Art Show

I just heard that I'll be having a solo art show in a gallery in Arlington, VA this coming March and April! I'm very excited and will now have to hunker down and paint, paint, paint. More to come when I find out more. Above's a sketch of a forthcoming large painting. Below are three small paintings finished last night. Acrylic on canvas, 8"x10."

Dizzy Dean

And now for something completely different...
Here's a painting I did a number of years ago depicting 1930's baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean. In the 1937 All-Star Game, Dean was pitching and was hit on the foot by a line drive. The doctor told him it was fractured and Dean replied, "Fractured?!? The damn thing's broken!" He came back from his injury too soon and overcompensated for the pain in his foot and wrecked his arm. He was picked up by the Chicago Cubs and helped them win the National League in 1938, but his arm was never the same. He went on to have a colorful broadcasting career. In this painting, I wanted to keep things black and white, but still bring out the beauty of baseball being played in the daylight. Acrylic on canvas, 30" x 40"

Fat Snowmen

I like drawing fat snowmen. Now through the miracle of the internet, you can own your very own fat snowman items! Perfect for the holiday seasonings! http://www.cafepress.com/hagencartooon

Blast off!

Here's another ADA poster that I tried to include with yesterday's post and had a problem loading. My favorite part is the robot dog. Eat your veggies and get plenty of exercise! Click on the poster to enlarge it...

Posters

I've really enjoy working with Big Fish Design and the American Diabetes Association through the years. I've been lucky to illustrate some posters for a couple of national programs they promote in schools about eating properly and getting exercise. They are dream clients who pretty much leave you alone to be creative. Click on the poster to see it larger...

Deck The Malls

I've been on a three day Photoshop workshop where I learned all kinds of tricks. It was nice that it stretched over three days and they didn't try to cram as much information in a couple hours. I've been in class where you're just watching the instructor pointing and clicking all over the place and you come out with a massive headache.
Anyway, ten days until Christmas! Have you done all your Christmas shopping?
Deck the Malls!!!

Joost Swarte

In October, I fulfilled a life long dream when I was lucky enough to meet and speak with Dutch cartoonist/graphic designer, Joost Swarte, at the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, MD. I imagine he's best known for coining the term ligne claire or clear line style of drawing. I never got to meet my cartoonist hero, Tintin's Herge, so this was pretty special to me. Joost was participating in a panel discussion on Herge's work, so that was pretty cool too. After the session, I asked Joost to sign a couple books and we talked about the new Musee Herge that will be opening in March, 2009 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. From photos I've found online, it looks awesome. During the panel discussion, Joost briefly mentioned that he had visited Herge in his studio and I wished I had followed up on that. Anyway, he drew his character Jopo de Pojo and a modest self-portrait!

Drop Everything!

Here's an illustration for Fairfax County School's DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) program. Can you find Tintin's moon rocket?

Lookit Me!

I've been doing a monthly panel cartoon titled Lookit Me! for a job-hunting website TalentZoo.com. Their clients come mostly from the world of advertising and media.They're currently in the middle of revamping the website and newer cartoons will be up in January. In the meantime, here's a rough and final art of one of the more popular ones. It even generated fan email from a psycho in NYC (I guess that's not unusual, though).
A quick sketch to get the idea down on paper and to work the wording of the gag.Final line art was scanned into Photoshop and shading applied here and there. Additonal hair product added to the Art Director.

Basketball Jones

A woman contacted me to do some illustrations for a story she wants to shop around to book publishers. It's a very hard field to crack into (especially with every parent or celebrity believing they can write a better children's book than the one they're currently reading to their child). I'll help her put together a book dummy she can submit into the vast sea of unsolicited manuscripts. Here's what she gave me:

Here's what I showed her: Here's a draft. I recently learned how to use the gradient tool in Photoshop and have been going a little overboard with every background lately.

One for Tall, and Tall for One!

Tall, Grande, Venti? Erm...I have to admit that I've never ever ordered anything in a trendy, pretentious coffee shop. I don't really like hot drinks or ingesting anything that is scalding. I find it too intimidating and expensive and I just don't like it. I think an Espresso Macchiato is an Italian sports car. I walk by and look in the windows and see uber hip people lounging in the over-stuffed chairs and I kind of wish I had the free time to do that, but then I realize I have better things to do.
Ooh! Athos, Porthos, Aramis! Triple shot venti chai creme mocha valencia! To go!

In the Big Inning...

You gotta start somewhere.
I'm a procrastinator who's been meaning to do this for a while now.
I'm in the process of building a website to promote my freelance illustration and cartooning, but am finding it quite time consuming especially when I don't know what I'm doing half the time (ok, most of the time). Mega shout out to Mike Rhode of ComicsDC.blogspot.com who said I should jump in the deep end. I promise to add to this blog regular-like, pinky-swear.
Here goes.
As Rod Serling used to say..."Submitted for your approval.."