SNB filmed for Torrance TV Sept 24

Here's the crew from CitiCable 3 Torrance in action at our Showroom.....

We've been located in Torrance, CA for over 10 years now. Torrance is part of Los Angeles County, and is located off the Southern California coast between LAX and Long Beach airports, and near the intersection of the 405 and 110 freeways. We are always telling our patrons that 1) Torrance is NOT that far away (it's closer than France); and 2) it's a great place to visit, and an even better place to live.

The "visit our showroom" page on our website includes the range of Torrance and South Bay attractions near us, and long list of all the local restaurants we've tried and love. Whenever we travel, we are always stopping at bookstores... and counting on bookstore staff and owners to recommend near by eats and treats, so we try to return the favor for our patrons.

In addition to the amenities at our showroom (see the post on "SNB Stewardship"), a trip to Stuart Ng Books is an opportunity to experience the small town charms of Torrance, such as nearby Wilson Park.... with its shaded walking path, tree house, tennis courts, ball fields, duck pond and Farmer's Market on Tues and Saturdays... as well as the California Live Steamer train rides (http://www.southerncalifornialivesteamers.com/)

Torrance has lots of local shopping and restaurants, and the beautiful weather of the South Bay. We are close to all the attractions in Long Beach (aquarium, etc), and the equestrian events held almost every weekend in Palos Verdes.

Torrance is a family friendly, and business friendly, community. There are quite a number of companies here... including the home bakery for King's Hawaiian Bread and a headquarters for Toyota motor corp.... but most of the businesses are modest family run operations, like us (our current mayor owns a towing company based in Torrance). Torrance CitiCable 3 TV profiles local news, sporting, and community events.... and local businesses.

They visited our showroom on Friday 9/24 to interview Stuart. Since they also wanted to interview one of our artist-patrons, we invited David Colman who came by with his books, and his art supplies.

The crew taped David drawing on our new drawing board, and because David is also a drawing teacher, he gave an insightful tutorial while he was working.

Here's David's wonderful owl drawing... note how he made use of the toned paper background of the cardboard and added the punch of white highlights.

I ended up talking with the film crew about my favorite SNB subjects: Stuart Ng: Claire Wendling; and our map of the world (also because Mary didn't want to be on TV this time and Peggy wasn't in the office). This experience reminded me that there really isn't a "title" for my role at Stuart Ng Books... or the role of any spouse or partner of a small business owner. There are other spouses who blog about this dilemma.... we aren't necessarily co-owners or employees (though we can be)... but we often know a lot about the product or service, and we are called on to provide support in a wide range of roles at the business, in addition to the family and domestic duties that often fall to our jurisdiction. It is a balancing act to be working with your family. To make it work, you really need a good sense of humor and lots of patience.

We'll let you know when the segment airs... and it will be posted on You Tube. Thanks to Ravelle and Brian for making us all feel so comfortable for the interview.

SNB at Dream-Con Sept 21

On Tuesday 9/21, Stuart and I exhibited at Dreamworks Animation Studio's 3rd annual "Dream-Con" Art Festival. This is a private, in-house art and book show held on the studio campus. Dreamworks Animation hosts this event so their animation artists can view (and buy) each other's self-published projects (books, prints, etc). We were guests last year... just to mingle... but this year, the organizers invited us to exhibit. We had 2 tables and an array of titles from our showroom.

There are lots of warm memories for me whenever we get to visit a studio lot. (As some of you know, prior to my life with Stuart Ng Books, I worked in the feature film industry, including stints at Disney and Warner Bros.) Dreamworks Animation has a beautiful setting with courtyards and fountains. Our 2 tables were located right next to the cafeteria and the free buffet... good news and bad news, as we could see the food, but, as usual for us when we are selling books, we didn't get to eat. Thankfully, that's because we are busy chatting with all the nice folks who stop by to see the books! I tried to let Stuart get away from our table as much as possible. There was so much to see...books, original art, prints etc. all personal work by Dreamworks artists. The event was outdoors, and we had perfect weather too!

Many of the artists who stopped by our table didn't know about the amazing Art of Animals exhibition now going on right in their backyard at the charming free museum at Forest Lawn, Glendale. Hopefully, many of them will be able to check out that show.

Since the kind folks at Dreamworks Animation invited us to their house and offered us a unique opportunity.... we wanted to return the favor. At our table, we offered a special flyer on goldenrod paper. The flyer has a special offer on it.... to be used on any in-store purchase at our showroom for the next two weeks. If you're a Dreamworks artist and you missed out on Dream-Con and/or the flyer, we left a few with Angela. Our website includes area attractions in the South Bay, and a list of restaurants. There's a great Farmer's Market every Saturday only 3 miles from our showroom. We know it can see like a trek to get to Torrance, but it's not that far..... and it's a lot closer than France.

