Comics I enjoyed this fall.

In lieu of having anything good of my own to post I think this is as good a time as any to plug two comics that I’ve read recently and that I’ve really liked.




One is Bone by Jeff Smith.
Bone is one of those interesting comics that is not what it appears to be on the outside. Actually a better way of putting it is that over the course of the story it starts off being one thing, gradually ends up changing it's tone completely, and then returns to what it was at the beginning of the journey. It’s hard to explain if you’ve never really read it, but it is a wonderful tale that’s not to be missed if you love cartooning and comics. My respect for the author grew even more after I learned how steadfast he was in defending his story from Hollywood manipulation. The studio that picked up the rights wanted to change the story and the characters to “fit” certain demographics better. Jeff Smith held steadfast to his artistic convictions and walked away when the studio wasn’t willing to budge. I can only admire a comic book artist who thinks that highly of the medium. To often people think of comics as a “lesser” medium than movies or television and, as Scott McCloud put it, view any opportunity to leave comics for these other mediums as a step up. Comics are just as legitimate a storytelling medium as cinema, television, novels, or radio. A comic story doesn't need to pander to Hollywood for the possibility of being adapted to be great in it's own right. Any artist who sticks to their guns like this is to be commended, especially one who stuck with his story until it was done for thirteen years. Even turning down other movie offers.


The other comic is Megatokyo, a web comic created by Fred Gallagher and Rodney Canston but now written and drawn solely by Gallagher. When I picked up one of the collected volumes in the library (Volume 4) I figured it would just be another lame attempt at anime fan/gamer humor. When I started reading I didn’t feel like there was much going on to disprove my assumption. Then about a third of the way through I discovered that I was woefully incorrect in my presumption. I found characters here of an incredible depth, the kind you definitely would not expect from a game/manga focused American web comic. After reading through volume four I checked out the website where every comic from the story's beginnings in 2000 to the present is archived. The most rewarding dynamics, and a testament to just how well put together this story is are the budding romances between Largo/Erika and Piro/Kimiko, truly dynamic storytelling that totally surpassed my expectations for what this kind of comic could be.
Megatokyo is one of the Anime/Manga influenced Western stories that truly “get’s it.” Many people in the West try to emulate the cartooning styles popular in Japan in an attempt to be hip (corporations chasing demographics), or thinking that it somehow grants legitimacy to their work, as if everything western is dumb. MegaTokyo takes what appeals to we anime/manga fans and works it in such a way that it doesn’t feel like pandering. A truly wonderful accomplishment.

I now proudly count myself among the fans of both of these fine comics.

Sight_Size drawing.

Here's the one we worked on for about 9 weeks.

Honestly, I'm not to impressed with it. I think my sight-size cast drawing came out better.

Anyway, Merry Christmas.

Merfolk!

Okay so here’s the piece I’d been working on off and on since early October (before the semester.) Originally I was thinking that the theme would be “Love without prejudice.” I had started thinking about all the stuff interracial couples have to go through and this came to me. Eventually it just became my own personal outlet for my creativity as I was hard at work with LAAFA stuff. It wasn’t about getting it “done” it was just about drawing something completely independent of class work. I must have been a weird sight drawing this thing during my breaks at school (though people sketching is not an unusual site at our school.) It was done in Blue col-erase pencil on Crescent 300 illustration board.

Old master drawings.

Okay so here's my weekend update. Hopefully with the break next week, and the end of this session of classes in mid-January I'll be able to update more. I'm definately hoping that I'll get to post my personal project (I've been working on it since before classes started) next week. Until then here's some copies I did of old Master drawings by Jacques Callot and Peter Paul Rubens.

More fun with my new best friend Mr. Bargue!!!

Okay so here is another sight-size copy from one of my classes at LAAFA. Obviously, I'm still working on this one.

We have two classes that teach us to draw via the sight-size method. One is cast drawing, and the other is a figure drawing class. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of sight-size it basically means you measure the drawing line by line using a plumbline/ruler then copy it in the adjacent space.

This method was really hard for me at the start of the semester. Pretty much all of my life drawing before this was focused on my aspirations to work in animation/illustration. Those fields tend to emphasise using your imagination while drawing the model. Sight-Size is very much the opposite and can be a rude transition for those of us more accustomed to the former way of thinking. I think it's even given me eye strain problems at some points!!!

Dinotopia event at Storyopolis.

