Blade is one of those pioneers of Graf that you cannot forget. His style of letters, his work ethic, and his personality featured in this short video by Montana.
Lil history for you. Before Montana and Belton writers would use paint made for cars, everyday house items, automotive repair, houses , etc for painting the master pieces you see. there was red devil, Rustoleum, hard ware stores like ACE had their own brands, and Krylon; the best of the best. When the Montana and Belton came along there were more colors, thicker paint, larger cans, better caps, and more opportunities for style created.
Dig this? Check out this panel discussion w/ my crew TYS Collective
These are some photos from a recent visit to the University of San Francisco (USF). Artist and professor Liat Berdugo invited me to come speak to her class through a referral from another designer and professor Sabiha Basrai! Check it out!
I’ve been an art teacher for elementary, jr high, and high school students. In fact it was one of the biggest and most consistent jobs I’ve ever had. I started speaking to children in 2012 as an author and have been doing so ever since. But its only within the past 3 years that I’ve been invited to speak to college students.
When I speak to them it has been to assist the professor in driving home a few points of experience, or to give insight into a particular part of my career. But what I really want to do is provide a regular everyday person’s experience of being an artist. Not a famous or wealthy one, a working class artist.
This means no bullshit. I try to be as honest as possible about making a living, debt from college, and how to scrape by because thats what I know. I also want to get them thinking less about working for a big company and more about running their career like a business, and working together with others like them because when we build unions, cooperatives, collectives I think our skill, wages, and power grows. This might be contrary to some schools instruction though.
I also like to bring my sketchbook because its something tangible they can touch and feel. But also, its behind the scenes. Its the making of. Its not finished or perfect, its messy, and its a reminder to me that its important to practice and generate ideas. I show finished work too of course, but I like bringing in physical media.
Me talking about my “why” regarding my career in kid lit.
All in all, I had a really great time talking to these students who had really astute questions about being a working artist. I think adults who are currently working in the biz of dance, music, design, whatever are experts who can really help prepare students to survive as beginners in an artistic career. You don’t need a big name, what you have is experience and that is valuable!
In this talk I spoke about:
Best practices as a working professional
Solidarity w/ social justice issues, working class people, and international struggle
Community building with other artists rather than an individual focus
Art education about different forms of art
Art practice and being multidisciplinary
Career: Kid lit, Mural Making, Merchandise making, and Public speaking
On another note: If you dig these photos, these were taken by my brother Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi who is not only a talented photographer but an organizer of the Fist Up Film Festival and a talented filmmaker! Watch the trailer for his most recent film “We Still here”!
Every month I’m blessed that people support my shop. Some are friends or fam, but most are people I’ve never met in my life. I hella appreciate you all! You can get art prints, books, stickers, etc.
This is a bit late but heres a picture book review for October featuring a lovely one that I used to read to my son called “Perfect Harmony” about the Boys Choir of Harlem. Its not often that picture book authors are also photographers but that is the case with this book and I wish more picture book would make use of it :). Watch my review.
This is a short comic about a young child seeing a trumpet , falling in love with it, and learning to play so well that she inspired a new generation. I drew this super fast without any words.
Whats this? I’ve had fits and starts with comics over the years. In 2016 I started working on an epic graphic novel and it was too much, I couldn’t finish. So I took a break and began doing mini comics (shorter more manageable stories) so I could do the most important part; finish them. This is a continuation of that.
This was a dope event I participated in down in Long Beach, California. I hadn’t been to the museum before and after participating in this I plan to come back! For this “Dia de Muertos” event I set up with 30-40 other local vendors who were selling jewelry, pottery, comics, clothing, candles, and more.
During the pandemic I participated on a panel discussion for MOLAAA with some good friends Cathy Camper and Isabel Quintero alongside moderator Professor Frederick Aldama which was awesome. Watch it here.
I drove down with my family, hit the Lightbox Expo on my second day out there and then hit Molaa on day 3. I brought my whole set up.
I didn’t get a chance to go inside or see all the performances but I caught a glimpse of a the Mariachi Cumbia and one of the alters outside. it was beautiful and somber being that ICE has been terrorizing Black and Brown folks in LA, Chicago, Portland, NYC, here in the Bay and many other places.
This is a short video showing some more photos from the event.
Dig this? Check out this video of me talking to Gabriela Martinez about Furqan’s First Flat Top
Or check out these photos of my set up at SJ Made in San Jose, Ca.
Space Graf is a short comic about a time when me and my homie went to the freight train yards to paint our names on trains decades ago. Just a colored pencil and an ink pen. I’m not trying to make the greatest illustration, just trying to finish a comics. Even if its 1 page long.
Whats this? I’ve had fits and starts with comics over the years. In 2016 I started working on an epic graphic novel and it was too much, I couldn’t finish. So I took a break and began doing mini comics (shorter more manageable stories) so I could do the most important part; finish them. This is a continuation of that.
I did a quick and fun custom bookmark. You can buy it or one like it or you can give me a chracter or theme you’d like me to draw on one. No portraits of people though.
Alright so I must be lucky or highly favored or something because I’ve been invited to give a workshop to young artists at one of the most prestigious art schools in the Bay; California College of the Arts. And, they allowed me to come in and speak about a format of art that i LOVE. Picture books!!!!!
I’ve taken classes about making picture books. I have literally read hundreds of them. I’ve illustrated them, and written a few. I love making them, reading them, studying them, and I have enjoyed sharing what I know about the mechanics of picture books as I understand them.
OG artist, Papa, cartoonist, and professor Fred Noland invited me to speak and I began by talking about my non linear path to a career in the arts. I laid out a series of picture books for the students to check out. Some really old, some from the last twenty years, some new ones, and some of my own.
On the table is a series of picture books by creators that also worked in comics.
In this workshop I focused on:
Character
Story taglines
Synopsis
Thumbnails
Picture book spread
I asked the students to go through the process of coming up with a picture book story as an exercise and they DID! We used original and existing characters to achieve this. Then we shared them so they could see each others work.
I started doing a similar method of exercise that I began doing 20 years ago teaching while teaching graffiti lettering to young people all over the Bay Area and NYC. Its a way for me to teach but also for them to learn from their peers who inevitably have a different take on it.
All in all, one of my favorite things about being a visiting artist for high school or college undergrads is being able to give no bullshit answers about what its like to make your living doing this. Sometimes the answers are dreamy and sometimes they’re more blunt. Fred’s class had great energy and questions. I feel like I learned from them too.
Dig this? Check out these other visits to colleges.
I came to Eva’s work through Instragram. In the general feed (if I’m checking out illustration) I occasionally see some heat and I loved this image right away when I saw it. Eva is a DOPE illustrator from Spain who uses traditional media such as water color and colored pencils to create some of the illest illustrations I’ve ever seen. Check out more of her work here.
Her work has a fierceness and softness to it that is unmatched. I love the down to earth emotion and the wild out there fantastical elements to it.
What’s this? This is where I share inspiring artists that have been inspiring to me in my work sometimes directly and other times indirectly. I loved seeing Eva Sánchez Gómez’s work online and hope to check some of her picture books one day if I can get them in the United States. Here are some other artists to check out:
