NEMATODE IN SPACE

Webcomics & Paintsketches

2011-01-17T10:57:00.002-05:00

SEQUENCE zine is printing this week, so I'll have a little more time for art! Meanwhile, I started a new webcomic BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, a heartwarming tale of two guys wearing the same shirt (not really but thats what the first chapter is about anyways)

ANYWAYS HERE ARE SOME PAINTERLY THINGS I'm experimenting with all-digital stuff, I've never been good with it. Click for bigger!

weirdo beardo + webcomic

2011-01-12T12:12:00.004-05:00

hey guys! I haven't updated in a while, so here are some random oekaki pictures. I was playing around with the pressure setting, it's really fun!

in other news, I have a new webcomic up and running: THIS IS NOT FICTION! Please check it out and tell me what you think if you have time. (: It'll be updated Saturdays and Mondays!

BIG YEAR

2011-01-02T21:51:00.003-05:00

Sorry we've been slow on updating, I haven't had a tablet since like, October (new one shipped today) and the zine has pretty much taken over my life! BUT here I am!

2011 is going to be awesome! I'm going to:

1) Start a new webcomic and it will be HILARIOUS!
2) Graduate from high school and go to COLLEGE!
3) Publish a sweet collaborative COMICS ZINE!
4) AND MUCH MORE

ANYWAYS here's my yearly drawing that I do every year (that was redundant) ENJOY~

help KICKSTART SEQUENCE!

2010-12-16T14:32:00.003-05:00

PLEASE HELP US OUT PLEASE pimp out our kickstarter!

Hi, everyone! For those of you who remember our past post advertising SEQUENCE Comics Magazine, I'm happy to say our 1st issue is near completion. Also, our KICKSTARTER is still running strong!

Time is running out and we need all the help we can get to push through with our funding. If you can, please throw us $1, $2, $20, $100, whatever, anything works! If not, a few other ways you can help:

1. Make a blog entry
2. Tweet about it or just retweet us: sequencezine@twitter
3. Make a post on tubmlr or reblog this one: ONE or TWO
4. Pimp it on your Facebook status or something
5. Link to our website WWW. SEQUENCEZINE .COM on your website!
6. Put a poster in your school/place of work!? (if someone actually wants to do this Mickey will even make a poster for you)
7. Reblog our various advertisements: ONE and TWO

And again, to donate, check out SEQUENCE @ KICKSTARTER. ♥

We've had great support so far and it's super appreciated! Thank you SOOO much, everyone. ;w;) ♥

Russian Santa

2010-11-26T09:04:00.003-05:00

I'm about to leave for Nikki's house to work on our portfolios! In the meantime, here's a Russian "Santa" and snow maiden that I drew for my Introductory Russian class! My tablet is officially broken...

Click for bigger!

KICKSTART OUR ZINE

2010-11-22T18:54:00.000-05:00

KICKSTARTER.COM SEQUENCE ZINE!!

Please throw us a dollar or two, and if you can't please post a link in your blog, website, whatever, or just retweet us on twitter!

No more floating!

2010-11-20T18:00:00.005-05:00

I've had some portfolio reviews with college reps lately, and although they went really great (MICA especially liked me - he placed me in the top 25% of the portfolios they reviewed!) they gave me the same advice: do more characters + environments. I have some pieces that are just environments, and some that are just characters, but not a lot of the two together.

So recently I've been challenging myself to draw a background with every single character I draw. No more people floating around in space! As a result it takes me a LOT longer to sketch, because I have to think of little scenes. The quality of my drawings isn't really better, but I feel like I'm drawing more interesting things! I also feel like I could get story ideas out of this.

What do you think about that? I especially like the cave explorer and the kid climbing the tree.

Sketchbook Pages

2010-11-07T19:08:00.003-05:00

We're working really hard on getting stuff figured out for SEQUENCE, but here are some sketchbook pages! Mostly of a little project Nikki and I are working on.

Click for larger!

GET PUBLISHED, comics magazine!

2010-11-05T21:31:00.003-04:00

So this blog has been totally crickets lately, but thats because Nikki and I! (and Alternate author Nozmo) have been working on a new collaborative project that YOU can be a part of!

"SEQUENCE comics magazine is a brand-new “by the people, for the people” independent 'zine that aims to inform, instruct, and connect the comics community; no invitation necessary! That means you, your friends, and even your 94 year old grandmother can contribute! There is no pandering to any specific genre - we're just looking for new & interesting comics no matter what they're about."

Check it out!

SVA Report!

