Halloween Diorama

I don't really enjoy making cute things. Although I love me some kitsch now and then and I enjoy doodling weird monsters, drawing happy children is not my strong point. Despite this handicap, I pushed through on my "halloween diorama" artist's book assignment. I actually drew this out in pen and ink, intending to color by hand, but was told in class to try it with photoshop (and I'm glad I did). The only annoyances were having to pay a print shop to print out several copies for me and having to cut all the tiny little edges on the trees and kids a second time.

I can't get over how much I like doing the covers for these books. Something about thick, soft paper wrapped around a solid rectangle is really satisfying for some reason.

If only that horse costume was real

Disregard the ghost behind the book

Nothing on the cover for now

Accelerated Atelier Figure

Here's a drawing I did in Advanced Drawing a couple weeks ago in an attempt to follow the atelier style. I only got to put in about 2-3 hours in, but there are certain things I see developing that are pleasing to me.

Tezuka-mania

My current comics project is to make a comic of several pages that is informed and inspired by the methods of Osamu Tezuka. If you haven't heard, Tezuka was rightly considered the "God of Manga" and possibly created more comics than any artist in history. Several of his works famous in the states are Astro Boy, Phoenix, Black Jack, and Buddha. I'm a huge fan of his work and I'm currently waiting for the return of Phoenix pt. 7 to the library. I made a couple of scans from Phoenix pt. 5 for reference, they give a pretty good idea of what I'm looking to pull from in Tezuka's work.

My project will be 3-5 pages and is set in a futuristic environment inspired by Tezuka's worlds. I just finished the first page yesterday, seen below.

I've got high hopes for this project! Below is a sketchbook spread that includes the thumbnail  I used to plan this page. You'll notice that it's fairly refined, and that's because I went through two or three messier versions on the previous page. On to the next one...

Sketchbook Page

I went to a lecture by famous illustrator/painter James Jean last night, and was thus inspired to do a million more anatomical sketches and studies. I already do anatomical studies for fun, but seeing James' sketchbooks made me realize that I need to do more. So here's one spread representing part of today's sketches.

Recently, I look like this

Vine charcoal self portrait for my advanced drawing class. Just a straight up, studied self portrait from staring at my face in a mirror for five or so hours.

Edit: Actually, its pretty interesting to compare this to a self portrait assignment from my freshman year (below). I'm guessing I spent an slightly more time on this earlier piece, although there were more faces to do. But regardless, I feel a bit better about my current portrait, putting it next to something from two years ago...

Dream Sequence

Last week's comic: a dream sequence, starring yourself, set in Providence, ligne-claire style. Here I wander around in my underwear and decapitate Roger Williams in Prospect Park. Woop!

Furry Artist's Book for Fall

Real fur!
Real paper!
Real gouache!
Real ink!
Real words!
Real comfort!
Really tiny!

Like Looking at Things? Me too!

As a sort of time capsule in the invisible blogosphere and as a (hopefully) helpful service to anyone viewing ilearndrawgood, here's a quick list of some of the sites and blogs I check in on frequently. Some are comix, though not all are even art related. Check em out.

• The Comics Journal
• Today and Tomorrow
• Jacob Ciocci
• Gills
• Hyperallergic
• The Flop Box
• Illustration Art
• Mishka
• The Stranger
• Cosmic Spread
• Puzzleoverit
• Jeff Kooons
• Radiolab