What's New?

Hi all, just a quick update to dust off the cobwebs here and say what's happening as of late.

I'm updating for you from my parent's house in New York, where I've been since Thursday. I'm home till the end of the month to visit family, register my new car, and see some old friends. Oh, and enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather. Have I mentioned that it's already been in the 100's down in Savannah? It hit a high of 80-something today on Long Island, and it's been really great. No humidity sells it for me. But anyway...

Monday Night Crew: Art (c) Jason Clarke. /plug plug plug

I may be off from my solid-weekly-paycheck job, but I'm with my second job- still coloring the comics for Monday Night Crew while I'm here at home. The artist and I have set up a free filesharing account to easily send .PSD files back and forth to each other. Speaking of coloring comics, I've been really enjoying being the colorist for the webcomic. It looks great on the site and the comic really pops, and I've been getting some good practice and improving my skills at the same time. It's a win-win for all!

In about a week, my new car should be registered and on the road! I'm too excited, because the last car I owned was twenty years old and had a slew of mechanical issues from day one (when we bought it back in '06). It served me well, though, and for a long time. I'm stoked about my upgrade though, THAT'S for sure.

Gonna get back to my Hey Arnold! marathon via my good friend Derek's Netflix instant queue. Just updated my iPod Touch to the iOS4, so I've got to play around with the new features!

Peace out!

Stay Inside the Lines

In a not-so-subtle plug and promotion, I share with the world the witty gaming webcomic that's been going for, what, three years now(?), Monday Night Crew.

About a year or two ago, they stopped the use of color comics in order to update three times per week rather than once per week, due to the fact the artist was doing all of the work (penciling, inking, and digitally coloring) the comics alongside of his normal full-time j-o-b.

The guys in charge of the site have taken me under their wing (so to speak) to be the colorist for the comics Jason produces, as an experiment to see if the site's traffic increases and/or if people just simply prefer to have color comics over the black and white. I'll be doing this until the end of August. Who knows though, if it really takes off, I may be doing this for even longer.

I'll be honest though- I do love to digitally color. About a month or two ago I made this discovery. What's even better? People in general seem to respond positively and enjoy my colored art, because of it's vibrancy and liveliness (so I've been told).

So that being said, please check out the webcomic Monday Night Crew. It updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If you have a spare moment, be sure to shoot them an email and give them feedback! Do you prefer the comic in color or black and white, or does it even matter to you?

Have a good weekend!

Year one: Complete!

Hi all!

Well, I now have a bit of time to say to the blogosphere, and the internet world as a whole, that I've finished my first year of Graduate school successfully. It's been a trip, and my art as well as myself have changed dramatically (and for the better, might I add). The final day of classes was this past Thursday, and moving day was yesterday. It's been a whirlwind of activities between finals, moving, and my good friend Elaine driving down from Atlanta to visit the last two days.

Today is the first day in a long time that I've felt it's okay to be a lazy good-for-nothing... and not feel an ounce of guilt.

But without further ado, here's some recent art that I've completed between now and the last post!

Sticker design... could also function as a super cute bumper sticker. :)

 

  My fox "logo" for a few t-shirt designs I had in mind.

Portfolio poster design.

Fat little cardinals. D'aww!

Now that it's summer time, I'll be working more at my job downtown to make the monies. Alongside my current job that ensures me a weekly paycheck, I've been "hired" to be the colorist (June-August) of a webcomic that updates three times per week. 

Every year in the past, I've always returned to New York for the summers, but this is the first year I'll be staying in Savannah. I've "moved" in here with Ben and Jason for the duration of the bloody-hot summer months. I'll be visiting home for about a week and a half at the end of this month for my brother's High School graduation and to pick up my car!

Come September, aside from my first-time attendance at PAX in Seattle with Ben and Co., I'll be moving back in to my place at Boundary Village across town for the start of the Fall semester.

Here's to a great summer!

I'm Alive!

If I was a cat and had a lot of work to do, this would be me.

