Illustration Friday

I've decided to submit stuff to Illustration Friday and this is my first submission. It's for the word 'freeze'.

BG Process

I'm making a new short set in suburbia with Girl Scouts. I've finished storyboarding it and I'm working on the backgrounds now. Here's a quick rundown of my process:

First initial sketch

Second sketch

Color sketch done on an iPad

Layout sketch

Final painting

Sketchbook Project

I participated in the Sketchbook Project and submitted a sketchbook to be archived in a New York library of other sketchbooks. Here are some pages from it:

Front

Back

Harvey

TRS Background

I made a background for The Totally Rad Show which features fan-made backgrounds weekly. I've always thought the three host's features could lend themselves to a simplified approach.

EDIT:
It was featured!

Culture Draw

I've started a new Tumblr blog called Culture Draw where I draw comics or whatever based on films, tv, video games, books, music, anything that's a part of our cultural zeitgeist. I hope to do at least one a week.

Here's the first one I did for The Secret World of Arrietty:

Rejection, the sequel

This is my second rejection from the Calarts character animation program. They say third time's the charm but I'm done with this. I'm planning on signing up for Animation Mentor this Fall.

KONO

Harvey

Four Finger Blues

Here's a fake poster I did for my cousin based on a script he's writing:

Some process

I always intended to do an ink outline but I later decided that it looked better when it was just watercolor and pencil.

Lineup

Here are some of my characters:

Sketchbook Diddlies

I took some mud and smeared it around on the page before drawing the face on top.

Not sure what's happening here.

I tried doing my characters in a Peanuts style

Some Sketches

Head Monster

My comic failed me

So the comic strip I submitted to my local newspaper's contest didn't win. I wasn't even one of the top 11 finalists. This guy won the contest. I'm not going to bag on his art or anything, but it feels more like a comic book than a comic strip, although I haven't seen the strip he entered which may be in a totally different style.
His winning strip is called "Mission: San Diego", which sounds horribly on the nose. See, the contest said priority would be given to strips that had a local setting. I wanted the local setting in my strip to be a bit more subtle. "Mission: San Diego" doesn't exactly sound subtle. But again, I haven't seen it yet.

Anyways, since I didn't win, here are the strips I submitted:

Update: Here's the article the paper published last week about the winner with a sample of his comic: Click

Now that I've seen his comic, I don't think it's as bad as what I linked to above. It's definitely better drawn than mine, although I was trying to strike a precarious balance between being effective and not spending too much time for just $25 per comic.
Not included in the online article but in the print edition was a sample of the top 11 finalists. The last strip of mine I posted is better than a few of the finalist strips printed. It should have been included. Damn you, Union Tribune!

My first political cartoon

   The other pot is supposed to be China but I didn't want to be too explicit.

Whoosh!

Rhythm of Youth

Gouache on watercolor paper 5.5x8"

These are the main characters of a comic strip I submitted to my local newspaper. They had a competition to have a new Sunday comic published from a local artist. $25 per comic is medieval, but I'm not in it for the money. It's just a fun side project. Even if I'm not chosen I'll keep making these comics because I like these characters.

This is also the first time I've ever used gouache. I like it.