sarcopterygian

2011-12-05T00:06:00.000-08:00

So I will be slowly abandoning blogger in favor of the tumblr I just created (crawdadswelcome.tumblr.com). This image is the new banner and incidentally will also be the cover for the collection of comics I will be self publishing soon; the world continues to be new and scary and exciting.

Bubo bengalensis

2011-11-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

About two months ago I got hit by a car and was unable to really use my right arm for a month and a half. My right clavicle is still visibly in the wrong place. I've never been big on the "today in my life" style of comics, but in this case I couldn't resist.

For reference I used a book called Understanding Owls, which ended up ruining my life; apparently owls do not like to be petted. This information devastated me, because I spent a giddy twenty minutes flipping through pages of fluffy little owl babies scurrying around with the author's dog, only to find out that you shouldn't pet an owl.

Phyllostomidae

2011-11-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine saw this strip when only the dialogue was filled in (yes, I do all the lettering before I even begin drawing) and said that I should probably just give up now, because the third panel was me peaking. While I certainly would say it's easily the best line of the strip, I like to think I'll still be able to write good shit for many years to come.

Fratercula arctica

2011-10-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

This is one of those stories; I know that at some point I won't have any more like it and I'll have to just rely on my own writing skills. This is a slightly terrifying prospect.

One an unrelated note, puffins are a great subject, but their habitat is a little hard to make interesting (In that regard it's similar to the bear strip). As disgustingly time consuming as it might be, I think I usually prefer a to draw backgrounds of dense foliage.

Frogs

2011-10-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

I wanna try and avoid using photos as inspiration for the thematic content of the strip, but in this case I couldn't help myself. I'd also like to point out that I only used photo reference for the first panel of this strip (which is rare for me). I feel like I am entitled to a certificate that says I'm qualified to draw Snails, Dirt, Frogs, and Leaves.

Sketchbook Miscellany

2011-09-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

Page 2

2011-09-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

I was a little nervous about this one at first but it turned out okay. I referred to a photo from a 1943 National Geographic article entitled "Valiant Russia's Industrial Might". A friend saw the article and remarked "Hey remember when we used to like Russia?"

Moleskin

2011-09-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

I used to have a little orange moleskin knockoff with about 30 greyscale marker drawings in it. At some point during the move back home from college it disappeared. So I bought a new little orange moleskin knockoff which I will hopefully not lose. This is the first drawing I've done in it.

Ursus arctos horribilis

2011-09-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

As stupid as this strip is, I feel like it's what I should show people when they ask what kind of comics I do.

Owlz

2011-09-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

I was starting to sketch out a drawing of a Tibetan girl washing her hair when I realized I was already bored; I decided an owl would be a better option. It wasn't 'til I had finished lettering this that it occurred to me that there were two ways to read the text. So it looks like I've bitterly decided to ignore my sexuality in favor of staying home in favor of drawing Owls, which is way funnier than I my original intentions.

Ceratotherium

2011-09-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Ughh. August was already a slow month. Then I got hit by a car; and with a separated shoulder, drawing has become a little uncomfortable. Hopefully the drawing hasn't suffered too much.

In the second to last panel, I wanted cameron to look maliciously gleeful, but he instead looks kinda inspired and hopeful. Thankfully the last two rhino drawings turned pretty nicely.

Tockus erythrorhynchus

2011-08-16T19:22:00.001-07:00

This is strip number sixty. I'll be playing catchup during the next couple of weeks, so the next ten will probably go somewhat quickly.

2011-08-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

It's about damn time I posted something in the month of August. While the coloring isn't spectacular, I had to post this since I consider it my first real success with my new brush pen. While I don't ever want to switch fully to brush, it's a fun new toy to play with.

2011-07-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

I think that every time an angel lets me think that I'm funny God gives him a purple nurple and a hearty slap across the face. I uh... don't particularly like this strip. It's weird, and I still haven't hurdled my gut revulsion to the word 'tits'.

On a lighter note, this strip couldn't have happened if an atheist friend hadn't once asked me to say non-denominational prayers that a girl he was seeing would let him come on her tits that night.

