Friend or Foe?

Vampire Club

2009-05-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

While I was up in PDX for the Stumptown Comics Fest I did a couple of doodles in my sketchbook that I am now giving some extra love and attention... Here is the illo that led Jesse Reklaw to call it my "facials sketchbook." Um, I better color this red soon. Gross.

Interview with Sari

2009-05-02T18:34:00.001-07:00

Interview with Sari
Originally uploaded by François Vigneault

Being in school now, I occasionally have the sorts of assignments which lend themselves to a bit of creative license. I recently had to conduct an interview with someone outside of my cultural/ethnic/national group... I had originally wanted to interview my friend Massoud, a filmmaker who was a student in Iran during the revolution 30 years ago, but he wasn't available, unfortunately (I'm still hoping to get an interview out of him!). But I had a great back-up candidate, the owner of my neighborhood liquor store, Tim's (there is no Tim, I found out). Sari was very obliging with his time and in addition to my presentation in class, I drafted this very quick (less then 1 1/2 hours) comic with some of his interesting reflections on his life in the U.S. versus his life in Palestine... It was fun to draw up something so quickly; I might do some more of these "talking head" style interview comics.

The Garden, redrawn before its time

2008-11-30T00:13:00.001-08:00

One of the tricky things about my comics "career" is that I am still trying to figure out how I want to draw... Case in point: I have had the basic outlines of my first longish (90-100 pages) comic, "the Garden," in mind for years now, but I had been putting off getting started until I had more of the narrative particulars down... but about a year ago I was like "Fuck it" and dove right into the thing, figuring that i would be able to piece together those story details as i went forward (I'm still working on those, no surprise).

I liked my pacing, and the sort of more cartoony character design I had come up with for the story. But, when I started drawing the Prologue, I was illustrating it in this somewhat scritchy-scratchy cross-hatchy style which I was playing with then... I guess the main reason was that I wanted it to look a bit old-timey, and to contrast with my other project which I was also drawing at the time, "Territorial Pissings" (which has also landed in comics purgatory in the last year... sigh). However, after completing about eight pages in that cross-hatched style, I began to look at the pages with utter dread... I didn't want to finish out the remaining pages of the Prologue in this style, much less the entire book.

And so, with great trepedation, I began experimenting with redrawing the first couple of pages in a modified style... drawing the blacks with a brush (which I feel much more comfortable and expressive with), and filling in the mid-tones with a grey Pitt brush pen, which I had also done with "Schooled," a recent comic I did for John Issacson's transit anthology... For most of the marks, I found the brush pen was a neat and simple way to insert that second tone, easier than doing an ink wash. However, it was nearly impossible to achieve a nice solid block for the word balloons, etc.

Here is the page after I have played around in Photoshop for awhile... I was able to separate the tones (thank God for the threshold tool), and to clarify the grey layer into a solid block of color, eliminating the various grades in the original drawing (I also cleaned up the first four panels with the Hoepoe bird alighting on the branch, where an inadvertent "figure/ground" problem had arisen when i introduced the grey). Tho' I wouldn't want to do this for everything I draw (I like my little mistakes and sloppiness, truth be told), I like the effect here... it feels modern and old, but still hand-crafted. It feel professional to me.

I'm feeling a bit silly for revisiting these pages, which will certainly delay the publication of the first few chapters of "The Garden" in the next issue of Friends, number four. But, I really do think that I like these newer drawings. This being my longest work to date, and with over two years since my last issue, I'm feeling a need to bring my most professional A-game to the process. Hopefully I'll be able to resist any temptation to further revise the newer pages before the story is all finished!

Mini Comp

2008-11-24T20:18:00.001-08:00

Mini Comp
Originally uploaded by François Vigneault

I made these little journal/sketchbooks a while back... the covers are reused envelope box tops! I just loved the retro, composition book, marbled pattern... I am finally selling them on my Etsy shop! So go get one! Or not!

