Go Team, Go!

I've been meaning to post this illustration for some time.  I was asked by a friend from my mission to help him and a friend of his with a new venture they're taking.  They made a website called seatkarma.com, which helps pull all online ticket buying information into once place to make it easier in buying cheaper tickets for you favorite shows and events.  It's a pretty novel idea and I wish them the best of luck.  Anyways, they wanted some illustrations for the website and had me create this little guy.  The style and such was by their request.  It was something totally new for me to create something solely in Adobe Illustrator, but it was fun and a great learning experience.  Plus, it's "March Madness" so anyone who follows that can appreciate a half naked man eating snacks and cheering for his favorite team.

"Eyes Up Here."

Okay, this comic is based on a true experience that happened to me not long ago.  A friend and I went to a late night show at a nearby theater, and as we were purchasing our tickets the girl at the register kept staring at my shirt rather distractingly.  Finally she exclaimed something similar to the girl in the comic and had her friend come over to look at my shirt too.  I felt like I was a walking billboard, and didn't know whether to hold still and let them keep looking or to move along and break the awkward moment that was developing between us.  It was rather amusing though, because usually my friends are the only ones to comment on my weird shirts.

Mistaken Identity

Nothing fancy to write today.  The comic here is partially based on a true experience.  I have a friend who claims to have had the same confusion as Brad in the comic does.  It's hard to tell when he is joking or telling the truth about his ideas, but either way it makes for a great comic.  I hear back in the day, people had the same confusion with Hayley Mills, who played in the original "The Parent Trap."

Unanswered Text Reminder

Ever wonder why your supposedly best friend didn't respond to your text when you know they were doing nothing but sitting at home alone? Or perhaps you wish you could do something more to remind them of a received text than just a lame ring and a weak vibration from their phone? Well here is one idea I think would be ideal to "politely" remind your friends they still have an unanswered text that needs immediate attention.

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!