Christmas Season Approaching

I wish I had something witty to say to accompany this comic post, but alas, I do not.  All I can think of is that Christmas is fast and soon approaching.  I really enjoy the Christmas season, a time to spend with close family and friends and a time to think of others.  Maybe if I get really ambitious I'll think of a clever Holiday comic to post in time for Christmas, but in reality probably not.  Happy Holidays everyone!

  A side not for the comic,  I got tired of my sloppy large hand lettering so I'm experimenting with some new free fonts commonly used in web comics.  Also, for this comic I used a brush for most of all the outside lines and a smaller pen nib for the thinner inside lines.  I think it's a nice combo.

Are You Cut Out for Pumpkin Carving?

Nothing really fancy to show lately in the way of illustration, but I did carve a pumpkin the other day.  I've always wanted to learn how to carve fancy things on pumpkins like faces and other intricate images.  Information on this technique was very lacking.  After much searching on the internet though, I was able to glean enough information to finally try carving my very own face onto a pumpkin.  I used a permanent marker that would bleed in order to transfer the image onto the pumpkin.  I then used an exacto blade to trace the lines where I would cut so that when peeling back the skin it would have clean cut edges.  I also used some cheap wood carving tools to help peel the skin off and carve into the pumpkin.  Once all was more or less equally carved away I put a flash light into the pumpkin to know where to carve more away to create lighter spots.  Most people at this point would carve all the way through to create the lighter spots on the face, but I was too nervous so only carved deeper than the surrounding areas.  I think it turned out pretty good though in the end.  I would suggest  anyone try this technique if you can get a good lighted image.  It took a long time, but was fun and makes for a great conversation piece.

Blue Shirts and Foreign Countries

I won't comment much on this comic.  I think its best left without any explanation on why I did it, partly because I forgot myself why I did it.  So I officially changed the japanese character's name to Toshiro instead of Jo.  I only had Jo because sometimes in school us lazy Americans won't put forth the effort to learn a foreign name like Toshiro.  Instead we would replace their official name with something easier to pronounce like Steve, or Joe or David.  I once had a friend in college who's name was Wey Yung.  When I first met Wey Yung and asked him his name he promptly replied, "my name is Steve."  I could tell right away he was not American and he definitely didn't not look like a Steve.  Come to find out the school decided to call him Steve because they thought Wey Yung (pronounced "way young") was too hard to say.

   On another note I leave for Croatia/Slovenia in a little over a day.  Croatia is where I served my mission many many years ago.  Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures so this trip I will be sure to take several pictures.  It should be a great trip!  I'm looking forward to it with much anticipation!

So...who wants to drive?

We all want to take turns when driving each other to activities, right?  What about that person who is always willing, yet who's car is always unavailable?  Or the person who insists on driving by themselves unable to take extra passengers?  Well this comic is for all you drivers out there who don't take their turns in driving the rest of us!  But in all honesty I don't mind driving.  It's nice to be able to leave an activity when you want.

Another Friendly Illustration

This is the second illustration I did for the Friend magazine (August '08 issue).  I really like this one as well as the ones I did for July's issue.  It sorta ended up looking a little like japanese animation, but regardless, it was still a fun one.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good anime cartoon here and there, but I think most Americans generally find japanese cartoons weird.  Speaking of anime though, I've recently fallen into addiction with the series Naruto.  It's a show with plenty of action, suspense and lots of awesome ninja-ness!  "Believe it!"

My Friend the Friend

Finally I can post about those mysterious illustrations I did not too long ago.  They were for the Friend magazine.  Here is a picture with me holding the magazine and below that are some of the actual illustrations themselves.  Working with the Friend was really great.  They're very professional and the assignment I did for them was a fun one so no complaints here, just praise. I hope sometime in the near future I'll be able to assist them once again.  My friends Mike Laughead and Dani Jones have also had things published in the Friend as well.  You can check out their blogs through the links on the right.  My friend Brandon Dorman has also done stuff for them, but I see more of his stuff in the Ensign.  All accomplished illustrators.  Great work guys!  And thanks to everyone who liked my stuff.

A month of Sundays...

