Post 385

First off, to clarify, I saw those really cool things that Paul Pope draws and thought I'd try my own (out of my head as always).

So, to explain the paper, it's the for fun survey that I gave this semester for my final. I've been grading exams like crazy, but these make it all worth it. This one is from a cheerleader, but I have to admire how well she's able to take such a ridiculous question and give it such an honest answer. This is brilliant in my opinion!

P.S. Yeah, I really did ask my classes this...and I know they think I'm crazy. But the point is FUN!!! Only one more day and then I'm into summer mode! I have to work until 8:30 tomorrow night so I don't have to come in on Saturday. Then Monday's graduation, I'm working line-up and fully plan on tearing like a big baby as I usher my students to their future! Then the week starts my need to get full on working out, and working on the sequential project/mini series! Plus, there's plans to go swimming at my friend Matt's pool, which he recently cleaned. Good times, good plans...much better than last year where I avoided the light of day...

Post 384

Did a tattoo design for a friend, the mock-up is above, though he'll be getting it in black along his ribs. Also, I've got my new Campus 2's as the crown jewel of the collection! They're black velour/suede...rockin' right??!! I've got a really amazing outfit planned for tomorrow! I think the kids will go crazy!

My idea behind going all out on dressing up this week is two-fold in reasoning: 1)I'm proud because of all the work I've done this year, I mean, I'm down 16 pants sizes since September. 2)I'm showing I'm putting the time into appearance while other people (who shall remain nameless) are drifting as the final week closes out. I'm sending them the message that, "I'm not giving up on you even though you're graduating, so give me these last few days of effort!"

So far the plan is working...I'm going to be wearing the sport-coats more next year I think. Ask me in August!!!

BTW, if I had to color this...or even flat this...I'd want to die about 4 hours in...seriously, it's insanely gorgeous...but they might as well leave it in black and white. I mean, broken edges of lines, you can't exactly use a flatting plug-in to even attempt this, it would make Photoshop CS2 or 3 go to a screen that just says "I give up!!!!" There's really no way that they're going to pay enough for a colorist to do this justice...or the colorist is just THAT devoted. I know that I'd just quit and move on to the next project. Sorry, that's just my view on this. It's too pretty...we don't have the technology to make this viable for a monthly.

Post 383

Some more cards to trade with my students! The Dhalsim was funny because that's what I saw when I wiped away the shaving cream! Sometimes that's what happens, I'll see shapes in these, so I'll just respond to the nature of the card.

Post 382

I was searching through my old files, and found this little gem, from sometime early last year for an outlandish project (even for MY standards) that just never came to be. 'Beefcakes of the Civil War', an idea I threw out as a joke, but gathered stem for a while. It involved flex battles, and an epic arm-wrestling tournament/battle that was a long continuous shot much like in Nextwave, also a steam-powered mechanized flex-bot to fight against the Union...yeah, I even think I'm weird sometimes...

Maybe one day it'll happen. I just need the right motivation, and somebody to flesh it out better. I have all these ideas, but little to no motivation to write for myself. Lots of artists want to be that 'writer/artist' combo. I'm just an artist. It's not like I can't write, it's just that writing so many papers in college really killed the fun of writing for me. I'd be good at pitching, or if I was writing on a sitcom I'd do great, but for some reason with comics it's different for me.

Post 381

Did the shaving cream technique for the trading cards. Gave the octopus to a friend, and traded the Milo Garrett for a Pokemon card a student made...it was awesome, so totally fair trade!

Post 380

So, don't jump the gun on this statement, by that I mean KEEP CHECKING!!! I'm going to be easing up on the everyday update as summer begins and I start into the sequential schedule. I'm pretty sure that Benito will be happy that I'll be working on the book and that it will take priority over my blog (heh)!

Not to say that you won't be seeing daily updates, I mean, even when I'm slacking I'm updating more than the 25 blogs I follow on Google Reader...and that's not boasting, I've been beating them 5-1 for about 6 weeks running!!! All I'm saying is that you don't know when I'll be updating, so keep checking regularly!!!

Anyway, I'm feeling really good, much better than the beginning of the week, for a lot of reasons. Primarily, my students, they make me laugh all day, and I make them laugh through sarcasm and limericks...no, not the second part, but through situational humor and artistic experimentation. I think of my classroom as one of two things: 1)an art lab for investigation into materials and process, or 2)an art dojo, where we sweep the leg, not because we have to in order to win, but because it's funnier...and because that 'LaRusso' learned the fundamentals in like a week, and had to use a trick move for wins! (my kids understand my logic on this)

Post 379

Prep-work. I'm almost done with the school year, so as soon as I get home now I'm getting stuff ready for my sequential work. I'm going to have a far more eventful summer than last. Last one I just kind of sat and made my sketchbook...look how well that did for me...

