I used to hesitate about putting certain pieces of art into the world. I’ve put off comics projects because I didn’t want people to pigeonhole me. I didn’t want to do this genre or that, or this style or that, lest people thought I was a writer or artist of that one thing. I’ve hesitated to use color more often because my ego wants me to be known as a pen-and-ink, black-and-white guy. It’s all stupid. … Read More
There’s a good article in The Atlantic that delves into why Marvel, and similarly, DC Comics have had trouble making money publishing their comics. It’s a good read for anyone that cares about popular comics. I have several criticisms that are both touched on and not presented in the article. If you don’t want to read my word-vomiting, at least read the article for an actual journalist’s insight into the world of Marvel (and DC’s) publishing … Read More
I’ve been thinking about a few tweets I read a couple days ago that politely detracted Inktober, and why I think Inktober is a good idea. Inktober 2014: I spent 31 days reacquainting myself with my pen nibs and getting back into the habit of drawing regularly again. Inktober 2015: I decided to do 31 finished, simple illustrations and use the best ones in my portfolio. This year, Inktober 2016: I decided to improve my familiarity … Read More
Finally, after many years of wanting to, I attended a comic convention not as an attendee, but as a guest and vendor. Andrew Leung, owner of Toy Fusion and ToyWorth was nice enough to have me as a guest artist at his booth at Sac-Con on the weekend of March 12th and 13th, 2016. I wasn’t expecting to do much really, other than draw, pass out business cards and postcard samples, and see if anyone would … Read More
Blade Of The Immortal is an extremely important comic to me. I finally got to watch the first couple episodes of the anime adaptation. It is not good. There are so many things wrong with it. The writing is bad. The music doesn’t fit. It’s trying to do too much and be too much while accomplishing little. The story of the original manga is there but the spirit and tone isn’t there at all.
The other day, Canadian artist and fellow Tumblr-ite Kimberly Parker posted some thoughts about artists comparing themselves to other artists and how to go about it positively and instead of being all doom-and-gloom about it (my words, not hers). It’s a quick read, so go ahead and read it. Without getting too personal, I, like so many others come with some emotional baggage. And I’m constantly battling them in order to get off my ass and … Read More
I take it by some of the reaction to the new Supergirl promo that females with the personality of the new show’s Supergirl character – bubbly and happy, living in the shadow of another, unsure of herself yet strong on the inside, trying to do something meaningful with her life and the gifts she has – just do not exist? I would beg to differ. Not every strong female character needs to be hard-edged. Do they? … Read More
I stopped publicly announcing projects before they were ready to go so that they didn’t turn into false announcements. But in the last 2 hours, I wrote the entire first draft of text for an all-ages picturebook/comic I came up with today. It’s ready to get drawn already. So here I go: I’m announcing a few things. This way, if any and all of you want to take me to task, you can. Maypole – the … Read More
This is a “warm-up” sketch I did on 1-13-2015: The goal was to limit the time spent doing the sketch. This time I chose to work on larger paper. My sketch from the previous day was done in a 5×7 sketchbook, which somehow made me want to work meticulously. It’s probably due to the page space being small enough to sketch fairly freely, but not so small that I was forced to go into “thumbnail mode”, … Read More
I have very rarely done warm-up sketches. I understand the value of warm-up sketches. I admit, when I was younger, I thought, “Why do I need to warm up my drawing muscles? Why can’t I just draw?” Of course it helps to loosen up the fingers, the hand, and the arm before doing any drawing that is meant to end up as a finished piece. But when you have a limited amount of time to spend … Read More
As I get back into the practice of drawing all the time, I am, of course, adding new stuff to my website’s portfolio. Some new stuff has been added to both the illustration and design sections. I will, of course, be adding and removing stuff as I see fit to represent the best of myself. However, my Tumblr site will be a more of a timeline, featuring concepts to sketches to finished works, so if I … Read More
