Jesse Acosta's Blog

Light at the end of the tunnel

2009-06-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

I just finished my final project for my Anthropology class! Woo hoo! I just turned it in, its a Virtual Museum starring the Codex Borgia as its major exhibit. If you're interested in Aztec Culture, check it out:
http://www.jesseacosta.net/aztec
It was a rush design job, which is why it isn't super fancy at all. But I think it works well enough for delivery purposes.

All I have left now is a final exam for the class, and an impromptu speech in my Communications class. I can see the light, and I'm almost there. I can't wait to get back to my art and projects without having homework and other things piling up on me.

As a side note, I'll be on the radio tomorrow (Monday June 16th) at 10:00am on 92.3fm. I did a project for my Communications course on Immigration, and during the project I had to contact several people to interview. One of these people happened to be Olgalucia, the host of Latitud, the only Spanish speaking radio program in Spokane, WA. Well, she wants me to present what I found out on the air. I'm pretty scared, but excited at the same time.
I'm also planning on doing some flyers, web design, and some other stuff for her program as well as a few other radio programs on KYRS 92.3fm. I'm trying to pick up some volunteer work so I have some interesting stuff to write about when I apply for Eastern Washington University. I only have a couple quarters left at the Falls, and I can transfer over.

Alright, so I'm going to kick back for a few. It feels good to finally finish my exhibit project.

Spokane ComiCon TODAY!!

2009-05-30T02:16:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs to head to the Spokane ComiCon at Spokane Falls Community College today and attend. It starts at 10am, and there are prizes for first attendees, costume contests, auctions, all sorts of goodies. I'll be there selling my paintings, comics, sketches, and more.

Come by and say hi!!!

For more info: http://www.spokanecomicon.com/

Spokane ComiCon, Free Comic Day, More Work, Sketchbook!

2009-05-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

I'm compiling some entries from my deviantArt page here, so here goes:

Everything is going to plan for the Spokane ComiCon. I have 100 (yes that's right, 100) sketchbooks made up for the event. Here's the cover:

I'm expecting to have a lot of extras, I know I'll be handing them out to friends and family, as well as selling extras here and there. I'll also have Solar Flares 24Hour comic available as well, both in Spanish and English. If anyone wants either book after May 30th, you can email me or post here. I'll let you know the details.

I'm planning on having a couple portfolios of my art on display, some 6"x6" sketches on display to entice people to buy $5.00 small sketches. I'm also thinking of doing a $5.00 deal for a book and a sketch inside the book. I'll also have a mini easel on the table displaying some smaller paintings, and a big easel behind displaying my big pieces. I'll be rotating pieces throughout the day.

I'm also going to sift through my work to see if there are any pages worth making prints of.
I hope to see lots of people, stop by and say hi!

During Free Comic Book Day, our group ran into some issues with references when drawing sketches for the kids. Fortunately we were in a gaming/comic shop, so there were some references to be found. But in light of this, I decided to run out to the store and pic up a 2gb microSD card for my phone. Its soul purpose is to be filled with reference images of super heroes, video game characters, manga, movies, tv, whatever. With this, I can thumb through and have references on demand!

But here's the tricky part, what are some of the most beloved characters that I should put on the card?

If you have the time, give me a top ten of your favorite all time characters. With a decent list, I have a direction for character choices. Thanks!

Lastly, I wanted to share a colored piece I just finished (or think I finished, I'm debating on some minor things):

I'm thinking of maybe turning the mountain lineart into color just to give a depth feeling. I'm also thinking of changing the lineart of the etching on the rock into a darker grey instead of the black lines to make it less prominent. Lastly, thinking of changing some of the detail lineart on the tree into a darker brown for a similar reason as the rock. If you have any opinions, let me know!

Free Comic Book Day - Free Sketches for Kiddies

2009-05-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

So this year we set up a table at the local shop Merlyns for Free Comic Book Day, and made free sketches for the kiddies! We were there from 11 - 2 I believe. It was so much fun. It really pushed me outside the box to draw stuff I'm not used to drawing. I was actually in shock because all the kids either wanted Star Wars or Halo (Master Chief) sketches. Only a couple comic book characters!

