Introducing the 2008 Kansas City Irish Fest cow, the 4th in our series of bovine beauties. Now, in past years, I've taken shameless advantage of my friendships with some of the most talented illustrators on Earth to get our cows produced in exchange for some free beer, a stack of posters and lots of gratitude. These talented folks need some time to produce these babies, and jobs that pay essentially nothing take even longer to get off the back burner. Unfortunately, this year time sort of got away from me and I didn't get around to asking one of my buddies to draw me a cow, so I had to do it myself. And here she is. Hope you like her.
Now remember, this fiddle playing ungulate is and shall remain nameless until Irish Fest weekend. If you're a kid, be thinking of a proper name for the old girl and enter our upcoming contest.
And if you're wondering about this whole cow thing here at Irish Fest, we discussed it earlier.
Remember?
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26 comments:
How original! Horns with Shamrock shaped spots.
McCarthy
I can always count on you, McCarthy.
I like it!
Can you tone down the utters, maybe a little bit? Kinda looks like 4, well you know...
Design by committee is a bad idea, but...
Jesus, grow up. It's a cartoon cow.
Hey how about you & your cute cow & your big words! Ungulate on out of here with yer bad self!
And it's udder, genius, not utters.
Which is far better than, say, four otters.
I think she's adorable! The expression on her face is delightful! I really like the bluebird of happiness, too!
...or four potters, those clay covered bastards.
It's great Dan, really!
You are a talented man!
I'm not getting the clearest of signals whether you are actually looking for any feedback or not but since you are the moderator I suppose this comment will either appear it won't. Ice storm going on here so gotta keep this short...
PROS
Totally wonderfully face and expression. Couldn't be better.
CONS
Not a believable grip on the fiddle. Looks like an afterthought.
There needs to be just a tad of elbow showing and the hand looks like it's 'tuning' rather than 'playing' but is nowhere near the tuning pegs.
Also gotta go with the 'tone down the udders comment'. Too pink? Too much 'focus'? Too much attention to 'detail' there, or something? Dunno. All I know is it 'draws your eye' the way it is now and I'm sure that wasn't your intention. Nickname of "Hooker Cow" might be coined at some point the way it is.
Yea... it's a cartoon... so why not just make it one and don't even bother with the anatomical detail
at all? No one would miss it and attention would be totally drawn to that wonderful facial expression.
Though I really wasn't asking or looking for any Monday morning art direction, I appreciate the comments and opinions, truly. But seriously. Of course it's not "a believable grip on the fiddle". It's cow. Playing a fiddle with cloven hooves. Standing on her hind legs. "Believable" wasn't really high on my list of concerns here.
Roger that. It's a cartoon. You could go with it exactly the way it is and it will be wonderful... but since you are still 7 months away for the target event... it you wanted to improve it at all I would focus in the left arm and lower part.
The lower part is 'taking focus' and I don't think that was your intent.
The left arm just appears to be missing. Just a smidgeon of elbow showing below the fiddle and the faintest hint of a thumb coming around the front of the neck would be all that is needed for total 'believability' in that part of the drawing.
I used to do cartoon movies in college. Hand-painted cells, 20 per second. Ya gotta keep it simple but there are always people looking for that 'believability' factor.
Did you ever hear that story about Charlie Brown? Charles Schultz originally had prominent 'dimples' on Charlie but when his personna took on that 'always gloomy' character the producers wanted Charles to drop the dimples because the said it wasn't 'believable' for such a dimpled face to look as 'gloomy' as it needed to match the
dialog. Charles resisted but eventually agreed and we all met a (mostly) dimple-less Charlie Brown.
Monday morning art director, is my official title. I should be able to move strait to the top, not doing anything but critique others. Tone down the netheregions and it will rock! It is truly Awesome.
I've been working full time as an illustrator for 22 years. I really don't need the lesson. But thanks.
I'm glad to see that at least two of you care so much, though I think you have way too much time on your hands. Since it came from a fine and talented musician, I have made the requested adjustment to ol' Bossy's fiddling style. Good call.
Whatever you just did seconds ago to the left arm really does it for me. IMHO total believable now in that part of the illustration.
I imagine the nether-regions debate will continue. Good luck.
Thank for the chance to comment and thanks for all you do for KC Irishfest. It's all good.
As the president of the Kansas City Irish Fest I have some power. I have a key to my own personal porta potty, a private office...ok they are the same. At any rate I do have the power to make a Presidential Proclamation. So today I am making one. The Cow is a damn good cow. Leave it alone. And just because some of you owned a box of crayons at one time in your life you are not an art critic or artist. I'm Ed Scanlon and I approve this cow. The rest of you can wait till 2009 when we get another cow for you to worry about how "realistic" a cow holds a bow. Give it up! That is the end of this conversation.
