Here’s why I think drawing is awesome:

1. You can draw anywhere—with sketchpad you don’t even need a surface to work on
2. There’s no set up
3. There’s no clean up (all play and no work, how great is that)
4. There’s no drying time
5. The materials and supplies are inexpensive (especially compared to brushes and paints)
6. You can work in color—ah, the joy of painting with colored pencils.

If you like drawing, too, I recommend these books to help you develop your skills:

The Drawing Bible by Craig Nelson

Drawing with Your Artist’s Brain by Carl Purcell

Drawing for the Absolute Beginner by Mark and Mary Willenbrink

Basic Colored Pencil Techinques by Bet Borgeson

Here in Cincinnati we had the Cavalcade of Customs in January, the VTwin Expo last weekend, and in a couple weeks we’ll get a chance to check out new rides at the Auto Expo. I love cars and motorcycles and couldn’t help but think how great these show venues are for artists. I attend several car shows throughout the year. I love the smell of the rubber, the sound of the engines, and the creativity of the car enthusiasts (my favs–besides our mustang shown above–are rat rods). I’ve got folders of photos from every show, every year–from pinstripe details, to pinups, to perfectly completed restos. 

If you too love to draw, paint, photo cars, make sure to visit your local 2009 car shows, and don’t miss the work of IMPACT car/motorcycle artist Dermot Walshe. He gets to mix art and hot rods for a living

Just in case you missed Andy at the weekend’s New York Comic Con, and well, even if you didn’t, here are some cold (and not so cold) facts about the insider behind The Insider’s Guide to Comics and Graphic Novels.

Name: Peter Andrewes Schmidt

Nickname: Andy

Hometown: Fairmont, West Virginia

Current residence: San Diego, California

Kids and/or pets? Son: Cale Richard Schmidt, born 7/1/07

Favorite food: Peanut butter

Favorite candy bar: Milky Way

Favorite TV show: Farscape

Favorite movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Favorite website(s): My own! www.comicsexperience.com

Favorite blog(s): I don’t read any with regularity.

Favorite comic(s): I’ll always be an X-Men fan. But V for Vendetta is probably my all-time favorite comic.

Do you collect anything else? Nope.

First job ever: Digging ditches in Mobile, Alabama during the summer.

Best job ever: Freelance writing and editing comics at Marvel.

When did you know you wanted to be an editor/writer? Dawned on me when I was getting a masters degree in 2001.

Give us a taste of your latest project? I’m currently writing a 4 issue comic book limited series for Boom! Studios that combines my love of geography and submarines with my love of story and character. It’s called Challenger Deep.

Talk about a time you felt starstruck in your line of work. I met George Perez. By the time he and I met, I had already met a dozen of my childhood heroes and I knew how not to act like an idiot. Then I met George who is honestly a huge inspiration to me and probably why I fell in love with comics as a kid. I was slackjawed. I’m such a dope.

What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve received? Don’t worry about what everyone else is getting or doing, just make sure you’re getting what is right for you and that you’re doing something you love.

New York Comic Con 2009 is taking place today through Sunday at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC. If you’re lucky enough to be there, click here to download this handy guide to the educational panels (thanks to Buddy Scalera for providing us with the link!).

Several IMPACT authors (Steve Ellis, Andy Schmidt and Buddy Scalera, to name a few) will be hosting panels, all of which are free with admission, so be sure to check them out!

Click here to go to the official New York Comic Con website.

Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick has adapted Neil Gaiman’s (creator and writer of Vertigo’s The Sandman) Hugo Award-winning, internationally best-selling young adult novel, Coraline, as a stop-animation film of the same name. The movie opens in theaters this Friday, Feb. 6, 2009. You can see the trailer at the official Coraline web site.

Gaiman also recently received the 2009 Newberry Award for his children’s book, The Graveyard Book.

Coraline movie Poster

Yesterday I ran across an ad for an art opening featuring the work of illustrator Maurice Sendak. Although the ad was outdated, and the opening in Los Angeles last November, I checked out the website and found a little slice of heaven, The Wonderful World Art Gallery.

The Wonderful World Art Gallery specializes in animation and pop culture art and is worth a visit, even if you only take the virtual tour. From Warner Brothers and Disney, to Emily the Strange and Nightmare Before Christmas, this gallery features amazing work from amazing artists. How awesome it would be to stand in front of these original pieces, to view cells and backgrounds from your favorite cartoons and character artists, to have one in your possession!

There’s nothing wrong with traditional art galleries, but if you’re tired of realistic oil landscapes and want a new view, just search and you will find that art galleries don’t have to be stodgy.

The Insider’s Guide to Comics and Graphic Novels hit bookshelves and internet shops everywhere last month, so I figure we’re due for a little insight into the author who so deftly shares his experiences and gathers expert advice from comics greats such as Neal Adams, John Byrne, David Finch, Klaus Janson, Karl Kesel and John Romita Jr.

Andy Schmidt edited comics for five years at Marvel Entertainment, where he started under Tom Brevoort in the “Marvel Heroes” line of books. There, he lent his talents to everything from The Fantastic Four to the Avengers, to Civil War. He spent a few years assistant editing, and began full editor duties in 2002 on Captain Marvel and Spider-Girl. He developed Madrox and later X-Factor with writer Peter David and artist Pablo Raimondi. He also spearheaded the 25-part, galaxy spanning, space saga called Annihilation with a wealth of writers and artists.

His favorite projects to date have been Secret War, Madrox, Alias, Civil War, New Avengers, Young Avengers, Ms. Marvel, Annihilation, The Pulse, Defenders, Union Jack, X-Factor and X-Men.

He is now Senior Editor at IDW, the owner and operator of Comics Experience, an education-based business dedicated to helping comic book writer and artist hopefuls fulfill their dreams, and a freelance comic editor and writer who has written for several publishers including Marvel Comics, Th3rd World Studios, Markosia and Boom! Studios.

Stay tuned for IMPACT’s Q+A with Andy!

Cheers,

Mona

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mac_kon5eNA

My favorite part of any Super Bowl is the commercials, and, this year, my favorite Super Bowl commercial was definitely the teaser trailer for the second Transformers movie Revenge of the Fallen. Word has it that there will be three times as many Transformers in this movie as there was in the first one. This is excellent news for us Transformers fans. And even better news for those non-fans who will be dragged to the movie with us because, let’s face it, no one goes to see a Michael Bay movie for plot or character development. They go for the action scenes and the kick-ass robots.

Watch the You Tube video below to see the teaser trailer for Revenge of the Fallen.

Want to learn how to draw your own kick-ass mecha robots? Then check out E.J. Su‘s Mechaforce.