I made a list of all that I drew for the event,

Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Master Chief, Yoda, Bobba Fett, Clone Trooper, Mario, Wolverine, Flash, and Harley Quinn. I may have been missing one or two from this list, we all did a couple repeat characters. Master Chief, Bobba(or Janga) Fett, and Yoda were real popular. The guys in suits look a lot alike as well, its was getting tedious. At one point I couldnt remember who I was drawing for a minute! It was a clone trooper, I had to look at the helmet!

My favorite one was probably Mario because the girl was interested in my art supplies, its really cool that others are interested in drawing too. I also drew Mario from memory, which was scary! I know what he looks like, but it would have been nice for a reference just in case.

Here are some of the other fellow artists who made FCBD at Merlyns a success with free kids sketches:

One of my sketches from the event:

Origami Ninja Stars, Free Sketches for the kiddies, Comic Convention, MORE!!!

2009-04-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting very frequently, I've been busy with school, work, and trying to get enough art ready for the Comic Convention. I'll be selling a sketchbook of work there. Its May 30th, at Spokane Falls Community College. For more information on the Spokane ComiCon, head here: http://www.spokanecomicon.com/

This Saturday, I will be at Merlyn's (19 W Main, Spokane, WA, 99201, 509-624-0957 ) from 11 - 3pm or so, drawing sketches for the children for Free Comic Book Day. For more info about Merlyn's, head here: http://www.merlyns.biz/ For more info on Free Comic Book Day, head here: http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

Last bit of news, In my Communications course at the college, I have to instruct the class on how to do something. I choose origami shurikens, about the only origami I still remember from Elementary school. I used to make these all day long in class, then during recess I would chuck them at kids.

I made a quick visual aid poster to help students while I instruct. Here's the poster:

Little Red, sleeping away

2009-04-03T16:41:00.001-07:00

Here is where I was a few days ago with that tree problem:

and here it is today:

I just printed it(non photo blue) onto bristol board, and I'll be inking within the next couple days. Any thoughts before I hit it with the inks?

Robin Comic Page

2009-03-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've updated. Last week of school was hectic, work has been keeping me too busy, hanging out with new and old friends, and I've been constantly working on art.

Finally, after a month, I was able to finish this with my friend

He wanted to ink something of mine, so I did a quick mockup page of a Robin story I made up. This is the first collab project I have ever done, it was a lot of fun. It was liberating to give my pencils over to a friend whom I trust. It was also refreshing to see what he did with my pencils!

In other art related news, I'm not sure if I will be able to get my Little Red Riding Hood comic done by the comic convention, but I will definitely have pages to show in my portfolio from it, as well as some pages in my sketchbook that I will be selling. Busy busy busy. I'll probably be working on some paintings very soon. I've been wanting to paint more, but its been a push pull between comics and painting.

Well, I have some more work to get done. If I'm lucky, I'll post within a day, with a page from Little Red Riding Hood.

Evolution of Robin

2009-03-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

So over the last few days, I've done a sketch of Robin (actually a couple), then inked it, and today I colored it... Here we go:

Also, a random sketch at work of Robin:

I used the same method of inking that I did for my Caperucita Roja Inking tutorial I did a while back. First I had my sketch in my sketchbook, I scanned it in, changed it to non photo blue, printed it on bristol board, and inked with a brush and Higgins Black Magic ink.
I did the coloring this morning, during my break between classes.

I think its time to draw another Teen Titan, I have tons of Robin illustrations already ;)

Daily Sketch Return?! and Convention News

2009-03-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

Life's been very busy. I've been handed three class assignments, two of which I did the work over the weekend. I'll be presenting rough drafts for one today for my film class's storyboard project today. I'll also be doing a presentation in my Sociology class.
Beside the school and work rinse and repeat daily grind, I'm also putting myself to a schedule to get things completed and ready for the upcoming Spokane Comic Convention. I guess they were booking like mad this week, glad I decided to lay down my money for a table finally. But that also means no more lolly gagging...
I'm planning on doing a handful of speed paintings, maybe five, for the convention. I'm planning on doing one a week, spending one of my days off each week working on them. I'm also going to try to return to the (semi, kind of, not really) Daily Sketches. I want to do this, so I have more work to pick and choose from when I put together a small inexpensive sketchbook to peddle at the convention. I will have paintings, Solar Flares 24 Hour comic, a sketchbook, and Little Red Riding Hood comic for sale and ready for the convention.

