Fun_DPopsFantasy

For the last post of the year, here's a snippet from my drawing session at the Davenport Pops "Fantasy" concert, during their tribute to Studio Ghibli.

They closed with a special performance of some Pirates of the Caribbean music. But when I think of pirates, I think of One Piece, so I began drawing Luffy.

Well, happy new year,

Reuxben

Fun_WhySoSerious_MO

Here's the Making Of the Joker piece I did last week. First we start with a very light pencil of our subjects. For more complicated shots, this step is usually preceded by an incredibly rough and almost incomprehensible draft of scraggly shapes that would indicate just to me how everything's to be arranged.

But I just cut straight to this present step because I didn't think I'd draw anything more than the Joker's head at first, but then it just spiraled out of control and before I knew it I added Harley and everything.

So after I knew I was going for more than just a head shot, I was extra careful to keep the pencils really light to make any changes on the fly. I used Picasa to darken the scan for the website, but if you were to see the actual drawing, you'd see it was pretty light (this is the darkened version of the previous scan).

Now we're ready to lock in the lines I want with darker pencil. I also plug in little Xs to indicate pure black sections. During this step, there are usually only minor tweaks here and there.

I wasn't sure if I'd ink this, so I decided to darken it as if I were only going to use pencils, so that if I liked it I wouldn't have to ink it. I dislike inking because it's like doing the darkening step again only if you mess up, it's a lot harder to hide since the ink doesn't erase. Plus I feel my inks aren't as expressive or as fun as my pencil work.

The only thing that really made me want to ink, though, was the impending heavy blacks I'd have to use for Harley's outfit, which can really tank in pencil. But I wasn't even sure if I wanted to "color" the piece at this point, either!

After seeing the lifelessness of the finished linework--just for fun--I tried giving the Joker's hair some "color," and then his lips, then his face, etc. etc. And here's the final piece.

Some of the most fun was with the pure black in Harley's outfit because you get to balance craziness with logic when following the dancing shine along her suit. The Joker's hair and bow were also fun, but his suit was just tedious because it was kind of a dull gray since I can't really convey purple through pencils.

As for the Easter eggs from the picture, although it's hard to see from the scan, they really are there. Here's a close up for each.

In order, they're from the Joker's poof.

From Harley's left-most neck-poof.

And from Harley's lowest poof.

So that's how I made the Joker and Harley. No inks, but maybe next time. I know I need the practice.

Reuxben

Fun_TimeLapse

Here are some drawings from an Avatary Friday night. I wasn't feeling very good that day.

Here's a shot from a break during my last study session of this past semester, the night before my final final. I wasn't feeling very good that day either.

Here's a Cheeks autograph I managed to obtain during Comic-Con 07 through my sister's resourcefulness. It started out great, but then I wasn't feeling very good that day either.

Reuxben

Fun_DeadboyLOOK!

I didn't think to draw something Christmas-themed in preparation for today's post, likely because I was busy both trying to finish up that Joker piece and contemplating my solitude.

And now that I'm scannerless in California, I've only got my backlog of stored art to work with.

So here's a shot of my favorite creation, Deadboy.

Merry Christmas,

Reuxben

Fun_MrLuffy

From Bradley Airport in Hartford, CT, here's the final post of the regular semester.

In fact, it's the last drawing I made this semester, from last night's One Piece viewing. Some nameless JEer joined me for a few minutes, but I think he was just hovering like a vulture, waiting for me to drop dead--er, cough up the basement TV. He gave up by the commercial break.

Right, so this is Luffy from One Piece and you can even see a Chopper sketch behind him. I wanted to draw everyone but thought I ought to get to sleep early for my 8am shuttle to Bradley.

Oh wait, sleep? What was I thinking? The guy I share the room with has that annoyingly-loud, ticking clock. So now I'm running on just a few hours of sleep.

Ugh...

Reuxben

Fun_WhySoSerious

I stumbled upon the new Batman trailer, which made me want to draw the Joker after finals, then Harley Quinn, too. So just minutes after finishing up the drawing marathon, here's my Joker fan art (more fan art HERE).

Easter Eggs: My old suitemates' names are hidden among the fluffs.

Fun Facts: These are my two favorite Batman villains. I gave the Joker a Dark Knight, painted-on smile, but Gotham Knight clothing.

Speaking of which, I can't wait to see the non-animated Dark Knight, which is looking and sounding incredible! This Joker will rock. [UPDATE: he DID!--Reuxben 8/26/08]

Let's put a smile on that face,

Reuxben

Fun_FallRecordTeas

If there are any 2012ers out there, this post might be good for you.

At Yale we have "Master's Teas," which are events where interesting people come to chat to a small room's worth of students.

