I caught the bug that’s been circulating through the offices of San Francisco, and got quarantined to the apartment for a week. For a few days it was just time-wasting, movie-indulging, blankets and hot tea, but then I started to get ideas: stories and songs and dialogue running through my mind while I’m physically unable to pick [...]]]>

I caught the bug that’s been circulating through the offices of San Francisco, and got quarantined to the apartment for a week. For a few days it was just time-wasting, movie-indulging, blankets and hot tea, but then I started to get ideas: stories and songs and dialogue running through my mind while I’m physically unable to pick up a pen to write them down. I completely re-composed the ending for my next book, every detail put in it’s place.

During this time I missed the gallery opening at Public Works and a lavish business trip to Vegas. (I’m beginning to thing Vegas is my kryptonite: every plan to go there has been sidetracked)

Yesterday I was able to sit at my desk and draw, and I’m putting together some of my favorite sequential pages yet. Working from rough pencils, painting from memories and places, then inking and lettering right on the page, mixing fiction and lore with the excitement of painting new colors and compositions. It makes me realize how defeated I was starting to feel from constant work, no breaks, and no time to think and let my mind wander.

I think there’s an expected dedication to over-working, that your worth is measured in overtime, and that creative side projects are a novelty. I seek to defy this: work hard in the office but never allow the creativity after-hours to die, because that’s the real reason to live and fight. It’s so bizarre to be caught in a situation like this, of over-working, while my unemployed friends are across the bay being tear-gassed and arrested in the Occupy movement. We’re in a time of extremes.

I still need to learn how to take a break now and then, being bedridden for a week shouldn’t be the only way to get a mind vacation.

-j

Hipstamatic is one of the most popular, and the one that I [...]]]> I realized that I don’t share my photography on my blog very often, but I absolutely love my iPhone’s camera. It’s everything I always wanted my camera to be: easy to carry in my pocket, versatile and instantly allowing me to post pictures online.

Hipstamatic is one of the most popular, and the one that I resisted as long as possible. The name is terrible, and living as close to the Mission as I do, I don’t want to hear ANYTHING with “hipster” (or even worse, “hipsta”) in it’s title, but once I gave in and downloaded it, I really enjoyed it. This app brings the joy of analogue photography to digital without having to lug around a big lense.  I’m fascinated by the fact that with the speed and possibilities of technology today, we have to take away elements to make it more human. By not seeing the photograph immediately upon taking it, a bit of the thrill of analogue photography comes through. Combine that with the mystery of  development with “lenses” and “film” that treats light in unexpected ways, and digital photography leaps onto new ground.

Even with “Camera Bag” and “Instagram” and all the other apps that’ll give film effects to your already-taken photos on your phone, and do it pretty well, I still think the best pictures I’ve taken are with Hipstamatic. I’ve built up quite a collection.
Obviously, I take a lot of photos, this collage is just my favorites from January this year. Flipping through my photos is just as good as any diary, reminding me of my trip to NYC for New Years, driving down to Santa Cruz for the weekend, what drawings I was working on, the concerts I saw, the haircut I got, it’s all right there, dated and everything.

It should be said that most of our phone pics that we take aren’t very printable. Something about that is attractive as well, the way we work and think today we exist on screens and capture the world through screens and instantly share them with everyone else to see on their little screens. The low-quality image size has caused me to do paintings from some of my favorite shots (like these paintings based on my snapshots at bars and parties).

We like immediate, but we want a feel of humanity with our photo-taking. Being the app junkie that I am, I downloaded “Color” immediately after reading an article about it. I think it was the very day it came out, and I excitedly took my self-portrait at my desk at work, only to find that nobody else in the Sunset district had gotten the app yet. I bully my coworker into downloading the app on his phone so we could test it out (without another person, it’s completely useless, I mean, it doesn’t even have any filters) and we proceed to take pictures of our food, coworkers and the parking lot.

