Peter Emslie launches blog

VAB member Peter Emslie has launched a blog recently. Called The Cartoon Cave, the site features Peter's art, experiences, and opinions on various topics. Pictured below is Peter with Sarah Connell and Michael Therriault, two cast members of Toronto's production of The Producers, receiving caricatures Peter did from TV footage of them. Both, incidentally, are Sheridan grads; Peter teaches for Sheridan's animation program.

Peter also recently posted his caricature of Ed and David Mirvish, in remembrance of Honest Ed, who passed this week.
While we're on the topic of cartoonists with blogs, check out the Toon Club, a site where various young illustrators (added by invitation-only) are challenged to come up with a cartoon based on the week's topic or theme. For starters, check out the Tortoise and the Hare, or Santa Claus.

Canadian art @ Carabram

For the first time in over a decade Carabram had a Canadian Pavilion! Among the highlights of the space was an art display by local creative talents. Among those on display were Visual Arts Brampton members Conrad Mieschke, Keith Moreau, and Mary Noble. Leah-Anne Goyeau, who was a VAB member last year, also presented her art, as did Colin McClean, who was with the group during the years we had Animation Exploration (Animex).

Many thanks go out to Leah-Anne for her efforts in organizing the art room, which was enjoyed by hundreds and hundreds throughout the weekend. One couple even spent 15-20 minutes studying the pieces on display.

Millie the Art Bug also showed up to hang with everyone, courtesy of Visual Arts Brampton and the Brampton Arts Council. Here she's posing with two singers from Marion Abbott's Performing Arts School.

Let there be light!

You may have noticed the studio's become much brighter over the past few weeks. We hired a contractor to rearrange the outdated wiring that was scattered across the ceiling, letting us move lights to locations where they're of the greatest use.

Now strung above the workshop desk/kids area is four sets of florescent lights, greatly boosting visibility in the area.

Members-only open studio Saturdays

Wish the studio was open for adults on Saturdays? Thanks to the dividing wall, it now is.

Come out from 1:00-5:15 pm and use the studio to draw, paint, or printmake. It's free if you're a Crea8tif level member, just three bucks if you're a regular member.

And don't worry, the kids are much better behaved and much quieter than you'd expect them to be. During an event a year ago, the portrait bunch remarked that they were shocked how good the kids were, yet they were far more active than usual.

(You must be a member for a few months before you can take advantage of this opportunity.)

Steve Nease talk attracts an audience

I'll post more later, but here's an interesting story about the name of the Pud comic strip. It was posted in response to this blog post, which questioned the reason Steve used the name:

As a kid, Steve loved the Lionel Barrymore movie "On Borrowed Time". When he had a child named Ben, he started calling him "Pud" (Bobs Watson as John "Pud" Northrup), after the child in the film.

In the 1980s, he did an editorial cartoon about how children flock to advertisements. The editorial was illustrated in two panels, and received great response from readers and newspaper co-workers.

He decided to do up some more samples, which he showed the editor. The editor decided he could use extra content to fill up the space on the editorial page, and the strip's been going strong since.

At the time the strip started Fleer had stopped putting their "Fleer Funnies starring Pud" strip in the Dubble Bubble gum packages. He decided he could safely name the strip after this character, without confusion. Four years later, the comics in the gum packages restarted.

He says he's considered renaming the strip, and has a title that he's batted around in his mind (which he didn't reveal to us), but he's just never got around to it.