Charlene Fleming

Coworkers

2011-12-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

Above: Jason Courtney and Greg Eichholzer.
Below: Sabrina Cecchini.

Above: Karla Ortiz and Thomas Denmark.

Fragments

2011-12-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

The house drawing was originally intended to be a painted sketch but the only time this house is lit in a way that I like is in the morning. I don't like working from photographs or making up lighting for drawings done on actual location and I'm not a morning person so it follows that it may be a long time before I make it over the hill to go paint this.

Conservatory of Flowers

2011-12-01T23:45:00.000-08:00

Sweet Blog o' Mine

2011-11-26T00:35:00.000-08:00

I certainly didn't mean to take over a month-long hiatus from the blog but following APE, I was pretty burnt out. But look. New art down there.

I took a vacation a couple weeks ago and now I'm right as rain. While I was gone, I finished this sketchbook layout I've been chipping away at for months. Done in the Mission District, Alamo Square, Hayes Valley, and Lower Haight.

APE Recap & SoMa Love

2011-10-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

To keep it brief, this year's APE was the best (and busiest) yet. I didn't get the opportunity to walk the floor, aside from visiting a few friends' tables, but that's probably for the best considering that I probably would have spent a large portion of my profits on all the awesome stuff that was there. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our table. If you'd like to purchase one of my sketchbooks, there are some available through Stuart Ng Books.

I found the time to sketch something last month but didn't have time to scan and post it until this week...

Books available at APE

2011-09-30T17:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a preview of my books, which will be available at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco October 1-2, at table #660 (it's at the back of the Concourse). Apologies for the grainy phone photos. This book is a compilation of San Francisco sketches done 2009-2011. I'll also have a wide selection of prints available.

There will be a way to purchase these later online if there are leftovers. My post-APE project is to redesign my website and add a shop to it, although I have no idea how long that will take to take to do. If you're really itching for one during that time and can't make it out to APE, send me an email and you can order it from me directly. Hope to see some of you this weekend!

Lunch Paint

2011-09-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

Godfather: Five Families

2011-09-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

First off, I'll have a table at this year's Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco with Traci Hui. It goes down on October 1-2 at the Concourse Exhibition Center and we'll be at table #660 (at the back of the Concourse). Do stop by! I'll be selling books, prints, and pins. Photos of my wares to come soon... once I receive the books from the printer.

Secondly...

...the game I've been working on this year has just been announced: Godfather: Five Families. I designed and painted a lot of the buildings. I'm looking forward to sharing the work I did for Godfather once the game launches.

Buckshot

2011-08-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

SoMa

2011-08-24T00:07:00.000-07:00

South of Market, SF.

De Young Figurines

2011-08-22T23:53:00.000-07:00

Zoo Revue

2011-08-12T00:23:00.001-07:00

Dragons of Atlantis: Part II

2011-07-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple ads I painted for Dragons of Atlantis last November. The images were meant to be shrunk down to about a quarter of the size I'm displaying them at here. These are the first dragons I've ever drawn or painted, as well.

All artwork in this post is copyright 2011 Kabam. All rights reserved.

SketchCrawl 32

2011-07-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Citizens

2011-07-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Above: People watching a symphony play in Golden Gate Park on 4th of July weekend.
Below: BART people.

Wicked Plants

2011-07-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

I went to the Conservatory of Flowers last Saturday with my pal, Traci, and a group of fellow artists. The Conservatory's current exhibit, Wicked Plants, is fascinating. Their website states that the exhibit "introduces visitors to living examples of dozens of infamous plants that have left their mark on history and claimed many an unfortunate victim." The trip resulted in the following sketchbook pages, plus Thai lunch.

It'd be great to make it back on a nicer day to paint a picture of the Conservatory itself, which is a giant Victorian greenhouse built in 1878.

BARTness

2011-06-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

Graduation Day

2011-06-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

My younger sister and my sketchbook graduated at the same ceremony. I'm pretty proud of my sister for making it through college but I have mixed feelings about the sketchbook I just finished. It didn't feel as unified and committed as previous sketchbooks and I only did one painting in it (which I didn't even finish):

Above: I did this at Dolores Park at the last Sketchcrawl. It was too windy to finish the painting... the gouache kept drying on my palette and brush before I had the chance to get it on paper. It's been endlessly windy the last few months here in the city so I suppose that if I want to get any plein air painting done, I'm going to have to find some kind of retarder for gouache. Or start working in oils again.
Below: More BART drawing. I've been working a lot lately and it seems the only real chance I get to do personal drawing has been on BART on my way to and from guitar lessons.

I should post some more Dragons of Atlantis work soon...

Head On

2011-05-22T23:52:00.001-07:00

I went to a pen fair at Flax Art a couple weeks ago and ordered myself a sexy new fountain pen. I want to start working with new media again. Sexy fountain pen sketches to follow...

...and stuff.

2011-05-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

Dragons of Atlantis: Part I

2011-04-30T01:30:00.000-07:00

It’s funny... by the time you finish any project, it’s already outdated in terms of your skill level. It’s difficult to know when it’s time to call a project “good enough” (as opposed to “finished”) or risk getting yourself caught in an endless loop of revisions and redos. You just have to move on at a certain point and apply those new skills to the next project. Deadlines help with that.

As promised, here is some of the work I did on Dragons of Atlantis. I primarily did buildings for the outpost so the rest of the work I want to show will wait for another post. I'm displaying the buildings at approximately 200% the size that they would appear at in the game. Certain elements aren't rendered fully the way I would want them to be simply because when you shrink them down, you can't see that level of detail. Some things have been exaggerated for the same reason too.

BELOW: These are the 3 levels of Farms you can build in your outpost’s field.

BELOW:These are the Training Camps you can build in your outpost to train special troops different from the ones you would train in your city’s Garrison. When I was assigned to do the Training Camps, we weren’t sure exactly what sort of troops we were going to have train there so it left my design options way open. I dubbed the camp “Super Mutant Armory” and created a design that left a lot of room for all kinds of troops to train. The water for aquatic training, rocks for climbing, a platform for flying, etc.

BELOW: These are the 3 levels of outpost Muster Points. The Muster Point is a meeting area for troops and through it, you can control the movements of your military (send out attacks & reinforcements, etc.).

Here are screenshots of the game so you can see how the buildings appear to the player. I also designed and painted the outpost Walls (these are the Level 8 Walls). Disregard the overlapping shadow of the Dragon's Keep on the Walls... as of the time this screenshot was taken, the Keep placement needs to be readjusted.

Fun fact: the Zolmec woman avatar in the upper left is our former character designer, Rosie. She denies this, of course, but no one who knows her who sees the design doubts it's her.

The rest of the outpost buildings were done by my coworker (and college classmate) Chantrelle. You can play Dragons of Atlantis on Facebook here.

All artwork in this post is copyright 2011 Kabam. All rights reserved.

SAN FRANCISCO SOAKED IN SUNSHINE

2011-04-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

A waterlogged town rejoices.

Shmetches

2011-04-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty busy on my end for the last 3 weeks or so and I haven't had the chance to do any art outside of work. But in the interest of getting things rolling again, here are some month-old sketches. I'm hoping to set aside time this week to get together some of my work from Dragons of Atlantis to post here now that my schedule is beginning to restabilize.

I've also been thinking about revisiting pencils soon in my sketchbook. While that may not sound especially noteworthy to anyone reading this, it's actually kind of a big deal for me. I'm a slave to ink and malleability of graphite makes me uneasy. I like to believe my marks are absolute, for better or worse. It keeps me decisive, thoughtful and, above all, humble. I think I'm overdue for an adventure in unexplored media though.

100th Blog Entry Extravaganza

2011-03-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

And on this note, we hit 100 blog entries here.

I wish I had something more substantial to mark the occasion but the last 2 weeks have stupid-busy. I'll have some game art to share soon, as the portion of the game that I've been doing art for launched earlier this week.

Samovar Tea Lines

2011-03-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

Done at Samovar Tea Lounge a couple weeks ago. I am hoping to go back and paint over this with gouache soon.

Also, this blog turned 3 years old 2 days ago. It's a real trip for me to go back through my archives and watch my work progress. I started it during my last semester of college and it's seen me through graduation, freelance, unemployment, and subsequent art jobs in the game industry. Happy birthday, blog.

Game Developers Conference 2011

2011-03-01T15:57:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention earlier that I'll be attending this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. I'll be manning our booth with my Kabam brethren from 2pm-3pm on Wednesday, March 2nd. If you're attending, feel free to drop by. We'll be showing art from our games (I work on Dragons of Atlantis), looking at portfolios, and answering questions about the company.

This is a sketch from a few months ago (so as to not make this an artless post). My phone's camera makes a poor scanner, I'm afraid.

And because this happens to already be sitting in front of me...

...these are some doodles I did while waiting for a couple art meetings. None of them are work-related. Although one of them is related to a personal project I'm working on.

Killing Time

2011-02-28T12:05:00.000-08:00

My scanner died on Saturday (I really shouldn't have put off this post until the last day of the week...) making an update last week impossible so this is another double update week.

Here's a sketch I did at Matching Half Cafe after I missed my bus and had to wait for the next one. The theme of today's post is "time mismanagement", I believe.

...and on BART on my way to guitar lessons. I was actually on time for that train. YES.

