Live-cartooning: The Montreal Formula.

This Sunday, I'm in a panel at the POP Montreal Symposium along with film-maker and Laughologist Albert Nerenberg, Murray Lightburn, solo artist and frontman from The Dears, and composer/musician Krista Muir a composer/musician who moonlights as Lederhosen Lucil. It's called "The Montreal Formula".

What's the secret to a successful artist's career, in any city? 

We're going to explore some of the out-of-the-box things you have to do to survive as an artist in Montreal. And the amusing irony is that I'm going to be doing one of those out-of-the-box things by live-cartooning the discussion as it happens.

Am I nervous? Not really.

Okay, maybe a smidgen. The drawing will unfold on a large screen in front of the audience as I scribble away. It's a little more demanding than my usual toonswag because I have no idea what I will be drawing. What if I space?

Can they tell that I have no idea what I'm doing?

Mostly I'm wondering which tech I should draw on; iPad toonswag-style, iPad Paper 'book' style, or Adobe Flash, where I can really make the pictures come to life. There's something super-engaging and easy about using the iPad in the moment...but the temptation to turn this into an animated video afterwards is welling up in me! With Flash, I can keep my options open.

Either way, I'm deepening my skills, and sharing my creative process live and in person yet again, and that's always fun.

Hope to see you there.

The Montreal Formula is co-hosted by ELAN and POP Montreal
September 21, 1:45 PM
3450 Saint Urbain, Montreal
FREE.

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Draw Someone In - TOON swag - part 4.

Continued from Katie Couric is TOON swag.

The two beds were not quite big enough for three people. I had one bed, and my roomies Megan and Faiqa shared the other - pretty sure they didn't sleep much the first night. Well they totally solved the problem on the second night by simply NOT SLEEPING. How?

After turning down their kind offer to accompany them at 1:30 AM, I watched them sally forth to sing songs from Glee uh...I mean Journey, in the city that never sleeps, and I nodded off. I think I was having another dream about Channing Tatum bananas when these two bloggers burst back into the hotel room at 6 AM, loudly crowing and proclaiming themselves to be Rock Stars. I couldn't argue. I couldn't even draw it. I was that impressed.

Up jumped JC to stuff my face with bagels and cream cheese; this is an aside, but it's worth reporting that BlogHer offered a vegan selection of food, which is thoughtful, no?

Fortified with carbs and coffee I charged off to another panel session. This was called "Telling Stories with Pictures" and hosted by @CrowChick with co-panelists @cakespy and @booksnchickens. These three women offer blog-fare that is personalized with their own unique illustrations: scroll downy downy for the links. Their panel at BlogHer offered guidance on why and how one can and should do the same.

One of my philosophies in life is that one should draw, whether one believes they have ability or not. "Drawing is good for your brain," I always say...tweet...etc. Expression through drawing is inherent in both my Kids Stories DVD's and my TV series, and it's a focus in ye olde animated blog and my speaker-ing. The panel session was pretty full so it was super cool to see that other bloggers wish to use images to help tell their stories. Alas, it ended too soon. This subject could use it's own conference too!

One of the best things that came out of this session was that I got to hang out with the elegant, intelligent, talented and hilarious Rachel Nabors (@CrowChick) afterwards. We even discovered that we have a mutual friend: an intersection between the interwebs and real-life.

Oh wow, I just went on and on there. Whelp, I'll stop now and post the rest of the toon swag HERE!

Oh ya, here's those links:
Jessie Moore Oleson -  cakespy.com
Rachel Nabors - RachelNabors.com
Shalini - Reading and Chickens

I drew this toon swag on my iPad with my Wacom Bamboo stylus, using Adobe Ideas.

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