Saimiri sciureus

2011-07-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

I desperately wish that I could lay claim to the concept of Shaq and the Beanstalk, but Mr. O'niel really did write a kids book in '99. I was filled with glee the first time I saw it on a bookshelf and equally delighted to find the work had other versions of fairy tales. I don't remember any of the others besides Little Red Riding Shaq, but I'm going to pretend it included Snow Shaq and Ali Baba and the Forty Shaqs.

Saswan

2011-07-14T18:15:00.001-07:00

I'm starting to get a little better at coloring with photoshop. I've only just realized how nice it is to have plenty of brushwork to hide behind.

Lasiurus borealis

2011-07-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

This is probably the most self indulgent strip I've written (the text is all pretty much true). Many thanks to Keegan Blackler for gifting me "The Fairest Fowl" which provided me with the photo reference I needed of chickens.

Two quick notes on the third panel: god dammit smoke is such a bitch to draw, and yes, the bat saying 'boom!' instead of the gun is meant to be a reference to Hellboy's habit of doing the same.

Heffalump.

2011-07-05T20:43:00.001-07:00

Morchella

2011-06-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure that I know what this one means. Really. I've probably listened to the Carter III about forty times in the past three months, which I believe more or less constitutes a violent love affair. There are a few spots in my notebook of scripts where I couldn't resist jotting down Lil Wayne lyrics as I heard them. The top of one page has "Im drinkin' hot tea bitch/ feel me" written in all caps and surrounded by hearts.

While it was somewhat unintentional, I like that the one big, overpopulated panel looks like a field guide poster. I like to pretend that someone from like the Audubon Society was drawing this for work but couldn't contain their love for Lil Wayne.

My only fear with this drawing is that people might see the lombardic 'd' in 'widzm' as an 'o'. But, while I've encountered many people who mistake uncial or lombardic d's and t's for o's and c's, I can't ever say I've really ever sympathized with them.

Dior

2011-06-27T20:56:00.001-07:00

Another one from the ol' sketchbooks.

Platycercus venustus

2011-06-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

This is one of those memories that you forget about until adulthood. Then you look back and realize that you were a strange child.

Boids

2011-06-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

Two sketches I did at work a lil' while back. I don't use vertical lettering enough.

2011-06-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

I should probably point out that JFK didn't actually call it 'cuber', but added an r as he elided to a word that started with a vowel. But I can dream, dammit.

Alcedo atthis

2011-06-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

Shan

2011-06-09T12:22:00.001-07:00

I should probably admit that I've been holding out a little bit. There're often drawings in my sketchbook that aren't bad enough to rip out, but for whatever reason, I don't think are good enough to throw on the blog. This is rather stupid of me. I'll try to stop, guys.

I'm not sure if the lettering matches the drawing, but I really like it. It's probably the first time my art nouveau lettering has looked 6o's instead of fin-de-siecle.

2011-06-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

About a week after I wrote this strip I read something where someone referred to attractive girls as 'Confections'. I kind of assumed that I wouldn't be the first person to do that, but I was still a little crestfallen. As much as I like this strip, I feel like I'm just trying to write like Onstad. I can outdraw him any day, but the first panel can't compete with roast beef walking in the house and saying "dogg on a hogg we got much crispy stellas out by the pool ray/ that golden action is so crunchy".

Argus

2011-05-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

I finally figured it out. I'm always annoyed when coworkers keep trying to talk to me while I'm reading. But if I bring a sketchbook and draw I can manage a conversation while still gettin' stuff done. Also, I've been reading a book about peacocks and absolutely had to draw one.

Homo sapiens

2011-05-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

So this is the fiftieth strip I've done, kinda exciting. I struggled a LOT with this drawing. It turned out fine, but I spent an unnecessary amount of time trying to figure out what I was doing with the top half of the picture.

Idiocanthus antrostomus

2011-05-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

So this is actually a pretty old drawing. But I found it stuffed into an old sketchbook, and I kinda like it. I feel like it'd make somebody a pretty good tattoo.

2011-05-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

Rupicola rupicola

2011-05-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

2011-05-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

I stole some more fonts from old parisian posters. I was really glad to find the top one, as I've been fiendin' for fresh art nouveau lettering to use in my weekly strips. Though I did fuck up the spacing, my self-deprecating comment filled the gap rather nicely.

Bugs

2011-05-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

Wee leddel ship.

2011-05-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

It's a sheep. This is what they look like, don't argue with me.