Tutorial 1: Choosing your location

2011-02-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

I drew these the weekend before last, intending to return the following weekend to paint them. The weather in San Francisco had been freakishly beautiful the last couple weeks but that all changed the second I stepped out to walk to the park that afternoon with my sketchbook. It was suddenly windy and cold and the clouds were rolling in swiftly despite the weather report predicting perfection. I normally just bundle up and brave the weather but in this case, the lighting was so completely different from what I needed for this specific subject that there was no point. I wound up spending the next hour walking around my neighborhood, scouting locations for future drawings. So here are some “before” images. The “after” images will have to be painted another weekend. One nice thing about painting over drawings is that it gives you a shot at correcting minor perspective blunders *cough* *cough*. I'd like to do one more drawing in that blank spot and make it a complete Alamo Square spread.

I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about how to choose good sketching locations, which is a lot more complicated than I think most visitors to this blog realize. Today I’m just going to talk about choosing cityscapes as subjects… if I were talking about people as subjects, this would be a whole other beast.

I don’t have a car anymore so I get everywhere by bus, train, trolley, or foot. This is perfect for the artist because it means you get to spend more time actually looking at your surroundings. When a building or scene catches my eye as something that I want to draw or paint, I consider a few things:

1. Where can I sit?
2. Is there shade where I want to sit?
3. What time of day should it be for the light to be where I want it?
4. Is there a lot of traffic in front of my view?
5. Is there a lot of foot traffic going by me?

Regarding 1 & 2: Both of these are easily remedied by bringing a chair and umbrella however, it’s inconvenient and attracts unwanted passersby. If you’re in a residential area, residents may become concerned that you’re camped out in front of their house like that. I just leave my seating arrangements to serendipity, sitting on sidewalks, planters, and lampposts. I am rarely lucky enough to find a bench magically placed in view of what I want to paint. And in the right angle! Oh yeah, and if it's a hot day and you're planning on sitting in the sun, make sure not to wear black. That will hurt.

Regarding 3: I often find views I would love to paint if it weren’t for the fact that the sun was on the wrong side of it when I happened to find it. In these cases, I’ll make a note of the location (including the time I should return) for another day. This saves me time later, too, when I want to go out drawing and don’t want to waste time looking for a subject.

Regarding 4: I painted this drawing from the front window of a café. Perfect, right? What I didn’t take into account was that I was sitting right behind a busy bus stop. The 24 Divisadero would stop right in front of me and I would have to wait until it left before I could continue working on my painting of the building that was across the street. And this was on top of already having to deal with all the regular traffic on Divisadero Street, one of San Francisco’s busiest streets. When trucks stopped at red lights in front of me, they would block the lower half of my view. In the end it was worth it but I’d like to avoid that type of experience in the future unless the view is particularly special.

Regarding 5: This is similar to 4, except in this case, your distractions actually come over to bother you. Sometimes they’re annoying, sometimes they’re crazy, and other times they’re pretty cool… sometimes they may even be fellow artists (awesome!). But mostly they’re just distracting, at best. I try not to sketch in plain view in an area with heavy foot traffic. When I feel that I need to, I make sure I wear headphones, sunglasses and the best don’t-talk-to-me face I can muster.

Other things I take into account:
How quickly is the light or weather likely to change?
How easy would it be for me to complete this is multiple sittings, if needed?
(If it’s a long session) Is there a bathroom nearby?

I don’t work from photographs. I usually take photos of my subjects for later reference after I’ve finished my paintings on the spot, in case I want to make minor changes later (but that’s rare). Any artist worth their salt can tell a painting of a photograph from a painting of a physical subject. There’s something physical that happens in our eyes and something about the way our brains process visual information that’s very different from the way the lens of a camera and a computer or the chemicals of film interpret an image. I won’t concern you with the science here… ask your local library or Google for further details. Point being, I always need to keep in mind that when doing a detailed drawing or taking that drawing to painting, I am going to be in that spot for a long time. If I’m not at least reasonably comfortable, I at least need to be somewhere I can focus or enjoy. If I’m not, my work looks hurried like I’m just trying to get it the hell over with. Anyone, artist or not, can tell when a piece of art has been enjoyed or loved.

Let me know if this has been helpful. I may try to do more tutorials and I'd welcome feedback and suggestions.

BARTman

2011-02-12T16:55:00.001-08:00

I wish I could run a spellcheck on my sketchbook... it's really bugging me that I misspelled "goddess".

Janyooaries

2011-02-04T23:48:00.000-08:00

In Transit

2011-01-31T20:29:00.000-08:00

This will be a double-update week because last week was a no-update week on account of my having the flu and then having to go out of town.

Last weekend I participated in the 30th Worldwide SketchCrawl in San Francisco. It was the most beautiful spring day you could ever hope to find in the middle of winter. I had hoped to get in a few painted sketches but wound up with a bunch of regular sketches because I wanted to walk around more.

Above: This is my friend, Traci, with whom I shared a table at APE last year.

Below: Most of these drawings were done at the airport this weekend. I've been focusing a lot more on gestures and body language this year, as opposed to likenesses.

Backlog

2011-01-21T19:03:00.001-08:00

I've still got a few pages from the end of last year that I wanted to share:

Orange Train Go

2011-01-14T19:07:00.000-08:00

Or if you would prefer...

Month One of 2011 is going well, as far as resolutions go. Updating this blog weekly is a reasonable and admirable goal, I think. And I have to say it's going a lot better than my resolution to start washing my breakfast bowl right after I'm done eating every morning so that my oatmeal doesn't dry on hard like paper mache.

Above: The woman on the top left page is my friend/coworker, Sabrina, animator extraordinaire. She's decided to join me in my resolution to do a blog post every week. She's putting her work up on her aptly titled Sabrina's Weekly Update.

Doppelgangers

2011-01-05T00:16:00.000-08:00

Above: Done at San Francisco Centre Shopping Mall on my lunch hour.

A few weeks ago I saw a massive increase in hits on my blog, most of which came through Google searches on my name. Curious, I did a little research and apparently there is a character in Mark Wahlberg's new movie, "The Fighter" who has my exact name. While I'm stoked to be getting more traffic, I am not the person this character is based on. She is played by Amy Adams, who doesn't look like me either. This is me:

So if you're here by mistake... glad to have you here. Stay as long as you'd like. Take a look through my sketchbook. However, I'm not the person you were looking for. But welcome!

Resolution Revolution

2010-12-30T22:56:00.000-08:00

In an effort to become more diligent about updating this blog, I've made a resolution to update it at least once a week for 2011. I've noticed that while my posts here have been less frequent, they've also become very bloated. I'd much rather keep it brief and to the point.

The drawing below was done in November in Noe Valley during the hottest day of a heat wave. I was sitting on the cool stone steps of someone's front doorway across the street. Those of you who have lived in the Bay Area are aware that the hottest days of the year mostly happen in autumn, not summer. I threw some tones over the drawing in Photoshop this evening, using a photo I took of the scene with my phone for reference.

RIP GreenSpot

2010-11-30T00:41:00.000-08:00

Before Kabam acquired Wonderhill in October, I had been working primarily on a garden game called GreenSpot for 3 months. It was announced last month that production on that game would cease and that on December 1st it would be taken offline.

In the brief time I worked on GreenSpot, however, I learned a lot. When I came to WonderHill I didn't know how to use Flash, but I willingly threw myself into a sink-or-swim situation and my coworkers were more than happy to lend me their knowledge and patience to see me through it. While my education in Flash is far from over, I'm confident in saying I'm now fluent in the program. Here is some of the work I did this July-October 2010.

Above: This is a New England background I painted for GreenSpot to commemorate the beginning of autumn.

Above: I can't believe one of my favorite things I did for this game was a pile of bricks. They were a challenge to capture in Flash without making them look like a pile of red rubble.
Below: GreenSpot was dominated by cuteness, so when Halloween came around the art team was thankful to finally indulge in a little darkness.

Below: I also used to do occasional work on Furry Farm, a game where you could raise pets and farm animals.

I'm looking forward to eventually being able to post work from the game I'm currently working on, Dragons of Atlantis. If you're on Facebook, you can play it here.

On a related note, Kabam is hiring. If you're an artist-type or an engineer-type or a marketing-type, you may be interested...

And on one last note (really), my blog has been featured on Online Computer Science Degree as one of 2010's Top Hand Drawn Blogs, a resource for those looking to get into computer art/animation. Thanks for visiting and passing the word along.

OnlineComputerScienceDegree.com

Resuming Some Semblance of Normalcy

2010-10-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

Whew, APE is finally a done deal. I’ve been pouring all my free time from the past month into putting my work together for that. It was great to meet so many art-appreciators and artists, many of whom I’ve known online for years but had never met in person until last weekend. Thanks to everyone who visited me at the convention!

I also came away from it with some new ideas based on what people liked most about my work and suggestions they gave me. I may do a “Neighborhoods” book mini-series in the future… small books based on different neighborhoods in San Francisco (i.e. books for the Mission, Castro, Western Addition, etc.). I received a lot of requests at APE for prints of specific neighborhoods and I was thrilled to find such local pride. I’m going to set up an online store soon to sell prints and books.

Here are some drawings from this summer that I never got around to posting:

Above: You may recall I posted the linework to this paint sketch a few months ago in this post.

Below: I did this sketch at a SketchCrawl. It was a gloomy day at the Presidio but you could see the rest of the city soaked in sunlight in the distance. I never "finished" this sketch because I liked the composition a lot and didn't want to overload it with detail. You could see the city in the far distance from where I was sitting on an overpass.

More news: the game company I've been working for, WonderHill, just got acquired by Kabam. I've still got my same job, though, at the same office in San Francisco with our same team. I'd like to post some work I've done for WonderHill pretty soon. I mostly worked on GreenSpot, for which I designed and built various items in Flash and painted some of the backgrounds.