The Yale Record also helps host some teas, this year in conjunction with Pierson College.

One tea this year featured David Wain. I hadn't heard of him, but I went to support the Record. As usual, it turned out to be a really interesting tea, well worth the trek to Pierson College.

More recently, we hosted a Yalie, Jonathan Coulton, of internet celebrity. I didn't know who he was either, but I braved the chill to Pierson based solely on the knowledge that teas don't disappoint.

I found out he's a collaborator with fellow Yalie and sometimes Mac John Hodgeman. They met in "a college in New Haven"!

Mr. Coulton played many funny songs, and I became an instant fan after hearing his first song, "Future Soon." You can bet I'm working on fan art.

So who else is invovled in Master's Teas besides the fabulous guests? The fabulous masters! In this case, Pierson Master Harvey "Master G" Goldblatt.

Masters usually act as the main interviewer during the biographic portion of the tea, and then bring the tea to a close after the direct student-guest discussion, which always follows the guest's speech.

More tangentially involved, the Record Chairman usually introduces the guest and the tea. So this is our fearless(?) leader.

Here's a secret: he was about to fall asleep during the less lively autobiography section of Mr. Coulton's tea...for shame! I drew him awake, though.

Anyway, 2012, come to Yale and live teh adventurez.

Reuxben

Fun_Bulldoggery

Well, the Yale 2012 admits' site is up and humming.

So a while ago, they had asked me to design some bulldogs for a "Dress Up Handsome Dan" sort of application they would use to pump everyone up, so here, at long last, are my designs!

This is one of my favorites. I like how his arms are pretty big, but not Ahnold-like.

I tried a variety of body types, which was pretty fun. This one's got to be one of my favorites, too.

Of course, none of the designs were used, but I had a feeling that I wouldn't get the gig anyway, so I drew some poses that obviously wouldn't work if you wanted to show off clothing. The last two were more for fun poses than for trying to show off wacky duds.

In any case, c0ng12ats,

Reuxben

Fun_TakeOut

There is no more Herald this semester, so until we pick up in January, we're going to have to make do with sketches and other oddities I have laying around.

Up first is a series of doodles I did on a discarded Chinese menu while in a very boring Record meeting. For a humor magazine, the meetings are pretty dull.

So there's a bandit!

No, I don't like Chinese food.

But I do like My Chemical Romance.

So I drew a guy based on Gerard Way's old "look" from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.

I practiced drawing emotions I was feeling during the meeting, and exploring my own style as well as trying out new styles based on Humberto Ramos and Francisco Herrera. This emotion screams, "Get me Out of Here!!"

"Blah...BLAH!"

"Ok, ok, pay attention, pay attention.

This doesn't concern you at all, but try to be a team player."

"Ugh...zombie."

This is a sketch from the recent Purple Crayon Midnight Madness performance. Really enjoyable, although there were some dull spells and the ending fizzled.

I was thinking of Herrera when I drew this one.

This is a cat-like creature wearing a bowtie.

Of course.

Reuxben

Fun_Beanie?!

It's been two days since I lost my beanie somewhere between SML and CCL and there's a beatiful snow going on right now.

I've had to resort to using this non-ear-covering-albeit-lovely baseball hat.

In conclusion: WHERE'S MY BEANIE?!!

Reuxben

Fun_Ben10Movie

Ben10 (see more of my Ben10 fan art HERE) is my favorite cartoon after Avatar. Why would they taint it with a live action movie? The animated movie was great, and even innovated (save those lame still-frames). But the live action movie was just heartbreaking.

Director Alex Winter promised "no Jar-Jars," at last year's Comic-Con, but the problem wasn't the CGI aliens (although Heatblast's movements were idiotic); it was the humans. Not only did they superfluously divert from the show, but they were poor actors.

And why did they change the aliens' voices? They kept Dee Bradley Baker, so obviously they had a choice.

Anyway, I really feel let down by the live action movie, and can only hope M. Night S. doesn't blunder as badly with Avatar. Maybe that trilogy'll realize just as well as the 20th Century Fox DBZ movie did.

Reuxben

Record_TravelCover

Here's the culmination of this cycle's Record hype: I did the cover for the Travel Issue. Beautiful colors by the indefatigable Chittenden.

This is a vast improvement over my first cover, for the Food Issue.

I've been pushing for more complicated covers and used the Food Issue as evidence of why plain covers suck. This issue's cover represents a definite win. Now if we can just get the interiors in step, we will finally dethrone that other magazine, aesthetically, at least.

Working with our wonderful colorist over Thanksgiving break was cool. The COOLER thing was being told that we'd all further work on tweaking colors when everyone involved returned to campus but then being completely cut out of the process! Sweet!

