Sketchbook updated!

Posted a semi-massive update to the sketchbook here. So, check it out!

Last weekend I went to CAKE Chicago, an alternative comics convention. It was very awesome and very inspiring. I’ll make it a goal to have a table next year! Here’s what I bought:

I bought Some People and got it signed by the author himself,  Luke Pearson.

I bought Rupert Poop Boobs Poo because I’m secretly a twelve year old boy/have the humor of an unashamed middle schooler. The other two were practically impulse buys. Got them signed as well. 

These were my first day purchases. As soon as I had Nijigahara Holograph in my hands, I read it nonstop until it was finished. It was surprising to say the least. Right now I’m still reading Journal.  Deep stuff.

The week before Rupert and I went to see a Back To The Future musical called Flux Capacitor: A Very McFly Musical. If you’re a fan of the movie, it’s not a bad way to spend a night. Plus, they gave out pins!

I helped a person find their Ventra card the other day. Tempted to keep it, honestly, but it’s better to pass out goodwill karmically speaking, so I made a neat little flier to hang in the lobby. The universe provides what I usually need as it is… so far as I tell myself, but it’s a nice thought. Things do feel like I’m heading in the right direction though. Time will tell.

I’ve gotten into looking up stuff about Pathfinder, primarily character creation. I don’t have the game or a group to play with, but I made up my own for fun.

Her name is Tallyn. She’s a half-elf, human raised bonded witch. Her amulet is a compass. Tallyn, being born between races, was abandoned by a stream. Luckily she was found and was raised by an older witch who was ostracized into isolation in the forest. After showing promise in magic, she became her apprentice and later set out in a journey to explore the lands beyond the forest in pursuit of knowledge and to enhance her skills… or something like that.

16 – journal doodle

Rupert’s Pathfinder character is a human-born Archer. I thought it would be funny to see how they would react to each other together. So, below is Rayos and Tallyn enjoying their spoils of fishing.

17- journal doodle

Until next update~ See ya!

20 B – journal doodle

Tulip weather

It’s so beautiful outside. I just love it. Jose and I went on an extra long walk today to enjoy the colors and the breeze. We ran into a couple of people who talk more to dogs than to the walkers, but that’s how it usually goes when you’re walking a dog and not a water cooler.

There was a huge rainstorm last night. I had to rush to shut all the windows. I almost slipped a couple of times, but thanks to all the ice we had this past winter, I’m pretty balanced.

The building I live in is so old. The floor creaks, the doorknobs are ancient, and the building breathes in and out so deeply that I feel as if I’m living in the belly of a beast. I went down to the basement to do some laundry late last night. Such a bad idea. It’s way too creepy!! The hallways are too long, and all the doors are weighted, so they shut right behind you. To make things worse, there was an ominous VHS tape next to the rubbish bin. Sweet lord.

The storm last night didn’t help either. When I went out to walk Jose for a quick potty break, it was very quiet. The wind was blowing, lifting pieces of construction debris and urban flora in tiny twisters, hitting my face with little sharp slaps. I was alone except for this one guy who was walking really slowly. He snuck out from behind a car with a small sack and crossed the street. I was ushering Jose to sniff less and make more, and as I was doing that, the odd fellow stopped directly across the street and stared straight at me. I silently jumped out my skin. He just stood there. All these creepy pastas ran through my mind, so after Jose left his mark, I pretended he wasn’t there, rushed back inside, and double checked the lock on the front door. Man, did that guy give me the willies!! The absolute heebie-jeebies! I’m laughing about it now though, ahahaha…

12 – journal doodle

After I wrote my last post, Diane came over to borrow clothes for her Florida trip. I opened up one those Young Artist’s Kits you get as a kid and tested out the markers to see if they were usable. I drew the above with the now dry markers as we talked about her trip plans and how people in Miami dress.

And then she took a nap…

13 – journal doodle

So, I used one of the orange colored pencils in the kit to draw her doing that.

Sketchbook from 2011 – B

I’m still trying to clear up more space here. Every time I open up a box, I find an old collection of sketchbooks. These last two are from a life painting class I took in college.

