Cecaelia

Worked a few more hours on my little octopus love, had a serious talk with Illustrator about our relationship, we decided to just take things slow so that neither of us gets in over our head, but we really seem to be cliquing together.

I also (because I love themes) created four color schemes. Still have no idea where I'll put these to be printed on shirts or what color shirt they'll end up on or anything of the sort. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery would be helpful.

Cecaelia (Progress)

Been awhile since I posted anything here, it's been awhile since I've done anything of substance for myself.

Anyway, I'm working on a new Tshirt design and teaching myself Illustrator, which is getting progressively easier once I get used to its own little cantankerocities.

Obviously not finished, its been a slow process and a long night. Hoping to finish it tomorrow. :)

-J

Caricatures

Mostly because I don't want to drown this blog in caricatures, I'm making a seperate blog for it, leaving this for my sketches and digital art.

I also need something to update until I get my new laptop.

When I can do digital art. And update my MOTHER BLIPPING COMIC. GOD DANG.

Anyone want to loan me 2000 dead presidents?




http://facialentrepreneur.blogspot.com/

Its a very. VERY. subtle Henry Rollins joke.

It's the best name I could come up with for someone in the business of selling faces.

-J

California Teaser

Just a sketch I whipped up of the characters for the comic idea I wrote earlier.

Have I ever mentioned that I always wanted to do a Western?

Dang yes, Cowboys.

Sigh of Relief

So now that I have finished school, and taken full advantage of sleeping and lazing about on my days off for the last full week, I've decided its time to get back into art.

Really, I noticed that I've been playing Borderlands for like, 120 hours and I almost died of shame.

I feel like I'm opening new doors in my life and I'm excited and what I'll find. I'm starting TWO new comics, and I spent this morning writing the first one. It will be eleven "issues" long, and when I get a few pages done I will create a new blog for it. Or post it here. I haven't decided yet.

Elliminno P is also in dire need of some updating, I'm going to get to work on that, too.

I'm also looking into getting my own .com name and moving my blogs to wordpress, which is apparently infinitely better and more malleable to my needs. I'll check it out first, of course.

Stay tuned, I think 2010 holds some EXCELLENT things for me, art wise.

Sequa Club update

My comic work for the Sequential Art Club, so far.

I've been completely bogged down between work and preparing for graduation. There's actually one more page missing from this that needs to be laid out - I can take care of it Saturday and hopefully have some of it inked. But I kind of like keeping the ending from you. I'm definitely a bit more excited about it now that its actually happening instead of hanging over my head like a Sword of Damocles.

Just the gestures - for me this is 70% of the work, getting things to look cool in the frame. Sorry if its hard to read, obviously I'll fix that later.

Afro Noir

Just something I did to get used to working with my tablet. I have to do a panel for the comic club's poster, I think I'll submit this. Its very....submittable.

I think she's saying "Bang."

Caricatures

Had a run of interesting guests this week, so I thought I'd share a little bit. I think my "style" is starting to show through, but I'm not quite there yet. Today was my 26th day at work.



This was a very friendly lady who wanted to be drawn on a mule. A mule that was very, very specifically described to me.




I drew Mouse one day while I was bored and alone. The pic of her is actually like, two weeks later than the drawing.




Working with John one day he told me about his superhero alter ego, the Neighborhood Watchman, so I drew this while he was at lunch.



This couple wanted to be drawn as pirates the day after Talk Like a Pirate Day (which they apparently did not know about.) The guy got rushed because I was trying to beat the rain and I finished in just the nick of time. I wish I could have done more though.




This is probably the best black people drawing I've done. They're hard to color because there are sixty four different shades of black people, and I have three brown sticks. And they ALWAYS notice if the shade is off. The guy and (their?) kids loved it, the woman was not impressed, but she was kind of a bitch.

Looking back, most of these are actually from the last week. I hope this week is as interesting.

And maybe busier.

-J

Book Pics

Just some sample pics of my book.

I'm still excited about it. This is going to be a good week.


For those of you interested in getting a copy - if there are any of you left: I am putting together a package that includes the book, my finished demo reel and business card (I have no idea what to do with 100 business cards and I figure this will kill about 10 of them if I'm lucky), there is also a blank page in the front and back of the book that I will draw on for everyone getting one. The book ended up being 35$, so that's my asking price. It will also take about 2 weeks to get to me, so allow another week for delivery to you. Unless you know me personally, then I guess you'll get it when you see me.

Which might actually take longer, ha ha.

Get in touch with me if you're interested.

Thanks for all your support, guys.

Hopefully this will be the first of many editions. :)

-J

Inklings Arrived

My first copy of Inklings arrived today. I cannot express how TOTALLY AWESOME it is to be holding a book that YOU MADE. Oh its like Christmas morning before I started getting clothes!

Its in great condition and everything is cropped properly, I'll post pictures later tonight when I re-hook up my laptop.

OH THIS IS SO COOL.

-J

Demo Reel + Flash and Music

For all intensive purposes, this is DONE.

