David Chelsea's Blog, page 43

Ask Mr. Perspective

A reader known only as "John" writes in with a somewhat technical question:

Hi, is there a method to measure the degree of an ellipse? I know I can buy an ellipse template, but is there a way to do it without one?

David Chelsea is reading:

Habibi

by Craig Thompson

This one caused me a bit of mental anguish, because I couldn't find a rule in the books, and so had to work it out for myself. I started by trying to draw an isometric ellipse, beginning with a line the width of the long axis (which is unforshortened and therefore the same width as the circle in plan), line A-B. I then took that line and tipped it to what I know to be the angle a cube is tipped in isometric projection, approximately 35.264°, line B-C. I then drew another horizontal line D-E, touching C and crossing vertical lines from A and B to form a bounding box for the ellipse, with long and short axes dividing the box in half. The construction basically agrees with the isometric ruling lines already on the paper, and I'm certain the same principle will apply to a circle (in which case B-C will stick straight up at a 90 degree angle), so I will go out on a limb and say this will work for an ellipse of whatever degree. If you have an ellipse of unknown degree, you would work backward to find its inclination.

Next question?

More Letters To Steve

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Los Angeles was a visit to my friend Steven Abrams. In addition to showing me his office at the Jimmy Kimmel show, Steve let me borrow a bunch more of the decorated envelopes I've sent him over the years (Previous blog post with more letters to Steve) to scan for that long-planned collection.

David Chelsea is reading:

Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women

by Rebecca Traister

Here are five from the batch. Doodled figures of nudes drawn at Hipbone Studio mingle with cartoon characters copied from Winsor McCay's Dreams Of The Rarebit Fiend. The elephant was sketched during downtime at a comics convention. The rounded forms of last year's apple and quince crop nicely complement the rounded form of an unnamed ex-girlfriend (top and bottom).

Thanks, Steve. I'll be sending these back in a nice envelope.

RIP, Andy Rooney.

"Andy Rooney, Jr.", caricature for the New York Observer.

David Chelsea is reading:

Drinking at the Movies

by Julia Wertz

Back To Eugene

This Saturday, October 22nd, I'll be heading back to Eugene (site of my most recent 24 hour Comics event) to give a perspective talk and live drawing demonstration at noon at the University of Oregon's Downtown Baker Center in connection with the DIVA Art Of The Graphic Novel exhibit. This will largely replicate the presentations I gave at Stumptown in April and at Gage Academy in September. I'll be showing examples of work done over the whole of my career and even before:

After the Jack Benny Show opener, early 1960s

David Chelsea is reading:

The Cardboard Valise

by Ben Katchor

Mostly I'll concentrate on pieces drawn over pre-existing perspective grids, such as those found on the bonus disc of my new book Extreme Perspective!, and I'll be signing copies of that book, among others.

David Chelsea will give a free art talk on drawing "Keeping it in Perspective"

Saturday, Oct. 22nd, 2011 at noon

The UO Baker Center.

325 E. 10th Ave.

Eugene, OR

Phone: 541-346-4231

Go Ducks!

Grid Disc

Perspective Grid

Illustration, Early 80s

Self-promotion piece, mid-80s

Illustration for Geriatric Nursing Magazine, 1984

Computer-generated grid

Illustration for New York Press, 1999

Illustration for New York Press, 1999

Page from 24 Hour Comic, 2004

Page from 24 Hour Comic, 2004

More Photos From 24 Hour Comic Event At DIVA

That's me without my specs in the top picture, with event organizer and participant Kenneth O'Connell. See also this fine series of black and white shots by Robert Hill Long on Flickr.

David Chelsea is listening to:

Holding Out For A Hero

by Frou Frou

24 #13: Ink & Memory

I drew my thirteenth 24 Hour Comic last weekend on International 24 Hour Comic Day, October 1, 2011. at DIVA, The Downtown Initiative For The Visual Arts in Eugene, Oregon (my first ever 24 session outside Portland).

David Chelsea is reading:

Classics Illustrated #2: The Invisible Man

by Rick Geary

Saturday's session took place in the downtown gallery space of DIVA. I was one of ten artists, almost all of whom were doing the challenge for the first time. I have only been able to find one picture from the event online; it shows my fellow participant Mirkan Schoolcraft hard at work. Below it is a picture of me from another 24 Hour Comic Day event a few years back. The event got a lot of ink in the local press- below are links to a story in the University of Oregon student paper the Emerald and two in the Eugene Register-Guard:

story by Bob Keefer in The Eugene Register-Guard.

story by Winston Ross in The Eugene Register-Guard

story by Baylea O'Brien in The Oregon Daily Emerald

This latest story is pretty much plotless, a tour through my personal "Memory Palace", which is a technique I use for remembering things- say, the items on a shopping list- by mentally placing them in the rooms of an imaginary building. I learned about memory palaces from the recent book Moonwalking With Einstein by journalist Joshua Foer, which recounts a year he spent training for the US Memory Championship.

Since I ran out of memory palace items several pages short of the full 24 (actually 23, since I inadvertently skipped page 16- oops!), I filled out the story with a list of The Presidents Of The United States in numerical order, using a cipher system to convert their numbers into memorable words (for example, James Buchanan has a tail because he is the 15th President, and in this cypher system 1 is represented by "t"or "d" and 5 is represented by "l.").

[image error]

Many thanks to Eric Ostlind of DIVA for opening his space to us, and especially to Ken O'Connell of U of O and Copic Marker for providing not just refreshments and art supplies (my story was drawn on pre-ruled manga board), but also a place for me to sleep the night before the event.

And don't forget The Art of the Graphic Novel + 24 Hour Comics exhibit at DIVA, which runs from October 7th through November 19th. The opening reception is tonight from 5:30-7:30pm.