2010-10-17T17:20:00.006-04:00

This weekend, Nikki, my mom, and I went to go visit the School of Visual Arts in NYC, as a school with a major in comics! It was really an interesting experience.

The real meat of the day started with a powerpoint talk by the director of the Cartooning program at SVA, Thomas Woodruff. He was really frank and charismatic, and I enjoyed the talk! I also enjoyed learning about the faculty. As far as I'm concerned, the professors of the Cartooning department, as far as I'm concerned, are rock stars!

Just a few names (of the MANY professors) that stick out to me: Jillian Tamaki (Skim, Gilded Lilies) David Mazzucchelli (ASTERIOS POLYP!!, Batman: Year One) Yuko Shimizu (she's done a lot of really beautiful comic covers) Becky Cloonan (DEMO, American Virgin).... for a full list check out this page!

On top of that, they gave out some AWESOME publication swag at this thing. Even the course catalog was pimped out with stickers and a heat-sensitive cover that would reveal itself when you put your warm hands on it.

The comics in the student works book were pretty good! Like any student works book, not everything was great, but there were definitely some comics in there that stood out, and I was really happy to take all these books home with me!

If this school was in a relaxed little suburb or a small college town or out in the country, I would not think twice about making SVA my #1 first choice. But, SVA is in New York City. And thing about New York City is... I really hate it.

First of all, living there is really expensive. We had a little tour of the dorms...

This drawing is generous. These dorm rooms were TINY. Each roommate has to pay like $12,000+ which is just ridiculous. But getting an apartment on your own probably wouldn't be much better!

Although the facilities of the school were fairly nice on the inside, they were way too far apart! I feel like I would have to start endurance-training if I were to be able walk up the many stairs and get to all my different classes.

And the city itself... I just can't even consider living it New York City for even a small amount of time. I wouldn't even want to take a week-long vacation there. I'm really just too stressful a person to deal with such a fast-pace way of life. As for my clumsy cutie, I have a feeling she wouldn't be too keen on riding the subway every day...

I would love for someone to explain to me why the ENTIRE CITY SMELLS LIKE SOMEONE PEED ON IT!?

Seriously. Elevators, trains, benches, sidewalks, just EVERYTHING IS COVERED IN PEE IN THIS CITY. I'm the kind of person who has to use hand sanitizer after touching the stability bars in the subway... if I dropped something on the street I would probably just leave it there, thats just how gross I feel in NYC!

So, even though I really love the school itself, the location pretty much totally rules it out for me. It's a shame too, because if I could find myself being taught by Jillian Tamaki I'd probably faint with excitement! But only a few hours in NYC made us suburbanites crazy on the ride home...

(weepy, sleepy and grumpy!)

If you're a comic kid from a big city or someone who likes a fast-paced and gritty life, I would 100% totally point you to SVA, because it seems really awesome! But for Nikki and I, we just don't think it's a good fit.

green

2010-10-05T21:45:00.002-04:00

I'm having a block, bloop bloop

Take a Short Survey!

2010-09-28T19:18:00.003-04:00

Click here to take a survey about a possible project!

Let me help you, PLEASE!

2010-09-26T18:12:00.004-04:00

I was watching an older movie called "Critic's Choice" with Lucille Ball this morning, and doodled out this!

Anyways, I've always really wanted to help the comics community, in some way. Last spring I started a "Young Cartoonists Society" which was fun until it went inactive and Ning decided to stop it's free services. A bit after that, during the summer, I tried to start something called "Zine Sheets" where artists could trade little mini-comics - which was a complete flop that only about 3 people made use of.

Since then I've tried to volunteer with comics-related causes and projects run by others, but it seems no one has the time to reply to little ol' me! I'm very frustrated, what can I do to help?

If any organization involved with promoting diverse, new, etc comics or supporting such comic-creators needs a gal with tons of free time, experience with general graphic design, book design (with programs like InDesign and Quark) and most of all loves comics, please shoot me an email!!

NEW COMIC

2010-09-12T22:16:00.004-04:00

I just completed a 22 page comic that I started drawing on September first, which is now up on NIS! It also includes 2 bonus pages by Nikki! I'm really proud of both our work on this project.

space

2010-09-02T18:05:00.004-04:00

SO I moved my oekaki board onto the NIS.com server (bongjiBBS) and the update came with CHIBI PAINT. I tried to use it...it's like a weird mix of oekaki and opencanvas, which is AWESOME but not the reasons why I like oekaki. Dunno if I'll use it again...
that being said, you should all join the board! /PIMP

Learning to Paint!

