Draw, Iron Artist, Draw

Yesterday evening the Austin Museum of Art hosted an event they called Draw, Iron Artist, Draw. This is how the museum's website described it:

For this live drawing competition, Austin artists pay homage to two cultural phenomena: first to Roy Lichtenstein's comic-inspired prints, on view at AMOA, and second, to Iron Chef, the Food Network program with a cultish following. Artists have one hour to create comics based on audience suggestions, and the crowd determines the Iron Artist Champion. Coldtown Theater improvisation will emcee, referee, and provide live musical accompaniment.

The artists competing were:

Dat Boi Drew- The Austin Chronicle Reader's Poll 2007 tie for Best Graphic Artist

Kristin Hogan- has created the comic Dead Squirrel Girl since 1997 with her sister Katie.

Rob Osborne--conquering the comic scene with 1000 Steps to World Domination.

Rivkah--artist, writer, creator of manga comic Steadybeat.

So what was it like?

I arrived at the venue just on the 7:00pm start time and was amazed to find that the room was already standing room only. In fact it was so packed I could only just squeeze in.

The four artists were seated in the middle of, Kristin and Rob on one long table with Rivkah and Drew on another facing them. Between the tables was a small walk way for the presenters and the video camera man to walk. Everyone else could roam around as they pleased, either watch the artists work in person by peering over their shoulders, or sit or watch the art unfold on a large screen set up on one side of the room.

Danger artists at work - Standing Room Only!

The events kicked off with a "quote" round where a member of the audience had to come up with a random quote, while the artists had just two minutes to come up with a sketch to illustrate the quote. The result of this round was decided by popular vote. Next up random polling of the audience resulted in a list of various household items, celebrities, fictional characters and animals. Once again the time limit was two minutes and the contestants had to fit as many things from the list into a single drawing. Each item from the list scored points.

Next up was my favorite round. The artists were each asked to start drawing a hat. While they were sketching the hosts polled the audience for other random suggestions to be incorporated as the sketching went on. Points were scored for each item you managed to include. Of course as the time limit got closer the suggestions came quicker and the sketching more frantic.

Rob Osborne's ocotopus legged Lincoln fights off hordes of ballet dancers parachuting from an airship,...
.... while he eats a waffle! (You had to be there!)

The penultimate round was a team event with each table outdoing each other to collaborate on a four panel story. Of course the artists had to swap after each panel withe the subject of the panels being chosen at random from the watching crowd.

The final round gave the artists the luxury of a full 15 minutes to interpret one of any of three movies selected by the audience.

Kristin Hogan decides to merge Willy Wonka, Dumbo and Blue Velvet into a single scene during the final "movie" round.

The result again was up for popular vote. It ended up being a tie between Rob Osborne and Rivkah with Rivkah taking the grand prize of a "quick draw holster" (a gun holster filled with pens) on a recount.

Winner Rivkah hard at work under the watchful eye of the video camera.

At one stage I did a quick head count and estimated that there was between 150 and 200 people at the event, and the great thing was - it wasn't the usual Austin comics scene crowd. This was full of families (kids to grandparents), and a wide range of folks of all ages. This was comics gone mainstream popular art event.

Hopefully it will become an annual thing.

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