10 Year Art-niversary! 700th blog post! "Will & Whit" dummy!

So tomorrow makes it exactly 10 years ago that I stated my very first sketchbook, seriously making art for myself for the first time.

Then it was 5 years ago that I moved to New York thanks to an amazing opportunity from Jamie Bernstein, who just happened to give me my first graphic novel.

And now here I am posting my 700th blog post
(that's a lot of art over the years!) as I'm making a second book for Abrams and prepping my table for MoCCA Fest?! The serendipity of it all isn't lost on me. I am beyond grateful, so I THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the support over the years!!

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Okay, enough gushing. So I've finished the dummy (drawn draft) for WILL & WHIT! Yay!

 

Here's a sneak peek at some of the very roughly sketched out pages. 

They're very. Roughly. Drawn.

There's mattress rafting!

 There's a love triangle and an arts carnival!

 There's a hurricane called Whitney that brings on a blackout!

There's flashlight tag, complete with a look-I'm-timely-timely Hunger Games reference!

 There's even dancing by a graveyard, oh-la-la!

 

 I can't wait to share more of this book as it develops over the next 8 months. Stay tuned! 

And this weekend I'll be at MoCCA fest, so please stop by my table for free block print tattoos!

Jugs & Capes reads "Y: The Last Man"

This month in Jugs & Capes we read Y: The Last Man! 

(Issues 1-10) Written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Pia Guerra.

 

Here’s the discussion guide I wrote based on our conversation...

1. When you learned that Pia (the artist of the book) was a woman, did it change how you felt about the book as a whole? Did you have any preconceptions about reading a vision of a world where all the men are killed?

2. How did you find Yorik as a character, charming or annoying? Most men would find being the last man on earth a dream come true, but Yorik seems more emasculated rather than romanticized. Does his clumsy uselessness and humor make him a more relatable character for the reader?

3. Yorik is always putting himself into risky situations and being saved, so you think he is setting himself up for heroism or is it survivor’s guilt? Speaking of liabilities (segway!), did you think of Dr. Mann is even more of a unpredictable liability than Yorik?

4. The story opens with Beth in a skimpy bikini, how did you find this as an entry point into a story about gender? Did you consider Yorik’s involvement with Sonia as cheating on Beth?

5. Were you surprised by how severely Hero was brainwashed by the Amazons against Yorik? And what did you think about the groups of women we have been exposed to so far, such as the Amazons, Israelis, Republicans, women of Marrisville, etc? Who do you think is adapting the best/worst and why?

6. What did you find realistic versus unrealistic about this post-apocalyptic world?  Did you find it too light on gore? Discuss your opinions on the implications of the problems brought up by the lack of men, such as the skill sets lost and impact on infrastructure/ government.  Are the problems experienced by the survivors gender problems or simply human problems?

7. What did you think of the artwork? Did you find yourself looking in depth at the panels or was the artwork more utilitarian/ cinematic? Did you think Pia did a good job making all the people distinctive looking? Do you think this reads better as a graphic novel or does it read more episodic like the comic format it originally was released in? Did you find the fast pacing, episodic nature, and tension of the story reflected Brian K. Vaughan’s experience writing for television?

8. Was it just us, or....Did you not know Dr. Mann was Asian until halfway through? Where on earth are the surviving kids? We loved the character design sketches in the back of the book, didn’t you?

 And did anyone notice that I drew Paige reading Y: The Last Man in Page by Paige? 

(What a shameless plug!)

Next weekend: MoCCA Fest

I have a table at next weekend's

MoCCA Fest!
 

April 28-29th Saturday & Sunday
11:00am-6:00pm @ Lexington Avenue Armory
$15 day/ $24 weekend

I'll be selling books, prints, original art, and offering FREE BLOCK PRINTS on people. (Like what I did a couple years ago at Figment) Please stop by!!

 

In other news...

 Page by Paige has been nominated for YALSA's Top Ten Teen Reads!  

This is special because it is voted for by teens, and I'm the only graphic novel nominated. 

What an honor!

Bushcraft: HomemadeTwister Board

This month at Bushcraft we made a giant avant garde TWISTER BOARD!

You might be wondering, why?? Well, for that mural project I did a couple weeks ago I'd bought a ton of canvas to cover the flats we'd be painting. After the canvas component was nixed, I still had it leftover. So of course instead of using for something serious (pshaw) I instantly wanted to make a giant game board. Because that'd be awesome!

