Sixth Cloudscape anthology ready to print

Order books or commissions through our IndieGoGo campaign and help the sixth Cloudscape Comics anthology get printed. Things about the anthology: by an eye-popping variety of Vancouver artists (as always), the theme this time is urban fantasy, and I collaborated on a comic with writer Shannon Campbell.
Here is a sample of said comic. Sorry, it's a new week, I'm bad with words right now.

"21 Journeys" launch party Sept. 10th

Join Cloudscape in launching the wanderlust-cious comics anthology 21 Journeys (I'm in it ...Oh I already told you that? Ok.)
at Ayden Gallery (International Village mall), Vancouver, on Saturday September 10th 7PM--10PM.

Party foods, comics, cool attractive people. We supply the former, you the latter.

The "21 Journeys" anthology is here!

I'm one of the contributors to the fifth and freshest Cloudscape Comics anthology, 21 Journeys, which is finally available to order right here!
Accepting only PayPal, sorry. But if you're in my vicinity, buy it with cash and save on shipping costs.

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...Although with my eCrater shop you're already saving a bit, due to my not bothering to make the accurate rounding up to USD from CAD, and my laziness in calculating weight-based shipping.

The anthology will also soon be available at the Cloudscape site, but that money goes to Cloudscape as a society, whereas the money from my personal shop goes to me. I assure you my shop's not only legal but fair, since it allows me to finally observe rent-paying rewards for this thing I worked on for long nights.

However, obviously "THIS THING" gave me much more than it took from me. I think I'd be happy that you want to read it, wherever you ordered it from.

"Creamers" at IndieGoGo

Donate at IndieGoGo (you will receive goodies for different donation amounts) for a classically animated short film by a wonderful artist, Hilary Moses!

Here's the blog about the development of Creamers.

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Boo, I haven't drawn anything good enough to post. Well, here's a watercolour doodle instead. (Thanks again, VIDF)

I WILL spam you now

- I'm going to Stumptown this weekend! I'm not selling stuff (but I can draw sketch commissions), just chillin as part of the Cloudscape contingent, table A-24.
- Thank you to everyone who preordered "21 Journeys", donated or sent positive vibes or whatever. The anthology goes to print soon.








Watercolour paper experiments. Traditional funtimes!
I bet you're thinking I traced pictures 3 & 4, but no: I did use my VIDF lifedrws. as references and I have a feeling everyone can tell I was looking at a drawing instead of a live human. But they have a nice screenprint-looking effect.

VIDF lifedrw. and mini me

Hello! If, like mine, your weekend is situated in the middle of the week (or if you're lucky enough to work in Yaletown and willing to sacrifice your lunchbreak), get your butt to the FREE weekday noon lifedrawing hour at The Roundhouse, through to March 18th, courtesy of Vancouver International Dance Festival. Dancer models -- it's pretty interesting. They have outlandishly toned bodies but also character. The floppy t-shirt's not my favourite clothing choice though but it's okay.


Q: How is it "free" after the transit fare from North Van?
A: That is a legitimate question, but I usually roam the Seawall on my "weekends" anyway, so it fits right into my routine.

I'll be returning to Cap lifedrawing too, at some point. It's too bad -- lifedrawing always makes me forget my troubles, but before I can make my way there I have all this emo ridiculousness to overcome.
Can't stay away from the burlesque session though!

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Here's something else I've been enjoying lately. Trying to do a minidoodle about each day of my riveting life into my 4x2.5" minicalendar. Sort of like super condensed journal comicking. Fast and fun, I recommend it.



(This has to be my best self-portrait ever.)

Want to preorder 21 Journeys?

(Sorry to repeat myself, but since selling time is now upon us...)
I collaborated on a comic for Cloudscape's fifth anthology 21 Journeys. To give you a taste, here is a page (though not the beginning) of said story:


At the 21 Journeys IndieGoGo page, you can preorder the book itself for $25 (CAD) -- and if you're feeling generous, for more sizable donations you get more and more goodies with your order. For example, a $100 gets you the entire Cloudscape "library" of all the previous anthologies and a few of the members' publications on top of that (including Xeric grant winners "Lotus Root Children" and "Lords of Death and Life"). So if you're interested, check out what all you can get for a donation that suits you.

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Today I venture to work for the first time after being bedridden for an entire week. This is the longest I've been sick since I was two years old. I feel awful for the wasted time but if I could get through this, I guess nothing's really gonna shake me after. Now I'm on a medication for people with ulcers, which is actually kind of -- kiiiiiind of -- hilarious.

