Treimanized!

F'in Derby! (some language)

2012-01-22T22:48:00.000-08:00

Some friends and i went to a roller derby bout this weekend! Roller derby is a super fun thing, possibly the coolest spectator sport. There are teams in cities all over the country, but here in LA we have the Derby Dolls! Saturday's bout was an all-star match between the L.A. Ri-ettes (get it?) and the San Diego Wildfires. It was also the last 21+ bout to be hosted at the Doll Factory, so the announcers decided to play it blue while they still could.

So much fun! Those girls are way tough.

Return of the King comics

2012-01-06T22:45:00.000-08:00

I got The Lord of the Rings trilogy on blue-ray a while back and i finally started watching them before christmas. Last night i finished it off with Return of the King. I grew up with my dad reading those books to me, and the movies were a pretty big part of the backdrop of my high school/early college years. Every time i watch those movies it's like a nice, warm, nostalgia blanket.

I made some comics!
I'd forgotten about that wave of skulls.

And then the cursed ghosts help them win a war. Hooray!
If this comic was a lesson in drawing Aragorn's mustache (or composing things in comics panels) i'm not sure how much i really learned.

I feel like this was one of the jokes my nerd crew and i had. We have a lot of jokes about Lord of the Rings. Now this joke is a comic.

(i may have chopped the wrong finger off the wrong hand here. OOPS)

Who's excited about The Hobbit! I know i am.
I'll leave you with this gem:

Don't get attached. (Spoilers, maybe)

2012-01-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

I'm mostly through Storm of Swords, the third book in the Song of Ice and Fire series ("the game of throne books" to most people). Jason's started on Game of Thrones (the first book) and he likes to make jokes, but he hasn't gotten that far. He doesn't even know...
(Cropped for minor spoilers, click for full comic)

I drew myself holding a book, even though i'm reading it on the Kindle. I figured it would be a nicer graphical read. How weird is it, though, that in a few generations a tablet is going to be the recognized icon for reading material? KIDS TODAY.

Scarf Cat and Wolf Girl

2011-12-21T21:50:00.000-08:00

We had our Winter Micro Gallery show at work earlier this week. There were holiday themed decorations and treats! Oh yeah, and art.
I did these! First, it's Quincy in winter gear!

He doesn't actually have winter gear because he doesn't need it in LA. Also he's got layers of fat. I don't think he'd be too thrilled about it anyway.

This second one happened because i've been reading a lot of Song of Ice and Fire (currently on Storm of Swords), although this isn't supposed to be any character in particular. But hey, what's more wintery than Winterfell?:

Thought i'd post some process stuff for this, cause i actually like it :)
Here's my mock-up sketch, plus a practice wolf drawing. I have learned... that wolves are fluffy.

I sometimes wind up taking photos of my paintings as i do them, mostly because i think paint set-ups look really cool and there's something about seeing a painting in the context of colorful splattered paint palettes. In this case i also wanted to get pictures of the ink work before i painted it (i was too lazy to scan it).

I've started to get into Paul Pope's work. I've got a couple of his comics that i need to start reading, but mostly i love the way he draws. It's really raw-looking inky brush lines, but he's got amazing control with it and knows how to throw in just the right amount of detail. So i've been playing with that, trying to get better with a brush pen. If nothing else it's a lot of fun... and is teaching me patience, waiting for ink to dry.

And the finished version (ooooh aaaaah)

Eyeballs

2011-12-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

The other day i was sitting in a meeting and thought about this.

Now you're thinking about it too >:)
BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Thanksgivings

2011-12-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

Some Thanksgiving comics, only about a week late!
I really love thanksgiving. The food is good, and genuinely enjoy coming home and seeing my family. So i'd have to say i'm generally thankful (not just one day, but year-round) for all that and more.

First, mom stories:

And then she pretty much told me it was time to go home. My mom might have some regrets.

The Morning After Thanksgiving stories:

They really only gave me about half a pie to take home, but i did eat all of that by myself over the course of a few hours, starting first thing in the morning.

I am always thankful for pumpkin pie :)

Next 5

2011-11-28T13:26:00.000-08:00

My friend Emma first introduced me to this exercise. It's a really great boarding challenge that helps train you to come up with entertaining ideas quickly.
The idea is you start with a random photo (Flickr is a good source for these) and you treat it like the first shot of a short film. Then you figure out what happens next, and board the next five shots; not the next five panels, but the next five unique shots. In the end you should have six drawings (including your starting image).
We're doing this exercise with our story trainees at the studio right now and i realized i'd never posted any of these here. This is one i did using this photo as a starting point.

(TECHNICALLY i cheated; i added a second panel for my first shot, so i've got seven drawings here)

Kamen Rider/Super Sentai!

2011-11-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Happening TONIGHT!
Right now, this very second, Q-Pop is hosting its Kamen Rider/Super Sentai gallery tribute!

I couldn't make it to the opening and i'm super bummed, but it's up for a WHOLE WEEK so that's plenty of time to check it out!

I was thrilled to be invited to participate in the show. Here are my pieces, which are all for sale!

Electro-Wave Human Tackle, TECHNICALLY the first female Rider.

She loved Kamen Rider sooooo much.

Calaveras

2011-11-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a good Halloween and is currently having un felíz Día de los Muertos!

These were done for our most recent (and second annual) Halloween microgallery show :)

Treiman

2011-10-27T23:35:00.000-07:00

I talk to myself a lot. In private, in public, it doesn't really matter. Sometimes i'll talk out loud, sometimes i'll just gesture to myself or make weird expressions that correlate to whatever i'm thinking. Sometimes i'll do it all at once! Sometimes i'm accidentally staring straight at a stranger while i'm doing it.
I usually refer to myself by my last name.
I know i'm not the only one who does this.
So anyway...

Thank goodness for the blue-tooth talkers who make it easier for us legit nutters to hide in a crowd.

For whatever reason i was having a hard time drawing this comic. Sometimes stuff like this happens easily, sometimes i really have to work at it, and this was one of the latter times for sure. When i got really frustrated at my inability to draw something so familiar to me i drew the following, which i actually find funnier than the comic itself. But then, I'm often amused by my own "antics".

Tackle

2011-10-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a piece for an upcoming gallery show at Q-pop in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Kamen Rider and the 35th Anniversary of the Super Sentai series. Not having actually seen either (not even Power Rangers!) i've been digging into the veritable treasure trove of source material and came out with Electro-Wave Human Tackle, the lady side-kick/romantic interest of one of the Kamen Riders. She's got a pretty fun design and some pretty cool powers, so i thought i'd give her her due. Just practicing drawing her here.