This summer is set for travel (Heroes, and a roadtrip), I have an actual project, I'll be exercising nearly every day, I'm supposed to be teaching one of my friends photoshop and they may be my apprentice for a while, and an actual social life. So brace yo' sef' summer, I'm lookin' for ya'!!!

Post 378

As my students are finishing their projects at different paces (all major projects are due tomorrow), I'm having them create artist trading cards/sketch cards. I'm not keeping any of mine, I'm trading them all with my students, it's selfish for me, I just want an excuse to have some of their work! My Art II's rock! So far the popular request in 4th period is "guys with afros." They're even putting stats on the back of the cards...old school Marvel card style...how cool is that?!

I'll tell you, this has been a week where they have those things where they have the "my favorite teacher" things in the paper. I wasn't listed on any of the things, but I don't feel bad, because I had about 20 students who were either in my class in the past, or some that never even were stop by just to talk, or get advice. Some ran in during my demo for artist trading cards, and I was able to include them in the discussion! I'll miss my senior students though!!! But I have such cool students. Too bad I can't follow my Drawing II's and teach Drawing III for them! Oh well, they at least know that I'm always there for them.

Sorry to the casual reader, I'm like a proud older sibling to see them all growing up into awesome people and artists!

Post 377

Random sketch. Things are crazy right now, but they're looking better at least!

Got a room for Heroes convention, so now all I need to take care of is getting a 3-day ticket. I'll be walking around talking to folks since I don't want to pay for a table. At least I can finally get to just talk to friends, and this is definitely the convention to do that at!

Post 376

Another day, another dollar. 7 1/2 days left of school for the year, and I'm ready for summer, but I'll miss my classes this semester. There are a bunch of my favorite students graduating, and I am going to my first graduation for my students. Emotionally it's already hitting me.

Post 375

Here are some pages from Egg#2 . My new buddy Eric Skillman wrote AND colored AND lettered these pages. I'll tell you, recently I don't really accept projects with people who contact me out of the blue, but this was totally different, I'd seen Eric's work with one of the people younger than me who's insanely talented: Connor Willumsen. Egg #1 is available here BTW! Eric is a crazy talented designer himself (works for Criterion), and he brought me a script that fulfilled one of my fantasies, to do a story in the same vein as the Ride. I'm not completely sure when it's coming out, but he will have some ashcan copies at MoCCA next month, so if you're there, you should stop by and check it out, pick up a copy!

This was an extremely fulfilling collaboration, ESPECIALLY seeing someone do some things I haven't seen color wise with my work. I'm currently studying these to really take my own colors to the next level!

Either way, have a happy Memorial Day if you have off, and tell me what you think about the pages!

P.S. if some text doesn't make sense, or there is a blank, it's because I edited some choice content for the post! Young eyes view this page too...and should be working on their altered books for that matter!

Post 374

Did this in the Moleskine. My mom (who's also a teacher) had shown me this technique where you use shaving cream and food coloring to get this insane marbeling technique. You can put the shaving cream (use an ultra foamy kind like barbasol) on a flat surface, and use a spatula to smooth it out. Then you drop some food coloring on top of it, and use a toothpick to move it round in the desired pattern. Push the paper down on top lightly, and when you bring it up, use the spatula to remove the shaving cream...instant marbel effect! Then you can use the spatula to reapply and remove the leftover foam to fill in empty areas. Let it dry a bit, and it's good to use!

I'll tell you, there is a slick patina to the paper that ends up making the use of prismacolor (which I used in this case) to apply SUPER SMOOTH!!! It's insane, blending takes no effort, and white shows up really well. Ah, the fun of simple non-art materials to create fine-art!!!

Post 373

I have to tell you, I've never thought I'd utter these words in my life, much less type them out (in the past I would have been a hypocrite): The most enjoyable, care free, least complicated part of my life is when I'm exercising! I exercise 6 days a week now. It's just me, my thoughts, and my music for an hour or so. I solve my problems for the day, let go of any stress I have, and I don't even have to think about anything if I don't want to. I'm out there because I want to, and not because I have to now. Especially with how complicated things have been with people recently, it's a time to just get back to basics and not have to worry about feelings...except feeling awesome!!! I'm seeing a lot more change from day to day, instead of month to month, like when I first started. I'll tell you, people call me crazy for waking up at 5 a.m. every morning, but it's totally worth it! I'm even doing this over the summer when I have off.

