I guess now would be a good time to give a small update on the current situation. I've extended my lease, so I'm staying here through August of 2009. I'm gonna be a real New Yorker!

My classes are starting to end, one by one, so the time for me to start looking for a part-time job while I get my shit together for applications is nigh. The fact that I've graduated into the worst possible economy just makes the situation all the more frustrating and soul-crushing. My sunniest prospect would be working at the Apple store, which somehow feels like a bit of a step down from my previous work as well as having graduated Vassar. Liberal Arts educations seem to exist solely to make crushing disappointments all the more brutal because your hopes and dreams have been raised higher.

While I'm doing the job search, I'm applying for an internship at World Leaders Entertainment, the studio that animates the Venture Bros and various other advertisements.

It feels weird not going to ComicCon this year, but flying out there for that event just didn't feel feasible. Additionally, the show sold out months ago, so the matter was settled. Perhaps I'll go again when I have something to show for myself.

I guess I should start making something again and putting it online to establish a decent portfolio of work, or at least a name for myself. But doing so is putting what little confidence I have out in the open, which makes me reticent to act. I need to figure out how to create things with some kind of finesse or a sense of completion before I can put out a product into the public sphere. Reputation goes both ways.

So, someone on the SA forums posted some random comic, and I saw an opportunity to edit something fun in there and seized upon it. It is very rare that I feel the initiative to make such a thing, but the last few panels gave me an idea for a gag that I just had to do.

( Original comic and MY HILARIOUS REPARTEE under this cut )

Well, here is my project for animal anatomy. We were asked to make a fantasy creature.





It's full of errors, though. But since it's drawn in 8B pencil, they really can't be corrected in the original.

See, this is why I say I'm not ready to make webcomics again.

HOLY SHIT! SOMEONE MINIATURIZED STOCKHOLM!




It's a fun effect that even YOU can do in Photoshop! If you understand perspective, you can make more effective versions with masking; just keep your eye on what objects are in what order in terms of focus and foreground and background.

It's this week's ART DUMP!

I think this week as a bit of a step backward.


( CLICKING ON THIS WILL MAKE ALL YOUR ART DUMP DREAMS COME TRUE! )

I dunno why, but I found this one really amusing.




Also, according to that "Personal DNA" thing that people have been taking I'm a "Benevolent Realist".

My personalDNA Report

It was actually an interesting test. They have a few repeats throughout to make sure you don't contradict yourself.

Okay, so it is a bit of a skeleton from memory, but this still illustrates something very WTF about superhero comics.

More sketches from the art courses this summer.

This week, my drawing New York City course had us travail to Grand Central Station, where I messed around with charcoal. The instructor seemed to like the fact that I was one of the only ones who had good perspective. But he did have other complaints, all quite valid.

The figure drawing was originally done in red and blue colored pencils, which are fucking hard to photograph in my room, so I had to convert them to grayscale for convenience. The poses were short and the instructor wanted us to put a bunch of them on the same plane. So perspective was a pretty important concept this week.

( ON TO THE IMAGES! )

I'm going to a screening of Paprika on Friday at the Lincoln center, which is followed by a conversation with the director himself, Satoshi Kon!

I'm so excited! I wonder if they'll open it up to a Q&A. If so, I should prepare a question and translate it.

So, for those of you wondering what I've been up to in the city, here is a huge dump of all my recent figure and city drawing in the last few weeks.
Lemme know what you think, even if it's just "I saw them!".

( FUCKTON OF IMAGES BEHIND THIS CUT! )

At MoCCA I was able to talk with some representatives from Canson, who are producers of paper. One of their products is known as the "Fanboy" line, intended for comic artists. It accompany the horrible name, they have a horrible brand!



They seemed interested in my thoughts and asked me to mail them, so I drafted something up and sent it. Here is the important part:

( It's long, so it's behind a cut! )

Living in New York has been fairly good to me, even though the weather and sometimes the MTA haven't been as magnanimous in that respect. The rain, which feels more like bacon fat than water at times, pours between and sometimes during short bursts of humid heat waves. While I am not a praying man, it makes me thank the lord for the invention of the air conditioning unit, excess energy consumption be damned. The Fairway Market, located close to my housing has proven the city to be a gastronomical paradise. Imagine my surprise to find a store in the US carry Bottlegreen-brand Elderflower Presse, one of my favorite drinks in the world. If I could find some Kopparberg Pear Cider, my alcohol dreams would truly be fulfilled.

I currently live in Harlem on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, close to Broadway and Columbia University, which has been a very accommodating area. Considering the rent I pay, I was surprised to find how nice my new room is, especially since apartments in this city are notoriously small, dingy, and depressing to the point of suicide. Since my initial contract is only three months long, however, I really haven't felt the same kind of permanence or attachment to it, since my residence is ostensibly going to only be short-lived. But the option exists for me to extend my time here, which is looking to be what I might be doing for at least another year while I plan out the direction of my life. Perhaps with this extension, it might give me the push to actually start adding furniture and creature comforts to my currently modest setup.

