The Smile Within

Keep safe the smile within.

Stacks Exhibition ~ Preview

Hi everyone! My big spring-and-summer project this year was a short comic for a zine exhibition at Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis.

"The show takes viewers on a journey through time, 1984-2014, seen through the eyes of sixty creatives. [...] It is a celebration of our recent history and the moments that have shaped us all! " -Light Grey Art Lab

I was assigned to the year 2010. This was a big year for me in many ways,  so I put a lot of thought into what slice of my life I wanted to illustrate. Here is just a little preview.... I'll share the whole thing soon! If you live in Minneapolis, the opening reception is on August 1st. You can go have fun reading zines by artists from around the world! 

Here's the finished comic!

Justin and Salina's Short Long Beach Adventure

Memorial Day at Long Beach! Also, I had a funnel cake for the first time. Mmm...

Hourly Comics Day

Hourly Comics Day was yesterday! Here are the comics I drew.

Doing a challenge like this always teaches me a little something about myself. If you take the time to read some of the too-many words I stuffed in, you'll learn a thing or two about me, too! Then again, you probably already know that I'm a silly weirdo, in which case, this will be old information.

I found that during moments of haste, my drawings quickly devolved into primal markings. It was essential... and fun, when I let myself abandon seriousness!

I also found it rewarding to capture some of the sweet moments that occur everyday and normally go undocumented.

Sailor Moon vs Cherry Pie Comic

Introducing, Cherry Pie! :) But wait... is this the end of Cherry Pie?

Justin Weber and I came up with these gags together after watching some nostalgic English dubbed episodes from Sailor Moon season R. <3

Misty Eats a Magikarp

This was my entry for Anime Expo's Manga Lounge comic competition. The challenge was to create a Poke'mon comic of at least three panels.

I must admit- I love the thrill of competing, and winning is fun and encouraging. <3 My entry won "Best Original" comic. They kept my comic in exchange for some nice prizes: two manga of my choice from their manga chest, a reusable Manga Lounge bag in a stylin' bright red, and a plushie of the Anime Expo male mascot, who has a nifty cape and top hat. A staff member also took a photo of me striking a victory pose with my comic in hand (on the only day of AX that I cosplayed) as Sailor Moon. If I ever find that photo... I will smile. :)

My favorite part of the prize was not part of the official prize package. It was made possible by perfect timing. I happened to be there just as the staff decided to give away a few old manga because they were in Spanish and weren't being read. So, I got to pick up a couple issues of Sailor Moon as published by Mixxzine. Now, I can study Naoko Takeuchi's artwork in large format, without the temptation of reading the story, since I don't know Spanish. Perfect!

Here are some details of my process:
When I found out about the contest, I brainstormed my idea before returning the next day to execute it. I knew I'd need some supplies from home and to print out some reference material. I packed supplies like the ones I'd use for a 24-hour-comic-- supplies that are quick, easy, and clean: a flexible fine tip pen, a pen to fill blacks, Pentel pocket brush, and a t-square, for ruling panel borders. Next time I'll also bring a white out pen and a large eraser. As for the idea, I knew I wanted to make a statement in a single page. Magikarp was one of the poke'mon I used to make fun of as a tween, so... t'was only natural.

I encourage anyone attending Anime Expo to go to the Manga Lounge. It's a lovely, quiet retreat from the often overcrowded convention. The contest has a different theme every year, so it will be fun to look forward to, if you are a fellow artist and anime fan. If the thrill of competing or the fun of comic-making isn't motivation enough... first prize is a set of shiny copic sketch markers. Woo!

Comic Class

At the beginning of the year, I thought I was going to be teaching an after school comic art class to middle-schoolers. As it turned out, not enough students enrolled, so it was cancelled. But as I was preparing for the class, I was asking around for advice from all my friends. Jenny raised a good point about the disciplinary aspect of teaching, and it made my imagination fire up- and thus, this comic was born!

