1/29/14

Recently, I've been working on a short, triptych comic titled He Who Is Upon His Mountain. Keeping the ink washes and line art separate gives me greater control once scanned and imported into Photoshop. This comic will appear in a mini-comic collecting several of my short comics in time for the spring/summer festival circuit the next issue of Carboncito, due out this summer.

1/7/14

I recently wrapped up a short comic for the upcoming third issue of Quarter Moon, which will be out in time for Valentine's Day (which is appropriate because it's erotica themed). I rarely take process pictures when I work but I managed to remember to take a few while working on the first page. My process is a long one!

First, a quick thumbnail on my sketchbook to help me determine layout and pacing.

Then the sketch is enlarged, printed to scale and traced onto bristol vellum with my trusty Artograph Light Pad (I love this thing soooo much. Never runs hot! No warped paper!!). I pencil in more details in preparation for inking with Staedtler pencils in HB and 2B (However I pencil really lightly for some reason).

Panel borders are inked first, which serves as a good warm-up and gives the impression that you have accomplished more work than you actually have. Finally, I ink the pencil drawings with my Raphael red sable brushes (sizes 1 through 3), sumi ink and pro white for the mistakes.

I was given a sneak peek at some of the other contributors' work, which has me super STOKED to see the issue in person. Locust Moon will throw a release party in mid-February, so look out for more pictures then!

10/10/13

Many thanks to my friend Ann-Marie, who stuck with me all day and took this lovely picture of my table!

Last weekend was the Locust Moon Comics Festival, held in Philadelphia, PA (or as the highway signs like to say, Phila). It was held at the Rotunda, an old church in the University City part of town. It was an unseasonably warm day, which got warmer as the place started filling up. Luckily, the Locust Moon staff handed out water bottles throughout the day. I must have drank my body weight in water!

Aside from the constant sweating, I had a really good time. I was glad to see some familiar faces in attendance and make some new friends in the process, including Andrea Tsurumi, Pat Dorian, Dean Haspiel, Gregory Benton, Mike King, Boyoun Kim, Sue Jean Ko, Frank Reynoso and Alex Eckman-Lawn. I only regret not being able to walk around at a leisurely pace to see everyone's work! The Locust Moon crew did a really job putting the festival together. Hopefully I will return next year with some comic debuts (and a portable fan, just in case)!

I'm also working on a new Alien Raver in Wonderland mini-book. This one has Alien Raver attending the Mad Tea Party with his "friends" standing in for the Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse. You can follow my silkscreen progress on Instagram or Twitter!

6/17/13

I've finished working on a new Alien Raver comic that will appear in Quarter Moon Magazine next month (launched by the awesome folks over at Locust Moon Comics in Philadephia). I will also be participating in their Locust Moon Comics Festival in October (which is currently accepting applications for exhibitors!). This is my longest Alien Raver comic to date AND it features a new character. Now that this comic is done, I will start on a new batch of Uncanny Alien Raver paintings and post them later this summer. Hoo-ray!

A quick video demonstrating my inking process using Faber Castell PITT pens and my light box (Look ma', no lines!)

5/2/13

Trying to find the best shade of transparent cyan.

Somehow, I managed to silkscreen a new book in two days. I'll find out if my math is correct when I begin assembling it next week. Pray for me and the narwhals! If all turns out well, this book will debut at the Grand Comics Festival on June 8th and 9th.

If you find yourself in London from now until May 4th, you should head to the Coningsby Gallery and check out The Poop Deck Project curated by AMMO magazine. It's a character themed group show featuring 54 international artists & illustrators. I created a character for their nautical-inspired deck of playing cards for the suit "cursed pirate". Can't wait to get my hands on those cards!

Update: The cards are now available online! Get them while they last!!

3/25/13

Here's a preview of my comic for the 2nd issue of Three-Armed Squid. Our theme this issue is the four temperaments. Fittingly, I was assigned melancholia. The new issue will go on sale during the MoCCA Arts Festival on April 6th & 7th.

4/24/12

The last few days have been a doozy. I came down with a mean case of step throat, which was followed by a cold. Now recovered (mostly), I've been busy preparing the inaugural issue of Three-Armed Squid for the MoCCA Festival this weekend.



Doors are open from 11am-6pm both Saturday and Sunday. You can find us at Table G10 (marked below). Hope to see you there!

4/10/12

Assembling a few copies of my Alien Raver mini-comic Quilt (among other things) for the Craftacular and Food Fair this Saturday. Can't wait! You can find us on 82 Mercer St. between Broome and Spring streets. Doors open at 11am. Kim and I will be at Booth 102 (near the entrance, sorta). We hope to see you there!

4/3/12

Every day I become increasingly more pale as I print, print, print and you guessed it, print. Work continues on my comic, Pulpo. I'm hoping it'll be able to make its debut at The MoCCA Festival at the end of April. Keep your fingers crossed!





Kim and I are collaborating on a set of postcards to sell at Bust Magazine's Craftacular and Food Fair on April 14th. Called Rawrs & Noms, the theme is monsters and food. One of my contributions is a pair of creatures from the Black Lagoon enjoying some black tea. I'm working on some more goodies which I will post shortly.

3/19/12

Here is a preview of my comic, Spring, which will be featured in the first-ever issue of Three-Armed Squid. It will debut at the MoCCA Festival in April.