The summer courses at the School of Visual Arts have been an interesting experience, and have generated unfamiliar feelings of confidence. Somehow, most of my instructors have this almost unfounded faith in my abilities, which is quite a departure from my usual experiences in art classes where I feel behind, lost, and alone. My current favorite is figure drawing for animation, taught by a Mr. Gaffney, who actually became a fun drinking partner at a local Irish pub after the first day. On further rumination, I find my competitive internalization of classrooms to be a major source of my renowned self-flagellation. My strive to rise above surroundings is a nasty habit cultivated by years of academic competition. But since the world we live in is inherently competitive, fighting each other for spaces in high-demand positions and dreams, it might just be a natural instinct. Either way, there is a sense of guilt within my observations of who I consider more or less experienced or skilled than myself. It is the strangest of ironies that my judgmental nature is not inexorably tied with any sense of pride.

My plans at the moment are relatively the same as they have been for a long time: applying to animation school for traditional training is still at the forefront of my mind. Despite having been rejected by the illustrious CalArts, I plan to get back up on the saddle and try again, hoping that I can somehow evade resemblance to Sisyphus in this endeavor. Success, despite the proclamations and attestations of my friends and family, is highly unlikely, so logically a proper backup is necessary. Looking back at the previous sentence, I realize that I'm being very generous in calling them "backup" plans; SVA's animation department is nothing to be sneezed at, and looking at the skills of the Pratt Institute's student body, it would be foolish to assume entry into their program would be any easier. I'm often surprised by other peoples' shock with the fact that I'm taking five courses during the summer, considering my lofty goals.

One of the most inspiring events so far has been the MoCCA Art Fair last weekend, where I got to see what the independent comics scene has to offer. Having been so removed from this particular art sphere for so long due to my internment at Vassar, I found myself initially a bit intimidated and confounded by the material offered. I really didn't know where to begin, and many of the patrons seemed to have come for more ad hoc reasons than I, knowing ahead of time what they were going to see. Although to be fair, I did have a few friends with tables who I was intending to visit and unintentionally bother with my talkative tendency, but across two days? It's a little much. But I did make a few discoveries and picked the brains of a few artists, as well as meeting new friends. Overall, the experience has been very helpful in pushing me back into the frame of producing art and comics. Unfortunately, the spirit is leading but the confidence has yet to follow through.

Speaking of that, I really need to follow-up with some of the contacts I made. One of the representatives at the Canson papers table wanted me to write some of my thoughts so they could pass it on to their superiors. See, my friend Rachel over at Poseur Ink has had the rightful complaint that their branding of their comic paper line, insultingly titled "Fanboy" line, was ineffectual and generally against their own interests. I also mentioned that even though they produce the paper in good quality, the unpleasant rigmarole of "stitching" during the scanning process is actually driving people towards digital mediums. (Frankly, $2000 for a scanner that encompasses the size of standard comics board stock is a bit much for the average independent cartoonist.) Somehow I was actually able to make a good point amongst my ramblings, and they seemed to want more. Maybe they're actually masochists and hope to derive some kind of sick pleasure from the experience, but who am I to deny them at least that?

But that'll have to wait for after this weekend. I'm currently hosting a friend at my place, so all my time has gone into entertaining them. Combined with my horrible sleep schedule and busy class setup, I haven't really been able to ruminate much, nor stay in touch with some of my friends.

Nobody is going to read this. But the process is at least therapeutic.

I am now a college graduate.

So we're at a bit of a quandary: there are two directions to take this design. Rachel did a fantastic job making a more cynical version with a realistic silhouette, and my original design is a bit more silly and lighthearted with a screaming cartoon.

So, which do you find funnier as a design concept? Which one would you wear?





I myself think they're both amusing in different ways.

So, COMMENTS por favor! I've enabled anonymous comments for those of you without accounts.

Updated the design. I mixed Rachel's work together with some of the original parts. And I fixed up the little screaming guy.

I'm still not sure whether I should keep the little guy or go for a more realistic silhouette.



Thoughts? Interested in owning the design on a shirt? Comment!

Just wanted to take a poll on this shirt design I've been kicking around at the moment. I've been wanting to gauge interest for a while, as well as wondering if there are any design suggestions. So, if you have any thoughts I'd love to hear them so I can refine the design.

Just uploaded the newly-released opening for Persona 4. Looks like the animation this time around is much better.

It turns out that my mother won't be coming to my graduation, which is unfortunate. It turns out that she's been hiding a fear of flying for a long time, as well as her travel anxiety. It means that my father and my brother are the only ones who might show up, and the likelihood of my brother being able to come is still up for debate. I don't hold it against them, but it's still a little depressing.

I've also been swamped with work, and finding housing for my time in NYC is not going to be easy. I find listings, but unfortunately very few responses. At this point, I'm just going to have to settle for what I can. I'd still rather not go with the student housing, because it's pretty damn drab.