The August meeting of the WNC group of the SECNCS was held last night at our usual watering hole, Frank's Roman Pizza in Asheville, NC.

In attendance were (in order that I wrote them down): Michael Cole, James E. Lyle, Phil Hawkins, Kaysha Siemens, Rex Gray, Steve Haynie, Bill LaRocque (along with Sharon), Greg Barone, and Matt Mulder.

Michael Cole showed several samples of his new digital approach on "Dragin" (using a Wacom tablet to "ink"), and everyone agreed that it was a new highwater mark for his presentation. Way to go, Michael!

Phil Hawkins brought along more of his collection of art books (sorry I didn't get the names of the books and authors thereof), but everyone was impressed. Phil also brought along some of his artwork from way back (one piece was dated 1980), even though the paper was yellowing on some pieces, they were definitely worth a look.

Kaysha Siemens brought along some of her latest work (which I regret I didn't get a chance to see as well as I'd have liked to…maybe next meeting) which she's getting ready for an anime convention in Baltimore this weekend.

Steve Haynie brought along his buddy, Rex Gray.

Bill LaRocque brought along his significant other, Sharon. Bill also brought copies of the latest Cartoon!st (the official NCS publication), and The Drawlin' Board (the official SECNCS publication), as well as a copy of the Reuben Journal (covering the NCS annual meeting in New Orleans).

Speaking of the Drawlin' Board, if any of you that are signed up and have your dues paid have not been getting your copy of our chapter newsletter, then you need to contact Steve Haynie to make sure that your name and address are on the mailing list. stevehaynie@mindspring.com

Greg Barone brought along more samples of his work. He's been using Copic markers that are growing in popularity with Manga-inspired artists. Greg's showing marked improvement (pun intended), so way to go Greg!

While Matt Mulder didn't bring along any samples, there was much discussion of his recent comic book inspired cover for World Magazine's coverage of the Graphic Novel boom. If anyone got a copy of that issue, you might want to take a second look at the cover, knowing it's by one of our own.

You might think that all this going on was sufficient, but you'd be wrong! In addition to all of this, we had last minute plans to make for the upcoming WNC group event. There was a lot of discussion, and I won't bore you with all the details, but here's what is arranged as of now:

The Venue is settled, we're meeting at Montford Community Center in Asheville. The center is at 34 Pearson Drive, which is off of Merrimon Avenue proper. To get there take I-240 through Asheville, take the Montford Exit (if you're Eastbound you'll have to make a couple of rights to get to Montford proper), once on Montford look for Chestnut Street on your left (also look for "Hazel Robinson Ampitheater" sign). Take Chestnut Street one short block and the Center will be on a hill to your left. If you pull down Gay Street, that will take you to the parking lot for Hazel Robinson Ampitheater, or you can pull into the parking lot next to the center (however, consider parking in the lower lot for other people's convenience).

We will be renting a VGA projector from Stellar Media, a up and coming video production facility presently in the ABCC-Enka Small Business Incubator. Renting projectors is not the company's primary business, but they have kindly offered to do this for us. They are a small company, but the fact that they are involved in TV commercial production as well as other similar work makes them an excellent connection for our group. Hopefully we can develop this relationship further in the future. I am set to pick up the projector on Friday, August 15 by 4 pm. So we should have plenty of time to check it and make sure everything is working. (Kaysha is also keeping an eye on a backup projector for us).

For the sake of being prepared we all ought to check and see if we have back ups for various items, including: VGA cables, Extension Cords, Power Strips, and Duct Tape. I'll be looking around the studio to make sure I've got many of these items in hand, but you look too…I might forget.

The flier is complete, and Phil Hawkins had copies of it for everyone at last night's meeting. If you weren't there to get some and need some, or if you took some and need some more, let me know! I've got plenty still, and need to get to work passing them out myself. Kudos to Phil for getting the copies made (and using really nice stock too)!

Sadly, I was a little slow in contacting media outlets, so we may not get the coverage I'd hoped for, but I'm still going to do the footwork and see what comes of it. If any of you have connections, now's the time to use them! Give them fliers, think creatively.

Michael Cole is our connection at Sam's Club, and so I'll be meeting him there (presumably after picking up the VGA projector) next Friday to pick up our selection of Water and Sodas for the participants and attendees.

Bill LaRocque will be supplying the Dry Erase board, and I have the dry marker pens (I just checked them, and I've got Black, Red, Green, and Blue, all working).

If any of you have special equipment that you'll need, or will be giving away handout materials, let me and Steve know. Steve should know so he'll be able to take care of reimbursments. You should let me know so that I can give you a more-or-less proper headcount as of Wednesday.

Now, finally, the question was asked if we can do promotional handouts at the event. The answer is, of course! The event is intended to encourage and educate others about the processes involved in being cartoonists and illustrators. If there's one part of "commercial" art education that seems to get missed it's that of self-promotion. So, by all means, bring along your self-promotional packages, hand them out to everyone. However, remember that we are presenting this to the community at large, so be careful about content. Also remember that you can't get reimbursment from Steve on your own stuff…but other than that, bring it on!

Now, as to the scheduled events, the schedule looks like this so far:

9am - 10am
Setup at the Community Center. (We may take care of some of this on Friday evening, but just plan to be there on Saturday morning to help put chairs and such in place).

10am - 11am
Kaysha Siemens will graciously overcome her "not a morning person" issues and give a presentation of her basic proceedure in Photoshop. (She'll also be testing the VGA equipment in the process).

11am - 12 noon
Marcus Hamiton will be giving our "keynote" presentation featuring how a Dennis The Menace daily cartoon is created, as well as highlights from his career. (This will also be presented in VGA projection mode).

12 noon - 1pm
Lunch and Portfolio Review, this will be a time for new artists to get some feedback on their samples, so everyone plan to pack a lunch and stick around the center and give some encouragment to them. We'll have to play this by ear, but hopefully with 10-12 of us regulars in attendance, we can find time to mentor a little.

1pm - 1:30pm
Phil Hawkins will talk on basic freelance contracts. As artists we tend to be a little gun-shy when it comes to the business side of our work. But Phil's successfully negotiated a number of contracts during his career, and we'll all get a chance to benefit from his experience here. (Phil says this will be a short presentation using words and hand waving).

1:30pm-2:30pm
Matt Mulder will be talking on coloring your work with an eye towards pre-press. The idea here is to make sure your work doesn't suffer from the increasingly common error of being too dark. While this is common in computer coloring, it can also be a problem in hand produced work as well. (Matt has yet to decide if this presentation will be using the VGA projector, but we can hope).

2:30pm-3:00pm
James E. Lyle will be leading the group through the process of brainstorming a superhero. While a superhero is in mind here, the basic process can be adapted to create almost any type of character, or even used for other, less interesting subjects than comics. (No VGA projector involved here, but I will be using the dry erase board and a large pad of paper, as well as the minds of everyone who wants to participate).

Please bear in mind that the times listed here are approximate at best. We're going to try to make sure Marcus Hamilton's program is within the 11-12 window, since he's got to drive in from and back to Charlotte. But if you are scheduled to do a program and you think you're going to run longer or shorter than what's down here, don't worry. We'll doubtless be able to fill the time with Q & A, etc.

Also, I've asked a few people to have an alternate program available just in case someone has to drop out at the last minute (stage fright is not a valid excuse, though). If any of you have an alternate program you might offer in a pinch, please be at least vaguely prepared to do so if such a need arises.