I just found out that I get to draw a 'Planet Of The Apes' story for Boom Studios! These sketches were what I submitted as a simple character test along with some of my sequential work. The extra-cool part is that I get to work with Jeff Parker again; he makes comics fun again and it's a huge honor to collaborate with him.
In other news I've received the first set of the 'Tragedy Series' charms which includes Sheriff Puppy and Snuggle Cub. They are roughly an inch and a half across and come with a jump ring and a lanyard and I'll make them available at Emerald City and soon thereafter on the etsy store
I hope those of you within driving distance of Seattle will come see me in section 222 this upcoming weekend; we can talk about comics, why everyone but me seems to dislike the awesome John Carter movie and anything else that strikes your fancy.
My friend Michelle Alba and I don't talk as much as I'd like. I want to share all kinds of things I know she would like and I find her so entertaining that it seems a shame to have a short conversation with her. The result of this is that I don't call her because I know the exchange should be long and detail rich to make up for the interval since our last connection. My relationship to this blog can be very similar.
I'll keep this short and sweet and, hopefully, we all still get a bit of something worth having.
Here are the sketch cards I'm sending out with the most recent order of Tragedy Series prints
In one of my recent posts I explained how I generate an idea for the 'tragedy series' and what sort of reference I like to have as I'm drawing. Some of my readers have asked what artistic implements I use so here is an exhaustively detailed breakdown of my day to day drawing arsenal.
Here you can see my drawing tools in their travel case and a few other things that I use on a regular basis for almost all my jobs.
I stole this diagram idea from my studio-mate Dustin Weaver
A. Four of my Staedtler lead holders and a Pentel detail pencil.
All of them contain regular H leads. I don't get too fancy when it comes to pencils because I like to be able to get my materials easily.
B. My corrective tools.
I use Uniball 'Signo' white gel pens (they seem to be waterproof?) for little white-out lines and some highlights and Papermate 'tuff Stuff' Eraser Sticks for fine line erasing. It is super helpful to be able to get in with the erasing equivalent of a scalpel
C. Microns and the remainder of a Staedtler eraser.
I use a size 8 for Tragedy Series lines because I didn't want to get too detail heavy. Most of the time I use four sizes: 01, 03, 05 and 08. It can be very easy to get fussy about line weight and buy a bunch of pens but I don't find a need for much beyond those so I feel comfortable limiting my tools out of pragmatism.
The eraser is good for big areas and broad strokes when tidying up originals. You can see me erasing in the video at the bottom of this post before I do my large black areas and/or toning.
D. One Pentel detail pencil, 2 Pentel pocket brushes and 1 Pentel FRH water brush.
The pencil is just redundancy. The brush pens are really fantastic tools. I use them every day. I refill them with Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph Ultradraw Waterproof Ink. You can fill them with the little refill cartriges that Pentel makes, which are great too, but I prefer to use ultradraw because I like the black it makes while being both cheaper and more environmentally conscionable than buying a bunch of little plastic capsules that require international shipping.
Disassembled to show the capsule filled with Ultradraw
The Gray-tone 'Lightsaber' brush pen. It is awesome. Another studio-mate and friend, Ron Chan, gave it to me a long time ago and for a long time it was filled with pure ultradraw. One day I heard fellow Periscoper Jonathan Case say to some interns that 'you need to keep your waterbrushes wet or you'll ruin them.' This prompted me to fill my waterbrush with some water instead of ink because I hadn't been able to get to the art store. Kablamo. I had stumbled upon a fantastic tool that has been in constant use ever since. I only have the one and it is perfectly broken in. If I lost it or didn't have it, Tragedy Series would be in big trouble.
It looks like a lightsaber to me so I nicknamed it as such.
E. 2 Pentel Stylo pens, A Backup Waterbrush and a Utrecht sable hair Paintbrush.
I don't use the Stylos for my T.S. but they are a great bridge between a micron and a brush line. It has a flexible tip that can vary the line width. The backup brush is being broken in because I need it to be an alternative to the old gray lightsaber.The sable gets used for little gouache paintings, watercolor and occasional touch-ups
F.G.H. Grey Prismacolor markers and a Prismacolor white color pencil.
I used to use these all the time and feel guilty about environmental impact (not to mention how short lived or expensive they are.) Inow use them on rare occasions for sketch cards, con sketches and the occasional catch-all drawing project. I use the white prismacolor color pencil for highlights and corrections on semi rough surfaces like gouache paintings or you soften the edges of greys in more deatil oriented drawings. It is a great little option to have.
I. One of my 3 Beloved 'C-Thru' Rulers.
If you draw and you don't yet have one of these then you need to stop reading this and go buy one right now. It is the most useful item I own. There are countless uses for this thing. You will be really glad you got it. The name on it comes from Bern helmets. I just cut out the 'R' and add them to the front end of each ruler so they don't get accidentally absorbed by any of my studio friends.
J. Masking tape.
I use this stuff all the time to hold drawings and reference materials in place.
K. Yellow Crayola crayon.
I use this to fill in the number of the tragedy I'm doing for the day, on a chart I made, so I don't repeat the numbers or Sadness Reprieve letters.
