Animated Personality: Aglaia Mortecheva

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animation, artwork, cartoonist, digital painting, illustration, innovation

Animated Personality: Aglaia Mortcheva

 

When did you first think about art as something you wanted to do? Were you encouraged or discouraged by family, friends, teachers, mentors?

I always loved drawing, but remember deciding to become an artist at age seven. I had just started school andhated it. Mostly hated getting up so early! I was under the impression that artists don’t have to wake up early or go to school.I was sorely mistaken! My family always supported me. My parents are artists and very bohemian. They hardly noticed what I was doing, but were supportive to a fault. Still are.

 

 

What kind of kid were you? What were your influences?

I was very independent kid and quite wild. I grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was a communist country back then, very closed off and repressed. But as kids none of it affected us too much.My parents made sure to shield us from a lot. My biggest influence was my dad’s amazing library of art books and literature. Nothing was off limits, there were no age restrictions and no censorship. Also, my grandmother Daphna’s crazy stories, very picturesque and saucy. She would embellish them daily, depending on her mood.

Your style is very unique. Did you work on developing a style or is that what naturally came out of you?

It came naturally, but I lost it along the way, especially during my years in art school. I went to art school in Bulgaria. It was very rigid – Socialist Realism all the way, as you can imagine. My weird creatures and playful color pallet were not appreciated.

It took me awhile to get the confidence to bring my natural style back. Illustrating children’s books and working in animation as a character designer helped a to free me and get back to what I love.

You work in a few different areas like children’s books,
animation, magazine illustration, etc. How did that happen?

Mostly it all happens by accident and also very naturally… 

I am  a very curious person and I can’t say no to work. I say yes to all kinds of projects. Often I will take any little job that comes my way, at least half of the time it leads me somewhere interesting and brings more opportunities, and more contacts with great people.

I just think of artistic challenges as adventures. Some people jump off cliffs and swim with sharks, I face a blank canvas and it thrills me.

How has the advent of the computer affected your work? Do you work traditionally and digitally?

I work both ways. I love the new technology. More fun tools to play with and it keeps me learning new stuff. Also, I have become a bit of a clean freak and minimalist in my old age, so when I work
digitally I like how clean my studio is! Also it keeps my toddlers from eating the paints and drinking the solvents…which is very useful! 

 

For More of this interview go to https://issuu.com/lonfellow/docs/ij.best_of_2018_v2

Addams, Gorey, Schulz & Seuss Headline March 21 Auction

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artist as brand, Charles Schulz, Charlie Brown, Dr Suess, drawing, The Addams Family

Dr. Suess and Friends

Three of the greatest cartoonist and kidlitart artists of all time. And you can grab a piece of history if you are in New York when the auction for their work takes place. All three have inspired me since my youth and I still read Peanuts whenever I see it. The wisdom in each of these greats still rings truest if you can’t make it to the auction google their work, read their books or cartoon strips and fill yourself with creativity that is the top of what can be achieved!

New York— On Tuesday, March 21, Swann Galleries will hold an auction of Illustration Art, featuring original works of art intended for publication.

A run of original illustrations for the popular Babar series includes the top lot of the sale—the ink and watercolor design for the cover for the third book, Le Roi Babar, 1933, by Jean de Brunhoff, is estimated to sell between $20,000 and $30,000. Further beloved children’s characters include an illustration for Ludwig Bemelmans’s 1956 Madeline and the Bad Hat, titled “He said – ‘Let’s play a game of tag’ and let a cat out of the bag,” valued at $7,000 to $10,000. The sale will also offer works by Maurice Sendak, as well as several storyboard illustrations from Walt Disney Studios, including Ben Ali Gator and Hyacinth Hippo waltzing the Dance of the Hours for the 1940 classic Fantasia, estimated at $800 to $1,200.

Also available are several original drawings by Dr. Seuss (aka Theodore Geisel), led by A Gentle Sport, Forsooth, a charming ink, watercolor and wash dragon first published in Judge Magazine’s April 1929 issue, and a 1930s cartoon for Life magazine titled The Skier and the Walrus (each $8,000 to $12,000).

The largest selection of works by Edward Gorey ever to come to market showcases 12 works by the beloved master of the macabre. The cover for a circa-1950 unrealized work titled The Worsted Monster is valued between $8,000 and $12,000. Additionally, there are costume and set designs, as well as numerous sketches and published illustrations for book covers, which include Chance, a Novel by Joseph Conrad and Cobweb Castle ($3,500 to $5,000 and $6,000 to $9,000, respectively).

Charles Schulz and Charlie Brown

Two Peanuts strips by Charles M. Schulz include an early work, titled Here comes the big Polar Bear stalking across the snow!, 1957, featuring Snoopy and Charlie Brown, as well as Mister Sensitive, 1974, depicting Snoopy and Lucy (each $6,000 to $9,000).