Ilyana in the Afterworld

2008-11-15T18:24:00.001-08:00

Ilyana
Originally uploaded by François Vigneault

Ilyana - color
Originally uploaded by François Vigneault

I have a bit of a problem, in that I basically never draw on a regular basis. The only time I sit down at the table is when I am trying to get an actual comic done... I have almost totally lost touch with sketching, or doing a drawing for its own sake. I'm a little worried about this trend, I am sure that my "skills" are suffering a bit for it. Plus, my illustration portfolio over on tourdefrancois.com is looking a bit spare, populated with a lot of older pieces... and that's not gonna help me get any of that filthy freelance illustration lucre. Anyways, I am trying to get into drawing for drawing's sake again... so hopefully there will be more little drawing postings soon.

This is a character and scene from my submission for Elfworld Vol. 2, but more tightly drawn than I would for the comic... I'm quite happy with it; I am working on some colors for it, too... just to get more practice doing that. I've been trying to get "good hair" in my drawings for awhile, and think I've got something good here. It just takes a lot of patience, more than I can usually muster! I love drawing this swords and sorcery stuff.

I Sewed a Pillow!

2008-11-12T23:02:00.001-08:00

I sewed a Pillow!
Originally uploaded by François Vigneault

Very rarely I do a sewing project... I made this pillow tonight from fabric I got at Whiz Bang Fabrics, an amazing and adorable micro-sized fabric shop in the Mission... everyone should go there, it is a very cool place with the best cute and graphical fabrics. Hannah, of course, helped me out with this! But i made it myself... and now I know how to set a basic zipper! Next up: A birding bag.

Paper Cut

2008-11-06T20:42:00.001-08:00

Paper Cut
Originally uploaded by François Vigneault

A quick little sample for someone's Bat Mitzvah... the actual finished product will be created by another artist, and laser cut; this was just an example I was asked to make for the client. It was fun, it is supposed to look vaguely like Jeruselem. The paper is this very fancy cork paper! Maybe I will do some more of these, even tho' it is ver "fashionable" right now...

Halloween Owl

2008-10-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

I went over to my pals Mara and Chuck's place for some pumpkin carving action the other night! I had always wanted to make one of these jack-o-lanterns with the relief cuts... I'm quite happy with my mean little owl! If you want to check out everyone else's delightful handiwork, go to Mara and Chuck's daughter Dottie's blog!

Handmade Hellos - New Book From Chronicle!

2008-10-17T19:31:00.000-07:00

I created a project in Handmade Hellos, a really great book with tons of how-to articles created by an amazing "who's who" of creative stationery creators: Foxy & Winston, Egg Press, The Small Object, and many others, including yours truly!

My project is a "road trip postcard set"... inspired by these amazing multi-postcard scenes I've seen before (which I can't find an example of online now... ugh!), with each postcard showing a different portion of a scene of image. I thought that a map could be a great image to chop up to make a fun series out of... for a road trip, or what have you! Of course you could use almost any big image... Just send them in series to the recipient over the course of a couple weeks.

It was a real treat to work with the folks at Chronicle and my wonderful bosses at Hello Lucky (where I now work part-time, too!). You can buy the book, like, everywhere! It comes with templates and lots and lots of great crafting ideas!

Bird Brain

2008-10-04T08:11:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I started trying to keep a sketchbook of my experiences as an amateur bird watcher, with the intention of starting a new zine, called Bird Brain... It will be a very modest little series, maybe 16 pages an issue, perhaps 2-4 issues a year. Hopefully it will help me to both keep up a semi-regular self-publishing schedule (since my comics work can develop rather slowly), and also encourage me in going out birding, which has become a very special hobby for me in the last few years...

I hope that as Bird Brain develops it might become an outlet for all sorts of nature writing and illustration from me, but for now I'm happy with just getting to spend some time observing and drawing the world around me.

Bird Brain No. 1 should be out in time for APE, November 1 + 2.

