Topsy's Shocking End

Bad news: It's been over a month since I've posted.

Good news: I'll have brand new full-page comics to post over the next few weeks! I've been taking a short-form comics class with Shannon Wheeler (creator of Too Much Coffee Man) and it's gotten me back into drawing on a daily basis. I've learned lots of fun and exciting things, like how to letter a comic.

Our first week's assignment was a historical comic. I have a soft spot for elephants, so I wrote and drew a comic about Topsy, the elephant that Thomas Edison electrocuted in his "War of the Currents" with Tesla.

Topsy's story has been getting around - a whole episode of Bob's Burgers was based on it. Below is the main song from the episode, "Electric Love," covered by Stephin Merritt (of the Magnetic Fields - so many science-y references!) and Kenny Mellman.

National Poetry Month

To celebrate the end of National Poetry Month, here is a line drawing of one of the all-time greats: Emily Dickinson.

This piece was published in the Winter 2014 edition of the Portland Review, along with a drawing of Edgar Allan Poe (which will show up on the sketch blog in the near future).

George Washington in Boxers

Happy April Fool's Day!

Line Art

With color!

Thursday Afternoon Cartoons: Ooodles of Noodles

Another very silly idea:

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!

DJ Ladle

DJ Ladel is "ladling out the hits!"

This is a dumb little sketch based on a dumb response I gave during a comedy game show I participated in last night.

My apologies for the lack of posts. I haven't fallen off the earth, but I've gotten really into learning Spanish recently. I also have a short attention span and I've been out of town for the past two weekends.

I pinky swear there will be some good stuff popping up here next week.

A Very Portland Christmas

To continue on the Portland theme, here's hipster Santa, bringing PBR to all the underemployed boys and girls living on the east side...

 

Travel

Last fall I created a series of illustrations so I could throw together a stop-motion-y video for a Southwest Airlines competition to win 30 million rewards points to fly wherever I wanted. I love to travel and thought I threw together a fairly convincing and creative presentation as to why my broke AmeriCorps butt should be able to jet across the country on a whim, but they didn't pick my video. (You can still make things right, Southwest!!!)

I was pretty bummed that I did all that work for nada, but you all can view some of the pieces I created. Maybe I'll try to throw the video up on YouTube or Vimeo or one of those places. I wrote a children's book-esque script to go along with the video and narrated it myself and used iMovie to edit it all together because I have lost whatever Final Cut abilities I gained in college.

I'll shut up and show the pictures.

That's supposed to be me. Broke and living in Portland, Oregon. BUT HAPPY!

Then I discussed driving across the country in my tiny little car to serve in AmeriCorps because I am an amazing, selfless person.

This is a really weird combination of images: Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a geyser (Old Faithful if you'd like) from Yellowstone, because I saw both of those things on my drive across the country. It's kind of surreal and I really like how it turned out even though it makes no sense without explanation.

Hey, look! I don't have enough money to fly anywhere and go on tropical vacations.

Like 99% of Americans.

I explained the awesome things I would do if I was able to fly all over the country for free.

You may notice that I love alliteration.

 I tried to tug at the heartstrings of the soulless marketing folks who didn't choose my video. I talked about going back to Philadelphia to visit my family because I missed them very much. That's a pretty accurate representation of my Pops.

Then I did a little stop motion bit of the ridiculous amount of flights I would be able to take with all those reward points. I even made the airplane look like a Southwest plane. Because I have a crazy awesome eye for detail!!!

Then I cleverly brought it full circle by using the first image, but I changed the words on the sign! Brain-explosion-inducing, I know.

So those are some pictures. I made them with patterned paper, markers, watercolors, and Mod Podge.

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.

Robots

As I mentioned in my last post, I was (sort of) working on a little robot art piece. Since I pulled out all the stops at the last minute and manage to finish the piece, I can triumphantly post about it.

Background:
Robo Taco (a Mexican eatery in SE Portland) put out a call for robot art on Craigslist (a totally reputable site to find art jobs) and I saved the post - thinking that I might get around to creating a piece. Usually, I don't, but this time, dear reader, I did! I made a rough sketch of what I wanted my little robot to look like one evening, and the following evening I drew it out on nice paper, inked it and watercolor-d it, and Mod Podge-d it all together.

So here is the rough sketch:

And here is the finished product:

I put it in a frame I got from Goodwill for $2, and voila! A finished piece. It looks pretty classy in the frame, but I don't have a picture of that yet.

Materials used: Watercolor paper, Micron pens, watercolors, colored pencils, and patterned scrapbook paper (the background)

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?