Three Daily Strips

Here's three daily strips that I drew over the past month. The first came from an idea I had while thinking about my trip to Jamaica last November; the bananas were very delicious. The second came from my general humbug nature while commuting to work. The third came from my utter distaste for how everything needs labels and instructions.

Comic a Day!

Since December 31st 2010, I have been creating a short comic each day. I don't post many of them as they range in quality, but I have been finding the act of creating a mini comic everyday very instructive. The comics are usually three panels and feature something that happened to me or that I heard earlier that day.

A few weeks into this self-challenge (of sorts) I heard about the 365 art challenge where people commit to drawing at least one picture a day. I suppose what I am doing raises the anti a bit. I spend between 15 minutes and 2 hours a day working on a single strip. Over the weekends when I have more time I scan my comics and post one or two. I make notes throughout the week of various ideas I have for more strips as I don't always have an idea for one each time I sit down to draw. I also make these notes so that I can add the dialogue after I scan them. My hand writing can be hit and miss, so I prefer to digitally add the dialogue (plus I like the look of word bubbles created in a digital format). For this I use the free Comic Life program that came with my MAC. Unfortunately, my scanner is small and does not always produce high-quality images. Because of this not all the comics look that great (see the Death of a Tube of Toothpaste as an example). If you are reading this and know of a good art scanner, please let me know!

Hopefully as the year progresses the comics will become better and better. I have already learned a lot over the past month and I imagine that this will continue. Also, feedback is always appreciated so let me know how I am doing!

Refit Analysis

Obviously this comic strip was influenced by my knowledge of archaeology. Recently, I explained to a coworker what refit analysis was and thought of how similar it is to comics. I like the idea of explaining complex ideas in different ways. I think archaeology has a lot to gain by pursuing different ways of disseminating its ideas if not to just encourage interest of people not generally familiar with what archaeology is besides its representation in popular movies.

Death of a Tube of Toothpaste

 

Since December 31st (2010), I have been drawing a short comic strip everyday. So far so good! Most of these are inked, although I thought I would leave this one penciled. My one regret is that I decided to use the paper from a drawing pad I had and not use a slicker pad of marker paper for these. The result is that most of the inks bleed too much. This is really pronounced as each panel in the comic strips is at most 8 squared centimeters big (or small!).

The idea for the daily strip was not inspired by any of the 365 movements out there on the web; funnily enough I didn't even know about those until after I a few weeks of doing these cartoons! Instead, the idea comes from me trying to encourage myself to draw more. I find that through doing a daily strip (this sound dirty...), I focus more on my surroundings to look for inspiration. It also forces me to hone the craft of sequential art. Hopefully by year's end I'll have a nice size volume of sequential art and have noticeably improved my ability to tell a story through art! Wish me luck!


I don't know if I want to upload all of them as it's a lot of work and really don't know how good they are. So let me know if you would like to see more.

Did You Know I Sell Stuff Too?

I try to sell my art (with variable success). 

Recently I have posted on E-Bay: (http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220722741916&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT)

and Kiji:

(http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-art-collectibles-Custom-Art-Cards-Original-Drawings-of-Your-Choice-W0QQAdIdZ252921437)

At these two websites I have posted personalized art cards. There, you can purchase a card and tell me what you want illustrated on it. I don't know how successful this will be, but let me know what you think.

Jamaican Pattiman!

Tried something different here. As I mentioned in the previous post, I picked up some new pens yesterday. So when inking this comic I decided to ink it on some tracing paper overtop the original drawing (I am never happy with my inking and always feel the original penciling is better). I kinda like this approach as it kept my original pencil version and the inks stood out better on the tracing paper. However, in panel 7 you can see the black shape of Jamaican Pattiman's coat is wrinkled. This is a product of the tracing paper not being able to adequately absorb the ink without warping. Oh well. Hope you enjoy regardless of this!

Oh, and what exactly are Jamaican Patties??? Well, go here for more information: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_patty

Introducing the Band

Bought some new inking pens yesterday and was trying them out. 

As editors note, apologies to anyone mentioned in this comic strip. Particularly me.

Muse to Play Concert in Space

Too Early To Draw

There really is a blizzard hitting Calgary right now.

Something is in the Air

For a good article on the actual story, go here: http://www.suntimes.com/3154252-417/martin-doomsday-believers-faith-group.html

And again, please forgive the crude drawing as this was just a quick sketch and I can't find any good inking pens in my house. A trip to the art store may be in order for this weekend!

Materialism of the Dead

I've been trying to do a short three-panel comic everyday as a New Year Resolution; we'll see how long that lasts! Since I have today off I decided to do a slightly longer comic to play around with an idea I had where I discuss an anthropological /archaeological issue in a graphic medium. I might do more of these as it was pretty gratifying! 

Click on the image to enlarge!

P.S. I only spend an hour or less on these comics, 

so the art is supposed to be cartoony as it was drawn quickly.

Art Card Swatch

This is a swatch of 7 different art cards I made over the course of last year (2009). Some, like the Batman image at the bottom, was rendered in water color and india ink. Others like the astronaut, were rendered with markers. Each card measures 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches.