grim wilkins art blog

I dreamed I was alone in the forest...

2012-01-31T17:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the sparse posting lately, most of the work I've been doing still isn't exactly presentable. (not to mention I still haven't gotten that new scanner yet...) However, I do have this tasty little snack to share with everyone:

The colors in this digital reproduction got pretty far away from the colors in the original painting, which bummed me out big time. I guess they aren't THAT far off, but far enough that it would have taken an obnoxious amount of time to accurately color-correct in photoshop. I'm still getting back in the swing of painting in color and I'm sllloowwwwlly getting a grasp on which colors scan well and which absolutely won't have it. I was pleasantly surprised to learn last year that quinacridone magenta scans beautifully :D

Check back soon, I'm getting back into regular blogging this year!

Thanks for stopping by!

It IS 2012 now. Finally!

2012-01-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

I've been getting busy on new Mirenda pages, but they're not at a stage I can post just yet, so here's a sketch I'm working on for a yet unnameable project:

Get stoked! It's going to be incredible (hopefully!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Is it 2012 yet?

2011-12-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not posting all month, I feel like I've JUST been made painfully aware of how much I rely on my scanner in my day to day life. I did, however, manage to get a picture of this super sweet bookmark I made for an amazing friend of mine:

I really love doing these weird dry-brushy drawings, and I used the holidays as an excuse to crank out a handful of them for friends and family. I've been wanting to get this technique into my "professional" work for a while now, but it doesn't really allow for much error correction. There's at least one part of my forthcoming graphic novel that will have a bit of this in it, but I'll try and get a bit more in there

Remember when I said I was going to talk to "Cool as Ice" Chris Koehler's illustration class to critique some comic pages they did? Well I forgot to come back and tell you guys the work was AMAZING. This is an introductory illustration class, and these folks are doing better comic pages than people I graduated with.

Check them out here

I'm a little bummed that the images on their site are so small and some of these digital reproductions aren't as sharp as the original paintings, but come on, were you doing this in your first illustration class?

"Becoming Cool" by the Astounding Alex Smith

Meanwhile, back at my house, I'm sick and my back hurts because my girlfriend and I got rear-ended on the freeway by some jerk on Christmas Eve. Did I ever mention I don't really like the holidays?

Thanks for stopping by!

Special guest appearance tomorrow!

2011-12-06T18:14:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow I'll be stopping by Chris "the Crippler" Koehler's illustration class to crit some comic pages they did and talk about other art/life-related things. Talking to students is always a lot of fun, and Chris is an amazing teacher who has gotten his students super stoked so this one should be extra great.

Chris is filling in teaching for Allfather of Illustration Barron Storey this semester, and from what I've seen and heard he's doing absolutely fabulously.

Check out his students' work here!

His students are blowing my Illustration 1 work out of the water, and it will be interesting to see these folks progress. With any luck I'll be able to positively influence a few of them with my overabundant enthusiasm and nonsensical painting techniques.

Aaaand here's a piece I did at a life drawing session a few months ago

Thanks for stopping by!

Beer money! And my scanner is broken...

2011-12-01T18:10:00.001-08:00

Ever wish you could give your friends some kind of payment for taking beers from their fridge (probably not), but never want to give them ACTUAL money? Those days are over!!

BEER MONEY!!

It will come in denominations like "one beer at home", "one beer at a bar", and the elusive "one cup at keg", but for now this is all that's been minted. If you want one, let me know and we'll make it happen!

I had to scan this painting on my buddy Mike's scanner because mine finally officially bit the dust a week or two ago, which is why I haven't posted the newest finished Mirenda page yet. That scanner had been pretty gnarly for a while, (the left side of scans were a different color than the right) but it made my paintings glow like you wouldn't believe.

Check back soon, new stuff is on the way!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Grim Wilkins has the greatest fans

2011-11-13T12:07:00.000-08:00

Every week my good pal Chris "the Killer" Koehler has his illustration students do a self-portrait in the style of an artist they admire, and just last week his student Michelle Lagasca unleashed this beauty inspired by none other than yours truly!

There's nothing quite like the feeling I get from knowing that my work is inspiring others to do new and awesome work. I love it!

Aaaand just so everyone out there knows I'm doing work also, here's the linework for a piece I'm working on:

It's been tricky trying to get comics stuff done while making a "professional" (I use the term loosely) illustration portfolio, but it will be worth it. IT WILL.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fifth page of the new comic

2011-11-02T20:01:00.001-07:00

Pretty soon I won't be able to make weekly posts featuring the new pages, since I'm not sure I can work fast enough at the moment, but for now I bring you

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I've been stoooooked about these new pages. This comic is going to be awesome.

Sorry I don't have much more to post this week, I just spent a while assembling entries for a competition and catching up on my personal life and now it's back to the drawing board (yuk yuk)

Hope everyone out there is doing well. Let's grab a beer and catch up sometime!

Thanks for stopping by!

Third and fourth pages of the new comic

2011-10-24T18:19:00.000-07:00

I've totally already posted this picture a few times, but we're dealing with chronology here

Sorry I can't hang out long, I've got homework to do (yuk yuk). I'm finishing up the next three pages this week, then we'll be moving into the first wave of COLOR PAGES. It should be insane.

I'm also trying to get a non-comics portfolio together, so with any luck you guys will be seeing another one of those pretty soon. There seriously isn't enough time in the day! Not while I spend so much time at my day-job, anyways... (rassum frassum student loans)

Thanks for stopping by!

Second page of the new comic

2011-10-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Booya,

I think I posted the sketch for this page on the blog a million years ago, sorry to keep you waiting so long. I'm really excited about this page, and it definitely set the bar high for the rest of the book. I mean, I can't let the second page of the comic be the best one in the whole book, can I?

In hopes of stepping up my type and lettering game, I'll be sitting in on the great Bob Ciano's typography class soon. I heard that Bob is really into pigs, so I did this little drawing with him in mind a few days ago,

If you see Bob before I do, don't tell him about the pig.

Thanks for stopping by!

First page of new comic, and a quick aside

2011-10-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

For the next few weeks I'll be posting pages from the new book I'm working on, tentatively titled Mirenda, and here's the opening page!!

As I mentioned in the previous post, last week the big CCA Alumni show took place and it was a ton of fun! I got to hang out with people I don't see nearly enough and there was even a presentation by a handful of graduates from the last ten years (including my neighbor and fellow Spectrum 18-ite, the unbeatable Brynn Metheney). I found out yesterday that a fairly famous and super influential teacher refused to attend the talk because he didn't want to hear them talk about self-publishing comic books or selling things on Etsy. (none of the panelists self-publish comics or talked about Etsy)

I just want to remind everyone, young and old, to always follow your dreams and be wary of who you listen to. If you want to publish your own comics, do it. If you want to design fantastic creatures for a living, go for it. If someone whose opinion you respect tries to pull you away from your goals, it's okay to rebel against them; I'm sure very few great people did everything they were told.