Sketchbook from 2011 – A

This guy is an awesome person. I had him in a costuming class once where he played jazz guitar the entire time.

There’s still plenty to do.

New digs

Hello all! I skipped many, many updates.

I moved away from the ‘burbs to the big city. I’m opening a new chapter of my life. I would say that it’s a weird feeling living by myself, but it’s not too different since I’ve been away from family for a while already. The decision to leave has been in the back of my mind for a couple of months since I moved to Illinois officially a year ago, but it feels surprisingly abrupt since all this became solid at the spur of the moment, which is much like how I choose to do anything anyways, so… Go with that gut feeling, right? Fourth time’s a charm. Or is it fifth?

I’ve been here for nearly two weeks. Jose, my father’s shih tzu, has been here nearly a week. I’m still digging through boxes. It feels like I have been tossing boxes into the recycle bin for forever, and yet there’s still more to retrieve. Lessons are best learned the hard way, eh? Must learn how to live with less.

My father stopped by today to drop off some of my things. He brought a few prints from my old sketchbooks from 8th grade or 9th grade (I can’t remember) that he blew up when we worked in Florida. I remember being embarrassed when he wanted to make them into poster prints to sell at the galleria. Now I think it’s so sweet to see what inspired me back in the day. Goes to show that my parents will find something, anything to be proud of even when their child was the biggest weaboo on Staten Island.  Ahh, it’s still so embarrassing to look at though.

10 – journal doodle 2014

I drew this probably a few days before I put down my application fees for the apartment. Talk about foreshadowing. I took the train to my first board game meet a couple of days after settling in while wearing the same outfit sans backpack.

11 – journal doodle

There’s a quirky little coffee shop down the street in my neighborhood that I fell in love with. I often go with Diane, sometimes Tito and Tara,  to enjoy a large cup of Mexican hot chocolate and pie of the day a la mode. We’ve been going well before I became their friendly “Hey, what’s for dinner? Let me invite myself over” neighbor. When you go, try, try, try the pie. When you’re at Diane’s, try, try, try the sausage and brussel sprout stir fry.

Well, Diane and I went the other day to blow off some steam. I haven’t drawn anything since the move due to kicking and throwing boxes to and fro from the third floor, so I drew her while we talked shop and pulled oracle cards.  As we were doing so, two older men were performing some sort of gypsy-esque music. A goal of mine, while I’m here, is to have a collection of my drawings displayed on the walls of the shop, to join the rotation of artists that I’ve admired during our visits. I feel like I’m in the right place to do this, and I’m so very in love with my new home. What a perk.

By the way, let’s listen to some music together. Might as well plug the playlist that I carried with me since my pseudo-pilgrimage to Oregon in January:

It snowed yesterday

Can you believe it? It’s April and it snowed!

– This has been your Midwest Weather Report. Thank you. –

Yesterday night the Steven Universe song was stuck in my head. When I mean stuck, I mean wedged so far that even the jaws of life couldn’t get it out. It was like Winnie Pooh stuck in Rabbit’s hole without any friends to help him out. Okay, that was just sad. Assuming he got stuck in Rabbit’s hole, and that he was as antisocial as myself, then I suppose his motives are questionable for even being near Rabbit’s place. You thought I was gonna say hole, didn’t you? DIRTY DIRTY pish posh tsk tsk.

Here it is in its nudity:

 

So, I caved and bought Baby’s In Black and The Fifth Beatle. I couldn’t resist. Amazon and your Prime flirtations and … ugh!

 

If you buy these two together, I recommend reading Baby’s in Black  first for timeline’s sake since it takes place during The Beatles’ earlier days in Germany. It’s very much a love story between Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe which ends around 1961, so if you’re looking for something more than that, cross-referencing with other works is the way to go. If you don’t know anything about him, he was the original bassist, classmate of John Lennon, and a promising young painter and poet. You can see his art here. The art site was quite the find since they talk about his paintings in the comic without explicitly showing his work. It was nice to connect the dots.

