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scott mcleod invented the 24 hour comic in 1990. artists are challenged to create a 24 page comic in 24 hours. this saturday, October 20th, is 24 Hour Comics Day! visit the site for more information on the challenge, the history, the holiday, and places where you can celebrate it with other frantically caffeinated artists.

Hi there, IF readers!
I just launched a new Halloween contest over on my blog. (I do a Halloween contest every year to celebrate fall). Please check it out… I hope you’ll want to participate. Drawing monsters is fun!

happy october!

penelope

The 100 Artists Project

Over at the Illustration Friday Forum, xadrian posts:

“The 100 Artists Project is a charity endeavor created to help raise money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and The Hero Initiative. Anyone can participate. The project assembles artwork into sketchbooks and mails sketchbooks to participants and the completed books are auctioned and then later published. All proceeds go to the funds. We’re currently holding at 70 pieces of art for the Single Mailer, so we need 30 more.

I’m hoping some regular I.F. contributors can jump on board. Keep in mind, you don’t have to send in new things, as long as the art is 9×12, you can send in old work.”

Fray: Busted! True stories of getting caught in the act.

Anyone who’s been on the web since before it was re-branded into Web 2.0 has probably come across Derek Powazek’s work once or twice (that’s understatement - you might know him from JPGMagazine; he was one of the original founders). The Fray was an amazing story-driven community site before community had a capital “C” on the web, and now they are re-launching as a quarterly print magazine.

The best part? They’re not just looking for stories, articles, and photos - they’re also looking for fine arts and illustrations for their inaugural print issue with the theme Busted! True stories of getting caught in the act.

And I just happen to know some illustrators who are very, very good with themes. Check out the Fray!

I resisted the urge to plagiarize Drawn when Matt Forsythe wrote about Nickelodeon’s wonderful Mona Lisa “Riffs.” Now that it’s becoming a phenomenon though, I feel no shame whatsoever.

Check out the Mona Lisa meme exploding on Drawn right this minute! You can submit your own version of Da Vinci’s masterpiece and browse contributions from other artists. The drawing above is by the blog’s own Adam Koford.

jeannette langmead (portrayed above by several of her portrait partners) won the first ever portrait party contest. i was blown away by how aggressively she competed! she sent new drawings almost every weekday and even made a movie of her work in progress. visit the the august archive to see what i mean.

dean trippe, one of the instigators of the batgirl meme that swept the internet last year, has parlayed his passion for reimagining superheroes into Project Rooftop. each week artists are invited to redesign an established superhero. like nightcrawler (above) by dean himself. in honor of mike wieringo, this week is devoted to bart allen.

i found michael cho through his contribution to Project: Romantic. his comic was fun and beautifully drawn but i am even more impressed by the haunting drawings of his neighborhood that he has posted on his blog.

p.s., for those of you who love Iron Man, michael has a challenge for you.

i’m sorry that i missed the comic trade at MoCCA that this flier represents. it’s worth noting that these events are out there though! and, in case you didn’t know, some of the best artwork around are hidden in these do-it-yourself books.

cartoonists, aaron renier (portrayed above) and craig thompson (creator of the portrait above), both have blogs on their websites now. also, they contributed these portraits to the portrait party. craig is the puppy in aaron’s drawing below.

a few months ago, i started a website devoted to one of my favorite activities:
The Portrait Party. in short, people draw portraits of each other and i post the results. it’s fun!

this month, i’m hosting a contest to see who can invite the most new artists to join the party. in my fantasies, the result will be a month of epiphanies: “i love drawing!”

the prize is a portrait swap with yours truly. (you can visit my website, ramahughes.com, to decide if that prize is worth the effort.) i will paint the winner’s portrait, frame it, and mail it to your favorite address. click here for all the details!

Philipp Lenssen is taking the time to collect the covers of what seems like every comic ever drawn. His mission, the Cover Browser, is my current museum of choice.

John Ralston is drawing a comic everyday for a year. He is well on his way and you can follow his progress on flickr or his blog, A Year in Comics.

i love projects like these.

The good folks over at 3×3 Magazine are doing a new kind of competition… one for illustration animation. Very cool. Click here for details and the entry form.

Submissions are due at the end of July. So maybe you have time to make one before then and submit it!

Check out some of these animations for inspiration:

Melinda Beck

Josh Cochran

Brand New School

(Above are pieces done by Crystal Driedger, Patrick Hénaff and moa.)

A cool project I recently participated in got me drawing nude figures again. Which I am VERY rusty at and feel a slight shame considering that art making is my job. Hee. Another thing to work on.

Here is some info:
One project brings together art, Edmonton doctors, the right to health care and community cooperation.

The 2nd Annual Doctors and Derrieres event brings the appreciation of the human body to a whole new level! A group of highly talented Alberta artists have partnered in a unique way with University of Alberta International Health Initiatives by Medical students to support international projects important to them. Medical students, health professionals and doctors from Edmonton hospitals will take off their scrubs to raise money for two health related projects. The beautiful nude portraits that will result from this celebration of the human body will be auctioned off and the some of the proceeds will go towards Change for Children’s Community Health Project in El Salvador.

SILENT AUCTION GALA EVENT
Thursday May 24 7-11pm. - with cocktail bar and live music

If you live in Edmonton, come on by the reception!

(Special thanks to the talented Roger Garcia for organizing the event!)

The first two episodes of Steven Spielberg’s reality show On The Lot will introduce us to fifty aspiring film makers including Abigiail Steinberg whose qualifying trailer, Jules, was animated entirely by my brother, Henry Hughes

The episodes will air tomorrow night, May 22nd and, Thursday night, May 24th on Fox but you can see much more of Henry’s work

damien weighill operates a wonderful blog called Your Face for which he draws a portrait of anyone who visits. now, he’s turned the tables. Your Face visitors are now challenged to draw damien from their imagination! winners will receive cool stuff. losers can still have their portrait drawn.

one week from today, comic book stores across north america will give away free comic books. good ones! visit freecomicbookday.com for more information. better yet, visit your local comic book store on may fifth and demand your freebies!