SFZF X Treasure Island

2008-09-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

If you want to see me rambling in my position as de facto SF Zine Fest spokesperson, check out this video from the Treasure Island Music Festival on Rhapsody Blog... I make a couple of appearances, pontificating on zines, the Fleet Foxes, and garlic fries.

New Distraction

2008-09-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

The confluence of my recently getting an iPhone and my new semi-lengthy train commute to school has conspired to create a new distraction for me. I had never owned an iPod or other portable music player (not even a CD player... the last such technology I had was a cassette Walkman that I brought with me on a trip to Europe, long long ago!), and I have spent the last month belatedly catching up to the widespread reality of being able to hear music on the go, which has been rather amazing, I must admit!

But, the best thing has been some of the various podcasts I have begun to subscribe to... many of them are just versions of radio shows I already listened to, either online or on an actual radio station, like This American Life and All Things Considered... But there are a few new ones I am beginning to explore as well. My favorite recently is the New Yorker's fiction podcast, wherein one of the magazine's impressive stable of writers chooses a story by a different author from the archives, reads it, and discusses it with Deborah Treisman, the magazine's fiction editor. It serves a bit like a succinct and delightful book club; the two always have good points to make on matters of style, language usage, etc. I was esp. impressed with this month's pick by Tobias Wolff: Stephanie Vaughn’s short story “Dog Heaven.”

It's sort of funny, though... I almost never read any fiction in the actual magazine!

Support Small Press Poster

2008-09-10T10:34:00.001-07:00

Support Small Press Poster
Originally uploaded by francois vigneault

The SF Zine Fest is hosting a zine library at the upcoming Treasure Island Music Festival. We are styling the whole affair with a" vintage library" look, and we will have some posters designed by some local cartoonsts and zinesters; this is my design... I was inspired by the wonderful posters of the WPA from the 30s and 40s, some of which are delghtfully guilt trip laden!

New Website!!!

2008-09-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

If you are at all interested in me, and what I do (even a little!), you'll want to take a look at my new website, tourdefrancois.com! This is my first portfolio site, and also the first site which I have designed myself... nothing fancy, but hopefully it should be easy to navigate and peruse some of my illustrations, comics, and various other projects which occupy my time. I'm also going to be updating this blog more often, so keep an eye out for some new art projects and comics cropping up here in the coming weeks... Promise!

New One-Pager

2008-08-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

This is a comic I did for John Isaacson's new Transit Anthology...

This comic is actually a re-do of an old comic that was 90% finished in my sketchbook for maybe 4-5 years. My style has changed quite a bit!

Here is the old version:

And here is the magic transformation in progress!

I'm pretty happy with this evidence of my progress over the last few years... I mentioned this to my Friend Aaron Cohick (of New Lights Press, he's also a teacher), and he thought it would be a good project for a class... revisit a project from the begining of your educations, semester, etc... the student will invariably have learned quite a bit (I feel like I have)!

Article in the New Issue of CRAFT:

2007-11-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

I was tapped by the lovely people over at CRAFT to write and illustrate a how-to article in their new issue, which should be on the newsstands any day now! The issue is all "paper" themed, so they asked me to do an article on papermaking! All the illos are watercolor, which was fun to do... I was trying to give the whole thing aq bit of an "old-fashioned" look, which should be interesting to see in CRAFT since their asthetic is so clean/modern. Anyways, check out my article if you see it, and if you end up making some paper from it please e-mail me pictures!

2007-10-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, the Zine Fest is tomorrow! How time flies... I really do think that this year will be much cooler than last year, despite some issues we've had to wrangle. Everyone, please come join us!

