Sunday, March 01, 2009

Cartoonista Painting Party (with Fondue!!)

Last night, I had me a great time!

Fellow Cartoonistas, Jim Lujan and Grasiela Rodriguez, wanted to schedule some time for some of us Cartoonistas to get together and paint. Not on a jam piece, but to work on our own projects surrounded by our fellow artists. Well, it didn't take long for us to name the get-together a Painting Party! Cause when the Cartoonistas get together, it's always gotta be some kind of party!

Grasiela kindly has us over at her lovely home. Jim and I were there, as well some invited guests. Here's Jim (background) working away at the dining table!



I got started on a painting I've been wanting to do for awhile: The Man-Swamp. It's a character of mine I'm currently working on for a mini-comic. I told a fellow cartoonist, Mark Rudolph, that I would be painting the Man-Swamp in his honor, so here it is in the earliest stages:



Grasiela has always been a Cartoonista super trooper, always ready and able to attend all of our events. Jim and I consider her the Woman Woman to our Batman and Superman! For the past several months she has been focusing strongly on her painting skills, and one of her great pieces she's created has been this WATCHMEN group portrait. A toast to Grasiela and America's most watchable superheroes:



She also has a Harley Quinn painting she's working on:


That evening, she continued working on her Spider-Woman painting:



A few months back, Gras had surprised me with an El Muerto painting she made. Out of the blue, she showed me and I flipped out on how beautiful it was. Of course, I had only seen a jpeg of it. Last night I got to see it in person, and boy-oh-boy did I want to take it home! The detail in the painting gets easily lost over the internet, so seeing it in person was a great experience. One day, I may have the money to make her a decent offer, but she's rightly proud of it as it's a true original.



Like so many Cartoonista events, this one ended up with a great meal. Gras pulled out all the stops and whipped up a meal of Fondue: A pot of tangy, melted cheese with apples, broccoli, bread, carrots, tomatoes for dipping! Haven't had Fondue since the 70s. Last time I had even seen someone eat Fondue was on an episode of THAT 70s SHOW (y'know, that tv show starring Wilmer Valderrama, the actor who played EL MUERTO in the live-action film now available on DVD!!):



I was surprised how much I liked the apples dipped in the cheese. Interesting taste you don't come across every day! Also, I should add that some of the folks went out for a Taco Bell run as well. Ever dipped a crunchy taco in cheese Fondue? Mmm Mmmmm!

And last but not least, here's my painting of The Man-Swamp. Needs some final touch-ups, but I had fun making this that evening and it was really good to break out the acrylics again. Will be gearing up for a lot of painting in the next two months for some personal appearances as well as a two-man art show.



And hope to do lots more paint parties with my Cartoonista pals and drawing jams and Live Art and eat lots of delicious food! Thanks Gras for hosting and everyone who attended!

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