Broked

My website broked! It's being addressed.

In case you need to reach me:

jill (AT) jilliantamaki (dot..) com

P.S. I bought some pencil crayons today. I have been told only Canadians call them pencil crayons... "colored pencils" is the proper, grown-up American term. I still prefer "pencil crayon".

Cultists Animation

Kent St. John made and sent in this lil' "animation" of the Cultists thing I made a few weeks ago!

Cooool.



Thanks, Kent!

The Two Things You Need to Know About Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Slo-Mo Pathos

(click to enlarge)

It irritates me to no end that I can barely remember my PIN number sometimes and yet can pull up (multiple!) television advertising conventions from the mid-80s.

P.S. I am not insane.

Portrait of Right Now

I spent a lot of time this long weekend drawing a lot of one thing. This is not it.

Pencil Factory Draw Fest

Here are some scans of the collaborations we did last weekend. They went out to the first 100 orders of Newsprint (offer sold out). I'm not sure who remixed these, but I think most of them are me and Chris Neal, Josh Cochran, Rachel Salomon and PF intern Katie Turner. I just love some of these! More here.

15 Uses for Newsprint, with 200% more Studio Photos

'Spent yesterday at the Pencil Factory stuffing envelopes and drawing pictures. Sometimes you collaborate with other people and it ends up better than you could do by yourself and you get depressed.

Anyway, the promo posters are going out soon (contest winners, I'm mailing today!). You can now buy a poster package online for $10 if you so desire.

I was asked to take some photos of my studio space for Pencil Factory Promo, so here they are. I have three desks: one for computer, one for light-table/drawing, and another (not visible) that simply exists to hold paper.


I had to bribe the cat with a tub of catnip to be in the room for this photo.


I also have to designate a cat sleeping area on my desk. That's precious real estate, you know. This cat is a total pain in the ass. Print by Suvinai Ashoona, god's-eyes by Alison Yip.

To view all posters and some way more interesting studio spaces, go here.

Pencil Factory Promo

We've started to brand The Pencil Factory. What is The Pencil Factory? It's a big old building here in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (a genuine pencil factory) where lots of people have their studios, including Sam Weber, Josh Cochran, Christopher Silas Neal, and others. I am only an honorary member (I work out of home), but I occasionally bake cupcakes and bring them to the studio, therefore I COUNT.

Anyway, we made a little promo of newsprint posters (that's mine, above). Go here to see who's involved and to get some handy ideas on what to do with your poster after you're finished enjoying it.

I have 12 copies of the poster package to give away. Email me with the subject line "PRINT IS NOT DEAD!" and I'll send you one... FREE! All the posters are gone. Thanks for playing! I think there will be a chance to buy them in the future. I'll keep you posted.





P.S. Thanks to Josh Cochran and Jennifer Daniel for putting the paper together.

Baby's First Blurb

I blurbed. For some reason this seems blog-worthy.

I'm really happy D&Q is publishing gekiga (dramatic, serious comics, for lack of a more informed term). I was surprised to hear Yoshihiro Tasumi say that gekiga is not popular in Japan. It's nice to know it's found a following here. Red Snow is the latest venture.



And this is what I think of it.



What I REALLY want to see is a book of Yoshiharu Tsuge's, but apparently he doesn't let the stuff be translated/republished. Read about his work here, read "Screw-Style" via scans here (scroll down a bit).

Situational Readymades 4

I need to talk about something uncool for a sec.

Let's be straight: I love animals and I love dogs and I've owned a few dogs myself. I know people in the city that own dogs and they're cool and I like them. That said, I think NYC Dog Culture is very peculiar. New Yorkers really love their dogs, that's clear, and they kind of expect you to love their dogs too.

I will just say this, and leave it at that: it is NOT OKAY to let your dog drink out of public water fountains. Fountains are for people. And yes, I know my very own hands carry more germs than your dog's mouth or the average toilet or whatever. But please! DOGS LICK BUTTS. THEIR OWN AND OTHERS!

FOUNTAINS ARE FOR PEOPLE.

Lotte Reiniger

Yesterday Sam and I watched Lotte Reiniger's Prince Achmed, which some consider the first animated film (1927). It was done using little hinged silhouettes. We were absolutely spellbound. How did we not know of her work earlier? (Note: we rented it thru Netflix)

Unfortunately there aren't that many good clips I could find. This is one of the opening sequence, although it doesn't really allude to the complexity and sophistication achieved in other sequences. Still, you can see the creativity and charm possible within such a "restrictive" medium. I love it when the wizard looks in the mirror at the end.



Here is another later film, Hansel and Gretel.

Tuesday