To kick off the Daily Sketch, I did this last night:

I'm thinking that I will do a portrait of each of the Teen Titans from the tv series for paintings at the convention. I saw a few people dressed as Raven and Robin, so I think there is a decent fan base here.

Daily Sketches - 2/14/09

2009-02-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't posted any daily sketches in a LONG time... I've been drawing, painting, and doing all sorts of other shenanigans, yet I haven't really had time to share.. so this is a good opportunity to get back to that business again :)

First, a recent acrylic painting:

11" x 14" - Acrylic on Masonite. This was a Valentine's gift for a great friend of mine, I think she loved it, at least I hope so :) Its her favorite character, Harley Quinn, from Batman. This was a lot of fun to do, because I put down the brush and paint for a couple month hiatus because of school and my current work on my Little Red Riding comic. This reinvigorated me to do some painting again, I'm planning on at least some small paintings like this, and maybe a large one or two that will be ready for the Spokane ComiCon on May 30th... BTW, I need to buy a booth for Artist's Alley soon.

The daily sketches from today:

Today at work was slow, real slow... and a real blessing. I spent all my breaks and other free time doodling these. I might do a portrait of Joker similar to the sketch above, as a small 11x14 painting like the Harley one. Also, I want to do a 16x20 painting of Batgirl there. I love the action of her fist fighting, it looks exciting and vivid. I think fans would appreciate them at the con and buy the paintings.

Lastly, I went to a curiosity shop and picked up a bunch of old 50s - 70s comics. They really inspired me for my upcoming Little Red Riding Hood comics and Solar Flares volume 1. The old comics have ridiculously stupid ads inside, and I've decided to mimic them and make my own. Here's one that I put together last night:

It mimics another Growth exercise program that was in the comics, I took a lot of the wording straight from the comic; it was too good to change! Lastly, if you reread it as those "special" enlargement ads we see today, this advertisement is even more hilarious..

So, that's a mighty blog entry, I hope it satisfies my few readers. Its time to get back to drawing.

I LOVE Magnus Robot Fighter

2009-02-13T19:48:00.000-08:00

So today I came across an obscure comic while browsing. Its called Magnus Robot Fighter 4000ad, printed by Gold Key Comics. First thing that drew me was the painted covers, very pulp magazine like on the cover. Second, its a Flash Gordon type guy beating up robots! I love it! I have an affinity for '50s era robots too, so this is my thing. Now I have a an urge to find as many of these as possible, Magnus is amazing! I'll definitely be looking out for other issues or collections at comic cons, etc.

If I had the opportunity to get the rights, I so totally would. I just get so giddy with golden age heroes, pulp heroes, and the like. There's a sort of awesome charm to them that is hard to find in today's comics. Is it the art style? The stories? The smell of the old comics? A time I long for yet never experienced? I don't know what draws me to this stuff so much, but it definitely gets me excited to draw something. It also gave me some ideas for a future Solar Flares comic. Perhaps Francisco needs to battle robots at some point!

Scott Pilgrim #5 - A Review

2009-02-09T08:56:00.001-08:00

New book by Bryan Lee O'Malley, in the ongoing trials of Scott Pilgrim released last week

I think I could use my journal entries here to be of more use to people, so I think I'll start doing occasional reviews of the things in my life, namely art related goodies.

So on Friday I went to the Comic Shop to pick up my latest books, plus see if they had received shipment of the new Scott Pilgrim book. They had one copy, it was destiny for me to purchase it!

One of my favorite things about reading comics is finding a relatively new artist, and watch them grow. I believe that #5 is the strongest of Lee's visual storytelling. His line quality gets stronger and cleaner, his panel layouts more interesting, and his toning becomes more dynamic. One sequence in particular really impressed me. There's a moment where Scott and Ramona have a heart to heart, and she starts to disappear into a white flash. It looked really nice, I think it would be fun to play and try to replicate the effect.
One of the things that threw me off in previous books was the similarity in character's looks. One is supposed to happen, Young Neil is supposed to look a lot like Scott. Unfortunately, that can make it difficult for the reader. Second, Ramona changes her hair quite a bit, also making it difficult to follow. Sometimes I also think Ramona and Kim look quite alike as well. This is very difficult for a black and white comic, if it were color, we could notice the changes more dramatically with the different color hair and such. Again though, by volume 5, O'Malley has made these characters much more distinct and easier to differentiate.