My friend Daniel specially crafted the first two songs used for my demo reel, the second two are off the media drive and are just placeholders for now (but the last one syncs up in some pretty awesome ways, I might just keep it)

AND FINALLY THE FLASH WORKS.

Just need to drop in some gibberish for the girls' dialogue.

Awesome. Something's going right today.

-J

Demo Reel Update

Just got back from Kris's, didn't sleep last night, coughing today, figured I'd take the day off.

Updated my demo reel with cleaner boards and better timing. I completely forgot about this for three weeks while I was working on my book and other stuff. Not fun. But at least this time I thought ahead and SAVED THE AFTER EFFECTS PROJECT FILE.

I still need music implemented, but at least now I know what I'm going to do. I think the dialogue will be done with gibberish-a-la-Sims. And I think the baseball scene will have a old sounding rag to it - it feels kind of vaudeville to me, but that could just be the lack of sleep talking. The boxing scene will have punch out cover music and the "flash placeholder" will be my Cat and Mouse animation whenever I figure out how to make flash and after effects play nice.

Updating again with music (AND FLASH? CAN I FINALLY BE FINISHED WITH THIS THING?) hopefully next Wednesday.

On a side note, I freaking hate cats.

-J

INKLINGS HAS BEEN FINISHED

I just put the finishing touches on "INKLINGS" 2009 edition.

If you wanted one, get in touch with me soon. The cost will be 35$ with shipping and everything, and will take 2-5 days to deliver. I'm leaving orders open through September because I have been extremely hard to get ahold of lately.

I'm placing the order for my copy tomorrow. I hope it comes out okay.

-J

August Ender

Last day of August, 14th Day in Caricatures, thought I'd conclude the month with my drawings today, especially since I had a run of interesting customers.


The boy started making silly faces, and I told him I'd draw him that way if he could hold it. So I did. And the grandmother laughed so hard while I was drawing it she actually started crying. Likeness is better on the girl, but she wasn't as much fun.


This couple watched me draw the kids and wanted to get one done (which means they like my style, I think.) The guy was in the navy and wanted to be on a boat fishing. The girl liked the anchor in one of the display drawings, so I gave her an anchor. They were pretty pleased, but I felt it was a little rushed because they wanted to ride a few more rides before close.


I'm also trying to really push exaggeration in my drawings. Who better to practice on than oneself? Thankfully, I have plenty of angles to play with. No one really seems to care for this drawing though. I like it.
On to more people that I drew just to keep myself sane in an empty park. This girl was actually walking around with her hand on her hip and an umbrella. (There was no rain today) She kind of reminded me of one of the girls I drew previously, but I think I like this one better.

I decided to draw pretty girls today. I think if you can exaggerate and caricature the pretty people (and still make them pretty), then the average and unblessed become that much better. This girl smiled at me and she had awesome cheeks. But I had two customers in the middle of drawing her and I couldn't remember her clothes or colors. Theme park in Florida, the given attire is a pretty educated guess. I didn't notice until I uploaded that I forgot to put shadow on one of her eyelids, this has since been remedied.

Makes me think of pokemon.


This girl first caught my eye because I noticed only one of her boobs jiggled. Which sounds really pig headed of me, but she had an interesting walk that made only one jiggle. It was fascinating, I tell you! And then I looked at her face and I KNEW I would have to put it on paper.


I told Marlon today I wanted to be one of "the greats". I don't really know about all that, I just want to have a style that stands out from everyone else. In a good way. I want people and co-workers to be like "Yes, I want a Jared caricature."

I've given myself a year to get that good. That leaves 11 months. Let's see what happens.

-J

Caricatures

Just updating with some caricatures from the last week or two.

I have been there a total of 13 days as of today.

Caricature of the legendary Jurassica Park for her going away present. I tried to make the head more dinosaury. Practicing on friends and coworkers is great because you can really push the exaggeration without worrying about losing the sale, and you also don't have some **** of a mom squawking from behind you about how you messed up her baby. I'm going to miss Jessica. Soy triste.


These were some girls I drew. They were pretty happy with the sketch, I think its all right. The freckled girl had neat teeth, the other girl had a good headshape.


My first redhead! This kid's family was more happy with the sketch than he was. Apparently he plays football and his jersey is purple. Hm.


This was a sweet little girl whose mom just kind of ditched her while I did the drawing. She really tilted her head at a 45 degree angle the entire time. It was a little creepy.


Just a drawing I did of myself. Eh.

The rest of these weren't actually sitting infront of me. The park has been pretty *ridiculously* slow, so I've gotten in the habit of finding interesting looking people that walk by to draw to hopefully reel in a potential customer. It doesn't usually work, but I get some interesting drawings. And color practice.


This is one of my favorites. This lady looked freaky as hell. She was all eyes and teeth. And she was REAL EXCITED about riding "The Scorpion" Also, she had pretty awesome cellulite happening on her thighs.


I was just sitting minding my own business when this kid came up stabbing me in the side with a feather asking me if it tickled. He talked to me for a little bit while his mom was in the bathroom and after he left I drew him.


