Last week at Platform, Jerry and I both received a lot of compliments about our new CartoonBrew/CartoonBrewFilms promo piece. So I thought it’d be nice to take a moment and give credit where it’s due. Chris McD is the artist we commissioned to do our first two promo pieces and we’re quite pleased with how they both turned out. I think that’s because Chris is equal parts designer and illustrator, and he focuses as much on getting the concept and message right as he does into producing a striking visual piece.

I’ve known Chris since his days at SVA when we used to trade Animation Blast and Meathaus issues. Later on, I saw him frequently while I was working at Spumco and he was developing a feature project there for Ralph Bakshi. I actually have no idea how Chris found the time to do these pieces for us since he’s always super busy working on animated series (Yo Gabba Gabba, Tom Goes to the Mayor), designing books (the upcoming Ralph Bakshi one) and serving as one of the guiding forces behind the Meathaus illustration collective, which also has an excellent blog here.

Here are the two pieces Chris did for us. The first is an 8.5″x11″ flyer, the second is a double-sided 5.5″x8.5″ postcard (only the front is shown).

A new Pixar film usually means another great Chronicle Art Of book and, at the other end of the spectrum, another neat looking Little Golden Book.

It’s easy to overlook the Golden Books - and difficult to find them - even in major bookstores. I just came across the Ratatouille one at my local Ralphs supermarket this morning. It’s a 24 page delight (especially for $2.99), with gorgeous art, credited to Scott Tilley, Jean-Paul Orpinas (illustrators) and Tony Fejeran (designer). As a long time fan of vintage Little Golden Books, the recent Pixar volumes are excellent additions to the collection.

Have you noticed how Pixar’s character merchandising art translates perfectly in two-dimensional and hand drawn versions? That’s due, of course, to the characters basic design and Pixar’s cartooning aesthetic. It’s also due to the calibre of artists assigned to create this ancillary artwork. One particularly cool looking publicity project was a series of images inspired by A.M. Cassandre’s vintage French posters, designed and painted by Stephane Kardos (above) and Eric Tan. It’s this kind of attention to detail, and sense of style, that keeps Pixar ahead of the pack - on screen and off.

The GL. Holtegaard museum near Copenhagen has a Kay Nielsen exhibit on display until August 19. The show features over 120 drawings and illustrations, including some of Nielsen’s work from Fantasia on loan from Disney. If you can’t make the show, there’s plenty of Nielsen’s illustrations online at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive and ArtPassions.net.

(Thanks, Alex Rannie)

I’ve just discovered the blog of Enzo Avolio and am blown away by his beautiful artwork and animation design. Avolio teaches character design at Sheridan College and a brief interview with him was posted last year on CharacterDesign.blogspot.com. Nice stuff.

Attention L.A. area artists. This one’s for you: on Saturday, June 9th, from 10 am to 1 pm, at Otis College of Art and Design on their campus near LAX, arts instructor Michael Dooley will moderate “Good Business is the Best Art: How to Succeed in Fine Art without Really Starving” with panelists Amy Kim Ganter, Camille Rose Garcia, Anthony Ausgang (art above), Coop, Mark Todd, and Esther Pearl Watson.

This three-hour presentation/discussion will cover a wide variety of art-related topics, including how they mix and blend their animation and cartooning work with their fine art careers.

Join these celebrated artists for three hours of revealing conversation, as they present their work, divulge behind-the-scenes secrets of their art entrepreneurship, and discuss artistic strategies for successful marketing and building name brand recognition. The artists will also be signing books and selling items immediately after the event.

Tickets are available online at ticketweb.com or call 866.468.3399.

I like Shag, but I hope this documenatry is better than its trailer:

The journalism trade magazine, Editor and Publisher is reporting that the three cartoonists reported to be Pulitzer Award finalists all do animation:

What do Nick Anderson, Walt Handelsman, and Mike Thompson (his latest cartoon above) have in common?

They are the three names leaked to E&P’s Joe Strupp as likely finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. And, as E&P has reported on several occasions, all three are part of a growing group of print cartoonists who also do online political animations.

“The profession is abuzz with this,” one cartoonist told E&P today. This cartoonist (not Anderson, Handelsman, or Thompson) added that he heard all three possible finalists submitted animations with their print Pulitzer portfolios.

This is the first year that video, audio, and other new online entries havebeen accepted by the Pulitzers. (Online text and online still images were previously accepted.)

Anderson, a 2005 Pulitzer winner, is with the Houston Chronicle and the Washington Post Writers Group. Handelsman, a 1997 Pulitzer winner, is with Newsday of Melville, N.Y., and Tribune Media Services. And Thompson, a 2006 Pulitzer finalist, is with the Detroit Free Press and Copley News Service.

(Thanks, Lou Spirito)

French illustrator, designer and 2D animator Quentin Tavernier (aka Kant-1) has a cool new website worth checking out. It’s as much fun to navigate as his drawings and animations are to look at. He’s also a guitarist for a rock band, Ace Out. Good stuff.