Actual finished piece to exist in the future!

Jobs

2011-10-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

Back in the summer of 2005 i interned up at Pixar on W.A.L.L.-E.
I didn't really do any production work, but i got to sit in on story meetings and that was an education in itself. I was only 19 and had just finished my sophomore year of college so i spent most of my time feeling like a freshly hatched scared baby chicklette, but i had a lot of really great experiences that summer and met some really amazing people, many of whom i still see around.

Recent events stirred up something that happened that summer i'd almost completely forgotten about:
One day i was hanging out with the some of the story guys* in the WALL-E pod. I don't remember who all was there exactly. They were cleaning out the mini fridge and there were some beers left, so they decided to finish them off. So now we were all lounging around, middle of the afternoon, drinking beers (except for me, i hadn't really developed a taste for beer yet, and i was only 19 besides) when Steve Jobs walked by:

I remember there being some speculation as to what the majority shareholder of the studio would have to say about his employees (and intern) lying around drinking in the middle of the work day, but as he walked by he smiled and waved at us and actually seemed too happy to be there to really care. I have since learned (with gusto) that drinking on the job is quite per the norm at animation studios so in retrospect i'm sure he never gave it a second thought.

I don't have a lot else to say about Steve Jobs. He helped revolutionize the technology industry as we know it, to be sure, but you read things and you hear things and it's clear the man wasn't exactly a saint. Still (as i type this on my MacBook Pro), he inspired a lot of people and certainly invested a lot in the industry that i'm fortunate enough to be employed by, so Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs.

* and i do mean story Guys, there were no girl artists on that crew, or any crew if i remember correctly, with the exception of Brenda Chapman.

And then everything changed.

2011-09-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

I got a kindle for my birthday at the beginning of this month. It was supposed to be my gateway to unfettered literacy. This is what happened.

To be fair, that night i DID load it up with the first four Song of Ice and Fire books. I just finished 'Game of Thrones' not ONE HOUR before posting this and have already started 'Clash of Kings' so i've been getting some pretty good mileage on it thus far. I want to get 'American Gods' (i'm a neil gaiman fan and i've never read it) and the whole 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' series. I am hungry for words!

I have noticed that most of my journal comics involve me sitting in bed with my laptop. I really hope this isn't an accurate representation of how i spent my time...

Arya

2011-09-15T17:42:00.001-07:00

I've been reading Game of Thrones. It's super good, you guys. I'll be honest, i watched the show first, and it prompted me to pick up the book. So far the adaptation's been pretty faithful, with the exception of a few details. Watching it first has actually proved to be somewhat helpful; the book (and show) are initially a flood of names of people that are pretty important to get sorted out. Having gotten everyone straight in the show, i've got faces to match to names going into the book which has made things flow pretty smoothly.

I was hanging out with Emma last weekend and, watching her draw, i realized how lazy my own drawings have gotten. So when i found myself doodling Arya Stark i tried to pay attention to what i was doing and try and draw a face that didn't look like every other face i always draw. I'm not sure if i was successful. I just kind of filled a sheet of paper with a sketch-mess.

I'm drawing her too old. She's 8 in the first book (which is where i'm at) but i couldn't figure out how to make her look younger without making her look cuter, because she's not supposed to be cute.
I DID have fun drawing with what might be the best brush pen ever*? I found it laying around the story room and started doodling with it (ssssh!).

*it will never replace my pentel pocket brush.

Zombie hero

2011-09-02T17:45:00.000-07:00

We've got a new microgallery show at work, and the theme is "Heroes and Villains". Originally it was going to happen around comic-con, but everyone's been working like crazy here so the gallery was pushed back so everyone would have time to do a piece.
I've been reading "World War Z" (which is a completely awesome book), so this is my zombie apocalypse hero.
Alternate title: "Get Away From My Dog, You Z-bag!"

I guess who the hero is and who the villain is depends on whose perspective you're seeing this through. Bear in mind, zombies have no concept of villainy, only "BRAAAINS".

OMGod of War

2011-08-21T00:28:00.000-07:00

The boyfriend's finally playing through the latest God of War. So help me, i love watching that game. When Kratos finally met up with Hermes it broke my heart; Hermes was always my favorite of the greek gods and i knew what was going to happen. What... HAD to happen.

Poor Hermes. Kratos is gonna get what he wants!

Make it so.

2011-07-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

You ever have one of those dreams where you see something really awesome and think "oh man, i wish i'd thought of that!", only to wake up and realize you DID because you dreamed it?
I dreamed this.

It is a three-headed fox dressed as Captain Picard with a body made of the U.S.S. Enterprise. In my dream it was animated and it's heads were all wiggly. It's possibly the best thing i've ever thought of... i think.

Nerd problems

2011-07-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter 7 part 2 premieres tomorrow, or more accurately, at midnight tonight!
I've always been a fan, but my life as a real-live grown-up has been busy and i forgot to get excited about it. Needless to say buying a ticket for a midnight screening the day of is a fool's errand.

I snagged a ticket for tomorrow night. I guess seeing it opening day won't lose me too much nerd cred :)

[EDIT] As has been pointed out, there IS always 'Winnie the Pooh'! You guys should really check it out. It does... "bear" mentioning :D

GDG Vol. 4

2011-06-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

The rumors are true! The 4th Girls Drawing Girls book is available for pre-order!

My Ocotillo piece is in there, along with over 80 other illustrations from some super talented ladies. This classy number is all wrapped up in a quality HARD COVER volume. Impress your friends and make your enemies seethe with jealousy over your impressive library. Order before July 10th and get a special edition bookplate! Several of us (including yours truly) have created some really rad ones... LIKE THE ONES BELOW!

Will one of these be yours???
Only one way to find out! :)

For Science.

2011-06-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

Only about four years late to the party, i've finally started playing the first Portal. I've seen it played through and i just watched my boyfriend play through all of the second one. They're puzzle games, and the writing is so clever, so they're fun to watch, but apparently even more fun to play!
I've got the first one on Steam but i think i might have to go ahead and get Portal 2 on PS3 for myself.

Hunger Games

2011-06-10T23:46:00.000-07:00

I finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy recently. They're classified as "young adult" but basically everyone i know kept talking about them and i figured i should see what the fuss was about before the movie came out.
It's a fast read, but that's partly because the action is so captivating. Katniss is a really strong female protagonist and through the books you get to witness her very human reactions to some truly horrifying circumstances. In my opinion (and i guess everyone else's) the first book is totally awesome, and then the others less so, but i was compelled to keep reading because i had to know how it all ended!
Anyway, one day i found myself trying to doodle the characters. Mostly i was trying to get Foxface Girl, who's not even featured all that much in the book, i just had an image in my head i was trying to get down. That's Katniss on the right. Each drawing is me trying to find the right face; like, that first Katniss wasn't quite right, but i like the look of the second one.