I had the distinct pleasure of attending a Dinotopia event at Storyopolis on Saturday. James Gurney the author/artist behind the book series was in attendance promoting the newest book Journey to Chandara. I finally got to meet him after emailing him on and off for a year, so it was wonderful. Rereading Dinotopia in college was one of the big things that set me on the course towards illustration as career. My brother had bought the book when I was in 4th grade. I appreciated the dinosaurs, as I've always been a huge Paleontology nut but it wasn't until I became focused on art myself that I really learned to love these books. Another book James Gurney co-wrote The Artist Guide to Sketching (with believe it or not Thomas Kinkade) is one my favorite books on the subject of drawing ever The way of thinking about drawing just resonated with me. It was great getting to talk to him about art, the books, and all sorts of things.
Silly fanboy picture books are for kids! That's the lie they told me!!!! Nah seriously, the way I'm grinning like an idiot in this picture is likely to shock, and possibly scare people who know me well. What can I say though, great books all three.

James Gurney signing someones book, and a kid in the background.

My signed book in all it's glory.

More fun with site-size drawing.

WE'RE HAVING SO MUCH FUN WITH THESE!!!

No seriously, I had to start over on this figure and now I think it's coming along better. I still think there are things that need to be tweaked (the right leg for instance) but it's much better than my previous attempt.

Turkey day.

This update of course has nothing to do with the holiday, but best wishes anyway.

Picture from figure construction class.

Mostly done by me with touch ups on the shadows from my teacher Ron. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. A good drawing even though the likeness wasn't there.

Another character design drawing.

This one was apart of the same Charecter design class I took at CSUN earlier this year. It was the first in a rotation or turn around for an animated charecter. I think it stands well on it's own though.

G'kar.

Here's a copy from a picture of G'kar from the great science fiction show Babylon 5. G'Kar was played by the late Andreas Katsalus. Still waiting for the rest of the boxsets on my end but I love what I've seen so far. Anyway it was for a class project dealing with line in which we weren't allowed to use any other element but line (IE no shading.) The teacher felt it didn't really match the assignment but I think it was succesful.

Pouting fairy.

Here's something I did one day when our class was cancelled but we still had a model to draw from. I'm really not to big on the hand, I feel it's way off and I'm concerned that it's to "weighty" to be a fairy.

Picture could be better too.

Anyone have thoughts about it?

Master copy.

In some of our classes at Laafa we have to copy old master drawings for homework. In this particular one we were required to do it through a method called sight size. In that method you copy the drawing/cast/model line for line by making measurements with a plumbline rather than sketching it. Hard, tedious, and sometimes pointless work, but you can really come up with some nice work if you do it well. So what do you folks think of this one? My own drawing is on the right.

Well I have to put something here.

Just to keep up apperances and what not. I won't get to update as much

with the workload from school.

Here are some old expressions from earlier this year.

Quick one for today.

Art school starts tommorow.

It'll be intense and I won't be able to update here as much. Here's one for the road. Truth be told I'm not 100% happy with it, but I really like the perspective.

P.S The back side of comic book shop boards (the kind they put the comics you buy on) make pretty cool drawing surfaces.

Old charecter.

I created this charecter when I was a kid and just redrew him this week. I want to experiement more with pannels and page composition.

Watercolor.

The colored version of that lizard drawing I did a while back ago.

This is watercolor on illustration board.

Some cartoon head sketches.

With classes at Laffa coming up I've been practicing alot of more realistic drawing. These sketches were a chance to jump back into making cartoony looking drawings.

Genocide in Darfur Sudan.

One of the things that's really bugged me in recent times is the popular American media's willingness to report meaningless celebrity gossip and by and large overlook truely important stories like this. That's where this piece came from, an illustration project that was motivated by my anger over the apathy of the press towards all of this suffering.

The Darfur conflict is an ongoing armed conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, mainly between the Janjaweed (translated: "devils on horseback"), a militia group recruited from the tribes of the Abbala Rizeigat (camel-herding Arabs), and the non-Baggara people (mostly land-tilling tribes) of the region. The Sudanese government, while publicly denying that it supports the Janjaweed, has provided money and assistance and has participated in joint attacks with the group, systematically targeting the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups in Darfur.[1] The conflict began in July 2003. Unlike in the Second Sudanese Civil War, which was fought between the primarily Muslim north and Christian and Animist south, in Darfur most of the residents are Muslim, as are the Janjaweed. Estimated number of deaths in the conflict vary widely. Most NGOs use 400,000, a figure from the Coalition for International Justice that has since been cited by the United Nations. As many as 2.5 million are thought to have been displaced as of October 2006.
The mass media once described the conflict as both "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide," and now do so without hesitation. The United States government has described it as genocide, although the United Nations has declined to do so.
The whole article can be read here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict
It's obvious that more attention needs to given to what's going on there.

Me and the wizard.

Size comaprison.

Just so you can get an idea of how big the final drawing was.

Drawings I did for a client.

