Friday, December 31, 2010

A FUN Game for the New Year

If this were a New Year's Card, here are some of the possible captions it could have:
Have a bang-up New Years! (for the revelers)
Give your dog something to bark about in the New Year! (for the dog owners)
May you stay above the fray in the New Year! (for the blimp pilots)
And so on..

And, of course, I wish you all of the above and more for your New Year.

But this is not a new year's card. It's much more fun than that.

In my December 20th post, here, I said that a partner and I were engaged in a game involving art, and showed you my first panel. If you know of my opponent (and most of you EDM'ers do), then there are clues in the picture above as to who she is. So see if you can guess (of course she let the cats out of the bag in her latest blog post).
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[Insert Jeopardy music here.]
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Give up? One of the arms and legs in the cloud of contention above is PAMO'S! And the barking dog is, of course, her dog. You can visit Pamo's Blog here.

Pam aka Pamo is a cartoonist of course. She let me know about some books she was reading on cartooning, and in checking out the author's works online I found myself at a blog that described a tic-tac-toe game. The blogger, Matt Madden, and his friend Tom Hart drew a tic-tac-toe grid on an 8-1/2" x 11" paper - one chose "x" and the other chose "o" - and they each drew panels of a 9-part cartoon in their respective squares, passing the page back and forth across a table. Each would incorporate their "x" or "o" in the panel, try to make that panel a part of what would become a coherent (or at least semi-coherent) full-page cartoon, and attempt to win of course!. You can visit Matt Madden's blog, see a full description of his Tic-Tac-Toe Jam, and pictures of what they accomplished here.

Now I have no time for any of this - too many other projects that I have in mind and have no time for either. Still, to do this would not be that different than a story board for a picture book (which I want to do) and besides it sounded fun, so I figured why not, and e-mailed Pam and asked, "Well?"

Of course Pam is in Tennessee and I am in Florida, so our virtual table is large. We are e-mailing each other our panels, identifying the places on the grids (e.g., Queen to Kings 4), and when we are done, Pam will assemble the 9 panels into a grid that we will show you all.

So I ask - HOW FUN IS THAT?!

Thank you Matt Madden!

I have done a lot of sketches this year in my sketch book, but very few are colored. So I have some catching up to do early in the new year. I have some definite thoughts about how to "kick it up a notch" in my art in the coming year, but don't want to jinx it by talking about it.

"Do or do not. There is no try," says Yoda, the wise. And talking about it is even worse.

So here is a rather raw page of floating heads from life from my Moleskine. For the bottom two there was a wall blocking the bottom halves of their heads for rather interesting effect, don't you think?

I owe a debt of gratitude to so many of you for being so generous in sharing of yourselves, your art, and your techniques and ideas. So it is with an earnest nod of my virtual hat that I wish you and yours a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

18 comments:

  1. Happy New Year to you, too. Your humor always makes me chuckle (this time it was YODA in the labels). I faithfully carry my little moleskine and pencil and still have blank pages. Sigh. Maybe lightening will strike in 2011.

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  2. Happy New Year ... oh I'm so looking forward to what you and Pamo come up with... you are both very inspirational to me... may your year be full of love and art...

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  3. can't wait to see you and PAMO create..the floating heads are fabu...Happy New Year...here's to a whole lot of new ideas for 2011 :)

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  4. umm I scanned most of the middle of this and have no idea what you two are up to, guess I will have to wait for the result!

    Love the cartoon. What about- resolve conflicts peacefully in 2011?

    Happy New Year. May 2011 bring you peace and happiness.

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  5. Why is Frankie Goes to Hollywood suddenly rattling around in my head??? Oh well, Happy New Year, anyway! I really look forward to what you and PAMO come up with. It sounds like a lot of fun. Happy Creating!

    -Don

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  6. Yay for the floating heads! I adore your style of sketching people and scenes! And naturally, I can't wait to see what you too come up with! :) Your posts and comments always make me giggle in front of my laptop!

    Happy New Year, Dan! (Hope I'll have more time for commenting this year)
    <3

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  7. HAPPY NEW YEAR, Dan! You and PAMO are quite at team ... can't wait to see what you conjure up next :-)

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  8. It's on! (On has an "o".)
    Love your floating heads! And I love your creativity.
    Happy New Year! Looking forward to a good one.

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  9. Happy New Year, Dan. I look forward to following all of your projects.

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  10. Sounds like a fun project to do and I love Pamo's cartoons too. Happy New Year Dan!!

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  11. Happy New Year Dan! Fun! I thought that dog had a PAMO look to it! SO great to be on the sidelines cheering you on. I like your floating heads. The cut off bottom ones are mysterious. Enjoy your tic-tac-toe jam! Is it strawberry flavored?

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  12. Oh...this is going to be great!! Who brought the popcorn? Anyone? Anyone?

    I really can't wait to see what you get up to this year. You're always full of surprises! And I love your floating heads!

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  13. Count me among the blimp pilots.

    I'm excited to see this grid - should be interesting. I'm with Raena - pass the popcorn!

    Like you, I'm wary of jinxing stuff, so I'll wish you the best in kicking it up a notch and leave it at that.

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  14. Happy New Year, Dan Love your floating heads, and your always interesting posts.

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  15. I cant wait to see what you will create this year, sure loved what you did last year. Your blog is always a treat to read (and see the work) and many times has cracked me up to a good laugh. And thank your for visiting my blog and your comments : )

    All the best for the new year,
    Happy New Years Dan!!!

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  16. This is so much fun, I love it! Happy new year!

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  17. Fun fun illustration! =) It makes me so happy to see your work, almost everytime!
    Happy New Year Dan

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  18. Hoping you have a great new year yourself, Dan! Can't wait to see what comes through here next!

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