Blowing Up The Internet With a Sketch Bomb

Hey! I've had a lot of free time over the holidays, so here's a bunch of random watercolor sketches-

BOOM!

Happy Whatever!

Schnauzer Sketches

I will never get tired of drawing schnauzers. And Washaway is still updating every Monday and Friday.

 

You Will Fail 80% of the Time

First- Links! New comic up at the website. It'll be updating again every Monday and Friday until I run out of

new pages.

Second the disclaimer- I am not 100% sure I'm allowed to blog about this. Or, even talk about it. I did email some other people involved in the project, waited two weeks (which is like, a year in internet time) and when there were no responses, decided to just go for it. Send me a "cease and desist" if it's really a problem.

And now an explanation of the title- Someone (I think it may have been James Sturm?) told me early on in my career that 80% of the projects you try for aren't going to go anywhere. And most of the time, it's not anyone's fault. Projects have a way of dissolving. So you have to try a lot.

This is a story about some cartoonists and one of those projects, Illegal Aliens!

Back in like, 2006-2007, when the first class of CCS was deep into the thesis panic, the opportunity came up to create a dvd insert comic for a movie. This was the second comic of that kind that CCSers had worked on, the first was for the Last Broadcast dvd release, but because of where my trip home had fallen that year, I was only nominally involved in the project- think I may have helped scan a few pages, but that was it. This time I was excited to be involved from the beginning, and was even part of a small group of students who drove over to Edgewood (the movie's studio) in Rutland VT to see a rough cut of the film. And...yeah, it was bad movie. But fun bad, so bad it's almost good. I mean, it starred Anna Nicole Smith and Chyna, so our expectations weren't that high.

So, notes in hand, we all put aside our theses (thesises?) for a few months and got to work on the comic! A first draft was completed pretty quickly, sent off to Edgewood, and...then we waited. And waited. And waited and waited. My specific job on this project was acting as the liason between Edgewood and the CCS team, so I was calling and emailing them weekly with no response. When I finally did hear back, it was to let us know that all work was on hold due to the death of the film's Associate Producer...it took a few minutes for things to click. Anna Nicole Smith and her son were the Associate Producers. Living in a small town in rural Vermont, holed up in the studio trying to finish a thesis and (what was for most of us) the first paying comics job of our careers, we'd missed the news.

And everything fell apart from there- both for us and the movie.





This was the only image I felt comfortable posting, it's a rejected cover design I did for the Illegal Aliens comic. All the originals are gone, and I'm pretty sure that any comics pages are property of Edgewood.

And now there's a documentary about it! That's really the whole reason behind this post. I didn't make it to the Seattle showing, but I have to wonder if there was any mention of the comics project or CCS involvement...anyone heard anything?

Comics!

Assuming I pushed all the right buttons, there will be new comics on the website starting...NOW! www.tragicrelief.com

Or maybe I'm just afraid of the future?

Hey! I drew this during some downtime at work a few weeks ago, then didn't post it because I was afraid of getting comments. Then I remembered that I almost never get comments so...there ya go. Really, I'm just afraid of everything all the time.

New Paintings

There are so many new watercolors up in the store. You have no idea.

Short Run 2012

Hey! Short Run was last weekend. I can't remember why I stopped doing post-convention write ups...Probably because I tend to be complainy. But no major complaints here!

It was a really good show, sold a lot of books, had a lovely tablemate, saw a lot of friends and reminded them that I totally live here now, and made it through the weekend without breaking anything.

Minor complaints? It's had to get round and see other exhibitors with a one-day show, and things were a little tight behind the table. I maybe have touched Theo Ellsworth's butt. I promise it was an accident.

Hey look, sketches!

 

Oh yeah, and no one seemed to know where the after party was. But that's okay, I did have a lot of awesome comics and zines to read. Next year, wanna meet up for milkshakes at Dicks in Queen Anne? It's closer.

Sunday after the show I headed to the Olympics with fellow CCSer and Only Skin cartoonist Sean Ford. It was beautiful gray, foggy and very Western Washington.

Let's all do it again next year!

Short Run this Saturday!

Hey! I'll be at the Short Run festival on Saturday. You should come because it's free, and I'll have a new mini that I'll be staying up all night to put together due to a lack of time management skills.

So far it just looks like this. 

Find me at table 17 with Amber Nelson, who totally just got a shout out in The Stanger as one of "the funnest names in zines and literary events right now". It's true!

You might start to see me here more often

Comic Tools- Circle Cutter!

Think I've mentioned this before, but I live near a little Japanese imports dollar store (Diaso!) that often has random art and mini comics making supplies- cheap brush and sketch pens, sumi ink and brushes, etc. AND I've wanted a circle cutter for a while now, for fancier mini comics covers, but thanks to the scrapbookers have never been able to find one under $30. THEN I saw this little beauty at Diaso-

Ha! Cutting holes in holes in things is too much fun. I plan to have a new mini ready for Short Run in a few weeks, and you can bet I'm gonna find a way to use this on the cover!

Halloween Mix

There's this thing I've come to call creative procrastination, where there's a project I really need to work on, but I don't feel like it for whatever reason (my brushes aren't behaving, I've come to hate the main character, lost my lettering guide again, etc.) so instead I invent some new and unimportant project that NEEDS to be done first.

This week, it was making a Halloween Mixed CD.

The self-imposed rule: songs had to already be in my iTunes library (no downloading new music or ripping things from other cds. Ended up with about 30 songs that vaguely fit the theme, narrowed it down to 20:

 

So...that was fun! Now, back to work.

Pictures of Other People

 

I won't be posting images to Flickr anymore because no one seems to use it. I get more traffic on my LiveJournal thank I do on Flickr (and yes, I know I'm the last person left on LJ. Going down with the ship). Because I've stopped giving them money, Flickr is only showing my most recent 200 images, so a lot of old stuff like Sir Christopher or 100+ watercolors are no long available. I'll work on adding them to my regular website some day. 

SPEAKING OF WATERCOLORS- sometimes people pay me to paint stuff. I'm usually not together enough to scan a copy before getting it in the mail, BUT, sometimes they're happy enough with the work to send photos-

 

Brad Weber sent me this photo of the watercolor I did of his adorable Kidzilla, now framed. Children are the most popular requests, like this young Robin I did around this time last year.

 

But sometimes I get to do a family portrait, which is always fun. Although, I don't think I'm much good at animals. If you're looking for a Pet Portrait artist, I can recommend some much better options. 

And sometimes the requests are a little out there. But seriously, I will draw you just about anything.

Pumpkin Latte Reviews

It took a lot of pumpkin lattes to get me through SPX. When I told someone about this, their first question was why didn't I review some independent coffee shops, too. The answer is because they don't serve pumpkin lattes, and would sneer SO HARD if I even asked for one. SO HARD.

SPX 2012

Frakes on a Plane!

Sorry for the subject heading but...it's my only joke. 

Hey! I'm flying to Maryland in less than 24 hours for the Small Press Expo! Which means I have to get on a plane...which means I should probably pack...crap.

For those who've missed the memo, I'll be at table J3 with Jon Chad and Laura Terry, and I'll have a new mini called "Here at The End of all Things" that was written by Sean T. Collins. Stuff will happen!

Expect this will happen a lot:

Hope to see you there! Bring money!

Cartoonist at the Theater

What is it people usually put at the top of these kind of posts- Trigger warning? NSFW? Spoiler alert?

 Anyway, I went to see an all-woman production of Titus Andronicus last night by the Upstart Crow Collective (I do love a good tragedy)! And it's a very violent, bloody play where a lot of awful things happen, so I did some bloody and awful in-the-dark sketches during the show, then went came home and added a bit of color.

Amy Thone as Titus

I've only seen one other production of Titus, and that was at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival...ten years ago? I went as part of a college class, and most of my fellow students decided to skip the show because it was "Shakespeare's worst play".  Unfortunate for them it was the best production we saw that week. Yes, the play is over-the-top, full of really graphic violence and just plain weird at times, but that's what good entertainment is all about!

Ki Gottberg as Tamara

It's also a play that is...not very nice to women. I mean, pretty much EVERYONE dies, but the ladies get some especially nasty treatment, which made it interesting to see it performed by an all-woman cast. But, I forgot about the gender of the actors pretty quickly- they were all amazing performers who were completely suited for their roles. Talking with friends after the show, we all agreed that Nike Imoru as Aaron was our favorite, and I don't think I did a very good job capturing just how strong and tense her movements were.

Nike Imoru as Aaron

The rape of Lavinia scene was...really graphic. And uncomfortable. 

I remember the last production I saw using a lot of red scarves instead of blood, the rest of the sets and costumes were grayish so the color was shocking, but still pretty. This production wasn't pretty- and it shouldn't be. What happens to the character is disgusting and violent and should be presented in that way. In that sense, they did a good job.

Brenda Joyner as Lavinia

 Highly recommend the show, go see it! ...if you can stomach it (cannibalism reference)

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/259759
http://upstartcrowcollective.blogspot.com/

Other "Comics at the Theater" posts:
Wizard of Oz pt1 and pt2
Eurydice
Evita

See you at SPX 2012!

Hey, Rob over at Panel Patter thinks you should pick up a copy of Island Brat at SPX (September 15-16th in Bethesda MD), and who am I to argue? Speaking of which-

 I'll be at table J3 at SPX 2012, along with Jon Chad and Laura Terry for the 3rd year in a row. It's right near the entrance, you can't miss us. If you go to the show and say you can't find our table, we know you're lying.

Sketchbook Follies

Happy Friday, Everyone! Here's some sketches. 

Earlier this week I had to attend a 4-hour training session for The Day Job. It was boring and repetitive (central message- Everything is confidential! You are being watched! Seriously, don't tell anyone!) Took notes in my sketchbook to keep awake. 

In that same sketchbook, I found an old doodle from almost a year ago, when I flew home from Vermont for a family reunion. I'd bought the plane ticket before I decided to move back to Seattle, hence the two cross-county trips in less than a month.

For the record, I've started working on Basket Ogress again, and hope to have a new chapter finished by Short Run. Realized recently that I've been working on this book since 2009...I can't think of anything else I've stuck with so long.

And if you don't like any of that, here's some bunnies I saw in the park. 

:)