Thanks for stopping by!!

A.P.E. 2011 Wrapup

2011-10-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

The Alternative Press Expo has come and gone and I definitely had a ton of fun. I got to meet some super cool people and see some really good stuff, despite only leaving my table for like 30 minutes the entire time.

A.P.E. saw the debut of a handful of new paintings by your favorite comic artist,

(this last painting will be on display this week for the big Illustration Alumni Show at my old school, CCA. Check it out if you're in the area, there will be a bunch of great stuff to look at)

I spent most of my "free" time at APE making original drawings on the covers of the preview books for my forthcoming graphic novel. Most of the books went to industry superpowers like Ryan from Eidolon Fine Arts and Stuart Ng himself, but a few managed their way into the hands of killer illustrators like the truly incredible hulk, John Mathis. Here are a few of the covers I managed to crank out:

Aaaand in case anyone was wondering what sort of thing takes place inside of said graphic novel preview....

In all, A.P.E. was a great time and got me super SUPER pumped to make new work. I feel like I've been slowly getting a better idea of what I need to do with my art, and talking to the certain people this weekend made it clear to me.

Get psyched, we're going huge.

Thanks for stopping by!!

*ALSO, prints of my new work, as well as more previews of the new book with original drawings on the cover will be up for sale in my online shop very soon!

A.P.E. this weekend!!

2011-09-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

The Alternative Press Expo is happening THIS WEEKEND. If you're not doing anything you should stop by and visit me and the inimitable super talent Dean Stuart. We'll both have a handful of new stuff to show off and maybe even a few convention exclusives :O

A.P.E. will also be the first place you can see my new color work in action:

Come check us out at table 642, we're both incredibly good looking. Also be sure to find and buy stuff from the crushing Chris Koehler and Tony Huynh, mighty Mike Mano, and bookbinding master Jose Moreno.

Thanks for stopping by!

This is what I'm doing today

2011-09-17T11:44:00.001-07:00

I think it will be good. Hopefully it will take WAY less time than the other stuff I've been working lately.

And a quick reminder that me and the incredible Dean Stuart will be sharing a table at APE in two weeks. See you there!

Also, here's a video my friend and amazing artist Ian Nitta made, giving you a taste of life in the Orchard of Metal

Thanks for stopping by! New work on the way soon. For real.

She said,

2011-08-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

("I want to know you forever")

At least five heavy-hitting new pieces will be dropping imminently, then it's back to work on the long awaited follow-up to Love Story in the Woods. And t-shirts; I'll be making t-shirts very soon, along with bedsheets. Seriously!

Thanks for stopping by!

Old Soul album cover!

2011-08-13T16:13:00.001-07:00

This is awesome. I wish Old Soul the best of luck on their tour, and a massive thank you for thinking my art is good enough to give me their hard earned dollars. It means a lot to me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Grim Wilkins' triumphant return to the internet

2011-08-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

No, I wasn't trying to avoid you guys, I just haven't had internet at my house for the last month and a half. Here's a super quick summary of my life since the last time we talked:

-cataclysmic roommate fiasco! You ever have a bad roommate go REALLY bad? This is probably the third time it's happened to me, but the first time I had to call the cops :|

-got published in France!

Go get a copy of CFSL Artbook 05!

-the band Old Soul asked to use my Tsunami painting for their forthcoming album!

...and I've been working furiously to get new work done to take to A.P.E. with my good pal and incredible artist, Dean Stuart. Progress on the new work has been sssllloooowwwww, and there are two main reasons for that:

The first is that I'm trying new stuff with these new paintings (like painting in color for the first time in like two years), and the second is that it was much MUCH harder coming up with a handful of amazing new ideas than I thought it would be. When I'm working on a comic, I pretty much know what I should be doing on the next drawing/painting and just need to make it happen. Pulling awesome concepts out of the ether is substantially harder than I remember it being (I spent almost three weeks working on a drawing that didn't work AT ALL)

Regardless, I've been working hard and things are starting to materialize. I haven't scanned/photographed much of it yet, but here's a deer-like creature that you'll be seeing more of soon

Alright, that took way too long and I need to get to work on some arts. It's good to see you again and I hope you'll be back soon.

Thanks for checking it out!!

I really am working out here...

2011-05-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't want anyone out there to think I'd forgotten about them, so here is a sort of preview scan of a painting I did for a tsunami relief fundraiser a few months ago. My scanner hasn't been agreeing with me lately and I don't really have time to make this scan perfect right now, but you get the general idea:

My name wasn't attached to the piece at the show, but people who barely know me knew I'd painted it, which was oddly gratifying.

I've been spending most of my time working on comics stuff lately, so hopefully sometime in the near future I'll have some stuff to share here. In the meantime... get pumped, it's summer. Get outside and enjoy the world!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Featured artist on Chris Koehler's blog!

2011-05-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

This week I've been chosen as the Spotlit Artist on the mighty Chris Koehler's blog!!

Click here to check it out!

Chris is an amazing artist and to hear words of praise from someone whose work I respect so much is an incredible feeling. He just won an award in Communication Arts for his Devotion series, which is an absolute clinic in the capabilities of red and black ink on paper. I just about lost it when I first saw his piece "And the River Rose."

If you ever want to be literally frightened by someone's drawing ability, find Chris and ask to look through his sketchbooks. In the meantime, check him out at http://chriskoehler.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

Page five

2011-04-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

I'm never sure how interested people are in seeing the early stages of my process, but here's the drawing for an upcoming comic page that's not too far from completion

She'll be wearing some kind of cloth over her butt in the final drawing. Probably

All of the major components are in place, all that's left is to dial in all of the background/foreground elements and create an interesting composition with my lights and darks.

I've been trying to finish drawing a handful of pages before painting them up, and I just wrapped up about three so hopefully you'll be seeing some FINISHED pages soon.

Aaaaand I just realized I haven't told you guys the plan for the next few months: I'm trying to get a decent chunk of my new book done by A.P.E. so that I can have a little teaser book to show, since there's no way I can have the whole thing done by October (it's going to be serious!). I wish I could have a whole new book to hock, but these things take me a while to make and I'm not about to compromise the quality of my work!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Spectrum update!

2011-04-22T22:16:00.000-07:00

I just got my Spectrum acceptance letter in the mail and it looks like this was their favorite page of mine!

I had the feeling this picture was going to be pretty well received when I first made it, but it's proven to be a fave of people who check my stuff out

And I swear, I really have been plugging away at new comics stuff out here the last few months. Here's a quick teaser-like object to get you thinking

Drawing these wacky, distorted gestures is way too fun. I wish I could do it alllllll day and never have to draw realistic, upright poses :B

Thanks for stopping by!