(note: nothing here depicts actual story points, so this post is certified spoiler-free!)
It wasn't until i'd scribbled out this page that i remembered that Foxface doesn't actually have knives (or even a pack, i think). I just thought they worked well for her. I also thought it would be neat if she wrapped her jacket sleeves in bandages or something, since she's all sneaky like a ninja :)

Paige of Swords

2011-06-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

Man, over... a year ago now i this piece in a Tarot themed show at The Hive gallery here in LA. The owner is a friend of Girls Drawin' Girls and invited us to participate in one of their non-pinup themed shows. Each one of us chose a card out of a standard Tarot deck. It was a nice opportunity to do something different.
This was my take on the Paige of Swords. Every now and again i'm afforded an opportunity to justify my gratuitous purchase of reference material. Finally, my book of samurai outfits and armor had it's time to shine!

The thin pencil border is where the painting would be framed, but i liked the raw edges of the watercolor.
Once again, i tried my best to properly research the kanji i used. I believe it may actually say "knife" instead of "sword", but he's not really holding a full sword anyway, sooo....

This is one of those pieces that I hated at the time i made it. It wasn't what i had in my head at all, but i put it in the show anyway. Fortunately, it sold and i didn't have to look at it anymore! But while recently browsing through old art scans on my hard drive i came upon it again and, looking at it with fresh eyes, i decided i liked it afterall! And now here it is!

This is my job. This is what i DO.

2011-06-07T00:46:00.000-07:00

Further reflections on my apparent illiteracy (FACT???).

Hey, this shit's hard, you guys!

sexy, sexy ocotillo.

2011-05-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that i am a fan of the noble ocotillo. Ever since i drove out into the desert about a year ago with three friends and observed them in the wild, i have been a fan. Like most desert plants, much of the year they're not much to look at, a mere bundle of brown twigs sticking up out of the ground, but when they're in bloom they're something to see.
So when Girls Drawing Girls announced that the theme for our upcoming 4th volume would be plants, i was quick to claim this one for my own.

Originally i'd had an idea to use the ocotillo motif as a tattoo, which was something i'd sketched out just for funsies before the theme was announced. I tried to incorporate this idea into a layout that would look something like an add for some kind of edgy tattoo parlor, maybe a little Jamie Hewlett inspired, perhaps? But it never looked right and i wasn't feeling it so i abandoned the idea for the one above.

I also figured that the piece should incorporate the actual plant it's themed after, and ocotillo's such a tall plant, i think the final version gives you more context.

2011-05-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

Story meetings can be very frustrating. One day i chose to vent my frustrations through drawings of interpretive dance.

Kindle for Grandma

2011-05-06T08:12:00.001-07:00

Mother's Day approaches! My grandma has always been very good to us grandkids, and now that most of us are earning a living wage my cousins and i have made it a habit to try and give as good as we've gotten on Mother's Day.
My Grandma certainly isn't lacking in worldly comforts, but her eyesight is going and she was always a reader. While technology isn't her forte, this year it was clear that the Kindle would be an invaluable asset to her.
As the artist in the family, the burden of card-making always falls to me. Word to the wise, artist-children: once you hand-make that first thank you note or birthday card, a precedent is set FOR LIFE. You will never, EVER be able to present a store bought card again.

(EVER)

Anyway, this is what i made this year! I haven't added text yet. Maybe it doesn't need it (except perhaps "happy mother's day grandma", that might be helpful).

Microgallery: Japan!

2011-04-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

We're having a new microgallery opening today! This is our second one back at the studio since our big public show at Nucleus.
The tragedy in Japan has touched all of us as in the artistic field as much as anybody. Even though the earthquake hit over a month ago, it's impact is still being felt. We decided Japan would be our theme this time around, and all proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross Japanese relief efforts. It will be a silent auction, and by donating through the studio Disney will match whatever we give. It's going to be a good one.
Here are my two pieces! I tried to research the japanese as accurately as i could. If i've made any grievous errors in translation, don't hesitate to point them out.

"Save Japan"

"Super Watermelon"
(EDIT: Thanks to an anonymous poster for the spelling correction. That should read スーパー instead of スーバー )

Because what is more Japanese than a square watermelon?

Horizon

2011-04-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

My friend Emma is wrapping up work on her third short film, "Horizon". She asked a bunch of her artist friends to design posters for it, and i was thrilled to be asked to make one as well. Emma's seemingly boundless creative energy and self-motivation as a film maker is nothing short of inspiring.
Over a year later (shameful procrastination!) i finally got it done.

I'm really pleased with the way it came out. Of course the source material held no shortage of inspiration :)
PLEASE swing by the official 'Horizon' Facebook page and check out all the totally rad behind-the scenes stuff that they've been posting!

Lincolns

2011-03-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago our Micro Gallery at work did a Presidents Day themed show (update on the Microgallery blog to follow... eventually...). All Lincolns! Each one went for five bucks!
I did three pieces for the show, this is one of them (the above image... is not):

Thought i'd throw some Mignola homages around, just for funsies!

Aah, updating my blog is fun.

Some goths

2011-01-25T00:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since i've had anything to post! Been busy with life and work. Also i finally started playing Red Dead Redemption, so... there's that.
Anyway here's some non-production related story meeting doodles! I drew some goth chicks today. The first two probably shop at Hot Topic, but i'm thinking the third one gets by on thrift store finds.

Pitch

2010-12-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

I pitched a sequence today. This wasn't it (but i wish it was).

I also don't pitch with a stick and paper. Most of us work digitally (or at least scan drawings and pitch digitally), but there're still a handful of board artists who pitch old-school. Sometimes it's simpler. I do have a pitch stick at my desk... you know, for emergencies*.

*zombie attacks

Tangled!

2010-12-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

Over Thanksgiving "Tangled" had a really great opening weekend! I've been hearing a lot of positive responses to it. A huge thanks to everyone who's gone out to see it so far and helped make it a success. It was soooo exciting to have been able to be involved in this film.
Here's some of the work i did! Some of it stayed in the final film, some of it was cut, some of it was handed off to other board artists after i'd worked on it, but that's the way it goes! We had a great crew, and i had a lot of fun.
(spoilers!)

In theaters nooowwww!

And once again: MICROGALLERY SHOW!

Super Big Micro Show!

2010-11-30T19:36:00.000-08:00

The Super Big Micro Show approaches!

