I spent 2 weeks down in Santa Cruz teaching kids about comic book art. We studied storytelling techniques and comic styles and anatomy, developing characters, and we drew A LOT. These kids ranged from 10 years old to about 13, and they blazed through my exercises, shared their stories with the class and were quickly drawing [...]]]>

I spent 2 weeks down in Santa Cruz teaching kids about comic book art. We studied storytelling techniques and comic styles and anatomy, developing characters, and we drew A LOT. These kids ranged from 10 years old to about 13, and they blazed through my exercises, shared their stories with the class and were quickly drawing fully scripted comic pages that amazed me with their sincerity and outlandish creativeness.

During our second week, the kids took their comics to completion, voted on a title, and with my help they collaborated on a cover. The night before the last day, I took their finished art and printed a ‘zine of all their work, and remembered how much I love the DIY element of printing your own book.

Here are a few examples of the comics that came out of the class:

Jesslyn

Saray

Rena
Moshe

Here are my students drawing!

Writing notes.

On the last day (notice the Scott McCloud book on the table)

It was a pretty great experience, I finished feeling inspired to draw comics and impressed by a new generation of artists.

Lately I’ve been drawing turtles and moths. [...]]]> I’m teaching a comic book drawing class for kids this summer! It takes place in Santa Cruz at Cabrillo College, for 6th through 9th graders, during the last two months of June. If you know any kids who might be interested, please take a look at the Cabrillo website. Cheers!

Lately I’ve been drawing turtles and moths. It started with this bizarre/creepy dream I had a few weeks ago, pictured here:

Click for full-3D glory

Back to the drawing board, I’ve got lots of new things planned. You’re still reading Weird Fishes, right?

Best,
j

This month at Dr. Sketchy’s we had three awesome models who build their own vintage-style bicycles! And then they pose with them! Lots of fun was had, some great poses with good stories, here’s a couple:

How much cuter could they be?

Also last week, in memory of the great Frank Frazetta, we had a Drink and [...]]]>

This month at Dr. Sketchy’s we had three awesome models who build their own vintage-style bicycles! And then they pose with them! Lots of fun was had, some great poses with good stories, here’s a couple:

How much cuter could they be?

Also last week, in memory of the great Frank Frazetta, we had a Drink and Draw in his honor at Mission: Comics and Art. We had two amazons posing, and I was drawing with some greats including Andy Ristaino, Dave Crosland, Josh Ellingson, and a great toast by Jack Shen. Some photos of the night can be found on flickr.

A great week of eccentric life drawing. It’s really fun to mix it up with a bunch of other artists and break out of drawing alone! Now back to drawing at my table as I work on the next set of Weird Fishes paintings.

I’ve been spending a lot of time behind a tablet working in Flash and whenever I’m away from the screen I’ve been doing some giant inked comic pages that I’m excited to start posting next week. The sequel to Weird Fishes is coming along, one page a week. Speaking of which… my comic artwork is [...]]]>

I’ve been spending a lot of time behind a tablet working in Flash and whenever I’m away from the screen I’ve been doing some giant inked comic pages that I’m excited to start posting next week. The sequel to Weird Fishes is coming along, one page a week. Speaking of which… my comic artwork is currently hanging in the Cartoon Art Museum’s Small Press Spotlight! Really fantastic. We’re holding a reception for it during the Wondercon party at CAM, Friday night on April 2nd. During the con itself, I’ll be at the Ghostbot booth on Friday promoting our animation projects, and I’ll be signing at SLG sometime during the weekend.

A couple sketchbook pages, I’ve getting a lot more comfortable with a brush and really loving it!

A few weeks ago I got interviewed at the Cartoon Art Museum by the very good man Kane Lynch for ComicVine. It turned out pretty great, and for the first time (I think?) you can see and hear me talk about my comic online! [...]]]>

A few weeks ago I got interviewed at the Cartoon Art Museum by the very good man Kane Lynch for ComicVine. It turned out pretty great, and for the first time (I think?) you can see and hear me talk about my comic online! There goes all my mystique, right out the window…

I embedded it here, but you can go check it out over at ComicVine.

The opening night for “Dee’s Siren Song” was fantastic! Extreme thanks to Leef for having such a great space, and Charlene and Alice for helping put up the show, and Caleb for being my (not) DJ for the night. It was great to meet everyone who came out to see my work and it’s exciting to [...]]]>

The opening night for “Dee’s Siren Song” was fantastic! Extreme thanks to Leef for having such a great space, and Charlene and Alice for helping put up the show, and Caleb for being my (not) DJ for the night. It was great to meet everyone who came out to see my work and it’s exciting to get bridge the gap between comics on the printed page (or computer screen) and artwork in a gallery and see people’s reactions in person.

The show will be up all January at Mission: Comics and Art!