One staple of Swann Galleries’ Illustration Art auctions is a robust section of cartoons and covers for The New Yorker. This spring’s selection includes original works by Peter Arno, Charles Barsotti, Ilonka Karasz, Saul Steinberg, Tom Toro and Gahan Wilson, from as early as 1933 to as recently as 2016. Charles Addams is represented by Z Line Subway, a 1979 cartoon into which he snuck Uncle Fester, Wednesday and Grandmama from The Addams Family ($6,000 to $9,000).

The Addams Family

In addition to the previously mentioned work by Charles Addams, the sale boasts new-to-market works consigned by the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation, including a cartoon depicting the entire Addams Family ($6,000 to $9,000), and a 1957 cover for The New Yorker titled Scuba Galleon, estimated at $8,000 to $12,000.

Early magazine covers by Erté include Sports d’Hiver, which graced the Harper’s BazaarFebruary 1933 issue, valued here at $8,000 to $12,000. Erté is also represented by several of his original set designs and costumes. There are additional early covers by McLelland Barclay, Umberto Brunelleschi and Georges Lepape.

A raucous selection of pulp is led by Harold von Schmidt’s oil painting to accompany a 1935 story in Cosmopolitan, captioned “But my husband—” Cleone gasped. “He’d kill you!” ($10,000 to $15,000). Further selections include Earl Moran’s pastel A Sweet Job, circa 1940, estimated at $6,000 to $9,000, and the oil on canvas Over My Dead Body, 1932, by Remington Schuyler, which was the cover illustration for West magazine ($3,000 to $4,000).

There is a strong run of original works by Al Hirschfeld featuring three iconic pen and ink caricatures depicting Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, commissioned in 1997 and each valued at $7,000 to $10,000. Hirschfeld is additionally represented by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, a gouache painting that was used as the cover for The American Mercury magazine in 1946 ($3,000 to $4,000).

From the nineteenth century come two floral ornaments by Aubrey Beardsley for Le Morte d’Arthur, 1893-94, are led by Spiky Leaves on a Stem ($6,000 to $9,000). A rare pen and ink drawing by the master, Squatting Devil Fishing, for the title page of The Bon-Mots of Sydney Smith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1893, is estimated at $4,000 to $6,000.

The auction will be held Tuesday, March 21, beginning at 1:30 p.m. The auction preview will be open to the public Friday, March 17 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, March 18 from noon to 5 p.m.; Monday, March 20 through Tuesday, March 21, from 10 a.m. to noon.

An illustrated auction catalogue is available for $35 at www.swanngalleries.com.

For further information or to make advance arrangements to bid by telephone during the auction, please contact Illustration Art Specialist Christine von der Linn at 212-254-4710, extension 20 or cv@swanngalleries.com.

Image: Lot 258 Charles Addams, Scuba Galleon, watercolor and gouache, cover illustration for The New Yorker, September 1957. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

Graphic Novels Casting a Long Shadow

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artist as brand, digital painting, graphic novel, illustration, innovation, levinland, technology

I’m an artist who grew up on comics and cartoons. I used to sit in front of the TV when I was a kid and draw cartoon characters as they raced across the screen. Later I drew my own cartoon. One of my first influences was Ed “Big Daddy” Roth

My friends and I would draw all types of drag racing monsters in hot rods emulating our hero. Later this gave way to “Mad Magazines” Artists like Mort Drucker, Jack Davis and Sergio Aragones fueled my artistic desires. In fact Sergio showed up at my high school to talk about his career. (He was married to one of our teachers) I was mesmerized.

Then sometime latter when I was in college I met Ralph Bakshi, who allowed me to hang around with him and Frank Frazetta as they created Fire and Ice. I learned a ton and after a few months Ralph declared me an illustrator not an animator and suggested I go back to school. I enrolled at Art Center after graduating UCLA. Three years later I emerged as a multi-talented illustrator/art director.

My training as an art director and later a creative director served me well and allowed me to thrive in the rough and tumble entertainment world.

Now coming full circle I’ve evolved into a hybrid cartoonist,graphic novelist,webisodist crafting my vision of the world I grew up in. The explosion of the graphic novel format has birthed a slew of interesting projects. My “Kid From Beverly Hills” is part of that explosion. Although I remain (purposely) on the outskirts of this art form I am all in on developing something I hope viewers will take a liking to and value the content. I am not ruled by publishers or my pocketbook. It is a labor of love and truth.

This article below by Fiona Smyth is instructive and to the point. Her art is terrific and her voice is clear and to the point. Dig it…

 

Art above by Lon Levin  all right reserved. For more go to http://www.levinlandstudio.com

By Fiona Smyth, painter, illustrator, and cartoonist

In the Comics and Graphic Novels course in OCAD U’s Continuing Studies, I explore and share information about the exciting contemporary comics scene. In recent years the media has rung the death knell of publishing but surprisingly there is a wealth of graphic novels being published.

