I was turned onto artist Enrique Alcatena’s work by my friend Jon Vinson(DUB Comics). Alcatena is well known in his native country of Argentina and has garnered international respect for his dark surrealist art. There are many comics by Alcatena still unpublished and untranslated here in the States. Hopefully some independent(or major) publisher picks up the slack soon and gives us some English language editions of his work.

In the meantime, you can still track down some of his earlier work in back issue bins, such as Predator vs. Judge Dredd and various Batman comics, including The Batman of Arkham Elseworlds Special with writer Alan Grant.

You can read more about the art of Enrique Alcatena in a recent article The Comics Exotic by the aforementioned Jon Vinson.

You can find Enrique Alcatena’s Art & Comics Facebook page here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

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Herbert enjoys a day at the groomer's.

King Cachilo tries to make his pet happy with shiny new baubles.

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March Johns is both clever and prolific, and his well loved drawings are available in a wide variety of products in his online shop here.

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White Hearts is part of my Daily Something series, meaning to do "something artful" daily. These little drawings help me think while I'm working on larger pieces, usually watercolor.

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The studio behind "The Lego Movie" is growing in a big way.

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Personally, I can never quite remember what snake it is that "looks" like a rattler. Bullsnake it is... but no matter what such thoughtful consideration of this particular situation isn't really necessary :)

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It is always so inspiring when I get to step out of the studio and work in the field with sketchbook in hand. My most recent painting trip was in France.

My goal was to gather ideas for a book I am just starting that is set in France, but even more importantly, to take some time away from the intense studio work and create an atmosphere of creative play and exploration. I want to see and record as much as I can when I am working in a sketchbook. But I also want to stretch myself as an artist, try new methods, experiment with new surfaces, tackle paintings I would never do in the studio, basically just climb out on a limb and PAINT. On this trip I painted in gardens and on street corners, I painted rooftops and sculptures, I even painted self portraits of myself because I wanted to record how happy I was while exploring. I worked in ink and watercolor, fountain pen and pencil. I had fun collecting bags from Paris shops and experimented with watercolor on toned surfaces. The warm brown paper bags made a wonderful surface to bounce the blue skies and dazzling light of Paris. Sketch trips are always a wonderful time to really push yourself to see new things and play with ideas on how to capture them in paint. I always feel thankful after painting trips and even a little reluctant to give up the freedom I find in the field as apposed to the studio. But journeys with sketchbooks always recharge me and fuel my ideas for stories. They make the work I create in the studio all the more meaningful because the work was started during such joyful adventures.

Here are a few of the sketches from this last trip.

The post Creative Play appeared first on Lita Judge.

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Did some more on some ideas.....in sketchbooks.
Like this....
Cut off the secret bit so you are just left with a dragon-

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Guest Post by Peter Adam Salomon
After The First Draft: Attitude Is Everything

      Congratulations, you've finished the first draft of your novel! This calls for a celebration. Lots of people have thought "I should write a book" and never started, or started and never finished.
      You've finished!
      Tell your friends, tell your family. Now get back to work. Because the hard part begins now.
      This is important: just as there were times while writing the first draft when you wanted to give up, there will be those same moments as you edit. But, just as you celebrated finishing that first draft, you’ll finish the second as well. And the fourteenth, and more, before you’re ready to query.
      After signing with an agent? More edits. After the novel sells? Yes, that's right: still more.
      There are a number of books on editing so that information can be found elsewhere.
      I'd like to talk about 'Attitude.' Yes, attitude.
      Editing is hard. The book's done, isn’t it?
      No. Not even close.
      The celebration is over and you have two things to do. They are NOT query and sell the novel. That's the goal and despite all the obstacles still to overcome it's within reach now that you've finished the first draft. But not yet.

      1) Let it sit. Untouched. Unread. Some will tell you to let it sit for a certain number of weeks or months. Let it sit. Ignore it. This is great advice. Unfortunately, the manuscript will keep calling to you: "Read Me!" So, my advice isn't so much a time frame as it is more 'attitude.' Let it sit just a little longer than is comfortable. Long enough so the passion starts coming back, until you’re dying to get back into the story and, then:
      2) Revise. Revise again. Revise so many times you can't answer people when they ask 'which draft are you on?' It's not always a matter of each ‘draft' being a complete revision; sometimes you’ll read though only to fix one particular thing (how many times your main character shrugs or the forty-seven times the wind catches her hair just right).

