The New Parents

Born

On September 16th 2010 Hugo Freddie Cowan was born.
He can already speak 4 languages, can use the television remote control, programmed his own iTunes playlist and shits Spanish dubloons.
He rocks.

Big Screen Heads

Thanks to the referral from my pal J.J. Sedelmaier, the entire Boxhead and Roundhead short film collection series will be playing at the Big Screen Project in New York City.
More details to come.

(not actual screen).

Hi John!

Nice to see you back on the blog : )
You should see what they're saying on Facebook!

Screenings

Around the world with Boxhead and Roundhead.
Upcoming screenings except for the Kansk Film and Video Festival who played The Thing In The Distance without telling me.

November 11 - 13
Cutout Fest
Mexico
http://cutoutfest.com/

October 28 - 31
Linoleum
Russia
http://www.linoleumfestival.ru/

October 25 - 31
Tindirindis Animation Festival
Lithuania
http://www.tindirindis.lt/

October 13 - 17
International Animation Film Festival Golden Kuker
Bulgaria
http://www.animationfest-bg.eu/

October 28
The Big Cartoon Festival
Moscow
http://www.rus.multfest.ru/stat.php?id=56

October 20 - 24
Ottawa International Film Festival
http://www.animationfestival.ca/index.php

Tweak!
Sept 13 - 24
Ireland
http://www.tweak.ie/

Animacursed - International Festival of Horror Animation
September 1-17 & 17 - 23
http://www.animaldicoados.com/

Kansk Film and Video Festival
Aug 22 - 29
http://www.festival-cannes.ru/

More of This

Correspondence

FINAL UPDATE at the bottom.

Last night I received a surprising email from a complete stranger - John Sowley.
It was vaguely threatening, but not frightening.
I get grumpy emails from time to time, and for the most part I can understand why some of my drawings might upset people.
I could see from my sitemeter where the fellow was viewing my blog from, and using his email found out who he was.
I present the correspondence in order below.
Any spelling or punctuation errors have been retained.
If I hear from him again, I'll include his remarks at the bottom.

John Sowley:
go back to austrailia and cut off your hands.

Elliot Cowan:
I will if you give me a good reason.
What's your beef?

I received no reply to this, so I sent another email the next day.

Elliot Cowan:
Hello again John.
How're you?
I'm still hoping to get a response to your email from yesterday.
I'd really like to resolve this somehow.
Obviously I've drawn or said something to upset you (I'm sure we've never met. I'm in NYC and you're in Florida).
And I'd like to know what it is.
I don't get threats very often so I treat them with importance.
Please let me know in simple plain terms what I can do to lessen your anger so you sleep peacefully and I don't have to worry about calling the police.
Cheers and thanks,
Elliot

John Sowley:
Hi Elliot: I am sorry Iwas blunt. I am very impressed with your acting career and wonder why you have gone into those scribblings you have posted on Peculiar Circus. As far asI am concerned, I cannot call that crap ART. It just makes me mad. Sorry. |John Sowley @Fine Art in America. I also am with Artid, com. John
With this email, John attached several scans of his work. Several of them can be found here.

Elliot Cowan:
John.
An apology?
How entertaining.
I haven't a clue what you're talking about.
I've posted nothing on anything called Peculiar Circus.
Perhaps you could provide me with a link I'd be curious to know what you've seen.

John Sowley:
Wow! Did I screw up? When I sent the original email I had had 2 Martinis. |I'll get back to you...

Elliot Cowan:
Please look into it asap.
I'd like to sort this out.

John Sowley:
In Peculiar Circus there is a hartblog and hatpad. down the right is a list of names. If you click yours--yours, you get Elliot Cowans Sandwich Bag with the email address of elliotelliotelliot.com. Is this you? or are there 2 elliot Cowans.

Elliot Cowan:
www.elliotelliotelliot.com is my webpage, yes.
Sandwichbag is the name of my blog.
There is another Elliot Cowan, an English actor, to who I am not related.
I'm assuming you're upset with some of my drawings and I should care to know which ones.

John Sowley:
I don't know what to say. I have surfed your site and am impressed with the amount of work. Ihave no idea how to do any of the technical things necessary to produce your work..To do cartoons and animated figures for advertisements and tv products is of course is a purpose, but otherwise how are they of any use. I can' imagine spending time sitting at the PC to view your work.
I was born and raised in NY and lived and worked in the Village off and on. Anyway, consider my emarks due to my age. I am 87 and hanging in there,,,so far..

Elliot Cowan:

Ahhh.
I suspected we were heading in this direction.
I have to thank you.

