Fun_GravellerGetsTraded

Gotta catch 'em all.

Reuxben

Fun_GameShirt07_Design

Hello. This is an unsubmitted design I had for the JE Game 2007 T-Shirt Design Contest.

The front features the JE Master and Mrs. Haller striking violent poses while a vicious snake encircles them.

The back features the Dean and Mrs. Farley. The dean is decapitating John Harvard and Mrs. Farley is riding a kangaroo. The Kangaroo's pup is staring at a little spider on the ground.

I thought of this idea just before the deadline, but didn't think it could win, so I let it go. I couldn't resist drawing it up anyway, though.

It's too bad Master Haller's quitting.

Reuxben

Herald_ChaChing.df

Welcome to the new new series, Darling Find (DF), and this time it's for real. Forget
last week.

On last week's fiasco: Page 15, where my comics appear, reprinted last semester's last comics, so the premiere didn't happen. Last week's comic was to run this week, but I decided to rework it.

The biggest change: backgrounds! Smaller change: now we know how and why she gets an interview.

Easter Eggs: My signature is an ad on that mysterious shop. A poster says Lang, referring to the great Mrs. Lang, renewing last semester's dedication.

Fun Facts: I came up with this tweak on production night, but fortunately finished at 5am, a three hour improvement over last week. I studied One Piece's first chapter a lesson on good intros.

And of course, jack kelly makes a triumphant return with "luxiam."


He apparently came by my suite's whiteboard earlier and scribbled out a preview, but I'll catch him some day.

Reuxben

Fun_NoMorePower

This is a drawing of a classmate from the last day of ENGL114, Power Writing, freshman year.

Ok. Citation news Part II: The TravelCover post gets the tag. But ironically, I'm considering quitting the Record all together. This indecisive paralysis is why I've signed on for just one piece for this upcoming (and uninspiring) "Machine Issue."

What am I doing here, anyway?

The possible saving throw comes from a forwarded email from one Michael Gerber, Record '91, and his friend Joey Green, who both loved the past issue.

Green lauds, "the cover was done by a student?" This along with Gerber's future-driven alumnus support remind me why I'm doing this. Someday, I want people to hunt for my Yale material, like a yearbook photo of Tom Hanks or something. I want people to think, "Wow, can you believe that's really him?"

I originally joined the Record hoping to meet the next Conan (had he been a Yalie, of course). After discovering the Record's current precarious state, I felt compelled to stay if only to say years from now that I took part, or was even a material force, in getting the institution back on its feet.

So now I press on hoping that the ancient Record will stay afloat for the foreseeable ever. And in the (inevitably?) upcoming future golden age, some day they may publish a compilation of the Record's greatest moments--I've already browsed an early 1900s version. Well, I want to earn a spot in that new anthology.

And besides: the current "upswing," if you can even call it that, will certainly get better in just one semester; it can't get any worse. Er...never mind.

That's a lot for a non-Friday post. I have the comics'ing week off due to the Herald reprinting, but I'm going to see if I can work in a surprise anyway.

Reuxben

Fun_NoMoreSpanish

This drawing's from my final day in Spanish class (ever), from last semester.

Now, the big news from last week: Two new items have earned the "Citation" tag.

Citation News Part I: in an obvious pinch for material, the JE tabloid, Temptations--in their atrociously-laid-out Winter Break issue--used my WoZ post.

It's bittersweet: First, I actually did want to do comics for them, but obviously more consciously than this random (and minimally humurous) plucking. And second, I feel torn over whether or not I want credit for the entry beyond "Sophomore."

Also, unrelatedly, they mislabeled libel as slander. Lame.

Ok, so that news wasn't that interesting, but Wednesday's Part II will be! I mean it. Controversy and all that. You'll see.

Last thought: Harvard sucks.

Reuxben

Herald_DarlingFind_Preview

It's been an eventful week for me art-wise, particularly the past two days or so.

But first, if this is my Herald story, how could this guy possibly fit in? Well, he doesn't; this is a different series. That original story isn't quite locked down, and I feel it's worth more development.

So this series is called "Darling Find," and it isn't meant to run too long, but buy me time before "BLR" can launch.

Anyway, details on why this week was important for me on Monday and Wednesday.

Easter Eggs: while some of my family members like to claim stuff I draw is based on them, this is the only time they'd be right--the Kelly's hair is a riff on my sister's latest 'do.

"Kelly Ryan" comes from Meg Ryan's Kathleen Kelly, in You've Got Mail. "Robert James" bridges Spider-Man's Joseph "Robbie" Robertson and J. Jonah Jameson. The mall's name and design comes from my hometown's "Great Mall."

Fun Facts: It was 8am and I decided to abandon backgrounds and just turn it in. Ironically it didn't see print due to a Herald office mishap.

A bit more, I worked about 10 hours straight on "Woosh," skipped sleep, harvested breakfast energy, but then crashed in the middle of lecture after about 25 straight hours of non-sleep! Post-lecture, a classmate woke me up after my black out, and I was completely bewildered: I didn't remember passing out, but my neck was quite cramped. I sit three rows from the professor with no one sitting in front of me, so he probably saw me dozing right in front of him!

Reuxben

Fun_WoZ

If I only had a heart, I might have gotten into that seminar.

If I only had a brain, I might have not lost that $270 receipt.


If I only had a dog, I might have a best friend.

Reuxben

Fun_Ben10Jumble_Preview

Day one and this semester's already steadily swirling down the toilet...

Geez.

Please enjoy this shot of Ben from Ben10.

He'll have some company in the background eventually.

Reuxben

Fun_Genie_MO

We're about ready to start another Herald cycle in just seven days, so here's the Making Of my very first comic of the year, "Genie."

It actually saw print second, but that's because I pushed it back for a more immediately relevant Freshman comic, "Warfare."

Anyway, here's the thoughtline. The blurry, upper version was written as I was walking, obviously, followed by a cleaned up version later. Below both is a skeleton draft, complete with little facial experiments on the side.

I based the wishes on what I would wish for, with enough tweaks to make it universal.

This is a close up of the skeleton draft, where I dash to get everything down so I don't forget what I'm going for. The framing, as everything else, is really simple because I just want the basic idea. Details come later.

Here's the rough draft, drawn during the very first Herald meeting, which was pretty boring, of course!

I wanted to have more focus on the '11 shirt so that it was clear the guy was a freshman, but I cut that from the final, because of too little space. You can see some rewrites and alternate framing, too.

And finally, here's the finished draft.

For MOs, I'm going to include the margins around the comics from now on because there's usually some little doodles that go on while preparing a comic.

Ok, here's to an even better semester in comics,

Reuxben

Fun_BLR_Preview

I'm finally back at Yale, which calls for a special post, of course--this time a special preview of my first Herald Comics story ("BLR"*), but he's from a part that won't arrive for at least a couple of months. So while it should go under "Herald," it's just "Fun" for now.

What is it anyway? It's a development sketch for a character called Wolfboy. I really, really hope everything works out and we actually get to him. But there's still a heck of a lot to do before I feel comfortable unveiling more, so we'll see what happens. I'm excited, but scared.

*"BLR" is just a placeholder name while I think of something with more punch.

Reuxben

Record_RealRadioactives

Just by pure chance, I visited the YDN page and discovered that the Tower Parkway (<--where I live) power plant (<--near where I live) was ablaze!

Well, here's another power plant-related disaster: it's my first submission for the Yale Record, from way back in that wonderful, beautiful time I like to call Freshman Year. The assignment was to depict "realistic" outcomes for superheroes after their radioactive origins.

It was for the equally disastrous Nuclear Issue, the first issue of last school year. As rough and limited as the piece is, that's just how pure and unlimited my first year felt. Ah, I miss Freshman Year.

Easter Eggs: None! Lame.

Fun facts: This was the first time I'd ever seen my stuff Photoshopped. And who else but the unflappable Chittenden to cover colors. It's also a fun(?) contrast to our most recent collaboration, the Travel Issue cover. Completely opposite: wonky pencils and inks, and it's black and white.

Hopefully things keep on--or start?--getting better. I dunno.

Reuxben

Fun_TravelCover_MO

This week's the Making Of...the Travel Issue's Cover for the Yale Record. This is my second cover, but it's significant because it's the triumph of more complex covers over painfully simplistic ones--like my first cover, in fact! This issue also had other points I argued for: black pages and text wrap! Hopefully these changes stick around.

Ok, first was an in-progress shot. Very light, image still forming, many missing elements.

Now the final pencils! Everything's pretty much locked in and it just needs to be inked, cleaned up, and then colored!

And after some inking and erasering it's finally ready to be sent off to that coloring dynamo, the incredible Chittenden!

Here's our first colored draft (along with a mock-up of the final cover design).

Coloring was tricky because it was Thanksgiving break and everyone was scattered to their hometowns.

Over email we tried working as much out as possible, and this came out pretty well, considering.

After a few notes, this is just about the final draft for colors. There were really small tweaks afterwards, which you can find here.

Note that this is where all those weird planes were off to: the Record logo's O.

And that's the Travel Issue's cover.

Reuxben

Fun_LookBossDaPlane

It's 2008 now, and gosh, 2007 feels like it has just flown by, especially after 61 posts "last" year.

Speaking of flying by, I fly cross-country every vacation and break, and when there's no in-flight TV or a good movie (or turbulence), I draw.

So here are some drawings from my flight to California for Thanksgiving break.

First up is this girl I'd like to meet.

This one is the result of a desire to mimic the styles of Humberto Ramos and Francisco Herrera.

I find it tricky to discern between the two, but I enjoy their style so much, I wanted to try to emulate it.

So there you go.

Happy new year (again),

Reuxben

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