The biggest trends in comics:

• The popularity and critical acclaim of autobiographic and graphic memoir work like Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home
• The rise of newer cartooning genres like journalistic comics such as Joe Sacco’s Palestine and Graphic Medicine such as Joyce Farmer’s Special Exits and John Porcellino’s The Hospital Suite
• Digital platforms are looking for creators of compelling content
• Comics are being employed as an accessible and engaging literacy tool
• Universities are finally recognizing the merits of the comics medium as literature, and as a research and educational tool

An emerging cartoonist doesn’t have to rely on a large publisher to have their work printed these days:

• You can begin a blog and use social media to create an audience
• Crowd funding can be used to publish one’s work (Kickstarter, Indiegogo)
• There are Canadian festivals and conventions that offer the opportunity to sell self-published zines and books such as The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), Canzine (Toronto and Vancouver), Expozine (Montreal), FanExpo, ComicCon,  Zine Dream (Toronto) and the Toronto Queer Zine Fair

The comics medium is currently flourishing through self-publishing, smaller publishers, and an insatiable reading audience’s search for stories told by creators outside the mainstream media.

You can learn more by registering for Fiona Smyth’s Comics and Graphic Novels course this summer at OCAD University.

Fiona Smyth is a Toronto based painter, illustrator, and cartoonist. Smyth’s first graphic novel, The Never Weres, was published by Annick Press in 2011. A collection of her Exclaim comics, Cheez 100, was published by Pedlar Press in 2001. She illustrated writer Cory Silverberg’s Kickstarter funded picture book What Makes A Baby in 2012, re-released by Seven Stories Press in 2013.

The Kid From Beverly Hills Strikes Again

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artist as brand, cartoonist, comics, digital media, graphic novel, illustration, innovation, Levinland studio, technology, webisodes

Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s in Beverly Hillsand Los Angeles was quite the experience. We regularly saw great performers at the Whiskey,Troubadour and Hollywood Paladium, went surfing at Topanga, Malibu and Point Dume. and hung out at Randy’s Doughnuts, Ships and DL’s. These webisodes are design to give the viewer part of that experience.

The Kid From Beverly Hills: Episode Two

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cartoonist, innovation, Levinland studio, lon levin, technology, twitter

Remember Beverly Park and the Kiddie Rides?

From 1945-1974, children growing up in Los Angeles had their own mini-fair year round. Beverly Park operated on less than an acre, on the corner of Beverly Blvd. and La Cienega, the present home of the Beverly Center Mall. There were usually about twelve kid-sized rides, as well as animals, hot dogs and cotton candy. Parents sat on benches watching their children ride the merry-go-round, and birthday parties were celebrated at picnic tables. For the children who grew up going to this pebble-strewn, family- run park, it was a respite from city life- quite simply put: “It was heaven.”

Article By Hadley Meares | November 1, 2013

Art by Lon Levin 2015

Ebola Exposed: How I surf the net and found something relevant

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artist as brand, Ebola, illustration, illustrators journal, Nigeria, this week in digital media on blogtalk radio

I couldn’t sleep this morning so I got up and surfed the net and came to a site run by an illustrator named Olusola Akinseye who hails from Nigeria. Interested I look at his work and was struck by the cultural differences as well as the similarities to my work in the children’s area. As I probed further I found that Olusola had illustrated a presentation for Ebola Exposed! It is a free illustrated publication commissioned in the wake of the West Africa Ebola outbreak.

The goal of the booklet is to provide basic information about the Ebola Virus Disease using colorful cartoon illustrations. According to Olusola the initial awareness is cooling off but sadly there is still need for care and concern. So I’m passing this info along because it literally illustrates something important to everyone in a clever and inviting way. Check out the Eboloa Exposed

In addition check out Olusola’s art on Behance. Look art cuts across countries like a hot knife thru butter. The look might be different, the colors may take on different combinations and the content may be regional but the creativity behind the art is the same. We artists are all trying to use our visions to illustrate our point-of-view about the world around us. Check out this terrific piece of art below created by Olusola.

The Illustrators Journal/Spring Edition 2014 is out!