As for the story, its kind of sad in this one. It was told well, I loved the art, and it was a fun easy read; but man was it a sad story. I guess I can't say sad = bad, but I guess I've liked the care free happy-go-lucky attitude the book carried previously. This change of pace is good though, I'm hooked, maybe more than ever now, to see what happens in the next volume.

If you have not read the series, please check it out:
http://www.radiomaru.com/ - Website for Artist and Creator Bryan Lee O'Malley
http://www.scottpilgrim.com/ - Official Scott Pilgrim website
http://www.onipress.com/ - Oni Press, Publisher of Scott Pilgrim, and many other great comics

Basic Inking Process Tutorial

2009-01-24T23:35:00.000-08:00

I just posted this tutorial on deviantArt, and now I'm sharing it everywhere else:

STEP ONE:
To start, I draw out small sketches on a page in my sketch book, trying out various ideas. Once I have something I like, I scan it into the computer at a high dpi (600dpi or so), and reprint it at a much larger scale. From there, I can retrace it onto a clean page in my sketchbook and refine the picture, fixing mistakes, and adding details.

STEP TWO:
Now with a better pencil sketch, I scan it into the computer once again, and convert it to a faded cyan (called non-photo blue or non reproductive blue) in Photoshop. To do this, I convert the image mode to Grayscale, then to CMYK. Then I go to Image>Adjust>Channel Mixer. From here, I leave the Cyan Output Channel untouched and move directly to the Magenta Output Channel. I drop the Magenta level from 200% to 0%. Next I move to the Yellow Output Channel, dropping the Yellow level to 0%. Then finally I move to the Black Output Channel, dropping the Black level down to 0%. You should be left with a Cyan image. The next step is to change the layer opacity to 50%, so the Cyan isn’t so intense.From there, I print it onto bristol board. This way, my pencils are left untouched by a possible ink mishap, and my pencil illustration is perfectly replicated onto illustration board without blemishes like heavy erasing or pencil smudges.

STEP THREE:
Here, I begin my inking process. I use Higgins Black Magic Ink, and two Connoisseur brushes http://connoisseurart.com/, one small and one fat. I also use two kinds of Bristol Board. I use Strathmore 300 Series 9”x12” vellum Bristol Board for Illustrations like this, and Canson Fanboy 10”x14.25” Manga Art Boards for manga pages (or Comic Art Boards for comic sized books). I prefer vellum to smooth because it grabs to the pencil pretty well, but its only a personal preference. I also enjoy Canson Fanboy’s Art Boards because they come bluelined with rules for panelling and marking bleed room, safe area, and actual page size.

STEP FOUR:
I decided to scan this at about 80% complete. If you notice, there are a couple inking errors, but I will fix them with acrylic titanium white paint when I am finished. At this point, everything has been done with a brush, but now I am going to use a Micron Pen to ink her fine hair lines, her eyes, and the fringe on the cloak/serape. I have left these specifically because I will be using a french curve for inking the hair lines, and circle templates for the eyes. I am using a pen for the fringe because they are so small, I don’t trust myself completely yet with a brush to get all that line work done without making a fatal mistake so close to the final product.

STEP FIVE:
Finally done with line art. I scanned it in at 1200dpi as bitmap, which removes any of the non photo blue that can still be seen. From here, I’ll convert it to grayscale, and rescale it to 300 dpi at the correct size it will be printed at. With just some minor cleanup of stray spots of black, the image is now ready to be colored!!

STEP SIX:
At this point, I’m sure everyone has a grasp on the actual digital coloring process in Photoshop.

So, this is my Caperucita Roja (Little Red Riding Hood), which I am planning on making a manga sized comic book. If I can work fast enough, the book should be printed in time for the Spokane Comic Convention, May 30th, 2009.