Crocodylus niloticus

2011-05-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

This was one of the weirdest and best dreams I have ever had, though I was pretty frustrated that I woke up before eating those m&ms. But, for some reason the detail that the m&m's were all brown still weirds me out; was that a subconscious aesthetic choice? I'll never know.

I was a little uneasy about turning a bizarre sex dream into a strip, but the whole thing turned out well (I have to admit that I swiped the idea for Napoleonic crocodiles from Maakies). There were about five or six hours of 'what the fuck am I doing' before I finished the drawing for the fourth panel and started giggling. If I could do the strip over again I would pull back the camera to add more little crocodile arms.

Ara ararauna

2011-04-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

So I haven't actually told the story in the above story to that many people, but there's a pretty stern dichotomy between people's reactions. I get the sneaking suspicion that a good deal of the people who don't enjoy (or have) stories like this must've had really healthy, bland relationships with their siblings. Childhood isn't really the same if you aren't coming up with devious little plans to fuck with your family. I'm kinda serious.

I really like the text of the strip, but I'm worried that at some point I won't be able to remember any for funny shit from childhood and I'll have to rely on my writing to be funny. Some of the Macaws didn't look end up looking as polished as I'd like, but the whole strip came together pretty nicely. In retrospect, the third panel would've really tied the strip together if I had a bigger shot with more jungle in the background, but I saw all the open space and just wanted to draw hella birds. My goal in life is to be buried next to Audubon with a big shared obelisk that says 'they drew hella birds' in gigantic roman caps.

2011-04-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

Jest a page from the ol' sketchbook. There was a really beautifully photographed article on Puerto Rico in an old National Geographic so I decided to do some face studies.

2011-04-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

In a book I was recently reading on trilobites the author made a few references to creation "scientists". At first I thought it was kinda shitty to put the word scientists in quotation marks, but after a moments thought realized it was just fine. The creationist timeline kind of ignores a buttload of scientific evidence, and real scientists don't really do that.

That being said, this strip feels a little weak. The first two panels are pretty (panel one may have the best nose I've ever drawn) but the sheer volume of text shoves characters out of their panels.

Crocodylus niloticus

2011-04-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

I need to do more comics in the set way in the past just so I have an excuse to use Fraktur, Batarde and other awesome old typefaces; they look good, and are just way too fun to draw (the w is of course my favorite).

Euryozius bouvieri

2011-04-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

Here's another one'o'them prismacolor drawings. Hopefully there will be many, many more to follow. Drawing with only cool grey markers seems to be a really good exercise; and the results appear rather tidy and finished without an obscene time devotion.

Additionally, I'm now officially peddling my crap on etsy. Right now only this and a few other originals are for sale, but there'll undoubtedly be more to come.

Coenobita clypeatus

2011-04-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

As of yet, this may be my favorite thing I've done in the poo book. Hermit crabs; gotta love'em.

Baeolophus bicolor

2011-04-10T14:49:00.001-07:00

Patriotism

2011-04-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I ran into a janitor who didn't know who fought in the Revolutionary War, which upset me far more than I would've expected. He was already on my shit list for incessantly talking at me during breaks, which I spend reading. He wasn't really trying to have a conversation, he was just babbled.

Then he and another coworker started talking about Civil War battles, and he mentioned Bunker Hill. When I pointed out that Bunker Hill was a battle in the Revolutionary war about ninety years prior, he asked "Well, that one was Americans fightin' Americans too, right?" At this point I began seething inwardly.

Also I'm glad I got the opportunity to use the verb 'Pork' in this strip. Maybe it's just me, but something about that word implies filthiness like no other euphemism.

People

2011-04-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

I decided to go ahead and take the advice of many and make some art just to sell it on etsy. I think that greyscale prismacolors on bristol will probably be a good way to churn out finished looking work at a reasonable pace.

This one turned out okay, but not ideal. I'm extremely frustrated with how washed out it looks on a computer. I don't know if my scanner just blows or what, but a lot of unwanted white got picked up in the drawing and especially so in the yellow background (which is supposed to be a solid canary yellow and not a splotchy goldenrod).

Rhyncocinetes durbanensis

2011-04-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

I feel like I didn't really hafta work for this joke, the face of a parrot fish just is a punchline.