In addition to work by Mike T. Gilbert, Steve Baggs, Matt Clark, Bruce Timm, Sean Aberg, Mike Allred, Matt Brundage, Michael Avon Oeming, Sophie Navarro and others, the show includes pages from all of my first twelve 24 Hour Comics.

Art of the Graphic Novel 
& 24 Hour Comic Exhibit

October 7th through November 19th

DIVA Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts

280 West Broadway, Eugene, OR

(541) 344-3482

Hours: 1-5PM Friday and Saturday

Opening reception Friday, October 7th from 5:30-7:30pm.

Art Of The Graphic Novel At Diva

I'm in an upcoming show at DIVA, The Downtown Initiative For The Visual Arts in Eugene, Oregon. The Art of the Graphic Novel + 24 Hour Comics runs from October 7th through November 19th. The opening reception is this Friday from 5:30-7:30pm. It's free until 7:30pm, there will be food and drink and it's during Eugene's Art Walk, which brings about 300+ people through the doors (Just don't expect to see me there. I went down last week for 24 Hour Comic Day- about which I'll post soon- and I'll be back on the 22nd for a perspective talk. That's enough travel for one month!)

David Chelsea is watching:

The Young Ones: Every Stoopid Episode

In addition to work by Mike T. Gilbert, Steve Baggs,  Matt Clark, Bruce Timm, Sean Aberg, Mike Allred, Matt Brundage, Michael Avon Oeming, Sophie Navarro and others, the show includes pages from all of my first twelve 24 Hour Comics, including this one:

and this one:

After last weekend my total is up to thirteen, which is a World Record until someone tells me different.

Art of the Graphic Novel 
& 24 Hour Comic Exhibit

October 7th through November 19th

DIVA Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts

280 West Broadway, Eugene, OR

(541) 344-3482

Hours: 1-5PM Friday and Saturday

Opening reception Friday, October 7th from 5:30-7:30pm.

Signs Of A Welcome To The Zone Cult

Only sixteen years late, here is a surprisingly generous unsolicited review of my second graphic novel Welcome To The Zone by the comics blogger Diabolu Frank (for my own more jaundiced take on the book, click here and here). I actually have cautiously optimistic news for all you Welcome To The Zone Cultists out there- I have been in talks with an unnamed Major Publisher about a reissue, possibly as a digital book.

(Special thanks to Jacob Mercy for finding Diabolu Frank's review.)

David Chelsea is listening to

A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War

by Amanda Foreman

24 Hour Comic Day In Eugene

24 Hour Comic Day is coming around again this Saturday, and since there is no Portland event this year, I have accepted an invitation to draw my lucky thirteenth 24 hour comic at Downtown Initiative For The Visual Arts (DIVA) in Eugene, Oregon. I'll let their press release tell it:

David Chelsea is reading:

God, No!

by Penn Gillette

Get out your coffee: Local artists who want to test their creativity and push their artistic limits are invited to the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts for this year's 24-Hour Comics Day. The day of extreme cartooning allows 24 straight hours for amateur and professional cartoonists of any age to challenge themselves to write, draw, and letter an entire 24-page comic. This year's 24 Hour Comics Day starts at DIVA, October 1 at 12 p.m.

Creating comic art can be lonely work; 24-Hour Comics Day provides an opportunity to stretch creative muscles and get invigorated by working along side a group of fellow artists. Portland artist David Chelsea, a record holder for 24 Hour Comics, will be participating, and is featured in DIVA's October Exhibit. Ken O'Connell, local sketchbook artist-instructor and Professor Emeritus is also excited to be part of the event.

This year's 24 Hour Comic's Day will be held at the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts. Imagination International will be sponsoring the event. ComicsPRO, the comic book retailer trade association organizes the day for comic stores and other locations.

The event is about sharing the love of comic-book creation, and it draws young and old, experienced and novice. Don't let a lack of experience or materials keep you away - previous participants have been as young as 7, and have use supplies ranging from a box of Crayolas to top-of-the-line drawing pencils. "Celebrity" 24 Hour Comic book creators include Neil Gaiman ("Sandman"), Erik Larson ("Savage Dragon"), Steve Bissette ("Swamp Thing") and 24 Hour Comics inventor, Scott McCloud ("Understanding Comics").

While it's free to participate, pre-registration is required to guarantee a spot as space is limited at DIVA.

In 2010, more than 2,000 professional and amateur cartoonists around the world took the 24 Hour Comics Day Challenge.

Artists who complete the challenge may submit copies of their comics to be included in the official 24 Hour Comics Collection hosted by the Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum & Library.

For more information about the event, visit DIVA's online by clicking here, or the 24-Hour Comics Day website.

24 Hour Comic Day

Saturday October 1, 2011

12 pm on

DIVA Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts

280 West Broadway, Eugene, OR

(541) 344-3482

Spidermail!

Here is a recent private commission for a Facebookfriend in Austin, Texas, who asked me to draw his favorite character Spiderman on an envelope.

David Chelsea is reading:

Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants

by Richard Mabey

Todd McFarlane: off-model?

The genesis of this particular image goes back to my freelance illustrator days in New York, when I was hired by a graphic designer friend to do conceptual sketches of what Spiderman banners would look like in a parade. Marvel Comics was the client, and when the brass there saw my off-model renderings of their star character they were horrified and insisted I be replaced by a whiz kid in their bullpen whom the designer told me could "draw Spiderman on the toilet". (She also showed me drawings by the current top Spiderman artist, Todd McFarlane, whose giant white eye holes sure looked off-model to me). The incident left me with a chip on my shoulder, but don't ever let anyone tell you that opportunity knocks just once. A quarter century later, here is my chance to show the world- I can draw Spiderman on the toilet too!