Saturday, February 28, 2009

Get This Space Monkey Off My Back!

My trip to NYC filled me with unfathomable amounts of inspiration and energy. I'm am using some of it to put the finishing touches on my Rocket Juice story, SPACE NINJA MONKEY FACE. I am really digging how it's turning out and am quite excited to reveal it to the world:) Here's a panel:

The "other monkey on my back" would be my apalling lack of skill with the tablet. I have been coloring all my work with a mouse, like cavemen used to do back in dinosaur times. I hear that once I learn how to use this mysterious machine, my work will improve by leaps and bounds and I will save oodles of time. I mostly want to learn it so my roomie Chad (sporting a sweet new blog by the by) and the rest of the folks at Drink n Draw will stop razzing me:) After that, I'll focus on trying to draw characters who don't always have their leg up.

And I will update my blog more. I'm pretty sure, yeah.

"With Every Day That Goes By, You Get a Little More Insane."

Fiona's words to me during our brief, albeit mind-blowingly awesome and inspirational, time in New York. They pretty much wrap up the whole event of visiting the NYC Comicon.

I've described the dreamlike wonders of my time in the big apple to dozens of people in various forms and you can here my report on the latest VA podcast. You may wonder why I've never mentioned the podcast before and I think it's mostly because I didn't think they were that good. But our shit is getting pretty tight and I think the last two have been really enjoyable for our listeners, thanks in major part to Chris' wonderful sound editing. So give a listen and let us know what you think!

I will mention a few super-cool folks who I had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with though, and they are (in no particular order): Mike Costa, Ryan Browne, Neil G., Ray Fawkes, Haroon...


...and pictured here Jon Browne "Man About Town", Zia, Fiona and the photo was taken by the hilarious Mr. Frazer. We're at the James Jean art exhibit, which was very cool. I may look intellectual in this picture but really, my chin was just cold.

Oh, and I got to do some karaoke, which is always fun! Oh, and I walked through the Hell's Kitchen. How freakin' sweet is that!?! I didn't see Daredevil though. He must have been in Japan fighting ninjas.

Best of the Worst

Okay, so it's been such a long time since I updated my blog. Why? I wonder. Then Fiona says that I'm overthinking it and I should just put up my sketches cuz people like that. So here's some of the better stuff I've done at Drink n Draw lately, which is in a brand new location, the coolest (most probably haunted) pub around, the Hop n Brew. You should come down sometime. It's tons of fun.

My apolgies to everyone last time if I got a little nuts. I showed up late from a work function at which there was free wine:( Though I don't always get to show up dressed in a tie with a lay around my neck and a hula hoop around my waist:)

Bring on the pics!

This is an alien, for no reason. And that's Dan Van Cool beside him, yelling about podcasts. Perfect likeness by the way:)


You'll notice I've really been experimenting with spotting blacks, at the behest and encouragement of my D n D brethren...and sistren.



I was quite fond of this Barbarella at first, and now I see her forehead and eye are huge. So I'll keep trying...


And that's all for now. More updates to come...in, like, three minutes.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

You Must BECOME the Rock!

I have been jonesing to do an album cover since I was a kid and I finally got my chance. FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL TO THE GATES OF HEAVEN is the new CD from Lac La Biche artist Leo Biollo and it drops sometime soon. Its great heavy metal with a surprisingly strong and positive message and its a concept album to boot, so I can't wait to hear the whole thing.

I was lucky enough to contribute a front and back cover to Leo's CD and here's a glimpse at the pain staking process:



These are the pencils.



These are the inks, which always seem to ruin the pencils.



And these are the colors, which I'm told make this hellish cover look like a desert.

And the battle continues . . .