MY TOOLS:
Okay, here’s a run down of the most basic tools that I use. First off, I have a set of Speedball nibs and nib holders, and I’d use that over the Micron pen that I used for the fine lines before. The ink in the Microns pulled up slightly when I did some erasing, and its just not that strong of a pigment compared to the rest of the inked page. Next, I have a wrist rest for a computer mouse. This elevates my hand when inking, keeping me from dragging my palm into fresh ink. Next to that, I have a Gerber baby food jar. I use that for my water. I am currently using Higgins Black Magic for my ink, it looks very dark when I am done inking. I also use a metal lid from an energy drink can to dispense my ink. I can use the dropper in the Higgins Black Magic, and drop a few drops in the lid, and I can visually see how far I am dipping. If you dip too far with your nib, ink can soak into the wood of the brush and start to ruin it. Secondly, I don’t have more than a few drops out at a time, which is better than an unopened bottle of ink that could cause major damage if spilled. Lastly, I have my brushes and Bristol Board, but I’ve already mentioned the product names.

I hope this tutorial gave you a basic understanding of my process, and maybe you learned something that can help you excel with your art.
-Jesse 1/24/2009

Conflicted

2009-01-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

So, today at school today I was given the opportunity to play "crime-fighter"... I was hungry, so I stopped in the campus cafeteria and bought a Starbucks Frapaccino and a breakfast sandwich. I went to the cashier and she rang up my total as $5.16 or so... But as I handed her the cash, she voided one of my items and the total dropped down to $2.00 and some odd change. This was a big red flag to me, as I worked ten years in food service. Five as a waiter in a restaurant, and five in the kitchen and cafeteria at Sacred Heart Medical Center. As I walked away, I kept an eye on the cashier, and she pocketed the extra two dollars from the voided item...
Yeah, so after eating my sandwich, I decided it was the right thing to inform the kitchen manager. I asked for the manager, and told him of the situation. He went ahead and checked the sales records on the computer in the back... I don't know the outcome of the situation, but I felt really conflicted because of it.

On one hand, I really dislike theft. Honesty is a big virtue in my book. It really bothers me to see my cash that is meant to pay for the food, as well as pay for my college experience, end up in the pocket of a cashier. It disgusts me to no end.
But on the other hand, I really feel bad about putting the cashier's job, integrity, and college education in jeopardy. A lot is at stake here, but I have to keep telling myself that I essentially didn't put her in that situation; she did it on her own.

Caperucita Roja

2009-01-17T21:23:00.001-08:00

So, I think I have a final design for Caperucita Roja here. The coat has changed since last time because a standard serape covers a lot of details on the front of her body. I want to add some thinner lines in her hair, and maybe a pattern in her dress, but I haven't come up with one yet.

This has been pretty difficult to work on lately with Winter Quarter going on, but I have really enjoyed my classes so far. I'm taking Intro To Film and Ethnic & Racial Sociology. In Film, we just finished watching Casablanca. I hadn't really watched the film since I was a kid, so I didn't really know how good of a movie it is. I'd definitely recommend it to everyone, there is a lot of great dialogue, comedic wit, interesting characters, and a fun setting (Casablanca, Morocco).

BTW, tomorrow (Sun Jan 18, 3PM) at Merlyns (19 W Main Ave, Spokane, WA 99201) will be another Comic Artist meetup. Its been really nice to get together with other like minded artists, if you're interested, I hope you can make it!

Caperucita Roja -I think this is it-

2009-01-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

If you've been following my blog, I've been working on the character designs for a Little Red Riding Hood comic. FINALLY I think I have come up with the perfect Little Red. I just need to refine it a little bit, and play around with her cloak, and then I think I will have it.

One of my major issues was dealing with that hood... I finally decided to go with a more Link like Cap instead, mainly because the original is called: Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (o en Español, Caperucita Roja) meaning Little Red Cap... Previously with a hood design, it was difficult to attach the hood to the cloak, while still showing her hair and face.

So I'll do a model sheet, showing her at several angles, and moving in certain actions to get her design down. Then I think its time to move onto Abuelita, El Cazador, y El Lobo... ;) I'm very excited for this project!

First Day of School

2009-01-06T14:05:00.001-08:00

Today was the first day of school and I'm pretty excited. My first class was Intro To Film, and after reading the syllabus, I am pretty stoked. I have seen the majority of the movies on the film list already, and sometime in the quarter we will be storyboarding a Children's Story/Fairy Tale... I love it when my classes give me the opportunity to draw, I get to show off a little!
My second class is Ethnic and Racial Sociology. The topics we are already talking about are pretty interesting, and the instructor seems very knowledgeable. She was born and raised in China, and has a PhD. In class she asked a few students about their racial background and what it means to them, of course she had to pick me. I hate talking in front of strangers, I get pretty nervous; then to talk about myself is even worse!

