I Ought To Be Drawing

I'm moving!

We Be Ouija
Sketchblog = sketches/news/misc, lots of stuff, updated frequently

Doing Fine
Official Site = final art, also lots of stuff, updated sporadically
Livejournal has been a really important community for me, when we had just moved to a new city and were working from home it was especially a lifeline. I will miss it a lot but I know I'll be seeing everyone around!

Man, all I'm posting about lately is GR Shows! This time it's a dog-themed benefit show, so of course I thought "What did the ancient Zoroastrians think about dogs," because I am working on a YAGN about 8th Century Uzbekistan with my mom and it's all I care about these days.



Zoroastrians had some intense ideas about dogs. This picture is loosely based on the Zoroastrian purification ritual for the dead: after preparing the body, the Zoroastrians would have a sacred 'four-eyed' dog (a dog with a spot above each eye) come and look at the deceased person. This would be enough to drive away the evil spirits that had crowded around him.

I liked that a lot. The piece was pretty fun to do also, and it gave me an excuse to draw a lot of dogs.

I am late posting this week because after a pretty temperate winter, we had a crazy snow storm on Sunday, and everything was turned akimbo. Over six inches of snow, downed power lines, no electricity etc.

This post contains the interesting bits of an entire sketchbook that spanned about June-August 2008.



A beer label for an imaginary beer Drew may brew one day.








Splopping down color and trying to see what I could make of it. Surprise! Monsters!












These guys were pretty boring until I was at a moribund book signing, where I was provided with +Gold and Silver Paint Pens!+ Now I love them and their bling. I was thinking they were vampires, but apparently they aren't because they are all over crosses.

I've been going through my sketchbooks and finding lots of stuff I'm pretty sure I haven't posted yet, from as long as a year ago. So this is a mix of new and old sketches. I hope the old ones don't feel stale?





























Lastly, I don't post up much of my drawing from life, but here are some sketches of our cats, which I wanted everyone to see because our cats are so excellent.

I've been enjoying John Campbell's hourly comics a lot (not to mention all the other nice hourlies other folks have been doing) so I got kind of psyched up to do Hourly Comics Day. I even did a prep day in January. On both of my two attempts I totally gave up about four hours in, because I am incapable of understanding that you really have to draw pretty quickly, and not do like six panels per hour.

Anyway, the first hour of each of my failed-hourlies are about nightmares. I figured I'd go ahead and post them because I like them, and also because it's really bothersome to me how often my nightmares are about hurting or killing people.





In an extremely pathetic peek into my sub-concious, I think the guy I was choking was an art director. (Which is bizarre, because all the art directors I've ever worked with have been wonderful! What's my problem?)

And my first try:

Howdy, Folks! I'm going to be in another Giant Robot show! GR Los Angeles this time, for their annual Post-It show, which is very exciting. I got to go to one that Kate was in a couple years back and it was amazing.

All I wanted to draw today was bicycles so I decided to run with it and make it a bicycle-themed series.






In a Japanese graveyard in the snow




Riding in the baby bike seat with my mom.




Our friend Aaron Fu, who rescues vegetables from the EarthFare dumpster (and shares them with us!). He has a rad bike-basket which is why I wanted to draw this one. He's also embroidered the most incredible pair of shorts for himself.






Kind of supposed to be of my friend Nate.




Biking up the big hill to canoe club




My dad claims that he had a bike in college which he could ride no-handed so well that he would carry canvases back and forth to school like that. My drawing ended up looking more like Drew by accident though. They both have big hair and often beards. Also I messed up his collar so I drew a scarf over it which I don't think would have been my dad's style. (Sorry, Dad.)




I don't think Drew and I have ever managed this one successfully.




Lastly, what is the funniest thing ever? How about when you are 5 years old and your dad gives you a brand new bicycle and then he rides away on it himself!? Hilarious!

Anyway, all the 3" x 3" post-its are only going to be $20 (!!!!) so if you live in LA come check it out!

I've been chugging along on The Big Project, so I haven't actually done any work on this short comic for a while. I figured I'd post up the first two pages because I'm still really excited about it- I've been learning to draw and it feels wonderful- pulling the images straight out of the air. I hope it's still readable for folks. Some of my favorite comics are super sketchy but when the art gets hard to process that's a problem.

Houghton Mifflin just came out with The Best American Comics 2008, edited by the amazing Lynda Barry. My Seven Sacks story is included, and I also was chosen to do the cover. The book features lots of great artists; from our pals (!) Joe Lambert, Shawn Cheng and Sara Edward-Corbett to favorites like Gilbert Hernandez and Seth.

(Joe, I am stealing your flickr pics because I am too lazy to take photos myself!)





In trying to clutch at America I wound up flinging in tiny details willy-nilly, many of which only have meaning to myself and my family.



My mother's father, David McCutcheon, when he was a baby, with his mother, Florence Binford McCutcheon.




My father's Great-Grandmother, my Grandmother's Grandmother, Lalo.




Lalo's parents, my Great-Great-Great Grandparents, William Zachariah Mangum and Cornelia Elizabeth Mangum.




My Great-Grandmother and Great-Grandfather, my mother's Grandfather and Grandmother.


Some of the other details are pretty didactic and I was only willing to sneak them into an artwork when they were almost microscopically small.



.....
One more-


My mom and dad playing ping-pong while my sister and I sit on our porch roof and pick apricots.



Okay, so, I want to wrap up this post by saying something sort of cheesy. I've spent most of my life not knowing a lot about my family history. I've only recently made a real effort to learn more about the people who came before me.

Likewise, it wasn't until a couple years ago that I started to have the courage to think of myself as a citizen of my country, and take responsibility for educating myself about politics and history and current events and the world. Unlike learning about my family, learning about my country is frequently a downer. I would much rather spend my time reading comics than listening to the news. But it is important to do.

I am wholeheartedly proud of my family. I can't always say the same for my country. But I love my both my family and my country anyway.

Please vote in the upcoming elections. Please learn about the candidates and what they stand for. That's all.

Thanks dudes!