"Because you're the only one who could change my mind!"

I tried to document my trip with sketches (as well as photos -- see previous post) but it kinda fell through...



^ And we're back to talking about TV!!! Loooove TV love it! So yeah, "White Collar" is one of my new favourite shows. (Yeah I only caught on to it over the holidays.)

Now this may seem farfetched, but I feel like I am watching a crime-tastic reincarnation of "Two Guys and a Girl", only without the girl (unfortunately Elizabeth is too nice to be The Girl).
Very similar personalities, and, Peter's name, anyone? Peter Burke, PETE N' BERG, huh? HUH? Caffrey (or Berg) the flake takes the crazy risks and yet it's always the straight guy Pete who gets the shit.

Both shows -- very funny, both sets of costars -- considerable chemistry, and both shows are insanely fun to watch with these certain kind of goggles on if you know what I mean. In case you don't, I mean CAFFREY, HOW GAY EXACTLY ARE YOU FOR THAT FED?! Never mind, you poor lump, you don't have to answer, I'll just go watch the first season finale again. I loved Pete and his Berg and I love Neal and his Pete. This is an awesome show with a lot of very tight pants *| and hilarious dialogue!

[*| Tight pants being actually the one thing sorely lacking from 2GAAG.]

Crazy tangents!

Due to popular demand (okay, due to like two demands) I'm posting some photos from my most recent trip to snow-laden Finland. I know most of you didn't exactly sign up for trigger-happy snow photos but don't worry, there'll be some sketches in the next post!

Last year all the snow photos were from Jyväskylä -- luckily we visited Ruka ("almost" Lapland) on this trip so I don't think these will be too repetitive. Only that very first photo ^up there^ was from Jyväskylä.

"MAYBE IT WAS THE TROUSERS!"

This post has a couple of things...

I have neglected everything lately BECAUSE for the last few weeks I've been slaving over a contribution to Cloudscape's anthology 22 Journeys [Edit:] 21 Journeys. The comic's finally done! (Although I'm still working on the speech bubbles, digitally...) Here's a little sneak peek.



I'm not sure what the collective policy is about artists giving sneak peeks about comics that are going to be published and hopefully bought, so for now, I just thought I'd put up this collage of how the art came out. It's like a WIP from pencils to inks to colours. (Omitting a huge amount of thumbnails, sorry... Those were the crucial step.) Although the colours still need some tweaking of curves and levels and whatnot before printing. Anyway, bear with me.

I find inking just nerve-wracking. What is wrong with me that my hands start to sweat incessantly as soon as I've inked a couple of lines?! I never have that problem with animating and definitely not with life drawing. The colouring was a blast, though, and I'll elaborate on that later. There was a theme with the contributions that they had to look like they were done with natural media AND a limited colour palette -- I coloured it with watersoluble markers.

The story was written by another Cloudscape member, Bevan. I felt incredibly lucky that during my very first Cloudscape meeting (wow, it's already been like a year) I ran into a writer looking for an artist. I have such a hard time coming up with stories, that it was staggering to have him hammer out countless scripts and stories in such a short time. Without a writer I simply wouldn't have a story in this anthology, plus he gave me free reign in the visual storytelling side of things --for better or for worse ;)
Still, I have to say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. And with everything I've taken note of, the next one's going to be ten times better!

I had The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch just on a loop for pretty much the whole time I was working on the comic... Go ****ing figure.

I really love it though (everything except Robin Williams). Jimmy Fallon is actually hilarious there, delivers probably my favourite line reading in the whole thing. Neil Innes is awesomeawesomeawesome. It's less of a sequel than a very eclectic bunch of 00's celebrity interviews, and deleted scenes from the first movie, and Force knows why they were deleted in the first place, because they're equally funny. You can't watch just one Rutle movie, they're a package deal.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAH SHASHHDHASDFCHFJGKHLJ
CONAN, Thank you for the jeggins

Kind of a funny coincidence considering Conan's "testimonial" in The Rutles 2, about how he buttered his legs to be able to wear women's extra small trousers.
And, I loved the band's expressions. Between this and Broadway-Spidey spraying Green Goblin's crotch, this may be my favourite episode so far ...Who'da thunk it about an episode with the Kardashians as first guests?! :l

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By the way, thanks to all three who voted in the poll :P The public has spoken! The old crap is staying!

A case of the movies

I can't whine unless I post drawings -- hence, three pre-whine comic strips that I haven't posted before.