Cheret

2011-03-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago while in Denver I had the pleasure of exploring a little used bookstore called Kilgore. I was delighted when a few window paintings of fish reading books confirmed my suspicion that the store name was a reference to the Vonnegut character Kilgore Trout.

The only book I bought there was called 'Paris 1900; Art of the Poster', which I expected to be about half Mucha, which it wasn't. Once I hurdled my initial chagrin, I began to appreciate the multitude of other artists represented in the book. The greatest of these is easily Jules Cheret, who I will undoubtedly be copying even more in the future.

Canis latrans

2011-03-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

I should always draw animals that live in snowy areas; this strip spent an astoundingly brief time on the drawing board. I really like the joke that the mouse tells, but only in retrospect do I realize that "The Blueberries" should probably be the band that Manilow and White used to be in, not the name of the album they did together. My first idea for this terrible pun was going to have something to do with blueberry pancakes; the camera would eventually zoom in on each 'barry'. I'm glad that I didn't opt for that as it would have been uncomfortably awkward, and that version would probably require color to really begin to make sense.

I don't know I why it took me so long to realize that it's perfectly acceptable to halo out background in order to preserve information on the subjects. There's a lot of old strips that would read much more smoothly had I figured this out earlier.

Vultur gryphus

2011-03-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

I prolly shoulda popped his collar. Maybe some other time.

Braziliano

2011-03-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

Still gettin' familiar with brushpens. Its really hard stopping myself from trying to shade.

Charcarodon carcharias

2011-03-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

2011-03-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

Marker sketches seem to always satisfy. After scanning these, it's fun to drop the saturation and see if the image still makes sense in black and white.

Conraua Goliath

2011-03-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

Frumpus is shown wearing pants. And a belt.

2011-03-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

I really hate drawing people. Its such a pain in the ass trying to get smooth texture and accurate shading. In addition to getting comfortable with human proportion, I should probably steal some shorthand tricks from Alex Raymond and other guys like that.

Die Traurigste Krabbe

2011-03-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

I understand that the apparent sad face sponge crabs have doesn't actually mean anything, but it's phenomenal how incomprehensibly stupid and destitute they manage to look.

Macrotus californicus

2011-03-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

Yet again Cameron the bat rears his ugly little head. I'm secretly hoping that in another five or ten years the word 'porno' will be regarded as a quaint little colloquialism; it seems such a dated and awkward alternative to 'porn'.

Also, I won't be surprised if I'm the only person I know who thinks that 'Wuthering Sluts' is funny. I have a small reputation as someone who encourages bad humor, and I obviously condone it in myself as well as others.

Polyphylla decemlineata

2011-02-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

Lepus americanus

2011-02-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

Astayanax mexicanus

2011-02-25T12:40:00.000-08:00

Cave fish. No eyes. Weird.

Hippopotamus amphibius

2011-02-24T22:23:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure this one makes no sense whatsoever. Yet still I like it. I considered five or six

different speech or thought bubbles for the last panel, but I think the open mouth works well

enough.

Bufo americanus

2011-02-23T16:20:00.000-08:00

About a year ago I made the mistake of paying eleven dollars for a sketchbook made out of elephant shit. The sketchbook itself is fine, but there are only twenty goddamn pages. The paper is also frighteningly absorbant; it's probably the only paper that I've ever seen soak up the actual sediment in white india ink. Nonetheless I am determined to fill this sketchbook with pretty pictures of animals.

Meerbaer font

2011-02-22T17:19:00.000-08:00

So here's the complete meerbaer font. It's not perfect, but it's got some good idears in it. I think the f and the r are my favorites.

Ein Merbaer fuer euch

2011-02-17T21:52:00.000-08:00

I struggled for quite a while with the colors, and I'm still not entirely happy with them. I am, however proud to note that I made that lettering up specifically for this piece.

Odocoileus virginianus

2011-02-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

In second grade everyone in my class was required to do a report on an animal of their choosing, complete with their own drawings haphazardly glued onto a giant poster board. I chose to write about Stag beetles, Hercules beetles, and Rhinoceros beetles because this meant I'd get to copy all the fantastic illustrations I'd seen of these animals fighting each other. Naturally I was disappointed when I found out that these beetles do not, in fact massacre each other and all other insects that come near them, but eat fruits and vegetables and fill an important ecological niche as soil conditioners. I was so disappointed that I completely lied about each beetle's diet, proudly reporting that they ate other beetles, and that when the males fought the loser was always devoured. I also specifically remember scribbling circles all over a piece of paper and writing "Stag beetles lay 200-300 eggs", something else I'd just made up because it seemed fairly plausible.

