Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Back from the Stanley Awards!




Well, I'm back from the Stanley Awards held this year in Melbourne Australia. I had a blast!!! Thanks to Grant and Kerry-Anne Brown for being such great hosts and for everyone I met at the Australian Cartoonist Association! I feel as if I've left a part of me behind . . . everyone felt like family, like I've always known them. Australia holds a special place in my heart, well that and Skydiving, but we'll get to that in a bit. First, to explain the picture above.

No, I did not win a Stanley Award, I was brought to the Stanley Awards as a guest of honor and as a speaker/teacher. But on the night of the Awards, I was asked to present the award to the Caricaturist of the year and instead I acted as if I had won the the award, I thanked my Mom and a few others . . . the guy to my left was a bit confused and wasn't quite sure what was going on? Hee hee . . . I didn't let the joke go on too long and soon gave the award to David Rowe for best Australian Caricaturist of the year. Congrats David!



Me with David Rowe and that other fella! :)




Here I am with Stan Goldberg and the Stanley Award winners . . . congrats to you all!!!




The ACA has put together a band of cartoonist who play every year at the Stanley Awards . . . someone found out that I play a little guitar here and there and so I was asked to join the band. It was a lot of fun, and they were good too!




It was an honor to be a guest of honor at the Stanleys but even cooler to be an honor alongside living legend, Stan Goldberg, artist for Archie and so many other great comics! It was really cool spending time with him talking about art and so on . . . it turns out that a lot of my friends are also some of Stan's friends, what a small world.



Stan and I did an open panel discussion, answering questions and preforming odd requests . . . at one point Stan stood on top of the table and made fart sounds with his armpits! No wait, maybe that was a dream I had?



Getting deep, because what I do is so intense! :)



I was sponsored by Wacom which was really cool . . . here I am starting my demo/discussion.







I discussed my process and how I go about creating a painting.





Here are some of the steps . . .




I had hoped to do some drawing and painting after discussing everything that I had planed to talk about, but time was short. Turns out the Aussie's didn't mind hanging out a bit longer, so I did a quick sketch of their Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.



I then did a quick-ish value painting for them, explaining my approach and thought process while painting. It was really cool because while I painted they asked questions as well as throwing out hilarious insults about Gillard! It was a relaxing and fun crowd to hang out with!







Overall, my trip to Australia was amazing. My friend Brian came with me and we made the most of it. We had tons of Sushi . . . YES! We went shark diving which was awesome and then after the conference, we went skydiving! What a rush . . . I'm completely hooked and can't wait to do it again!



We jumped from 10,000 ft, free fell for about 30 to 35 seconds, falling at about 155 mph before the shoot opened at 5,000 ft. It was awesome . . . I've been on a high ever since!






The day before we left Brian and I rented a car and headed towards the Great Ocean Road. We had more sushi, watched a few surfers and then drove along the beautiful coast . . . man it was amazing! We then came to a place called Kennith River which had Koala Bears and Parrots hanging out everywhere in the trees. It was an amazing day!

Thank you Australia for such a wonderful time, it was a great holiday filled with so many great memories!

11 Comments:

Blogger duanetheartist said...

Looks like a great time. Glad you had such a good time! I would love to be at one someday!

11:48 AM  
Blogger gcastro3d said...

What a life! Hope to take a class from you in the near future.

-George

11:52 AM  
Blogger Aaron Wilkin said...

That is so cool man!!! I went skydiving when I lived in Myrtle Beach, SC!! Such a rush!!! I'd like to jump by myself someday....I bet it's wayyyy better!!!

12:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jason, YOU are amazing. I always knew you were. So you did have someone go with, your friend brian? I am happy you had such a wonderful experience, I always wanted to go there. Thanks for sharing all this with us.

12:53 PM  
Blogger Debstar said...

it says I was anonomous. I am NOT I am computer illiterate? Only family would know you were amazing since the day you were born so of course this is Aunt Debbie. :)

12:54 PM  
Blogger Gulzar said...

wow! sponsored by wacom! :)

2:31 PM  
Blogger Luke Watson said...

Great to have you here Jason and it seems like you made the most of your time after the Stanleys.

Now back to work!

Luke

4:02 PM  
Blogger Jonathan said...

Congrats Jason seems like you had an amazing time. The whole trip seems like a dream for any artist, congrats again my friend, definitely well deserved!

4:59 PM  
Blogger William K. Moore said...

Hi Jason - welcome back to Up Over. Seems the only bad part of this trip would be the new security screening.. and maybe you escaped that coming into the States. Amazing world you roam in.. and well deserved!

7:07 PM  
Blogger Carlos Rubio said...

everything looks very fun. Congratulations!

10:17 PM  
Blogger Winston said...

The pics look great, congratulations and thank you for sharing. Have always wanted to skydive!

1:29 PM  

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