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!

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.

The Embed in The Stan by Victor Juhasz

Victor Juhasz, one of the illustrators I have had the privilege of knowing and drawing with on the Society of Illustrators trips to Walter Reed, just posted a bunch of drawings and observations from his embed last summer in Afghanistan. He spent two weeks with the Alaskan 1-52^nd Arctic Dustoff as well as with members of Alpha Company 7-101 from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. See the whole thing on his Drawger blog post. I'm absolutely floored and awe-inspired.

Drawing by Victor Juhasz, from his Drawger post/GQ piece.

Thomas Woodruff's "The Four Temperament Variations" at P.P.O.W. Thursday 11/5

My former mentor and chairman of the Illustration and Cartooning Department at the School of Visual Arts is having a reception for a new (super weird and awesome) series of paintings. His work is sweetly obsessive and low-brow but has a lot of meat-and-potatoes painting skills and really thoughtful motifs in his work...so low-brow without the emptiness...mid-brow? Uni-brow? Waxed goth brow? Whatever you're into. On view until February 4th.

The Four Temperament Variations - Thomas Woodruff

Thomas Woodruff, Landscape Variation, Phlegmatic 2010-11, acrylic on linen, 66 x 90 inches

Handy Dandy

This piece was made to accompany a news story about a cop who gets his badge back after getting the boot. The AD at The Portland Mercury, Justin "Scrappers" Morrison is a pretty funny guy, and super talented, check out this cool interview.

There's another cool thing to read, about the Best/Worst Mercury covers. If you scroll down to nearly the end you can find his musings, which I found to be thought-provoking and hysterical. 

Thanks Scrappers!

Drawing America By Bike

Eric Clausen once paid off thousands in medical and dental bills (acquired by a nasty bike accident) by creating Drawings for 30 Bucks. Now he's traveling around America to draw for Americans, and see how they're doing in this recession.

Here's the featured video on Kickstarter.com:

Support an Ethnomusicologist With Initiative to Change the World

She is a budding Ethnomusicologist, and my sister. She's departing in two weeks to Salvador de Bahia and I am very excited for her. Please help support her journey by checking out her blog and considering a small donation--every amount helps. I know she will use this trip to change the world!

Canadianz vs Americanz

Canadian Illustrators beat the pants off us Americans. Seriously. And they're cuter. Dang.

Meet our freakishly talented northern neighbors:

Genevieve Simms
Josh J Holinaty
Michael Byers
Michael DeForge
Julie Doucet
Jillian Tamaki

I am suspicious that Leanne Shapton may be, since she made all those really pretty Toronto drawings.

John Breiner Show + James Blagden brain fallout

John Breiner has some sweet work up at Minibar in Carroll Gardens, plus the bartender is handsome, you should go check it out.

I met another awesome dude via John, the ridiculously talented James Blagden. He's like Philip Burke if Philip Burke were really into psychedelic death rays and apple bottom jeans.

Lost at E Minor article here.

Here's some of his work via a cool interview by Format Magazine:





Also, John's curated a show that's up in late October, with his and James' (and many cool others') work, be sure to mark your calendar...more info soon.

art joke

Via: James Victore.