Back to the Present

I was away for a few weeks pet sitting Karli's cat. But I'm back now! And while I was there I did a lot of comic reading, as well as drawing. Here are a few samples!

I actually saw a few girls come into work dressed like this. Ah, Maine winters, and the hipsters that don't care about matching patterns! I envy them and their cuteness, honestly.

Koko Be Good

Everyone should buy and read Koko Be Good by Jen Wang because it's gorgeous and might make you cry...in a good way. It goes right on my shelf next to Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosa and Blankets by Craig Thompson.

Hello, 2011

I made UP pictures for my Secret Santa at the PA:AC...following them are some doodley-doos!

Temperature droppings

I am at home and still bundled up from being outside 3 hours ago

it's too cold to enjoy my milk!

This is why I like Bryan Lee O'Malley

there was "some confusion" about yesterday's brief post, so here it is again with some more clarification.

@radiomaru: kids, just so you know, "character design" is like .00001% of my job. so get over yourselves and draw some comic pages

kids...
TRANSLATION: young, amateur would-be cartoonists

...just so you know, "character design" is like .00001% of my job...
TRANSLATION: i design characters, and then I spend 99.9999% of my time doing other stuff that isn't designing characters

...so get over yourselves and draw some comic pages
TRANSLATION: so stop making up new characters when you'll never tell any of their stories anyway

This applies strongly to anyone who claims they want to be "A CHARACTER DESIGNER" when they grow up.

How many "CHARACTER DESIGNERS" do you think there are in the world? People who go to work each day, have a coffee, design some characters and then come home? NOT VERY MANY!

All I'm saying is don't expect to spend your life making up characters and dreaming up their epic adventures. If you expect to ever tell those stories, you have to stop designing them at some point and start doing the rest of the work.

No knock on the process of character design. I am in the middle of designing new characters now, and it's really fun and rewarding, but also I can't wait to get in to the actual pages.

I see kids every day on deviantart making up their characters and their epic stories. I was the exact same way in high school. I'm just trying to tell people there's more to it than that.

Sweet Tooth

I made a...thing. For our window display for Sweet Tooth at Casablanca Comics!

First I took some large cardboard thing and started drawing Gus's face from the cover of issue 5.

An hour and a half in and the lines are done!

Next I color in the black and start cutting the top layer of cardboard in the desired shape (it's a wall mount)

This part takes the longest and is the most tedious. I won't even finish before my 5 hour work shift is over and it's time to go home..

I finish cleaning the paper and I cut it all out while I watch the unrated version of Bad Santa.

Then I paint it with watercolors after inking the background/cardboard

and then it dries!

It was super fun and was definitely a challenge because

a. I don't draw large pictures. Everr

b. I don't draw in a style even close to what Jeff Lemire does, so I was forced to try something outside of my comfort zone

I'm pleased with how it came out, and I hope we have a chance to win the Window Display contest!

Scribblies

A bro drawn for every day of Brovember, and a flier for Brian's show tonight!

I can't stop the rock

All I want to do is play Team Fortress 2 all day while eating kimchi and drinking milk. Is that too much to ask?

America got Did

Doodled while reverting to juvenile Beavis and Butthead on Netflix. My brain has melted!

Coraline!

Almost two hours of drawing that should have been spent sleeping!