Grim Wilkins meets Stuart Ng (for the second time)

2011-04-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

I went to WonderCon in SF this weekend to take a look around and stopped at the magnificent Stuart Ng's shop to say hi. We talked for a minute and he ended up buying the seven copies of Love Story in the Woods that I happened to have with me just then to sell in his store!!

Somewhere under all that beautiful brown hair I'm repeatedly thanking Stuart's unending generosity

This is awesome. Stuart Ng sells the most beautiful and amazing books I've ever seen, and now my work is one of them, haha!!

While I was at his shop I finally saw a CFSL artbook in person. They're gigantic! And gorgeous!!! I can't believe my work will be in one of those in a couple months :O

Thanks for stopping by!! Get psyched!!

Spectrum 18? Brussels?!!

2011-03-31T17:31:00.000-07:00

Unless the official Spectrum 18 artist list is messing with me, it looks like I'll be in Spectrum 18!!

I'm super excited. Two friends of mine also got in: the mighty Michael Manomivibul and unstoppable force of nature Brynn Metheney. Both of them live less than a block from my house :B

In related news, my friend Carl from Graphic Novel Art has been talking to people he knows in Belgium and got a few copies of Love Story in the Woods into the epic Brussels comic store, Brüsel. If any folks out there happen to be in the Belgium area you should probably make your way down there and buy a copy of my book; it will make you feel better about your life and make you more attractive as well.

And just so you don't think all I do is sit around getting into annuals and hobnobbing in Europe, here's a sketch for a picture that I should have done soon:

Thanks for stopping by!!

grimwilkins.com is officially online!!

2011-03-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

I've been busy with a lot of stuff lately, not the least of which was finally getting my REAL website online:

grimwilkins.com

I've known for a while I needed to get in there and finish the thing, since I've had most of it done since January, but it wasn't until hearing Sam Weber say "if you don't have a website, you're not trying" that I realized I REALLY DID need to get that thing online. My good pal Andrew at Chronophobia put most of it together, and he did a great job. I love it!

Also, here are a couple things from last weeks life drawing session:

I accidentally squished a little spider into this one while I was scanning it :[

I'd been wanting to try this drawing montage idea for a while but thought I should get some legit life studies in there first before doing anything nutty. I'm pretty excited with the results, so I'll probably do more of these soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sam Weber/Jillian Tamaki aftermath

2011-03-12T01:08:00.000-08:00

Seeing Sam Weber and Jillian Tamaki on Tuesday was amazing! They were the first people in a long LONG time to get me excited about illustration in general again. For the last year or two I've felt like I wasn't cut out to be a normal editorial/book cover/etc illustrator and comics were all that really interested me, but the two of them really made it, for lack of a better term, COOL to me again.

I grabbed Sam after he gave his demo and told him how seeing his work helped set me on the course to where I am now and gave him a copy of Love Story in the Woods. I can't believe how nervous I was in the first ten seconds I talked to him, it was ridiculous!

Anyways, I'm definitely going to start making more non-comics work this year alongside the comics stuff I'm already doing. I'll do at least one right after I finish the first five or six pages of the current comic, and here's the sketch for the second page!!

I have an unhealthy obsession with writing down song lyrics that sound profound while I'm drawing.

ALSO: I may be sending more books to another comic shop overseas soon!! I don't want to give away any details and jinx my pants off, but Western Europe might want to start getting pumped!! :O

Thanks for stopping by!!

Sam Weber this tuesday! (and a handful of life drawings)

2011-03-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

This Tuesday at 7pm, , Sam Weber will be coming to lecture with the lovely and talented Jillian Tamaki at my old school, CCA. To say I'm super stoked about this one is an understatement!

When I was just getting out of school, I was a reasonably skilled painter/illustrator but I hadn't found any style/process that I really enjoyed doing, so I set out to find that special something. Finding Sam Weber's work was more than a little influential in helping me figure out how to lay down some serious textures while keeping my drawings intact, which had always been a major goal of mine. I swear that his "Carried Away" picture changed my life, haha!

Anyways, I'll probably geek out about Sam later this week, for now here are a few life drawings from a couple weeks ago

Thanks for stopping by!! If you're in the bay area, GO TO THAT LECTURE!!

the first drawing of the new comic!

2011-02-28T18:06:00.000-08:00

This obviously isn't the finished page, but I'll probably have it done by the end of the week :D

Things are well underway with the new book and I'm getting very very close to having the whole thing written out. The first handful of pages will be in black and white, so I can knock them out relatively painlessly, but then we'll be moving into the color pages and there might be a little stall while I figure things out.

It will be amazing though, so get psyched.

Also, here's one of the images that the CFSL folks accepted which hasn't appeared on the blahg yet. It's ridiculous that I was so unaware of how personal Love Story in the Woods was to me while I was making it :B

Anyways...

Thanks for stopping by!!

International news brief (and a super late Valentine's Day to you)

2011-02-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

A while back I mentioned briefly that I submitted work to a cool French publication, and it looks like I got in!!

The book in question is the newest artbook that the CFSL folks are putting together, and I couldn't be more excited to be on the list of accepted artists. From the moment I decided to really go for it and dive head first into comics, I knew I would need to look beyond the U.S. if I wanted to be successful whatsoever. However, I don't know any other languages and don't really know anybody in other countries. I kept seeing CFSL referenced by killer artists like Veronique Meignaud and Emmanuel Malin and wondered how I could get in on that community, and this seems like a pretty solid first step!

In unrelated news, here's a drawing I gave to a very special friend over the weekend

Also! Everyone will be happy to know that I started thumbnailing pages for the new comic so there should be good stuff coming your way soon. Get pumped!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

One long overdue ink drawing

2011-02-13T18:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I finally got around to finishing a drawing that I promised to someone back in August:

I've had kind of a love/hate relationship with these heavy ink drawings over the last few years: I really love making them, but they hate when I try and slip a bit of soft rendering into them. Maybe someday I'll just suck it up and start laying in some light washes. . .

Anyways, I keep forgetting how much I like doing drawings like this so I'm going to make more time for them this year. If nothing else, they'll help me decorate my living room :B

Thanks for stopping by!

color testing and beyond

2011-02-10T18:09:00.000-08:00

I don't have a ton to show right now, since I've been spending most of my time "writing" (let's use the term loosely), messing around with painting in color, and doing really really bad character studies. Nothing makes me feel like I suck big time at drawing quite like making character drawings...

Anyways, here's a quick glimpse at what to expect from my color paintings this year:

(don't act like you're surprised :P)

Last weekend I ordered a copy of one of my favorite books ever, the Coffin, for a very special friend of mine and realized it was high time I emailed co-creator Phil Hester to tell him how much the book has meant to me over the years. I honestly used to carry that book with me everywhere so that if I was ever strapped for inspiration I could just pop it open and see how to REALLY make a comic. Phil emailed me back and was more than appreciative of what I had to say, and with any luck the world might see some Grim Wilkins / Phil Hester co-op action in the not so distant future, haha!