(^ Is Stephen peeing or is he not? You decide)

Sooo, I almost want to take back my recommendation of Nowhere Boy. It is a marvellous movie, but it directly started this weeks-long chain of thoughts that left me uncharacteristically depressed. I know, I'm lightyears away from actual clinical depression (I have to make that distinction since I have friends and loved ones who have suffered from it, and, these guys -- talk about not being able to take a joke *|), but the fact remains that for a week now I have not left home for anything other than my part-time job, and to me that's a first. I couldn't even get myself up for life drawing.
In other words, do go see Nowhere Boy, just maybe not if you're at a stage in your life where you have way too much time to think about s**t. I hope it's over now, though. I hope my brain flushes again.

*| :P ♥

Conan, POLL, and Muddy Colors

Like the title says, three things are on my mind.

1. CONAAAAAAAANNNNANANANANA! CONANCONANCONANCONANCONANCONAN CONANCONANCONANCONAN! Back for his "2nd Annual First Show" (---heartheartheart)
   *INCOHERENT*
   
   
   
2. I have been thinking about throwing some of my more embarrassing old drawings out of this blog. Should they stay or should they go? If you have an opinion please vote in the poll in the sidebar (below my profile).
   I wouldn't be asking if I knew which I wanted, so you truly have a chance to make a difference *srsbsness*
   
   
   
3. Oh... my god. Look at what these people can do. *speechless*

Real Unreal

"Right -- everyone stop f**king crying, this is supposed to be a rock'n'roll band for chrissakes."

The short post:

I saw Nowhere Boy and then absolutely had to try to draw some early Lennon-McCartney. The suits are not stage garb but funeral garb. Enough spoilers (LOL SPOILERS FOR LENNON'S LIFE), The End.

THE LONG POST (skippable:)

Yay, I finally got to see Nowhere Boy *yeee!* I was eager for this movie because a] like approximately 3/4 of Earthlings I am a Beatles fan, and b] I especially love early Beatles history. Somehow it just can't seem to get old no matter how many times I read about it :) (...Which is a good thing for this movie considering that nothing about it can really surprise the viewer.) They are a unique ...um, myth. A world unto themselves.

Nowhere Boy is more about Lennon's relationship with his mother Julia and his aunt Mimi than forming the band, but that stuff is equally fascinating, and a perfect vehicle for the type of life-affirming drama that the Brits whip up in their sleep. Nowhere Boy didn't disappoint.

Very few movies other than the "actual Beatles-movies" have been made about the band, but the one Nowhere Boy can be compared to -- favourably, I'm glad to say! -- is Backbeat.
What Backbeat has going for it, is that it focuses on Stuart Sutcliffe, whose mannerisms and appearance have not become part of the public consciousness like The Beatles themselves have, so the viewer can enjoy Stephen Dorff's very capable performance without being distracted by an inner voice nagging "this is so far from the real thing."
Since the same is true of Mimi and Julia, who are the two most important characters of Nowhere Boy next to Lennon, and since the script's dramatizations of oft-documented events from Lennon's boyhood are very confident and unflourished, there's hardly anything to make you doubt it could all have happened exactly in the manner that the film portrays.

Inevitably, the kids portraying the young Beatles don't look or sound like the originals, but they are excellent actors -- and if the movie is more about finding your mom than finding your future rock icon buddies, what matters is whether you have the emotional acting chops. In that respect the whole cast delivers. Some reviews had claimed that the other cast members can't keep up with Kristin Scott Thomas, but I thought the performances were amazing throughout. I confess that when I first heard about the film I was confused about why they had cast Aaron Johnson as Lennon, because -- shame on me! -- I mistook him for an American since he'd been chosen for Kick-Ass!
Johnson was actually the film's surprise, because even though it's a little hard to imagine him as Lennon, the compact, charming script combined with his moving performance makes you buy him as simply an (for all intents and purposes) orphaned, insecure kid.

Of course knowing about the future ahead spices up the experience considerably, but still, I'm willing to bet that even if you don't know a thing about The Beatles (in which case, Congratulations on your first day back from cryo-freeze!) or don't find the band interesting, you will still think "What a relatable and captivating story" after watching this. Made me cry a ton too. OK, so I cry at many movies, but this was the biggest cry-fest since Toy Story 3.

In fact the quote at the beginning of this post came right on the heels of a big upheaval in the movie, where a couple of the characters teared up as well (with me leaking silently in the audience). Johnson ordered everybody to "stop f**king crying", which was one of the most characteristic moments about this movie: laughter through tears (oooh dammit I'm sorry about the cliche!) and all such...