Instead of painting solid colored dots, we did free painting within each section using yellow/orange, blue/green, pink/purple, and neutrals. The black dots are free spaces.

Besides brushes, we also used our hands, feet, and kisses...

And here's how it turned out!

I definitely can't wait to lay this out in a park and play an epic game of TWISTER! 

I wanna thank Bishop 203 for letting us make a mess at his place in Bushwick, which has a very lovely roof...

 

Le Poisson de' Avril @ Animamus Salon

I led an opening activity at the latest Animamus Art Salon,

which was held at The Schoolhouse!

Since it was April Fool's day, I invited people to make paper fish as part of the French tradition of  Le Poisson d'Avril.  This is when people place paper fish on other people's backs, and if they don't notice then they're the "fool." (Like a less aggressive "kick me" sign.)  *All pics by Andrew Bridge

 

By the end of the salon, the person with the best looking fish on them was rewarded with one of my zines. The person with the MOST fish on them was deemed the "fool"...and that person ended up being ME! (I was so sleepy from Alyson's video shoot that I couldn't fight off my fishy attackers.) So I got the dunce hat and crumpled-paper dumped on me by Ventiko and Amy Doran!

Here are the drawings of fish that I made in case you'd like to print them off and use next year...

Eisner Nomination/ Kim Crawford Mural

I'm nominated for an 
EISNER AWARD for Best Lettering!

This is such a huge honor!!! Especially considering "Page by Paige" is my first book. And also considering how few women were nominated. (Just 8ish% by my guesstimate)  And considering there are only 4 other books from Abrams that got nods. I find it funny how I'm nominated for lettering of all things, because for me lettering the book was the fastest easiest part. Who knew! Anyway, the award ceremony is at San Diego Comic Con in July, but I wasn't planning on going. Unless someone else wants to help pay my way??  (Read the Washington Post article here.)
 
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Kim Crawford Event Mural

Last week I painted a mural for the Kim Crawford Wines "Undone" event! Originally this abstract mural was supposed to be very craftsy-handmade-looking. We were going to build-up layers of paint, papers, stencils, block prints, glitter, ribbon, lace, paper sculpture, spatters, faux textures, etc....

But due to a lot of unexpected complications on site, we were only allowed to paint on site for a few hours. We laid our flats IN 26TH STREET and painted a base layer on our hands and knees, all we were  permitted to do. I was too busy to take any pics of that hysterically windy scene, but there's my buddy Dave Kretschmer helping me out...

The mural might have ended up WAY simpler than we intended, but it looked good! Especially with the Rube Goldberg machine on top, thanks to New Zealand kinetic artist Joseph Herscher. When a guest put down their empty glass, it activated the machine which ended up pouring out wine into their glass. It was so interesting to watch him work! (And he was super nice.)

Dave and I made a ton of these paper sculptures while we were waiting for our flats to arrive, but since the design changed they were nixed. So I took them home and hung them up in my living room! I just couldn't let them go to waste...

 

 Currently Re-reading: Y: The Last Man...written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Pia Guerra.

"Uncharted Places" Music Video

Recently I've been helping my friend Alyson Greenfield 

with her new music video Uncharted Places!

We shot it this past weekend, so I thought I'd finally share what we've been doing! Here was our first meeting about the video back in January, with director David Franklin and producer Jasmina Tomic.

 In one scene Alyson would be flying, so my big job would be making a pair of Icarus-inspired WINGS that would do well with a green screen and be sturdy enough for Alyson to dance in. 

 

 I'm not a seamstress....so I just used a ton of hot glue!  Plus canvas, felt, string, and wire. My first attempt was terrible (very floppy), so after avoiding it for weeks I finally got back into it...

Over the next couple months we had a multiple fittings. 

(I got some funny looks on the subway carrying these things around!)

 

 And then here are the finished wings!

 I also aged a lantern for the video! Here's the before and after...

 

Phew! Then there was the shoot itself...

We had a great group of people on this crew who generously donated their help, time, food, props, and support. Everyone was so great to work with! We filmed everything (except the beach scene) at my friend Adam Aleksander's Lower East Side tenement. Which you may recognize from some past events and projects, such as the Ascension of Death haunted house.

  

 

 

The video should be done sometime this summer, and I can't wait to see it! Le sigh.

To see ALL the fun behind-the-scenes pics, check out my Flickr gallery.

And here is my video from the filming itself...