This is going to be an amazing show. All real media, ALL THE TIME!
Super talented folks from Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar are contributing, i can't wait to see it all come together! One and all are welcome to join us on Dec. 11 for the gallery opening! Hope to see you there!

Here's one of the five pieces i'll have in the show.

Microgallery news and history can be followed on the "official" blog... provided i manage to update it.

Doodlies

2010-11-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

Some (non-production) work doodles..

(Ocotillopus.)

Darths

2010-10-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

Darth 1

Darth 2

Red Whine

2010-09-30T23:11:00.001-07:00

I drew this comic a week or two ago, promptly scanned it, and then work got busy and i forgot i had a blog.

It is a true story, possibly about alcoholism? I can't remember if i actually said this out loud to myself, but i most definitely thought it distinctly.

Hellboid

2010-09-22T00:33:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year designer Andrew Bell teamed up with Dyzplastic and put out a line of totally adorable vinyl toys modeled on the Android operating system mascot (production process and updates on their blog here.
Totally sweet!
Along with a blind box series they also put out a blank DIY droid. I've never done a vinyl mod, so when i saw them at Comic-Con this year i picked one up!

I figured i'd stick close to home on this one, so i chose to make a Hellboy droid :)

Toyed around with what to do about the antennae/horns, and wound up just combining them.

Big shoes to fill, little guy.

The horn-nubs, right hand, tail, and little hair bun were made out of Green Stuff (dries without baking, pretty easy to find)

The little dude likes Buffy, bless his heart :)

... and then painting time!

Several coats of paint and some mostly-dried out sharpies later...

There's a pancake. He found the pancake!

(i had just enough Green Stuff leftover...)

And that's the end :)

It's a comfy 80 degrees OUTside

2010-09-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

It's always pretty cold in the studio. I'm glad i can huddle around my cintiq for warmth.

Apple Pie

2010-09-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year Girls Drawin' Girls put out our third art book! It was the first i'd had the opportunity to contribute to since joining the group, and it's always exciting to see your own work in print :)
The theme was desserts, i chose apple pie (one of my favorite desserts) and did two pieces that are both featured in the book. Vol. III: Sugar and Spice is still available for purchase for $25!

These are the pieces i did! I'm lucky enough to say both the originals have sold :)

Both pieces were done in watercolor, with acrylic for the highlights and tones (plus a little digital touch-up). A while back Bill Pressing posted this tutorial to his blog and i'd always wanted to try it. Doing tones first in acrylic is a lifesaver and gives you WAY more control! I'm now officially a fan of it.

I've also posted art here for something called the Micro Gallery. It's a small gallery space we've set up ourselves at work. It has it's own blog now where all the past shows are being documented (to the best of our provided photo ability) leading up to... (drumroll)... our first ever show at Gallery Nucleus! It's a great venue and the first time we'll have a chance to have a show open to the public. It'll be a bunch of us from Disney, plus artists from Dreamworks and Pixar.
It'll be fun on a bun!

Amigurumi!

2010-09-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia describes amigurumi as:
"Amigurumi (編みぐるみ?, lit. knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures."

A little while back i got hooked on crocheting (pun DEFINITELY intended). It started with an afghan but i wanted to get more ambitious. When i saw this pattern i knew i had to try it. With a few modifications to the original pattern, i made one as a gift for The Boyfriend :)

Shy jedi master

Yoda and his deformed brother, made from rejected parts of early yoda attempts. He has two heads, one arm and one weird foot (he almost didn't have a body). They share a bond that cannot be broken.

The next project wound up being a birthday gift for a friend. He's a HUGE Scott Pilgrim fan, so I mocked up a design for a Ramona Flowers based on the image at the right (which is not my artwork), initially just for kicks, but then it started to seem more and more feasible so i actually took a crack at it. The result was a mixed success. The hair was the biggest challenge. I also wanted to add a hood and jacket, but any hood that was big enough for her giant head wound up being way bigger than her comparatively tiny body...

Here's the mock-up i started with:

And here's the finished product:

Her hair came out super-crazy. At one point i put actual hair gel in there to try and make it keep it's shape, but it didn't hold for long. Her "neck" is also kinda long; i had left space to attach a hood, but never wound up using it.

Details, details.

Like, OMG! LOL.

I did both of these in the last few months. Next on my list is a little Commander Data. I'm also inspired by the custom Sack Boy skins in Little Big Planet; making a simple sack boy would be cool, but their Mystique looks simple enough and could come out so rad if i could find some skull beads...

If only i didn't have a really great full-time job!

On buying holistic pain meds.

2010-09-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

So back in late June/early July i was called for jury duty, and for the next month i served on a trial in which the heirs to the estate of Bing Crosby were suing the MCA record company for several million dollars in unpaid royalties.
The interesting aspect of the case pretty much begins and ends with that description, unless you're REALLY into tedious contract law, which i'm not particularly.
Anyway, i made about five or six comics around that time (lots of time sitting in the courtroom) but i only actually finished one. The rest exist as rough pencil sketches and looking back on them, they're really not funny enough to finish.

This is the first of the lot, and the only one i actually finished inking. It's all true. Never, ever try and buy headache medication at Whole Foods.

I get that Whole Foods is "all natural" and all that jazz, but they ARE, in essence, a grocery store and ought to carry this sort of thing. My head hurt pretty badly, i was in the store anyway, and really didn't feel like making an extra stop on the way home. I found some sort of reasonably priced holistic pain meds and bought them.
They were highly ineffective.

It's pink!

2010-09-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

WOW it's been a while since i've posted anything. Life's been busy busy busy. I've got about fifty-thousand un-scanned comics that i don't even think are funny anymore. I'll probably post some of them anyway eventually. That plus a small handful of other projects. For now here's a thing i doodled (there's not really any context for it)!

Also a note: Even without regular posting i somehow still get a slow trickle of comments here. Since the blogger format doesn't really allow for practical response to individual comments, just a quick note to say thank you to anyone who swings by here to begin with, and a thank you to those of you who take the time to leave a comment. I appreciate them all :)

Vvvroooom

2010-05-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

One of two pieces up in our latest Microgallery show at work! The theme is "Transit".

oh mom.

2010-04-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a comic i drew while visiting my parents this weekend. Brought to you in two different colors of ink!
Glorious!

Simple slip-up on my mom's part, as she herself has four nephews, although my aunt doesn't have any...

2010-02-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

Did this last week for fun, but never got around to scanning it. i'm thinking that's kind of a trend with me. i feel more like this this week than when i painted it, so i suppose it's for the best, really :)

Quincey

2010-01-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

When i got a cat, i swore i wouldn't become one of those people who talked about their cat all time and did drawings of "this funny thing my cat did", because really all cats do the same funny cat things. But it's inevitable, i'm just going to embrace it.
My cat is actually really big.

