Artist of the Week: Cartooning

Jake
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar

This week's artist is Jake. For once he was more than happy to pose for a picture. Normally he is a bit camera shy or, at the very least, impatient and not willing to humor repeated shots. When I told him it was for AOW he perked up and ran to get his art.

The art in question is actually a two for one deal. Last week he took a cartooning class up in Richmond at the Visual Arts Center. It was the same class I had forgotten about at the beginning of summer, but luckily was able to reschedule. In the class they learned about a little of the history of cartooning, various cheats and made both a strip and a comic. It ran for a full week and lasted three hours a day.

strip
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar

First up is his comic strip. He accidentally wrote it right to left, but it is not a big deal. As his instructor pointed out it is Japanese or "Manga" format (scroll down the Wiki entry to format). Traditionally Japanese comics are written from top to bottom, right to left. When Jake pointed out his strip's little quirk I observed that you could also call it Hebrew style since Hebrew is also read right to left. Anyway, direction aside, he hasn't quite finished the strip. It isn't fully inked and still needs a little tweaking, but never the less it is still fun.

cover
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar

Next up is his little comic book. If you click through on the picture it will direct you to the picture's page where you can then go on to the set. I have the whole book posted in order. You really should click it to get the full story, I think he did a great job.

The comic is a finished product and was made from one sheet of paper (Jake is holding it against his chest in the first photo for this post). He was able to make a photocopy and plans to make additional books to finish the story line. I'm going to try and push him just a smidgen to do the next issue, I would like to see the rest of the story. Knowing Jake, he has the storyline all mapped out in his head, he just needs a little push to write it all down.

Maybe if I tell him it would be another AOW feature that would be all the carrot he needs.