Penny_PerfectionGirl

I hurriedly drew this a while ago for the Penny Dreadful.

Easter Eggs: ZLM. Nivel Ari is Ira Levin, who wrote the source material for the illustrated story, but the story was also partly inspired by the pencils below.

Fun Facts: The piece started as an illustration for this story because I forgot that I had assigned the story to someone else (it was my first semester as the Dreadful's Art Editor). Thankfully I was only on pencils before I realized the error, but there's plenty of change between drafts after I reworked it for a new story based on these pencils.

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Fun_Various

I doodled some Dark Knight Joker-type eyes during Spanish a couple semesters ago. Speaking of killer comedians, Bill Burr was insanely funny when my brother and I saw him perform at the Hollywood Improv this past Saturday, after a less-than-brutal 1.5 hour drive. My face literally hurt the next day from laughing so hard. He's got an incredible podcast, too. The language is rough, but the stories and comedy are gold, Ponyboy.

This is a study from Variante, the main inspiration for going more battle-ish with Monsta Crash rather than with the first incarnation of the story, featuring two girls using sprites to violently attempt to win a guy over.

I'm flying back to Yale this Saturday night, so I'm pumped. A desk, scanner access, and free time means more drawing!

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Fun_Luso.6-7

Page Six

This is the penultimate entry of my classwork comic for CHEM100, an Inspector Luso adventure. Exciting.

Since I had to churn out a ton of pages in a short amount of time, I knew I couldn't go nuts on the details, which meant I couldn't even use a ruler for anything besides the frames.

It also meant that I couldn't get too crazy with the layouts, either, since there wasn't time to scour my little comics library for ideas. Just purely instincts on this series, mainly.

The research for the car and the building facades was based on rapid image-googles.

Page Seven

I wrote the series over a couple days during Spring Break after inspiration hit, let it sit till reading week for rewrites, spent a day laying out the entire 10 pages, and then spent about three days drawing everything out. By the end of the first page, I realized 10 pages would be cutting it way too close to deadline, so I skipped poor page 2, but added a cover.

I loved how these pages looked in my head. Totally insane atmosphere with color and stuff. Alas, fast-paced penciled pages are all I could afford.

Fun Facts: Luso had a gun, but I went back and erased each instance since it would make this page kind of unreasonable, although I kept forgetting to draw her arm band.

Only one more page of science clunkiness left.

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Fun_MonstaDVP

These are some development sketches for the previous Herald series, Monsta Crash. The title came from when I was in Japan and playing with how they pronounce English words: I thought "Monster Crush" would probably sound close to "Monsta Crash." The original story was of two girls using monstas to mess with a guy, so it was like they had monster crushes on him, and he'd also get abused and crushed by them in the process.

So these were the Peepi sketches. I wanted a drastic exaggeration of of my "style," so I went with an extreme take on how I draw heads for comics, after trying more animal-like designs.

I thought the final design was a little plain, so I almost switched to this more decorated design, inspired by Sushi Pack, but I switched back at the last minute.

I noticed this drawing in my sketchbook, and I realized it was actually a subliminal precursor to Bee's urban design.

The sketch apparently influenced my designs, but I wasn't consciously designing the character at this point yet, just free-drawing, based on these zippered jacket sleeves I saw once, so it was pretty neat seeing this drawing after I wrapped the series.

This was my first official design for Bee, though, starting with hair based on the girl from Cobra Starship, as she had appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! recently.

I don't normally watch or listen to those two things, but I guess Conan and Craig Ferguson were reruns or something.

I knew I wanted a military sort of jacket after seeing a girl in Bass Library sporting one.

This was her final city design. It was based on a mix of fashion sources: catalogs from Tilly's and some online stores.

Fashion is actually pretty fun and interesting when it isn't forced, and researching clothes is actually fun, too, which is also why female characters are more fun to draw. The thing about fashion is, males just don't have a lot to do; everything kinda looks the same.

Anyway, this was the rural Bee design, based on Little League jerseys and other non-fancy clothes, as she wouldn't be concerned with keeping neat in the country.

The first episode was written but not drawn since it was more for me, not necessarily for the final cut. It featured Bee's brother talking her into going to the city in his stead since he realized she needed it more.

Baa: I'm going to see Bill Burr tomorrow! Yes!

