Fun_WMSdrawings

I compiled some drawings to give away to the kids I tutored during summer school, as an incentive for them to give the teacher some much needed peace on the last day of class, so here are some break sketches plus some of the pictures that were up for grabs--better behaved children pick first.

This is my envisioning what tutoring summer school might be like, followed by the day's lesson. Thankfully they placed me into an action-packed math class.

Next, there's some pose practice. I also wanted to try Ben10-styled hands.

I practiced this hairstyle I really like but I can never get it as I see it. The mouth was Ben10-styled.

We've also got dreadlock practice, inspired by Psyche's Gus.

There's a screaming guy with spittle spewing.

This robot was inspired by my fond memories of the Iron Giant. One of the students also loves that movie, I found out while wandering the class in tutor-mode.

I compiled about five sheets of artwork for the kids to choose from, with early picks for the best behaved. So top pick went to a kid who liked the Spider-Man I drew during my last break. The robot went second and the kid even caught the Iron Giant allusion!
Continuing my efforts to predict what middle schoolers would really dig, I went with a Teen Titans Robin sketch. Robin's pretty cool (minus Scott Menville).

Now we get to the fun one.

I met a kid who was really into Pokemon, and just like me, a big Team Rocket fan.

So I stayed up into the wee hours the last morning of summer school and drew him Team Rocket.

I wanted to give him a special drawing because he was such a character, really smart but easily bored and distracted, and because he told me that his brother and dad are off at war.

He seems really positive about it, always talking about his Master Sergent dad, but I thought he deserved some special treatment anyway.

So believe it or not, this is actually my first time drawing the Rocketto Dan.

It was tricky making them both somewhat feminine, without going too far for either.

I think it turned out pretty ok. But in any case, I made sure to use the kid's favorite Rocket catchphrase, "In your face!" in the note.

He loved it and cheered the words as soon as he saw them. I wanted to tell him that his brother and dad were amazing people, but I thought it might get him thinking about their situation too much.

...well, Chimeco says "Bye!"

Reuxben

Herald_Guitar

This was my first real attempt to draw a comic for the Herald after a rushed salute to Room Draw '07. The sagely Dan offered me advice on how to come up with material for the Herald and suggested utilizing wordplay. So coupled with my love of puns, I went with this "premiere" for the Herald.

I regret that there were a couple of minor oversights.

Easter Eggs: "Yale" is etched into the sidewalk cracks of the bottom panel.

I had a lot of fun taking advantage of the spacious single panel format the Herald boasts, and I can't wait to get back. In fact, I feel torn about either doing a regular strip, like I've always wanted, or taking advantage of all this space as a single panel. I'd really like to do both, but I'm not sure that would work out. Maybe the strip in the YDN, and the panel in the Herald next year. But we'll see.

In the end, I feel like I owe my loyalties to the Herald though because I love underdogs.

Reuxben

Fun_PotterShipping

This is a drawing I did after a request from one of my Spanish classmates. She originally asked for a Final Fantasy shot, but after considering that it was pretty late in the year and a Final Fantasy picture would probably take a while, I asked for a second option. She loves Harry Potter and shipping, so I drew this for her.

I couldn't tell if she liked it or not, but I know I put considerable effort into both researching the picture as well as drawing it of course--I was up till about 7 in the morning hammering this out on (what I thought was) the last day of class and my last chance to give her the picture. Turns out there was a whole weekend and a day before the last class.

Anyway, I'm reasonably happy with how this went and I think she at least enjoyed the sketches I showed her before arriving at this final version.

Big thanks to Cartel's Chroma album; I listened to it over and over, fueling me into the night/morning.

Reuxben

Record_Turducken

This is one of my final Record pieces for the year, for an article about Turduckens--the Thanksgiving food that is a duck stuffed into a chicken, stuffed into a turkey. The author writes about the prehistoric ancestors of this fabled combo creature, and so here's the art I created for that article.

Easter Eggs: Some names appear hidden in the trees beneath the volcano (left to right: Tom, Phil, Jordan, Reux).

Visual Cues: My imagined turducken has, instead of some freaky, over-stuffed gut, the signature anatomical features of each bird--chicken mohawk, turkey cheek droopies, slick-back duck tails (a-woo-ooh), and duck feet.

With any luck, this'll make it into the upcoming Food Issue of the Yale Record! (UPDATE: No such luck!)

Reuxben

Record_Emo182

We're about to hand in the art for the last issue of the Record for the year, so I can comfortably say this is my favorite piece I did this year. I remember jumping for this assignment when I read the art description--emo kids talking rock.

This piece was satisfying for a couple of reasons--it played on my favorite brand of music (not the band, though), and the people who listen to it. Plus everything in the shot but the big chunk of dialogue was pretty much my idea, but even with that chatter, I had taken the liberty of whittling down a huge, clunky block of text to what you see there. I added "sweet" as a kicker. I've received positive feedback over choosing to place these guys before a Hot Topic.

Easter Egg: "Yale" is written between the two in the pavement cracks.

The costumes have a fun little story behind them. The guy on the bottom is wearing Deadboy's costume, a character I created senior year of high school. His very own comic didn't launch, but I've still got the story and a rewrite floating around in the file I keep for everything related to him.

As for the other guy, who's opening the door, I modeled his costume save the gloves after Loide's "Carpe Diem" title character. I had just read Jambalaya Fall '06, and that story made me instantly want to join the Yale Comics Club. So it's cool how everything worked out.

After recently looking at my horrible, very first submission for the Record, I realize how far I've come since. And I look forward to more good times with the Record next year, including easing into my new role as "Aspiring" Art Director, as the current boss guides me into the role.

Whew--ok, I'm done.

Reuxben

Fun_Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my sketchblog!

To start, here's a picture I drew after being forced to watch the 24 season premiere, which wasn't as exciting as I was led to believe. It's cut off a bit since I captured it with my camera and not a scanner, but I'll update it whenever I scan the picture.

I hope to post more art I did/am doing/will do for the Record, Herald, and anything else, in addition to any random stuff like the above.

Reuxben