Life drawing sessions have started at my old school again, so I'll post a few of my figure studies soon to make you feel better about your own drawing abilities ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Email your heroes, they probably don't get as much fan mail as you think

Love Story in the Woods has arrived in the UK!!

2011-02-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let my U.K. fans know that my books have officially arrived at Travelling Man!! No one in the world is as psyched as me right now!!

Check them out here!!

I hope people enjoy the books as much as I enjoyed making them, but without all the stress :P

Thanks for your continued support, everyone!!

Quickie

2011-01-31T00:06:00.000-08:00

Alright, hopefully this will be the last of these little comic drawings I'll post for a while. This one is for my super special pal Michael Manomivibul, who just scored his first job doing a cover for IDW comics!!

I had a serious change of plans recently and had to scrap the comic story I had been cooking up, but the story that I've been working on instead feels much better. It's another love story, but with more linear storytelling and a more recognizable setting. And words, lots of words

I spent most of the weekend screwing around with my acrylic paints, trying to find a palette that works for me. I won't be sharing that stuff any time soon :X

Thanks for stopping by!

Grim Wilkins comes to the U.K! (sort of...)

2011-01-24T11:08:00.000-08:00

At 8 o'clock this morning I sent twenty copies of Love Story in the Woods to Leeds, all of them signed and fourteen of them with drawings in the back:

If you are interested in grabbing one of these things, head down to your local Travelling Man Comic Shop and get it!!

Massive thanks to Lisa from Travelling Man for giving a random comics guy from Oakland such an incredible opportunity. Doing business with her was an absolute pleasure; I hope I meet more people like her in the future!

Thanks for stopping by!

Spectrum 18 entries are due super soon!

2011-01-22T14:20:00.000-08:00

I've got mine ready, hope everybody else does too!

There's a little something (completely unrelated) that I've had on my mind for the last couple weeks. It was way back when I was in school, and I had just learned something awesome about Dean Cornwell in my illustration history class; something along the lines of him doing epic monochromatic underpaintings for his students, but painting the whole things before class on different canvases to get warmed up. Whatever it was, I remember being really excited and mentioning it to my teacher Robert Hunt, and him responding, "yeah, he also drank himself to sleep every night."

Whether or not any of that is true, my biggest goal right now is creating a living/work environment where I can get work done without needing to slave my life away. As amazing as it is having finished a somewhat legit graphic novel, last year was BRUTAL.

Anyways...

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Story is getting its passport ready

2011-01-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more comic drawings to get people pumped for my impending intercontinental endeavor:

Some time in the near future I should have some new comic pages to share with everyone. It feels like it's taking forever and that i'm dragging butt, but I'm just now getting the hang of being a business and trying to organize the rest of my life so that I can see my friends and family as well as get things done.

Thanks for stopping by!

international news brief

2011-01-12T00:22:00.000-08:00

I just finished wrapping up a package of books to send to another country, and at least 14 of those books have drawings like these in the back:

As soon as things are finalized i'll give you all more information. In the meantime, i urge everyone in the U.K. to get psyched!!

thanks for stopping by!!

three weeks and three hundred dollars later...

2011-01-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

...and i've got a working computer again!!

So 2010 wrapped up while i was gone, and i don't know about anyone else but i kicked a ton of butt last year. I got into Spectrum, hunkered down and painted a 52 page monster, got that thing professionally printed, showed it to some industry juggernauts, and met a ton of awesome people along the way. Top it all off with New Year's Eve at that random sushi restaurant in SF and the killer game of drunken Jenga the night before, and 2010 was probably the best year i've seen in this little life so far!

Now it's 2011 and i've got people asking me what i'm working on next and if i've been talking to publishers and when i'm going to Europe to talk business overseas.

Here come some bullet points!

-in 2011 i'm going to finish the little 14-page comic i've been working on, then i'm going to get to work on my next long story. Since the long story can be divided into "chapters," i'm going to try and finish the first chapter and start hocking it to publisher-types while i work on the next chapter. I can't give away any details on that thing just yet, since i'm really paranoid about that stuff, but rest assured it will be good and make everyone happy :)

-I actually haven't been talking to publishers yet, but it's primarily because i was hoping to have the official grimwilkins.com online by the end of 2010 and it never happened because of FTP problems and the untimely demise of my old computer. Soon, though!!

-while i definitely need to get overseas and talk shop with some international comics people, money doesn't seem to hang around my wallet for very long and it will be a while before i've got the funds for a business trip. Not to mention i haven't gotten around to making a list of people to try and meet with when i got there, and i have no idea if it's even realistic to think i can GET people to meet with me. I submitted work to a cool French publication a couple days before my computer died, so that's at least one step in the right direction!

I hate to leave you guys without any new pictures, but i can't access anything from my old hard drive just yet and i don't have photoshop to resize pictures right now anyways. I'm actually going to spend the rest of the night installing drivers for my printer, scanner, and all the other doodads that hang out around here :B

ANYWAYS, thanks again for stopping by and have an amazing new year!!

scan-o-rama and other attractions

2010-12-17T20:02:00.001-08:00

i just spent the last hour and a half scanning drawings and fixing them up in photoshop. The photoshopping only takes a few minutes, the scanning, on the other hand, takes FOREVER. I was going to buy a drum machine with my christmas bonus, but i guess my Icelandic doom-grind album will have to wait until i get that new scanner ;_;

here's how things look right now:

I'd post more, but they're pretty uninteresting all by themselves. For this little story i resolved to have all of the drawings done before painting any of the pages, and while this process works beautifully to keep everything cohesive it also creates huge gaps between periods when i paint and periods when i draw. Ideally, i would take a day or two to paint something every week, but when i have so little time outside of my dayjob it's hard to commit that time to painting practice when i could be using it to get that much closer to completing all of the drawings.

Essentially, time management is not my greatest strength.

And a quick update for those of you out there who haven't bought a copy of my graphic novel, Love Story in the Woods: about half of them have been bought! Seriously!! I've still got at least a hundred of them here, but I haven't begun my epic promotional campaign (AKA "Project: Grim puts his life savings into a handful of priority mail envelopes") so that number is subject to change in the new year.

please don't laugh at my pitiful marketing attempts

This weekend i'll have a much deeper, thoughtful blahg post about upcoming comic projects.