So, it's been awhile. I apologize for the stint of silence. I've been dealing with a lot and to be honest, everything I've been working on has been "in-progress," so I haven't had much finished work to show here. Now that some of the stuff I've been working on is reaching the "finished" stage, I'll break my silence and show you all what I've been working on.

"Aieeeee!"

I've covered more ground on my base website design. Yes, the freaky "screaming" tree, as myself and some friends of mine affectionately call it. Trust me though, the giant gaping knothole in said tree is on purpose, and it won't be a ominous abyss when all is said and done. There will be stuff to go in that space, such as gallery thumbnails, or little info tidbits.

I would wear this in a heartbeat.

As part of the same project, we also have to create merchandise (as well as a poster design, billboard design, and so on). I started playing around with a t-shirt design starring my little fox character. It's so cute, it may give you  a cavity!

That's all for now!

Inspiration Road: Don't Miss Your Exit

I missed my exit sometime this evening.

I felt a wave of apathy, felt uninspired and unmotivated about my work later on today after one of my classes. The main reason being: because I'm paranoid people are tired of my work. I worry about what others think about what I do, and if they're tired of it. The Sequential Art graduate program is small. We see each other constantly and have just about every class together, so in short we really see what everyone is all about.

I am focusing my graduate career on the Children's and all-ages genre of storytelling. Other graduates are focusing on other areas. I'm doing work in this area in order to really build my portfolio. The time for experimentation and jumping around to all kinds of styles and things was during my undergraduate career: now it's "serious time."

After a bit of talking with my roommate, and a cup of coffee, I brought myself back down to reality and realized that I am worrying too much about what other people think, and not enough about what I think. First and foremost I should be happy, and as long as one person likes what I do, it's a success. From what I know, many people like what I do. I just have to put my head on straight, focus, and get the job done. I sat myself down at my drawing table and sketched out a page for a personal story that is going towards my 45-hour graduate review in a few weeks. Powering through the fog helped me get back to my normal, confident self.

You can't please everyone out there, it's impossible. I just have to remember that.

Some "Suite" Cards (ba dum pish!)

Finished my four playing cards today. Not an entire set- which I think would be awesome. Maybe I'll complete the set gradually one of these days. :) I really enjoy the theme. Owls!

Enjoy!

 

The Joker: Trippin' eggs, man!

 

The King of Hearts: Owl Mosh Pit.

 

The Queen of Hearts: Owl Cuddles. :-)

 

Ten of Hearts: That's a flimsy branch... 

Hermit Artists

I like coffee... a lot.

Today, I spent the majority of the afternoon sketching and drawing at the local Starbucks, right on the corner of Broughton and Bull Street with my friend, roommate, and fellow Sequential graduate student Melanie! It's always a good time. A cup of coffee, a friend, good conversation, and sketching? Um, perfect!

As a Sequential Artist, it's a general knowledge that we don't get out much because we are stuck at our drawing desks and in our studios all the time working. In essence, it's been, in jest, said to be a "standard" amongst the major to be hermits.

I love to get out of the apartment and out of my room to draw. It not only lets me enjoy the day (and the weather has been downright gorgeous in Savannah as of late, that's spring time for you) but it gets me out into the world and encourages me to be social. It's easy to fall into "hermit mode" when you're so used to drawing for long periods of time by yourself.

So with that said, I suggest you fellow artists to go out places and draw. It's refreshing!

SCAD Con / Editor's Day

D.J., your poster designing skills are unmatched!

This past week sure has been a busy week, to prepare for one busy (yet exciting) day.

Today was the Sequential Art department's Editor's Day, for the first time held at the Career Fair. Also for the first time, there was a small Artist Alley. All together- it was named the first annual SCAD Con!

I was scheduled to meet with David Saylor, the Vice President and Creative Director for Scholastic. You might have heard of them. They've recently, within the last few years, started up a new section called "Scholastic Graphix" that's all about Children's comic books: a section that doesn't nearly get enough attention.

Now, since my graduate student career is focused around children's books and illustrations, and exploring Children's comics (as well as diving into the genre for my thesis), this meeting was definitely just right for me. I was super excited (and nervous!) to meet him and hear what he had to say.