ALSO, just fyi, two of the copies of Torch Tiger i donated to the Girls Drawin' Girls Haiti Relief Auction" have sold! That means there are two copies left! Get 'em while the gettin's good!

Haiti relief fund - Torch Tiger

2010-01-25T22:06:00.000-08:00

No art with this post, just a heads up that i've donated four copies of "What is Torch Tiger" (one of them signed by everyone!) to the Haiti Relief Drive Girls Drawin' Girls is running. Suggested donation is $40 for the ONE SIGNED COPY, $20 for each standard copy (standard copies will be signed by just me, but who really wants that, right?). $6 for shipping, all proceeds go to the American Red Cross.
If you couldn't make it to Comic-Con this is a good chance to snag a copy AND help a worthy cause!

[EDIT: added some art because the post looked naked]

gaga

2010-01-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

Had some Lady Gaga stuck in my head today, so i doodled...

Yeah, Lady Gaga, man. Say what you want about her, but the lady is a total entertainer. She's a real contemporary diva. I watched the 'Bad Romance' music video recently and i think it made me a fan.

There's some wicked cool imagery in here, almost reminiscent of dark 80's scifi glam. I'll take this over a music video that's just shots of the band playing in a field somewhere any day. She does some really cool things with her hands in here too. i catch myself trying to do the same jerky finger movements, but my hands are kind of stumpy :)

Also posted over at Girls Drawin' Girls as part of a "100 Ladies in 100 Days" project some of us are participating in. 100 ladies each. This was #9 for me, so... i'm a little behind.
GDG is also hosting a Haiti Relief Art Sale. All proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross. If you're interested in seeing what's for sale, hop on over! If you're interested in donating any of your art to the sale, ALL art is welcome; any subject matter, from ANYONE. Details at the link.

koala-boala

2010-01-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

when i get frustrated in meetings i draw koalas. this one started out with just one baby.

Ursa

2009-12-31T01:05:00.000-08:00

This completely slipped my mind until now. Our Micro Gallery at work had a show right before the holidays! The theme was 'winter'. Here's the piece i did for it:

The rough edges of the painting are cropped by the matting in the frame, but i like the look of them.

Here's some of the concept sketches i did. normally my concept stuff isn't much to look at, but i liked these early things (not included: a bajillion practice drawings of bears):

Afghan! The musical?

2009-12-31T00:36:00.000-08:00

Not really art, but in the absence of anything else i thought i'd share. My roomie got me a big fat crochet hook for Hanukkah, which inspired me to take all the leftover yarn that i've been accumulating and make a big afghan! i made it circular, just because i can.

Weird picture of me, but i'm there for scale. That's the thing behind me, folded in half over the couch.

It's a good size, but it's an odd shape. The nice thing about making a blanket in cold weather is that it keeps you warm while you're making it :)

Just a jewish girl on xmas

2009-12-25T23:29:00.000-08:00

I didn't get around to doing a Hanukkah comic this year, so i did a Christmas comic, why not? This is what good little Jewish kids get xmas morning.

I tried making sugar cookies last night, and they turned into Tasty Butter Lumps. each one is a heart attack waiting to happen, but i just keep eating them.
Sorry for the bad scan, that one spot on my scanner seemed determined to be blurry and who was i to tell it to conform?
I also... don't know any korean and just kind of had to... wing it for that word balloon, so... apologies there as well.

As the fine folks at Penny Arcade put it, "I hope that whatever phenomenon best epitomizes your native winterfest is in plentiful supply."
Couldn't have said it better myself :)
Peace.

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

2009-12-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

This saturday, Eliza Frye is hosting a Girls Drawin' Girls show at her gallery "Miss Scarlet in the Parlor".

(postcard art by me!)
All art will be $50 and under. If you're in the area and need a last minute holiday gift, swing on by!
Here's the piece that i'm selling:

It's been a while since i've sat down and done just straight-up wildlife art, so this was fun.

Come check us out!

totally thankful!

2009-11-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

Super thanks goes out to an anonymous commenter on my last post! My scanner totally works now!
So this year i'm thankful for working technology, family, friends, my pukey cat and house-hold cleaners.

Hope everyone in the US had a good Thanksgiving weekend! To everyone else, i hope the tail end of your November has been rockin'.

Na naaa nanananana na na na naaana nanana

2009-11-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

A little while back, Jason sent me a link to this pattern for a crocheted magnetic katamari ball. I learned to crochet (thanks nicole!) just so i could make this ball.

For a first attempt it came together remarkably well! It was fun to make.

Ride the royal rainbow, little ball!

Yeah! Roll up all that business.

I have some actual art to upload, but trying to get CS4 to run my scan software has been a tiny nightmare.
Has anyone ever installed drivers for a CanoScan LiDE 600F scanner onto a mac and managed to get Photoshop CS4 to recognize the scanner and NOT crash every time you try to scan? i was able to install it no problem for CS2, but the issue for CS4 is it's no longer made with TWAIN plug-ins that are needed to recognize the cannon drivers. i managed to install them, and i can open the scan software in photoshop, but trying to preview the image crashes the whole program. maybe i installed something wrong, or maybe everything's just messed up in general.

blah blah blah. TECHNOLOGY, am i right?

Carry on

2009-11-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

I realized the other day that if you sing it soft and slow, "Carry On My Wayward Son" would be a nice lullaby.

It was really weird drawing myself holding a baby.
I was drawing this while sitting in the theater waiting for 'Where the Wild Things Are' to start. I really enjoyed the movie, and wound up doodling this little wild thing on the same page in my sketchbook:

Hope everyone had a radtastic Halloween!

Mummy spies the candy!

2009-10-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

Halloween is almost upon us! I'm all about the mummies this year.

I did this for round two of the Micro Gallery we've set up at work. "Micro" because all the artwork is approximately 6"x6" or less and... our space is really small. Photos from the opening of the first micro gallery (courtesty of Brian Kesinger):

All proceeds from the first gallery went to buy us a lovely bar (it's name is "Barsheba", or at least that's what i'm going to keep calling it until it sticks)! Proceeds from our Halloween show are going to charity.

ikea

2009-10-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

I recently set up a small studio space for myself in a corner of the spare bedroom in my apartment (a space now also shared with my cat Quincy) and figured this new reclamation of space would be a good opportunity to set up some bookshelves as a solution to my ungodly book overflow problem.
Not wanting to spend too much, i set out for Ikea!

