By Mark Kaufman
At the ICON conference a couple of weeks back I got to go on a tour of Luba Lukova’s studio out in Long Island City, NY. That was certainly a highlight of ICON for me this time around. Luba could not have been nicer and more accomodating. The workspace was small, and tidy, populated by Luba, an intern and her dog. She took the time to show us a lot of work in her files, discuss technique, content and concept, answer all of our questions, both the intelligent ones and the inane ones. Here are a few shots from the tour, please pardon my shaky-cam photo stylings. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post the trek out to Long Island City was great fun, walking the NYC streets and taking the subway with fellow, illustrators, artists and educators. Most everyone liked Luba’s work, but admittedly it wasn't the cup of tea for a couple of people stylistically and content-wise. Their loss. I thought it was great. As a nice bonus we all left Luba's studio with signed posters and other printed ephemera. All in all a great experience, so thanks to Luba for having us and thanks to the ICON team for setting it up.

By Mark Kaufman
One of the nice things about attending ICON, The Illustration Conference is getting to mix and mingle and meet nice, talented people. Not just those that are speakers or breakout session moderators, but more importantly fellow attendees from around the world. One such person who was great to talk to and is super talented is Kim Rosen from Massachusetts. We went out to Long Island City for Luba Lukova’s studio tour. That was great fun, but what made it even more interesting was the trek over there with Kim and the other studio tourists. Check out Kim’s work. I love it, and it is always nice to see great work come from great people. I’ll be writing about some of the other folks I met, posting some photos and thoughts in the coming days. I recommend that any illustrator or designer for that matter attend future ICON events.

By Mark Kaufman
This New Yorker cover by Barry Blitt of showing Barack and Michelle Obama has just hit the streets and the blogosphere and the media have caught fire. I think the cover is absolutely on point. A satiric point. Many people still believe that the Obamas are Muslim, that the fist bump is terrorist code, that they and everyone on the left prays to Mecca and Osam Bin Laden, that we are all warming ourselves with the amber glow of burning flags. It is all nonsene of course, it is nothing more than rumor mongering, and innuendo, and character assasination. Is the illustration tasteless? I don't think so, it is simply speaking truth to the power of lies. Yes, there are some people that will take manufactured offense at the image, that it will do damage to the Obama campaign, but I think the conversation we have about it will bring to light the ugly rumor campaign and those that are  spreading it. I think it is a great image. In fact putting aside all of the supposedly incendiary images that most people will be talking about, the obvious things I mentioned already, fist-bumping, flag burning, weapon toting and the terror camp outfits, the thing that I LOVE the most is the fact that Mr. Blitt has let Michelle Obama's hair grow out. Nothing frightens white America more than an Afro. You go Barry Blitt and the New Yorker!

By Mark Kaufman
This is becoming a regular occurrence and a regular Monday morning feature. It seems that every damn week in the New York Times, there is a nice piece on design, or illustration or animation and cartooning, giving these disciplines the same respect as the traditional arts and business coverage of fine art, architecture, literature, film and theatre. It is a very positive trend. In yesterday’s Sunday Times there were two articles to talk about, one on George Lois and one on Ralph Bakshi, both of which were great influences on me. Mr. Lois of course the legendary adman and designer of New York Magazine and Esquire covers, in addition to infamous work for the likes of OTB, Maypo and MTV. Mr. Bakshi the maverick animator that directed the film versions of Fritz the Cat, Wizards, Lord of the Rings and mid 60s Terrytoons. Both men had their largest cultural impact in the 1960s and 70s, and their bodies of work certainly drew me into my present career.

By Mark Kaufman

Damien Weighill, British illustrator and proprietor of the wish I thought of that blog, Your Face has reached a milestone in drawing the heads of people that send in pics. If you haven't done so already what are you waiting for? 200 portraits and still going. Congratulations!

By Mark Kaufman
Very interesting and insightful article from The New York Times on drawing the remaining troika of presidential candidates, with a top-notch cadre of illustrators, Anita Kunz, Steve Brodner, Barry Blitt and Rick Meyerowitz weighing in. The reader comments run the gamut from intelligent to downright ridiculous. What else is new?