Alternative Press Expo

2010-10-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

I've been hard at work laying out and printing books for this year's Alternative Press Expo, which is going down THIS WEEKEND in San Francisco. I'll be sharing table #660 with my good friend, Traci Hui. Come say hi, talk art, look at my original sketchbooks in person or maybe buy a thing. In addition to the two sketchbooks I'll be selling, I'll also be bringing some mini comics and art prints.

The Book of Neighborhoods is a collection of my environment drawings.

The Book of Citizens is a collection of my people drawings.

If you can't make it out to APE, I'll be selling books online shortly if you'd like to order one. Here's a newer page that will be in "Neighborhoods":

Indian Summer

2010-09-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

I recently promoted myself to a larger format Moleskine after finishing my most recent sketchbook. Those of you who have flipped through my sketchbooks in person know how small my usual ones are. What I like about small sketchbooks is that they seem to promote unity of thought. Because space is so limited and you can complete pages quicker, the sketchbook feels less like a collection of drawings and more like a progression of thought. You can only render an image to a certain degree before you have to concede that there simply isn't room to continue doing so. It's a constant reminder to simplify, to pay attention to what is essential to the subject, and that something doesn't need to be "finished" to be complete. The following are the final pages in my last sketchbook. I have some paint sketches of city scenes that I'll post on the next update.

Heads up: I'll have a table at this year's Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco (October 16-17). If you're planning on attending, do drop by. I'll have a couple sketchbooks, a mini-comic, prints and more. More details on all that later. I've decided to invest in a good printer and make everything myself, by hand, this year.

Below: The left page came out unintentionally creepy. The right page is one of my favorite pages in my entire last sketchbook.

Public Profiles II

2010-08-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

I'm almost convinced it will never be warm in San Francisco again. I've lived in the Bay Area my whole life and I've never seen a summer like this where the fog just never lifts and it's always cold. If we were ever going to see the sun this year, we would have seen it by now. What this all means is... I've been doing a lot of indoor drawing and sweater wearing.

I started a new job last month and I'm loving it! I'm now working as an artist at WonderHill with some super talented people who are just as excited about making art as I am. I added links to their blogs at the right.

Above: Another future painting from last month. I'll let you guys see it before I paint over it and fix the perspective flubs because I do enjoy the linework on this one.

Below: My new coworkers and I have been going out and drawing at the cafe on lunch breaks. That place is old people city on weekday afternoons! And of course, I continue to draw on BART every week... there are random train drawings spread throughout these pages.

Pending Paint

2010-07-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

San Franciscan summers are notoriously mild. I've been doing a lot of drawings outside lately with the intention of revisiting the locations to paint the sketches when the sunny weather finally hits (usually end of July - November).

Above: I wanted to show the full spread so you can see how I plan my layouts. Sometimes, I just aim to fill each page with drawings that may or may not be related, but there are other times when I want to treat a spread as a unified piece. I left space at the bottom and right sides for writing.

I hope my next update will be in technicolor.

Rattled by the Rush

2010-07-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

I've finally managed to work through the slump I've been in since February. In an effort to squeeze in drawing time everyday, I've been sacrificing my lunch hour to drawing sessions and then just eating lunch at my desk while working.

Above: The drawing on the right was intended to be painted over. I'll probably return to finish it soon even though I like it as is. It was way too windy to paint that day. There are many things I'll endure for my art but wind is probably my #1 most annoying thing. I'll take pretty much anything else the weather can throw. When I think about all the times I've gotten sick because I literally didn't have enough sense to come in out of the rain...

The drawings on the left were done at a Pavement reunion concert in Berkeley. Pavement was the first band I ever became full-on obsessed with and they're still one of my favorite bands ever. If you haven't been privy, here is your eduction:

Back to the sketchbook:

Maybe I should keep titling all my posts after Pavement songs. Or maybe that would just be annoying. "Rattled by the Rush" is an amazing song, though. It was actually the song that inspired me to learn guitar... the bridge floored me.

SketchCrawl 27 +++

2010-05-31T15:25:00.000-07:00

I did this at the last SketchCrawl (May 15), sitting in front of San Francisco’s Ferry Building. I kind of like my unfinished paintings better than the finished ones. Here you can see I started with a warm brown wash, drew over it in pen, and painted over the drawing.

Above: This was done with watercolor, felt-tip pen, and gouache in a Moleskine sketchbook, which has paper similar to Bristol board except that it’s water-resistant. Why would anyone want to use water-based materials on water-resistant paper? If you’re anything like me, it’s because you’re a glutton for punishment. I enjoy the challenge and unpredictability of painting in these books because it yields interesting effects. Also, I just hate working in pencil.

Below: Drawings done mostly on BART or the bus.

I’ve been working through an artistic downturn these past couple months and it’s just now that I’m starting to feel somewhat satisfied with anything I’ve produced again. Whether my work quality has actually been degrading or just my opinion of it, I don’t know. Anyone else would be a better judge of that than I would. But I’m looking forward to spending more time outdoors drawing and painting now that the weather is finer and I seem to finally be pulling myself out of this funk I’ve been in.

Public Profiles

2010-04-12T23:29:00.000-07:00

I always take the same seat on the train. As evidenced by the following drawings.

We're seeing the last of the spring rains here in the Bay Area and good drawing weather isn't far behind. Spring doesn't really hit here until it's nearly summer. And summer, in autumn. I'm pretty done with being cooped up indoors. These sketches were the last of this sketchbook and I'm looking forward to breaking in a new one the first sunny day I have free.

Scraping

2010-03-01T18:34:00.000-08:00

I wish I had more to show for over a month's absence. It's been difficult to work in drawing or blogging time between lousy weather, doing book layouts, getting sick, having my laptop be out of order, and generally being busy. With the exception of the first page, all of these were drawn on BART. There are only three pages left in this sketchbook!

BART Smart

2010-01-17T18:02:00.000-08:00

So, 2010... same number of zeroes as last year but in a different order. I expect I'll get used to it eventually but right now, writing 2010 on anything just feels wrong. I keep looking at it like, "that can't be right."

I came out of the holidays to wade right into a mess of book layouts, hence the lack of new arts. The good news is I'm just about ready to send out the book proposals this month. In the meantime, here are a few pages mostly done on BART.

A few months ago, I was going through some boxes of my old stuff at my parents' house and I found a load of drawings from high school. Among many other such gems was the first comic I ever drew, plus the accompanying "concept art" (if you can even call it that, at that level). I was 14, at the time. Meet Super Grocer!

You guys are going to need a panel-by-panel translation. The comic makes little narrative sense:
Panel 1: Old woman is thinking of a "50% OFF" coupon, not noticing the spill she's about to encounter.
Panel 2 & 3: A voice announces a spill on aisle three. Super Grocer says, "Oh no, spill on aisle 3!" and transforms.
Panel 4: He mops it up while holding the woman's shopping cart up with one arm. Woman is confused.
Panel 5: Super Grocer says, "The world is safe again. All in a day's work for Super Grocer!" and the old woman says, "My hero! Thank you! The world could use more grocers like you!"

I've been trying to get back to my graphic novel for a year now. I got sidetracked last year by a new job, moving, and deciding to put together an art book from all my sketchbooks. As soon as I get the book proposals out of the way, however, I'm jumping right back in to "Rogues & Robbers". Since I'll mostly be working on the story and script, updates here will probably continue to be a bit slower than usual but by March I'll probably start posting art for the comic. Happy New Year, everyone!

First to Finish, Last to Start

2009-12-25T22:19:00.000-08:00

I'm not finishing the year as strongly as I would have liked but I do have a book in the works, so that counts for something, I hope. These first two pages (done on BART) are recent, the rest are not.

Below: I may have mentioned before that I like to play "art games". One of my favorites is drawing panels, sized and placed at random, and finding compositions to fill them. There's usually an interesting chemistry that happens between the panels, whether their contents are related or not.

If Christmas is your thing, I hope you a great one. If it's not, here's wishing you had a great season. I expect I'll be seeing everyone again in 2010. I just bought a new sketchbook and some markers... I'll be ready!

Sketchcrawl 25

2009-11-29T19:51:00.000-08:00

I attended last weekend's World Wide SketchCrawl (5th Anniversary!). This was my third crawl and, as always, it was tremendously inspirational and loads of fun. The crawl took place in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens (in SoMa). The view from the top of the gardens was so fantastic that we wound up sitting in the same spot almost all day, vacating only to escape the cold at the end of the day when we just couldn't take it anymore.

The following drawings were not from SketchCrawl and I actually don't like them all that much. I still haven't replaced my dead grey Tombow markers and the values are all crusty and indecisive-looking. Normally, I would lay down the marker tones in as few strokes as I could but there's no way to represent the values with only one live, dark grey marker and a few dead, light ones. I'm going to have to request, like, an entire shoebox filled with grey Tombows of varying values for Christmas because I go through them so fast and I haven't been able to find them in stores for a while.

Above: These are all BART riders. I like the two men at the bottom of the spread. The one on the left was wearing the most precious holiday sweater. It looked like a bonafide grandma-knitted sweater and he was wearing it without a hint of irony and it was great.

I've been working on proposals for the art book I mentioned. I really don't want to have to go the self-publishing route this time. I just want to design the book and get it off my plate, at this point, because I'm anxious to get back to the graphic novel. Proposals should be done this week and then... waiting, I guess. Gotta get back to "Rogues & Robbers".

Ghost of Summer

2009-11-15T22:45:00.000-08:00

Ellipses are troublesome even for the most experienced of ellipsists.

Above: A couple returning to San Francisco on BART late at night. I wish I'd had time to throw some tone on it.

Below: Bonus Summer Drawing!