Easter Eggs: Kool-Aid man's leafy shirt design, The cop's owl logos, and a Da Vincian flying machine.

Fun Facts: Mini-jokes and a higher complexity are so important to a successful cover and such an important issue for me that I wrote one of my Spanish compositions on this subject.

Also: Curse you, Yale Record, for actually being funny this time.

Also also: this is post 50. Pretty exciting...

Reuxben

Fun_Pygmaller

Snow blankets melt away like Freshman Year.
Like an illusion?
Today was the upperclassmen "Holiday" Dinner.
Wow, I miss Freshman Year.

I was drawing in a corner when JE Master Haller popped up and asked what I could be drawing before he arrived, a humorous reference to my first sketch of him. So to show my own quick(?) wit, here's a post featuring a sketch of him from the fall Culture Draw '07.

He was about to draw the first name for the lottery and I was hoping to be picked early so I could see Pygmalion. But just then he stopped to address the JE mosh pit, "I must warn you, Pygmalion is on the night of the JE Screw." I provided my own translation for the sketch, of course.

Well, I went to see Pygmalion anyway, and it was great.

The morning's beautiful rain begets an afternoon of wet dog fur.
Reuxben

Herald_Bros

So ends the semester at the Herald! Joys, fears, laughs, tears.

My final entry's an old idea, and really just an elaborate pun set up. Puns!

Easter Eggs: Link's got my cell phone (plus triforce) with Saria's Song for a ringtone.

Fun Fact: Since I'm still missing my ruler, I improvised another frame split, this time using Navi.

I kind of miss single shot gags already, but I can't wait to do stories.

Also, today was JE's "Rise and Return," which I hope becomes an annual tradition. Nice fun to awkwardness ratio. I got to 64-smash some freshmen (including a kid I remember from the admits' page!) and a senior. I wish the real FBO1 was there, though.

Pika-pika,

Reuxben

Fun_GilmoreTheMerrier

This past Tuesday Yale featured the first of several panels on hate, this episode particularly focused on the history of hate.

I normally wouldn't pay much attention these sorts of events--I really don't think I need to be told that hatred is bad.

But two words got me there before anyone else showed up, sketchpad in tow:

Glenda. Gilmore.

She's a rock star, you really ought to see her in action; absolutely incredible lecturer.

Professor Gilmore is (was, as of today's final lecture) my professor in US history this semester, and she is the most powerful lecturer I've yet heard here at Yale.

So I was quite eager to hear more from her, especially on a topic she so poignantly covered in our actual class when she discussed the atrocities the south committed against its black citizens.

So as I entered the vacant lecture hall, I held the door when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned to offer the door and saw... Professor Gilmore! I was kinda star struck!

Fun Fact: While drawing her, I couldn't help noticing she looks a lot like Mrs. Lang. She even sounds like her.

The drawings are, in order, Professor Ben Kiernan, Professor Gilmore, and Calhoun Master Jonathan Holloway.

Reuxben

Record_TokyoPopPart2

And here're the remaining pieces for "TokyoPop"--a series documenting Godzilla's adventures.

Here's him smashing Pearl Harbor. We just finished our WWII reading for my US history class and now I kind of see this picture a little differently.

Here's Godzilla versus competitive eater Kobayashi.

Easter Egg: The N stands for "Nathan's," the site where Kobayashi demolishes USers annually.

Finally, here's when Godzilla switches to a miso soup diet and Japan rejoices.

So there's TokyoPop. I wonder what the final page will look like. I hope it's really pixelated and confusedly laid out! [update: it was!]

Grab your Records next week (then burn them)!

Reuxben

Record_TokyoPopPart1

In just days, the Yale Record will unveil its "Travel Issue." Relax, they're including art to supplement the written "humor" this time, so you should definitely pick it up!

I got to do two neat things: first--what I've affectionately nicknamed "TokyoPop," but is actually called "Timeline of How Japan Got So Weird." Second--I'll reveal next week.

This first pic is about a face-altering disease that has hit the anime community.

We've also got a bunch of planes...pretty boring, but I'll also explain those next week when the issue comes out!

Here's when Japan's first Pokemon prime minister resigns in disgrace.

Easter Eggs: Not only is his boss-ranking mug a joke about those #1 boss mugs, but also a reference to Pikachu's original pokedex number. Also, his tie's knot is a pokeball!

Fun Fact: I fought to get a Japan-is-Weird piece into the Travel Issue, and they finally green lit it because--surprise!--it's a good idea, although I had something much more random and bizarre in mind. But you get what you can. Nice that I got to draw it.

I have no idea what the finalized piece looks like, but with the Record, you can count on it to be total--well, just cross your fingers.

So that's part one of TokyoPop, Wednesday will have the exciting conclusion.

Reuxben