I will so see it again and am recommending it to you. :)

Pimpin' Pimentel

(...not that he needs it)

I love life drawing, but whenever people ask me for tips on it (yeah, it happens, I'm as surprised as you) I'm completely useless.

That's where Dave Pimentel's latest post comes in! I know he's not talking about life drawing per se, more like posing in general, but his post pretty much covers my life drawing approach, if you were wondering. The only tip I feel confident in giving is "you gotta enjoy it!"

Recent Things

This post has many things!!


Bored to Death is back, I'm glad. I was doubled over during the pay phone sequence.

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I couldn't let the little boy on the bus go! I scribbled him an imaginary friend too.

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The ruffled-looking bird is imaginary, the ibis I drew at the Aquarium.

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If you absolutely have to make a bird movie, by all means, make it about owls and not penguins.
Yes, owls are pretty cool.
Are they cool enough to wield medieval weapons in battle? Yes.
Are they cool enough to withstand Zack Snyder's overuse of slo-mo (which is a parody of itself at this point and actually also much earlier)? Yes.
Are they cool enough to be subjected to both at the same time?
NO THEY FRIKKING ARE NOT.

Check out the owl movie if you want a hearty chuckle.

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Mostly done in comics club meet. The knight's not a character of mine, just another fandoodle (for "7 Soldiers of Victory" that I've mentioned somewhere along the way)

Blim's all right

HIIII! It's your favourite lifedrawing nerd again! Today I tried Blim lifedrawing for the first time. It's a bit out of the way from North Van so I don't intend to make it a regular thing, but I've been curious about it ever since hearing about it, so I had to give it a go. It's like telling a gourmand about a crazy new restaurant.


Doesn't seem half bad for Downtowners who don't feel like making the trip to the (easily best value for money) Cap lifedrawing club. Especially if all Blim models are as experienced as the one tonight. He knew what he was doing, all angles and rotation.
Unfortunately I'm not doing justice to him here, because I was far from my usual form. I had a long day on the town beforehand, so this time I could only handle traveling with a smallish sketchbook: I felt sort of fenced in when lifedrawing in it, and could not let loose.

One woman's pros are another woman's cons, so rather consider the following a list of things to be aware of if you're thinking of going to Blim.

• $ 8-10 for a session of TWO (2) hours (I still find that easier to stomach than Basic Inquiry's fees!)
• You'll be drawing at tables
• Blim is a store, so there may be customers running in and out; the drawing space is at the back of the store though, and I found the foot traffic surprisingly easy to shut out even without my headphones
• The poses were 10-20 minutes, but the model was extremely open to suggestions from the "audience" so gesture sessions probably wouldn't be out of the question (though I felt too much the "new kid" to pipe up this time).
• Blim offers lifedrawing approximately once a week. Better check out their schedule at the start of every month!
• The only thing that bugged me was the lighting. (I had to use completely imaginary light sources in most of my drawings -- not my forte!) It was just regular store lighting, could have used some clear spotlights (or is it stagelights...? Anyway, you know what I mean). Again, I was a little too shy to mention it to them this time. Besides, Blim was a positive surprise overall, so I didn't mind too much.
  

Were you ever sponsored?

By the way, I was incredibly happy with SPARK, as expected! Saturday in particular. I'm grateful to all the presenters for sweet inspiration.
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I just want to make an inquiry, in case any other international students have figured out how to work this situation.
The facts: I have a work permit, a diploma, and I work full time and pay taxes in Canada (though said job is mostly unrelated to my education). But I am not a permanent resident.
That it might actually be more expensive for creative employers to hire me due to my lack of permanent residency is something I didn't realise until recently, because in my current retail job the brass doesn't have any extra expenses from employing me.

So I set about trying to obtain a permanent residency as soon as I can. There is one studio (that I know of - might be more?) that would actually be willing to sponsor its international workers for a BC "Provincial Nominee Program": basically you'd get a speedy treatment by promising to work in BC.
I was wondering -- if it so happens that you are an "international" who's had experience about this Nominee thing or sponsoring in general, I would really appreciate it if you let me know how you like(d) it. I'd appreciate even a brief answer! Thanks and good luck to you all :D

AE ahoy

Let's face it, if you set out to find even one similarity between Master and Commander and iCarly, you're completely dished.

In fact the only thing they DO have in common is that neither has any business at an anime-focused convention.
But hey! Neither do I, so it's all good! Anime Evolution in Vancouver is this CONVERGENCE OF THE INEXPLICABLE. M&C and iCarly are both present in the form of my fannish BUTTONS (and some original) that you will be able to buy from the Cloudscape Comics table this weekend!

