Pending Paint

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

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 +++

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

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

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

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!