The top tier of panels were inked with a Hunt 108 and fine Pitt pen. The bottom tier was inked with a sable brush. The reason for the variation... well, I thought it was only going to be three panels at first, and when I decided to do the second tier I had a big itch to use the brush. That's all! It's interesting seeing how the tones interact with the different line weights.

The last panel was a challenge. After trying to draw a crowded classroom with nothing but classic perspective and elbow grease.... I fell back on google sketchup. What a lifesaver it is! Besides, why not use every tool available? Sketchup will help me learn to see and understand three-dimensional environments. All in good time.

This is the first comic that I toned using Deleter ComicWorks. Oh, how I love it! I find it to be a lot faster than using Photoshop to tone. Panel four went through two other variations before arriving at this tonal state. I'm happy with how the contrast creates a feeling of shock and stress. If I continue doing little strip exercises, I plan to use ComicWorks, to learn more tone techniques!

I Can't Write About That

I'm playing with short little autobiographical strips! This is strip #2!

Tools: Sable brush and Photoshop CS2

Toast

I'm playing with short little autobiographical strips! This is the very first! 

Based on a recent morning. ^^

Tools: Quill pen and copic marker

Bloom and Grow

It's done! I finished this for Fallcon and sold it as a $1 mini, tied with gold organza ribbon. In person, it's a real cutie! If you're interested in the process, you can see the pencils here. I decided to color it in photoshop, after being inspired by this great tutorial on mixing colors. It blew my mind a little... You can read it here! :)

Bloom and Grow - Pencils

Just a little mini comic I whipped up last week. It's pencil on vellum. My process of working normally  involves layers of tracing paper, but I decided to try vellum this time instead. I like how the graphite sticks to it! The idea to try vellum was inspired by Anna Bongiovanni's comic, Moon Baby. 

This little mini is destined for some watercolor! I'm going to paint the flowers back to health; they'll change from a crispy yellow to a puffy pink. I was inspired by my mom's flower garden while visiting home. They were lovely and I hated the thought of them withering during the coming chilly season. I want to keep them beautiful forever with my paint!

Watch Out, Little Girl

Spontaneous page!! It can feel really good jumping into a page without a thumbnail. Also, drawing large and using a brush (which is different for me). I've been reading Craig Thompson's work lately, and just had to get some heavy black lines in there!

Inspired by the comic I did the other day- How I See the World- and Ms Katie's response to it. :) I am thinking now that if I want to do continuing short stories... it may be time to look into getting a second blog! That is, one that's set up to view and go through pages more easily than this one!

How I See the World

Yes, I have noticed a few recurring themes in my work. <3 

24 Hour Comic 2011

It's that time of the year again! 12 pages completed in 15 hours.

During this year's annual 24-hour comic challenge, an episode of the Lutefisk Sushi podcast was recorded, in which local cartoonists were interviewed about their progress and techniques! Ah, the perils and pleasures of the 24! If ya check it out, I'm at 21:54! Friends Victor Courtright and Peter Wartman are featured as well!

Community!

This week I did a couple quick pieces to submit into contests on deviantart. They turned out to be quite fun and refreshing! The first is some final fantasy 7 fanart. The theme of the contest was "sports". My sport is clearly the amiable game of flirting. ;)

The second is a comic collaboration. I responded to the first panel, which said only "yo." I decided to whip out the Deleter screen tone on this one. It really screams "I am manga!" doesn't it? I have mixed feelings about patterned screen tones... but I'm happy with how it looks in this instance. :)

Skittles

This is my contribution to Altered Esthetics' Comic Cookbook! You may notice that it's not a recipe... This is true. Good thing there are sections of the book devoted to non-recipe, food-related comics!

 Of course I had to go with a somber story for a fun cookbook, right? The more I thought about it, the more fun ideas came to me, but... this idea just popped out as more significant to me. I hope it finds a cozy place among the pages of other delicious oddities.

The Power of Suggestion

Does this ever happen to you?

 It's like -flash-! Infatuation. But it only lasts a few minutes.... then I regain my senses. I never thought he was cute. That was your thought!

 Maybe it was a psychic suggestion! Stay out of my psyche, friend!!  Aura of steel! -flex!-