Fun with Sharpies AND White Out!

It's almost 2am and I'm still doing laundry. Nic's passed out and I just finished packing for Cedar Point. I thought I'd share some cool pieces I did with ballpoint pen, sharpies, and white out. I liked it so much that I think I'm going to do some free sketches this way at the Comic-Con in August. Probably the index card size too. I've gotten so used to doodling on these index cards at work it only seems right to me to offer free sketches like this. Fast, free, and most of all fun to do! Well I should probably check on the dryer and kiss my lady goodnight before she completely knocks out. (heh)

PS - I got my prints AND my new business cards in today, things are shaping up nicely so far. I'm now less nervous and more excited to go. I'll probably give you some quick looks as the con gets closer and closer.

Have a good mornight!

Total Geek moment #2

So a couple posts ago I talked about giving my favorite artist, Skottie Young, a copy of my book.

Now I can geek out that Lori from Amazing Fantasy stacked my signed copies next to The Wimpy Kid Series by Jeff Kinney!! Awesome.

Take a look, here it is on the shelf:

Now head out there and pick it up!

PS - sorry the photo's blurry but the green sticker on it says "signed".

Coconuts melt in my mouth?!

So a couple of days ago Nic and I went to breakfast at our favorite spot: Blueberry Hill off of 49th & Lagrange Road. There always seems to be something going on when we decide to head down that place and that morning was no different because there were street vendors selling all kinds of weird stuff on the streets. Of course, it was bit crowded but we had already decided to walk around after brunch to see what all the hoopla was aboot.

On our walk, we checked out this new candy store that opened up entitled Sweetness. And that it was. They had all types of candies from Satellite Wafers/Candy Saucers to Candy Cigarettes. The one thing that caught Nic's attention though were these limited edition bags of Coconut M&Ms.

Say whaaaaaaaaaaa

We bought a bag and last night had the pleasure of eating them during the Season Finale of Run's House. Needless to say....they were

legend...


wait for it










...(daboooommmb)DARY! (we put our own spin on it)


Yummmmmm.

'Til next time!

Outlander

A couple of weeks ago I rented this movie called, Outlander. The basic premise for it is Beowulf meets Predator/ Vikings vs. Aliens. I read a lot of reviews for the film and they say it's a miss. I have no idea what movie they were watching because the movie I saw was bad ass. It was a bloody good time and I loved the creature design, which they call a Moorwen.

I would recommend it because it has the right blend of sci-fi, creature horror, and action. It's comes up short in terms of an EPIC scale but it's still worth the rental.

Anyways it inspired me to whip out the brush pen and do this. The Outlander is played by none other then Jesus himself, Jim Caviezel.

Peep the trailer here! And tell me that that doesn't look like a good time!

Fun with brush pens!

Hello all! I'm taking a break from working on a new print I'm thinking of selling at the Wizard World which is a couple weeks away! Right now, I'm watching Lost In Translation.

First it was white out and now I thought I'd play around with brush pens. I'm not one for using brush pens in fear or MESSING up...but as I started to play around with strokes and line weight, I found out how much brush pens can give off the illusion of "no mistakes". They hide them so well if you treat it more as a painting. They make your art feel care free and very loose. It doesn't give off the impression that its confined or the art is contained within the lines. The are breaks...and space...and thats what gives it life, style, character.

I drew Penguin, Joker, and Scarecrow roughed out lightly with ball point and inked it with a brush pen playing with strokes and weight. I really like how it turned out. It's a style of art I'm not used to normally doing. I feel there are far better artist with far better tools who have utilized this technique and turned it into something all their own.

I might do more stuff like this in the future just for scribbles and doodles. I'm still very fond of not inking and just coloring over my pencil lines but I'm still practicing my inking and I feel that I'm getting better at it and may have found an ink style I'm comfortable with.

Well that's all for now. Of the three, I like Scarecrow the best.

Another thing I wanted to share is I bought a new sketchbook. It's more of a "travel" sketchbook where I could lay down some quick gestures or sketches when I have time at lunch or if I'm sitting in front of the TV, or just hanging out with some friends.

There are some days I go without sketching and when I finally get a chance to, I hit a creative road block. So, I feel if I have pen and paper on me at all times, it'll help keep my creative juices flowing and I won't forget an idea that I had but couldn't jot down on a pad.

I was excited because I went to breakfast with Nicole and brought it with me and was able to do a nice warm up sketch before we got seated to eat. It felt great and I want to keep at it.

Well enough rambling get back to work!

Fun with White Out!

Hi all,

I hope everyone had a good holiday this past weekend. Mine was real fun: BBQ, family, food, fireworks, you can't go wrong.

Well it's back to the grind. I've been busy prepping some new artwork and haven't really had the time to blog it up. With all the vacations, activities, and drawing, it's been quite the summer let me tell ya. Well I wouldn't have to tell ya if I blogged about it like I should.

I was messing around with white out or as it's known around these parts..."liquid paper" today at work and thought I'd show ya. You can't ever go wrong with The Crow. I really enjoy drawing this character and have shared some renditions of him with you in the past. This here took me a quick 5 minutes. I always say I like the "rough stuff" and often times prefer that look over fine inks. I'm trying to be better about my inking quality and getting away from thinking its sub-par. I realize in order to improve and get better at it I have to do it more and like what I do. I think Skottie said in one of the podcasts how much you have to be in love with the stuff you're working on and with that kind of mindset I've got to say drawing/sketching has been real fun these past couple weeks. Well that's my little artist's insight for today.