      Finally, let’s talk the most important ‘attitude’ of all: LOVE the revision process. Embrace it. Always remember: anyone who takes the time to give you constructive criticism has only one goal in mind: helping YOU make YOUR manuscript better. They’re trying to help. Helping is good. Revising is good. No matter how long it takes or how many times you want to give up.
      Thank them. Thank them again.
      One day, you'll remember that first draft and realize how much work it needed, how much work you did, how much better the ‘final’ version is.
      It will all be worth it the first time an agent calls you. When you post that your book sold. Or Tweet the cover art.
      That’s the goal. Loving revision will help you get there. You will have to revise and edit no matter what attitude you go into the process with, so learn to love it. It will make it easier, it will make your agent and editor love working with you (always a good thing). And it will teach you so much about writing that when you sit down to write your next book you won't make the same errors (of course, there will always be new errors to make).
      And that calls for another celebration!

About Peter:
      Peter Adam Salomon is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Horror Writers Association, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, the Science Fiction Poetry Association, the International Thriller Writers, and The Authors Guild and is represented by the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. His debut novel, HENRY FRANKS, published by Flux in 2012, was named one of the ten ‘Books All Young Georgians Should Read’ by The Georgia Center For The Book in 2014. His second novel, ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, was published in 2014 by Flux and has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award in the Young Adult category.
     Here's peek at Peter's favorite writing spot:

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We're already deep into may, but I still think these April drawings are worth posting:
April 25 was the quarterly Worldwide Sketchcrawl day. In Amsterdam, we gathered with about 30 people and mostly sketched inside, avoiding the rain. We basically took over 't Blauwe Theehuis, which is a great tea house in the middle of Vondelpark.

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Nick Park's iconic design style has gone prehistoric.

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Today is 'Habitat Day' when this top UK design store store offers 25% off everything online and in stores. So i thought it would be a great excuse for us to look at some of their latest Spring Summer 2015 prints and patterns. I especially fell for these stylised birds on their 'Pennie' cushion and tote bag (above) and the simple semi circles and subtle colours of their 'Odeon' design on a

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Talking of geometrics this is a sneak preview of new products coming to Marks & Spencer this summer. The watercolour geometrics in delicate colours will feature on storage tins and mugs. They should be available online and in some stores soon.

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Sunny Todd Prints are excited to launch their new collection of beautiful, hand printed cushions, featuring of six of their favourite patterns: Floral, Zig Zag, Diamond, Crosshatch, Feather and Spots & Dots. The cushion panels are hand printed onto the highest quality cotton fabric using environmentally friendly, water based inks in their signature 'offset' manner, which adds energy and almost

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The creator of "Adventure Time" and other artists created a special episode of "Uncle Grandpa."

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INSIDER BONUS

Member Paul Gleed has interviewed a number of agents in order to better help us understand a common communication from an agent to an author.

 

CELEBRATING PARTIAL SUCCESS: INSIDE AN AGENT'S REQUEST TO SEE MORE OF YOUR WORK

By Paul Gleed

 

 Another email from an agent arrives, another rejection. One after another, these polite denials trickle into the unrepresented author’s inbox for weeks after querying.  But wait!  This email doesn’t say “I’m not the right fit for this work,” and it doesn’t follow “Thank you for sending me this” with an instantly deflating “but.”  It actually asks for more of your work! 

Like water in a desert, an agent’s request for a ‘partial’ provides the aspiring writer with hope of the most fundamental kind.  Traditionally, if hooked by a query and the first ten manuscript pages often included therein, an agent solicits the first fifty pages of the manuscript. The truth is, of course, that this request guarantees nothing, but nonetheless marks an important milestone on the writer’s path to publication.  And while much is written about how to query an agent, or even the kinds of questions to ask of an agent if representation is offered, relatively little is out there to help a developing writer understand the processes behind the request for a partial.

The first thing to note about ‘the partial’ is how meaningful the request is.  Literary agent Victoria Sanders (Victoria Sanders and Associates) says an author can take "immense" satisfaction in having further work requested, even when it proves not to be the beginning of an agent/client relationship.  "You caught the eye of an agent," says Sanders, "and [even if] it did not result in representation, you are doing something right. Congratulations!" And certainly the numbers reinforce Sanders’ sentiment: All the agents I spoke to report requesting partials from no more than one percent of slush pile queries.   