Friday, October 5 from 2:00pm - 8:00pm
Saturday, October 6 from 11:00am - 7:00pm

The Women's Building
3543 18th St. (between Valencia and Guerrero)
in the Mission District of San Francisco

It's a FREE annual two-day conference for independent and underground publishing. Exhibitors come from all over the West Coast, and while the focus is on zines, all walks of DIY life are represented — comics, arts and crafts, literary presses, and more.

www.sfzinefest.com

36 Views of Sutro Tower (Dolores Park in July)

2007-07-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

Finally really getting started with this big project! As I mentioned in a previous post, ever since I first moved to San Francisco I've wanted to do a series of illustrations: "36 Views of Sutro Tower," (inspired, of course, by the incomparable Hokusai) as I've often been struck by how often that ubiquitous landmark will pop into view behind various everyday scenes here... A restful (yet unnatural!) background presence underscoring and countering what is going on in the foreground view. A month ago, I found a postcard book of Henri Rivere's "36 Views of the Eiffel Tower", which was an even greater inspiration, given the similarities of our subject matter (with the great exception of the Eiffel Tower being so truely magnificent on its own; the Sutro Tower is a bit ungainly in comparison!).

So, I have re-started the project with a renewed vigor. I liked Rivere's limited color palette, so I am planning on sticking with that. I'm very pleased to have this vehicle to explore my wonderful city and its environs.

The above scene is in Dolores Park in July... I happily ran into my friend Aliza, who obliged me by being my model.

Root & Branch Mini

2007-06-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

Jonas and I just finished up a little mini version of the first chapter of Root & Branch, our waaay too-long in the making collaborative fantasy comic... Just a fun little thing to have at MoCCA since neither Jonas nor I have a new issue out of our "regular" series (Ochre Ellipse and Friends, respectively). The mini's got a hand-sewn binding and fancy metallic ink on the cover! If you are in New York this coming weekend (june 23 + 24), come the Puck Building by and visit me at my little spot with Greg Means and Alec Longstreth!

MoCCA bound + Couple of Elfworld Reviews!

2007-06-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

I will be heading out to NYC for the MoCCA Art Fest on June 23 + 24! Family Style will be setting up camp with those affable chums Greg Means and Alec Longstreth, the brilliant masterminds behind Tugboat Press and Phase 7 Comics, respectively! It looks like they will have new stuff; Papercutter #5 (great line up for my favorite anthology with Elfworld contributors Kaz Strzepek & Liz Prince, and Bwanna Spoons, who I'm trying to get into Vol. 2!) and another part of Alec's "life with comics". Yay! I am trying to have a mini-comics version of the first chapter of the François/Jonas epic fantasy colaboration, Root & Branch, and of course the still fresh smelling Elfworld.

The reviews are starting to come in for good or ill:

From SFist, a local Bay Area general interest blog:
"Overall great art, very good writing, high quality throughout, and cast of indie darlings that are definitely, definitely deserving of more attention".

From Rob Clough at Sequart:
"The stories that work best here are the sort that take after Lewis Trondheim's approach in Dungeon. There, the sword-and-sorcery stories are ridiculous but told with a straight face, and the humor comes out of the situations that arise rather than with easy parodic targets. Walking the line between understanding what makes the genre work and how to transcend its limitations isn't easy, and only a few of the artists in Elfworld got it right to my eyes."

The one I was waiting for, Tom Spurgeon's review on The Comics Reporter: "Elfworld, for its part, is almost ruthlessly cohesive. While there's no one must-have short story within its pages, there are a number of solid shorts, among them one-pagers by Matt Wiegle (please someone give him a solo comic) and his longer, viscerally satisfying adventure story collaboration with Sean Collins "Destructor Comes to Croc Town"; funny and diverting stories from Kazimir Strzepek and K. Thor Jensen, a lovely two-pager by Jeffrey Brown, and fable-like stories from folks like Dalton Sharp that are modest but surprisingly satisfying."

Sarah Morean had this to say on the delightful Daily Crosshatch: "The familiar art of Liz Prince, Martin Cendrea, K. Thor Jensen and Souther Salazar, among others, is a treat. It’s rare to see an anthology so slim busting with notable talent... The title of the anthology clearly had a huge influence the contributors’ imaginations. Each story contributes to the greater land of Elfworld, which is mapped out on the first page. The map is a clever touch, but there are words on the back cover promising “a swords-and-sorcery anthology” that really only consistently delivers elves. Wizards, trolls, royal romancing, trebuchets, dwarves, and yes, even fairies appear to be missing from the Kingdom of Elfworld’s treasury of tales."