2010-09-01T21:37:00.003-04:00

So, to make some more "serious" and observational pieces for my portfolio I'm trying to learn to do digital painting!
I'm not really interested in a soft or overly-realistic style, so I decided to go after a kind of retro bookcover thing like this or this... I really like that kind of messy and hard style!

I've never really done anything like this so keep in mind I'm still learning! This is all without reference, I'll leave that for the real paintings...

I kind of like this, but I think it looks better without the face. Is that weird?

I like the face on this one! Also check out my totally artsy initials, it's an M and a Q. CRAZY, RIGHT

That's it for now, I'm gonna keep on learning! I'm really busy lately because I'm trying to finish a 24 page comic in 15 days for a contest... Promise you'll all vote for me if I finish!

At-Home Screen Printing

2010-08-29T19:14:00.002-04:00

So I spent today making some little screen-printed greeting cards for the website!
You may be wondering how a teenage girl living in the suburbs has the money or space for a screen printing studio... the answer is: I don't! But I do have the money and space for the really, really cool Provo-Craft Yudu Screen Printing Machine.

It's a little bigger than a large scanner or something, but it has a dark drying rack (complete with fan) very bright exposure light, and even hinges for fast and easy printing.

Having done normal studio screen printing as well, I think this machine definitely gives people with limited resources an awesome taste of screen printing! But seriously, it's just a taste. I honestly can't imagine printing anymore than 50 of anything. Also, registration on this thing is a nightmare (not 1 of the 15 prints I made today lined up, but I do appreciate the offset look so no biggie.)

But, I didn't buy this thing to make perfect prints (thats what the printer connected to my computer is for) but for that awesome, authentic look of screen-printing, which it totally delivers!

One word of advice: throw out the crappy ink that comes with the machine and buy another type of water-soluble paint. Despite warning consumers not to use non-Yudu inks for risk of staining the screen, it was actually the only ink I've used so far that stains. I got ink and Diazo screen emulsion/reclaimer from Dick Blick!

A bunch of pictures of the machine and my final, two-color product after the cut!

Art School Portfolios

2010-08-27T23:52:00.004-04:00

So next year I'll be a senior in high school! I'll soon be applying to art schools all around, which means - portfolio time!

But for the last 3 years I've been attending a math/science school - I didn't even take art last year! So I'm pretty much on my own for the impending portfolios.

So, I've been trying to come up with concepts for some more serious/"observational" things and I wanted to show you guys! If anybody has any portfolio tips or whatever give 'em up, please!

One site I was on recommended drawing some sort of environment? I could directly observe a vaccuum and a patio, and I could photo-reference the city and whatever else... there isn't really much to this one but I still kind of like it.

I have a lot of makeup containers and a lot of wigs to position for this sort of concept... I just would like to do a still life with makeup, fruit and skulls are so overrated.

For self-portraits, I figure schools get a lot of either airbrushy glamor shots, or super-shaded "I'M SO HARDCORE" type portraits... I thought it would be interesting to do one from the back! I have a lot of freckles from the sun and stuff, and also I have a really complicated hair texture, so I think it'd still be interesting without being "DURRR SELF PORTRAIT"

I wanted to draw 5 serious/observational things and then have all the rest be comics, illustration, and graphic design... I'm aiming for about 15 pieces total.

Sorry for all the sketches, I felt bad because I'm actually drawing everyday but it's just often not stuff I can post!

ALSO I recently got access to some screen printing stuff, so expect some AWESOME SCREEN PRINTING. Thanks for your time guys!

BUY BOOKS, LOVE KITTENS

2010-08-25T19:19:00.006-04:00

Hey you guys, so Nikki and I both drew comics for the lovely CAT ODES ANTHOLOGY COMIC BOOK which came out just recently!

If you buy it, not only will you get to read cute little comics by the Nematode in Space team (and many, many others) but 75% of your purchase goes to benefit ASPCA! HELP THOSE KITTENS, GUYS. I know, I know, nobody ever has money, but do you know who really doesn't have money? KITTENS. So help a feline brotha out.