I drew this on a scrap of paper at a cafe in June when I was inbetween sketchbooks. I hated the drawing at the time but figured someone else might like it so I signed it, took a picture of it with my phone for posterity and left it on a table for whoever. I forgot the drawing had ever existed until I found the photo on my computer last week and I actually like it now. I wonder whatever became of the orginal?

The Month Is Still Young

2009-10-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, no. It isn't. But it's not too late for one more October update. I'm pulling some art off backlog in the interest of maintaining regular updates in the midst of an art drought.

These are all quick gestures done from imagination. At work, sometimes I start to lose focus when I've been working on something for a long time and I'll take a couple minutes to doodle and reset my attention span. The first page is a composite of several pages.

Below: You might recognize the drawing of the girl on the left... it's the sketch I based this picure on in August. With tactful adjustments.

Revenge of Dr Sketchy's

2009-10-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

My schedule this month has not been forgiving of my need to go out sketching, unfortunately. But I did manage to make it out to Dr Sketchy's this month and the results are in:

I should mention that I made it to the session late (yet again) and had to sit in the back where I couldn't see very well. I didn't intentionally not draw arms/legs or crop things strangely... I simply could not see those areas.

Alls I Got

2009-09-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

In all honesty, I haven't drawn much lately worth liking let alone posting. I've actually drawn very little, period, but here's a painted sketch I think I might like. Maybe you'll like it too. To clarify, the drawing isn't of Bean Bag Coffee House, it was done from Bean Bag Coffee House looking across the street.

I've been putting together an art book all summer and starting this month, I'll be capping off art production for the book and making publishing arrangements. Many of the sketches posted here on the blog will be in the book.

Moleskin 2.0

2009-09-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

So begins my second Moleskin (we're not counting those couple pages in the watercolor one that I abandoned). Autumn is descending faster than I was prepared for and I'm realizing how limited my time is to get in some good plein air painting before the weather won't allow it. Expect more color sketches in the next post.

Above: I happened to catch the Richmond on a rare sunny day... the district is notorious for relentless fog.

Below: These pages were done in my hometown of Fremont, CA. The drawing on the left would have been a painting if that car hadn't left. The thing sticking out of the back of that man's head is a bike handle... I started drawing a person with a bike on BART and they got off the train seconds after I started.

Above: I was still trying to milk those dead Tombow markers on this page. I kind of like how everything came out soft like vine charcoal. The left page has a wierd tangent between the woman's arm and someone else's hand making her look like she's got a stumpy arm. Those were all done on BART to Berkeley.

Below: Seattle airport drawings done with a fountain pen, which I don't use nearly enough.

Above: Totally killed a pen on that airport truck and it's really obvious.

Below: Here's a preview of a future painting. This is the ink undersketch:

I'm currently working on a book proposal. I'll talk more about that in the next post.

Epilogues, Encores

2009-09-03T00:18:00.000-07:00

Ship it, this sketchbook is done. I finished this one in a record 3 months. Of course, it helped that the pages were only 1/4 the size of the old books I used to work in. But still! I think this merits a wrap party of some kind.

3 pens, 4 markers, and 1 waterpen died in the making of this book.

Above: This is from a failed attempt at starting a new sketchbook, last week. I'm not digging the watercolor Moleskin. But I gotta say, it loves the markers. I may hold on to this one and just do marker work in it. This page is the only one I liked out of five.

And see how the page is perforated? I'm morally opposed to that. A sketchbook is a record of your progress as an artist. You accept bad drawings because they allow you to do better drawings. The idea of tearing a page out of a sketchbook horrifies me. No spiral-bound or perforated sketchbooks for me, thanks.

Below: Cafe drawings. North Beach, Haight, Sunset. My Tombow markers were nearly dead at this point, resulting in crusty values.

Above: Spent most of a weekend sketching with my good friend, Jamaica Dyer, after attending SF Zine Fest. She's got a book coming out in a few weeks that you should check out and if you're attending this year's Alternative Press Expo, be sure to check out the panel because she's a guest speaker.

Below: That greenish splotch was going to be a gouache color sketch. I sat outside a cafe to draw the building across the street and got a few minutes into it before realizing that I had picked the table downwind from a slew of smokers. Not to mention, the wind was strong and cold. I doubt I'll return to the location to finish this because I'm rarely ever out in North Beach and would have no reason to have an old sketchbook on me if I did happen to find my way out there in the near future.

Below: Worried people are my favorite kind of people to draw. I love the way their faces wrinkle up and you can instantly empathize. Bottom guy was a great subject, although he may have been worried because I was staring at him so intensely.

For now, I'm using another Moleskin sketchbook but I consider this situation temporary. I'm still on the lookout for a sketchbook that feels like home. Something that accepts wet media... ink, in particular. Something good with washes but hardy enough for paint and multimedia work. I definitely like the smaller format I've been working with, though. And in hardback, please. I'll probably wind up just making my own sketchbook.

Off to Seattle

2009-08-28T01:21:00.000-07:00

Later, mans. Catch you bayside next week.

Dr. Sketchy's: ONE

2009-08-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been over a year since I attended a figure drawing session. My figure drawing skills right now are... well, you know how when you sit with your leg tucked under you for a really long time and then you get up and try to walk and your knee is killing you and your leg is all limp and disobedient and generally just completely lame? Exactly like that. It's painful and wierd and cringe-inducing but it feels great and it's good for me. I just need to keep it up.

These drawings are from two different sessions done at Dr. Sketchy's, a monthly burlesque-themed figure drawing event held at a gallery downtown. I need to find another local figure drawing session so I can start going weekly again. Spoiler alert: Proportional issues!

It's worth noting that I arrived late to the first session and had to sit way in the back where I couldn't see the model's legs below the knees. Rather than fake the rest of the drawings, I just didn't draw her whole legs. I only drew what I could observe. Just so's you know.

Above: My figure drawing sessions have men in drag playing live jazz versions of movie and video game themes. Don't everybody's?

Below: Yeah, that was cropped. You don't want to see the rest. But I like the portion I showed.

Remembering Alamo

2009-08-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

Here are some of last week's sketchbook pages. The paint sketch below was done in 3 sittings over the past month. I painted a brown base and sketched over it with a pen in the first sitting but soggy weather forced me to come back a couple weeks later to fill in the darks with sumi ink and lay down some basic colors. I finally polished it off last week. I stopped myself from taking it further because it was supposed to be a paint sketch, not a painting.

Above: Evening in Alamo Square. Pilot Hi-Tec pen, Sumi ink, gouache, watercolor.

Below: Sunday at Arlequin in that gorgeous garden they have out back. Triplus Fineliner pen, Tombow markers.

Above: The paper in the sketchbook is really water resistant and doesn't favor washes at all. Occasionally I'm able to get some cool effects from it though. I almost didn't throw a wash over the motorcycle but it actually came out alright. Thanks, fountain pen! On the left page, you can see the bleed through from the car on the page below.

Below: I painted the highlights on the car with gouache and then scratched most of it off with my house key and left only the brightest highlights full white.

It seems like only last month that I abandoned my reliable old brown sketchbook and started this book and here it is, almost filled already! It's definitely been an exercise in patience. I've had to fight the paper this entire way and while it yielded interesting results, I'm going to have to opt for something more textured and water-friendly next time. Something that doesn't discriminate against mixed media. I'm thinking watercolor Moleskin.

O Valencia!

2009-08-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

I underestimated how much work I've done the past couple weeks that I wanted to post.

I'd like to do more color sketches as long as the weather holds up. I should probably invest in an actual paintbrush (I've been using a gnarly old water brushpen) and a real gouache set (I'm using a $6 kids' set). I can't get a full range of values and the colors aren't as vivid as they should be although I'm extremely surprised I've been able to make the paints do what I've been doing with them. Six bucks well spent!

I took an unexpected detour this weekend through the Mission District on my way to the beach... not quite sure how that happened. Never made it to the beach either.

Above: A condemned house across the street from Cafe Cole, in Haight-Ashbury.

Photatoes

2009-07-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

I have plenty of arts on backstock but I thought I'd take a quick break for some recent photos taken while out and about in the city. I recently got an iPhone and there's this gimmicky app called ShakeItPhoto that makes all your pictures look like polaroids. You even get to shake it to make it develop faster (thus the name). For some reason, I've become addicted to it. I imagine I look pretty strange standing on street corners shaking my phone in front of my face intently all the time.

Above: The Tenderloin near sundown. Tempting fate, apparently. Dumb.

Above: Waiting at the platform at an Oakland BART station at sunset.

Above: Obligatory pet photo. Yeah, that's my dog.

Above: Definitely not the city. Uh, somewhere along I-580? I think.

fillMORE: An Ode to the 22

2009-07-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

The theme of my last week's collection of sketches was (unintentionally) Fillmore. With the exception of the car (a holdout from the previous weekend's Sketchcrawl), all of these drawings were done somewhere along Fillmore Street in San Francisco.

Above: The top drawing was done sitting in the window at Alamo Square Cafe. I only drew the tops of the buildings not just because the lighting was more interesting but because a lot of buses come through this intersection, obscuring the view much of the time.

The bottom painting on the same page was done at a park in Pacific Heights, Alta Plaza. The park has killer views in every direction but I actually picked the least picturesque view to paint. Partially to be contrary. Partially because this particular view lent itself best to this composition. But mostly because it was the least windy spot and thus, the least annoying.

Above: This was originally intented to be a painting... the lighting was incredible. I did this in a Tapioca Express on Fillmore where all kinds of road construction was going on in front. They had the music cranked to 11 and then some so after finishing the initial drawing, I just had to leave. A painting was not meant to be. Heh, I totally tried to sneak an extra L in O'Farrell like I didn't totally just mispell that sucker.

Above: The bottom drawing is from Sketchcrawl in the Presidio. It got too windy to continue... paint kept drying right on my brush and I had to leave for the end time meetup anyhow. I wasn't going to share this because it was in an awkward stage when I abandoned it but I sort of dig it now. It's a charming painting-drawing half-breed.

Sketchcrawl 23 (and then some)

2009-07-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

This Sketchcrawl was held at San Francisco's Presidio and I definitely plan on returning there another day this summer for more painting when the weather is supposed to be nicer.

Below: Done in two sittings at Buena Vista Park in Haight-Ashbury. I had a rather peculiar run-in with a hammer-wielding junkie and thought it was probably best to finish this another day...

Above: Drawn while the stage was being set for a concert at Berkeley's Greek Theater.

Below: Same spread but with color added to the Alamo Square Park sketch on a second sitting.

Above & Below: These two spreads were done in front of the same cafe... I just drew different buildings. I may add color to the one below in another sitting. The top one was sort of a warm-up over breakfast.

Now In Technicolor

2009-06-29T22:40:00.000-07:00

Let's hear it for summer. Alright. I can't think of a better way to spend a summer morning in San Francisco than to get acquainted with a fresh sketchbook over a latte and a bagel at some neighborhood cafe.

A former teacher of mine always encouraged us to incorporate words in our sketchbooks whether in journalistic, poetic, or graphic form. I thought I'd try my hand at it. Dunno if I'll keep it up.

I was forced to abandon the drawing below when I started losing the light but I sort of like it better unfinished because it says something about my process here.

Below: Yes, his neck was really that thick. Yes, it was freaky.

Below is a leftover from Ye Olde Recycled Paper Sketchbook.

The new sketchbook is forcing me to think differently about how I compose images on a page and use various media. My old standby tools just don't work in this book and washes are out of the question so I'm mostly working with gouache and these really great Staedtler triplus fineliner pens I just discovered. The painting was all done with my dying water brushpen instead of an actual paintbrush... I can't tell you how difficult a time I had with the color sketches because of that.

I actually had too many sketchbook pages for one post... got a little overstocked due to a broken scanner. Regular updates from now on. Promise. I have backstock.

May Days

2009-06-03T23:11:00.000-07:00

No, I still haven't switched sketchbooks. No, I would not like to talk about it. I seem to be having some issues letting go... we'll call it separation anxiety. Soon, for reals, I will really switch to white and do some color stuff. Gouache, crayons... the whole deal. Here are some May drawings:

Above: Done at Arlequin Cafe in San Francisco. It got a little overworked and you can still see some old drawings I began underneath areas. I confess to committing petty Photoshoppery on the windows... a very light overlay to make the windows pop a bit and balance the overall value scale. Don't shoot.

Above: Done on a ridiculously windy day at the park.
Below: BART drawings.

Above: Another Alamo Square drawing, San Francisco. My Tombows were dying and I had to go back on 3 different days for this because I kept losing the light to evening bay fog after about 15 minutes of drawing each time.

Below: Done at an Oakland A's game on Memorial Day. I normally can't stand sports but my dad called me up and was all, "Hey, free tickets and food!" Free food? I will be there. And I couldn't pass up the opportunity for some new sketchbook subjects.

Above: Randomness... drawings done at some friends' graduation ceremony in San Jose, at a restaraunt afterward, and then trash cans and cars outside some cafe on Hayes Street in San Francisco.

Hey, has anyone seen this cool little film called "UP" that was released (or rather, unleashed) recently? I want to express a big congratulations and and even bigger thank you to Pixar. I don't know what those folks had to do to match (and possibly surpass) "Ratatouille" but they did it. Way to up the ante. Will you marry me, Pixar?

Commuter Mementos V

2009-05-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Long month, no post. I have to admit, I have not been drawing. Outside of work, anyway. The reason being: I’ve been busy with work and I moved. The move is done… I live in San Francisco now. The weather’s superb, the hills are plentiful, the flags are colorful, and they’ve got one hell of a bridge. As for work, that will continue to increase until mid-summer. I can’t wait until I can start sharing some of the work I’ve done but I won’t be able to do that for a few more months.

So here’s more of the same: commuter sketches that are several weeks old. Boo. On a positive note, I like them a lot better now than when I actually drew them. Yay.

P.S. I don’t have to commute anymore (!!!)

I'm pretty bored with the media I've been working with the past few months and it's time for a drastic change. I'm switching to my white sketchbook for a while and I'm gonna do some color work. I'm sick of everything I do looking the same. And without the daily train ride as my mandatory sketchbook time, I'm going to have to be a lot more diligent about making time every day. At any rate, I promise the next art post here will be less than a month from now.

Commuter Mementos IV

2009-04-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah, hold up. We'll get to the sketches in a second. Indulge me.

I’ve been cleaning out my room over the past few weeks, preparing to move soon, and all sorts of random fossils from my past have been turning up. I offer to you, the scientific community, a sublime specimen. It is, apparently, my first Sony.

Why, yes... that is an honest-to-god WHAM! cassette. Of course. I was that awesome.

Though my former awesomeness has widely been accepted as fact for quite some time now, firm proof has at last been found in all its tacky, 80s, kindergarten glory eliminating any lingering doubts. Believers rejoice.

My dog got a hold of my iPod, somehow, a couple months ago and mauled the crap out of the case. Miraculously, the iPod is alive and well… which means the dog still is too. The case is history, though. I’d love to track down another My First Sony on eBay and gut it to make a new case. It's the perfect size. I really don’t want to defile my original walkman because it’s almost like a holy relic to me and I still want to bust out my old cassettes and rock that thing like it’s 1989. Anyhow…

I think we normally post drawings here and these aren't too embarrassing so here we are. I actually quite like a few of them. But only a few.

I'm planning on switching media soon to get out of my funk. I've just been too lazy to reload my arsenal. I'm thinking of switching over to my white sketchbook for a bit and also working with color. It is spring, after all, and color seems to be unavoidable. Might as well exploit it.

Also, I started a new blog to share scans of my vintage books and images of other random, wierd-ass thrift store crap I come across (but mostly book scans). If that's anyone's bag. Here's a sample image, scanned from "Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog" by Evaline Ness:

Commuter Mementos III

2009-03-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

I wish I could draw better. Yeah, tell you something you don't already know, right? My drawing skills have been complete rubbish the past couple weeks. I've been expecting that for some time, though, seeing as I recently experienced a large artistic growth spurt. I was overdue for a downturn. Anyway, the following are the acceptable "just keep working" drawings. Don't ask me to show you what unacceptable looks like, yeesh.

Above: Done several weekends ago when attending IndieMart in San Francisco, right before my personal art recession began. Afterward, I grabbed a really great mocha and lunch at a cafe in Hayes Valley... can't remember the name. Apparently it's across the street from "Stacks". I really want to do more environment drawings soon. Like I used to.

Below: BART peoples. I love the drawing of the sleeping man in the upper left. It's easy to make sleeping people look soulful. The man in the lower right noticed me drawing him but tried to play it off like he didn't. I saw him the next week on BART and as soon as he noticed me, he did an about-face and sat at the end of the car in a seat with his back to me. C'mon, guy.

Above: These ones I like. These were exempt from the art lapse, it appears.

Below: Still more BART people. My parents' dog, Macie, in the bottom corner. I don't draw animals. It shows.

Above: I hate this page a bit (hope you guys don't know anything about human proportions...). But I like the guy reading the magazine in the upper right and love the drawing of the guy in the black coat in the middle(ish), so I'll post it. Black coat guy was actually very attractive although my drawing doesn't quite tell that story. I liked black coat guy.

That's it for the sketchbook for now. I'm starting to snap out of the art lapse this week so I'll be sure to post more sketchbook work soon.

January Surprise

2009-03-10T23:14:00.000-07:00

Whup, forgot to post this one. This was the character test I did for WishB in January before they hired me. Obviously, I'm not allowed to show any of the work I'm doing there until the game launches but I got the go-ahead for this since it's not a part of the project. The only criteria I had to go on was the word "glob" and it had to be appealing to both adults and children. It's always wierd when you go back and look at your recently old work... it's not stylistically outdated just yet but you see all your annoying mistakes and wonder how you could have let those slip. Also, I sent the final image to them with the wrong year on it. D'oh!

She's a mud sprite, by the way.

Commuter Mementos II

2009-03-04T22:40:00.000-08:00

More BART drawings. I'm not really feeling these pages but there are some drawings I like scattered here and there. I really love the drawing of the sleeping woman at the top of the first page. The thing about drawing people on the train is that 4 times out of 5, you can only see people's heads...

Commuter Mementos

2009-02-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

Some sketchbook pages done within the last week. The new job and a nasty cold took me out of the game the past couple weeks, but I'm jumping right back in. I did these pages on the BART commute to/from San Francisco, on my way to a severely awesome Cake concert, and hanging out in the city after work with some coffee and my sketchbook and comic notes. The commute is great in that it provides me with mandatory sketchbook time every day so expect to see plenty of sketchbookishness for the next couple months until I move.

Checking In

2009-02-15T01:33:00.000-08:00

Oh, my poor neglected sketchbook. I haven’t worked in it since the day I went to that John Vanderslice concert… which makes it about 3 weeks now! I’ll try to make amends before the end of February. I’ve mostly been focusing on the new job and the little time I’ve had for myself has been channeled into working on the story for “Rogues & Robbers”. I’m swimming in notes right now. Oh yeah, and I got sick again... now there’s a dumb story.

In the interest of keeping the blog rolling despite this minor dry spell, here are a couple pieces from my sketchbook that I did last month. The first is an atmospheric study I did over an espresso-nated beverage. I like it a lot. The second page I actually hated for some reason but almost kindasorta like now. Did it while killing time before the aforementioned concert and on the train ride home. Don't look at the guy in the chair in the upper right corner. It pains me.