Ikea is a terrible place, especially when it's busy. Full of fast-moving little kids, slow-moving adults, and tons and tons of things that i have no use for but want anyway.
I didn't actually wind up getting anything, not even the shelves i'd come for. i found one set that i liked, but it was $60, and i figured if i was going to pay that much i might as well pay a little more and get something nice that's not made of particle board. I'm an adult now (so they tell me), and as such i think i deserve to surround myself with furniture that's not totally crappy.

So i won this round, Ikea! Perhaps someday we'll meet again on the field of battle, but it's not likely.

Ballooning

2009-10-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

A fine and fancy female ballooning in her bloomers!
Kind of a concept drawing for a better-planned painting i'd like to do eventually :)

Also posted over at the Girls Drawin' Girls blog as part of our "weekly" theme.

Purrcasso!

2009-10-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

I did a piece for the Purrcasso Art & Craft Gala which benefits the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society. It's a good cause, and a good excuse to draw a cat. I recently adopted a cat myself from The Catharine Fund here in L.A.! His name is Quincey, and he looks a bit like this guy here.

The deadline to get art to them is this saturday (Oct. 31st!) so there's technically still time! I've been slacking big time and need to get to the post office early tomorrow morning so i can have this overnighted up north. Here's hoping it helps!

Autumn!

2009-10-15T23:09:00.001-07:00

Two posts in the space of an hour! RIDICULOUS!
I did this last week and it's been sitting around so i thought i'd throw it up here (hehe, "throw up"). Autumn is my absolute favorite season-that-doesn't-really-exist-in-LA. This was meant to commemorate the start of our delightful cold weather, and came out a little more sinister than i was intending.
I still like it though, so here it is.

Mummy Girl

2009-10-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

This is my piece for the Girls Drawin' Girls show that opens at the Hyaena gallery this weekend! She's just preppin' for Halloween like the rest of us. Mummies are going to be the new vampires (nice try Penny Arcade but i thought of it first, just ask anyone.)
Ain't nothing sexier than mummies.

I won't be around for the opening, but if you are then you should definitely check it out. Located in scenic Burbank, CA, next door to House of Secrets. Sure to be spooky good!

green sweatew

2009-10-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

I have a green sweatshirt that i love (the actual sweatshirt has the WWF panda on it!) but until recently it's been too hot to wear it. SoCal's "other season" has officially begun, and i'm super-psyched. I love this weather. It makes it possible for me to deal with just about anything.
Anyway, i dug the sweatshirt out and was wearing it around the house the other day, but it was all dusty from hanging on a hook all year. It was kind of a cozy smell.

for the bar

2009-09-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

This fox had a wee nip o' the barrel.
I'm not sure if that's a thing people actually say (now, or... ever) but... i guess i just said it, so...

Changed up the blog template again. just trying to find what feels like home ;)

saturday morning

2009-09-28T10:48:00.001-07:00

When i read The Internet in bed there's this kind of continental drift that happens.

Polyphylla Decemlineata

2009-09-16T14:19:00.000-07:00

It's been warm out so we have a TON of these guys hangin' around the studio.

(thank you The Internet for the photo)
They're a little bigger than a quarter and they're harmless unless they hit you at high speeds. Fortunately i've never actually had a collision with a ten-lined june beetle (at least, not at work) but with the sheer numbers of them it's not an unlikely scenario.

When i was a kid i used to go camping with my parents near Lake Arrowhead and these guys would turn up around dusk every summer. My dad named the first one Elmo, and it stuck. We found Elmos camping at Lake Tahoe too, and the ones there would dive-bomb us in the showers. They're solid little dudes.

Rebuttles

2009-08-18T00:19:00.000-07:00

This comic is based on a totally real fake argument that Jason and i frequently have about a real friend of ours. This was Jason's actual counter-argument.

Maybe now he'll get off my ass about posting this.

Guitarcher

2009-08-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

This is a half-post/half-promotion for the upcoming Girls Drawing Girls show at Meltdown Comics here in L.A.! It's a pretty awesome venue, and it's the first gallery show i'll be participating in so i'm pretty excited. Come check us out if you're in the area!

Here's one of the three pieces i'll have up. They're all original watercolor and they're all for sale (shameless promotion!).

And here's a sneak peak at the other two (preserving the air of mystery!):

Koalas

2009-08-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

This post is made of koalas.
The typical cartoon koala's pretty cute. But have you ever looked at a koala? i mean really LOOKED at one? Their eyes are bizarre. They have cat eyes! Most of the eye is a warm, reddish brown, and in the middle is a black slit of a pupil.
Which is not to say koala's aren't awesome. Or even that they're not cute. They're both those things.
They're just also freakin' weird.

These koalas are angry.

These are pretty normal.

More posts coming in the near future! They may come later this week. They may come this very night! WHO KNOWS?

Cah McCahn

2009-07-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

Heading out for San Diego Comic Con thursday evening! I'll be there Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and i'm pretty excited. My brain's already there!

Don't forget to check out Torch Tiger at booth #2302!

2009-07-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Another summery doodle! It's heating up in LA, gotta take this all in before it gets too hot to breathe ;)

Unrelated, but if you're in the LA area you should swing by Gallery Nucleus in ... scenic Alhambra and check out the Yuki 7 show that opened last night, which features the work of the very talented Kevin Dart and an array of his very talented friends and acquaintances. Really fun stuff!

Blorp Sac

2009-07-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

I guess this means it's summer now.

Photo extracted from cuteoverload.com via a very, very risky procedure.

2009-06-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

I figured i should get back in the habit of updating this blog. Ideally i'd like to post things that are, if not informative, tell some kind of a story or illustrate some sort of observational skills.
I don't have any of that :)
But i DID draw this:

Flipping through my sketchbook i saw that i had doodled this at the bottom of a page. I did it last week, but somehow i'd forgotten that i'd drawn it until the moment i re-discovered it. Apparently i enjoyed making it though, so there it is. Enough words have been wasted on it already.

'Till next time...

What is...?

2009-05-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

Torch Tiger is coming! The follow-up to last years "Who is Rocket Johnson?", "What is Torch Tiger?" is a collection of short comics and stories from Disney's story artists and directors. I'm very honored to count my name among the lot, and even more honored to know that my story (and everyone else's) will be swaddled in the stunning cover made for us by Disney artist Paul Felix (seen above).

Yay Torch Tiger! San Diego ComiCon 2009! be there or be square.

girls drawing girls in the rain!

2009-04-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

I'm now a proud member of Girls Drawing Girls, a group of ladies who draw ladies, because hell, it's just fun.
The theme for this week (almost last week) was rainy days. Watch out for freak rainstorms this spring...
...unless you're in Los Angeles.