I got some movies to review, games to write about and daily going ons I want to share. So until then...

Freaks And Geeks

Hi all! I just finished watching my Freaks and Geeks complete series set. Overall I really liked the show. I'm probably going to watch it once more with commentary (PYGU). It did end way too soon because within the last two discs all the characters were going through some great development and story arcs in the episodes. When it was starts to really get good, it ends. There is some kind of closure to the series but it really had the potential for a solid 4 year run. (which would, in my mind, see the Geeks graduating and the Freaks well off into their college years.) I would highly recommend watching this show, it appeals to the freak AND the geek in you.

I did some sketches while watching. I would show all of them but my James Franco, Jason Segel, and Seth Rogen...really didn't turn out that great. That's a new thing I want to work on, which is: Having my sketchbook open more. My hand can move as I watch a show or a movie I don't have to just sit there and really it warms me up before I decide to tackle an ink or pencil job I want to get done. So basically I just want to sketch more. I mean I sketch at work but they are usually on these lame index cards which I have scattered aboot my studio and on my art desk. I think I've doodled on at least 200+ already. (woah you're cool...as Geebo would say)

I need a new show to watch now...maybe some Big Love with my love (lamesauce! haha) I could catch up on Rescue Me season 5 on Hulu but I need to sign up for an account..and well I'm kind of lazy.

I've been quite busy this month. I know mentioned I wanted to do a play by play of my Metropolis trip but its coming up on two weeks passed and well I figured you all (wait, people read this?) don't really want to hear about it anymore. Well if you're interested, I posted some pics on facebook so if you're my friend you've probably already seen them. And if not...then go and be my friend!!

I've been working on "my stuff" all in hopes of heading in the right direction. Which is why I haven't posted anything new because its all getting crammed into a portfolio. Some days I get a lot accomplished and other days I don't. Which in retrospect is a good thing because I don't want to burn myself out. I have a tough waking up in the morning already, so why make that worse. So it seems like the pace I've been going at this stuff with has been pretty good, you can't rush greatness I suppose. :P

I've had a lot of computer problems the past couple months and I'm trying to spring for a new PC. Which means I've been trying to cut back on my "normal" spending: dvds, food, dvds, comics, dvds. Hopefully AFTER the summer months I can be able to purchase a new one or new parts and have Jeff put it together or me. He made me a list off of tiger direct so I'm going to start with the cheapest thing on it and work my way up.

I've been marketing my books more and I hope to get them and my art more noticed this year. I have some exciting news that I recently posted on the book's blog which is kind of like the jumping off point.

PS - Mosquito bites on my legs each like a mofo! I'm trying to be all Zen aboot it but its not happening.

PSS - I'm spending An Evening With Kevin Smith in September....boo to the yah!! I'm super-cited aboot it and I can't wait!!!

Well thats all he wrote...

Bedtime for bonzo. Peace.

Juliet says...

She's talking now...mumblin' mostly but this is what she told me

Quick Review: He's Just Not That In To You

Or HJNTITY [See what I did there? (ahuh ahuh it says "TITY" on the end)]...so maybe I go with HJNTI2U instead.

Yeaaaah we were just not that in to it. Cliche, couldn't decide if it wanted to be a comedy or a drama...the characters were under developed for you so you don't really care and it was just waaaay too long for a romantic comedy. Especially with rather dull and uninteresting characters throughout. You're bored after half an hour...which is when we started to fall asleep.

It's a shame because I wanted too like the movie. Well I give it two stars...1 star for Ben and the other star for...Affleck...ohhhh yeaaaaaah.

Feelin' kind of Blobby

So we had New China Express today and even though it was awesome. The 3 hours of sleep and the full stomach of food has got me mo vi ing in sloooooow moooottiiioon. Granted I'm just sitting at a computer all day and not really moving at all. It's preventing me from wanting to move AND wanting to work. But the work thing shouldn't be a problem because there isn't any work to do.

I do want to blog about my SUPER (ahuh ahuh) fun exciting trip to Metropolis, IL for the Superman Festival and later down to Newton to meet some new people but I think I'll save that longer post for some time this weekend.

I know what you are thinking...wow J, you're so bored and lazy and stuffed with food you don't even want to blog. I do but I had a bright idea to work on my business cards for When I Was Little... so there!

I hope I'm not tired later, I'm taking the misses to Hollywood Boulevard where we will meet up with my coworker, Eric and his wife, Hallie. Woaahhhh double date. How fun!! Meets, greets, 'za and Year One. Sounds like a fun night right?

I guess we'll save the drive-in for another night. A better weather better movie selection kind of night.

Anyways here's the final(?) piece of my "overtly large comic book characters eating small portioned food" series. It's how I'm feeling right now...not Blah...more Blob.

Gym this weekend? I'm shootin' for it.

A Super-recap post sometime soon.

Oh and I've got some exciting news...no need to explain really just click here!!!!


Jello Shots by ~happyfestivus on deviantART