Fun_Yoko

This is Yoko from Seigi no Mikata, a show I've become a fan of even though I don't understand Japanese.

I have a rough idea of what's going on: Yoko must take the abuse and bidding of this psychotic older girl, who I'm guessing is her evil sister or something.

[Scanned Update!]

Reuxben

Fun_TinyKappa

[Scanned Update!]

This is a small kappa I drew while waiting for the group to pick me up at Joypolis.

Kappa are my favorite.

Reuxben

Fun_Shigeru

Since I'm in Japan, a Japanese homage: Toshihiro Ono's take on Gary Oak from Pokemon.

So here's Gary.

[Scanned Update!]

I'd wanted to do something fancier for today, but I ran out of time, so here's some WIP detail.

Hopefully Tokyo University's General Library'll have a scanner.

Reuxben

Fun_BenJu

The Internet is up, so greetings from Japan!

This is "chibi" Ben in celebration of being in Japan.

Hopefully a scanner will surface soon,

Reuxben

Fun_Bamf.df_MO

[If you are reading this, then I'm still trying to figure out how to post from Japan.]

This is a breakdown of last semester's Bamf.

First pencils...

...Then inks.

That's it.

Reuxben

Fun_Later

This is an ancient drawing I had sitting around that seemed applicable for today's news: 0 Days Until Japan!

So now I'm off to study Japanese Cinema and Culture at Tokyo University, on a Yale summer session. I hope to find inspiration and life altering-experiences.

With any luck, I'll be able to continue posting from Japan.

Reuxben

Fun_Eeeee.df_MO

This is a step by step of Eeeee.

First I pencil the comic, with many sketches along the border to help me figure out tricky details without abusing the paper space for the actual comic.

Next I ink the drawing, like any considerate artist would if shooting for publication.

Inking is scary to me, but it's a necessary evil.

And finally, we "color" the comic with pure black for the finished product.

2 days until Japan!

Reuxben

Fun_RockerBirthday

[Scanned Update!]

Today's a long overdue birthday drawing for a jolly good fellow. Unfortunately I don't have a scanner, so I have to use my camera. In any case, happy birthday.

Headshot

Ramones

Guitar
The picture I was working from was really difficult to read, so I did a lot of guessing and google-imaging for the guitar.

Hey, I just noticed how funny the last two pictures' order looks.

4 days till Japan,

Reuxben

Fun_Retrospective2008

Welcome to a belated retrospective on my first art-posting year, featuring my favorite pieces of the academic year by category, photos of some of this year's work, my art tools, and this year's "studio" slash dorm. Enjoy!

Sketches Favorite: PurpleCrayonYH
Fan Art Favorite: WhySoSerious
Rock Favorite: RockKorea
Retrato Favorite: Salute2TehBenji
Fun Favorite: PixieDust
Unpublished Overall Favorite: Salute2TehBenji

Food Favorite: SupaMarket
Record Favorite: TravelCover
Lighter Light Favorite: BadHabit
Penny Dreadful Favorite: ToWhatEnd!
note to self Favorite: colleges
Darling Find Favorite: Snkkt
Published Overall Favorite: Snkkt

Honorable Mentions
Sketches
TakeOut's Burglar
WonderWomen's last three sketches
Rock
RockShowPart2's RockerBoy
Retrato
GilmoreTheMerrier's Professor Holloway
Fun
DarlingValentine
Record
RoboRallyPart2
Lighter Light
Warfare
Genie
note to self
interview
nigel
Darling Find
daDooom
ChaChing

Thanks for visiting.

7 days till Japan,

Reuxben

Fun_DoomsdayVaultII_MO

Today's a tour of my first Penny-published piece, Doomsday Vault II interior work.

So first I roughly outline everything without investing too deeply into details.

I was secretly hoping to impress the editors enough to get the next cover, after the premiere's lamentable cover.

Wonder if that panned out...

Next I get to the final pencils.

Since I'll be publishing this, I know I'll be inking, so I don't have to go over with another coat of darker pencil, as I usually do for pencil pieces.

I was dreading the dark background, but I knew it would look cooler than just solid black.

And finally, the most frightening, reluctant step: inking.

I strongly feel you should always ink for publication unless it's mind blowing in pencil or something.

Today's intended special will air Monday, I guess, since I don't want to advertise it.

9 days till Japan,

Reuxben

Fun_GraffitiPart4

Time once again for more Graffiti, this time featuring my two most recent. This Huey (Boondocks) was for someone who is proud to be where he is from.

This Duo Maxwell (Gundam Wing) is a belated birthday present for a NorCal acquaintance.

Unfortunately that'll have to do for now, but I am working on something special for Wednesday, though.

11 days till Japan,

Reuxben

Fun_PixieDust_MO

This is how I made a shot called PixieDust.

Light pencils first.

I wanted to make a collected edition of last semester's comics and knew I needed cover art, so I decided to try a more realistic portrayal of the heroine than is possible in the comics.

The goal was to push the clothing's realism, while retaining our 2D character.

Darker pencils and clean up next.

The concept was that she's adjusting or pressing up the page.

I decided against using the image as a cover, though.

For one, it's a little too big compared to the dimensions I'd been using all year.

Shade in colors to finish.

And besides, I wanted to make my last post from Yale last year be special, so I used it for that instead.

I'm pretty happy with it, and it was a fun change-up to how we normally draw her for the comic.

14 days till Japan,

Reuxben

Food_SupaStuff

These are the other two pieces of Food from my final assignment batch for the Rudd Center this past year.

