BART Smart

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.