These girls weren't actually together, they were in separate parties, just both had obnoxiously large sunglasses on. The first girl I wanted to draw because she had a mile high forehead, and as fate would have it, her painfully average dad was the one who wanted to be drawn. Damn. The second girl had kind of a box head.


I drew this today. I thought they were the archetype of "American".

That's all for now. Do you guys even care about my caricatures? Should I keep uploading them, or make a seperate blog? Or is one art blog enough?

-J

Every Extend

So, more or less to all of you who have been inquiring about getting a copy of my book:

Since I'm still not finished laying it all out because I havent had time to work on it and therefore can't actually give you an accurate estimate of the price, I'm going to just extend it to the end of September. I have to have my hard copy by the end of this week, so I'll definitely know the price soon, I only have about 6 more pages to put together, which involve getting a scanner that effing works.

And "working" entails not being connected to one of those inferior Mac machines.

You know, I have actually gotten in the habit of skipping class once a week just to have a day off (and not telling anyone about it, I apologize), and I'm STILL too tired to do anything except sleep. Even when I go out and do something, I find myself falling asleep on my friends.

Not literally on them.

But thank you all of you who want to support me by getting a copy of my first printed sketch and concept book.

I'm going to bed.

-J

Inklings

I just got the greatest idea ever.

Or maybe the worst idea ever.

Regardless, I'm following my gut. This time, I'm doing something for me. I'm getting a book printed of all of my sketches, designs, characters, et cetera. There will be a number of finished illustrations, concept pieces and storyboard layouts, but for the most part it will be nasty, dirty, gritty sketch work because I can't think of anything else that better describes my art style or creative process. The book will be called "Inklings", a double play on the word "ink" and the meaning of "idea" because I am just too gosh darn clever for my own good.

A lot of things I've never shown anyone, and some personal things will be included.

So far the book will be about 30 pages, hard cover and full color. My guesstimate of the cost is around 30$ with shipping. I will let you know if this needs to be adjusted, but I'm not planning on making a profit off of these, just pay whatever the production and shipping are and you can have one. I figure its the least I can do for my friends and family (though, the thought of my family actually seeing my artwork leads me to believe I'll only be further ostracized).

I'm placing the order by this next weekend (Aug 30). If anyone wants one, let me know. This is the only time I'm offering and I'm only offering because everyone I know seems interested in getting one. I just have two weeks to have a finished printed version in my hands for class and so time is kind of an issue. Unfortunately, I'm strapped for cash (I thought I was getting paid this week) so if you want one, I kind of need the cash in hand before I order it. I do have paypal if that is convenient for you, if you wish to use that, contact me and I'll send you my info.

I'll post some sample pages up this week.

-J

Queens

More sketches for Jenn's tattoo I did in the last half hour or so.

Er.

A sketch for Jenn's tattoo, and some doodles.

I can't focus lately. It feels like my mind has been scrambled.

Like eggs.

I hate eggs.

/Spirit Reference.

-J

Print Portfolio

Ha ha, epic whoops. I didn't read the assignment for today, actually I was supposed to have the print portion of my portfolio all laid out and ready to go.

Chalk one up for not paying attention to directions.

Well, here it is anyway. The best I have that isn't animated. Five whole pages. What a downer. I tried to arrange them by category and in a way that flowed and made the best use of the room on the page. But there's so little I have that is nice and polished and something that could probably land me a job doing something.

I mean, I have a HUGE body of work; gigs of character designs, planned illustrations...

...They're just all sketches. Not really print portfolio material.

I am not having fun anymore.

-J

Final Flatbook Layout

I need a day off. I feel like I've been run into the ground. I want some me time. And I've had a cough for the last two weeks that isn't going away.

Anyway, here's my final flatbook layout page. Just some minor tweaks.

Going back to bed.

-J

Julian

Drawing I did in class yesterday of one of my colleagues, Julian. The guy is pretty cool, and he's excellent in the 3D realm. You can see his stuff here.

Julian is constantly reminding me of how much of a nerd I am.

-J

Day Five

Today the park was mostly dead and I had printed off some pictures of my favorite celebrities to practice with - I think they came out really well. I want to do another Rollins though and really emphasize the mouth. My printer is pretty shitty so I'm going to print off some images at school tomorrow on the nice laser printer. I spent nearly all day trying to get Lucy right, and my new friend AJ helped me out a bit, then showed me some tips for coloring.

Hee hee, she looks topless.

Bruce Lee
Tom Waits
Henry Rollins
Audrey Hepburn
Lucy Liu

Day Four

Marlon did most of my "training" and helping me learn to draw facial features better. Yesterday he gave me my color sticks, so to show my gratitude I ruined his image.

Then I got to draw a really cute Dutch girl.

And then just for fun I drew Gwen. I love that girl's face.

Day Three

LOOK AT THAT FREAKING HIPSTER. To this day that is my favorite drawing I've done from a live model. Oh my gosh, just look at him.