OTHER FINE PEOPLE WHO CONTRIBUTED: Kostas A., Colin Abel, Claudia Aguirre, The Alec Tree, Amaloo, Mathieu Beaulieu, Nina Boyce, Heather Breckel, Greg Collins, Carl "Mamoru" Contreras, Chris "Elio" Eliopoulos, Jay Fabares, Afonso Ferreira, Jose Fonollosa, Sarah Fowlie, Kate "Poj" Greenseth, Doug Harvey, Mike Harvey, Valia Kapadai, Justin King, Kavita C. Lowtan, Lizz Lunney, Steven Nutter, O. Peláez, Taylor Pendleton, Perca, Garron Rossignol, Dr. Salt, Brittney Scott, Martin Tomsky, Jay Wulff, and Albert Yung

Learn more about and see pictures of the book here!

yellow

2010-08-16T22:21:00.002-04:00

(click for full) Tack and Lo from the comic I made at CCS!

NEW LAYOUT !!!

2010-08-15T23:51:00.003-04:00

hey guys wattup! I just want to let everyone know NEMATODE IN SPACE website+blog is sporting a new layout so check it out! Mickey and I worked really hard on it so make sure to click all the links and see our updated info. Also please let me know if there are any browser issues (I ghetto-ly tried to work around hobo IE), I'd love to fix it! Thanks, guys! ♥

COMICS CAMP: EXTRA!

2010-08-11T09:17:00.001-04:00

Me, Nikki, and Robyn Chapman!

If you guys were curious about what kind of studio we worked in or what our teachers and classmates looked like, CCS just posted the pictures on Flickr! Take a look!

COMIC CAMP REPORT PART 2

2010-08-09T14:47:00.005-04:00

SHOUT OUT TO THE INTERNET YEAHhh
if any awesome summer workshoppers stumble onto here please comment with a link to your pages, I'd love to keep up with you guys!

anyway, here goes SUMMER WORKSHOP PT 2, NICOLE EDITION!

TEACHERS: I know Mickey touched on this but I wanted to say for anyone planning on going to CCS the staff is really amazing. They're nice, willing to help, and will totally boost your confidence. I especially enjoyed lectures by Alec Longstreth, Jon Chad (I love his name), and Steve Bissette who I think got everyone fangirling, he's just that awesome!

PROJECTS: after lectures about comics we had "Studio Time" which was basically free time to work on whatever project we set for ourselves. While class ended at 4:30 PM we could literally stay there all night and work on whatever we needed to. Luckily Mickey and I had a pretty good pace and didn't lose sleep like some other people did LOL...

most people started larger comic projects and inked a few pages by the end of the week while others made few-paged mini comics. At the end of the day Friday we had a Final Critique where we showed our studio group (there were ~37 people attending so we were split in half into 2 groups) our end projects and accepted critique.

• I did a 10 page prologue to a comic called "Can't Stand Lemonade" which is about 4 battling lemonade stands who happen to be selling on one street so there's MAJOR COMPETITION. The main characters are Lo and Tack (if anyone remembers them ;D) and features them against the themed teams: Mafia Team (The Mannino's), Pretty Team, and Nerd Team. The teams go through thick and thin to steal customers away from each other.

MY COVER, super mega uber INSANE HUGE THANKS to Mickey who screen printed this for me while I was confusedly trying to get my book together! We officially mastered the One Hour Screen Print, even screen printing genius Jon Chad didn't think we'd finish in time for our Final Critique. WE SHOWED 'EM! ~~And finished with only 7 minutes to spare~~

preview! The inside front and back cover has repeated lemons, again thanks to Mickey who hooked me up with Illustrator's awesome pattern tool ♥

a panel I liked...LOL

• Mickey thumbnailed a 22 page comic taking place in Ancient Egypt. It's about a guy Adom who'd rather die than maintain his permanent Assistant-to-Pharaoh job. Unfortunately: killing himself out of a job would cut him off from the gods but fortunately: the pharaoh threatens to kill anyone who doesn't fulfill their duties to him. It's a story full of mysteries and shenanigans as Adom desperately tries to fail every job handed to him and the Goddess of Luck who happens to be crushing on him and won't let him die so easily.

preview (click for full view)! The end result (not shown) was an adorable mini book showcasing Mickey's comic paneling talent!

CLASSMATES: our classmates were AWESOME and incredibly nice. Shout out to Liz and Kathy if you guys stop by! We met so many different types of people who were all brought together by comics, it was kind of inspiring. I liked seeing how even though there were a lot of different personalities and styles everyone was impartial to each other because it was just about comics. COMMUNITY~*~* (RAINBOW) Some links I've got off-hand from people we met:
http://angryalien.com/
http://www.jaxcha.com/
http://bossofthehamhams.deviantart.com
http://stovepipedotnet.blogspot.com/
http://www.webdisaster.net/

all-in-all it was a really fun experience. We laughed, we I cried, we played pinball (thanks to Alec Longstreth for the free game LOL), ate cucumber sushi, WENT TO NEW HAMPSHIRE!, tried the new avocado burger at Chili's...but my favorite parts were working so closely with Mickey and when people laughed while reading my comic. Such an amazing feeling! I hope I can get off my butt and scan/share it with you guys soon! ♥

any questions LET ME KNOW SUCKAS

COMICS CAMP REPORT PART 1

2010-08-08T18:41:00.010-04:00

So, last week Nikki and I went to the Center for Cartoon Studies for their Cartoon Studio workshop! It was all kinds of awesome. Here's a little report of some of the awesome stuff we learned!