Two months between posts seems like a "month of Sundays has gone by."  My  mission President always liked to say that.  It's a funny saying I suppose.  The comics I do are really just reasons to post new images and talk a little bit about myself and my comings and goings.  I'm still living large in Orem, Utah.  It's an amazing place, I really do enjoy it here!  The ward I'm in is amazing, the people I meet, my friends, are amazing and the work I do, my job, is super amazing!  No complaints yet so far.  Everything is pretty amazing all around.  I've since moved out of my brother's place and found a place of my own.  It's a one bedroom apartment, cozy, simple and yet sufficient for all my needs (except an oven, my oven needs won't be met).  I continue to buy new things here and there for my apartment.  I already got the basics though like a TV and Nintendo Wii.  Other than that, it's hard to think what else my apartment "needs." As for the comic strip, this is an idea I've had in my sketch book for a long time actually.  Since I wasn't getting any better ideas for anything new, I just went with an old idea and I think it turned out alright.  On a side note, the mystery illustrations that I did for some companies down here should be in print at the end of the month, meaning I should have some sweet new posts later on.

The Bad Little Toaster T-Shirt

Hey there people of the world!  My t-shirt design for Threadless.com is finally in the running!  What does this mean?  It means you need to follow the link and vote on my shirt.  I did one awhile back, but unfortunately it didn't win nor did it get printed.  That's okay.  That just means I keep trying out newer ideas and submissions.  I really hope this one at least does better than the last one.  Thanks for all those who helped critique it and for those who will vote!  Help support the t-shirt industry!

On the Horizon

A lot has happened this past month.  I've moved to Utah, found a job and bought an iPhone.  I'm not sure which one is cooler.  The iPhone is pretty kicking.  For all the tech geeks out there that have a hankering to see the newest in cool gadgets just go down to AT&T and check out they're interactive hands on demo versions of the iPhone.  If playing on the demo version isn't enough, then just buy the real deal like I did.  Apparently the iPhone is a status symbol for the wealthy (which I'm not so I've confused quite a few people).  I've also done some pretty cool illustrations in my free time, but since they're not in print yet I can't post them just yet.  So like always I'll just post a comic (which I hope everyone "gets") to fill in the gap between now and the next illustration post.  Peace out (and Happy 50th Anniversary to the peace symbol)!

A Sad Confession

For those of you who don't know me, I love to play video games. For the past year or so I've been playing the highly addictive MMORPG game, World of Warcraft (or WoW for short). I'm not going to promote the game here, just mentioning it to preface the posted comic. Blizzard, the producers of WoW, host monthly comic contests on their website. The comic must be somehow related to WoW. The posted comic here is my entry, that so far has not won. Since they probably won't ever post it I thought I'd at least post it here for my own enjoyment.
P.S. - For those of who don't play the game or know anything about it (which is probably everyone who reads this blog) I apologize for the foreign content.

YSA Comic #6, Phone Number Change

Hello everyone!  I've just posted the latest comic I've been working on.  This comic has nothing to do with my personal experiences whatsoever.  I still have my original phone number way back from when I first got a cell phone.  I've just often wondered why people would change their cell phone numbers.  

My birthday was not too long ago and that was exciting.  I'm 27 now (so old, I know).  I did get a new pair of shoes and a new jacket though, so that was pretty sweet.

Phone Licker!

YSA comic #5 here.  This one was inspired by a good friend of mine who actually licks her phone to clean it (disgusting I know).  But she isn't the only one with this habit.  Apparently there are several people in the world today who use their tongues to clean their phones.  Are you a phone licker?

Vector Crabs

As a continuing project with the crabs, I was asked to make vector versions of some of the crabs to be put on a banner.  So I went to work in Adobe Illustrator and produced these lovely little crabs.  The lines for the crabs are converted ink lines I made using the program Inkscape.  It's a fun program to mess around with.  Check it out!

Crab Fest!

At last, an illustration piece to post!  This is from a project I did for a graphic designer friend of mine.  It's going to go on a postcard inviting people to a Portuguese Crab Fest, hence the crabs. It was done in my normal style of ink and watercolor.  Hadn't done this kind of thing in awhile so it was nice to ink and paint again.  I had fun doing it, hopefully you all enjoy it.

YSA Comic#4

I swear I'm doing other things than just comics, but the turn around time for a comic is so much faster than illustrations and such. I like coloring the comics in Photoshop now because its good practice. I have a few books with tips on how to color comics so doing these YSA comics is a good way for me to try out the skills. I hope someone out there is enjoying these. I'll post my other finished projects soon. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!