Poor Mrs. Hawley never checked my research, and I completely got away with my nefarious lies. The report was stashed with other brothers' animal reports behind a shelf to collect dust. In the following year and a half that poster haunted me. It was physical evidence of me lying, which at this point in my life I knew was a really good way to end up going to hell. So one saturday when I was briefly alone at home I ripped the report up and burned it in the wood stove. Looking back I of course regret this, because that shit was undoubtedly hilarious.

2011-02-12T11:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not really sure where this came from, or why an orthodox monk seemed like the best speaker. Sorry about the sloppily fixed screwup in panel 2; I really need to hurry up and get creative suite.

2011-02-11T15:58:00.000-08:00

I recently had the privilege of drawing something for a friend's blog, for a short story he's been putting up a few paragraphs at a time. The story, entitled "Suddenly, A Giraffe" is so far fantastic, and this is because Keegan Blackler is writing it.

2011-02-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

I may have had a little fun while doing this one, despite the ungodly amount of time I spent on the second panel. It's a pretty stupid strip, but I think that's just fine.

Micromys minutus.

2011-01-30T17:32:00.000-08:00

A little while ago I found a huge spider like this in the garden. I used a hammer to knock it off of its web and chased it around whacking it to bits. Afterwards I was shaking like I'd just quit smoking or like somebody told me the president just got shot.

They might make that mouse sickeningly cute, but I stand behind the rasberries; they look good and add much needed contrast in texture and value. Also, I can't fucking believe that the scientific name for the harvest mouse is Micromys minutus. That is just silly talk.

'A Separate Cinema'

2011-01-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

So it's been like eight months, but I finally started working in the brown book again. These are all movies that I learned about from a book of movie posters I found at the college library right before graduation called "A Separate Cinema: Fifty years of Black-Cast Posters". I absolutely adored it, and simply had to draw some stuff from it.

The first one, Carmen Jones (1954) is a straight-forward port of the Bizet opera; they really just kept the score and changed the dialogue and Libretto. I watched the opening number and it's a little painful the way they forced some the actors to say 'd' instead of 'th' e.g. Carmen doesn't sing 'L'amour', she sings 'Dat's Love'.

The second poster is for Pinky (1949), a movie about a nurse who falls in love with a white doctor in the south. She's constantly working to hide her little bit of black heritage from her lover, hence the ridiculous "Does He Know?". The director kind of fucked up when he cast a pure white girl in the role.

The third, The Bronze Buckaroo (1939), is an old Harlem Western; I had no idea that that was a thing, but it happened. I included this one because of its use of the word 'bronze'. Time and time again, black movies from this era would still cast lighter-skinned blacks as protagonists and darker-skinned blacks as villains, which obviously sucks. I also included this one because Herbert Jeffrey's smile and moustache are kinda fantastic.

The last, Green Pastures (1936) is the story of the Bible told from the perspective of rural southern blacks, a premise which obviously can have its problems. True to the form of big 30's pictures, the pageantry in this movie is phenomenal; apparently the costume shop had to make 3,000 sets of angel wings for the extras in the opening scene in heaven. The opening scene is, of course, an elaborately constructed set where a host of black angels are sitting on a little riverbank fishing to get ready for their daily celestial fish fry. In the picture of Rex Ingram I used for reference and angel is handing him a cigar, which I naturally decided to omit.

Arctocephalus forsteri

2011-01-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

This strip probably never would've happened if I didn't know the McAlevy brothers. Our protagonist is a species of fur seal; in just about every picture I've seen of them sunbathing they stick their noses in the air and look arrogant and blase.

Denver

2011-01-18T12:26:00.000-08:00

I spent the last five in Denver and this is the thing that I drew while in that city.

Hwattzin

2011-01-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

This is of course a true story. Looking back, the way that my brothers would fuck with me was usually hilarious. This story is a good example of how particularly funny Micah was and is.