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artist as brand, cartoonist, cartoons, childrens books, digital media, digital painting, drawing, illustration, illustrators journal, innovation, xanate media

Xanatemedia is proud to bring you the spring issue (volume 6) of the “illustrators Journal”. It’s gotten a whole new look and design as well as all new articles and interviews! We sit down with children’s illustrator, Bob McMahon, take a look at legendary gaming creator/writer Christy Marx and talk with master of lighting art Bruce Munro. In addition, LPIK, our photography magazine debuts with three new interviews; James Vaughan, Justin Rosenberg and Tony Donaldson. Please let us know what you think and offer any suggestions you like to enhance our upcoming issues. We are always on the look out as to how we can make a better read!   Editor

The Illustrators Journal

TOMORROW’S YOUR FUTURE YESTERDAY

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agency Access, artist as brand, cartoons, digital media, illustrators journal, lon levin, mail chimp, marketing sales, this week in digital media on blogtalk radio


I love that line. It’s the words from Craig Ferguson’s Late Night TV Show theme song. I find it intriguing and it gets me thinking about how far technology has advanced in the last twenty-five years.

To illustrate this point, I had a “wow” moment one day in 1989, when I walked into Graham Nash’s home studio(Crosby Stills and Nash) and saw him working on a MAC Classic with a color monitor. I felt like a caveman who just witnessed fire for the first time. I immediately put a second mortgage on my home in order to buy a fully outfitted 80 MB Mac Classic with a 20MB syquest drive, an Electrahome monitor (which weighed a ton), a black and white laser printer and an $8000 Howtek scanner. I recently saw some of those items in the Smithsonian Museum. Within a year or so that equipment was outdated and another year or two made it worthless. But I was ahead of the curve and I was hooked for life. My next buy was much cheaper and far more effective and powerful. Now the same power can be found in a cheap phone and the screen resolution is far better. The prices have dropped to levels that anyone can afford.Today I am as comfortable using new media and the power of the internet as I am breathing. My life has been enriched beyond what I could’ve ever imagined. Anyone who hasn’t kept up with the amazing advances in technology is really missing something that’s exciting. Being a “Techie” so to speak is probably the best way to keep yourself relevant and informed. And you just might have a ball doing it.

So how does that relate to being an artist or getting work as an illustrator? Branding, social media marketing baby! You are your own marketing and advertising firm. Write the copy, create the visual, do the PR, shoot the video, and post it all to a list you acquired from Agency Access.  Well does that work? Will  get a job if I do that? The answer is who knows, but it won’t hurt. You can save a lot of money by learning these easy methods of promoting yourself and you can monitor it and analyze the data.

It is easier today to contact people who make decisions than it ever has been and with a little calling around to people who have opened your Mailchimp promo you will start to penetrate the market and find out if you have the juice you need to get jobs or if you need to hone your skills a little more. Don’t stay put and don’t stay in the dark, Your greatest chance to be a success is to become a Techie. Learn all you can about the apps and programs design to help you, then start peppering the Gatekeepers with your work. Jack down some coffee then start calling them one by one  and you may get lucky!

Icons Have Lives Too

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cartoon, cartoonist, cartoons, childrens books, graphics, icons, innovation, lon levin, technology

I’m not talking about celebrities or sports stars I’m talking graphics. Here they are “The Icons”

Harryhausen Special Effects/Stop-Motion Genius

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artist as brand, Avatar, Cameron, Harryhausen, illustration, illustrators journal, innovation, levinland, lon levin, Lucas, Nazis, nude sketch, power rangers, Spielberg, stop motion, suicide girls

Suicide Girls, Avatars, Transformers, Power Rangers, Star Wars…all inspired by Harryhausen in one way or another.

I remember seeing The Seven Voyages of Sinbad when I was a little kid and it terrified me and at the same time fascinated me. It was one of those seminal moments in life when you say I want to do something like that. The creator of that movie along with many other magical films and programs was Ray Harryhausen, who died yesterday in London. He was 92.

I saw this article by Oliver Gettelli in the LA Times this morning and felt the need to express my thanks to Harryhausen for scaring me and inspiring me to create art. There are thousands of us who looked to him as an inspiration including Lucas, Spielberg and Cameron so celebrate his life and spend a little time getting to know his work, he may spark something in you too.

By Oliver Gettell May 7, 2013, 2:20 p.m.

Over the course of his imaginative and painstaking career, the stop-motion animation wizard Ray Harryhausen created some of the most dazzling effects to grace the silver screen, and all without the benefit of computer-generated imagery.

Following are but a few of Harryhausen’s memorable creations.

“Mighty Joe Young” (1949)

As a teenage boy, Harryhausen had been awestruck by the original “King Kong,” which was released in 1933, so the opportunity to work alongside that film’s animation guru, Willis O’Brien, on another giant-ape movie was something of a dream come true.

“Jason and the Argonauts” (1963)

Many of Harryhausen’s adventures were set in the ancient world, including 1958’s “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” and the groundbreaking “Jason and the Argonauts.” As trumpeted in the trailer below, “Jason” features such spectacles as “the towering bronze giant Thalos,” “vulturous harpies,” “the dreaded seven-headed hydra” and a “merciless army of skeletons.”

That last effect took four months to create for less than five minutes of screen time, Harryhausen told The Times in 2010.