Pre-spring cleaning... some random, idiot doodles I found when trying to clear off my desk. Some of them are thumbnails for actual finished pieces but most were just goofy time wasters. Hope someone finds them entertaining.

I think I may instigate a “one personal drawing a day” policy pretty soon whether it’s a quick character sketch or a longer sketchbook study to keep myself in the game and stocked up on blog fodder.

Hella News

2009-02-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

So January is up and I’ve already nailed two New Year’s resolutions: new job + haircut. I’ve got a full-time gig as a concept/3D artist with a game company. There’s little room for happiness yet because I’m just so filled with relief! With the job search out of the way and steady pay in the near future, I can finally concentrate on the things that matter most to me: working on my graphic novel, attending more concerts and galleries, being social, and moving to San Francisco. Not to mention how awesome it’ll be to be doing something for a living that I believe in and enjoy. This is my first career-job ever and I'm so excited. Thanks 2009!

Originally, I hadn’t planned on sharing this project in its entirety online. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, right? But, what the hell. Enjoy:

Being the well-organized neat-freak that I am, I wasted no time in waiting a mere 3 months, following APE, to finally clean out my car and address the box of leftover comics for which I no longer have space. My car (Esteban) is at critical capacity… god help me if I ever have to have a passenger. So I’m putting the leftover copies of "Hella Days" up for sale for a mere $8 a pop (shipping included). I also promise an original, sweet-ass drawing in each book, to sweeten the deal. To buy a copy, just send $8 via Paypal to halloween_moon [ at ] yahoo.com (lame-ass, old email address… don’t laugh) along with your name and the address you would like the book mailed to. I’ve never tried to sell anything online before, so I guess this’ll be a learning experience. I am currently only selling domestically… international readers, I love you but I’m just not equipped to do business with you yet. Much appreciation! Esteban thanks you too.

While I’m on the topic of comics… I will soon be moving forward with a print version of my former graphic novel, “Of Rogues and Robbers”, of which Jack was also our heroine. A recap for those new to ORAR or new to the blog: I started writing/illustrating a comic back in 2003 that ran for a few years (it’s still on my website) but due to the increasing demands of school and work and trying to find employment post-graduation, I was forced to put ORAR on hold.

The comic itself was not originally conceived for print and when I began having thoughts of publishing it, it became apparent that I was going to have to redraw and rewrite it. My style wasn’t consistent, I grew a lot over the course of the comic, and I didn’t know nearly as much about story construction at the time I started it as I do now. I’ve had years to “what if” the hell out of the story, get to know my characters and I’m ready to rework it and also develop a set look for the series. I’ll post plenty of production work here once I get the ball rolling on the visual development and actual illustration. Right now, ORAR is an ocean of story notes that need to be fleshed out, sewn together, and fine-tuned.

I’m hesitant to give away much of the story even though the entire (WARNING: HELLA OLD!!!) exposition is online. I’ll try to summarize the story briefly without giving too much of it away:

It’s about a ring of pickpockets who stumble into a much larger criminal agenda, get in way over their heads, and have one hell of a time trying to find their way out. Jack (short for Jacqueline) is a master pickpocket. When a talented rookie named Warren joins the ring, they accidentally become involved in a high profile murder and… well, you’ll see. There’s mystery, murder, poignancy, revenge, conspicuous pasts, friendships, difficult choices, coming of age… all that juice. It can best be described as “The Godfather” meets “Oliver Twist”. Subversively epic.

“Hella Days” was a departure from the sort of stories I normally create. ORAR is characteristic of my usual style… definitely darker, more introspective, and adult. If I had to place it in genres, it would be Mystery/Human Comedy/Thriller, in that order although comic stores will label it "Alternative". And if the story doesn’t break your heart a bit, I will have no choice but to consider it a failure. The heart of the story is in the relationships between the characters. Although there is a large story arc, it will be broken into several books for easy consumption and more manageable creation.

I haven’t been able to justify working on ORAR (until now) amidst applying for jobs, doing paid work, and updating my portfolio. However, the occasional ORAR drawing or note does find its way to paper. I think this is what I’m going to do with Jack’s hair for the novel:

And finally, I updated my website for the first time since July '08! It's pretty much all stuff I've posted here but if you're a new visitor to my blog, a look at the website is like a quick recap of the goings-ons here.

The Book Bin #2

2009-01-25T22:09:00.000-08:00

This installment isn’t from a book I personally own. About a year and a half ago, I checked out “Pen Drawings of Florence” by Herbert Railton from the library and was so taken with the inkwork that I scanned the entire thing at high resolution. It was published in 1890 and would’ve cost a small fortune to buy. I used to do a lot of high-detail ink renderings myself (though they weren’t nearly as well-executed as these) before I started working with washes and doing more economical drawings to record an impression.

Detail of above:

Since this book was originally published almost 120 years ago and I haven’t found any recent publications of it, I’m going to assume I’m not stepping on any legal toes by sharing it. If I am, let me know and I'll remove it. For a limited time only, you can download the hi-res scans from my server so you can study the detail of the inkwork or print it out for reference or whatever. I doubt this'll burst my bandwidth limit. The file size is 144MB. If anyone knows of a place where I can put the large zip file permanently, I’d appreciate a point in the right direction. Thanks and enjoy!

"Pen Drawings of Florence" by Herbert Railton

Sketchcrawl 21

2009-01-18T13:18:00.000-08:00

These are a couple of pages from my first Sketchcrawl last Saturday in San Francisco. I feel really good about that motorcycle. I don't think I've ever been in the company of so many artists at once. It was overwhelming in the most awesome way. I'm totally looking forward to attending future crawls!

Sketchbook Shenanigans

2009-01-07T20:58:00.001-08:00

Above: I love this page with the exception of the lower right drawing. Keeps the page humble, I guess. Below: I was going to edit out that abandoned bit of drawing at the top but for some reason, I like what it does for the overall composition of the page. Also wanted to stay honest. It's a taco truck, by the way.
Below: This was the only drawing I liked on a page I did last month. Done late at night on BART on the way back from San Francisco.

Teashop Finale

2009-01-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

Here's the tail-end of the teashop piece. There are still things that I want to do to it, including adding one of the characters. I'm temporarily calling this a finished piece however because I want to go on to other facets of the project and this is pretty done anyway. I haven't designed any of the characters yet so I'll revisit this piece when I've got something more to add. That way I can also get a look at it with fresh eyes and fix everything I just can't see anymore.

Unlike most of my environment pieces, this did not start off from a drawing. I did a load of thumbnails to get a feel for what I wanted but then I realized that since I already pretty much knew what I wanted the layout of the room to be, it would be easier and faster just to model it and choose a camera angle I really liked. So I did a simple model in Maya, captured the wireframe, and just painted over that:

More sketchbookery:

I actually like this page a lot despite the fact that a few of the figures have waaay tiny heads. Most of these drawings were done at Borders.

Blue Christmas

2008-12-23T23:40:00.001-08:00

Quick digital Jack sketch that I decided to put a little more polish on. I was taking a break from drawing Christmas presents. I have this thing for drawing characters staring intently into the distance with profound MEANING AND PURPOSE for absolutely no reason. She looks kinda goth here... I dunno. That didn't happen on purpose. Merry Christmas everyone.

And here are some recent sketchbook pages:

Tea Shop : Part II

2008-12-15T01:04:00.000-08:00

My progress on the Tibetan tea shop interior. As you can see, I'm still blocking stuff in. There's no detail yet and the shadows and reflections aren't refined but it's coming together.

Also, I drew a thing--

--DIGITALLY. Ours is truly an age of wonders. A Tibetan girl I drew in less than ten minutes while taking a break from the tea shop. And the lame drawing below was just a test for a new brush I made in Photoshop. Helllloooo!

Tea Shop : Genesis

2008-12-10T00:52:00.000-08:00

Rough value study for an environment. Done in Photoshop. Disregard the shoddy perspective, which will be addressed in the actual version.

2008-12-03T23:11:00.000-08:00

This is an illustration [3 color versions] I did for a chapter of “The Physics of Animation” dealing with the topic of balance. Uh, she accidentally came out looking A LOT like me… except with long hair. And also, a cartoon. Thought I should throw that out here before someone I know points that out. Anyway, I learned a lot about adjustment layers in Photoshop this summer and had some fun messing around with that. Normally I think images put through Hard Mix look pretty ass-ish, but this time around it came out cool. I cleaned up the linework in Flash and did the rest in Photoshop.

Below: This is where I’m stopping with this piece. I may go back and add a mule caravan in the foreground later but I’m going to cool it now and move on to the next piece.

A sketchbook page I’m lukewarm on but other people really liked. So here:

I get a lot of questions on what media I use in my sketchbook so here’s the skinny. This is the core of my arsenal… these are by no means the only materials I use in my sketchbook, but they are the ones most frequently used:

1. Sumi Ink: I use it mainly for flat washes.

2. White Gouache: Used on most highlights and blocks of light value.

3 & 4. Grey Tombow Markers: Kind of all-purpose. I use the light gray for basic lay-ins… you usually can’t even see it on the toned paper once the drawing has been completed. I use the medium gray for dark patches and core shadows and sometimes blend it out with the light grey marker because Tombows are water soluble. I try to keep the strokes to a minimum because markers get muddy-looking really fast.

5. Uniball Signo [White]: Used for small white accents or for light areas with more texture. It’s water soluble and very workable.

6 & 7: Pilot Hi-tec pens: Used for all the linework. These are water soluble so I often throw a wash of water over them right after drawing (once the ink dries, it’s not as workable) to get light shadows or a flat, grey wash.

8 & 9: Japanese Brush Pens: I use these on my core shadows and black areas. Then I go in with the water pen and bleed out the middle values. You can get all kinds of effects with it depending on how much water you use or where you start your stroke. I usually put the water down on the page where I want the ink to bleed out to and then connect the stroke to the ink and bleed it out. Beginning your stroke on the ink creates a completely different effect that isn’t as soft.

10. Pentel Sign Pen: Just a water soluble black marker that bleeds like a muthah. I like to use this one on small dark shadows. This marker wields a lot of variation.

11. Water Pen: The tool that makes all my value drawings happen. I think everyone knows this one but… it’s a brush that holds its own water supply. You just squeeze out the amount you need. I use it to bleed pens and apply gouache and ink.

Not pictured: the sketchbook I usually use. I like this particular sketchbook because I love toned paper, it holds wet media well… there’s minimal warping and media almost never bleeds through to the other side of the page, and it’s 100% recycled! Oh yeah, and cheap. We like cheap. I get almost all my pens at Maido, although Tombows are available at every art store. Almost all the media I use are water soluble… I like media that bleed. Materials I occasionally use: fountain pens, tissues, watercolor pencils, alphacolor charkole, china markers, bamboo brushes, crayons, black electrical tape (cut up for dark patches), etc.

Himalayan Village [WIP]

2008-11-26T23:57:00.000-08:00

I recently started a project based on one of my favorite books as a kid, "Daughter of the Mountains" by Louise Rankin. It's set in the 1930s, mostly in Tibet but also Nepal, Bhutan, and India. It's about a Tibetan girl whose dog is stolen by a caravan of wool traders to sell to a wealthy British couple in India and the journey she undertakes to get her dog back. As a kid, I was completely absorbed in the rich descriptions of the locations and it seemed like perfect fodder for a visual development project.

This is an environment piece I started last week... a tiny village along a trade route in the Himalayas. I still have to add figures for scale along with other details like the prayer flags, fence, firewood, a few small shrubs, etc. I was having a hell of a time getting the houses to not look like small condos in the mountains but those old Tibetan homes are so simple looking! I tweaked the original image a bit to test out a different mood... I actually think I like the tweaked image better. I'm thinking of painting in the wool caravan on the foreground trail to introduce some story.

I picked up about 50lbs of reference material from the library but here's a site I found with all kinds of awesome Tibet reference from the time period I'm working with: http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/tibet_collections.html. I think the next piece I'll be doing after this one is the interior of a tea shop.

Recent sketchbook page finished yesterday in San Francisco. A cafe, a shopping center, and The Warfield where I went to go see The Decemberists in concert. They were outstanding. And their new album will be out in March!

Edit: Blogger doesn't feel like loading my image correctly for the sketchbook page. To view a larger version, click here.

In the beginning, there was...

2008-11-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

This was actually the inaugural sketch of my new sketchbook. I forgot to scan it with the last batch somehow. Just trying to shake the rust off my sketching hand. This drawing was done looking out the window at one of my favorite cafes: Bay Street Coffee in Fremont, CA. Since it was right before the election, the fence across the street was plastered in election posters.

Mental dialogue following the completion of this sketch:
"Hey, organize the values better so your image is legible, yeah?"
"Values? Organization? Whuh?!"

In my defense, it was overcast.

For Sure, There Is No Place Like Home

2008-11-06T21:12:00.000-08:00

After finishing my last major sketchbook in July, I've been jumping around between sketchbooks trying to do something new. I normally always get the same recycled brown sketchbook every time and I thought it was about time I took on a new challenge. Problem is, it wasn't fun and I actually felt less and less like drawing. The books didn't accept the sorts of media I enjoyed using so I abandoned the idea a few weeks ago and picked up a new familiar brown sketchbook. If I can't enjoy the work I'm doing, what's the point? So it's good to be back and now drawing can be fun again. Here are a few pages I did over the weekend, at APE and at a coffee shop right before Halloween. Man, am I rusty.

Above: The woman in the upper right got overworked... went a little overboard on the guoache trying to capture the wierd reflected light. Also, my tube of gouache is almost totally dried out and I'm too cheap to get another so it's hard to handle the white. But I really like how the old man seated with his coffee turned out.

Below (2 pages): Really quick sketches done at APE.

Speaking of APE, I had a great time! I got to meet so many awesome artists, hang out with friends, look at all kinds of incredible merchandise I couldn't afford, and just be generally and awesomely inspired. I still have some leftover books if people would like to buy them. I've never sold anything online before... I guess do Paypal? I don't know. I'll figure it out in the next post. If anyone would like a copy of the mini-comic, shoot me an email. I'll even do a sketch in it. Thanks!

Here is the final cover design for the comic. I was actually disappointed in it but considering how short on time I was, I think it came out alright. I was kinda under the gun to get the book off to the printer in time.

And here are a few pages of doodles done in preparation for the cover, trying to figure out a good pose. I was pretty set on doing something actiony but willing to explore a bit. Of course, drawing cover poses quickly degraded into just drawing random shit that would, under no circumstances, actually make it to the cover but it's always fun to indulge that impulse. So yeah, funny noodley figures.

Below: And here is the pose that I went with. I actually just scanned this, blew it up to 200%, cranked up the opacity to 15% to make it super light, printed it, and drew right over it. It was pretty much good to go, as is.

The Book Bin #1

2008-10-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

I spend a lot of time at the thrift store. I always have. There are just too many wierdly awesome things there from old childhood toys and creepy ceramic figurines to tacky clothes and old VHS tapes. My parents bought most of my clothes and toys from the thrift store when I was growing up and I guess I just never outgrew it. Aside from clothes, books are one of my absolute favorite things to buy thrifted. You never know what kind of gorgeous or completely off-the-wall vintage book you're going to find there and I've built up a sizable collection over the years with nothing but spare change! It's a resource few artists tap but I highly recommend giving it a shot.

Here are some illustrations from a book I found last month, that I've been meaning to scan and share. The book is "Debbie's Visit to the Countryside" by Gilbert Delahaye, illustrated by Marcel Marlier, 1980. It was so beautifully rendered, I couldn't resist. I have other books I'd like to share in the coming weeks, as well.

Also, when you see a book with a cover as awesome as this one, you DO NOT leave it on the shelf:

I leave you with the final page of "The Superstars of Rock". The caption reads, "Shakin' Stevens - Britain's most exciting rock performer."

2008-10-26T23:44:00.000-07:00

Update on the comic: The comic is finished. I did the cover this weekend so now I just have to lay the book out in InDesign tomorrow and see about getting it printed/assembled. I realize I'm cutting it close (APE is less than a week away!) but not to worry, guys. The drawing above is the one I used on the cover. The actual cover looks nothing like that, though... the drawing just looked totally boring on plain white so I fixed it up all parchment-like. I'll post pictures of the book later this week when I get it from the printer.

Here are some old sketchbook pages from September. P.S., I got a new sketchbook (which is actually my old usual sketchbook) so expect to start seeing a lot more sketchbook love in the next couple weeks.

And here are some drawings I did at a restaurant on Friday:

The Need for Speed

2008-10-15T01:59:00.000-07:00

So that's my first digital speed paint ever. I could've done worse, I suppose. I got tired of toning the comic and was just about ready to go to bed when I decided to mess around with all the new Photoshop brushes I made or downloaded recently. Since I was coming fresh off the comic, here is yet another Jack piece.

I swear that once I'm finished with the mini-comic I'll start posting stuff that doesn't feature Jack! On the topic of the comic: I just FINALLY finished toning all the pages. I just have to place all the text now and then do a cover. Not to mention, find out exactly how I'm going to get this sucker printed and assembled for APE...

Hella Excerpts

2008-10-02T00:52:00.000-07:00

More previews from my upcoming mini-comic, "Hella Days". No text yet, as you can see, and I was careful to choose non-spoiler panels. This comic has been an interesting experiment for me. Normally I would ink this traditionally but I decided to try more of a vector look this time around. It's kinda "vector deluxe"... it's been really difficult for me to try to do something with full grayscale but no rendering. I have a tendency to render the hell out of almost everything. As usual, some of these panels will undergo minor repairs before print but they're pretty much good to go, as is. "Hella Days" will be available at APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco next month. More information to come on that later.

Non Sequitur II

2008-09-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd throw down a progress report on the comic. I posted the ruffs to a handful of panels from pages 3-5 a few weeks ago so here they are toned. It's likely that they will change a bit when I do final adjustments to all the pages but I'm tagging these "final versions". Well, final with the exception of text, anyway. The first panel breaks my heart a bit, truly. The fourth panel was a lot of fun to do... that ice cream man is really pushing his luck, if you ask me. Jack looks like she's about to dismantle the guy. BTW, his name is Sonny.

I'll definitely be posting more work from the comic sometime in the next 2 weeks. I'm on tones right now. It's nice to be hitting that phase of production where I finally feel like I'm making progress because I can actually see things being completed now.

Slim Pickings

2008-09-19T00:17:00.000-07:00

Most of the stuff I've been working on lately I either can't show or shouldn't show but here's a little bit of what I've done on the side recently. Drawings done in my way-too-tiny sketchbook that hates wet media:

I just got a new sketchbook not long ago so hopefully I'll be more motivated to sketch in public again soon.

These drawings below are warm-up gestures. I dunno... they're kinda funny and have a strange life to them so I'll share some that I've done over the past 2 weeks. People always take an unusual interest in them whenever they come across them.