So today I bought my parking pass, my film book, school supplies, paid off my JC Penny card, and several other errands... all during this nasty weather we are having. I did a lot of errands today and started school, I feel like a weight has been lifted now.

School is CANCELED!!!

2009-01-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

So school is canceled for tomorrow... I'm kind of happy because I know the blizzard coming tonight will be awful, but I just bought some new clothes and school supplies. I was ready for class damnit! So school is postponed until Tuesday..maybe....

More comic work, and more

2009-01-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

So I'm still working on this Little Red Riding Hood design. I keep looking at other people's works for ideas for children, but I'm still not hitting it on the head the way I'd like to. I want to make a little 12 page comic with this, once I get the character designs down.

So here's another that I did a few days ago:

I like that its cleaner and much more streamlined, but I don't like the face at all, and the hair isn't what I envisioned at all... It seems the more manga direction I go, the more I lose what I was aiming for.

Now she has become too tall, I wanted her to be very young and short, kind of like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch. I want to give her an ethnic appearance, but with the pigtails, it looked more Native American:

Here's the newest attempt:

I shrunk her head down because it looked too big and manga like the previous time. But now it looks too big and her shoulders too wide. I'm also having such a hard time drawing girl hair. I guess I've just never had to pay much attention to pig tails and bows, and all that frilly stuff.

Besides Little Red, I was sick for a couple days. I had a stomach flu, and couldn't do much but watch tv. There was a House marathon, so I watched that. I really enjoy funny asshole characters like House. I don't generally watch the show, or many shows though, because I don't like to get caught up in it and have to watch it weekly. But since I was sick, I just kicked back. After 20 episodes, I noticed medical shows really bite for tv, and how can anyone watch them for very long? Every episode is the same situation: patient in extreme situation comes in, banters with doctors, doctors have inter-work relationships and fight with themselves, patient almost dies, they misdiagnose (generally Ive noticed on House, they think everyone has MS), then they try a surgery for the patient to almost die again, and then they solve it.

I also watched Magnificent Seven again. I think Magnificent Seven and Seven Samurai are the best movies to look at for dealing with a story with multiple main heroes. That movie is so perfect, you could take it to any setting and retell a great story. You could replace Yule Brynner with Aragorn, Steve McQueen with a fast arrow shooting elf, and other characters with various fantasy characters and it would be a great fantasy movie.

Anyway, its a brand new year which is very exciting. There's a lot of stuff happening this year, so I'm pretty happy for that. School starts on the 5th, so I'm going to have to learn how to balance school in the early morning and working in the afternoon and everything else in the evening. It will be a challenging quarter, but I'm glad to be getting more credits out of the way.. I feel like I'm digging myself out of a ditch, I should be able to go to Eastern by next Fall or Winter if I keep up the pace.

Anyway, everyone have a Happy New Year.

More Caperucitas Rojas

2008-12-27T20:48:00.000-08:00

Still working on a look for the little hero:

I'm having trouble with the face and hair... Children are difficult to draw.

*update*
I drew a face, and I like it. But I still don't like the hair quite yet..

Caperucita Roja

2008-12-21T20:48:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking of doing a short comic of Little Red Riding Hood... Here's some rough illustrations so far:

Its been a while since I've posted any new art, so this is a nice jumpstart.

A second design. I may have to find a happy middle between the two. My idea behind this is a more of a Legend of Zelda: Link To The Past sort of feel in the style of art. Link was sorta squat like Little Red here.

Asthma attacks + sleep = weird dreams

2008-11-29T13:03:00.000-08:00

So I've been having trouble with my asthma the last week, maybe change of weather, probably because my dog insists on sleeping on my bed when I'm at work. Either way, I've been waking up several times at night, needing my inhaler. Well, last night, I ended up with some bizarre dreams, mainly because I probably felt really uncomfortable not being able to breathe during the night.

I just can't understand people who deliberately ruin their lungs, being able to not breathe is a nightmare. It's like wearing a plastic bag on your head some days.