Oh, and the sketches. That's because Cory requested it. Invincigal is now my second favorite lady to draw in comics, right after Batgirl!!! Seriously though, I want to see her in the pages of Invincible. Otherwise I'll make a fan comic and pester Kirkman with it as a means of encouraging him to do one! She's insanely fun to draw. Cory does some of my favorite costume designs ever because there are a lot of superhero costumes that are so bulky or hard to remember, his are simple, efficient, and more than that iconic! Isn't that all you need in a costume?!? I e-mailed a bunch of pin-ups from my friends and I of Invincible this past week to Kirkman, so here's hoping that they didn't get lost in the e-mail shuffle. My friends are anxious to hear back!

Post 372

So, upon Craig's suggestion, I decided to re-examine my style a bit. What do you think Craig, is this along the lines of what you were thinking??? ;)

Post 371

Gah, I always promised myself I would try my best to avoid typos in my first interview...but I caught a blaring one...'mulit' instead of 'multi' when talking about the dinosaur I drew...ugh!!!

Also, I just wanted to address something a few people had e-mailed me about. They had told me 'sorry for the negative comments you got.' First off, the ones they were talking about weren't that negative, it just isn't what those folks are into. I personally see them all as 'positive'! In the fine art world, the key nowadays isn't as much about is this the most beautiful, or is it the most popular, but can it illicit a strong emotional response? If that's the case, then I'm doing well, I've always known the styles that I'm drawn to are very polarizing in terms of public opinion. If anything, at least I'm being genuine about my art. I could ape any style I wanted to, but this is what feels right to me, what feels true. You've seen I can do realism, but would I want to do a full book of that? Nope!!! At least not right now in my life, that's not what I'm meant for at this time. Public opinion is what it is, and publicity is all great publicity no matter what. You just have to use it as momentum to propel yourself to the next assignment, and continue creating!!!

Today feels like a Friday already, what's the deal with that?!?!

Post 370-An emotional rollercoaster...

Today you're getting a double post!! Why? Because that thing I mentioned finally happened, I had my first big interview thanks to Chris Arrant over at Newsarama!!!!!!

It's actually been a while since I did the interview, so I can't remember what all I said...hopefully all good!

I'll tell you, this has been easily the most emotionally charged day I've had in many years, going from something amazingly awesome like this, to a friend moving out of the blue, having a big group 'tears of joy' moment when one of my classes told me they'll miss my class and we all started getting nostalgic! A lot of other major revelations or equally intense moments happened today.

It's all good though, part of the ongoing story! So please check out the article, and welcome to anybody that is new to my work that is checking it out for the first time. Also, thank you to everyone who has already been coming here. You always know that I'm available for answering questions you have!

Post 369

Post 368

It's funny, after going through the craziness of last week and passing with flying colors, any lesser degree of craziness just feels like a tickle! At this point, goal one is fun!

I'm looking forward to this weekend, going to see a bunch of movies. I'd like to see Star Trek again, taking my parents to see Night at the Museum 2, and then probably going with my brother to see Terminator. It'll be nice to have the 3 days and shorter work week...bonus!!!

Also, somebody e-mailed me about my last comment on Twitter, yeah, I meant it!!! Twitter was too tough for me to stomach. It can be used well, and some people use it REALLY well! I still read some people's updates, like Craig's, or David Atchison's. Those guys put in cool info that is really thoughtful and interesting, like art links, quotes, and movie updates. But for the most part I was missing the idea of an 'us' mentality, any form of reciprocation. Twitter is 'me me me', and with things like my blog, I try and give tips and insight on the artistic medium, as well as updates on things (which is usually directly tied to some form of my artistic production). But taking out the other stuff, the real interaction (people can't reply to yours if they don't follow you, really?!?!?!) then what's the point for me? I like my blog, and I might start updating Facebook more again, but I'd rather spend the time living life, or making more art than telling people about how "I found a new pillowcase, how cool is that?" or "look at what magical spice rub I put on my bbq?" or " I eat at THIS restaurant, how cool does THAT make me?!?!" All one's I've seen, and I don't want to let myself get even close to that annoying.

So yeah, still here for the long haul if you're still here with me!

Post 367

A new week begins, hopefully this one will be better than last week!

Post 366

Getting back into the swing of getting to do some actually good drawings! BTW, the batgirl pose is an appropriation, aka, I borrowed the pose from Cory Walker, I just wanted to remember it because of it's awesomeness. It's not a swipe if you admit it!