Now, The Fifth Beatle takes place after Germany, starting in 1962ish, and focuses on the making of The Beatles into international sensations through the work and passionate dedication of Brian Epstein, manager.  I’m not too sure of the chronological order since it started with Ringo Starr already in the crew. Germany was only mentioned briefly, and there wasn’t any talk of Sutcliffe or Pete Best from what I remember. Then again, this was Epstein’s story. I gotta say, and I have said this before, the artwork is a thing of beauty. The story is too touching to pass up as well. And guess what? It’s being made into a movie directed by Peyton Reed.

I was inspired by both graphic novels, so I did a bit of spring cleaning and found an sketchbook from late last year. The last entry in it was a couple of sketches of hands done with a brush marker that I scribbled while on a break in Starbucks:

Old sketchbook from late 2013

I feel awkward leaving a mess of blank papers in a book that was meant to be filled, so I added a drawing of myself in my favorite spring dress from that year. This one is definitely Baby’s in Black inspired, stylistically speaking mixed with my own touches, of course.

9A – journal doodle 2014

Here it is a bit closer …

9B – journal doodle 2014

Having so many graphic novels surrounding me now (I even picked up a sample of Anya’s Ghost  and Beautiful Darkness is currently sitting pretty in my cart), I’m thinking of writing my own. It’s something I have thought about in the past, say middle school to early college. Maybe it’s something I should be doing? It has always been in the back of my mind, so why not? I have the tools to do so. Question is … what would I write about?

… No idea. I’m fond of memoir type graphic novels, so I suppose there’s that. I’m episodic in nature. I feel more than I think, and I get antsy if I stay in one place too long. I think it’s important to know these things about yourself when writing something so reflective.

According to Anton Chekhov “Everything I learned about human nature I learned from me.” My English teacher from 6th grade once said to “Write as if to describe to an alien.” Eudora Welty remarked, as I’m looking through David Corbett’s The Art of Character, to “Write about what you don’t know about what you know.” I consider myself a writer before anything else, as I write always before I draw, but my writing is all post-it notes, lists, shit poetry, and well, this blog. A good start, if any.

I’m thinking too much about this. I really am. Put on the brakes. GEEZ.

I did pick up Ivan Brunetti’s Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice  last year to help as a syllabus.

Never stop being a student, haaaa.

Ceci n’est pas un chien

So, I have this shih tzu… and he looks like a walking arm rest. He’s not your typical dog; he’s more like a cute and fuzzy lump.

7 – journal doodle 2014

Had to add that tag line at the bottom otherwise it’ll be a cow sausage of some sort. Haha, cow sausage. Ten points to your respective house if you know where the reference is from.

8 – journal doodle 2014

I suppose this one’s more serious. I was inspired by this link here from Laughing Squid. My lord… as soon as I finished watching the trailer for The Fifth Beatle, I had to see how much it was on Amazon. Ya see, like many people, I have this fascination with the band. I wouldn’t say so far as attending Beatle festivals/conventions, though I did walk through a couple, but I find them all so interesting. There’s this whole mythology, and in my opinion, it’s a pretty epic story. Anyways, I took a peek of the inside of the graphic novel, and the illustrations are beautiful. Definitely on the wish list ferrrrr suuuuurrreee.

And Amazon being such a goodie bag of recommendations, another Beatles graphic novel showed up in the “Customers who bought this item also bought” section — Baby’s in Black. This one is more of my style, I think. The drawings are simple and graphic. I absolutely love inking in large areas in black ink. In this graphic novel though, it looks like charcoal was used. Maybe black colored pencil and china marker too. This one is also on my wish list.

My goodness. It’s like I’m torturing myself with pretty things. I’ll just end this post with a song by Beulah.

More Journaling today

Hello everyone.

I did a bit of traveling for a while. Chicago is beautiful city. I love walking around imagining how life would be like if I lived in certain apartments. My imagination is running wild here, especially since the weather has been improving. I mean, it only snowed a little since the end of March. My dream apartment would have vines growing on it. A balcony would be nice too.