2/16/12

Working, working, working…

2/9/12

Greetings from February! How time has flown. I'm currently silkscreening the cover for my Pulpo comic, as well as putting the finishing touches on a comic for the first ever Three-Armed Squid anthology I'm producing with a few friends (see here, here and here). It's going to be a busy couple of months as we all prepare for our MoCCA debut as a foursome. I'll have some more previews of Pulpo in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned!

1/17/12

Happy 2012!

I'm almost done working on my Pulpo comic (hurray!) but there is still much to be done. In other news, I recently applied to the SVA MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program. I won't know whether I got into the program until April, but I have a good feeling about it. Now all attention can be paid to preparing for MoCCA (which is also in April). More updates soon!

12/12/2011

Howdy! So here is what's been going on the past few weeks…

My book Llama! Camel! (edition of 16) has been fully assembled, complete with book jacket. How fancy. (Forgive my oddly-framed photos…)



Here is another project I worked on in November with Shalimar Luis which was hush-hush until recently. We collaborated on this baby shower invitation for our mutual friends Monica and Tom. The cards (edition of 75) turned out beautifully and everyone really enjoyed them. Hurray!



Lastly, I finished printing my Owl Maiden posters (edition of 30) this weekend (finally). The colors look completely different on white paper, which is fun. These posters and my Llama! Camel! book will be available for purchase on my web shop soon.



I still have much work to do. I'm wrapping up a commission (which I am hoping to silkscreen over the weekend somehow) and putting the final touches on my Pulpo mini-comic. WHY TIME GO FAST?

10/10/11

This past Saturday, my friend Kim Ku and I got together to make some tic-tac-toe comics. We were inspired by Matt Madden and Tom Hart's experimental comics jam and decided to give it a try.

The rules are simple: One cartoonist is X and the other is O. Since we played two games, we each got a turn being X and O. You play tic tac toe by incorporating an X or O in the panel somehow. The game ends once all the panels are drawn in (neither of us won, so we added the extra rule of incorporating an ox in the last panel we drew to signify a draw). We made it more difficult on ourselves by staying within a theme: mine was science fiction and Kim's was "creepy". Kim wrote a more thorough post on her blog showing some progress shots, if you are so inclined.



You can see both our comics here!

9/27/11

My "desk", featuring some Star Trek paraphernalia and a shit-ton of paper and books.

The thing with comics (for me) is that I seldom have anything far enough along to post. However, with both my classes in full swing, you'll be bound to see some new work soon.

The status of my current projects: Still developing the octopus comic I mentioned in a previous post. Decided to change its format to a regular pamphlet-style comic with fun silkscreen goodies. In the meanwhile, I'm working on a short accordion book featuring a herd of sassy llamas mingling with a caravan of laid-back camels. It's looking super-cute and will probably be one of the first things I show you next month.



Last, but not least, I'm penciling thumbnails for my comic, The Owl Maiden (this may or may not be the working title). I'm unsure how many pages it will take to properly tell the story, but as of this moment the page count has swollen to 32! I'm hoping to finish a third of the book by December.

9/10/11

I've been busy wrapping up a few projects (see above) and starting some new ones. Recently got the great news that my friends and I (calling ourselves the Three-Armed Squid) will have a table at this year's MoCCA Festival, so this means we'll be creating a ton of new work to fill up said table. Currently on my plate is a new (and longer) accordion book featuring a sea-faring octopus, a short comic about the perils of spring on Neptune and among other things, a very special ray gun. All this work will be serving double-duty as I'm reorganizing my portfolio for the grad school application frenzy to come later this fall.

4/27/11

A little preview of the new Alien Raver: Quilt cover. I'll be heading to the printshop this weekend to silkscreen a whopping 120 of 'em (May the Lords of Kobol be with me)! Along with these limited-edition covers, the short story itself will be given a proper conclusion (it left off as a cliffhanger). It will then go up for sale on my shop. Once that's done, new projects eagerly await me: a new comic (or three), more silkscreen prints and books, family portraits and possibly new etchings. Quite the summer line-up!

UPDATE: Somewhere along the line, I messed up the covers so I will be reprinting them in June when the printshop reopens. Peeved at all the money spent on paper, but at least now I know where to buy more for cheaper.

4/8/11

The elusive Owl Maiden has chosen to reveal herself to you! I've been working diligently the past few weeks on my newest mini-comic, The Owl Maiden, debuting this weekend at The MoCCA Festival (You can also view the mini-comic in its entirety here). This story is a prelude to long-form comic/graphic novel, tentatively titled The Owl Maidens, which I will begin working on this summer. The mini-comic is a 5-color silkscreen accordion book printed on either BFK Rives cream or gray paper (Choice is always fun!). It's a limited edition of 22, so if I have any copies left over from MoCCA, I will put them for sale on my web shop. Below are some work in progress shots…







I will also be selling my Alien Cheshire print and Turlitunnel etching. A purchase of either three goodies mentioned above will get you an exclusive Alien Raver silkscreen postcard (otherwise priced at $1 each). 

The MoCCA Fest will be held on April 9th and 10th at the Lexington Avenue Armory, on 68 Lexington Avenue, between 25th and 26th streets. Admission is $10 per day, $15 for a weekend pass. Hope to see you there!