Thanks for stopping by!!

recent invasions

2010-12-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

last weekend i took a trip to San Francisco to find some comic stores to hock my book at and met Leef Smith at Mission: Comics and Art. he's a really sweet guy and the store looks like a nice spot to stop and read some books, so get down there and check it out!

i stopped by the Isotope that day also, but it turned out to be THE ONLY day that the owner wasn't there, so i left him a business card and a messed up demo copy. i'll get back there eventually, but it's a bigger pain in the butt for me to get across the bay than you'd think

i also got the chance to do more doodles in the back of some books for a few beautiful girls:

if you want a little 2.5 inch drawing drawing of your own, all you've got to do is buy a book and let me know ;D

anyways, i've got a bunch more comics stuff cooking that i'll probably drop in the blahg later this week sometime, providing my internet doesn't go out for ANOTHER two weeks

thanks for stopping by!

very quick update

2010-11-27T13:53:00.000-08:00

progress has been slower than usual on the current short comic, and it's not just because i'm screwing around all the time. i'm putting in that extra time and work to make sure that i get everything as perfect as i can get them, and that means redrawing the same panels over a bunch of times until they're more than just good enough.

if anyone is interested in seeing what a terrible draughtsperson i can be on my off days, i can post some scrapped preliminary stuff in the future sometime. for now, however, i've got a couple keepers that you can use to inspire your imagination :D

i use a lot of tracing paper while i'm drawing so that i can draw people and objects overlapping more easily. i left most of the layers visible in the pictures above so you can get an idea of what i'm talking about

and here's another Love Story in the Woods spread for anyone who hasn't bought a book yet:

thanks for stopping by!!

Spectrum is here and my books are for sale!!

2010-11-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

if you grab a copy of Spectrum 17 (on bookshelves now), you'll find that your third favorite artist from Oakland has a couple of pieces in it!!

the page opposite this one has the mighty Dave McKean on it :O

i've also finally created a page on the blahg here where people can buy books from me. just hit the little link on the sidebar to the right and follow the instructions. i tried to make everything as painless as possible

thanks for stopping by! go get a copy of Spectrum!!

the great east bay comic store invasion

2010-11-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

anybody ever wonder what it would look like if a comic you created was on a shelf next to Little Lulu, above Savage Dragon??

*all comics and characters in this picture are © their respective owners

also, here's another drawing i did in the back of a book for my metal buddy in Chicago:

he was kind enough to photograph the package when he got it and hype it on the facebook, even

i feel like things are going pretty well. i've just begun my epic promotional campaign and sent a book to New York, found out how much to send a book to Belgium, and realized how hard it is to hand write semi-professional intro letters without looking like i wrote them blindfolded

get psyched people, we're going huge in 2011!! thanks for stopping by!

progress is slow this month

2010-11-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

i've been working hard to get things rolling on my current comic story, but MAN have there been a lot of distractions lately. nevertheless, here's a scan of a sketch for an upcoming page. it's missing a big component in the top left that i drew on another paper, as well as most of the background information, but here's a little glimpse of what my life looks like:

i should also mention that i've been getting closer and closer to making my book available online. my good friend in Chicago helped me test payments with Paypal, and while everything seems to be working fine i still need to fine tune the shipping end of things before i start accepting money from people. in the meantime, anyone interested in buying a book should definitely just email me

i've been trying to avoid putting all of the Love Story pages on the blahg, but since it's taken us longer than expected to get the official grimwilkins.com online i feel like i should drop a few pictures on here:

it's weird showing the pictures in their full splendor like this, since they're intended to be folded in the middle and made into two page spreads, but they still look okay and you can at least get an idea of what to expect

ANYWAYS, that all took longer to write than i expected!! thanks to everyone who has bought a book or taken the time to look through it and told me what you thought. it means a lot!!

thanks for stopping by!!

con sketches and public appearances

2010-11-04T00:20:00.000-07:00

a couple of people managed to convince me to do little drawings in the back of the books they bought from me. here's what one lucky girl got for her efforts:

in related news, i will be making a special guest appearance at my old school in the great Owen Smith's class next wednesday. i'll have sketches and tissue drawings galore, and will talk about acrylic mediums as well as what to expect from life after school

here's another random sketchbook drawing to keep things interesting:

lastly, i'll be dropping a few copies of Love Story in the Woods off at my neighborhood comic book store tomorrow, so if you're in Oakland get down to Dr. Comics and Mr. Games and support your local comic book artist!

thanks for stopping by! official webstore and online portfolio coming soon!

getting started on a new comic

2010-10-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

i've spent most of my time since A.P.E. getting all of the preliminary sketching done for my next comic. it's going to be a short one; thirteen pages i think. this time, however, i made sure the comic has interior spaces, dialogue, clothing--everything i forgot to put into my last comic

my life looks like this right now:

pretty boring, right?? i just want to go huge and get on with it, but this stuff has to be done. i've been doing tons of sketches and studies also, and they're fun to do but pretty boring to look at. this one was cool:

lately i've also been reading the Watchmen for the first time in like ten years, and i'm really jealous of the panels in the later issues of Niteowl's airship hanging out underwater or descending on the prison (or whatever). they're so good!!

thanks for stopping by!

A.P.E. part two: pictures

2010-10-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

we got to the convention center around nine in the morning to set up. i donned my trusted headband and prepared for the day ahead (headband and pictures courtesy of the lovely and amazing Stef Boone)

my roommate, sculptor, photographer, and entrepreneur Lea Zalinskis set her stuff up quickly and was ready to slay the hordes with her photographs of sculptures made of photographs and wool (they're cool, check 'em out!)

a few tables away, my pals Jose Moreno and Michael Manomivibul were working furiously to get their stuff ready. if you want a killer screenprint or need a custom, handmade sketchbook, email Jose immediately. if you are into sea creatures, check Michael out right now

before long i had my stuff set up and was ready to rock and roll

look at these incredible five foot tall banners that my friend and publishing partner Andrew McCormick of Chronophobia got for me! that sketchbook in my hands now contains my first ever con sketch. i hope Ryan comes back to ask for another sketch in a few years, i should be way better by then!!

and lastly, here's me standing like a gaping-mouthed nerd as Allen Spiegel writes some important info in my personal sketchbook. if you look closely, you might see a familiar comic book under his arm ;)

the show was tons of fun. everywhere i looked there was great art and cool stuff and i really, REALLY wish i could have walked around and visited with people more. maybe next year...

next week i should have my official website and internet shop set up, so check back soon!! thanks for stopping by!!

A.P.E. (the quick and short of it)

2010-10-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

i spent all weekend hocking my book, Love Story in the Woods, at the Alternative Press Expo and can't help feeling like it was a total success! i sold a bunch of books, met a ton of awesome people, and when i approached Allen Spiegel (rep of about half my favorite artists) to give him a copy of the book he totally recognized me from last year!! not only that, but he came back and bought another one!!

other personal highlights include the incredible Shelly Wan purchasing a book and telling me that she really likes my work, and my first ever con sketch for Ryan of Eidolon Fine Arts. his sketchbook was full of stuff by heavyweights like Jim Mahfood and Nathan Fox, and now it's got some dweeby drawing by Grim Wilkins. HA!

i'll give you guys a more in-depth post with pictures in the next day or two, along with info on how to buy books, prints and t-shirts online, but for now i have to leave you with the blurry picture i took at 7am yesterday morning before the con

thanks for stopping by, and huge thanks to everyone who talked to me or bought a book this weekend. i really can't put into words how much i appreciate it!!

my comic is printing!!! (...and James Gurney)

2010-10-07T18:09:00.000-07:00

both saturday and monday nights i went to bed after 4am and got up before 8am, sunday there was an epic neighborhood-wide power outage, and still i managed to finalize the digital files for my comic and send it off to the printers.

get.

psyched.

sometime between wednesday and friday next week i will hold in my hands 200 copies of my first ever attempt at making a finished comic book (or graphic novel, as the cool kids call 'em). i'll gush more on the experience of spending nine months and every spare minute on one big project later, because right now i want to talk about...

James Gurney!

the creator of Dinotopia and billions of other super-stellar illustrative work came to talk and paint at my old alma mater, the California College of Arts (and Crafts), and i went with a few friends to bask in his glory. he has this amazing ability to get you so super excited about art and science and everything in your life in between. and he's an all around super sweet guy. one of my favorite parts of the presentation was when someone asked him about his involvement in Ralph Bakshi's Fire and Ice with a certain unnamed painter of light. Gurney didn't talk much about the painter of light, but DID entertain us with stories of his years of freighthopping and drawing pictures of southern barflies for beer money!

here's a teeny tiny picture that i drew of James Gurney painting a portrait of the most magical man i've ever known, Randy Chavez

next time i see you i'll be a legitimately (self-)published comic book artist. see you there!!

i can see the finish line

2010-09-27T19:21:00.001-07:00

so after a week of putting in nonstop mega-painting days it's almost all done. it really sucks realizing how long it takes me to paint this stuff. if everyone buys a copy of my book and helps me get outta this burg, then i can draw comics all day instead of hocking art supplies and it won't take me so long to get these things done. everyone wins!

thanks for stopping by! support your local comic artist!

small to mid-sized animals

2010-09-21T21:15:00.001-07:00

heyo,

i took the week off from my dayjob to wrap up all of the unfinished pages i've got and to scan everything and get it printable. my good friend Andrew over at Chronophobia.com has been helping me organize the printing end of this year's big comic endeavor (and by "help" i mean he's done everything under the sun to make this thing happen), and we should have our first sample print sometime this week. get psyched!!

expect to see more of this cute little guy in the near future

thanks for stopping by!!

wait...what?

2010-08-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

today i'm working on the second to last page of my comic. i thought this little chunk was cute, so i scanned it to show the blog that i still love and care about it

thanks for stopping by!

the end is nigh

2010-08-08T14:57:00.001-07:00

well, not super nigh, but it's coming. only about two months until A.P.E. and this is the first time in months and months that i've felt like there even WAS an end to all this.

anyways, i just stopped by to say hi and show you some pictures.

hi,

thanks for stopping by

signs of life

2010-07-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

heyo,

this is a quick peek at a chunk of a painting in the works. it's one of a growing number of hilariously unfinished comic pages for the big book i'm working on. if you have any spare miracles laying around, i'd love if you could lend them to me until october. thanks in advance!

and, as always, thanks for stopping by

guest teaching for Barron Storey

2010-07-20T17:39:00.001-07:00

heyo,

so Friday was the fated day when my pal Michael and i got to substitute teach Barron's pre-college illustration class. this is the third time we've had the opportunity to do this and each time is more rewarding than the last. the kids this year were so much more energetic than previous years (with the exception of our young friend and future superstar Minnie) and had tons of questions and overall seemed genuinely pumped to hear most of what we had to say.

if any of our students happen upon the blahg here, let me apologize now if i don't recognize you when you see me around. getting in front of a bunch of people you've never seen before and trying to convince them to listen to things you have to say is nerve-wracking!!

in related news...

(pages 5 and 6, scanned)

thanks for stopping by!

i found a deep hole...

2010-07-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

...and i am going to jump into it.

(i don't remember just now which page this is)

this page needs a handful of touchups to get where i want it to be, so when the two or three of you who read this blahg get your copies of the book you should check back here and see if you can pick out all the changes. i'll give you a special badge if you catch 'em all!! :O

thanks for stopping by!

more scanning...

2010-07-09T20:23:00.001-07:00

hey, any of you beautiful men and women remember that drawing i posted of the couple sitting on a log in the middle of the ocean??

(pages 11 and 12, not yet touched up)

if anyone needs me i'll be drawing buffalo and scanning six-eyed monsters for the rest of the weekend

thanks for stopping by!

scanning this week

2010-07-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

this week i've finally begun scanning the pages that are totally finished, and resolved to finish the pages that i've left unfinished (which, as i discovered last night, there are quite a few of :'( . . . )

(pages seven and eight)

now more than ever i wish i had a spunky little upstart illustration student around to do my bidding in exchange for drawing and painting tutelage. maybe next year...

thanks for stopping by!

it only feels like forever

2010-06-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

thanks for stopping by

ronnie james dio

2010-06-16T12:36:00.001-07:00

heyo,

over the weekend i was asked by my friend, the lovely and amazing Shannon Shaw, to paint a picture of metal icon Ronnie James Dio for a show that she was putting together. it's been a while since i painted a portrait of anyone, but i set out to do something i thought he'd be proud of and here's what happened

'heroic bust of ronnie james dio as he is consumed by the power of metal'

check it out at 1234 Go! Records this Friday!! the show runs until the end of June

interesting fact:
-i haven't painted a heavy metal portrait since the night Arcturus broke up while i was making a painting of them ;_;

thanks for stopping by!

face it!

2010-06-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

hey folks,

there is a stack of papers on my desk/paper rack that contains all of the best drawings and paintings i've done, and i keep thinking about how easy it would be for one natural disaster to destroy all of them at once. the only solution is for all you happy people to buy my original paintings before my computer catches fire and torches everything

thanks for stopping by! support your local comic artist!

teaser pictures, squeezer tinctures

2010-06-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

setbacks and smoke clouds

2010-05-30T22:40:00.001-07:00

i think i'm finally dialing in my hair-painting this month.

the cat had an accident on one of my papers last week and set me back a bit, but with hard work and a positive attitude i'll definitely have this project finished by October, right? RIGHT???!

probably.

thanks for stopping by!

after the flood

2010-05-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

heyo

i keep a small Moleskine watercolor book in my back pocket most of the time in case i get stuck somewhere and need to do some doodling. despite being a watercolor book, i've only ever painted in it twice and actually spend most of my time writing creepy little messages to myself instead of drawing

thanks for stopping by!

frank frazetta

2010-05-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

i heard this morning that Frank Frazetta died.

you may not guess by looking at my work these days, but i've always been into Frazetta. waaaay back when i was nine or ten i had a Frazetta calendar and couldn't get enough of ogling the Moon Maid and the Centaur. i don't have any clever anecdotes about my lifelong relationship with his art or anything, so i'll just post a Frazetta tribute painting i did back in school and say thanks

thanks for checking it out. see you soon

tidal wave

2010-05-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

hey everybody,

just wanted to let you all know that i'm still out here busting my butt to get my book done by A.P.E. and everything's going. . . alright. i could complain all day and all night and most of the next day about my day-job and my dwindling social life, but i'd rather show you a picture of a comic page i'm working on and hope that my naive enthusiasm can keep me going

i'll leave you with a little ditty from the sequel to one of my favorite cartoons ever and wish anyone who actually reads this thing the best of luck pursuing YOUR dreams:

true strength resides in those who believe in their own strength until the very end!!

giant salamander prints

2010-04-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

i took a week long "break" from comicking to make this cute little series of drawings illustrating what happens when the average american finds a giant salamander in the woods with an unconscious girl hanging out of its mouth

the prints are 5.5 x 7.5 inches big on 90 lbs. Fabriano watercolor paper and look really sharp! they're a faint sepia tone and less starkly black and white than they appear on most computer monitors

i've got a handful left and they're going for $15 for a set of all five prints. shoot me an email if you're interested!!

thanks for stopping by!

spectrum update

2010-04-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

alright, it looks like the pieces (as in more than one?!) that got accepted into this years Spectrum are two which, for some reason, weren't already on the blahg here:

(i'm still totally in love with this spread)

in related news, i made a list of the paintings i need to get done to have the current project finished by APE and it looks like i'm going to be BUSY for the next few months. i've been working on ways to pick up the pace on these things and it's been working, to an extent. writing out a plan of attack for a given page has been pretty effective. the last one read something like:

paint trees in back
paint HER
paint forest in bottom left
paint forest on top
*during breaks, paint 9/10 (hand) or do water studies

...and repeat until finished.

thanks for stopping by! get psyched!!

special appearance next saturday!

2010-04-17T19:20:00.000-07:00

you heard right. yours truly will be at the CCA Craft Fair (california college of the arts [and crafts]) in Oakland, next saturday, april 24th. i'll be hocking a cute little series of images i cooked up that directly addresses humankind's relationship with gigantic, maneating salamanders

(i know how much you all just LOVE my disgusting little tissue paper sketches)

see you there!!

recomping

2010-04-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

over the weekend i realized that the drawings for my next comic page weren't as good as i wanted them to be, so i set out to fix them!

for the most part, the page only has two figures sitting on a fallen tree somewhere waaaaay out in the ocean. the figures were way too stiff and didn't really fit together so i spent what felt like forever on monday fixing them up

(it was just one of those days when it took more time than it should have to redraw one dude sitting on a log :B )

the page as a whole wasn't composed very effectively either, so i moved the figures around to change the page from a couple hanging out on a log in the ocean...

...to a couple hanging out on a log in a VAST ocean. having them on the right hopefully makes readers see all of that water first and gives the sea some magnitude (unless you read from right to left or bottom to top, or BOTH) . it will work differently in print, since that entire left page will be nothing but ocean

(i also redrew the guy's face in the bottom right)

so now you all know that i really DO think about things while i'm drawing pretty pictures. important things, like which side of a monsters mouth slime gathers in when its head is tilted and wind is blowing up from beneath its chin

see you next time!

progress shots

2010-03-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

so i coerced my roommate, the lovely and amazing Lea Zalinskis, to take some snapshots of my meager attempts at comic bookery. i'd show you higher quality scans of the things, but the last thing i need is you heathens stealing my work before i've even gotten to do anything with it!!

just kidding, i love you guys

thanks for stopping by!

spectrum!

2010-03-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

SO.

this morning i was awakened at 8:45 by a phone call from my student loan company, which i was none too happy about because last night was Belgian beer night and i wanted to sleep in. i rejected the call and my phone rang AGAIN a minute later, but this time it was my good buddy Michael Mano calling to say i got into SPECTRUM 17

heck ya. i can't wait to find out which piece was selected!

in other news, i completely missed my projected due date for getting the first 20 pages of my new book done. i got tanked by a Martian super-virus for a week or so, then had to do a bunch of real work at my dayjob (i.e. had to go to bed at a reasonable hour ;_; ), then totally got kidnapped by Morlocks and forced to work in a salt mine until i managed to pick the lock on my shackles with a bobby pin i found in my morning gruel

thanks for stopping by! the next post will have pictures of some things i've been working on recently, i promise!!

if there's one thing i know everyone loves...

2010-02-28T17:20:00.001-08:00

...it's teaser pictures

a lot of the fine linework i do gets lost while i'm painting my pictures, but i never really feel right without a killer ink job

a little bit of what you've missed

2010-02-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

told you i'd be back

so i don't have a ton to share with you right this second, since i sold my camera recently and most of my stuff isn't exactly scannable right now, but here are a few of the pages from my Ellipses promo book that never made it to the blog

(these are two-page spreads, so you'll have to use your imagination and pretend there's a crease in the middle. they look a LOT better in print, i swear)

and here are a few little figure drawings i did a couple weeks ago. i haven't had the chance to do as much of this stuff as i'd like, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, right?

those last few were done in an amazing sketchbook i got from my good buddy Jose Moreno. a brown plaid-clothed cover with gray stonehenge paper inside in landscape format?? you know you want one. they don't cost much more than a crappy Canson sketchbook you'd get at the art store, so you might as well get your checkbook ready and send him an email

thanks for stopping by!

it liiivvveessss...

2010-02-17T16:35:00.000-08:00

hey everybody. so i really and truly AM still alive out here in oakland-land, and i really and truly AM working on a big old project stew that's been brewing for the last few months. i've got walls and walls full of drawings just waiting to get all painted up and made into a new comic for all of you beautiful people. pictures are coming soon, i promise!!

mark your calendars, march 21st the first "half" of my new book will be... around, and shortly thereafter i'll hopefully have the rest of it all ready to go. i'll even take the time to figure out how to print AFFORDABLE copies of the things

other than my usual dreams of comic book success, i've been sllooowwwlly working on some other paintings/drawings and even trying to score a teaching job with my good buddy Mike Mano. combine all that with the best living situation i've had in my entire life, and things are looking UP!

that's enough blathering for now. check back soon and i'll have some pretty pictures for you folks

thanks for stopping by! (sorry for the extended absence, i'll try not to do it again)

figure drawing

2009-10-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

it feels like FOREVER since i went to a figure drawing event. last night i went to my old stomping grounds at the CCA campus in San Francisco for a little life drawing session put on by the illustration department and hosted by the stellar Alyssa Deville. it was really fun; i got to see some folks i haven't seen in a while and show my current work to one of the most inspiring people i know of, mr. Randy Chavez

i drew in my 6x6 inch sketchbook for these, which is smaller than i've ever tried to do figure studies, and also forgot to bring a pencil so i had to use my signature pink pen to sketch with

see you next time!!