When we first checked into the workshop they gave us a beautifully put-together booklet which included our schedule! Heres a peek: (all images click bigger)

I'm sure you guys noticed on the schedule that like half the day was "Studio Time," in which we worked on our own personal projects! Nikki will be writing in the next few days about what we did during that time, the fellow cartoonists we met, and what we ended up with! So look forward to that.

But for today, I'm writing about the teachers and workshops/lectures we attended! More information AND SCANS~ after the cut!

My favorite part was the lectures and workshops, we had some really interesting ones. (None of these are complete; I figured since they worked pretty hard to get this info to us, they wouldn't want us giving the whole thing away online... but I really wanted to give you guys a little taste of the kind of stuff we did, especially since me and Nikki had no idea what to expect when we got there. If anyone from the school sees this and isn't cool with it, don't hesitate to tell me to take it down, okay?)

Book Craft and Design was especially good in my opinion; it really made me think about book covers in a different way! I also loved the lecture by Steve Bisette about process and materials; but the meat of the lecture wasn't really on the handouts so I didn't want to scan them! But that guy really has a lot of tried-and-true ideas about story-telling.

Another workshop I really loved was Alec Longstreth's "Your Comics Will Love You Back." This guy is TOTALLY inspirational; he really loves comics. On his wedding-ring finger he has a ring for comics. He is literally married to comics.

The workshop was centered around this many-page booklet that was AMAZING! It was about a lot of different stuff, I would describe it as a workshop on cartooning lifestyle! It had a lot of stuff about scheduling and budgeting... it was just like, really, really useful. Here's 2 pages:

I am TOTALLY pumped about comics. I'm going to try to work on them everyday from now on!

Orange Soda

2010-07-19T09:53:00.003-04:00

Heres a little orange and yellow girl! Drawn with the zebra pen and colored with Photoshop.

PS, Happy Doodle Land is having another give away! I want to win the stampies, Nikki and I wanted to get some...

whitcomb

2010-07-18T19:10:00.003-04:00

failed experiment FOR MICKEY ♥♥♥ he was supposed to be holding extra large tweezers...
ps his name is Whitcomb right? LOL SOB

I quit!

2010-07-17T17:15:00.002-04:00

I quit my first job yesterday! This means I'll have to weekends all to myself, which means more drawing! I'm really excited. Meanwhile, my second job is getting much better - I've gotten to work on some real advertisements and design work and it's simply wonderful.

Characters or Story First?

2010-07-07T19:05:00.005-04:00

(Please enjoy this cute yet years-old doodle unrelated to this post!)

So I recently put out a journal on another website asking about people's methods for coming up with stories, because I've had a lot of "concept block" lately. (I hardly get "artist's block", I just can never think of what to draw!)

Much to my surprise, many people said they go characters first - as in, think of some characters and then build a story around them, or how they interact.

This surprises me because I have always, always gone story first - Language of Flowers especially was story first, and then characters after. So I wonder, what are the advantages of going either way?

I can say from personal experience that an obvious issue with going concept first is that your characters suck. One or two might be alright, but as a cast they probably suck. This happens to me all the time because when I have a good idea about the story I just want to tell the story already; I don't care who it takes! I don't spend any time thinking about them or how they interact or what they like or any of that other junk. So, should I try to make the characters first?

The problems I see with the characters-first approach: is the story interesting enough to keep people reading? I can think of several artists who I love to bits but whose stories are so complicated, bogged down with all sorts of random/useless information about their characters that I can just not bring myself to care about the story they're presenting to me. Or, they're so excited about their characters that they are constantly posting spoilers for a comic they haven't even't started!

