Music to Draw to

G. Love & Special Sauce 

"Yeah it's that easy"

One Page Exhibition - ON NOW

"Captain Lovelace vs the Grog"

(Pirates of Mars - issue 2 coming to Comixology next week!)

Hey friends,

One Page opens tonight and only runs the weekend 

- go see it if you are near Seattle!

SEE THE SHOW HERE 

The work is so killer, so happy to be in a show along side these amazing people - thank you Robbie (+David)  !

“One Page” A Comic Show

Coinciding with Emerald City Comic Con, Roq la Rue presents One Page, A Comic Show. One Page is a group show featuring contemporary and comic book artists, showing in the gallery at the same time. Each artist will be producing a one page comic with a short story, similar to what you would see in the Sunday comics.
Curator Robbie Lowery says: “I originally got the idea from Ryan Heshka who had shown at Roq la Rue a couple years ago and included a couple pieces that were short, stand alone comics. Such a great idea. Now if you’ve ever been to a comic con, you’ve probably seen some artists selling original comic pages from books they have illustrated. While the pages are usually awesome, a lot of times there isn’t any context to the page when removed from the other pages, especially if there is dialog. I wanted to give comic artists the chance to display a full comic in one page, rather than two dozen. The comics have to include original characters. Sorry, no Batman!”

Contributing artists include; Ashley Wood, Sail, Ryan Heshka, Rufus Dayglo, Nico Delort, Andrew MacLean, Matthew Dunn, Veronica Fish, Audrey Kawasaki, Syd Bee, Travis Lampe, Jim Mahfood, Julian Callos, Rosemary Valero-O’Connel, Hope Larson, Julia Gfrörer, Leonard Brizuela, Dan McCarthy, Farel Dalrymple, Allison Sommers, Ben Rankel, Brendan Larson, Syd Bee, and Casey Weldon.

 

Here the original sketch that I blew up, went over with sharpie and lightboxed.

Music to Paint to

Mark Ronson x Bruno Mars

Uptown Funk

This isn't really music to paint to because you can't paint and dance at the same time...

When I was a kid in the early 90s, music and fashion like this ruled my life.

I was a devoted "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" fan, owned photobooks by Jamal Shabazz, and tried to dance like Savion Glover when he was on Sesame Street.

My mom exposed me to the 70s/80s New York dance scene believe it or not, she was a professional dancer herself and possesses and extensive knowledge of people like the Nichols Brothers, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and even owns a pair of Gregory Hines' tap shoes.

I used to watch this old tape on the history of dance ("That's Entertainment 1974").  It was hosted by a then-old but still handsome Gene Kelly, taking you chronologically from the earliest records of dance up until present day.

Of course, "Present Day" meant 1974, and the video closed with a fantastic breakdance scene, filming actual teens in the Bronx dancing for fun after school.

Also - film people - if you haven't seen "Paris is Burning" - you must!

Owari Taiko

Owari Taiko 『尾張太鼓』is a 250 year old style of drumming originating in Owari, outside Nagoya, Japan.  The double drums 『太鼓』are accompanied by shakuhachi 『尺八』flute playing and were performed at shrines during the autumn harvests.

My teachers Murase sensei (flute) and Kodama sensei (front)! 

They gave me my first lessons and set of bachi.

I found Murase's daughter's wedding on Youtube! Miss those guys.

I had no idea her husband was also an amazing drummer!

Junior Taiko Competition - Aichi-ken

尾張太鼓　練習ビデオ

Owari Taiko practice video

Murase sensei gave me a DVD to practice with and wouldn't you know it, I came across a video of the SAME guy!  My DVD is a copy of a very dated (like 1995ish?) VHS - so it was so cool to see the SAME GUY years later!

This particular drum beat is the hardest in the series and I have significant trouble with it.  But I'll get it someday.

Here's what super pros look like

Music to Paint to

♫ AMY WINEHOUSE "Valerie" ♫

Music to Motivate

♫ UGLY DUCKLING "Do Your Thing" ♫

 

I listen to this to when I need a boost

Pirates of Mars comic art process

Hi everyone,

JJ and I are so excited that Pirates of Mars has 19 great reviews on Comixology! Wow!!  Thank you for reading! 

We release another super-sized 33 page issue the first week of April - stay tuned!

In the mean time, here are some (very old now) pages from issue 1, going from pencils to inks to color. 

(Because the comic was released in black and white first, the lettering was done before colors.)

Mowgli Surfwear mini labels

I always get excited when Mowgli Surfwear calls asking for images, because they are so fun to work with!

Here are some mini labels I worked on for them as well as some pictures of people from Mowgli lady Poppy Stopnik because she is super rad and I really really really wish it was that warm out.

(these images are property of Mowgli Surfwear and may not be reproduced)

Ozu Yasujiro in color : BLACK

Ozu Yasujiro in color : YELLOW

Ozu Yasujiro in color : GREEN

Happy Spring! 良い春を！

Ozu Yasujiro in color : RED

Going to post some inspirational material from my most recent obsession: the films of Ozu Yasujiro.

RED

Super Mario "Star Road" postcard for Gallery 1988

I recently did this tiny little painting (4.25" x 6") for Gallery 1988's Postcard Correspondence show opening on March 20th,running through April 4th.

They asked that the artists create a postcard from a fictional place or somewhere that exists within pop culture.  It was a great idea and I was so happy they asked me to participate.

I chose STAR WORLD from Super Mario Brothers for SNES!  Star World is the place that lets you access secret levels and then if you beat all 5 points on the star it opens up the STAR ROAD portal!  That's the little star on top of the hill's head :)

My sisters and I spent many hours desperately trying to beat this sucker.  I think we did once?  Can't remember...

 

日本語で

Pirates of Mars x ONE PAGE SHOW @ Roq La Rue Gallery

I was so happy to be asked to be a part of Roq La Rue's ONE PAGE group show opening March 27th - 30th in Seattle, WA (it's a very limited engagement!)

INFORMATION HERE

I was able to do a Pirates of Mars one-shot page, which you won't find in any of our volumes, this was done just for this exhibition.

It was even more fun to use the Deleter Screen tone, which I had bought but never put to application.

You can see more process on my Instagram

ALSO!

I can't update my Instagram OR Twitter!

I've been locked out due to apps crashing on my phone and other issues - so it will seem like I've disappeared from social media.  Maybe it's time to start blogging regularly again :)

I wonder how I can update Instagram from a third party app?

Thank you!

Wow - we are so happy people like our book!!

Read the preview!

We are so excited that Pirates of Mars is available on Comixology!

Even though this graphic novel was originally published in black and white in 2010, we colorized it for our digital launch (maybe we can find a good color printer in the future) and will be releasing 3 giant-size 33page issues every month!

Then after volume 1 wraps and the color trade paperback is released, we'll be moving on to volume 2 in the summer with ALL NEW CONTENT!   YAY!

And then hopefully volume 3 ... - will there be a 4?

I'm not sure, JJ hasn't told me yet :)

Pirates of Mars on Comixology!

And in COLOR.... weee

We'll be releasing 3 super packed 33 page issues via Comixology every month.  Then we release the graphic novel and are back with Volume 2!

FIND IT HERE!

It's strange to look back at the pages I did 6 years ago - and you have to suppress the urge to constantly fix things - so all that creative energy is going into new pages.  Onward and upward, right?

But even so I am incredibly blessed to get to work with JJ, who is supremely talented and whose characters are a joy to draw!

Look for lots more updates, character designs, sample pages, etc very soon :)

Here is a process shot from a later scene: