Cartoonist Paintings

I'm making fifty small gouache paintings of cartoonists I know. The paintings will debut at a three day, pop-up solo show at LaunchPad in Crown Heights January 2014. Stay tunes for more paintings and further details related to the opening reception, including a comics reading and a zine party.

Jess Worby

Josh Bayer

Brendan Leach

Adrian Pijoan

Mike Freiheit

Nathan Schreiber

Tiny Paintings For Gouache Comic

These paintings are made from photos taken of Blaine in Cobleskill at the dairy farm. I'm making a lot of these paintings and assembling them digitally with text for a short comic.

Today in the Studio

Jen came by with some friendly rat friends, and I finished stapling my zines. See you tomorrow at the Brooklyn Zine Fest!

Sketches From Last Night

Last night in the studio: drawing Ai Wei Wei, listening to Beyonce. Life is interesting. I recommend checking out the doumentary Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry. These are drawings for a secret project-- I can tell you about it in a week when it's done!

Rashad at Jalopy

Part of a semi-top-secret drawing project for the Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues. It's been too long since I last updated. I have a huge pile of work to scan and share, but am running off to Washington, D.C. for the Joe Bonham opening reception (are you free and in the area? Please come with friends!)

Paul Studies and First Pages

Here is what I have been drawing the past few days. I'm working on a story from a veteran who I have not yet met in real life, it's been interesting translating this story into a comic. I'm trying to develop cleaner lines and possibly do more with less digitally with this story.

Page One Pencil

Page 2 Pencil

Studies of Paul, done from photographs.

Drawing Paul from memory, making a character.

Florida Week Two

I'm here at a three week comics residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in eastern/central Florida, a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, in the midst of saw palmettos and stands tiny magnolias and brushy oak trees. It's already the beginning of the second week and time is moving quickly.
I got through sixteen pages of thumbnails in just a few days, which was a new personal best. Hoping to work faster! I learned some cool Photoshop moves from George Folz, his comics are really cool, check them out on his Tumblr here. Hopefully laying out pages will be less of a struggle now. Gonna try it out now.

Here's the thumbnails, pre-Dean Haspiel edits (they look a bit different now). These are only half of them, the other thumbnails were vague and uninteresting, because I drew them too small initially, and when I blew them up I drew them very fast.

This story is beautifully written by a friend-of-a-friend, Paul David Mansfield. He's an incredibly gifted storyteller, and it has been such an amazing experience to translate his words into comics. I will post pencils soon, I can't wait to share this story.

Also, currently obsessed with Bon Iver's newly-minted Stems Project, a collection of remixes from the most recent album. Not much of it is on Youtube, but you can find it on Spotify.

Drawing on Location at the Jalopy Theater

On Monday I took the day off from my photo job to draw Ernesto Gomez, Arturo Jugman, Walker Shepard, Jackson Lynch, and some others at the Jalopy Theater during the Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues recording session. The idea is to collect good drawings for the album artwork. It was slow going, since people move a considerable amount when they play instruments. They usually oscillate between two poses, and you have pick one and keep looking for the moment when they go back into the pose. It's a really fun and challenging way to draw.

People Care About Oxford Commas

Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend

Bethesda Pencils Page Five

One of my favorite pages from the Bethesda story. Still working on the other half of the pencils. Will ink this 'un by next week for the Cartoon Picayune. I'm headed back to Walter Reed Medical Center next week to draw more pictures and talk to people as well. It's busy over here!

The Balfa Brothers - Danse Des Mardi Gras
(Go see Beasts of the Southern Wild, it is beautiful. I am biased because it reminds me of home, it's full of boats and Gulf water and magic. I wished I had made it. And the musical score is awesome.)

Nathan on His Bike

I really like this page from the Haditha/Katrina story. I'm coloring it so will wait to post the full version til then. My lettering is getting better, though the spacing/design is weak. I don't think I've ever worked this hard in my life.

Haditha Katrina Inking in Progress

It's happening! "Slowly by slowly" as Yoko Furusho once said to me. It's funny whose voice you hear when it's late and the window is open and there's just you and a quiet mess unraveling in front of you.

Haditha/Katrina Pencils (Pages 5,6,7)

Faster, faster, faster.

I think that she knows...
Love Stoned - Kaki King

Digestate Pencils Preview

Been working hard on this chicken comic for the Digestate anthology. My original story idea involving Blaine and his cow adventures wasn't really working and I had to abandon that idea.  A few weeks ago I talked with a man I had met at the Just Food Intro to Chicken Keeping workshop this past spring, Greg Anderson. It turns out he and his wife run a community garden (with chickens!) that is not very far from me. They were a lot of fun to speak with and got me to think about personal impact on a community over time. Staying in one place, digging in and working hard will eventually bear fruit. And chickens! Here's a preview of the first three (of ten) pages.

Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues

Ernesto Gomez asked me to come by the recent recording session for the Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues yesterday at Jalopy. While I was there I got these nice drawings of a few of the guys. I wish I had had the time to draw everyone. My banjo teacher, Eli, was there, and a few other folks. Musical instruments are always a bit of a challenge to draw when they're being played, they never want to sit down on the paper. It was a really fun afternoon and I'm excited to work more on this project later in the summer.

Geoff Wiley

Ernie Vega

"You got me runnin'..."

A fun clip of the guys from the 2011 Brooklyn Folk Fest
She Got a Nice Line - Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues

Haditha Katrina Sketchbook

I've recently been in touch with my friend Nathan, a Marine veteran who is now working in Wyoming with the National Parks Service fighting fires and being an awesome dude in general. I contacted him about a year ago, asking him for help with my comic, and now we've got the beginning of the story. It's going to be beautiful and I am so excited. Nathan has been a great coach in giving me helpful advice on meeting veterans and conquering my nervousness.

 

Bethesda Excerpt

I'm working on an excerpt of the Bethesda book for the forthcoming issue of The Cartoon Picayune. From their website:
The Cartoon Picayune is a new bi-yearly magazine anthology of journalism in the form of comics. Our modest zine is a home and showcase in print for truthful reporting being created in the comics medium.

I really liked the way this pencil page is coming along and wanted to post it. I have to wiggle around the panels a bit for inking. No more teasers 'til the book is out, however,  I'll be sure to post details when the book is out so you can get your paws on a copy. Current issues of The Cartoon Picayune are available at Big Planet Comics in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Digestate Anthology Kickstarter Campaign

(The newest incarnation of credits-whoa!)

I've been asked to contribute work to this really wonderful food-based comics anthology, Digestate by J.T. Yost. The effort is crowd funded and needs your support. Read below and watch the video for information about the project. I'm putting some ink drawings of chickens and cows up for donors--they could be yours! When you donate there is a large variety of original art and mini-comics by contributors that can be had, so essentially  you're buying affordable art and supporting a good cause. If you pledge $20 you get a copy of the book, it's going to be gigantic and full of awesome. Help me get published!

(Bok Bok!)

it's all in the hands of a lazy projector
Andrew Bird - Lazy Projector

The Captain

This is a somewhat capricious double portrait I did over the weekend. These were drawn from a photograph I took of The Captain, a man Ray Alma and I had the pleasure of meeting during the last trip to Walter Reed, who was really brilliant and kind to share so much with us. I have several pages of sketchbook muddle I've been feverishly poring over that I hope to have transformed into glorious inked pages at my next posting.

The Boys on the Fourth Floor, Part Two

The first soldier we met was a captain who had been hit by a twelve year old suicide bomber in Afghanistan. He was adamant about not using his name but let us hang out while he finished his breakfast and chatted with a friend. He was really interesting to listen to and had a lot to say about the politics of fighting, why we're engaged in a war in Afghanistan. He told us a really good story about being corralled onto a bus and taken to a far flung steakhouse near D.C. with many of the other veterans in a bus emblazoned with the phrase WOUNDED VETERANS. Since his injuries are primarily on his back and buttocks, a two hour bus ride was grueling. He had a really beautiful cane that was hand carved by a volunteer organization, the head of it was a painted bald eagle and the body shaft was covered in symbols representing his unit and friends he has lost in the war.

Carnes was very bright eyed and upbeat and smiled an awful lot. He told us about all the celebrities that have visited him in the ward (Minka Kelly is beautiful, Kevin Bacon is sort of strange, and John Meyer is an o.k. guy). He was 19 when he was hit by an AK bullet that left him with a spiral fracture down his left femur and an exit wound in his right hip that damaged his sciatic nerve. He's had several surgeries and can walk, but has a 'foot drop', which impairs dorsiflexion. He was invited to throw the first ball at the Washington Nationals game this week, but declined to due to concern that he would inadvertently pull his staples. I can't express what an upbeat, friendly, and engaging guy he is.

 

 

The last soldier we met that day was First Lieutenant Michael Rhoads, who was very recently hit on April 15th by a bullet while lying prone on patrol. The bullet entered near his top left shoulder and missed his heart, but collapsed his left lung. He received emergency care and was in Germany around four days before being flown to Walter Reed. He was doing remarkably considering he had been in Afghanistan less than two weeks before. He is working to regain full capacity in his left lung and says he sometimes talks like an excited kid, taking deep breaths in between sentences, though when he spoke with us you wouldn't have guessed there was anything laborious about his breathing. He had a really cool apparatus that he used for breathing exercises; I think Ray Alma got a good photo of it that I would like to paint from. The deployment of his unit ends in September and he would like to go back after taking a break back home in Portland, but he is not sure it is realistic. He was very quiet and very tall and seemed exhausted.

All of the men we met were very gracious with their time, though I felt like a bit of a nuisance because these soldiers get an unfathomable amount of visitors each day and are in the process of recovering from really brutal injuries. I hope that this project will honor them and not treat them like a sideshow of curiosities, as often is the case. They are all incredible people that deserve dignity and respect and peace.  I can't wait to go back and visit again and hope that I will remain in touch with the people I have met there.