The first one is about how some markets end up causing health problems that their pharmacies have to deal with later.

Easter Eggs: Hairstyles from Apu, Philip Fry, Tracey Sketchit, Princess Peach, and Ezekiel Zick. Plus Lil' Gerard Way.

This one is about how scarcer markets make finding healthy food harder to come by.

Easter Eggs: The little emo kids have the hairstyles of Jojo (Horton Hears a Who) and Violet (The Incredibles).

And that's it for Food stuffs until next year.

16 days till Japan,

Reuxben

Fun_GraffitiPart3

More graffiti. Above is my very second graffiti and my first attempt at color. It was for someone who enjoys a book called The Outsiders.

This was my first time graffiti'ing while waiting for a flight at Bradley Airport and I had to rush the colors because it was boarding time. It was for someone who surprises me.

Finally, this is Motion City Soundtrack's Justin Pierre with some of his wonderful lyrics, from when I had to kill three Bradley hours. It was for someone who I've known for as long as I can remember.

18 days till Japan,

Reuxben

Fun_DoomsdayVaultIII_MO

This is the Making Of one of my favorite pieces all year, my interior for the Doomsday Vault III.

First the pencils.

It was a busy weekend, but I kinda put more effort into this interior than the issue's cover!

Reflections on working on the Penny Dreadful:

1) It was a great change of creative pace.

Next inks.

Fun fact: as of 6/13/08, 12:23 Pacific, I have 1337 hits! Lucky Friday the 13.

2) I wasn't fond of the uncomfortably slow editorial feedback and the abrupt deadlines!

3) It was way too short of a run--three issues?!

And finally colors.

4) They didn't run a story called "To What End," therefore banishing away a piece I was particularly happy with.

Happy 1337 since I didn't commemorate 1000.

21 days till Japan.

Reuxben

Fun_Ahnold

So one day the Governator spoke to Yale on helping the environment.

I had an extremely close balcony seat and probably could have jumped on him!

We shared brief, awkward eye contact when he spotted me with that moronic grin I get on my face whenever I meet really cool famous people (See: Gerard Way!), so he returned a slight, uncomfortable smile and quickly looked elsewhere.

Ahnold later held a special five minute speech just for Californian Yalies, imploring us to keep "brainpower" in our humble homestate and to consider saying "I'll be back" to California after we graduate!

Reuxben

Fun_Churro

[Scanned Update!]

Searching for my own style, I reinterpreted Frida Suarez from El Tigre.

I initially ignored the show for combining both the tired "retro" cartoon style and that annoying "Mexican therefore luchador" premise.

But after giving it a chance, it's become one of my favorite shows because it's bold and frequently laugh out loud funny. And the visuals grow on you.

Reuxben

Food_SupaMarket

A food cartoon for the Rudd Center about how crucial supermarkets are to certain communities, especially now that supermarkets are disappearing.

I worked on three cartoons at once for this, my final Rudd assignment of the year, and this one's the most dramatic.

Reuxben

Fun_DreadfulCover_MO

Here's the Making Of my Penny Dreadful Cover.

So I had one weekend to complete a Herald comic, a Rudd cartoon, and a Penny interior and cover, plus that whole homework thing.

Let's go.

The cover's first step is a concept sketch of our hero running from a steam explosion while the villain's giant, hologrammy head rages.

Here's kind of an anchoring outline for what I want to do.

This keeps the final draft on track and organized.

In all honesty, after the concept sketch I immediately began dreading the final because I wasn't feeling happy with how Cindy was coming out.

But I hoped for the best while awkwardly modeling for that running pose.

The penciled final.

The metal, grated floor didn't make the final because of time restraints, unfortunately. Same goes for the side coils' detail.

I had finished everything else but the homework on the To Do list and knew that the grates and coils would take forever and wouldn't even be missed if omitted.

And now of course the final, inked draft.

I wasn't thrilled by it, but I couldn't stop staring at that printed version; I picked up a copy of the magazine to discover that they'd photoshopped my lines to look like I used a flowing ink pen, just like the greats! Awesome.

Gosh, the Penny Dreadful was so cool.

Reuxben

Fun_Boarding2

Play that funky doodle, whiteboards.

So this was from the night after my last final, three or four in the morning. I blasted music in the senior seminar room and drew spontaneously because I realized that there I was, happy that all my schoolwork was finally done, but with no one to celebrate with, so this was as much of a party as I was getting.

They say at Yale you'll have profound, late night conversations; that was definitely true last year, but this year drawing and music's all I got. So this is my late-night-conversations.

Fly Home.

From right before leaving for Christmas Break.

Mummy.

Feeling gloomy that day.

Kelly Study Break.

This is the biggest drawing I've ever done of her.

It was funny how I'd get stares from passersby outside the seminar room's massive windows, as they saw this giant drawing behind me.

Recharge.

From after Thanksgiving break, gritting my teeth for another stay in Swing Space.

Robot inspired by the Iron Giant.

Someone wrote me an insightful little comment under my guy's bitter welcome message.

Is it Over Yet?

From the midsts of that happy little episode I call Room Draw 08.

My gosh, I suck at life.

Reuxben

Food_Salad

Here is another food cartoon.

I think I can legally call it a comic since it has more than one panel.

The issue is about how choosing salads and greenies over burgers and other juicy, meaty things is a simple way to help the planet.

So now I feel guilty--however satisfied--after eating cheeseburgers.

Tasty, tasty cheeseburgers.

Thanks a lot.

Reuxben