Refreshing Rectangles

That’s an excerpt from a new comic about bikes and consumer angst. See the full 3-page saga over at cool bike website The Radavist.

Lately, rather than buying sketchbooks, I’ve just been making them out of trash. This was inspired partly by an old video I watched of Trent Holbrook making his own sketchbooks. I have some of the same problems with “real” sketchbooks as Trent mentions in that video:

• I worry about ruining a too-nice sketchbook with bad drawings.
• I tend not to finish sketchbooks due to distraction, or losing track of them, or wanting a new book, or whatever.
• I shy away from using them for the rough planning, note-taking, list-making, and other nitty-gritty parts of the art process for fear of sullying the beautiful art book aesthetic.

So I end up with all these dumb, constipated, half-finished, store-bought sketchbooks. And worse, it’s a deterrent to drawing. Making sketchbooks out of trash solves this.

All I’m doing here is cutting some scratch paper (in this case separator papers that were inserted into a job by a copy shop) down to 5″ x 7″, slapping them between any nearby packaging cardboard cut down to the same size, and putting two staples in the spine. I cut off the page corners for some crude rounding. That’s it.

I have no anxiety about cutting loose on these trash sketchbooks with dashed-off, ill-conceived, messy drawing, which, for me, is my favorite drawing. I also have no problem using them to jot down a shopping list of art supplies or keep score in a Magic: the Gathering game. I can jam them into any pocket and abuse them as I see fit. They were TRASH.

Some artists fill their sketchbooks with page after page of beautiful drawing and it’s inspiring to see. But for me, a sketchbook functions best as a place to barf out unformed ideas. I’m down here in the dumpster, and loving it.

They come in bunches, I guess, huh? The above is a detail from my first comic for the excellent bike site The Radavist, a site I’ve been reading and vibing with for a long time, so of course I’m excited to be a contributor. Read the entire comic now!

And then I also have 3 pages in issue 15 of the crucial bike culture magazine Calling In Sick! This issue is jam-packed with beautiful words and pictures. I recommend you grab it.

Another comic for you about riding bikes and the contradictions of dystopian living.

And a fitting safety sign for our modern American workplaces.

Meanwhile, to relax in these times, I’m preparing to play Gaslands, a game of post-apocalyptic vehicular combat, which means kitbashing and painting Hot Wheels.

Finding comfort in making my own little, ugly things.

I’ve been looking at a lot of over-the-top, grimdark fantasy art lately. Also, I’ve been happy riding bikes this summer. Not a lot more to say about this one! Though I could see exploring further as a comic in the future. Add it to the list.

My last post was hyping up then pending Cape & Cowl Con and I’m pleased to report that the hype was entirely warranted. Everyone there seemed to have a great time including me and Rina at our table.

The venue, crowds, and beverages were all spectacular. And if you find yourself in downtown Oakland, CA get yourself over to Cape & Cowl.

I did NOT sell out of the heaps of original art I brought to the show, so remaining new work has been added to my shop for cheap.

It was one of those shows that has me crackling with creative energy in its wake. Seeing so many people in attendance hungry for weird art made by humans was just what I needed.

Misc tidings:

As previously mentioned, my main project this summer was cranking out card game designs in a self-imposed residency and I’m pleased to report that this has gone well. Nothing to show publicly yet but I have several prototypes being playtested in the shadows.

In a general enthusiasm for tabletop gaming I fell down a rabbit hole of miniatures games, remembering how I enjoyed painting D&D miniatures when I was a kid. Things have uh come a long way since those ancient times of lead minis and gloppy paint. I’ve been having fun painting new toys and even doing some light modifications, as with this Warhammer goblin whose sword I replaced with ice cream:

I completed another bicycling comic to appear in a future issue of Calling In Sick magazine, though I expect it will be a while before that comes out. Stay tuned.

And I leave you with a one-panel gag:

Hi, if you’re in the Bay Area this coming weekend I strongly suggest you get over to Alameda for Cape & Cowl Con! I went last year and it was a complete blast, with this year promising to dwarf that. I will be tabling at the show alongside the inimitable Rina Ayuyang!

Did you see that part about Free Entry? Wow! I’ll have a tasteful assortment of recent publications and original art for sale. Like, perhaps these new monsters hot off the drawing board:

See you there!

Here are some ink and watercolor drawings from this week, done in the evenings after dinner while watching the Tour de France. I did these as a batch which made me feel smart, because I usually don’t and get annoyed by the stop/start rhythm of waiting for a piece to dry. Working on these four, one was usually dry enough to proceed whenever I finished another.

It’s been a weird, fluid time for my work. In an effort to juke my cycle of disillusionment with comics/burning passion for comics I decided to spend the summer designing card games. I like games and I like the idea of making something that might bring people together across a table. It’s tough though! Nothing to show yet, but an engrossing challenge at least.

Here are a couple water-colored ink drawings I finished recently. These are much larger than I usually work, I don’t have them right here to measure but, I dunno, the size of a pizza box?

I also made this one-of-a-kind hat/coat rack thing on an old Ishod Wair pro model skateboard deck.

I used to do a lot more woodworking, and when I did it was usually upcycling scraps and scavenged junk. Nowadays it’s more when the mood strikes me, or like when I notice that my hats are all over the floor.

Continuing to do some new editions of recent photocopied minicomics that almost no one saw the first time around. Here’s HOW IT’S DONE: my caustic deliberation on the daily creative routine. Mostly wordless, a quick comic that I guess I’m a bit proud of? New color cover. It’s available now at my Etsy shop.