A man of STYLE is Kev. A man with IDEAS is Kev. A man with four kids to feed is driven to succeed. This is Kevin Brockschmidt, the artist, the designer, the husband, the father and a past president of CNW.

Even after knowing Kevin Brockschmidt for over ten years, I learned more about his talent and personal history at our August CNW meeting. Found out he tried to enter the Air Force because he wanted to become an astronaut. But he failed an eye test or something like that and didn't make it in. Kev tried studying to be an engineer because his Dad is an engineer. Though he was great at drafting and 3D rendering, calculus was Kev's downfall. (I can relate to that.) At this point he switched his major to graphic design.

The next series of tidbits are in quick succession for sake of space and for the sake of my typing fingers. As a bachelor, Kev was a freelance artist. Then he got married and needed steady income so he tried training to be a police officer. In the midst of training he was called by lnfospace.com where he ended up working as art director creating posters, graphics and illustrations. He's also done commission jobs for Starlog magazine. I love his Sci-Fi cartoons, but then I'm a sci-fi fan.) For eight years he's done freelance work for Washington Mutual's "Kid News". He is the creator of their trademark (Mr. Coinhead) character. We saw samples of all the above illustration work. This guy is prolific.

B r e a t h e .

During the early years of Kev's marriage, two years were spent in Japan teaching English and doing freelance assignments for an exclusive school there. We were shown samples of illustrations for a picture dictionary and large poster size teaching cards for this school. Kev created over 50 of these poster cards.

There were so being passed around the room in both directions I had a hard time taking notes and time studying the great illustrations: coloring books, greeting cards, gag cartoons, Tshirt designs, a comic strip idea featuring police and stupid criminals and more. Phew! If you weren't there you missed visual overload.

Kevin stopped working at Infospace.com in January of this year. He's back to freelancing with a lot of experience under his fingers Though he is too busy right now to frequently update his website www.kevscartoons.com, Kev has a new homepage. He's designed a full-page self-promo for the Directory of Illustration, the Nov. 2004 issue. His portfolio includes professional illustration and graphic design. There is a separate graphic design websie for that side of his business, www.BrockschmidtDesign.com.

One of Kev's early mentors, Steve Gallacci, happened to attend our August meeting. (Everyone received a free copy of Steve's latest Albedo comic book.) It was Steve who suggested Kev use a brush for inking rather than rapidograph pens (way back in 1983). Kev's fluid lines reflect his mastery of brush line work. He's also mastered working with computer graphics.

Comic strips influenced our speaker more than comic books. He has a complete collection of Tumbleweeds anthologies. He also has a (complete) collection of Spy vs. Spy cartoons. Though he practiced duplicating the Beetle Bailey style from daily strips, he was told by Mort Walker to develop his own style... and Kev has done just that.

Thank you, Kevin, for bringing so many wonderful examples of your creativity to share with CNW meeting attendees. We wish you continued success getting those BlG bucks jobs out there. With four kids, you're going to need the work.