I had a little trouble deciding what animal to have deliver this monologue; I'm getting to the point where I don't feel like defaulting to mushrooms (especially as I currently have no books on them). In the end I settled on Hoatzins; a 1962 Nat'l Geographic offered me more than enough view of the weird little tetrapod. I regret that I didn't have the sense to make the text smaller, the strip ended up looking kind of crowded and I wasn't able to make all of the drawings as lush as I would've liked. That being said, I am damn proud of the second panel drawing (in which I ironically fucked up while writing the word accident).

The article itself is as delightful as the photographs. Its a good example of the exuberant and sometimes goofy writing scientists used to get away with. I couldn't resist including one of my favorite examples in this post;

Rain, She Use a Rolling Pin

"Today she's a woman's rain," Ivan volunteered as he cooked Breakfast. "She Pound you all day, she in a bad mood. A man's rain is whoosh... then it is through."

A particularly violent gust hit us. "Now she is angry," said Ivan. "She

beat you with a rolling pin!"

Rain or no rain, we took out our binoculars and spotted a hoatzin from

the window of our cabin. It was sitting on the nest as immobile as the

Sphinx, raindrops trickling from the end of its beak.

2011-01-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

There was a drink and draw last night during which I drew this man from a 1970 National Geographic. I still really need to buy a decent brush pen to make my stuff not look sloppy. Then I need to stop trying to render every last thing while using it; this picture looks like a damn woodblock.

Margarine

2011-01-06T20:37:00.001-08:00

This is pretty much my stance on margarine. 'Cause margarine is disgusting.

Trilobites

2011-01-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

If someone put that glass down in front of me, I would probably drink whatever was in it, no questions asked.

Ein Traum

2010-12-17T13:36:00.000-08:00

This was a fun one. It's sort of non-fiction, 'cause I actually had this dream (hopefully it wasn't a vision or a prophecy). I'm extremely skeptical about breaking away from a 3.5 x 14" format, but I don't see any reason why I shouldn't occasionally indulge in a vertical layout, and in this case it seems to work just fine; I think this would've been really awkward if it was broken up into four square panels. Also, I really enjoy having the first line of text in small caps, it's just way too much fun, though, hopefully it'll look a little less sloppy in the future.

Ten more faces

2010-12-16T13:54:00.001-08:00

2010-12-16T13:52:00.000-08:00

Salvage

2010-12-15T23:09:00.001-08:00

These are two pages that I salvaged from a sketchbook; periodically I forget to leave a piece of scratch paper behind the page I'm working on and the markers end up bleeding through. Since I hate tearing pages out of sketchbooks I decided I might as well doodle something on these pages, and so far they've turned out okay.

More Fonts

2010-12-13T15:07:00.001-08:00

Fonts

2010-12-11T14:33:00.000-08:00

So, I have a little red book. It is not a communist manifesto, but a tiny red sketchbook in which I draw typefaces. Whenever I see a face that I think I might like to use at some point, I steal it; the fun part is seeing ten letters of type and having to figure out what the other sixteen will look like. I originally planned on keeping these pages just for my personal reference, but they look kinda neat so I decided to post them. (I know they look rough, but keep in mind I'm doing this on about 2 x 2" squares)

2010-12-10T16:41:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I spent three hours doing this.

2010-12-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

For a long while, I have mistakenly assumed that brush pens are crap for black inking. The one crappy brush pen I own I bought expressly for the purpose of filling in black space in mushroom comics; it seemed like it'd be quicker and I wouldn't be wasting the ink from my staedlers. Last night I started using it on a whim on paper with a little more texture and realized that I am an idiot; this page was really really fun to do.

2010-12-08T20:17:00.001-08:00

The bottom picture is one of the first drawings I've done with copic markers. They are so goddamned glorious. That being said I need to work on my proportions a bit.

2010-12-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

Mushrooms again

2010-12-03T14:12:00.000-08:00

If this was a real shoppe I would come here once a week to play checkers and complain about how much I hate checkers. I would wear my suspenders.

I really should've found some other mushrooms to draw, while these had a kinda interesting composition, there wasn't enough texture on the mushrooms or detail in the background, to make the drawing process interesting.

2010-12-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

I couldn't quite get the colors the way I wanted on this one, so I pushed everything a little towards sepia to cut down on the garishness.

For those of you who may wonder, I used an old coke ad for reference.

