Category: Art

Art

Posters n’ Projects

Hey everyone! Sorry things have been a little quiet around here. I’ve been holding myself to a page-a-day schedule for the past three weeks for my thesis, which is shaping up to be around 30 pages altogether. Really excited to get that posted on here, but until I make it that far I’ll be posting oddball illustrations and strips to keep you entertained.

First up is a poster I recently designed for the Portland Underground Exchange — a dance event put on by the awesome folks at Barefoot Blues! If you’re local and interested in spending an incredible weekend with the best dancers and live acts in the Pacific Northwest, I recommend that you check it out. The theme I was given to work with was “dancing trees”, which is quite literally what you see below.

This was my first foray into digital coloring and I felt like a big flaily clumsy baby about it, but it was a lot of fun and I’m keen to start doing it more often. Maybe a daily sketch project or something. WHO KNOWS.

Check back tomorrow for more filler art!

Art, Main, News

More Watercolorin’ (and a Tumblr!)

Some more watercolor doodles! I can’t seem to stop myself these days.

Aaaand a comic. Because I can’t resist and GOD. DAMN. the wind was cold yesterday.

Also: I got a Tumblr because it seemed like a smart move. You can check it out over here. I’ll probably post more silly doodles there in the future.

Too busy for more blogging, but keep yer eyes open for more illustration & comics later this week!

Art, Main

Dr. Sketchy’s Sketchdump! (Plus some other nonsense)

Last night I finally made it out to a Dr. Sketchy’s meeting in Portland and boy howdy am I glad I did. Awesome people, sweet prizes (lascivious burlesque paper doll book, anyone?), good drinks, and a fabulous model. What more can a girl ask for? I spent the night mostly challenging myself to bust out some quick watercolor renderings for the 5-10 minute poses, then did a few inky things later on.

20 minute excuse to draw a big ol’ dragon.

And my response to the “Make this pose into the best noir poster you can manage in 20 minutes” challenge. This was a blast, although I’m really not a fan of inking lettering in a timed environment. Waaay too much stress. Also ran my pen out of ink in the process of making it atmospheric enough.

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When not drawing scantily clad babes in sketchy bars, I’ve also been doing some rendering and style experiments for an upcoming project. Hence quick comics about footwear!

Also been really into the way Aaron Diaz renders faces, so I’m trying that out for a while with the G nibs I got for Christmas. Those things are nifty!

Who is this dapper fellow? What is he so excited about? We may never know.

Art, Main

My Grandmother’s Beast (Part 1)

First off, happy festive season to all you blog-following types. It’s been a sunny one down here in California, but soon enough I’ll be back in the Pacific Northwest slogging away at the drawing board.

In the meantime, I’ve been remiss about getting these files optimized for the web, but here, at last, is my most recent project! This was a challenging story to tackle, since it deals with my grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s. I wanted to attempt a full-color rendering technique and practice my watercolor skills (still woefully lacking) while sticking to a relatively simple page layout. I believe the result is more illustrated story than comic, but it was a learning experience nonetheless. I’ll post the story in four updates of a few pages each, since they’re so minimal. Here’s the first!

Art, Main, News

The Final Fenton

And here we have it: the dramatic conclusion to Fenton’s 4-page spotlight.

And that’s that! Since this comic was completed in a rapid dash for a deadline there’s still a lot more painting to be done to bring it up to snuff, so I may update these images sometime in the future with cleaner meaner versions. But for now, in typical style, my next comic will probably be about something completely unrelated to this! Get ready for excitement and…I don’t know. Manatees? You tell me.

In the department of exciting news, I have a piece in the upcoming Top Secrets-themed issue of Portland’s own Stumptown Underground! This is my first anthology inclusion so I’m extra thrilled and would love to see your grinning faces at the release party this Friday. The shin-dig goes down at In Other Words (14 NE Killingsworth St.) this Friday from 7-9pm. Hope to see you all there!

Art, Main

Roger Fenton vs. The Crimean War

To whet everyone’s appetites, here’s the first page of a short comic I just finished about Roger Fenton’s photographic exploits during the Crimean War. The comic is partly a response to this piece in the NYT, which discusses In the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Fenton’s most famous shot. This was some wild speculation about where the image came from with a healthy dose of artistic experimentation thrown in. I’m getting more and more excited about watercolors these days, and wish I’d had more time to tackle painting this, but I may still go back and add some more detail. The inking was all done with a fountain pen in a sketchier style than I generally go for. Any thoughts on the difference greatly appreciated. I’ll post another page tomorrow. Enjoy!