Not that I ended up getting paid for it (I told my former teacher and friend Charles about it yesterday.) Oh well I think they're nice drawings anyway.

Here's what the wizard ended up looking like on the final illustration board.

Wizard.

Sketch of a wizard for a bigger project.

Fairy drawing.

Charecter I've been working on.

Monster sketch!

Worked on this sketch for two days or so. Tell me what you think, C&C are totally welcome.

Old Acrylic doodle.

Thought I'd share this old Acrylic doodle that I did like a watercolor.

It's a posting bonanza!!!

So I noiced an usual amount of people on my blog list updated in the last 24 hours. I figured I had to get in on that. So here are some cosmic, comic book charecters. Green Lantern from DC and Skrulls from Marvel.

Weird quick sketch, don't know where this came from.

Illustration from the Bible.

So this piece has an interesting story behind it.

I decided one day that I was a bit worn out on doing the normal figure drawing workshop routine that I’m use to. Not to say that the routine is bad, but it concentrates more on quick sketching than more refined work. So I got a piece of illustration board from my community college and brought it to the workshop. After finding out we wouldn’t get the chance to do a long pose that session I decided I’d just do my own thing and turn one drawing into an illustration. So I captured an okay likeness of the model and thought about I might want to do for the subject matter. It’s hard to think of what context a tasteful context to put a naked woman in for the kind of illustration I focus on. Then I figured why not turn it into a bible picture like they use to do in past centuries. The only one I could think of that would work was Eve and the serpent. Truth be told I was a little bit concerned that it would be to risqué, and people might read something Freudian into the snake and the fruit but I guess you can’t control what people think.

Hah maybe I should have just done the classic censorship thing and given her long hair.

Another lizard drawing.

Just putting up an unfinished picture. I plan to attack it with some watercolor sometime soon.

I wish my camera could give you a better picture.

Snake from pet shop.

Just some more life drawing from the pet shop.

Little people.

So these are some cute little critters I drew just so I could have another piece for my illustration portfolio. I started it back in July, and I'll still probably tinker with it. Anyway it a fun little thing.

Pastel on cold press board by the way, 15 by 20.

Babylon 5!

So I decided to take a stab at sketching what animated versions of some of the races from my new favorite addiction Babylon 5 might look like. A very cool show from the 90's that I've started collecting on DVD. Great stories, really profound world building, and charecters you just learned to love. It was a wonderful Science Fiction epic!!!

Another drawling from earlier in the year.

A kid who was watching me draw suggested the tounge.

So yeah this is what I get for doodling at this unholy hour (it’s just past 3 A.M.) This guy will probably give me nightmares, and I drew him.

Lizard family.

Big project from the Summer.

This was a piece I started working on in late May. It's from a series of books I want to write and illustrate one day.

Interesting story behind the type of paper I was using. We were at Costco one day and we found these huge pieces of paper lying around. I touched one and really thought it had an interesting, rough, grainy, texture or tooth to it. I figured it would be a cool thing to experiement with, especially with a dry media like pastels (possibly my favorite medium.) So after being assured that the people at Costco didn't mind we picked it up, we put it in our van and drove home with it. Weird how these things happen.

In any case on days where I worked on it, I usually did so while watching daytime talk shows, Stargate (which became a guility pleasure of mine thanks to my former roomate), or Star Trek. I've found it's easier for me to get big projects done when I have some kind of backround noise. When it's really quiet I just, I don't know, get bored.

R.I.P Mike Weringo.

I was going to post something about my trip to Hawaii but I came home to some rather sad news today. Mike Weringo, in my opinion one of the greatest comic book artist in recent memory, passed away suddenly on the 12th of this month.

Mike Weringo was the kind of artist that was an inspiration to pretty much everyone who saw his work. His art was carictured, but grounded in a strong knowledge of drawing and technical draftsmanship. His style was loose and fun, but not so much that it couldn't take on serious subject matter when needed.

His run along with Mark Waid on Fantastic Four was one of my favorite runs on any comic. Before that time I had always liked comics, his art and Waid's writting on that book helped me learn to love them. When I see the art from those books I always remember those days in 2002-2003 and I remember them fondly.

He was also relentless in posting new sketches to his blog, often updating up to three times every week. After years of reading I had just begun posting on his blog over the last month or so, and he took time out to actually address my questions specifically. A great talent and, from the times I've gotten a chance to interact with him, I can tell a great heart.

We will not see his like again for a long while.

Rest in peace Mike.

Another pass at the lamb sketch.

Sketches for resturant.

Okay so something cool happened to me. While getting a price estimate on some of my art and I was approached by a resturant owner who was interested in having some art put up in her place. I did a couple sketches and I'd love to get some input from other people about which concept people like most.