APE wrapup

2009-10-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

so the Alternative Press Expo is all done with, and even though i was only there Saturday i had a blast! i was only able to make 20 copies of my book, since i hand-coated each page with Golden digital ground and set the printer at maximum print capabilities, so it took a million years to print each side, but the few books that are out there look amazing and i TRULY appreciate everyone who was willing to shell out that $25 price tag for them

thanks a ton everyone!! stay in touch and i'll try and give you something special <3 (once i figure out what it is, haha!)

at the con i got to meet Allen Spiegel (rep of tons of KILLER artists and real cool guy) and give him one of my books, as well as Carl Wyckaert of graphicnovelart.com, who is the fella who has been (re)publishing books by the legendary Barron Storey and is a total sweetheart. i met him a few years ago while i was in Barron's sequential art class and had been planning on sending a copy of my book to him in Belgium, but he was AT the con so i got to talk to him in person!! kismet, anyone??

also at the con, our table was right next to Steve Oliff, a super cool guy who has been coloring comics for years and had a bunch of original color comps for sale. it was so so much fun talking to him, since it's not often you get to meet someone who did that kind of stuff and most of us don't REALLY know how comics got colored before the digital era. and he was just fun to talk to all around. i bought a color comp of one of the american Akira pages from him!

so ya, you can bet i'll be back next year, probably with my pals Mike and Jose again. Mike made a KILLING selling his awesome diver prints and Jose sold a bunch of his delicious handmade sketchbooks

now that the APE dust has settled, i finally get to get back to drawring and painting stuff. i'll try and get my comic pages online some time soon, and i'll try to post better updates of my progress here in the future

that's it for now! thanks for stopping by!! <3

**oh yea, i should mention that the remaining books are still for sale and i'll have pictures of them as soon as i can. there will be a limited amount of new copies printed, but probably on an as-needed basis since the things really do take me a ton of time and effort to make

it's 2am...

2009-10-15T02:04:00.000-07:00

...do you know where YOUR ink cartridges are??

so the road to APE is coming to a close, and i'm still printing my books. i've been coating Stonehenge paper with Golden digital ground and sending it through my friend Noah's printer for the last eight days STRAIGHT, and should have 20-something books to bring to the con. rumor has it my good buddy Mike might meet with Allen Spiegel (rep of Kent Williams, George Pratt, and a ton of other incredible artists), so hopefully he'll put in a good word for me!!

brief cameo of my bed!!

i can't wait until this week is over and i can get back to drawing pictures again. i don't know how many of you have coated papers with medium for 95% of your waking, non-day job hours, but it's THOROUGHLY exhausting

2009-10-05T01:08:00.000-07:00

never you mind the camera flash in the middle...

comic stuff

2009-09-28T22:49:00.000-07:00

hey everyone. here are un-touched up scans of the cover and a page from the comic. there are still like six pages i need to scan/photograph and the back cover to paint (which will be so fun!! i'm seriously psyched!!), then i'm going to strategically insert some text and send this thing off the printers!! whose printers remains to be seen...

thanks for stopping by! see you at APE!!

recent back pocket drawings

2009-09-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

^this was originally oriented differently, but everyone decided it was better upside-down

very soon i'll be putting together my book of these little drawings, printed on fancy paper with some kind of extra fancy cover, along with the comic i've been working for the last few lifetimes. if you come visit me at APE i might even have t-shirts for sale!!

more progress

2009-09-16T10:09:00.001-07:00

i've also been working on some completely unrelated paintings on canvas. here's how that is going

(sorry for the janky photos, i don't have lots of space in my room to shoot these things)

progress

2009-09-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

recent back pocket drawings

2009-09-04T18:57:00.001-07:00

i've been really busy lately, with my day job and other arts stuff, and my poor back pocket book has been sorely neglected. i can't even keep it in my back pocket anymore because it keeps getting mutilated by an unsettling obsession with sitting on strange objects. nevertheless, we press onward, always

2009-09-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

gotta keep that ball rolling! this might not be how everyone/everything looks on the final, but it's something to work with. in case anyone was wondering what the deal is with the paper being all wrinkled-looking, i do lot of drawing on tracing paper so i don't have to erase and redraw all the time

thanks for stopping by! see you next time!!

2009-08-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

back pocket drawings this week [mid august pt.2]

2009-08-21T00:16:00.000-07:00

i haven't been having good luck with these new books. i tried using one with less pages this time around, but the thing is getting SUPER creased way faster than i expected. i'll give it a little longer, see how things go. in the meantime...

i felt like i was getting too anal with my linework with this purple pen, so i'm going back to the pink one for a minute to see if it's the pen or if that's just how i draw now

see youze next time!!

back pocket drawings this week [mid august]

2009-08-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

hey gang. so i didn't get a ton done in my sketchbook this week, since i was working on other projects (like getting stuck on the same drawing for three days), but here are some tasty vittles anyways

i had some unexpected difficulties with the new sketchbook, so i had to retire it early. i really liked the guy too... *sniff* ...anyways, say hello to the newest newest member of the family

2009-08-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

2009-08-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

2009-08-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

back pocket drawings from this weekend

2009-07-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

i've been working on my thing to hock at APE and tried taking one of those cool progress shots of my drawing table, but my bedroom just doesn't look as rad as a real studio so you'll have to wait for me to finish and scan everything. sorry

yet more tales...

2009-07-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

guest teaching for Barron Storey

2009-07-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

So today was the day that my deep buddy Mike Mano and i got to sit in for the legendary Barron Storey's pre-college class at CCA (california college of arts). We did it for him one day last year also and both times have felt super, super rewarding. Not just rewarding, what's that other word... oh ya, AWESOME. Getting to hang out with these youngsters for a few hours and tell them what we know about going to school, life after school, and talking about things like the importance of looking at other artists all the time and figuring out what you want to do with your art was all so sweet.

Mike and i have both agreed we'd love to get into this teaching racket somehow, we're just not sure how or what we can really bring to the table right now anyways. But man, after spending time with some of these kids who are just overwhelmingly pumped to learn whatever you have to teach them and seem to genuinely appreciate your input, it's easy to see how some of my old teachers got to be so passionate!

Oh ya, i pulled out a handful of goodies for them to play with and got some sweet souvenirs in my back pocketbook <3

self-portraits before bed

2009-06-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

hey folks. while we all wait for me to finish the next handful of paintings, i decided to post a few drawings from my nighttime journal/sketchbook. some of these are pretty old, from the first of the year!

let's get this party started

2009-06-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

hey everybody. so i finally got around to making a place to post art that i've been working on, and figured i'd kick it off with some comic pages that sat on the wall above my drawing table for way too long before i finally finished them last week. they need to be tuned up in photoshop a bit before i "do" anything with them, but here they are in all their raw glory

see you soon!