Ed Scanlon
President Kansas City Irish Fest
Hmmm... 17+ comments on the cow. Zero comments on Beoga and Slide.
I like the cow...she is udderly delightful. I want her on a t-shirt.
Well Ed, this is what happens when you run a public blog and these sorts of things pop up in the dead of winter when people really DO have, as Dan said, "too much time on their hands". ROFL. The original post said "Hope you like her." That seemed like it was inviting comment. I guess that wasn't the case.
FYI: It was more than just a box of crayons I used to own. BFA from FSU among other degrees. Those comments of mine were INTENDED to be from "one caring professional to another". I DO think it looks a little better now than it did before. Nice work, Dan! MHO.
She's as cute as she can be!
As for Beoga and Slide... Fair play.
Ok I am seriously cracking up....I am in complete shock that these conversations are even taking place. Making a upright standing, fiddle playing cow look "believable" seems like an incredible oxymoron. Perhaps we should quit unvailing things ahead of time. It is one thing to say "hey this is what we are thinking of doing, what is your opinion" and then get peoples feedback but we didn't. We said "Here is our new cow, hope you like it."
"Hmmm... 17+ comments on the cow. Zero comments on Beoga and Slide."
Maybe it's because those into music don't bother to post here anymore.
Hey Sunshine...
The TITLE of the post was ( still is ) "Our New Cow? Cud Be".
There's a QUESTION MARK in there and last time I checked my Thesaurus I found no alternate meaning for "Cud Be" listed as "This is the way it's gonna be with no changes so no comments, please."
The posting SEEMED to be inviting comment since the target event is still 7 months away and was also accompanied withe the "Hope you like her?" ( Question? ).
Take all that up with Uncle Bloggy.
This is a great (public) BLOG and a nice source of information for a very important Midwest entertainment event... but I'm a little tired of all the mixed signals that get put out about when contributions are expected and when they are NOT. A little more clarity in the future please.
As one of KC Irish Fest's biggest fans and a former on-stage contributor I am more than happy to participate in the endless Naming contests, requests for suggestions, ticketing procedure and beer purchasing proposal suggestions, Family improvement suggestions, Limerick contests, Solicitations for Music Groups, etc, etc... but can there at least be a WARNING when something that APPEARS to be "in progress" and/or open for suggestion is actually NOT?
The place for POLICY declarations is on the Event Website.
BLOGS are, inherently, intended for open discussion. That's how that works.
Geez, Louise.
I guess I learned 2 things from this...
Never get caught in an ice storm in Little Rock with nothing to do but surf the Web.
Never trust the titles of BLOG posts.
Put ( Another naming contest? ) cow back the way it was when it first appeared. Not gonna matter to me.
I'll be at KC Irish Fest no matter what. Woudln't miss it. Always a good time.
This has gotten a bit out of hand, kids. I wish posts that really matter got this much attention.
For the record: I used "cud be" for no other reason than because I have a bad habit of using bad puns. Cows, cud, get it? Ha ha? I didn't mean to imply by that wording, or by the phrase "hope you like her" (period, no question mark, not a question) that there was any doubt that this was the official cow for 2008 or that I was asking for suggestions on how I cud...sorry, could improve my humble little bovine illustration.
I've been making my meager money for nearly 22 years by drawing cows, bunnies, turtles, people, walruses, and whatever else I was asked to by my art directors at the world's biggest greeting card factory. In that business, I've developed a thick skin when it comes to criticism of my work when it has artistic and aesthetic validity and a zero tolerance of criticism that to my mind and eye has none. Having said that, Kevin's suggestion about the cow's left "arm", solicited or not, was a good one and I made a corresponding change to the painting that improved it. The comments about the udder on the udder hand (Damn! Did it again!) I think are more than a little silly and the old girl will stay just the way she is in that area. I put that right up there with John Ashcroft draping the statue of Justice in Washington. This is sillier than that actually being as how it's, you know, a cartoon cow. Suggestion from my volunteer A.D.s noted and rejected.
This blog will continue to welcome and publish comment on anything pertinent to Irish Fest and the subject of the day, positive or negative, whether you like what I wrote (or painted) or hated it. Even on a topic as fundamentally goofy as a pretend cow. This is your festival and this blog is your forum to express opinions about it, whatever they may be.
The subject of the cow is now, I fervently hope, closed. As I originally said, I hope you like her. Period. If not...well, don't we really all have better things to be talking about?
I love the cow Danny. She is so cute!
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