By Mark Kaufman
You have probably seen this, but I stumbled across this the other day. A fun and addictive waste of time, you can digitally paint like Jackson Pollack, without all that messy paint, smoking and screwing around

By Mark Kaufman
Check out the wonderful slideshow of Robert Weaver’s sketchbook at  NYTimes.com. Weaver covered spring training in Florida for the Times. Sketches were for paintings  that ran in The NYT Magazine. Commentary and captions by D.B. Dowd, Professor of Visual Communications, Washington University in St. Louis.

By Mark Kaufman
You know when you post away on yer blogs every day and your not quite sure if anyone ever reads or takes a gander at what you so wittily typed up and sent out into the wild blue yonder? Of course you do. It's always nice for someone to add a comment or just drop a line and start a conversation, it gives you the will to keep on keepin' on as it were. Well, I got a very nice email from one Drew Pocza the other day, and it made my day. Drew is a very talented illustrator, and quite a nice fella. Why don't you head on over to his site at pocza.com and take a peek, or better yet add a nice comment to his blog. And keep those cards and e-mails coming!

By Mark Kaufman
In preparation for my upcoming trip to Italy, I was looking at Bruno Bozzetto’s site. Do check it out, he is an Italian animator and cartoonist. Close to 50 years of sweet, funny, clever characters and films and an instantly recognizable illustration style. However, when I clicked on a link to check out a Signor Rossi t-shirt, I stumbled upon a Logosh!rt a German apparel site with plenty of European pop culture merchandise. If you are like me and are blasé when it comes to hipster t-shirts, you may want to check out Logosh!rt for items that the American, fashion forward, bearded, pipe smoking hipster on your block hasn't ruined with his post-modern, post-ironic, post 70's/80s, post-zeitgeist ways.

By Mark Kaufman
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I had the distinct pleasure of attending a lecture by Kim Deitch, the cartoonist, illustrator and all around cooler guy than you or I in Las Vegas over the weekend. Mr. Deitch spoke at the Vegas Valley Bookfest and he was awesome. Kim has a very low key way of speaking, but is a wonderful storyteller, so much so that it was a riveting 90 minutes. He spoke about his childhood as the son of creative parents, growing up in New York, LA and back to NY where his father ran the UPA animation studio by day and churned out a daily comic strip at night. He told tales about attending Pratt in Brooklyn for a short time before taking a series of jobs that included going out to sea on a Norwegian tramp steamer, working the night shift at what he termed a “posh nut house” in New York, working at an orphanage, being a dope dealer and struggling cartoonist. Like I said much cooler than either you or I. That was all before he even started talking about the work which is intricately crafted, well designed, and densley populated with interesting characters, strange situations and riffs on historical fact and American mythology. One quote that I can decifer from my chicken scratch notes which I found interesting; “Comics are a dynamic delivery system for words and pictures”. And Kim Deitch is a dynamic (if low key) practitioner of that system.

By Mark Kaufman
‘Tis the season. Halloween season that is. The awesome Canadian cartoonist and animator Jay Stephens has a blog called Monsterama, dedicated to all things cute and creepy. The creator of Oddville!, one of my fave comic strips, traffics in scary monsters and pop culture year ’round, not just in October like the rest of us. Thanks Jay!

By Mark Kaufman
The great Marvin Kitman, on the great Keith Olbermann, with cover illustration by the great Robert Grossman. In The Nation. How great is that? 

By Mark Kaufman
I was just thumbing through the Seattle Weekly and was stopped in my tracks by this image from David Calkins. Very, very nice. Great type treatment as well. We worked with David many years ago on some radio station rock show materials we designed, so I just wanted to give a big shout out and say “job well done”! 

By Mark Kaufman
I found this over the weekend. It’s one of a series of spots I did for the Graphic Artist Guild a few years back. Here’s the final on lobbying along with some rough sketches. The spots were for the various advocacy and legislative initiatives the Guild undertakes on behalf of you, illustrators, designers and artists everywhere. The notable part that I wanted to highlight was my brief unexplainable R.O. Blechman period. I am assuming that all illustrators at some point figure that the wiggly line style suits a particular project. I don't know what I was thinking in this case, but I haven’t attempted it since. Totally weak and unconvincing. Leave it to the master I say. If you are not familiar with Mr. Blechman’s work, get out from under your rock and see how his work seemingly so simple and effortless, is so breathtakingly intelligent, witty and strong.