And here are some I did on a used envelope:

Hella Days - Page 5 [WIP]

2008-08-31T01:12:00.000-07:00

Here's my comic I've been working on... well, the fifth page of ten, anyway. Still got issues I wanna fix later and some minor polishing touches but all that's gonna wait until I've got all the pages up to this level so I can do the finalization all in one pass and have it look unified. No text for youse... buy the print version at APE (November 1 & 2) in San Francisco or shoot me an email around that time to get a copy.

Thoughts on this so far: Gotta adjust the contrast here and there for clarity. Forgot to put a few sideplanes on the truck windows. Add a few more car components missing in a couple panels. I really love Jack in the first panel... badass Jack is the funnest Jack to draw. I love her facial expressions in the two upper right panels, her nonchalant pose in the 6th panel, and then the 11th and 12th panels in general. Oh yeah, Jack's kinda cute in the 5th panel even though cute ain't my thing and cute Jack is A MYTH. A lie, dudes. Fallacy!

For those not in the know, the main character here (Jack... the gal) is from my former long running comic and future graphic novel, Of Rogues And Robbers. This short story is not a part of the novel's story arc, however. I'm going to ink/tone the novel a totally different way, too. I'm thinking almost black and white. Real contrasty and angular. The story actually gets pretty dark... it's a criminal drama.

Yeah, buy the anthology at APE, please. And also the first chapter of the graphic novel, when it (hopefully) comes out next year.

Like A Rhinestone Cowboy

2008-08-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

He's a-lookin' for his hawse.

Uh, this was a really stupid doodle that just got out of hand, as drawings often do. I was thumbnailing poses for an illustration and even though this one was a reject, I did a larger sketch of it because I thought it was funny. Then I went ahead and inked it. I was just gonna do basic cel colors on the guy but I was having fun with it so I really polished it up. I like his funky twisted torso and noodly legs. And yeah, I know his arm is wierd. Whatever.

Well, shoot.

Non Sequitur

2008-08-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Some non-sequential sequentials for ya. These are some rough panels from a comic short story I've been working on. I've got 4/10 pages ruffed out so far. The characters are still off model at this point and there are obvious anatomy and perspective issues to work out when I take it to clean up. You might've noticed I love drawing facial expressions. Mouths, in particular, are especially fun to draw. And hey, look... Jack! Yeah, for anyone interested, the story is about Jack versus Ice Cream Man. It's going to be part of an anthology available at Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco this Fall. Working title for the story: Hella Days. It'll also be good to have it as a nice, little, self-contained short story supplement for the portfolio.

After I finish up the comic next week, it's back to work on the regular portfolio for me. I'm sorely lacking in environment pieces yet that's all anyone seems to want to hire for right now...

Face Time

2008-08-25T00:57:00.000-07:00

Some faces drawn over the past few weeks. A few of these characters went on to larger projects you'll see later and others are just isolated doodles. Plus a couple Jack sketches for good measure.

Back in the habit

2008-08-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

My poor neglected sketchbook. So I finally got the chance to do some work in it again! I was pretty busy with work for a while. My productivity has also decreased by like 80% this summer upon my introduction to Avatar: The Last Airbender... thanks a lot, Jon. Countless hours spent on reruns and general related geekish activities.

I'm still not fond of this new sketchbook. Either I need to start using dry media and markers, exclusively, or I need to get a different book because this ain't working. I'll give more markers a shot, I guess. I actually hate most dry media. Plus, the smallness of this book is really limiting... I can hardly hold onto the damn thing let alone do a long study in it. At any rate, I have gotten a few drawings I like out of it.

Jacking lumber since 2008

2008-07-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

Don’t anybody sing the lumberjack song. Don't you dare. This is a little something from some freelance work I’ve been doing, “The Physics of Animation”. It’s mostly been diagrams up to this point but we’re starting a chapter now that requires a lot of character work, which is awesome for me. This illustration is to show balance. I needed to do a front and side view of a character in a balanced pose and then a front and side view of an unbalanced pose similar to the first one. The character had to be top heavy and have small feet to emphasize the out-of-balance pose. I chose to draw a lumberjack since I’ve been wanting to do one for a while and he fit the description. I originally had him posing with his ax but I had to change it because adding another mass would have complicated the physics being explained so I opted for the same pose, but with him holding his suspenders instead.

I need to get out and work in my sketchbook soon. I've been in a wierd funk lately and the little I've done outside of work isn't worth scanning, let alone posting online.

I'm a winner!

2008-07-23T23:19:00.001-07:00

I just updated yonder portfolio. FYI.

I wish I had more work to show but I've had the misfortune of being ill for the greater part of the last week. How I managed to catch a freak head cold in the dead center of summer is beyond me. It's like I found the only cold bug in the entire Bay Area that survived the end of Spring... like I won some kind of sick lottery. Anyway, that's done. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Above: I did these 2 pages over two weeks ago. The ones on the right side were done at a food court in a mall while I escaped a heat wave. I need to start drawing people in areas where they're more active. Like the park, or something.

Above: I was invaded by bees when I drew the messy hillside so I wound up rushing through the values and it looks kinda crap. Some old, swaggering drunk biker dude came out of an honest-to-gawd saloon and started hitting on me when I was drawing the motorcycle. I promptly relocated. And I drew that little, elderly Asian woman when she was entering the "Jurassic 'Fight Club' Sweepstakes" at a movie theater. It seemed really out of character... actually, I don't think she knew what she was entering.

My friend, Ellen, is the one in color. This new sketchbook loves soft pastels so I think I'm going to start doing more color sketches.

To the Necropolis!

2008-07-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, new sketchbook. Hey. I've actually had this particular book for, like, two years now and just didn't draw in it. It's a Fabriano Artist's Journal, like so:

It's pretty cool but I'm totally homesick for my old, brown, recycled-paper sketchbook. This new guy does not accept wet media very well. Uh uh, havin' none of that. And I'm all about wet media! Dammit. But it is forcing me to try new things and I'm excited to see what happens when I get to the darker papers. One pro about the new guy: he's about 25% the size of my last one so I fill the pages faster and feel more productive. Oh yeah, he seems to like markers a lot. That's cool, too.

Above: Some people I drew in a mall food court last week. We had a heat wave and I was in serious need of some air conditioning. The mom of that baby I drew totally turned around and glared at me when her friend noticed I was staring.

Below: I visited Colma, the week before last, and drew in the Italian Cemetery. Colma is a bona fide necropolis... the population of the dead there outnumbers the population of the living and there are graveyards all over the place. I found hella graves with "DeVincenzi" on them... yay, Jack! Holy crap it was cold out for a midsummer's day, though!

This is completely random but... every time I hear the bridge to "Lips Like Sugar" by Echo & The Bunnymen, it's like system paralysis. It's so damn good.

Churchyard At Dawn

2008-07-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

2008-06-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

I broke up with my sketchbook today. I just felt that we had reached a point where we weren’t moving forward anymore and that maybe I might want to meet new sketchbooks. In short, we were done. It fills me with sadness to know that we’ve reached the end and I won’t be seeing him quite so often anymore. We parted on good terms, however, and although I can always visit, it won’t be the same. Ah well. It was good while it lasted and we’ll always have Paris.

I can’t believe I finally finished that damned book. A year and one month later, to the day! It was the sketchbook I took to Paris. It was the sketchbook for my last year of college. It was the sketchbook I've spent the most time in out of all the other sketchbooks I've ever owned. I don’t know how most artists feel about their sketchbooks but I get really emotionally attached to mine and although it’ll be nice to start a new chapter, I kinda just wanna keep working in my old sketchbook. It’s been so good to me. The binding is just about shot and the edges are all worn and there are grease stains on the covers. Now I have to break in a new book. Here are the last two pages I did:

I sent out thank you cards for my graduation, finally. I did drawings in each one of them, all in different media and here's one of them. It’s my new iPod (Johnny Five) I used most my graduation money on:

Here are just a handfull of photos I took at San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade. Holy crap, I took so many pictures!

We went to Mel's Diner after the parade and I wound up drawing on my placemat since I wasn't hungry. I thought the drawings were sort of charming so here're those.

Jack Scrap Fever

2008-06-26T17:01:00.000-07:00

I did some major spring cleaning last week and had to wade through piles of paperwork and scrap papers with doodles on them. Here are some totally random doodles (mostly Jack) found here and there that I kinda like. Some of these are quite recent, some are quite NOT, and some are damn-dude-hella-old, explaining the discrepancy in style. There's a rare, unbearably adorable drawing of young Jacqueline in the second collage. There are a few bald Jacks because sometimes I just like drawing facial expressions and didn't even bother to finish the drawing with hair or shoulders. And then we've got some quick gestures done from imagination, usually in the margins of notes or something... those doodles are just random girls, not necessarily Jack. I've got a bunch of Warren drawings too (though not quite so many as Jack) but I thought I'd limit this post to gals, for starters.

My New Apparatus

2008-06-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

So I've been fishing for an idea for a short story for the past week or so. I found one in a porch lamp(?)/heater(?)/thing at a Mexican restaraunt yesterday over lunch. "My New Apparatus".

Sketchbook stuffs. I just realized I only have 2 pages left in this book and the parting will be bittersweet. This is the same sketchbook I took with me to Paris a year ago and it's been great having it with me everywhere all year, even if I did feel like, "Hey, shouldn't you have finished this thing like 7 months ago or whatever?" Every time I finish a new sketchbook I think, "You should probably try something totally different this time around," and then I go out and get the same brown sketchbook at Utrecht. It's almost involuntary, at this point. I love the way it accepts media and that it forces me to do finished-ish drawings. Also, I hate staring at glaring white paper when I'm drawing.

I couldn't have asked for a better sketchbook, Brownie. If my next is better, it's because of you.