Furthermore, I think a dangerous pitfall, especially for young artists, is treating characters like your "babies" - stories are generally about conflict, and few parents want to see their children in conflict. Sure, you should like your characters, but I don't think you should love them, because in the end it really handicaps what you're willing to put them through. Another thing I see a lot from young artists is divulging every fact about their characters; the stuff you write to help your understanding of the character is not stuff everyone needs to know, and it is especially not stuff that needs to be included in the story itself. Really, we don't care if your characters favorite food is broccoli and he loves to roller skate in his spare time! Unless his eating habits or his spare time is a central/entertaining element to the story, it really doesn't make a difference.

The truth is, no matter how much you love your characters they should move the story along. But your story shouldn't trample your characters either!

How do you guys go about it making stories, and how do you make it work?

New Pens!

2010-07-01T17:14:00.003-04:00

So, apparently "Graphic Design Internship" is code for a job organizing CD archives! It is much less artistically draining than I thought it'd be.

Anyways Nikki hooked me up with some awesome pens! It's called "Zebra" something something, its really great! And then a cute super light grey copic marker for shading. The copic looks a lot cooler in real life...

My first time trying out these new pens I felt HARDCORE INSPIRED to try some weird shading, because I hardly ever shade! After watching Gurren Lagaan however many years ago I remember being hardcore into the eyecatches between the commercials or whatever, so I went for something like that for inspiration! It looks a little bit stupid with how soft my style is but it was fun?

Exciting New Things

2010-06-26T23:59:00.001-04:00

Nikki and I are really busy working on a new ADORABLE layout for this place, wait until you guys see it!

Anyways here's a sketch I did really quickly today, no idea what's going on here haha!

School's Out!

2010-06-20T12:11:00.002-04:00

Hey guy's, school is out so I have some comic pages for you! I actually inked 7 of these suckas but Nikki is putting tones on them for me so you'll just have to wait for them!

So even though it's summer, I hooked a graphic design internship so I'll have my nose to the grindstone again in about a week! I'll probably be a little bit burnt out between that and my part-time, but at least I'll be making some money! I need a new tablet badly, I've had this one I'm using now since about the 6th grade.

Click for full size!

I hope you guys will like this comic as it gets going... I'll get better at using a brush soon, promise!

feels like summer

2010-06-11T21:09:00.002-04:00

phone call

2010-06-07T17:18:00.003-04:00

click for full view please!
I drew this comic after the most HILARIOUS THING MY MOM HAS DONE EVER, it was amazing. Also I wanted to see if I could draw a simple comic with brush pen (although I don't know why I masochistically made the last panel SO TINY LMAO), it was SUPER DIFFICULT to keep my hand steady but fun! I hope I can get better at it ;w;)

BRB!

2010-06-06T08:39:00.003-04:00

I have school exams this month so I've been really busy, sorry everyone! I'll be back for sure after the 17th. Just yesterday I took the SAT's!

Anyways here's a little preview of something I was working on until school punched me in the face. After all the grandstanding about color I might leave it black and white for the very important reason that I cant color to save my life...

maladie

2010-06-04T12:46:00.003-04:00

sketch trade with Anissa of her character Maladie!
also my first brush pen drawing I'm sharing with you guys ;w; ♥

50th post ILU!!!

2010-05-29T15:14:00.002-04:00

hay guyz me and mickey did a collab to honor our 50th blog post!!!!
i drew mike chang frm glee HEZ SO KOOL!!111 MICKEY DREW EVERYTHING ELSE SHEZ AMAZINNNNN DREAMY SIGH

(you guys are awesome, thanks for sticking with us!! ♥)

go landon goooo

2010-05-25T20:29:00.006-04:00

LOL butt/broken ankle
in other news, I got new inking pens!! I'm having a super fun time using them, I wish I could show you guys but...well, let's just say my doodles are so off one of them even looks like Bert and Ernie combined. Yeah.

Green and Blue

2010-05-24T21:02:00.001-04:00

I almost forgot about this blog for a second there haha! Just playing with colors. The arm is pretty messed up but it's okay!

heart

2010-05-22T17:57:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure about this one ;( I got the colors how I wanted but for someone who didn't see the creation process is it too confusing? Does the eye see it weird or unattractively? Comments appreciated ;3;) ♥

ps, thanks so much to everyone who's been commenting and contributing to our blog!! It's really awesome, you guys are SUPA AWESOMEEE ♥♥♥

Comic Color Tests

2010-05-21T17:11:00.003-04:00

I think that when you're doing a webcomic, there isn't really any excuse for not using some type of colors in your design (unless the story is so abstract or so serious that it absolutely must be colorless!) But I generally hate realistic coloring. Not only is it distracting but it's usually ugly. Look at the room you're sitting in; does everything (including any people or animals or scenes out the windows) look good together?

