Lookout! It's Bill Presing!

That Greta design sure is awesome. Look at that chiseled goddess face!

BAM! Loud sound effects seem fitting here. After all it's the arrival of our esteemed comrade-in-arms, Bill Presing to the world of artist blogs, . He of the bare knuckles, don't-tell-me-the-odds, head first style of visual storytelling; exemplified in his stellar book about smashing nazi's, compellingly titled, Rex Steele, Nazi Smasher.

It took him long enough. He saunters into my room one day just this week, with that cat-had-canary-snack smile and says,"I made a blog." This after years of my prodding for him to jump in, he blindsides me. Typical. And it's very aptly titled, Daily Peril. Genius. But just in time, I say. He's got one big doozy of an offering coming your way this summer at Comic-con. I'm not telling. Go visit his site and check out the intitial offerings.


This is a detail of one of the illustrations posted in Bill's site. Go there to see da whole girl. I dare ya.

He sure can draw them babes, that Presing. Not bad for a hard drinking, cigar chomping former Jersey truck driver. Go ask him to about his trucker travails at the con. Remember to duck right after. Bam!

Daily Peril

Sketchcrawl 14 and auction a grand success!

I'm a little behind on my post but here it is. Coit Tower, Sketchcrawlers lazer sighted on their targets.

Hurrah! Congratulations to all who participated in Sketchcrawl 14 and auction benefiting Emergency. There was such an air of anticipation on the Saturday crawl, our Emergency reps were there to send us off and hand out information to all about the Emergency mission. The hike to and up the Filbert Steps is always invigorating, I love seeing the reaction of people who've not been before. It is so worth climb. The Coit Tower perch offers quite a view but as always the best targets are fellow crawlers--they stay so still as they draw.


We were over 80 strong! We looked like protest rally, all we needed were placards.

We ended up at in China town after a lunch break at Washington Square. The last hour of the crawl that afternoon is our traditional sharing of the sketchbooks. My favorite part because we see so many styles and modes of expression. It's all great. Thanks for sharing, everyone.

AUCTION TIME! Sunday. The crowd started arriving promptly at five and with the array of over 90 pieces of artwork to choose from it was tough--you can want a lot, you know. I personally bid on about ten pieces. It was fun and, as anticipated, competition was fierce.


One highlight of the night was a sketch of Carmen Ngai I did on the spot and taped next to the framed works. It immediately started getting bids! My thanks to Carmen for being such a good sport.

The frenzy kicks in as the clock is counted down to the end of bidding. Man, there was some stiff man-to-artwork guarding going on. Derek Thompson did a great job as M.C. and Mike Murnane carried it all home as auction master bringing the final bids on the most contested pieces to their final higher bids. I won master Tadahiro Uesugi's framed beauty as well as Manuel Arenas'. See my happy mug in Sho Murase's blog here.


Marshalling sketchrawlers through our whole day trek is fun, though I did do less drawings this time. I promise to get more done next time.

Our thanks to all who participated on both days as well as everyone who contributed to our fundraiser. We appreciate all your help and it sure was a fun way to help out for a good cause and we hope you had as grand a time as we had putting this all together. Special thanks to Maverix for being such a well-oiled and dedicated crew, it was so awesome to be working alongside you guys. Noelle Page and Carmen Ngai (Official Sketchcrawl Babes) for keeping us organized as well as always being there for us. Take a well deserved bow, everyone!

See you all at the next Sketchcrawl!

___________

For a full report visit Enrico's blog for more details on both days here, here, and here.

Emergency
Maverix Studios
Sketchcrawl 14 Forum

Fantastic photos by Bosco Ng here.

Sketchcrawl 14 countdown and warm up

Staying limber. Drawing whenever I find myself with a span of time where I can sit still. Last February at Union Square, always a target rich environment. Right in front of Cafe Rulli. What more can you ask for? Espresso drink, table and chair. Perfect. I need to get back to it. The next Sketchcrawl is nearly here and I've not drawn on the sketchbook much because of the crunch in making story reels. We just passed a milestone and it's time for a little exhale.



I also draw plants more now. After a trip to the jungle last year where I drew many plants and trees I am now afflicted with a need to keep drawing them. Very relaxing.



Don't forget about our Sketchcrawl event coming up. May 19, 2007, Enrico and I will be meeting everyone in San Francisco, at the Ferry Building at The Embarcadero, 11:00a.m.

See you there.

Video Ping Pong for the masses!

On my way to a meeting I dropped by Josh "Major" Minor's office. I played Pong! I was late for my meeting. But what fun, eh?

The Joshua Minor variety, that is. I work with incredibly talented folk here at ye olde Pixar house of ideas. Josh is a graphic software engineer and all around nice guy. Along with Michael Johnson, he is part of Tools MPG here at Pixar. They make "stuff" for us story folk to aid us in telling stories. But it's not all heavy brow knitting all the time, Josh here likes to make games. You remember Pong, right? Well, you can have the J. Minor version with a click of the mouse. And the fun part is that you're in the picture and use your hands to paddle!

Go to the website and pick up the game here.
Here's a video of how it works.

He's going to Hongkong to exhibit this here game at the Kapok Gallery. Have fun, Josh! And if you don't like pong maybe you'll like to play with monkeys instead: Monkey Patrol.