The Newest in Paint

My new piece for Whurk: the Virginia Cultural Review went live a few weeks ago.  You can see and read the poem that inspired it here.

I find I've been doing a lot more painting now that I'm not stuck in my office all day, and now that I'm not limited to only what I can fit on the coffee shop tables. I'll paint for a warm-up, I'll do sketches in paint.

Sometimes I sell them, in the form of putting them for sale on my shop, and not actually selling any of them. My shop is here, and even liking the art helps boost its visibility, if you don't want to buy anything. It might help get it in front of someone who does.

Now that it's the second half of the month, deadlines are rolling in fast, and I haven't had as much time to do actual art as I would like, so consumed am I with sketching, most of which is incredibly ugly and not worth the effort of posting. 

The future (UPDATED!)

Maybe I'll do a little more tweaking, but for all intents and purposes, this sucker is finished!

An unfinished piece.  In the future, you'll be able to order a fair trade dark roast French Press from Bolivia and a toke of Mellow Yellow indica kush water bong from Oregon in the same store.

At least, the way American laws are headed.

Dark Ambrosia

Dark Ambrosia, my 2014 24-Hour Comic, is now up for perusal, for FREE, on Tumblr. 

Check it out if you like coffee, or if you like life, or if you don't like either of those things, and are looking for something to hate-read.

Inktober Day 10

So, what exactly is my 24-hour comic about?

Coffee. 

Really, really good coffee.  Just put the finishing touches on this panel today.

Inktober Day 4

Inktober happens to happen at the same time as 24-Hour Comic Day, which means that another page is all I have the time for today.  It's a day late, but you try making 24 pages in 24 hours.

Inktober Day 3

24-Hour Comic Day coincides with Inktober.

How convenient.

Bored in a hoodie

For this one, I decided to tear a page out of Yuko Shimizu's exquisitely detailed style book.  Not so much with the cloth, but she has a way of rendering every hair  on a person's head, or every flower on a tree, or every stitch in a sweater in ways that seem almost patterned, that I applied to the hair and beard on this guy.

Coffee cup

Sometimes I need to remind myself that I can still draw real stuff, without making it wacky.

Good enough.

My social life these days.

Good enough for now, I guess.

The 8 People You Meet In Coffee Shops

Here's the mini-comic I created as a promotional mailer.  This was actually made as four separate pieces, individually colored, and designed as a 360 degree view of the local coffee shop the Mud House, where I actually drew the entire thing.  The baristas are based on real people, and many of patrons are...uh...completely made up and not based on anyone, living or dead.  Except for me.  That's me looking quite sickly and with many more apple products than I actually own at the Work Station.

This version is not the print version, because the way mini-comics are made, half of this has to be printed upside down to fold properly.  Here are instructions on how to make your own.

If you want to make one of my coffee shop comics let me know in the comments and I'll e-mail you a high-res printable PDF, or let me know in person.  I may just have a physical copy on me.

Rosetta Cappuccino

In which I must admit the design in the cup was a digital photograph.  I forgot to make it!  Based off of the coffee shop in which I actually painted most of these calendar pieces.

"Those people"

 You know the kind of people I'm talking about.  The kind that have eyes and wear shirts and walk around and do stuff and drink coffee sometimes.  There's just something about them that just ain't right.

The "Beefy"

 The "New Barista"

 The "Impatient"

 The "Nose"

 The "Goblin"

 The "Tendons"

 The "Shaggy"

 The "Studious"

 The "Ball"

 The "Freckles"

 The "Plain"

The "Marion Cotillard"

Coffee napkin sketches

Names provided when known, names made up when not.

Emily Masterson: Public Health and Economics at UVA

Victoria Petrone: fashion clerk, possible icon

Winston Raimy: Hardware store owner, retired

Samantha Rubestein: waitress, Bijou lunch bar

James Chow: Masters in e-Communications, UVA

Marissa Grenside: middle school student, ice cream aficionado

Sonja Mellany: Teaching assistant, women's studies, UVA

Mike Russoll: Master's in aquaculture, UVA

Enzo Bernalli: bike repairman

Carl Garcia: accountant, mountain biker

Jerry Pillsbury: music store clerk, Side Tracks LPs

Katy Gehred: Student of Jeffersonian history, Rochester

Frederick Caspar: Literary critic, Richmond Daily News

Eileen Wrunoss: nonfiction author

Summer Rolland: poet, English student, Piedmont

Writer's block...

Four hours, with no eraser. Not based off of anyone in particular.

But these are the people who compete with me for comfortable seats in the coffee house.

Baristas

Okay, from the top, some of the current and past latte-slingers at the Mudhouse, Charlottesville. They put up with me, and everybody knows my name.

Anna, JT, Megan, Hunter, Montana (retired), Phil, Eric, Laura, and Selena.

At some point, I'll get to the rest of you, if you ever slow down enough for me to catch you in ink.

The Great Deluge