Thrifty

2008-11-13T11:36:00.001-08:00

A friend at work collects old lunch boxes, everyday he has a different lunch box. The lunch box thing got me thinking, I should buy a couple old lunch boxes and repaint them! So I started the hunt today at the Christian Thrift store by my home. I did not see any lunch boxes unfortunately, but I did find something! Super Mario All Stars for Super Nintendo! The game generally goes for $20.00 on Ebay, and I picked it up for $3.00. I was pretty stoked, this has four Super Mario games on one cartridge.
Looking around the thrift shop made me think about how easily we toss things out, and buy new junk, just to toss that out as well. There were many nice and functional things there. I saw a French Press for $3.00! It looked brand new, and those generally go for $20.00 at Target or other stores. I may go back and pick it up for a friend. They had many bags as well. I'm thinking of going on a trip this summer or spring, I'll definitely be heading to a thrift store for a bag to pack my stuff, why pay $50.00+ for something new in a chain store, when I can spend a quarter of that in a charity based store.

I think a lot about how much I spend, and how in the past I burned through cash on ridiculous things. Nowadays, I buy my books either used, marked down, or with a coupon from Borders. I buy my graphic novels either used from The Comic Shop, or I buy several at a time through instocktrades.com, which has free shipping on $50.00+ purchases, no tax, and generally a markdown of 30%. I rarely eat at fast food these days, preferring to buy from the grocery store and spend a couple extra minutes to prepare something.

I'm sure others are feeling the effects of our current economy, the dollar really doesn't go as far as we'd like these days. I'm not trying to be preachy or anything, I'm just trying to share the ways I am being frugal.

CLOUD NINE!!!

2008-11-04T21:08:00.000-08:00

So last week I mailed out a bunch of copies of my 24 hour comic (printed, folded, stapled, cropped, it looks nice all together) to a bunch of mini comic/zine distros, people into mini comics, and I even sent it to the Isotope Mini Comics Annual Competition. I actually found out about this competition a couple days late for the event, but I decided to send it in anyway, just to see what they thought. Here's the email:

Jesse,

I just received and gave a read on your SOLAR FLARES book. It's a nice looking book thanks for sending it!

This year's Isotope Award competition was pretty fierce, I saw more amazing books from first-time comic creators than ever before, and I think Jonas Madden-Connor's OCHRE ELLIPSE (our 2008 winner) is definitely something really special. You can check out more about his work here:

http://www.family-style.com/mumblingmynah/
http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/10/17/ochre-ellipse-2-by-jonas-madden-connon/

We give out this award annually, I'm proud to say that the attention has helped get each of our five previous years winners picked up by pretty major indy publishers. We definitely do everything we can to make this award more than just a nifty trophy, I always consider my
winner a little like Ms America, and make sure every reviewer, news source, and publisher I know of gets their hands on a copy and gets a chance to talk to the winner if they want to. It definitely makes me happy to see both Joshua Cotter (2004 winner) and Danica Novgorodoff
(2006 winner) have gone on to get Eisner nominations for their next projects. So yeah, pretty cool!

But I digress. Here's really what I'm writing you to say:

#1. You've got a pretty sharp looking book despite cranking it out in just 24 hours. Very impressive!

#2. If you put some time into your submission for next year (and submit the book on time - laugh!) I wouldn't be surprised to see you ending up as a finalist.

#3. And seriously... keep up the excellent work, man!

- James
http://isotopecomics.com

Yeah, so I am pretty excited about this!!! :)

Daily Sketch Catchup!!

2008-11-03T19:43:00.001-08:00

First off, I'm writing a bunch of ideas I've had for comics down into some books, and breaking them down into lengths to see what would be a quick one shot comic, or a short run, or something ongoing to kind of guage what I should be doing. I kind of want to print a book similar to my last comic, but with 48 pages or so, with a couple stories in it... I'll be working on that for the time being.

I've been drawing almost every evening, but I don't keep up with scanning as often as I should. Here's a few:

Francisco Valerio, from my 24 Hour Comic... I might actually finish a couple comics with him, people seem to respond to it.

Francisco is a little to strong, beefy, gallant, and confident here. It reminds me of Flash Gordon, and I want Francisco to be a little more lost and apprehensive.

Francisco Valerio running from a moon Zombie.

sketch from last night...

Doctor with a reanimator lab coat...