2010-11-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

Jes' havina lil' fun with color pencils.

2010-11-27T13:15:00.000-08:00

All the drawing on the boat I did during lunch and two breaks at work, and yes that was actually written on a toilet paper dispenser (and I had to scrub it off).

I found out on accident that Prismacolor markers will make watercolor pencils bleed a bit, which ended up working in my favor; that ocean looked like ass beforehand.

Lemon Juice

2010-11-24T11:14:00.000-08:00

I came up with this while adding lemon juice to an apple pie, and all I had to do was find some faces that would work with the text... however, this is possibly the worst joke.

'Nother sketch

2010-11-22T20:54:00.000-08:00

It ain't the best drawrin' but it was fun to do. I'm not entirely sure what happened with the lettering on the title. I just tried white ink over brown marker and got a weird lavender/mahogany mixture.

Girlies an Fellas

2010-11-21T00:23:00.000-08:00

These are kind of experimental pages. I usually don't like to commit to blacks; I couldn't even bring myself to bring the contrast up enough to make 'em solid.

I think the two ladies smoking is my favorite panel. I like the way the grey skin looks better than the any of the stuff I colored in.

Opera

2010-11-19T16:26:00.001-08:00

So this isn't really a great joke. It's kind of just something I do; obviously when no one else is around. I don't know if it makes for a good strip but it felt rewarding to draw.

Oh snap children.

2010-11-18T15:34:00.000-08:00

I finally am the proud owner of a scanner. It ain't the prettiest or newest machine but it's oversize and will work for now.

I drew this 'cause I took an online course on Steinbeck for the first few months of the summer. I don't actually hate the guy, but The Grapes of Wrath, The Red Pony, and Of Mice and Men all seemed a little heavy handed and obnoxious. Tortilla Flat on the other hand is just hilarious.

Some Sketches

2010-08-21T10:48:00.001-07:00

Blech, I really need to update more. And buy a scanner so's to give better quality updates. I actually used a point'n'shoot and then cropped these in photoshop; you can tell by the way the color makes you throw up.

If any one is curious, yes that is the Jabberwocky.

Pengweeners

2010-06-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

Alright... finally... here we are. This is another stepping stone to me being acquainted with watercolor paper. Sorry the color is so washed out, I've yet to get my paws on my own scanner and a copy of photoshop, so I had to ride over to a friend's house and borrow his scanner.

I'm still reluctant to stop doing pseudo art nouveau outlines around everything...

Uh kruh-VET

2010-05-24T19:00:00.001-07:00

So I had to try watercolour paper ('cuz I kinda idolize this one guy who uses it all the time). The colors are kind of old fashioned but I'm okay with that.

Idiacanthus antrosomus

2010-05-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

For what ever reason I think it's hilarious to slowly lean into a kiss and open your mouth as wide as possible. It never gets old for me.

I kind of wished I'd done white letters on black or dark gray balloons... I also think I kinda wussed out and used a comfortable art nouveau typeface when I could've tried out something different.

Last thing, I'm pretty sure asterisks are integral to my writing style.

Organgrindin'

2010-05-11T11:59:00.000-07:00

I have no idea whether or not this is actually funny. I gauge whether a strip is gonna be funny or not by how much I laugh while writing the script. In the case of this strip I was listening to Crash by Dave Matthews Band and suddenly imagined that a little Italian stereotype of an organ grinder was doing the singing.

I'd really be interested in seeing whether people who haven't heard the song would find the strip funny just because of the ridiculous lyrics of that song. That song has some pretty dumb lyrics, and sometimes a little scuzzy, like "hike up your skirt a little more, and show your world to me."

Airline Ads

2010-05-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

I was drawing landscape pictures out of this book called nature in danger and I realized that they should be old airline ads. TWA really did have ads that called 'em Superjets, which is just wonderful.

Cossacks

2010-04-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

There isn't really any secret meaning in the text. It was just a stupid inside joke between me and a friend a few years ago. Though there was no explanation, we joked that Russian people are so robust and hardy that sex somehow requires cleats.

I've always had a secret desire to do a big-ass rembrandt-esque painting of two cossack soldiers going at it and then turn it in for a painting class. Sadly I will never realize this dream. The most important thing would be their puffed up wheezing faces. The second most important thing would be getting to listen to all the shit people would say during critiques.