sketchbook crap

some stuff from the ol' sketchbook

an ink copy thinger which was an exercise in Illustration Media, blah blah blah. Also another comic character.

important class notes

...yep.

he's sad 'cause he doesn't have a light bulb

some thumbnails for an Illustration assignment which entails a twist on a character actor (the example given was portraying Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow on a bottle of Captain Morgan). So far I've got Daniel Plainview the dentist, and Rocky the squirrel... boxer... thing. Still working on these

nervousness

I openly admit I'm not really what one would call a "badass." No matter how accurate an impression of Tony Stark I can pull off, I just don't think I fit the bill. As a kid I was always the one that stuff happened to. Slipped on a tour of a fire truck and get the wind knocked out of me? Fall a bit weird off a swing set and get the wind knocked out of me? I've done it all, and gotten more wind knocked out of me than Aeolus after eating Chinese (probably literally ate Chinese people, those Greek gods were bananas, man).
The reason I bring this up is I'm now suffering from something I go through a lot; nervousness in shaky and probably excessive amounts. Right now I'm freaking out about driving to Florida. I mean, there's not much that can go wrong, really. Maybe I'll miss a turn somewhere and get immediately corrected by GPS. Maybe I'll get cut off and get angry because some guy could've hit me. Maybe I'll reach a gas station a bit later than I would've liked. Objectively, the road trip I'm about to take is a long session of sitting on my butt on a nice day. But that doesn't stop my brain from thinking about what might go wrong. It's an attitude that I guess keeps me alive, but sometimes it's just absurd.
I was nervous about going into my freshman year at Ringling, which as it turns out is a wonderland of nerdy artists, many of which are far more attractive than nerdy artists have any reasonable right to be. For some reason, total happiness FREAKS ME OUT beforehand; this happened to me before I played my first show with the band I was in during high school. Right before stepping on stage I kinda felt like I could throw up out of nerves, but seconds later when I actually walked on the stage, that began one of the most fun times I've ever had. I can't help but wonder if other people go through the same kind of thing, or if they just get excited without the unfortunate side-effect of nausea.
I guess this entry is kind of cathartic. Just trying to shake off the anxiety so I can sleep and not pass out at the wheel tomorrow. Would that be ironic, Alanis Morissette? Getting in a car crash due indirectly to fear of getting in a car crash? I dunno, but I'm sure I won't find out tomorrow or the next day. One thing I've found out about myself is that I'm extraordinarily lucky. My time ain't come yet, there's comics to be written.
See you guys later, I guess.

birds

This post is about birds. Why? Because just as birds migrate to new climates like clockwork, I too must journey southward to begin a new year of college. One which will be, as Bill & Ted would say, most triumphant. The journey in question, however, for me entails two 9-hour days of driving alone on a flat, long interstate. I definitely think I'm capable, but... the boredom. The boredom might overwhelm me and cause me to just hate everything with wheels forevermore. Little kids on bicycles better watch the crap out.

some birdies from my sketchbook 

some more birdies from my sketchbook

Snowball the dancing cockatoo, in case you SOMEHOW haven't seen this by now.

and, Strong Bad. giving you the bird.

See you guys in a few days... hopefully alive.

little demon match (video game manual)

Another project I've been working on over the summer on and off is a manual for a video game that doesn't exist. As my pixel-covered decor no doubt suggests, I'm a video game kid, and as such my main toilet readings through my youth were video game manuals. I decided I'd use some of the characters I left on the backburner in high school to make my own video game manual for a game called Little Demon Match; this covers the bases of story, characters, illustration, graphic design, writing, and all kinds of other fun stuff. There's still lots to be done with this thing, but here's a few completed pages. What I'd LOVE to do is print up an actual Game Boy Color-sized legit copy of this manual when it's done, but first I have to finish it then I have to find out what it actually takes to build a manual. Baby steps, friends.

Cover page. Still need to come up with a better name for the system this game's gonna come out on.

The first of three character pages.

A page discussing the combat system. 

First page of three covering the story to this game. Like any good old-school game it's silly and makes little to no sense.

monsters

Starting this past week I've started to make at least one monster a day, each one with a 20-minute time limit. It's actually been a pretty useful exercise; if nothing else, it's a good deterrent for artist's block. Believe it or not each one of these Pokérejects has a narrative that I developed while drawing them, and I think they could all be developed further into more unique characters--which is, after all, the field I'm looking to get into. I'm gonna keep doing these as long as I can, but here's the first batch of freaks.

summer update

Remember when I said I'd update more frequently? um... heh, sorry about that. Still fixing that habit.

Beartrap, Mirabelle's pet fox 

ink drawing of Kaitlin Olson

Pamphlet for the DSE

quick charcoal sketch of some classy-looking fellow

charcoal Mirabelle

artist's block: more of an overabundance of ideas than a lack of ideas

Digital Mirabelle

Digital self-portrait