Total waste of time. Really slick app (and it better be, for a $41 million investment) and it /was/ fun to see other people’s pictures update on your phone so quickly, but really? This didn’t stop me from twittering about it and getting my friends to all download it and meet for a Color-dinner-extravaganza, but after 3-minutes we were far more engaged in the status of our drink order than sharing pictures we were taking.

I like the idea of photography that’s location-based and sharable with people in the area, but Color came out far too voyeuristic and useless. This doesn’t stop me from trying out new ones, and I get a distinctive feeling that as our understanding of location, privacy, and the addictive quality of posting, documenting and sharing our lives, apps will grow and evolve with us, and probably force us into thinking about photography in new ways.

That said, nothing can beat old-school photography. I just bought some film that I’m playing around with, and I’m getting my portrait shot by Tristan Crane this weekend. As many photos of myself that I may take with my phone, nothing beats a good, professional shot.

However, I was cleaning up my computer at work and found this drawing I did in Flash. You don’t see [...]]]> I’ve been living out of boxes in my new apartment for the past week, and it’s been fantastic and minimal but, yeah, lacking in internet and furniture. My latest drawings have been limited to sketchbook doodles.

However, I was cleaning up my computer at work and found this drawing I did in Flash. You don’t see me doing much personal work on the computer, but I like how this lady turned out:

If you haven’t noticed, I now have the entirety of Weird Fishes book 1 on my blog in a more eye-friendly scrolling format that you can start reading here.

I almost never talk about my day job on this blog, but I finally did a page about my work in animation.

In the meantime, I think everyone should be reading lifehacker and zenhabits. The more minimal, conscious and DIY the world gets the better.

I wanted [...]]]> Here’s a new commission I’m working on… Supergirl! This is a first for me! I was asked to do it just like the “Wanna Spoon?” panel in Weird Fishes. I should have known that the hot dreamy goth girl would be one of my more popular images. Only now with a cape and blonde hair!

I wanted to show a little of my process, I’ve been thumbnailing and sketching a lot more lately, and I’ve been working on a cover image/poster for the SF Zine Fest:

I like the idea of the ancient hand print on Dee’s face, and I worked through that a bit and came up with this image:

Following that idea, I decided I wanted to work with graphics and text while making Dee into more of an iconic poster girl, and started off with these:

I really like the idea of Dee in a sailor dress searching for her prey:

Then I went for a headshot, and it got some high score points:

Here’s the inks for it. This drawing has a completely different feeling, the sketch was more of a badass but this one captures Dee’s attitude a bit better:

I’m still working out the reflection in her glasses, and in the next few days it’ll get painted and I’ll post that along to you guys. Feel free to comment on your favorite sketches, and whether you’d like this as a postcard or not!

This is one of the most pinup-y drawings I’ve ever [...]]]> This Sunday was very rainy and I got to break in my new studio properly and draw all day. Amongst a bunch of comics (you can read yesterday’s page here) and new drawings, I did some cute pinup girls that I’d like to share with you:

This is one of the most pinup-y drawings I’ve ever done, and I’m pretty happy with it! Her name’s Heather, and you’ll see her appear in my comic pretty soon!

I spent the morning catching up on Katie Rice and Luke Cormican’s webcomic “Skadi“, and man, I love the absolute abandon that the comic has, whether she’s killing beasts or going to hell or losing her clothing in the lake, it’s hilarious and a lot of fun. And she’s really, really fun to draw!

Also, last week I did a lot of drawing and coloring at work, and inbetween turn-in times I’d have little pockets of time where I got to draw in Flash. I did a bunch of fanart:

(for Eddie Wright)

And if you want to stay up-to-date on my comic, see my sketches as I do them and possibly even catch some impromptu streaming of me drawing, follow me on twitter @jamdye!

That’s just 2 days after Paul Pope visits for a talk about Batman!

[insert pretty [...]]]> News Flash! My Small Press Spotlight at the Cartoon Art Museum goes up on March 20th! You can read the full press release for it here.

That’s just 2 days after Paul Pope visits for a talk about Batman!

[insert pretty picture here]