Crawlin'

2009-04-19T00:28:00.001-07:00

So i was up in San Francisco last weekend for sketchcrawl and it was a total blast. I love the bay area and i got to hang out with awesome people and eat awesome food and generally have a totally rad time. I've got (i think) literally hundreds of photos to sort through but i want to get those up on flickr soon. i seriously neglect that account.
In any case, here're the few drawings i managed to squeeze out when i wasn't stuffing my face or chatting :)
We pretty much stayed in Chinatown...

And then these are just sketches from various places around the city, whenever i found myself sitting down with idle hands.

Day number... number... aw hell.

2009-04-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, so as outlined in this entry my noble efforts as a non-catholic to attempt something for Lent have failed. Maybe i'll be better at Passover than i am at Lent (i wouldn't hold my breath on that one).

I wanted to do more on this, but i was stalling and kinda wanted to get this up here. But Passover lasts for eight miserable days. who KNOWS what i can conjure in that amount of time? :)

Pampakes!

2009-03-22T22:13:00.000-07:00

I usually try and avoid posting coffee-shop drawings (largely because mine aren't terribly interesting) but i was hanging out at a place in Burbank this weekend and i kinda liked the look of this page. When i'm not too lazy i try and really get not just gesture or charicature (i really only rarely attempt the latter anyway) but also the way people fit in their environments. Next step is finding compositions within real life settings. Steve's already got a solid handle on that one.
So yeah, coffee people and a doodle of some weird cats.

... i guess you can have more weird cats...

and lastly:
PANCAKES.
i made myself pancakes for dinner and i am SO PROUD. they're a work of art if i do say so myself. made from scratch! with nutmeg, vanilla and lots of butter. none of this Crisco business, thank you much.

with fresh strawberries! my finest work.

St. patty's day!

2009-03-17T23:03:00.001-07:00

Nicole posted a St. Patrick's Day challenge on her blog. I solved it, but... there were more problems.

Did everyone enjoy their corned beef and cabbage?

Day... 18? 19? : Sheeping

2009-03-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

I've been really bad about this daily updating. really, really bad. i'd make some excuse about how "i've been tired" or "i've been busy", "i had a headache", "i... just didn't feel like it", but ... well, look at that, four perfectly good excuses!

A while back i had an idea for a comic about a little shepherd who meets another shepherd who has a flock of weird not-sheep.
I stopped working on it because i couldn't think of anything that hadn't already been done.

But i was doodling today (not for Torch Tiger, of course, but for this which is totally irrelevant and doesn't have a pressing deadline) and i came up with an idea. It's a bit... cuter than what i originally wanted to do, but who am i to tell an idea it's wrong when it decides to visit me?

If i'm good there will be at least one St. Patrick's Day themed post before i go to bed! If i'm bad then... i guess there won't be :)

I also need to update my links on the side there. So many more to add! that's not going to happen now, though. i'm going to need to be WAY less lazy to do that.

day 10, but who's counting?

2009-03-07T14:48:00.000-08:00

So Nicole was taking requests for blog topics for a little while. I asked her if she had to choose, would she rather have a cat with two heads or two butts. She asked me to post my choice.

(hehe, Pen did a drawing too!)

i've been dropping the ball big time on this drawing a day thing (thank you, jen). Gotta try and step it up.

day.... 4, 5, 6 and 7

2009-03-04T23:23:00.000-08:00

Saturday (sarah informed me that i can skip sundays!), monday, tuesday and wednesday (today).
I figure that if i post a lot of extra drawings it'll all even out and still totally count. So here goes. in no particular order:

I bought rhubarb the other day so jason could make a pie. it's such a funny sounding... vegetable? and i can't imagine that people buy it too often, so when the chick at Whole Foods double-checked with me what it was i was pretty enthusiastic.

I was drawing this mermaid today. She's chillin' out with some little ghost guys.

One of those moments where you outrun stressors, but then they catch up to you!

And lastly, these are two pages of pencil roughs for my Torch Tiger story. I've scanned them pretty small and posted them backwards (all davinci style!) to help preserve an air of mystery! These pages might wind up getting cut anyway. Can you tell what's going on in the panels? Neither can i!

"Why bother posting something that you don't intend anyone to decipher?" you might be thinking? Well THAT, my friends, is the greatest mystery of all.

day 3

2009-02-28T02:58:00.000-08:00

HA! i almost forgot. technically i did forget, but i'm just lucky it's 3am and i was having trouble getting to sleep!

I thought of this as i was falling asleep. Haven't the foggiest idea why. Originally the dragon was blowing fire at a little sleepy moon, but the moon looked dumb and i left it out.

These are pretty sad little uploads. I should do some real art if i'm going to be actually blogging it. I'd promise real art for tomorrow, but... i don't like lying :)

double-negative Lent: day 2

2009-02-26T22:53:00.000-08:00

So a friend of mine (i can never remember the level of discretion she chooses to keep with her real name) has resolved to post a drawing a day. This is a thing i have always said "huh, i should do that, sounds simple enough" but have never done. So i've decided that i'm giving up NOT doing it for Lent! I have never observed Lent before. I'm not even catholic. but this seemed like a good excuse for a short-term goal, and who knows, maybe it will be habit forming.

So here's my post for the second day (counting yesterday's post as the first):

It's a space sheep.
I remember hearing once that back in the day, before space travel was developed and people were starting to speculate what went on in space (in an early scientific sense) some people theorized that there were sheep on the moon. I haven't been able to verify the source of this story. Granted i heard it in a CalArts critical studies class, so it's veracity is questionable at best, still, i like the idea of sheep on the moon.
I think this one pooped out that little star*.

*see, jason, i still got poop in there somehow.

2009-02-25T19:22:00.000-08:00

I've been sick (along with everyone else in my house), and Jeffrey Rowland got me thinking about hobbits... but not quite like that.

I have this one Shakira song in both Spanish and English but the Spanish version seems to be all that ever comes up on shuffle. Not really relevant, but it came up on itunes just now and i thought i'd metion it.

2009-02-18T00:22:00.000-08:00

Tonight i decided i was going to do one drawing*. Unfortunately, this was all i could come up with.

Then i did this drawing of myself folding laundry. It's a little more true to my actual Tuesday night activities (although folding laundry is not really that frustrating).

Neither of these are necessarily blog-worthy, but apparently Randeep doesn't think i update my blog enough. He might not be wrong.

*initially with the intent of that one drawing being in the service of my torch tiger story, but that didn't work out so great. you know who else is doing a torch tiger story? nicole!

