Halloween! Photo Stories Are Cool!

This is my lizard costume for Halloween. Based off of my frequently drawn lizard characters, often holding beverages, wearing sleeves and pockets, Trista made this for me and did a better job of it than I could have ever imagined. We went fabric shopping and got the material for a total of 10 bucks, and then she went to work...and in two days she finished it. The best 3-D rendition of my art that I have encountered (and probably the first actually...), it's just perfect!

Mouth-Breathers

Some mouth breathing animals of the assorted kind. Here we've got a tadpole, a beaver, a small bear (maybe?), a frog, and one mole. And what looks like an eyeball I never finished attaching a body to. The shadows are of course the bleed-through.

Some Flying Animals

Excuse the bleed-through from the other page. Thin paper, you know.

Customized Target Packaging Via Gubba

A little addition I made to some new sheets from Target.

mmhm!

New stuffs and things

Amongst the lazy days of an ending summer I have been involved in some very fun events. I went to Portland to visit my brother for a few days, enjoyed some rainy weather, excellent coffee, and the company of some very special people. My dad flew up with me as well so I enjoyed drawing pictures of gorillas and dinosaurs on the plane whilst discussing his life as a bouncer at a downtown club. He is a very interesting man. I did a lot of drawing in Portland once I rediscovered the magic of some vintage (printed in 1955) Golden Press school books I had bought at a garage sale about 10 years ago. They had been packed away in a box from when I lived in Portland in 2005, and when I got there I immediatly shoved them back into my suitcase to bring the damn things home, because they are so cool. I am currently using them as a reference for my animal characters...more on that later -

Sneak Preview

For those in doubt, or simply curious, I have almost completed the first comic in my mini comic book. 'Almost' because the title has yet to be worked out..and a few other minor details need to be finished. You only get a sneak preview of course because I've got to save the real deal for later, when the whole thing is done. This excerpt is from the debut of the Smoking Cockroach.

Some Droolings on Life and Comics?

So I have decided that it is time to set aside momentarily the character catalogue (yes after two submissions), and turn my attention to actually producing a comic of sorts that would be just as effective at introducing my characters. The point of the mini-catalogue in the first place was to introduce and describe my characters as if they were new friend of sorts, so after reading a rather informative article about making mini comics, as usual I have been super inspired. The only thing stopping me from 'doing art' as a living is myself, and I must admit that with Mikey getting busy with his new site and three blogs, I am seeing that it will require work, but fun work (not the work I am about to go to in less than an hour, mehk!). I've already familiarized myself with the world of Kinko’s, so it seems perfectly suitable that I spend a bit more time there trying to produce a few copies of a mini comic. Which first of course, requires that I actually produce a comic in the first place? SO! Where to begin? A crap load of drawing lies ahead. Not to mention a really cool contest that I read about on the same sight where the mini comic blog was posted. (youngamericancomics.com), that I would like to participate in. And thankfully the contest has a deadline which always helps an anal retentive organizational freak like myself.

And in other news, I've decided that Work is a sort of boring tragedy of American job culture (thanks for the article Storm) and that the lack of personal discipline turns into a homicidal maniac barrier when pursuing personal desires of the creative mind and soul. My disillusionment with a day job and all that that implies has begun to border a sense of frantic desperation! And on top of these feelings I have been having immensely vivid dreams that in capture Youth in its most full essence, an imaginary perfect Youth, and when I awake I am filled with a sad and reminiscent feelings for a past only procured from dreams! Strange images of people and faces I once knew or never knew at all, mixed atop a background of school campuses or towns that are forever Young, very strange indeed

Smoking Cockroach

*Note: The spelling of alcohol is wrong. Damn!

Character Catalog #1

I am starting a catalog of my most prized and special characters, so that I can reference them as if it were my own family album. This little project of mine is also meant to be part of a larger top secret project, not to be revealed until, well, its actually done. I have been known to talk about big projects too much and then never complete them, so I've decided to keep my mouth shut until I have something to show for it. This is Character Number One: Dazed Frog, and a few details you need to know about him.

Next Up - Character Number Two: Smoking Cockroach

Paul Rand!

Here's a guy that knows how to mix Cute with good clean Design. No surprise that he was born in 1920. There a quite a few things of his that I admit that I am not that into design wise, but that mostly starts around the 80's (i.e. IBM and some mainstream logos that he did). The childrens books he did, like Little One and Sparkle and Spin, aren't among my favorites either as far as 'cute' goes, but I do enjoy the design elements. These two advertisements are really great!

Both images taken from an autobiography titled Paul Rand, by Steven Heller. I was hanging on every word two years ago when I first read this book, and little bits and pieces of Rand's style will sometimes infiltrate my doodles.

new pen

Poop

There are many different kinds. I thought of four for now.

The Sick Poop. You know, too much fruit or fiber in one day..

The Nuggets. When the poop hasn't fully compacted...

The Basic Log. The regular guy in the poop world...

And finally, The Pile, who just keeps coming and ends up nicely piled up...

Sausage Embrace

I don't know why they got seperated, but they're pretty happy to be back together again, these two sausages.

for the lack of freshness

Yes, I am slacking in the department of drawing daily, and that is rather unfortunate! But be prepared! For I have finally, as of 8pm last night finished reading all of the Harry Potter books. Thats right, seven books in three weeks man. Thats probably about 5000 pages or something. Granted, those books are written for 'young adults' and are of course, rather easily read...but I digress. The important thing is drawing lots of cool things. If I devoted as much time as I did to reading all those books I could have published a short character sketch book by now! So for fun, here are a few oldies. And, I promise to myself, that there will be new art up soon...for the two people that read my blog. haha. These are both from 2005, when I first discovered the magic of Copic markers.

cartoon condoms

How about some birth control methods that are really really happy? I drew this today while thinking about a t-shirt contest.