason, Bill Russell, Steven Salerno, Betsy Scheld, Sara Schwartz, Jill Karla Schwarz, David Shannon, Rob Shepperson, Brad Teare, Seth Tobocman, Peter Vey, Christophe Vorlet, Charles Waller, Ellen Weinstein, James Williamson, Glenn Wolff, and Robert Zimmerman.

If you're a fan of great illustration, political cartoons, or hair-trigger satire, you will be mesmerized by this collection.

Friend or foe, you'll want to see where these expert artists draw the line."

I am honored that my caricature of Obama occupies the southeast corner of the cover:

Order INX Battle Lines: Three Decades of Political Illustration from Amazon

Perspective! And Extreme Perspective! In Korean!

I have just heard from Yeong-jin Ahn, a translator living in South Korea, that Viz and Biz is issuing a Korean-language edition of Extreme Perspective! (its first foreign translation) later this month, along with a new printing of Perspective!, which they first issued in 2007. I'll share images from both books when I get my author's copies, but for now here's an image of the cover of Perspective! which I found online:

David Chelsea is reading:

Comic Art Propaganda: A Graphic History

by Fredrik Strömberg