Not that everything always has to look good, but if it doesn't look good there should be a reason for it. Nothing should be ugly if it doesn't need to be, right?

So I spent a loooong time today testing different palettes for a planned comic (that one alone page I posted before was part of it, but I'm gonna restart in a different format!)

More Under the Cut!

This one is closest I'll get to "real" coloring, and even this seems like too much... It also seems like too brown, almost vintage or cowboy, and thats like the opposite of what this comic is!

I like this palette a lot for a picture, but I think it might get a little cheesy in a comic. For any real visual cue the important things in a panel would have to be that bright pink! Another note - the background in the one sketch is from google sketchup! Theres a really cool style function that makes it look like a drawing, which I think is very useful for comics... but that's a whole other blog post!

I think it would be really, really fun to do a comic in this palette, but it's a little too dark for this comic!

This one is probably my favorite one! I like that there is a wide range of colors without there being a lot of them. It really makes the opportunity for a lot of different contrasts and visual cues and junk, which is what I want!

What do you guys think of these?

Willard

2010-05-20T20:21:00.001-04:00

wow u r so byootiful

2010-05-19T21:31:00.002-04:00

I wanted to try horizontal blush but does he look like a cat???///!?!/1/
meow meow meow

Puppy

2010-05-18T19:55:00.002-04:00

I pretty much never draw dogs, it looks like a cat...

Pen Fight

2010-05-16T15:17:00.003-04:00

Something I did before of a dream I had... I tried the thing where you draw it first on the computer and then print it out and do pen over that? Interesting results...

bff

2010-05-14T23:34:00.002-04:00

oh my god. From here on out I promise to work on anatomy because this is seriously just getting ridiculous LOL. I'll also invest in a skin-shading and grey-shading markers.
speaking of, sorry for all the marker drawings (I have like 1 or 2 more haha) but I'm practicingggg and I really like the way it looks in my sketchbook TT3TT)))

something you should know about this picture: both Mickey and my shoes are 10000000x cuter in real life. PEACE OUT SUCKAS

more fat juls

2010-05-14T01:11:00.004-04:00

I wanted to be the 40th blog post, hehe! *3*)))

Big Hat

2010-05-12T23:17:00.002-04:00

Just playing around with an old brush sketch!! Also this blog officially has 10 followers, woohoo!

Sparkle

2010-05-10T16:06:00.001-04:00

Another sketch from february... I've been way to exhausted to draw anything new lately, sorry people!!

040810

2010-05-09T10:47:00.006-04:00

I went on vacation with Mickey to Williamsburg, VA back in April. It was really fun and beautiful! ♥ I took these with my fuji mini, so cute!

Old Sketch

2010-05-08T23:10:00.003-04:00

I actually drew this back in february, but I was cleaning my folders today and found it (and some other art!!)

Purple

2010-05-06T21:24:00.006-04:00

I was thinking I hate drawing panel lines, so I want to experiment with other ways of making panels...I like wiggly color blocks, I'm going to do some experimenting!

EDIT: What do you think of a comic that looks like this? HMM!

stylized

2010-05-06T15:50:00.006-04:00

my scanner isn't working properly CRY

a quick marker test! I'm trying to work on shapes more, it's difficult but fun. It's hard not drawing my normal super anime body style OAO)))
I didn't draw these in the same image so please don't think Julian is so small LOL!! While I like giving him worm-hair, I don't think I'll be making him as round and chub. Who knows? What do you think? DECISIONS

is it super obvious that all my drawings are in different styles lately? So confusing...

Annetta

2010-05-05T20:09:00.004-04:00

Something I drew like last month... I tried to go with a "coffin" shape in general, because I wanted her to kind of look goth-esque without it being that cheesy straight-up gothic. I don't even think any kids dress like that anymore! (not at my high school, anyways...)

And just a little test! The quality of this lineart sucks because I drew it in like one second...

Viking and Octopus

2010-05-01T11:31:00.004-04:00

I'm gonna work harder to get better at using a brush!!

IIIi wanted to go with like an octopus shape for Charlotte, but she looks a little too silly, I don't want it to look like she has octo-powers or something! (what are octo powers?!)

ps colored:

Casper and Friends

2010-04-29T11:32:00.002-04:00

Old brush pen Cease and Desist people.

Hair/Style Tests

2010-04-27T19:27:00.003-04:00

Different tests I did a while ago... I mostly hate drawing hair!
The weird serious one freaks me out, it's almost bird-esque...

PS!

