Posts made in April, 2011

Monsters and Dames

Posted by on Apr 27, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

When I was first began drawing this comic in 2009, I was already a huge fan of James Gurney, the creator of the Dinotopia books and the author of the greatest art blog on the internet today, bar none. James very often employs miniatures, which he sculpts himself, to help him get ideas for his fantastical paintings, particularly ideas about lighting. Here are just a few examples – I could post dozens more and they’re all equally astounding:

After reading his superb book Imaginative Realism: How To Paint What Doesn’t Exist, I was determined to adopt this practice. I was barely confident in my ability to draw a human being from various angles, much less a totally fictional creature of my own invention. But I knew that the alien/kachina was going to be a big part of the story, and that I’d have to draw him many times. So I busted out the plasticine and managed to crap out this little number:

A lot of the animal’s proportions changed between the initial model and the final artwork (first appearance, Page 86), so I didn’t end up referring to it all that much. But constructing the model nevertheless helped a lot – it forced me to visualize the creature as a three-dimensional being and not just a series of lines. I brought the model with me from New Orleans to Portland in a shoebox – it has completely fallen apart.

P.S. Seriously, if you an artist reading this, even if you think my art sucks, you should absolutely read Imaginative Realism. If you are in Portland, I have two copies and will happily lend you one.

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Oh %@&$! It’s THOSE Guys!

Posted by on Apr 15, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

Just as one more reminder that I am not making this all up as I go along, I’d like to point out that the two soldiers who saw through Tonya’s thin ruse were, in fact, present at the Las Cruces concert on PAGE 13!!! No accidents, people. This is season one of LOST, not season six.

Since I knew the characters would have to be recognizable later, I tried to make them look “distinctive.” But since my art in the spring of 2009 was pretty shaky, my solution was apparently to draw a black version of Ernie from Sesame Street and a man with a triangle for a nose. It was fun trying to update these napkin-doodles into the chiseled specimens of military valor you see today.

In vaguely related news, I have now chosen THE OFFICIAL COFFEE of SAVAGE NOBLES IN THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT. New Mexico Pinon Coffee. This is seriously some of the most delicious s*** I have ever tasted, and I brew coffee for a living. Er, I mean, as a hobby, when I’m not making my fortune drawing comics.

While I don’t necessarily think you should order coffee off their website (that is a might big carbon footprint for a mere Cup o’ Jose), you should definitely see if your local grocery stocks it. I know here in Portland you can get it at Trader Joe’s.

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