2009-02-03T20:08:00.000-08:00

An older scan out of a moleskine, because i don't have much else right now!
Busybusybusy.
Also i figured i should post something that wasn't some comic about myself. Just to shake things up.

The mermaid's okay, she's just nervous because she's so high up.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

Well, it's 2009 guys! here's a play-by-play account of my New Years Eve. Drawn in extra-shitty vision, courtesy of sleepiness! If enough people comment saying "Hey Lissa, i can't read your dang chicken-scratch writing." then i guess i'll... transcript it or something? it's really not that important.

Hanukkah comic!

2008-12-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

Just barely too late for a christmas comic, luckily i'm TOTALLY on time for a Hanukkah comic!
Complete with crappy scan, courtesty of the only scanner at my parent's house.

For actual information on Hanukkah, read the wikipedia article on the matter... just like i ~~had~~ chose to do.

On meeting new people

2008-11-09T22:32:00.000-08:00

A 100% true story.

Tried inking with a brush pen because, hell, i have a really nice one and it's what all the cool kids are doing these days (i think?).

Ssssssh

2008-11-05T20:37:00.000-08:00

I'm hiding!

So crazy political times, am i right? It's ~~finally~~ a good time to be an american so far as i'm concerned. I guess i'm not going to talk politics on this blog too much. If you (for however many people are still checking in here, sorry for not updating much) care to hear my opinion on the subject i've been blabbing on my livejournal.

a thing i did

2008-09-28T23:21:00.000-07:00

So i posted this video a while back:
(Pelican eating a pigeon, in case you don't want to re-watch it.)

I did this based on a conversation had over lunch.

This is kind of an A sketch to that one:

Less whiney

2008-08-18T23:25:00.000-07:00

I found a drawing that was less whiney. I liked the little moleskine tassle/place-holder thing there so i left it in the scan.

Problems!

2008-08-18T23:19:00.000-07:00

But only little ones.

I've only actually gotten two citations for invalid registration stickers.
Only two.
SINCE SATURDAY(it is currently Monday evening)!!!
I'm totally on top of it, City of Glendale. Chill out and cut me some slack.

(i'm hiding my car in our appartment's underground garage until my new stickers arrive. shhh. don't tell Glendale!)

Totoro Forest Project

2008-08-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

So i think literally everyone and their mother has made mention of this on their blog, but if somehow anyone's missed it:

The Totoro Forest Project is underway! Spearheaded by Hayao Miyazaki, the Project is a fund raising effort to save Sayama Forest in Tokyo, which served as inspiration for the film "My Neighbor Totoro". Dozens of amazingly talented artists have come forward to donate some stunning artwork to the cause which will be auctioned off at Pixar Studios on September 6th.

Tickets to the auction were made available to the general public, unfortunately (for those of us who missed out, but good for the forest) they sold out in 2 days. Now here's some information everyone and their mother might NOT have mentioned yet: if you email them at admin@totoroforestproject.org they're starting a wait list and will know in a couple of weeks if spots open up. I had hoped to go, but didn't count on tickets disappering so fast, so you know.... i found this information helpful.

Whether i can make it or not, best of luck to those guys. I know they've got the firepower (in an artistic sense... not a guns and ammo sense) behind them to make a difference.

2008-08-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

One last tiger, while i pull some interesting art together.

Maybe.

I've got my eye on you, Paul Briggs.

2008-07-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

Paul.

Comic Con part 2: Swag

2008-07-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

What's the best part of Comc Con? Loadin' up on bad ass books!

Pictured here are:
-Justin Parpan's "Gwango's Lonesome Trail", which i've been meaning to pick up since forever.
-Josh Parpan's "Eeks and Shrieks!" card set (not laid out)
-Emma's sketchbook
-Mike Mignola's sketchbook
-Chris Sander's sketchbook.
- Flight 5
- Who Is Rocket Johnson
- Ted Mathot's "Cora"
- Bill Pressing's "Bookplate Betties"
- Scott Morse's "Red Window: Summer 2008"
- Derek Thompson's Monster-a-Day
- Frank and Frank by Chris Applehans
PLUS the obligatory two books from Stuart Ng. I went into Stuart Ng expecting to make a B line for some Wenling, or an issue of Skydoll or Belladonne (my go-to titles for mind-blowingly appealing european comic book stylin's), but looking at them for the hundredth time i didn't find that i absolutely had to have them. Instead i tried to find something that i didn't already have, that i hadn't heard of and hadn't seen before. First i found 'Fennec' by Lewis Trondheim and Yoann. It's done in a really simple appealing style with equally simple and appealing watercolors. You don't need to read French to get the story. At the suggestion of some friends i also picked up a collection of the work of Sergio Toppi. His inking, crosshatching and color washes are refreshingly bold. I can see his influence in a lot people i've known who have come through CalArts, students and teachers alike, and it's nostalgic and refreshing to see the source.

FrankandFrank caught my eye with it's unusual shape. The awkwardness of trying to read such a long (not in the usual sense) book posed a humourous challenge. And the short, simple sequential strips it contained won me over (daaaaw!<3)

Videos of interest

2008-07-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, our Princess and the Frog teaser is now up and online!
Check it out. It's 2-D, guys!

Secondly, a totally badass ad campaign from BBC Sports for the upcoming Olympics in Beijing featuring the cast of Chen Shi-zheng, Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn's Monkey: Journey to the West! The animation in this is way better than anything i saw in the show. I've gotta find a way to download this:

And lastly, just because this is so freakin' wierd.
At lunch today my friend Sarah told me about this video clip of a pelican eating a pigeon.

a PELICAN.
eating a PIGEON.

apparently this happens way more often than people think? Anyway, here's the video.
[EDIT] I now feel compelled to mention that the pelican video is not only totally weird but possibly also a little disturbing. Nothing graphic or gross, just ... a tad disturbing. Consider that a heads up.

Comic Con part 1: New Friends

2008-07-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

So yeah, Comic Con! I'm lazy, and my computer has... problems, so i'm going to report it in chunks.
The first chunk is about new friends ("chunk"+"friends" in the same sentence = great).

Sills and a happy pea! Sills was made by Elizabeth Ito who was selling him and his mini monster kin complete with birth certificate and cozy PETA approved carrier!

The pea came from Conduct Happiness, and opened the door for pea jokes the rest of the day.
"I think I'll take a pea." (when i bought it)
"Look guys! There's pea in my bag!"
(when the pea ripped a seam)"My pea is leaking?"
"Claire, i hope your mom doesn't mind if i bring pea in her car."
"I kinda have to go to the bathroom, but it's okay, i can hold my pea."
The list goes on.

Happy pea!

Sills making friends.