Click on the links above for the reviews in their entirety!

Hard Working Nerds

2007-04-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

Some bios for the amazing contributors to Elfworld...

<Jeffrey Brown has yet to write any autobiographical comics about his nerdy, D&D-loving, Tolkien-reading, Magic-card collecting days of youth. He looks like a big Hobbit.

Martin Cendera is a continuing contributor to MOME and also has a new continuing series titled Sublife, both published by Fantagraphics.

Sean Collins has written about comics and popular culture for Wizard, The Comics Journal, Stuff, Giant, Complex, WWE, and the A&F Quarterly. His comics have been published at TopShelfComix.com. He lives on Long Island with his wife and their cats.

K. Thor Jensen lives in New York City with his wife and their dog, cat, and unborn child. The child will probably be born soonish. His graphic novel, Red Eye, Black Eye, is in stores now.

Dave McKenna’s comics have appeared in House of Twelve, Mauled!, and Legal Action Comics. He dwells inside an enchanted Roger Dean poster in the mystickal land of New York City.

Erik Nebel recently finished writing and drawing a 234 page graphic novel called Happy Birthday. His next project is a graphic novel adaptation of War and Peace. Erik believes that if Tolstoy were alive today, he'd be big, big comic-book fan.

<Jason Overby lives with his wife and their cat in Portland, Oregon. He works on comics all the time, but he's generally too lazy to scan them in and print them out.

Liz Prince has been drawing comics ever since she was in 3rd grade. Her first full length book is Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed? (Top Shelf Productions).

>Ansis Purins is an artist who resides in the ancient port town known as Boston. A freelance illustrator who's clients include Wheelhouse Pickles, he self publishes the comic series Zombre and Duppy.

Ron Regè, Jr. lives in Los Angeles, where he has been playing drums in a musical group called Lavender Diamond. Their debut LP will be released in May 2007. His most recent books are "The Awake Field", and "Skibber Bee~Bye" from D&Q, as well as Yeast Hoist 12 from Buenaventura Press.

<Jesse Reklaw has been drawing the self-syndicated, weekly comic strip Slow Wave since 1995. It's currently printed by ten newspapers around the United States, and online at www.slowwave.com. Currently he is working on a comics memoir, one chapter of which was published in the 2006 Best American Comics by Houghton-Mifflin.

Grant Reynolds lives in Chicago and is a regular contributor to The Skeleton News, a monthly underground paper. His books “Smaller Parts”, “To the Mouth of the Source”, and “M'Lady Serene” are available through Short Pants Press.

Souther Salazar lives and works in Los Angeles.His many works include the children’s book Destined for Dizziness (Buenaventura Press).

Dalton Sharp works on his comic Love is Lava. He is a member of The Crown Commission. He lives in Toronto.

Kazimir Strzepek RACE: Higher Nerd DIETY: None ALIGNMENT: Neutral Chaotic STR:7 INT:13 WIS:14 DEX:13 CON:10 CHR:14 SKILLS: Jump +4 Handle Animal +2 Drawing +1 Bicycles +1 Tetris +3 BACKGROUND: Kazimir was raised by Owlbears and draws Mourning Star put out by Bodega Books.

Jason Turner & Jody Turner are Canadian brothers, born in Manitoba, but spent most of their lives in Ontario. Jody builds props for television and movies in Toronto. Jason works crappy day jobs in Vancouver and recently had his first graphic novel, True Loves, published by New Reliable Press. When the brothers are in the same place they sometimes write goofy comics together.

<François Vigneault has recently converted his alignment from Chaotic Good to Lawful Neutral, much to his chagrin. He draws the comic Friends and lives in San Francisco.

