Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Shaka Smart and VCU Merchandise


This past week I have been buzzing about my Alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University earning their spot in the Final Four. I did a Curls Webcomic about VCU and Joe and I devoted a good portion of The Carolyn & Joe Show to discuss VCU's victories.

My brother and I had a fabulous idea for a Shaka Smart print to honor VCU's coach. I am so excited for VCU and they got me even more motivated to work hard for myself. I hope they win it all. Please checkout my Etsy Store to purchase prints with my original Shaka Smart design.

Monday, March 28, 2011

365: Make Something Every Day


Last Friday, my SKETCH BEFORE SLEEP project and interview was featured on 365: Make Something Every Day by Noah Scalin. I made an illustration every day for a year using a Wacom tablet. An important thing to know about SKETCH BEFORE SLEEP is that the project has been recently approved by Kickstarter for a fundraising campaign to publish all 365 sketches in a book. You can read more on the SKETCH BEFORE SLEEP Blog.

Read the full 365: Make Something Every Day blog post here: http://makesomething365.blogspot.com/2011/03/sketch-before-sleep.html

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Alphabattle: Number 2


Above is my entry and you can view all the other submissions for number two here: http://www.lettercult.com/archives/3101#more-3101

In addition, I took part in designing a number one the other week: http://curls-studio.blogspot.com/2011/03/alphabattle-number-1.html

I hope to continue this design exercise and complete all the numbers.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Your Schedules - Curls: Days of the Week

Last week, I invited everyone to submit their schedules to the Curls Webcomic - and now here are the results! I am really impressed with how creative the schedules are... in addition, it is so interesting to me what everyone is up to! A huge thank you goes out to everyone who participated. Please go visit the following sites:

Carolyn Belefski (my sample schedule) - Curls


Ali Thompson - Best Available Productions


Jose Capetillo - @realchicofiesta


Joe Carabeo - Astray Productions


Jim Coon - Last Dollar Comics


Troy-Jeffrey Allen - Typographic Era


Rafer Roberts - Plastic Farm


Susan Page - More than Just Super Friends

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Curls: Days of the Week


I don't post each strip to the Curls Studio Production Blog, so in case you didn't know, I have a webcomic called Curls which updates every Monday and Thursday at http://www.curls-studio.com/curls.


Here's a handy weekly schedule to remind you to read the Curls Webcomic every Monday and Thursday. In addition I've filled out my upcoming week for you and in return I ask you to do the same. Maybe you have an improv class scheduled? Or you are taking your child to soccer practice? Either way, Curls wants to know what is going on in your life! Send me your upcoming week and I'll post it on the blog and link to your site. You can use a tablet, like I've done or you can print out the blank one above fill it out by hand and take a photo or scan it. Email your schedule to info@curls-studio.com by 10 PM EST Monday, March 14th to be included in the blog post.

Feel free to post the schedule on your blog or website to let people know about the Curls Webcomic. Thank you!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Nominee for Best of D.C.


I am nominated for Washington City Paper's Best of D.C. Readers Poll in the category of "Best Crafter." It only takes a couple seconds to vote. I'd appreciate if everyone took a moment to vote. Thank you!

Please spread the word and vote using this link: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/bestofpoll/nominations/vote/586

The poll closes March 15th at 11:59PM EDT

Carolyn Belefski (Curls Studio) has been nominated for Best Local Crafter
Carolyn Belefski (Curls Studio) creates fantastic illustrations and merchandise of her original creator-owned comic characters. She has exhibited at Crafty Bastards, DC Counter Culture Fest, Small Press Expo, Baltimore Comic-Con, New York Comic Con and many other events. She also contributes to the local design community by serving on the AIGA DC board. Check out her work at curls-studio.com.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Curls and Cerebus Illustration


Above is a commission I did of my character, Curls, with Dave Sim's character, Cerebus. I hope he'd like it. Arsia Rozegar did the wonderful colors.

The illustration really comes to life when it's in color... which honestly leads be to believe if Curls is on the web, there should be no reason why it shouldn't be in color. I am used to black and white from the times when Curls was published in The Commonwealth Times newspaper. I would like to have more Curls strips in color, but it is time consuming so we will see where it goes in the future. I think this piece came out really well and I'm proud of the work Arsia and I did for it. It was fun to create this.

Be sure to read Curls every Monday and Thursday at this site: http://www.curls-studio.com/curls

Art for Aardvark Art Bazaar


I recently teamed up with Anthony Dihle from Fire Studio to produce screenprinted posters for The Harbor School's Aardvark Art Bazaar event. (You might remember my recent blog about a visit to Anthony's studio at Pleasant Plains Workshop.)


The client originally wanted an aardvark wearing leg warmers with a letter "A" similar to an alphabet card. So I drew that in my sketch concepts above. I also came up with another idea to have the aardvark surfing on a artist palette, so I decided to present that was well... and I'm happy to say they went with that for the final. I love concepting! I hope seeing the above sketch will give you a glimpse of my first steps when I design or illustrate a project.







