The Gypsy House

Earlier this summer, I met a couple of gals from the town of Winnsboro, Louisiana. They'd just opened a store called The Gypsy House featuring kid’s products and clothing (they even offer tons of art classes and camps, too). Pretty cool…and cooler still, they asked if I would like to sell some TOOMASOOBA merch on their shelves. My answer? Heck yes! So a couple of weekends ago, I hopped in the car for a little road trip and set up the goods.

Jennifer and Mary Marr are really passionate about art and about bringing some new and fun stuff to their small town – if you happen to be cruising through the Louisiana countryside, stop in and say hi. I’m proud to be a part of The Gypsy House, and may even be teaching some cartooning classes there in the near future!

Prints, buttons and greeting cards now at The Gypsy House.

Co-owner Jennifer Allen posing outside of the shop.

Met this fella on the open road…not the most pleasant company.

Creature Feature #1: Tinker

(“Creature Feature” is a new regular blog staple that puts the spotlight on a TOOMASOOBA creation and information on how it came to be!) 

Silly Little Story: A gaming enthusiast, Tinker is currently designing a board game of her own...so far, it pretty much seems like a rip-off of “Candyland”. She’s working on it.

Behind the Scenes: Thought I'd kick off this feature with an oldie but a goodie! Gals seem to like this design the most (maybe not surprisingly). While teaching a cartooning class at a local day camp, the little girls went nuts over all things Tinker -- drawing her, asking questions about her, and on and on. It’s fun when an image or character connects with an audience, whether they’re kids or grown-ups, boys or girls. Lets me know I'm doing something right!

Shameless Plugs: Click here for a Tinker youth t-shirt or perhaps here to grab your very own Tinker 5 x 7 Print.

Camp Forbing

Last winter, my buddy Jeff and I taught a cartooning class at Camp Forbing here in Shreveport. I’m guessing we were a hit, because they asked us back during the summer program last week! We arrived at the arts and crafts cabin bright and early, met the counselors and got paper and pencils ready to go. The morning consisted of sessions for three different age groups…Jeff and I each did a “draw-along” with the kiddos, answered questions and helped them with their work.

All in all, about 100 campers came through…whoa! Though it was tough keeping the train on the track at times, we found it really rewarding to see the budding artists’ creativity and talent and enthusiasm shining through.

The day was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to doing it again sometime -- if you’re reading this and have a class or group of young students who want to do some drawing, drop me a line!

Working on a pup cartoon.

Jeff rockin’ the rock star drawing.

A few snaps of art by the campers.

Inspiration Machine #1: Argyle Academy

(“Inspiration Machine” is the first of several new monthly features I plan to begin on the blog...to find what else I've got up my sleeve, check back soon!)

It should come as no surprise that I love art featuring simple lines and oddball characters, and Mike Lowery (a.k.a. Argyle Academy) delivers on both counts. I’ve been following Mike's work for a long while now and his energetic style and sketchy lines never fail to make me smile and want to pick up a pencil.

Mike teaches at SCAD and in the past several years his work has been featured all over the place -- children’s books, print patterns, clothing, you name it. All the while he continues to churn out original craziness like this.

Be sure to check out his blog and website and shop. There used to be more comics and some videos featuring his drawing process online (some of which involved coffee used as watercolor paint, if I remember correctly) but I can’t seem to find them at the moment...ah well, Mike is awesome at any rate! Hope you dig his stuff as much as I do.

4AFTER5 Jam Comics

I've mentioned 4AFTER5 in previous posts, but for the uninitiated we’re a group of four local graphic designers who “pursue our passion for illustration after hours”. Typically we get together monthly-ish to talk shop, nerd out and draw a jam comic or two.

What is a jam comic? It’s the creative process where a group of artists work together to create one complete comic strip. Sometimes a comic will begin with a random panel, which is then passed along to the next artist to expand upon…and so on, until the circle is complete. Other times, we’ll each put our own spin on a random topic and combine them into one strip after the fact.

Over time, the stack of completed comics grew. We thought it would be a great idea to put them in comic book form to make available at our show opening in November 2010...so we did just that.

If you want to see some of our handiwork, you can check out a selection of the comics on fellow 4AFTER5-er Brad Campbell’s blog.

It’s always a blast drawing with these fellas and getting down on some comic makin’...I don’t break out the pencil and paper as much as I should these days, so working like this helps keep me sharp! We enjoyed creating these comics and we hope that you enjoy reading them, too.

A jam comic by Brad Campbell, Jeff Welborn, Travis Eck
and myself. Click above for larger version!

Something is Sketchy Here...

Just a quick little post featuring some quick little sketches. Will some of them end up as official TOOMASOOBA illustrations? Yep...probably so. Stay tuned!

Shreveport Farmer's Market

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth at Saturday's Farmer's Market! We had a really great time and can't wait to get out there again next week (and the weeks after that, too). Check out our Events page to see more TOOMASOOBA summer dates in Shreveport and beyond...come on out and brave the heat!

Rex manning the booth.

Makin' them sales.