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Fun_RadaRadaRada

This is Shnitzel from the great Chowder.

Baa: I hate the word "cartoon." Forget the high art origins of the word; it has clearly changed connotation and even denotation today. If you like teasing little kids, you aren't going to tell people you're a child "molester" because that word has changed to an entirely different concept today. In the same way, "cartoon" has become an entirely different, utterly inappropriate word. Reject "cartoon."

On top of "cartoon" itself just sounding foolish, clumsy, and unrefined, with its silly-sounding double-oh, even in its painterly roots "cartoon" refers essentially to the initial sketch that precedes the completed painting; it does not refer to the finished work*. I would hope there's a clear difference between a preliminary, scrawled sketch and a finished product (consider the slight of calling a published essay a "rough draft"). Thus it feels insulting to hear something that has been inked or otherwise executed to finality being called a "cartoon." As far as animation goes, anything that attempts to take itself even somewhat seriously, above goofy anvils and mindless slapstick-laden children's entertainment, ought to be considered not a "cartoon" but "animation."

*If anything, I could begrudgingly admit a single panel work is a cartoon based on the non-painterly definition of cartoon (as in single panel editorial cartoons), but as soon as there are two or more panels in concert, surely it is no longer a cartoon, much like a "novel" isn't a "sentence," despite being made up of them. It is a comic.

And although I never insist others use the term, I consider myself not a "cartoonist" but a "comicser," for lack of a better term.

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Fun_Luso.4-5

Page Four

This is another entry in my classwork comic for CHEM100, the first adventure of Inspector Luso.

Time to bring the science, yo.

Easter Eggs: The doctor references my my sitcom-writing professor, the hobo references a great unfinished comic.

Fun Facts: This is the first page drawn while barricaded in LC during Spring Fling...the Decemberists were on stage.

Page Five

More adventurez and mystereez.

Easter Eggs: The hobo's jacket has "professor patches" on the elbows, only they're holes, to blur wise professorship and mindless insanity.

Fun Facts: Richie's meant to look like a schoolboy with his badge worn like a school crest; Luso's supposed to be more casual and improvised.

Baa: I generally hate 80s music minus a few exceptions.

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Penny_TrainGirl

This is my other piece for the semester's final issue of the Penny Dreadful, interiors for a story about a girl on a mysterious train.

Easter Eggs: The background is basically my other train piece from the previous issue.

Fun Facts: The scene depicted here, where she adjusts her collar, was actually cut from the final draft, I discovered!

Baa: I draw a lot of stuff with trains. It's partly coincidental, but also cuz I love trains; they're probably the most romantic form of transportation.

We couldn't get an artist for this story and it was literally the night before the magazine had to get to the printer's so I blasted this one out, and I guess all ended well.

So that should be it for all my published work for the year. I don't have a scanner here in California or even Internet for my laptop, so I've only got a few stored up scans in my email before we have to switch to photographs, unfortunately.

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Fun_NoMoreHP

Had no idea I was flying out today!! Gotta rush to make it out in time! While I'm flying, here is the final (incomplete!) installment of my Harry Potter series. More words when I'm in California. I miss you already, Yale.

[UPDATE: Landed completely exhausted from frantically packing, but I absolutely cannot wait to return to Yale!

Anyway the story behind this piece goes like this: I'm not a Potter fan, but Freshman Year, someone asked me to draw a Potter piece. She didn't seem truly happy with the piece, so the next year, I surprised her with another try. This is my third and final effort, but I didn't even get to finish it because I had to pack and do all that end of the year business.]

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Fun_Luso.2-3

Page Two

This is the more from my assignment to draw a sciencey comic for CHEM100.

I realized I wouldn't have enough time to include the true second page, which was just character-building, so I cut it.

Fun Facts: I drew this page during Spring Fling. I didn't get to fully enjoy the event like last year, where I drew amidst the mosh pits until it was too dark to draw, but rather I drew sitting under a tree, merely listening to the bands.

After a hamburgery dinner, I hit LC to finish, with an ear to the cracked window so I could hear the rest of the show.

Page Three

Even though the line up included Sean Kingston last year, the Roots and Jimmy Eat World definitely made up for it, but this year was way too rap-laden. Girl Talk is basically rap, cuz rap is "party music!1!!," so for every ounce of rock he played, there was a ton of rap. NERD was basically rap, too. Lame.