4 – journal doodle 2014

I’ve been browsing Anthropologie lately. I feel like all these quirky women shop there. These women probably wear stone jewelry and possibly have dietary restrictions that they would love to share with you. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but these are the women I imagine apparently — Women that earn enough to be as picky as they please. One day I’ll splurge and buy a dress and a few housewares from there. One fine day … whilst shopping in Chelsea Market perhaps.

5 – journal doodle 2014

Does anyone else write in cursive still? When I don’t know what to write in my journal, I repetitively practice the alphabet in cursive. I think of descriptive words and write them down, or I scribble out a few versions of my signature. None of those efforts are shown above, but I was just wondering if you do it too. A few of my favorite words I like to practice with are the names of theaters: Troubadour, Orpheum, Biograph, Riviera, Aragon, Imperial, Marquis, etc. If I remember, I’ll post some up in the next time.

6 – journal doodle 2014

Lately, I’ve been wearing one of my dad’s button up shirts that he left in the room I’m staying in. He doesn’t mind. I like the striped pattern. It’s probably my favorite lounging shirt right now. I should wash it though… it’s beginning to reek.

Saw this at Foursided.

Have you visited Foursided? It’s a wonderful store for those that like the accessories and home decor sections of Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie (amongst other stores). The stationary sets are way too cute. There is a wooden postcard set in particular that I almost bought, but I decided against it last minute. I don’t write and mail people letters and things as often as I did in the past, so… I window shopped and made a mental wish list for the future.

And, if you already guessed the theme of this grable, I’m still saving up. No new sunglasses yet. I know, I know. They’re cheap at such and such.

I broke my sunglasses today

Rest in peace my favorite pair of sunglasses. Thank you for reminding me to look before I jump on the bed.

Not even a year old, and just when I was starting to look like a female version of The Dude. No worries. I’m sure H&M will have a new crop for me to choose from. Viking funeral to follow promptly, dear friend.

Did a little more journaling today. Showcasing here an example of what I wear when I’m not mingling with others. Today it’s all about me, my dog, and the letters in the mailbox.

3 – journal doodle 2014

Wearing red sunglasses from H&M (RIP), peacock blue knit cardigan from Forever 21, hand me down pink scrub circa 1990s, Versailles NY 100% cotton plaid capri pants from mom, and golden mesh Chinese slippers from my sister’s wedding where I threw up in the elevator (amongst other places, such as everywhere).

Does anyone else still wear mesh Chinese slippers? They were really popular when I was growing up. It’s a good question to ask, really. I haven’t seen anyone wear these outside for years…

(I still think they’re cute)

 

Doodles from my journal

Happy Monday, everyone.

This weekend has been quite the thinker. What does that even mean? You tell me, haaaa. So, anyway! Just thought I should drop in and share some doodles from my journal.

My obvious upbringing of afterschool anime shines through so well here.

I decided that I’ll draw the clothes I think are cute instead of impulsively buying them. This way I’ll save money and have a neat list that I can dedicate to the $pend$pend$pend fund.

Le sigh.

Now both my wallet and I are on a diet…  Excuse me as I look at pictures of pizza.

(jk)

Another selfie

Charcoal & Conté Selfie. 2014

Felt inspired to draw something after coming home to The Wes Anderson Collection outside my door. It’s a thing of beauty. I’ve been marathoning his movies since yesterday, and I’m really looking forward to The Grand Budapest Hotel, so to come home to the book full of … pretty things and illustrations and storyboards and…!!! It’s difficult not to feel inspired.

Trailer for Grand Budapest Hotel:

… And here’s an introduction to the characters and actors:

Be excited with me!

Anyways, I found my gouache sets. There’s two boxes of the same brand. I found the second one by a dumpster at my old apartment complex, so I did what any normal person would do and looked through it to make sure it was still usable. In fact, the set was practically new, so that’s fortunate. And, naturally, as one would say after rummaging through communal trash, why would someone throw a perfectly good (and expensive) gouache set out? Hopefully something good will come of it now … a year and hair later.

‘Til next post. Goodnight.

New selfie sketch

Selfie sketch 2014

Hello, reader!

Just dropping in to say hi. There’s still a pulse here! Reorganizing a few things at the moment. Look forward to more posts in the future!

Until then,

Karen