I did the illustration and Anthony did the design. Last weekend Anthony printed all the posters at his studio. I hope you enjoy the process photos he took. It's really a treat. He did an amazing job!

Anthony says: It's a "seven" color screenprint in three layers. The second layer is a split fountain (color fade) of five different inks. A plop of each color is dropped on the screen and mixed progressively with each squeegee pass. The challenge wasn't so much mixing the five colors on the screen, but mixing each color so that it would have a similar amount of transparency over the dark background color, so that no color band stands out as too bold. It's 13"x21", printed on 80 lb. Cougar Opaque white.

Friday, March 11 is the 1st annual Aardvark Art Bazaar from 11AM to 4PM at The Harbor School. A fun and funky art bazaar featuring local artisans, live music and a craft/activity corner for kids!

Available for Freelance Work
If you are are creative director, art director or designer interested in my illustration and/or design skills, please email me at info@curls-studio.com.

10 Questions with Jim Coon


So I'm trying a new feature on this blog called "10 Questions with..." and the first person to experiment on is my lab rat, Jim Coon. It was actually kinda his idea! So it's pretty basic: we both interviewed each other and will post each other's interviews on our blogs. I met Jim at my first SPX show when I was walking around as a volunteer and got to talking with him about how he does what he does. Two years later, I started exhibiting at SPX and have been sharing a table with him each year at SPX ever since. Above is a photo of us from a previous SPX that I stole from his site.

Last year, I asked Jim to be a part of the Carnival Anthology. In this interview I found out that we are both influenced by Chuck Jones. Read on to find out more!


1. What type of comic work or cartooning do you do and how do you describe it to people you meet?

If I had to sum up the type of cartooning I do now a days I'd have to refer to the late comedian George Carlin. He said his "job" is thinking up goofy shit and then coming around once and while to tell people about it. I think that description fits what I'm doing right now with Last Dollar Comics to a tea. I've stopped doing sequential panel by panel comics because I found that more people were buying my books where the story was told one panel to a page. Books like Giant Robot Attacks or Bitch Stole My Fish were much more popular than the books with 5 or six panels per page. I subscribe to the K.I.S.S. theory. Keep It Simple Stupid.

2. Which cartoonists do you consider to be great influences in your work?

The animator and cartoon director Chuck Jones is one of my biggest influences. I love to watch any cartoon that he was involved with and see the similarities in expression and mannerisms in the characters. I think Jones may have been reflecting himself in his stories. Sometime watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and then watch the Bugs Bunny cartoon the Rabbit of Seville and you'll see what I'm talking about. I think I get a lot of my cynicism from Charles Shultz and Don Martin was also a big influence on what I do now. In the early days of my publishing career when everyone was trying to draw like John Byrne, so was I. I think I have since shed any of the Byrne influences and I'm working hard to develop my own style.

3. How did you get started making comics?

I started making comics when I was in second grade drawing on any kind of paper I could get my hands on. I created my own characters, all super heroes of course. My first comic however was influenced by a Japanese monster movie called Yog: Monster from Space. I made a comic called Monster Island. Once I got to a point in my life where I had money and was deeper into the printing industry the self publishing really took off. I spent every Last Dollar (shameless plug) on publishing my own books and at one time was distributed by Diamond when my Dead End series was called Club 13. It was a DISASTROUS experience. The printer I used could print the sample books, but then couldn't hold registration on long runs. I had to change cover stock on the retail copies just to meet the distribution deadline. Years later I found an issue of Club 13 in a 25¢ box. That's when I knew I had arrived! LOL! My next venture to distribute books was a collected edition of Dead End. It was the first 10 issues which chronicled a Halloween night where the lord of the dead, Samhain, raises the dead and the streets are filled with zombies. Diamond rejected it saying there was no interest in zombie comics. I'd say I was about 5 years early as it wasn't long before zombies took over mainstream comics.


4. You are a proponent of mini comics. In your opinion, how can small press publishers make mini comics more visible to a larger audience?

As I see it the biggest hurdle for mini comics in general is distribution. Maybe hurdle is too small a word. Perhaps mountain is a more appropriate metaphor with the biggest mountain being Diamond Distributors. In my opinion Diamond wants nothing to do with small press in general. You can point to publishers like Top Shelf or Ad House who regularly have listings in Diamond catalogs, but to me, those publishers are not small press. They produce some very high quality books that sell at a price point that Diamond will benefit from. Until mini comics can be produced and packaged in a way that Diamond can profit from the sale I don't see a viable distribution system in place. Tony Shenton does a great job trying to fill this void, but it is to big undertaking for one man. I'm working on something now that I may or may not present to Diamond. I don't want to say much right now but if it works it could open a whole new door for small press.