Being able to have Stuart and the books at an in-house event provided lots of benefits for the artists at Dreamworks. They enjoyed browsing the books and talking with Stuart right at their workplace. Hopefully we'll be able to do more of these sorts of things in the future.

What if we launched a "Stuart Ng Book(s)mobile?" Please let us know what you think. If you are an artist at a studio.... an instructor.... or a student... and you'd like a visit from the "Stuart Ng Book(s)mobile", send us an email at info@stuartngbooks.com

Special thanks to our friends at Dreamworks Animation, especially Angela and Meghan, for a wonderful event and for making us feel so welcome!

Coming soon.... another signing at our showroom.... watch for details!

Drive-Ins aren't By-Gones... there's one left in Riverside

The pic here is a little treat... there really is a Drive-In theatre left in Southern California!

This one is out in Riverside. It plays 1st run films and has a swap meet on weekends. I had to explain what a drive-in theatre was to someone recently... Sigh.....

Pics from Sept 18th signing + new drawing board

Saturday 9/18 we hosted a signing with 4 artists (left to right):

Sean “Cheeks” Galloway is an animation character designer (Spectacular Spider-Man, Hellboy Animated) and comics artist (Wednesday Comics).

Ryan Benjamin is a comic book artist (Marvel, DC, and Wildstorm) and concept artist for Sony.


(Stuart's in the middle in the blue aloha shirt)

Jonboy Meyers is a comic book artist, trading card illustrator, and video game concept artist.

Ryan Odagawa is a comic book artist (Aspen/NBC Heroes online graphic novels, Marvel, Wildstorm, Sony).

Here are their books... you can read more on the "sketchbook"page of our website, where you can search for the books by the artist's last name:
http://www.stuartngbooks.com/sketchbooks.html

Because we are still mostly a mail-order business, our showroom signings are really unique events. The artists are busy signing books for all the pre-ordered copies for our patrons around the world who can't get to Torrance.

For those who can attend the signings, there is usually ample time to talk one-on-one with the guests. Also, the artists get a chance to chat with each other while they are drawing. All of this gives our signings the atmosphere of an art "salon" -- where inspirational ideas , and industry insights, are exchanged. Saturday's topics included the art and artists that influenced the panelists.

Best of all... Ryan B., Ryan O., Jonboy and Sean inaugurated our new drawing board.

Here's a shot of our original board, which was started at our first showroom...

Since the drawing space on our brand new board was huge and open, each artist responded with a large drawing. It was amazing to watch them pencil, tinker, and then ink their contributions. The process became a bit of a "smack-down" with each artist raising the bar.... and there was the physical challenge for them too of drawing such a large sketch on a perpendicular surface. Try it sometime.. it's quite a workout!

Jonboy Meyers inking...

Ryan Benjamin just starting to ink over his red pencil version...

Ryan Odagawa inking ...

Sean Galloway... while working on this drawing he commented "They say you should draw with your whole arm... and you have to like this.."

Be sure to add your own sketch to our new board when you stop by!!!

Visit our showroom soon to see the results.... and remember the bonus opportunities our signings offer! Q&A... Tutorial... drawing demo.... AND a signed book :)

Why we BUY and sell quality books in our area -- Legacy Books from Famous Artists School go to Major Studio Sept 2010

This may look like an ordinary stack of old, brown binders....



But look closely... what you are seeing are Legacy Books. These are "FAAC" (Famous Artists' Advance Course) volumes in the Famous Artists School.... These titles are fragile, hard to ship, and scarce, but in great demand with our professional artist patrons. Why?? For most of artists who were faculty members for Famous Artists School correspondence courses, no other books were ever produced that document their work and/or creative process.

One of the very best parts of our job at Stuart Ng Books is when we can shepherd what I like to call "Legacy Books"... prized reference materials that have influenced a working artist..... from their reference library onto a new generation of artists.

Last week, some animators from a major studio visited our showroom. They bought books that day for their own use, but also returned to the studio and urged their Animation Librarian to purchase these volumes. The Librarian did... and now these books are at that studio library, where all the artists at that studio can learn from them...

Please remember to tell all your friends.... we BUY quality books in our area all the time, and we PAY MORE than other sources.

An artist's reference library is always evolving... and when they are ready to move into a new area... we are here to buy good books from them, as well as provide books to suit their needs.

Many of the out of print books on our website and in our showroom come directly from the shelves of another working artist! Be part of the legacy when you buy and SELL your books with us.