Looking over my portfolio, he was very happy with what I had, my style, and my focus/direction as an Illustrator and comic creator. He particularly enjoyed my story about the foxes, and my illustrations for it. I definitely have a fan for them. He gave me a few pointers, and said overall that I was definitely in the right direction. He had no business cards on him (shamey shamey! :P) but he wrote down his email address for me in my sketchbook, and I handed him one of my own cards. He was happy to see there was a little fox sketch on it. I guess that'll make him remember me- that's a good thing, huh? I should have put one on the resume that I dropped into his box, though. That would have sealed it.

It was good to see some alumni- especially my friend Dan Morris. He's in town for the weekend, and if he happens to be reading this right now, I will just say that there's a trip to IHOP in order, and it has to go down before he goes. I'm just sayin'. :)

Overall thoughts: I did well today, and got a connection. The Artist Alley was pretty cool and I got to say hello to some fellow grad students and friends. Oh, and my feet are killing me. Darn heels.

I hope the rest of my Sequential peers did well today with their meetings with the Editors!

So say we all.

That's All Folks!

Click img to view full-size!

The final product of the project I've been working on on and off the last few days. I haven't digitally colored something in quite a while, so I am very happy with this outcome. 

This will definitely get printed at Kinko's in the near future and be put into my portfolio for Editor's Day/SCADCon (which is coming up fast- April 9th!) and my 45-hour graduate review at the end of the semester. :)

What Now?

(Click img to view full size!)

Working on a project for my "Digital Design Issues in Sequential Art" grad class, which calls for us to take a "retro" character, or a character that "doesn't get much love," and put a new or modern spin on them.

I chose Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner from the Looney Tunes. I grew up on all of the Looney Tunes cast and episodes... thanks Dad! :)

My original idea path for the project was doing a sort of "role reversal." Wile E. Coyote is a self-proclaimed "SUPERgenius," and yet he can never seem to capture the Road Runner. He is somehow thwarted or outsmarted every time. His hunger and his desire is his driving motivator to continually, no matter how many times he has to fail, chase the Road Runner.

So, what happens when the Road Runner is taken out of the picture? What motivates Wile E. Coyote now?
More importantly, will ACME Corp. go bankrupt?

A Smorgasbord of Ink

Here's some of the work I did during my 2010 Winter quarter (the last two months, actually). This was a great class and really got me well acquainted and allowed me to experiment with different inking techniques and tools. It was John Lowe's Graduate Inking class.

My fat cat from back home, Smokey. She's the epitome of the term "diva."

Miniature Art Dump

Here's a few examples of some recent art and sketches.

More to come, I just have to unearth my flash drive. :)

Brushing Off the Cobwebs

Well, bust out your calendars and write down this date, because Diana is actually finally updating her blog!

Something I've been meaning to do for awhile now was to resurrect an old blog of mine and try to start using it semi-regularly again, whether it be with artwork or life stuff... or both. I have this one, and a Tumblr blog. I did the old "eenie-meenie-minie-mo" decision-making trick and decided on going back to this one.

So what's been going on with me? Well, a hell of a lot, to say the least. By June I will have finished up my first year of graduate school here at SCAD, where I finished my undergraduate career not too long ago in June '09. My main focus is Children's books/Children's comics in Sequential Art. Point being: I love drawing cute things. Anyone who knows me well enough can tell you that. :)

Life has thrown many changes at me to which I've adapted quite well, given my circumstances, and I'm really happy. Life is good, man. Really good. I've acquired a lot of new, great friends as well as the old, solid ones, and a wonderful man in my life that makes me extremely happy.

In terms of my artsy-fartsy side of the world, my style has been improving and ever-changing. I'm really happy with the way it's going! I've always been unsure of where my niche in art (or Sequential Art for that matter) stood, and I've finally figured it out. It only took until grad school to have the revelation, huh? :)

Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda, I'm not gonna write much more so I can get to the good stuff: the pictures! Will post a followup entry with a couple recent artworks.

Until next time.