5. When you are stuck on a project, what do you do to get in a better mindset?

It's hard for me to get in a better mindset when I get frustrated with a project. Fortunately it doesn't happen too often. With my minis I normally have the entire book written and sketched out before I work on the finished pages. If I have an idea for a story I'll jot it down in a book or I'll sketch out a character and then that stuff goes in a bin until all the pieces of the story come to me. I have characters that are just waiting for their story to be told, I just don't know what that story is yet.


6. Which book do you consider to be your most successful and why?

I guess I've never really thought about the success of one individual book. I always look at my books as a growing line of comics. I don't think I've really achieved the level of success with any of my books that I'm striving for.

7. You are an established caricaturist in Upstate New York. What are some of your most requested faces?

When I draw caricatures I always draw the face with a little body under it. The most requested bodies are Soccer, Basketball, Horseback Riding, Dancing, Singing, Baseball and Football. I could draw those in my sleep.

8. Do you have any tips for someone interested in getting started in the comics industry?

DON'T DO IT!!!!!!! Seriously, unless you are a hopeless optimist willing to get you dreams trampled on and you self esteem pulverized don't do it! That being said, if you think "Well, Jim doesn't know what he's talking about. 20 years of publishing indy comics isn't THAT long." then go right ahead and dive head long into the hell that is self publishing!
If you think that you have the next original super hero that is going to sell millions of comics and get you a movie deal I'd like to slap you upside the head with a big whopping dose of that magical elixir called REALITY! Marvel comics and DC comics try out new super heroes every so often and most of those books sell in the low thousands and last only a few issues. So if the 2 biggest comic companies in the country can't establish a new character what makes you think you can? So, forget the super hero genre all together. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where created during a time when the market was not over saturated with super hero comics and the Diamond Distributor catalog was only about a quarter of the size it is today. There, the fanboys have stopped reading. Now, for those who want to publish small press comics...STAY AWAY FROM SUPER HEROES!!!! The small press community in general buys small press comics because they don't like stories about super heroes. They like stories about teen angst and boogers. Zombie pre-schoolers and and boxing fish. I'm always amazed when I see a couple of "playas" at SPX with the high quality full sized super hero comic and wonder why no one is buying it. Don't put your all your eggs in one basket. I've found I've achieved better results in sales by having a variety of different characters instead of trying to push one idea. If you create a character, let's say. a bunny with one eye, Zombie Cyclops Rabbit (copyright 2011 Last Dollar Comics, I'm gonna use that later) and you do several issues you are limiting yourself to just those people who like zombie cyclops rabbits. That is a small percentage. Instead of doing 10 issues of Zombie Cyclops Rabbit, do 1, then move on to a different character - Angry Monkey Finger Puppet (copyright 2011 Last Dollar Comics, that one is already mine) and write a story about that. Eventually, you'll have several books that appeal to a broader spectrum of buyers. I've found that my Giant Robot character sells well so I've used the character in 3 books. Little Lost Yeti is popular so I'll be doing a second issue of that. At some point one character will break away from the pack to establish it self as your signature character. Finally, if you're going to do a comic - DO IT! Don't tell me you're working on it while you promote it with your 2 sided UV coated postcards and flashy website! Don't give me a "preview" copy of a book filled with pin ups and sketches. Complete your book and THEN promote it. Ideas are a dime a dozen and in small press product is key. Also, make your comic a self contained story. It's hard to maintain the pace of a serialized book when you are doing it on a part time basis. Don't leave people hanging with a "to be continued" because chances are there won't be a next issue. I'm guilty of this myself. It's not fair to a reader to give them only the first part of what you intend to be a six part story.


9. What are your upcoming comic projects?

I've been trying to finish a 16 page story for Rafer Robert's Plastic Farm for over a year now. I'm amazed he hasn't given up on me. I'm almost finished with a new mini that is a spoof of Sesame Street and the song "Who are the People in Your Neighborhood?". I'm also finishing a book about Nightmares that is a fun little rhyming story.

10. Where can people find your comics?
Buy my books at my etsy store www.jim8ball.etsy.com or just send me your address and I'll come to your house! LOL!

Now that you've read my interview with Jim Coon, stop by his blog to read his interview with me. Ten Questions with Carolyn Belefski: http://jim8ball.blogspot.com/2011/03/10-questions-with-carolyn-belefski.html

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Alphabattle: Number 1


I just found out about LetterCult's Alphabattle the other week and decided to give it a try as a fun typography design exercise. Above is my entry and you can view all the other submissions for number one here: http://www.lettercult.com/archives/2583

Results: Curls "Out Loud" Product Packaging Poll

May I have the envelope, please? In reference to the Curls "Out Loud" Product Packaging Poll posted a week ago, the results are in.


The winner with an astonishing 50% of the vote is... Honky Tonkers. As promised, I have drawn the winning product with the Curls character Turtle Neck above! Thank you to everyone who participated in the poll.

Be sure to read Curls every Monday and Thursday at this site: http://www.curls-studio.com/curls