Here's more about the Famous Artists' School (FAS) from the FAS page on our website:

"America's most famous artists have spent a lot of their time, thought and energy in putting down for you in words and pictures all the ideas and methods they use in making pictures....we are confident you will find it fully expresses the man and his work, and is designed so you can readily understand his way of thinking about picture-making."
The Famous Artists School's Advanced Program which started in 1948 consisted of ten separate volumes/binders each written and illustrated by a different faculty member (John Atherton, Austin Briggs, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Peter Helck, Fred Ludekens, Al Parker, Ben Stahl, Harold Von Schmidt, Jon Whitcomb). It only lasted for a few years before school president Albert Dorne cancelled the program due to low enrollment and had all the material incinerated (according to an instructor at the school at the time) resulting in the scarcity of the remaining volumes.

Read more on our website:

http://www.stuartngbooks.com/famous_artists_school.html

and

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(February 2010)

Famous Artists School
Famous Artists School has offered correspondence courses in art since it was founded in 1948 in Westport, Connecticut, U.S.A. The idea was conceived by Albert Dorne as a result of a conversation with Norman Rockwell. For the founding faculty, Dorne recruited John Atherton, Austin Briggs, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Peter Helck, Fred Ludekens, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell, Ben Stahl, Harold von Schmidt and Jon Whitcomb. All were making more than US$ 50,000 a year at the time, roughly equivalent to US $425,000 in 2006. Later faculty included cartoonists Al Capp, Milt Caniff and Rube Goldberg. Advisory faculty for the school later included Stuart Davis, Ben Shahn, Fletcher Martin, Ernest Fiene, Arnold Blanch and Doris Lee.

Original 1948 courses

The original courses offered in 1948 were Painting, Illustration/Design and Cartooning. The Cartooning course was dropped in the 1980s. The Painting and Illustration & Design courses are still offered. Each course consists of 24 lessons, with a new lesson mailed to the student upon completion of each lesson. When a student completed and returned the assignment, it was critiqued by a professional artist who sent suggestions back to the student. The original 1948 price for the two-year course was $300, payable in monthly installments, plus an estimated $11.55 for basic oil painting supplies.

Current courses

As of 2007, the school offered four courses: Acrylic Painting; Oil and Watercolor Painting; Illustration & Design; and a Course for Talented Young People. Cartoonists Lyman Anderson, Jay Disbrow, Graham Ingels and Bernie Wrightson are alumni of the school, as are artists and illustrators Mark English, Bernie Fuchs, Robert Heindel, Franklin McMahon, Charles Reid, Dolph LeMoult and Hank McLaughlin.
The Famous Artists School was acquired by Cortina Learning International of Weston, Connecticut in 1981.

Horse Show 2010 more views added 9/13

For all pictures on the horse show, including great shots of jumpers from last year, please use the search feature on the blog and the phrase Horse Show.

We had a lovely time at the 53rd Annual Portuguese Bend National Horse show.... one of my favorite events all year, plus it's all for a good cause.... here's the blurb from their website... "The horse show has the feel of an old-fashioned hometown fair. Food booths, haybale boutique, special events and a Children’s Circle is designed with the young visitor in mind and features a moon bounce, pony rides, petting zoo, face painting, games, prizes and more." Here's the link for directions and list of events: http://www.pcch.net/index.php/horseshow/ Free parking, nominal admission free, lots of shade, a sports bar, bring your sketchbook... and every dollar you spend at this event benefits Children's Hospital Los Angeles!

From the moment you get of the bus, you are up close with the events...

One of my favorite horses from the weekend was this magnificent gray jumper:

There's a petting zoo for the kids... as well as game booths (but no crafts this year)....

On your walk to the entrance, you pass by the temporary stalls that are in what is usually the parking lot for Ernie Howlett park (which is why they use the shuttle bus system).

With attendees so close to the horses, it's often a question of who are the real spectators...

Another view of the stalls and exhibitor entrance...

Sunday featured the Long Beach Mounted Police... this group is all privately owned palominos... check out the silver embellished western tack...

Santa Monica Book Fair Sept 11th & 12th 2010

Stuart spent all day Sunday at the Santa Monica bookfair. I joined him later in the afternoon. We were happy to see many of our friends and colleagues there including Scott Emerson, Mike Riley (Book Gallery), Dan Medart, Anne Hutchison & Bud Plant, Sam Hessel, Carl Blomgren, Edna & David Dunn, Craig & Patti Graham (Vagabond), Eric Kline and more. Here's Stuart visiting with Annette & Larry Hancks, who drove out from Kansas City, MO to exhibit. They specialize in Children's Illustrated and Young Adult books and brought lovely art books by Charles Van Sandwyck and signed books and prints by illustrator Tae-Eun Yoo. Lovely stuff. These and other dealers will be back in Feb 2011 for the Pasadena Show. Don't miss it!

Treasures everywhere you look at the book fair booths....

Here's the link for Bustamante shows, who put on these wonderful fairs:
http://www.bustamante-shows.com/book/index-book.asp