This reporter has learned through reliable sources, on deep background, and totally off the record that *wink wink*, a certain Matt Groening will be Lynda Barry’s ”super secret, special guest” for the Friday night Artist as Cartoonist keynote at this year’s ICON7, The  Illustration Conference.  I can also report that Ms. Barry and Mr. Groening go way back, meeting at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA in the 1970′s. Maybe they’ll talk about that, maybe they won’t. I don’t know. You’ll have to show up and do your own reportage. And please, whatever you do don’t tell anyone on Twitter or Facebook you heard it from me. Tell them you heard it on TMZ or something.

This much I can tell you, ICON7 will take place in a place called Providence, RI on June 13-16, 2012.

Attention Illustrators!

We’re very excited to announce that our sister site Illustration Age is collaborating with the fine folks over at Behance to offer a very special deal on their ProSite service, which allows you to create and customize a professional portfolio website.

All new subscribers to ProSite can use the promo code IA3FM for 3 FREE months! Click here for more info and a video introduction to this great service.

Special thanks to Will Allen and Alison Thornsberry for this generous offer to our community of illustrators.

The boys and girl of Awesome Horse Studios are wrapping up Season 2 of their free livestream tutorials with a king size critique session.

If you want them to look at your online portfolio, post it here on our Facebook page. They will be looking at both work and site design.

If you want a specific piece critiqued, go to Wipnation.com, upload your work and tag it “awesomehorse” and “horse crit”

The season finale will be Saturday, March 31 from 2pm on.

For full details visit the official ICON site here!

One of the nation’s most successful illustrators, his clients have included The New Yorker, TIME, McDonald’s, Young & Rubicam, American Express, Sony, United Airlines, Nickelodeon, Sports Illustrated For Kids, Ralston Purina, Hallmark Cards, Kenner Toys, US News and World Report, Fortune, The Washington Post, AT&T, Sega, TWA, Dr.Pepper, The Chicago Tribune, Good Humor, Warner Books, Kellogg’s, Cartoon Network, Turner Broadcasting, The Wall Street Journal, AOL/Time Warner, Forbes, Simon and Schuster, The Ren and Stimpy Show, MAD, USA Today, Children’s Television Workshop, Blockbuster Video, The Walt Disney Company, Anheuser-Busch, Doubleday, Klutz Press, Hershey’s, Target Stores, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Fleishman-Hillard, DMBB, and countless others.

He has authored and/or illustrated over 50 books, including The Donut Chef, Hello Robots, Look A Book, This Is Not A Pumpkin, Pets Go Pop, and others. The New York Times named Staake’s ‘The Red Lemon’ one of the 10 best illustrated books of 2006.

There’s still time to register for the ICON Illustration Conference at the early bird rate here.

This Saturday on Awesome Horse Studios, Aaron will do a live critique, and Cynthia will be doing a creature design from scratch with help from the viewers!

Come join in the live chat, ask questions, and paint along at 2PM EST.

View this episode live, or old episodes anytime on our website.

This week on Awesome Horse Studios Aaron Miller will be doing a live demo, and Cynthia will be doing a critique of a sci-fi illustration with a paintover.

We will also have Drew Baker and will be discussing and taking questions on the business of freelance illustration. Drew is a freelance pro, and you might even know his work from Star Wars games and Legend of the Five Rings.

Tune in here on Saturday at 2pm (or now to watch old episodes and crits)

What happens when four illustrators share a passion for their work and sharing what they know with others? Awesome Horse Studios is Marc Scheff, Cynthia Sheppard, Noah Bradley, and Aaron Miller. They do a weekly Livestream on Saturdays at 2pm EST. Each episode consists of 1-2 critiques of art submitted from the audience, and a demonstration.

You can tune in and chat live with the four horsemen on Saturdays, or watch past episodes at: http://www.awesomehorsestudios.com/watch-now

“A year ago, I started a series of posts about drawing utensils I use. The first one revolved around self-contained pens called Creation of a Line – Part 1. For this installment, I will center around the pencil. While the last post got pretty indepth with some of the pens, this one is not as much.”

Check out Scott’s interesting examination of this most universal Illustrator’s tool here.

Last week, the final episode of the Escape from Illustration Island Podcast was released, featuring an in-depth interview with Zina Saunders.

In addition to all the gracious feedback from all of you, dear listeners, the great Steve Heller (who appeared on Episode 25), posted a nice tribute to the end of the show in his Daily Heller column, which lives on Print magazine’s Imprint blog. Thanks Steve, and everyone else, for your continued enthusiasm and support for this truly rewarding project.

Read the EFII Podcast feature on The Daily Heller