Matt Wiegle lives in Brooklyn and draws things. He is responsible forthe mini-comics "Ayaje's Wives," "The Ghosts," "The Four Husbands" and "Seven More Days Of Not Being Eaten." He is a member of the Partyka comics collective.

Rollin' Hatin'

2007-04-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

Here is kind of what the Elfworld contributor's section in the Rollin' Hatin' art show looked like:

From left to right: Ron Regé, Jr. + Souther Salazar, me, Grant Reynolds, Jeff Brown, K. Thor Jensen, and Jesse Reklaw. Not sure where Ansis Purins' and Liz Prince's work got to...

Comic Conventions: Somewhat Exhausting.

2007-04-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

APE happened! Wow... this was a huge big year for me, with Elfworld Vol. 1 coming out for the show... The reaction to the book was very warm, with lots of people who's opinions I respect giving me great, positive feedback. I had a bit of an over-inflated idea of how the book was going to do, I have to admit... I imagined that at least once there would be a crowd three deep around the Family Style table, clamoring for their copy of the hot book of the show... but we had strong sales for our first book ever, and we didn't even stick out like a sore thumb down on the main floor (tho' I was very sad our constant APE neighbors Tim and Stephanie weren't next to us this year!

Because the work on the book was done so early (Jonas and I finished work on it over a month before APE, and it arrived on the Monday before the show (50 boxes x 60 books each = 3000 books or 1400 lbs!), I had a bit of time on my hands! I Occupied my time with various "extra-credit" projects... like this special edition version:

It is actually a sort of hard bound folio slipcase that goes around a copy of the actual book. I would have loved this when I was actually still playing D&D... I'm a dork.

A short list of some nice things I picked up this year:

PS Comics #3 by Minty Lewis: Sooo funny! I hadn't read Minty's comics before she gave me this issue, and now I'm in love! "Fruit Pals" is just full of little mannered details that read perfectly.

Monsters #2 by Ken Dahl: This amazing series continues... very sad, beautiful, and bitter work.

Range Life by Tim La Juenesse & Ellis Parker Walks Into a Bar by Stephanie La Juenesse: As always, Love Letter Press delivers a couple of delighful gems... Range Life finishes of Tim's series well, and I like the stories from Stephanie's chap book that I have read thus far (still have to finish it. Nice letterpress covers on both.

Sidewalk Bump #2 by Dan Moynihan et al: I have been waiting for this to come out for a long time... not only am I in it but I really like Dan's loopy, open artwork... There is an unexpected theme of "night skating" in many of the stories, including my own...

Hunter & Painter and Three Very Small Comics Vol. III, both by Tom Gauld: He must be in Elfworld Vol. 2!

Monster Parade by Ben Catmull: Another person I want in Vol. 2... Damn these too busy cartoonists!

Back from the Dead!

2007-04-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

Due to a lack of other large sheets of watercolour paper and my impatience to begin working on my painting for We're Rollin', They're Hatin', I went ahead and brewed another cup of tea (see last post for info on my tea disaster) and doused the rest of the drawing with it, giving it an uneven tea-stain all over... it worked! I began the painting yesterday night and I reckon it is nearly finished!

I'm pretty happy with it... Not perfect, and the birds at the top aren't quite showing up very well, but I think I am improving as a watercolorist! It is a theoretical scene from Root & Branch, the fantasy comic that Jonas and I were doing, and perhaps will start up again.

Share the Pain

2007-04-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to discover that in my sleep I had knocked over a half-full cup of tea (a remenant from a lovely breakfast in bed I made as part of Hannah's birthday festivities) onto not only the pencil drawing for my piece in We're Rollin', They're Hatin', but also several pages of artwork from my colaboration with Jonas, Root & Branch!

Oh, woe is me! I can start my new drawing again, and I guess I can digitally knock out the coffee stains on Root & Branch, but still. What a thing to wake up too. Ugh. I've got to be neater.