I mostly just did these because I love making buttons. I mean, I have zero audience or recognisability there but I did want to see if I could make a coupla bucks with something I enjoy. These probably won't sell hugely so even if you want to buy buttons from me after the con, you're in luck ;)

Now take a look at the little cuties, 1.25" diameter, only a dollar each and all illustrated by me.
Button bleed has been taken into consideration in the picture, so this is what's showing on the face of the buttons.

A Curious Bizzle ~ Which they say Doctor Maturin is a total beetlemaniac. Maybe if you present him with this Curious Button that you found on deck, he won't lop off your remaining arm.
iSam (turq. or pink) ~ Out of all the characters enduring the perverted, twisted, unholy and awesome adventures of a so-called kids' show, Sam seems to enjoy them the most. GO SAM.
(I've already explained my fascination with iCarly, but in case you needed another incentive -- Jane Lynch is set to appear as Sam's mom in an upcoming episode.)
Pinstripe Umbrella ~ An oldie-but-goodie original illustration.
Travel Iron ~ "I'm like a rolling stone -- that's why I have a travel iron" (An original.)
Cartoony Me ~ Well, none of my other buttons had either me or my website address on them!! Duhhh.

ONE DOLLAR. EACH.

Anime enough? & Spaaaaarrrrrk

Bear with me.



Yup. Anime Evolution badge illustrations. Cloudscape Comics is participating in the convention in August and I promised to help man the table for a while. Also, Cloudscapists were asked if we'd like to have our art on different convention day badges. Sure, there's no money in it, but I figured it was exposure for a minimal effort, since I had been planning a watercolour experimentation romp in any case. Now, I don't really watch anime or even play a lot of video games, because I'm a lame person in general, but if anime is in the convention name, I should at least try my hand at a somewhat anime-ish illustration.

Both of these illustrations were actually painted on one large piece of paper (see below), and with my crappy little scanner, I had to piece the final illustrations together in Photoshop.
Like I said I used this as a playground to try out certain techniques. What is missing is actual colour coordination, that would have required some more pre-planning on my part. But luckily I had tremendous newly-resqued-from-a-final-sale Winsor&Newton large pan watercolours that I had never used before, and they are pure power. I was much more "WOW LOOK AT THAT BLUE LOOK AT THAT YELLOW LOOK AT THAT BROWN" than "ngyaaaaare these colours gonna go together?" (Then, of course, my scanner ate the best colours. Oh well.) They're also beautiful to look at - smooth slabs of colour, it took a lot of mental strength not to take a bite out of them. Anyway, their magic qualities made my lack of planning much less evident. (Hmmm. If I DID eat them, would I develop magic powers too..?)


* * *

Speaking of conventions and the like, I'm really considering buying a conference pass for the 2010 SPARK animation fest. Usually (well, I mean, for as long as I've lived in Vancouver, a surprisingly short time actually) I just go to some of their movie screenings. But since SPARK attracts many like-minded people from this industry, and I've always had a blast at SPARK-related screenings, I thought this pass might be a pretty enjoyable way to go out there and at the very least observe how other people network, even if it doesn't come very naturally to me yet. The sad thing is the pass doesn't cover my favourite part of the festival: movie screenings... But since I'm probably going, let me know if you want to hook up or something. (Not like that! ...Unless you're like serious nerd candy :P ) Might be easier for me to get a few words out if there's at least one familiar face.

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Oh I forgot, there's more I wanted to say! I know nobody ever looks at my blogroll, so I'd just like to bring Nathan Fowkes' and Stefan Marjoram's blogs to your special attention, they're mostly environment/layout oriented and very inspiring, especially with interest to watercolour. Fowkes is a concept artist at Dreamworks and his beautiful environment concept art is this close to actually making me want to see Shrek 4.

Blast from Ze Past

If you want to see some of my (and my wonderful Opus colleagues') artwork check out our staff show, in the North Van Opus classroom. Starting... well, starting today, pretty much. It's only up for a couple of days.
Everything that I have there has already been posted on my blog though, because I haven't had time to draw anything new, but just in case you're interested in seeing it in all its lively vibrancy...

I found this when choosing lifedrawings for my bit of show wall and I had COMPLETELY forgotten about drawing it, but I found it pretty cool. This is for an old illustration homework assignment, subject "Crazy Old Zebra". This is what I scrawled in lifedrawing class:


...and here's the homework I actually turned in, which I also quite like: