Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

07_Family Photo

On Christmas Eve when we were all dressed up for mass, Mom would sit us in front of the tree for a family photo. Clothing disclaimer: No, we weren't Mormon, it was just the late 80s/early 90s and I guess Newsies had just come out.

06_Cookie Party

Every year my Aunt Karen would host a cookie decorating party at her house. She baked gingerbread and sugar cookies ahead of time. Bowls of brightly colored icing, sprinkles and edible decorations of every kind were laid out before us. My cousins, siblings and I would go to town adorning the baked dough. At the end of the night we packed up a selection of the uneaten masterpieces in shirt boxes to bring home, ready for Santa's Christmas Eve plate.

05_Popcorn Chains

In the pre-microwave days, Mom would cook up a batch of popcorn in the yellow popcorn maker that sounded like a vacuum cleaner. My siblings and I would open a bag of plump cranberries, thread a needle and get to work making popcorn chains to decorate the tree with. They couldn't have been that long since we ate at least a third of the ingredients ourselves.

In other news, I'm pretty sure our current microwave died but it hasn't been too much of an issue yet. I'm giving it til after Christmas to see if we'll need to get another one.

A Brief Intermission

Nina Paley's independent animated feature Sita Sings the Blues is playing for a week (Dec 25-31) at the IFC center in New York.

If you haven't seen it yet or have only seen it online, I HIGHLY recommend checking it out on the big screen. I saw her progress on this film as self contained shorts over the past few years and the full film at a screening she held at NYU. It goes to show what one woman's talent, passion and perseverance can create within a few years.

04_Christmas Play

I think every kid has a memory of being in the school play, dressed as an angel in a nightgown, worried they'd forget their lines.

03_O Christmas Tree

My family lived across the road from a Christmas Tree farm. Our lovely neighbors never charged us more than $10 for a tree even when it towered over 7 feet. We'd walk over, pick out a tree, cut it down and drag it back across the dirt road on a plastic sled. Getting it through the door was another issue.

02_Advent Angel

I remember when my Mom finished making the advent calendar, so I was probably about 7 or 8. My sister (and later my brother) and I would take turns putting little toys and knickknacks into the pockets every day until Christmas. It was a big deal to get Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, so Mom made sure our turns were rotated accordingly each year.

White Christmas series

I'm doing a watercolor a day until Christmas. It was supposed to be the 12 days before Christmas, but I got sidetracked with holiday stuff.



As a kid, I couldn't wait for the Sears holiday catalog to come in the mail. I'd flip to the toys and dream of what Santa would bring. Even before I could read, I'd sit with the tome on my lap and make up stories for my sister.

The High Line

Another watercolor from the High Line Sketchcrawl last month.

some sketches from King Con

A bunch of sketchbook drawings I did at the table when I wasn't talking to people.

Asifa

Some marker sketches of a great model a few weeks ago. Due to various circumstances, I haven't been to Asifa drawing in a while. I'm looking forward to getting back into it tomorrow night.

I 95 N

A little watercolor I did while Allan and I drove back from Philly at the end of October. The trees are now bare outside my window as the winter weather creeps in!

some more sketches from Game X

Here's a rare example of my sketchbook as is, no editing of drawings from one page to another.

Happy Turkey Day!

It's especially happy for them if you don't eat one! :)

Sketchcrawl # 25- Chelsea Market

An ink and watercolor sketch at the Chelsea Market.



A group of about 25 met up and we had a great day drawing there and at the Highline Park. I have a photo set here.

Pushing the pose

Two drawings from a 4 minute pose last week. I like trying to get the gesture down quickly so sometimes 4 minutes is too long. In this case, I did the bottom drawing first and then realized I could push it further. Upon further analysis, I realized the model was actually jutting her head out much more than I'd drawn. I suddenly remembered Walt Stanchfield's notes and his observation that most people tend to "straighten up" the pose. Guilty as charged. I've got to finish reading through his books.

Sketchcrawl #25

A little painting I did in the car ride back from Philly a few weeks ago in my 3.5 x 5.5 sketchbook.

Speaking of which, if you like sketching you should come to Sketchcrawl this coming Saturday November 21st. If you're in NYC we're meeting in front of the Chelsea Wine Vault at the Chelsea Market at 11 am.

some people from Game X

King Con was great!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our table!



Here's a little post con write-up I did if you're interested.

I'm going to be changing up my blog posting schedule a bit starting next week. I'll still be posting sketches twice a week, but moving them to Monday and Friday mornings. I've also been working on a little essay on freelance animation that I'll be posting each Wednesday until it's finished.

Last week my friends Amy and Kazu became new parents!

King Con

King Con is this Saturday and Sunday at the Brooklyn Lyceum. No word on table assignments at the moment, but Allan and I will be in the directory. In addition to Urban Nomad 2, I'll have copies of Urban Nomad 1, Counter Attack 1 & 2, sets of circus bookmarks, Darjeeling Limited mini postcards and packs of 3 Holiday card designs. Hope to see you there!

Urban Nomad # 2 preview!

Look what I just got in the mail this past weekend! Allan and I will be at King Con this Saturday and Sunday (Nov 7 & 8) so you should stop by and check them out in person!


Here's a sample page! This issue contains 10 brand new stories from my life in NYC. Click the image to make larger.


I cleaned up the paypal links to the right and added some preview links to Counter Attack as well as my bookmarks. Check it out!

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Time!

A little watercolor I did over the weekend. Halloween always seems to creep up on me; I still need to find a cute pumpkin to carve.

bunnies

I drew some bunnies during my commute the other day. Now that I'm done with UN 2, I'll have to get back to sketchbook drawing. I've run out of scanned art!

I'll be joining Allan at Game X in Philly this weekend. I'm looking forward to some sketch time while sitting behind his table.

three minute pose

During the longer poses towards the end of class my mind wanders and I start sketching other people in the room. Some of you may recognize this guy:

life drawing from last week

There was a great model last week. I usually get frustrated with the contortionist types, but it was working out alright that night.

cover thumbnails

Hope you're not sick of my comic progress posts, but it's all I've been working on! Finishing up the cover paints this week.

random head doodles

I did these at life drawing last night, but they're from my head, not the model.

phone sketches

The Wildlife

You can check out the animated series that I'm currently working on here. It's now airing in Denmark! We're working with pre-existing animation from the Danish studio and it's also dubbed (which is why the lip synch is off). Design by Zartosht Soltani, animation directed by Dan Forgione. This was the first episode I was on and I animated and cleaned up the boil on the moose's foot as well as the polar bear falling into the water in the climate cartoon.

Sneak peek panel from Urban Nomad #2

18 down, 2 more pages left to ink. Then on to the cover art!

The Asifa East open screening is tonight at 7 pm at SVA and will be my one weeknight out so I can stay on schedule.

Comic in Color

I had some time to color my previously grayscale submission from Lifemeter 2 a few weeks back. Although it won't be in Lifemeter 3, you can pick up said comic at SPX in Maryland this weekend. Perhaps next year I'll get down there myself.

Sketchcrawl #24 Corona Park

A few friends joined me in Flushing on Saturday and we ended up walking to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, site of the World's Fair. These were done in my tiny moleskine-wannabe sketchbook. I also got to check out the Panorama at the Queens Museum: A scale model of the 5 boroughs, complete with tiny planes flying into LaGuardia. We ended the day with huge dinner at Buddha Bodai. I wish I'd realized they were family style portions!

Comics!

I leave my desk for a minute and Fidget takes my chair. She's "helping."

I finished penciling Urban Nomad #2 over the weekend and here's the proof. (Though this was taken while I was figuring out the story order so 3 pages are missing.) For now, you'll just have to wait to see further details.


I also just found out that MoCCA is having an exhibition of Peter Kuper's "Diario de Oaxaca" starting tonight.

Events this week:

Today- (Tuesday Sept 15)

David Levy signs his new book "Animation Development from Pitch to Production" in addition to a a panel discussion by animated series creators.

SVA 209 E 23rd
3rd floor Amphitheater
@ 7pm

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Friday- 2 Art 4 TV

Friday is the 2 Art 4 TV Gallery opening! A couple of my friends have work in the show and it promises to be pretty awesome.

Erebuni Gallery
158 Roebling St. Williamsburg, Brooklyn
6:00pm - 9:30pm
(To get there: L Train to Bedford Ave, walk south, left on N 4th, right on Roebling)

There's an afterparty at Trophy Bar.

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Saturday- Sketchcrawl #24

This Saturday September 19th is Sketchcrawl! There will be a group heading to Governer's Island. Check the forum for where and when to meet!

I'm trying to meet a deadline so I'll probably stay close to home to sketch. I don't mind company if you'd like to head out to Flushing, though I probably won't be out for too long. Just drop me an email so I know when to expect you.

And here's a sketch for reading all of that:

Classy lady

A doodle I did in sketchbook pro after watching Funny Face.

Spa Castle

A few of my friends and I finally got to check out Spa Castle in Whitestone last week. We spent the entire day there. I had such a great time that I had to do a sketch afterwards. I can't remember the last time I was so relaxed.

from an old pitch

I did these character studies as part of some samples for a graphic novel project almost 2 years ago now. They chose someone else, so I figured these would never see the light of day otherwise. Also Jane Goodall is going to be speaking at B&N Union Square Thursday night which led to me digging these up.

Where did August go?

The tail end of August finds me at the end of my backlog of scans from the summer. I'll have to get some newer stuff up soon. For now, here's a handful that I didn't hate from the last drawing session a few weeks back.

Flushing Meadows

A few more from the dragon boat races a few weekends ago. I'm heading back to PA this weekend and am looking forward to getting some sketching done there.