L. Canson 300 series bristol board.
Studio-mate-mentor-pal Steve Lieber buys this stuff in bulk and the rest of us buy from him. A page costs 50 cents or so and it is well worth it. I used to work on typing paper because I was poor and ridiculous.
Next time will be shorter and filled with drawings. Hooray!
Tragedy series and a veritable cornucopia of commercial work have kept me very busy. This is mostly great yet, also, a bit overwhelming in other ways. In the next few months I'm only focusing on a project for Oni Press written by Paul Tobin and the Tragedy Series. Everything else has to wait!
My friends at the studio, in response to the very kind reception my daily strip has received, have prompted me to start an Etsy store mostly focused on Tragedy Series and it has been doing very well; thank you to those of you who have purchased prints! Below is a host of sketch cards that I sent out with those first orders as a bonus to show my appreciation for my initial customers' patience with my inexperience in E-commerce and shipping logistics.
More work including prints of images seen on this blog and tee-shirts are coming soon to the Ety Store.
Here is an hour-long study of poor Lindsey who was feeling sick and watching movies. She was wearing a slowly fading cosmetic-cream facial mask and doing crosswords part of the time. I love her and I really enjoy having her sit because she is patient and, to my eyes, very pretty.
This was done with a limited palette and some clunky brushes but I like studies (even more sometimes) when I know they are done under less than ideal conditions. This reminded me that I miss painting and that doing it from life is where it is most exciting for me.
I thought it might be fun to do a walk through of how I make my posts for the tumblr I started in recently. Hopefully this won't ruin your enjoyment (if you do enjoy them- I shouldn't assume) of the 'tragedy series.' It would be a shame to ruin it for you like when I found out that Rivendell is a bunch of foam and Christmas lights and now I can't stop seeing that.
If you want to preserve your neutrality on their development and execution you should stop reading now!
Number 222 is a good example of how these little notions I get can become a thing I was proud and surprised that I made. First I try to think of a subject I haven't done yet that falls within the parameters I've set for myself (that I will spell out more clearly in a bit.) As I progress it gets a bit harder but generally it can prompt something unexpected, since I'm trying actively to avoid clear repetition.
In this specific instance I had thought of a news story Lindsey and I saw while we were in Lincoln city, for our anniversary, about a safari park here in Oregon where they have lions that like to play tug of war. That image is enough in and of itself! once I have a self evidently odd or funny situation then I try and compound that comedy if possible. In this case I tried to imagine what sort of opponent would be funny. It occurred to me that a group of kids in a scout troop might do but they had to be capable or else it would be too close to something genuinely sad (the first of the tenents I try to uphold; No genuine tragedy) At that point I write it down to be addressed later.
I generally do a little drawing (like the image of #57 seen above) if I can't fully imagine it but in this case I had it pretty firmly in mind. It is at this point that I will do an image search to find good refrence that coincides with what I have sketched. I lucked out and found these two images:
Even though I had the elements of the final image, the phrasing wasn't quite there yet though and I went through several iterations of what would work best. I often ask Steve Lieber for advice; this questioning runs the gamut from 'should I buy a house?' to 'what sort of pen do you use to ink nostrils?' He is also a super funny guy who gets how to translate humor into drawings because he has studied it extensively for his own development so I go to him first for comedy.
I had written out a bit about 'ragamuffins' challenging a hungry lion to tug o' war but that seemed too plain. It struck me that a 'rematch' would be funny but it didn't quite fit yet. Steve said "Rematch is funnier if there is evidence of the previous encounter...make some of them amputees." I was hesitant to go there but the more I thought of it the more I realized that he was right about the necessity for notes from the first lion vs. kid showdown. I put a few shoes and scraps around the lion and Steve added the cherry on top the sundae by suggesting that I wrap the ragamuffins in bandages and give a few of them ragged clothes. He was so right! Once I did it the whole thing came together and I got this:
There you go. Thanks for sticking with me through that description. Also much gratitude to all of you out there who support my tumblr and read this blog. I am a lucky guy.
I love doing observational drawings of people who aren't holding still. It is almost always difficult but conversely enjoyable when you get things right. I thought I might share a few them with you:
My dear friend Scott Barkan was in town for a few days on tour with Alaskan songsmith Marian Call and I was able to capture them over the course of two delightful sets.
Lindsey's family had a get together this last weekend. Part of her family lives in Idaho and it is a rare treat to see them. I tried to capture as much as I could. For the most part this is pieced together from several configurations as people traded chairs and went in and out to get food and mind adorable babies.
I was asked by friend Chris to draw his band 'The Wishermen' at Jimmy Mak's last night. From left to right: Adam Schwietert on Alto, Special Guest Elysia Strauss on Tenor, Cyrus Nabipoor on Trumpet, Grant Sayler on Guitar, Chris Friesen on Bass and Barra Brown on Drums
. I also started a new tumblr that you can check out for yourself here:
It covers all manor of absurd silliness and I post once a day. Tell your friends and family if they are the sort of people who enjoy vaguely Victorian schadenfreude.
In other news I've received the first set of the 'Tragedy Series' charms which includes Sheriff Puppy and Snuggle Cub. They are roughly an inch and a half across and come with a jump ring and a lanyard and I'll make them available at Emerald City and soon thereafter on the etsy store
