Comic Con Boston 2011

Comicon Boston 2011 was great. I had half a day there Saturday to browse, collect, see some old friends and meet new ones.

Highlights of the day for me were seeing Matt Smith and Craig Rousseau fellow alumni from U Mass Dartmouth. They each had artist's booths where they sold their comics.

Matt writes the saga of Barbarian Lord, a cornucopia of raven food for your consciousness. Buy it because it will keep trolls from nesting under your tool shed.
http://www.barbarianlord.com/

Craig is a freelance artist for Marvel. He is an accomplished Illustrator with his own title to boot. He has a long list of mainstream comics he has worked on.
He also has a good blog with some sweet costume pix from the conference.
http://blog.perhapanauts.com/2011/05/boston-report-part-1.html
http://www.craigrousseau.com/

Non Alum I met include some cool people at Boston Comics Round table. I also met Ansis Purins whose comic cracks me up. Zombre is awesome,I purchased a print from Ansis. He also received a grant to work on his comic,congrats.
http://www.ansis.tv/

I found some cool toy creators at comicon. I wish I had a bunch of these little guys with their mix and match components.
http://callgrim.com/

I purchased a Tim Sale sketch book last minute and I am pleased with it. http://www.timsale1.com/

I also was able to watch Neil Adams give an interview.
http://www.nealadams.com/

L is for Lion and B is for Ball

L is for Lion.

B is for Ball.

Here are two more alphabet coloring pages for you kids out there. I have been using Mayari's toys for reference on a few of these drawings. The Lion toy I used for reference was posed with twinning on the legs. It creates a stiff power pose. Not a very animated pose. It would be tough to change weight from a position like this, making it a very static pose. Probably why it works for a child's toy. It wont tip over. I stuck with it and feel that it went in a romanticized direction of a lion. Reminding me of medieval tapestry. I am trying not to get too stuck to realism. I left behind the details in the mane to create my own. I think a little weight shift of the pose would help this as a 2d drawing. I need to do some life studies of lions. I don't always like the way I draw them.

The ball was tougher to draw than I planned. I erased and erased then redrew the entire thing a few times. It was far more of a draftsmanship exercise.

Mt Auburn Night Pages 0-6

Here is a recap of the Mt Auburn Night Graphic novel pages I have posted on this blog.

I converted pages 0 through 6 to be easily readable on an smart phone or tablet. I need to create a html page to center the image then I need to add a share button on the bottom of the page. Please share this comic with your friends if you like it. Test it on your tablet or smart phone.

http://joshua-hoaglund.com/MtAuburnNight/MtAuburnNight_P0-P6.jpg

Mt Auburn Night Page 6

Page 6 of my Graphic Novel Mt Auburn night.

I'm doing some experiments with this for the Ipod. I may post an Ipod/Tablet version of all these pages so the reader can catchup with the story all in one format.

R is for Ravens J is for Jaguar

At Sticklestad, Fitting to a battle field there are ravens. Huggin and Muggin, Odin's Ravens. Their names mean Thought and Memory. They are made of steel and mounted on a wall outside of the main building.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn

J is for Jaguar

Here is another coloring book page for anyone. Just print this out and fit to page in your printer settings. There are sixteen more letters to create. I have ideas for a few of the 16 remaining letters. I feel working on this project is productive for Mayari's learning how to write. She is writing her name on her own now, and is able to spell a few other words. I have a plan for these when the Alphabet coloring pages are done, I will animate the letters to the alphabet song somehow. I would like to take coloring Mayari has made on them and use that as the color for the animation. Also another end goal for this project is to have a coloring book on 8x11 paper printed on both sides.

Sticklestad Norway Part_5

King Olaf was not so kind a saint. I found historical allegations of forced conversions to Christianity and torture. Along with intolerance of non-Christians, local Pagan kings, farming society. King Olaf aimed to spread Christianity through Norway. Olaf wanted to be King and was martyred, one year after his death he became the Patron Saint of Norway. Sticklestad is where the battle took place. Probably politics as usual back in 1030.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_II_of_Norway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stiklestad

There was a re-creation of a viking long house on the site. It was built directly into a hill. With one entrance below the building supported by stone masonry.

Below is a detail pic of the door on the side of the Long house. This door is seen in the middle of the long house in the above picture.

There is a theater on site. Huge events are held here. Very kid friendly, it would take all day to go through every thing at Sticklestad during the busy season. This viking re-enactment area led into a replica modern Norwegian town. Some of the modern houses had peat roofs. Which are a very effective natural insulator.

Back at the Sticklestad main building there is a museum. In the lower level there is a slice of stone with an abstract neo-litic ship carving.

My next post will be of another coloring book page. I want to get back to posting more personal art. I only had time to work on personal projects on the flight back to Boston. I finished the ink on another letter's animal.

Helge Gravfelt_Bola_Reindeer_Part_4

The stone circle at Helge Gravfelt was a highlight, but the site over all was enigmatic. With the possibility of missing stones and little documentation. I am left only with my own ideas about the purpose of the site. With 10 stones in a circle, 9 going around a center stone. I feel the stones may represent the 9 months of gestation. That would unite with any burial mounds, to symbolize the cycle of life and death. Life,Death and the cycle of the seasons perhaps.

Here is a link to another site related to Helge Gravfelt. There are photos of the site in the summer from a megalith website.

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24095


Bola Reindeer

This is "the" Reindeer carving. It is circa 6,000 years old. I was totally excited to view it. When we arrived at the site we walked down a path covered in snow which made walking difficult. Half way to the site I spotted tracks in the snow. They were reindeer tracks moving perpendicular to our direction of travel. Keeping alert for rouge reindeer we headed to the place where the carvings are. Unfortunately we didn't account that the amount of snow on the ground was a huge factor. The Reindeer carving was covered with approximately a foot of ice.

Here is a shot of the overall site. Beneath the ice and snow there is also a carving of a bear, a human on skis, and a goose.

http://www.bolarein.no/Engelsk.htm



Here is the link to the line drawings.

Despite the ice, back at the car we spotted live reindeer. They were roaming in a herd through a field across from the parking lot. We were searching for an image, something frozen. While there we saw the actual animal,as it has persisted for 6,000 years.

After Bola we headed south to Sticklestad. This is where the final battle of King Olaf was. It is an ancient battle field with a mock viking village, including a long house, Churches, facilities, gift shop, and a hotel.