Sam Ombiri and Sally Ingraham here to present Cameron Weston Nicholson’s amazing Small Press Expo workshop to you today! (Plus some tangents well worth following.)
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https://vimeo.com/184552852
We just received the complete video footage of Cameron Weston Nicholson‘s SPX cartoon workshop from ace filmmaker Tyler Q. Tucker. View it above!
Sally can vouch for the fact that Cameron caught on film is just as powerful as he was in person. You can find a few more details about the event HERE.
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Sam Ombiri was one of the first people to lay eyes on the film of Cameron’s workshop. He is a regular attendee of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon, where we discuss music and comics a lot, so this was familiar ground. Sam wrote some notes while he viewed the film – check it out:
“This video was rad for many reasons. The video will articulate the things I can’t better, so I guess I won’t say too much.
I kind of laughed at the idea that Cameron proposed: musical literature.
It’s funny to imagine people reading sheet music, and those people imagining the sound from the notes – and then they cry (that’s not to say this doesn’t happen, but it’s a super bizarre way to listen to music – though, ultimately notes are a language, so there’s no reason a book with sheet music shouldn’t be read like a novel) but in the context of comics it’s exactly what transpires! (And images are for the most part a universal language, unlike musical notes where you need someone who can read them, and who then must learn an instrument to play the song. Then you have to do this over and over til you find a piece that you like. Even then, it might just be the musician that lacks the soul to play the tune you want to hear.)
Cameron says “In music you have your notes, in comics you have your panels.” I dig how he talks about sculpting/directing the focus of the reader through emphasis (or lack thereof) for dramatic effect (or really any effect – I just think he was using dramatic effect as an example) to bury an idea in the reader’s mind. So their interest is peaked or their shoulder is tapped, and then the reader suspects there’s something else going on. So then the reader will follow Cameron, out of curiosity…then Cameron’s got the reader sucked into his image, and then there’s no escape!
Another thing I like is how he has a simulator of how fast most readers read this (mostly) universal language. It’s super cool the amount of awareness he has for the reader.
There is of course more to look at in the video, but especially at the 24 minute mark there’s a zillion things that are being articulated better than I could – I can articulate that it’s a must watch!”
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Comics Workbook was absolutely delighted that Tyler Q. Tucker could attend Cameron’s workshop and film the event. We discovered Tyler’s work after he made a film of the live drawing event that Chris Visions, Alexis Ziritt, and Vanesa R. Del Ray took part in at HeroesCon 2016. He has continued to make fantastic films for Chris Visions, which you can check out HERE – the newest films, which show off Rocky Roswell and the Adventures of the Neon Space Cowboy (which debuted at SPX) can be viewed HERE!
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Alexis Ziritt attended one of the Comics Workbook-hosted workshops at SPX, taking a break from his table (and from working on finishing Tarantula!)
Alexis Ziritt is part of the super art collective Out of Step Arts – check it out HERE.
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Shannon Wright has been dashing off comics for Instagram lately – here’s one such:
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On the site we have the first collection of images from the Comics Workbook-hosted cartoon workshops at SPX – check them out HERE!
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Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! He will be teaching workshops with Frank Santoro and Aidan Koch while there – if you’re in the area check it out. To help him get to the show, Comics Workbook is offering two new Connor publications. Portraits and Swinespritzen – both limited editions, both incredible. Details about both and where to order them can be found HERE.
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Happy Thursday folks! – Sally and Sam