2010-04-25T12:18:00.005-04:00

Check out what I just found, from the movie Up:

Look at those character-shapes! Inspiring!

This if from the Art of Up book!!

Face Sketches

2010-04-25T11:49:00.003-04:00

drawing from http://www.flickr.com/photos/leastwanted/ !!! It's the coolest flickr stream ever, the criminals in those have such character. I hardly ever finish this type of sketch though... I just get the main idea and then on to the next one!!

Nosy

2010-04-24T10:09:00.002-04:00

Thinking of characters for that police comic...My brush skills literally pain me to look at!

Language of Flowers

2010-04-23T19:22:00.003-04:00

I've been avoiding brush pens lately... I don't know if so fluid is really my style! I always imagine something stronger in my mind...

I like thinking of Dusan's character-shape as a worm, I think it's funny.

And a NEW CHARACTER! shaped like a cute little onion...

(did I mention I was thinking of doing LOF again??)

Hark!

2010-04-22T22:05:00.003-04:00

Here's a medieval looking guy with tiny legs.

dusan 'A')

2010-04-22T17:54:00.002-04:00

a silly Dusan for Mickey!!!

octo

2010-04-17T17:08:00.002-04:00

love

orange

2010-04-16T15:23:00.001-04:00

My scanner was connected to a computer thats been dead due to viruses for a few weeks, so this is actually pretty old! All this stuff is.

cat

2010-04-15T14:55:00.003-04:00

meow O3O)))

Flowers and braids

2010-04-13T18:36:00.003-04:00

Looks like a pair from one of those time-travelling series, you know, a modern teen and a princess or something?

run run run

2010-04-12T13:03:00.004-04:00

HEY it's my first post! Sup guys! I drew this with an adorable motivational pen Mickey gave me. ♥

WIP

2010-04-11T12:29:00.003-04:00

This is something I was working on this morning but am now ditching, because I didn't realize until halfway through that Willard's notepad doesn't really read as a notepad, it reads more as a stick or something...

(Full-size is large.)

I've been trying to work more in sillouhettes before I go to it. (as in this from the Temple of the Seven Golden Camels) It doesn't often work out.

PS

2010-04-04T14:38:00.003-04:00

Here's something I was experimenting with today! Not really my style, I don't think I'd do it again...

(CLICK FOR BIGGER)

Mint Girl

2010-04-03T09:53:00.000-04:00

I like the color mint green... another one of those color-blotch sketches!

Blowin' in the wind

2010-04-02T10:37:00.000-04:00

Haven't draw this guy in a while!

Run run

2010-03-31T21:10:00.000-04:00

This woman had arms but I chopped them right off!

Towel

2010-03-30T17:23:00.000-04:00

Sometimes if I'm having trouble I'll draw big, colorful blobs and change them into pictures. I have a lot of these pictures lately.

My mom is getting chemo, I'm about to go visit her in the hospital!

Retro Style

2010-03-29T17:58:00.000-04:00

Linda from Golden Third in some interesting duds.

Showdown Complete

2010-03-27T08:53:00.000-04:00

Fixed the perspective in panel 3 (it's still messed up but now it reads clearly at least)... working on "black and white balance."

For digital linerart, I just kind of clean up and go over the sketch... I have to do this or else it looks lifeless!

I don't know if anyones curious about this sort of thing, but this is kind of how I wanted to flow for this page! I wanted the last thing the reader sees to be Antonio's wimpy face, haha.

Showdown

2010-03-26T11:32:00.001-04:00

It's a little known fact that I love cop shows... Law and Order, CSI, even NCIS... I'm a little addicted!

Yo

2010-03-24T19:09:00.000-04:00

I drew this at the beginning of the month, but I've always liked it...

Runners

2010-03-22T17:08:00.000-04:00

Just added this to the illustration gallery. They're characters for a comic I'm planning.

Hats

2010-03-20T12:10:00.001-04:00

I'm trying to design business cards, but it's sort of difficult!

Snowman

2010-03-19T22:27:00.000-04:00

I had a blast watching the Olympics this year! I got a lot of practice drawing various snow-sportsmen of many nationalities.

Wind

2010-03-18T19:50:00.000-04:00

I have a stomach ache :-[

Explosion

2010-03-17T19:37:00.000-04:00

We're reading the play "Copenhagen" in my English class! I pretty much hate it, but there was a line like "The bomb had already exploded in your mind!" which inspired this sketch!

Brights!

2010-03-16T20:01:00.000-04:00

I was bored while Nikki was eating dinner, so here's a jazzed up sketch!