I had a rather busy Wednesday last week. On that day I created two covers for The Economist.

Both are on the newsstand now. One is about guns and politics in America appearing as the cover for the US edition of the magazine, the second is on the Euro Crisis appearing on the front of the magazine in the rest of the world.

Having one artist create 2 covers in the same week may be a first for The Economist,. Just to complicate the matter, I was in Rome at the time attending an Economist related event for the international sales staff of the magazine. Members of The Economist team graciously found me a room at the hotel with some natural light for me to work (see below). You can see the finished products above.

While in San Francisco at the opening of my recent exhibition “Drawn From The Economist” I had the honor of being interviewed by the Art’s correspondent for the PBS Newshour. The video was posted today at the NewsHour’s Website.  The exhibition is on display at The Cartoon Art Museum until March. I hope to get back to the Bay area again soon have an event or two at the Museum before the show departs!

I hope 2011 will be a good one for all visitors to the Kal Sketchblog.

I am happy to announce I have an exciting year ahead with speaking engagements currently slated for Rome, London, Houston, New York and San Francisco.

I have some exciting animation projects in the works as well as plans for a new KAL book.  The Economist has already commissioned me to create a 2012 Kalendar which I will start in the weeks ahead.

Here’s a sneak peek at the May spread for the 2011 Economist Kalendar. I am delighted to say that sales have been brisk this holiday season. You can order yours from the newly revamped Kaltoons store!

I have the honor to announce I have been invited to address the TEDx Warwick conference on March 5, 2011.

For those of you unfamiliar with the TED speaker series,I recommend you check out the TED website. TED stands for Technology, Education and Design and since 1984 the TED speakers series has wowwed audiences around the world.  Each TED event assembles a eclectic group of up to 50 speakers to give “The talk of their lives” for 18 minutes.  You can view scores of these talks at the Ted site.

TEDx events are smaller in scale usually engaging 10-12 speakers. TedxWarwick is regarded as the first and largest of the TEDx events in England. I am very honored to have been asked to address the gathering.

Tickets will be available to the public. I will post more information here as it comes available.

I recently attended the fabulous “World in 2011 Festival” sponsored by The Economist in New York City. I was sketching the speakers and was asked to give the final address to the attendees. You can see my chat in the video above. Below are some close ups of the sketches I discuss in the video.

I am very excited to announce the new Kaltoons online store is up and operational. You can now purchase books, prints and the 2011 Economist Wall Kalendar! Great holiday gifts!

Click the link in the menu bar above or  go to http://shop.kaltoons.com.

Also check out the above sneak peek at a spread from the 2011 Kalendar.

I recently was the keynote speaker at the annual “Technite” event sponsored by the Greater Baltimore Tech Council. The good folks at OpenRangeVideo recorded the evening’s festivities and have now crafted together my presentation for all to see.

The talk features my journey from the printed page to 3D animation (featuring some some fun cartoons). It is 3 parts (total time 28 minutes). I hope you enjoy it!.

I am recently back from St Petersburg, Russia from a fascinating visit that featured the opening of a cartoon exhibition at the Russian National Museum of Political History (see above). The exhibition was initiated by the US Consulate in St Petersburg. It included a survey of the history of American and Russian cartoons (You can read about it here in Russian). The Library of Congress lent some cartoons for the show including some classic American cartoons starting with Ben Franklin’s famous “Joy or Die” drawing.

The main body of the exhibition was a display of 43 of my cartoons to showcase the work of a contemporary American artist. Below is the poster from the show.

The opening was an active affair with a great deal of Russian media including television, radio, newspapers and magazines both local and national. The Exhibition was excellently displayed and provided a great launching point for discussions about politics, satire and freedom of expression.

The Director of the Museum Yevgeny Artemov was a dynamic and energetic host, but he did sit down for a few minutes to allow me to sketch him.

As part of my visit, I had the opportunity to visit with a variety of cultural and educational institutions to discuss the exhibition and the craft of editorial cartooning. Below, I am visiting with some students from The School of Journalism, St Petersburg State University.

I even woke up one morning to see my picture on the front page of the St Petersburg Times (The Russian one!).

About a month ago I did a video conference with a group of Iraqi cartoonists some of whom are in this CNN report. As you can see there is some great work being produced by these artists. But, as this video points out, there are difficult and dangerous challenges that confront my Iraqi cartooning colleagues.

One artist shared with me:

… In 2003 we were delighted to be rid of Saddam and hoped then to have the freedom to express our views in our cartoons. But now there are 300 political parties with 300 Saddams… our job today is much more complicated than ever.