What may not be so clear to writers, however, is the process and calibration behind an agent’s request.  When it comes to requesting a partial, in fact, agents fall into two basic camps: those who follow the tradition and those who don’t. For example, Michael Congdon and several of his colleagues at Don Congdon Associates Inc., request a full manuscript instead of a partial in response to an interesting query.  "Of course," says Congdon, "we can always ask for the full [ms] and then read only as far as we wish, which is why a partial’s economic consideration and physical convenience became a non-issue once snail mail stopped being the primary source of distribution."

    Other agents continue to use ‘the partial’ as part of their system, opting to request the smaller sample in some cases and the full manuscript in others.  How does an agent determine whether to request a full manuscript or a partial after the promising initial query, though?  "It depends on the book," says Doug Grad (Doug Grad Literary Agency Inc). "If the idea sounds good but the cover letter is iffy, I might ask for a partial. If I'm at a writer's conference, I might only ask for a partial simply because of the volume of people I meet there. If there's a great cover letter or a beautifully written synopsis, or it's an amazingly hot idea, then I might ask for the complete manuscript." 

So, a clear hierarchy emerges between the partial and the full request, and understanding the nature of this distinction helps to read the tea leaves contained in an agent’s communication.  “I almost always request a partial after reading a particularly great query,” says Kate Schafer Testerman (KT Literary, LLC). “Mostly because I can usually tell within those first five chapters if I want to read more, or if I've already made a decision and don't need to see anything more. I also like there being a tiered system—that more people get partial requests from me, and that a request for a full means they've already passed over several benchmarks for success.”

Despite this ranking between the two kinds of ‘see more’ request, a partial should not cause the writer to worry that a full was not initially requested.  “I've signed up nonfiction authors on just a proposal and some sample chapters,” says Adriana Dominguez (Full Circle Literary), “and have requested partials followed by full manuscripts that resulted in offers of representation.”

So the practical implications of a partial or full manuscript request are somewhat fluid, varying even within an individual agent’s experience and practice.  But the protocol an author should follow after the request for more of their work, partial or full, is much clearer.  A consensus emerged among agents interviewed that these following three steps are essential good form:

·         Don’t imagine that the request for a partial triggers a new and intimate relationship between author and agent.  Especially, do not take the request as a cue to ramp up communications.  "Authors need to be patient," says Grad, "but if you haven't heard anything back in 6-8 weeks, send a follow-up e-mail. But don't call me a week later demanding to know if I've read it. Kiss any chance goodbye then!"

Similarly, an author may receive some detailed feedback on their rejected partial, but they certainly should not expect or feel entitled to it. "If something really stands out and I feel that I need to go the extra mile for this person, then yes, I will [provide feedback]," says Sanders, but "sometimes, just due to volume, all I can do is decline, grateful for having had the opportunity to consider."

 

·         Inform the first agent if another agent requests a partial or full look at the same manuscript.  Keep all agents in the loop regarding activity around your manuscript.  "If requesting a partial," says Congdon, "the agent will definitely want to know if others are reading the full." It's the polite thing for an author to do, agrees Sanders, but it also "build[s] heat on their submission!"

 

·         Use your understanding of an agent’s process to inform ongoing revision and creative work.  “If I were an author [whose query lead to a partial],” says Dominguez, “I'd probably think that the first ten pages are doing exactly what they are supposed to do: spark interest in my project. If several requests for partials do not result in requests for full manuscripts and offers of representation, I may take a closer look at those initial pages, and especially the feedback received from the agents who requested the partials, to apply whatever worked there to the rest of my manuscript to make it as strong as possible, so that the next request for a full turns into an offer!”

 

Using this picture of when and why an agent requests a partial or a full manuscript, the author can take professional pride in an important accomplishment, correctly navigate the etiquette of an exciting but anxiety-ridden wait for word from the agent, and translate the mechanics of the submission process into potentially pivotal creative insights.  So,  while the 'partial' may have an unassuming, even diminutive name, its significant role in the writer's early journey needs to be fully understood.

 

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Thought provoking work from Heng Chun Liow, a Malaysian designer and student at  the Dasein Academy of Art.

 

 

 

 

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Asuka Watanabe
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This crazy cute little guy was submitted by Michael Robertson for the Illustration Friday topic PET.

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