I guess I didn't get the full experience since I was just listening and couldn't see them suck, but how can you even begin to redeem a song that is literally about nothing but "All the girls standing in line for the bathroom"?

Ok, I'm going to pack now. I never want to leave Yale.

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Fun_CallMeBeepMe

My snooze alarm killed half a day of drawing time, but I was able to get this in as my warm up.

Easter Eggs: She's got a buzzer.

Fun Facts: It's an inside joke, started this past GBAB, the year's final Quizbowl event, which is composed of teammember-centric questions. Pretty revealing. Pretty funny.

Baa: I'm hosting a Magic: the Gathering or Pokemon (cards or DS) game tonight 7pm, as well as Monday, likely in the JE computer lab. Reach me via email or cell if you feel inclined. There'll be candy or Monster.

Thumbing through old Banners found laying around college libraries is depressing re: how fleeting time is.

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Fun_AnotherEnding

A month late, but Happy Birthday to Removal.

I started this thing two whole years ago, as a way to let people get to know me through my artwork; if you've ever wondered what I'm like, I've now got two years and a month's worth of artwork in reply plus an email.

So much has changed since Freshman Year...mainly the dreadful fact that I'm no longer a freshman. Probably the most depressing thing you'll learn at Yale. And drawing at Yale is a lonely business anyway because you're either artworking, schoolworking, or sleeping so you can have the energy to get back to work. But having people visit makes it worth it, so thank you for stopping by.

But today is another important day: I'm now done with the school year so as per tradition, I watch The Iron Giant after finishing each semester. So I drew Hogarth staring up at the Giant.

This semester's classes were 4/5 dictated to me by my major, so it wasn't very fun or interesting and we went out with a whimper, but it's been a blast drawing for you. I also sorta solved a mystery today.

But after The Iron Giant, I went to the year's final Quizbowl practice where I got to say goodbye to one of the best people I've met at Yale. It really sucks seeing each generation killed off as they graduate. And 2010's next on this horrible little chopping block. I can't believe that's it. No more people to look up to.

Generally speaking, that is,

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Fun_Luso.0-1

Cover Page

I had to write a science fiction story using chemistry for my CHEM100 final, so here it is. Also: please help save my professor if you can; there's a petition you can sign, just email that palindromic volcano organizer.

I wasn't sure if I was going to include a cover, but I had 30 minutes and decided to blitz one up, although I couldn't think of anything splashy, so the cover isn't too neat.

Actually, I'm not a fan of the artwork in this comic (I usually spend 12-14 hours per page on a normal comic, but obviously had to speed it up and suffer the consequences to meet the deadline with 10-ish pages), but the story was pretty fun.

Page One

The story was inspired by a movie I saw pieces of during Spring Break called "Bitten," but I've had a similar idea in my head for a while since seeing this music video by Dynamic Duo (that 13-part Herald story was actually all scripted out with the lead characters designed and everything before I rejected it for what I felt was a simpler story).

Ok, this is my longest "Classwork" comic, clocking in at 9 nigh completely free-handed pages, so this is just the beginning.

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Penny_West

The semester finale of the Penny Dreadful is out now, and I'm on cover duty.

I illustrated this serial's premiere, with a jackalope versus a cowboy. And now the cowboy is somehow in the Civil War...?

Easter Eggs: Second gun behind shoulder.

Fun Facts: The only thing I guessed on was the shoes; even the sergeant patch is accurate.

Baa: I haven't read any publication in a while beyond researching the story I'm illustrating...there's no time! Also, big Monster dump this Saturday night, outside the JE dining hall. Take one if you need to not sleep!

Here're the pencils, by the way.

In a bit of stinging irony, while I attended Ex!t's senior show, I missed the Purple Crayon's senior show! Unbelievable.

I had two Spanish papers to write, which proves my belief that Spanish work only exists to keep me from doing what I'd actually rather be doing.

I really wanted to see the Crayon one last time. Dangit.

The piece started like this, with the double guns more evident.

I did a 9 page(!) comic for my science fiction final project, which'll go up throughout next week.

I also did a comic for my graphic novels final last semester, called "Pangolin Falls."

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