Your brand of high grade idiocy has provided myself and a large number of talented friends amusement all afternoon.
We have been impressed with both your misspelled and badly punctuated emails and your comical high school style daubings.
I do not consider your "emarks" to be due to your age.
That would be insulting to several incredibly talented people I know who are older than yourself.
I consider your "emarks" to be due to the fact that you are a ridiculous, untalented old clown.
You should be painting your face instead of your canvases.
Enjoy your waning years.
I look forward to never hearing from you again.

John Sowley:
Ha Ha FUCK YOU AND YOUR ASSHOLE FRIENDS.....

Another Book Promo

I did this for my pal Nancy's new book.

Kafka and Nachmann

I made this promo for a book about Kafka and Rabbi Nachmann.
It ain't too bad.

BURNT BOOKS: RABBI NACHMAN OF BRATSLAV AND FRANZ KAFKA from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

Out In The Cold

I have just read an article by a Los Angeles television critic about the Emmy nominations.
I personally couldn't care less about the Emmy's themselves (or any other awards for that matter, unless I'm nominated for something).
His words sum up perfectly my own feelings towards the massively successful string of recent hits in my own industry recently.
I should care to meet this fellow and say "Thank you for expressing everything I've been whining about for so long".

"they are not beloved by me. I don't say this to be contrary or controversial. If anything, I'm in a state of wonderment. It feels odd, critically, to remain so unmoved by things that have moved so many, to be left cold by what warms the multitudes. Do I think that people who like these shows are wrong? I suppose in some way I must, just as I imagine that they would pity my inability to enjoy them, as though I were unable to appreciate the taste of strawberries or the smell of cut grass. … "Modern Family" does not work on me at all. It's as if we existed on different planes, or came from different planets, or that I suffered from some sort of neurological deficit that denatured every joke and feel-good moment."

Nancy Beiman's Animated Performance: Bringing imaginary animal, human and fantasy characters to life.

Nancy Beiman's new book "Animated Performance" should find a place on the bookshelf of anyone who creates character based work, whether it's animation, illustration, comic art, writing or portraiture.
Although written particularly for animators, it is not a technical "how to" book, which should be appealing to non animators.
There's no endless dreary theory either.
It's straight forward information that encourages the artist to think about the characters they are working with or creating.
This may sound obvious, but it's not.
A quick glance at the animation landscape should reveal this.
Further and deeper examination of character, and characters relationship to story will hopefully push us to experiment more and to do better work.
Apart from Nancy's text (which, from the little I know her feels just like her throughout), the book is large and packed full of terrific, wonderful illustrations.
I contributed a couple myself and every one of Nancy's are 163 times better than mine.
There are some birdy dinosaurs that I especially like. I also love the stretchy cats.
It's available for pre-order at amazon.com, here.

Ink and Brush

Hand In Hand

Hot

I've been working on a Sesame shoot with my pal Justin.
It's very hot and humid here in New York...

Things

Some cartoons for a thing that I did.

Certificate

Months ago I was asked to design the awards certificate for the ASIFA-East Animation Fesitval.
I thought I'd posted it.
I haven't.
Here it is.
I also did the accompanying signal film, which is here.

Essay Competition

I entered the essay competition being run at the website promoting Anthony Bourndain's new book.
My essay is called "Sausage Abandonment" and can by dound by clicking below:

The Passenger

Eunuchorn

Cura Magazine

A few months back I was asked to contribute a Boxhead and Roundhead illustration to Cura Magazine, an Italian art publication.
Orsola Mileti, the curator, suggested the characters might be trying to escape from the book somehow.
This seemed like a perfectly good idea so I used it.
The cover.


There is a preface page before my illustration that reads the following: There is no way out in the black and white world of Boxhead and Roundhead. Relentlessly bothered in the peacefulness of their house on the hill, interrupted even during their coffee breaks, chased by sea, land and alien monsters, overwhelmed by storms and landslides, attacked by exotic enemies or soldiers armed to the teeth and trapped in the works of some infernal machine. Fascinated by the world they see on TV and by the dreams of their afternoon naps, they are naïve and enthusiastic, hopelessly overwhelmed by reality. When they try to fly, they end up crashing through the roof of their own home. At times self destructive, at others times touchingly ingenuous, inevitably melancholic but drawn with a genuine noir spirit, they stoically keep on surviving through each of their Stressful Adventures. Invited to inhabit the pages of cura. for a brief moment, they find themselves dealing with the mangled and senseless Latin of “Lorem ipsum”.

And this is my drawing:

And this is the artwork.
Draw in Painter and Photoshop: