Comics!

This summer I took a short form comics class with Shannon Wheeler (creator of Too Much Coffee Man). My Topsy comic went over really well with the class, so my peers decided I was going to draw the cover. This is the result:

Handlettering and patterns are fun! I need to do more of both.

Friday Afternoon Comics & More!

Hello dear readers!

I've been horrible at posting recently, and I apologize. I've been occupied with getting into the Ooligan Press Book Publishing Master's Program at Portland State University (woo!) and I spent last weekend at Stumptown Comics Fest (double woo!). I also had to deal with some other way less interesting and more stressful stuff.

Blah, blah, blah, enough about me - here's a comic!

This happened right outside my window the other night so I felt compelled to draw it. I like that the dude looks like Strong Sad from Homestar Runner. But Strong Sad probably wouldn't yell at a cat. Also, the cat was unharmed. I don't know what was going on but that cat was pissed.

Here are some sketches from the week:

Kids in sunglasses. The sketch on the right is from a photo of my little brother. I love little kids with big sunglasses on. It's so great.

And some bunnies! Because who doesn't like cute bunnies?

That's it for now. I'll get back on track with my posts next week. Thanks for viewing!

Portlandia!

I will be leaving Portland for a short span of time to spend the holidays with my family, but I love this quirky little city so this week's posts are Portland-related.

This image is something I made for my friend who has recently left Portland for somewhere in Colorado, so I wanted to send her off with a slice of Portlandia. I tried to think of the most "Portland-y" thing I could think of. According to my brain that was a hipster elk/deer thing riding a bicycle past Powell's Bookstore while drinking a PBR.

This is how it turned out:

If this image captures even a fraction of Portland's oddness, I consider it a success.

Materials used: pens, watercolor, colored pencil

I really hope Megan got this in the mail by now and I didn't totally spoil the surprise by posting on here...

Giraffes!

This was a project I completed earlier this year for my dear friend Kayla (who is sort of famous). The girl has got some pipes. But I digress.

Kayla's close friend just had a baby, and Kayla wanted a special card made for the family. Specifically, she wanted a family of giraffes. When I finally got down to drawing it out (I procrastinate heavily without concrete deadlines), it didn't take me very long. I drew out one rough sketch to show Kayla:

 

The finished art looks pretty similar. I got a little crazy with Momma Giraffe's hair, but it's a good look for her.

And here's what the card looks like:

All I used for this card was some Micron pens I think. Some kind of pens. I don't quite remember.

A Lady & Her Pup

Here's a quick post before I kick off my weekend:

We had a gift exchange in the AmeriCorps program I was in last year (we were a pretty tight-knit bunch) and I think there was a max of $5 you could spend since we were all broke and that sort of restriction leads to thoughtful, handmade gifts. (Which it totally did).

I had some small frames from IKEA that I wasn't using for anything, so I spray painted them black and made some pen drawings to go inside of them. I figured most people would dig pictures of themselves (I adore a portrait of myself that was done in Paris - even more so because I've had to draw myself a countless number of times for self-portrait projects) and pictures of their pets. This particular lady was the first AmeriCorps member I met in Oregon because she let me and my boyfriend crash at her place for a few days before I moved into my house. She has a super cute dog named Pablo, and my then-boyfriend bonded with Pablo because he loves all dogs. I realize I'm getting off track now, so here are the pictures:

I apologize to Megan for this portrait - it does look like her but I did not crop this image well. It makes her look much less cute than she is in real life because of the way I cut her chin out of the picture. I did a much better job with Pablo:

Such a cute puppy!

I think these were drawn with Micron pens, but I can't quite remember. Woo!

Scribbly Doodles

My life has been a smidgen crazy recently. I'm at the beginning of a lot of great things, and I haven't had much time to draw as a result (I will be fixing that soon!). I found these creature doodles in a notepad and felt they warranted a post. I drew them last year during the before-school reading program I ran at an elementary school. We had a volunteer reader come in on Wednesday mornings, which gave me a bit of time to draw. Of course, the kids always wanted to see what I drew at the end of the session. Sometimes they tried to draw the same thing. It was pretty cute.

I have more of those early morning doodles stashed away, so I'll scan them in at some point.

I love the crazy-eyed vulture-looking guy at the bottom of the page.

This doodle makes me very happy. It is the most Quentin Blake-ish thing I've ever drawn. (Quentin Blake did the interior illustrations for the majority of Roald Dahl's books, for those of you who don't have an expansive knowledge of children's book illustrators).

These were drawn with some felt-tip pen I acquired at school. I think I pilfered a few of them from the supply cabinet because I really liked making lists and drawing with them.

Wonder Wolf!

I can only tenuously connect this post to the Olympics, but I've been thinking about the Olympics, so deal with it.

This little guy is the Wonder Wolf. As you may (or may not) know, I worked in an elementary school in Beaverton, OR for the past school year (near Nike headquarters - Olympics connection) and the school mascot was the Wonder Wolf. I actually dressed up in that costume a handful of times, unfortunately there is no photographic evidence of this...

Anyway, I made thank you cards for student volunteers and teachers at the end of the year, so I drew a cartoony little wolf. He's got an apple to signify education, and a little cape to do awesome deeds in.

I let some of the kids color in the cards before I handed them out - I'll have to see if I can find one to scan in and put up here.

There was no real connection to the Olympics here, although I think the Wonder Wolf would make a pretty great Olympic mascot. Better than that weird blue thing for the Atlanta Olympics in the 90s. What was that thing?