Jason Learns How To Draw

David Mack at the Salt Lake Main Library

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:13:03 GMT

Last Saturday (a week ago), painter and comics creator David Mack visited the city's main library.

Mack was in town to talk about his recently-released book collecting the comic series Kabuki: Alchemy--of which he'd loaned a large collection of original art to the library's upstairs gallery for an exhibit for the past month (sorry, locals: the exhibit ended yesterday)--and to do a signing at the Library Square Night Flight comics.

He spoke enthusiastically for almost an hour about his creative process, about the perils of doing collage work, and on what led him to become an artist. I sat in the wings of the auditorium, with fellow Draw-Night-er Geoff, and took notes in a sketchbook.
(...notes inspired, admittedly, by Dave Gray's fun style of sketching speaker notes.)

Before the end of the hour, Mimi stepped up to the podium to encourage Mr. Mack to draw a few things for the crowd, and he whipped out some amazing, quick sketches with a brushpen.

As noted above, he used a Pentel Pocket Brush in the style of a Japanese calligraphy brush, dipping it in a small inkpot, and holding it straight up and down, orthogonal to the page, moving his whole arm in fluid movements. It was captivating to watch faces take form from the large swaths and splotches of black that he laid down on the paper.

I had work to catch up on, so I didn't stick around for the gallery tour or the signing later, but I'm glad I went. Mack's presentation was far more about wholistic storytelling process rather than just the exploration of painting+art+collage process that I was expecting, which was insightful and refreshing.

Edited to add: Looks like there's rather-exhaustive photobloggery of the talk and gallery tour over at
http://suedevasion.blogspot.com/2009/12/david-mack-at-slc-library-dec-5-2009.html
...including YouTube videos of the drawing demonstrations.

Bookbinding (and illustrating)

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:29:46 GMT

Last year, for my brother's birthday, I conspired with mineral_town to illustrate, typeset, and bookbind Nato's NaNoWriMo novel His Majesty, The Accident.

We worked on the illustrations for over two months: reading through a more recent draft of the book that we'd convinced him to send; researching old John R. Neill -illustrated Oz books in the city library for that grand Art Nouveau style; choosing the images from the text that would be most fun to draw; collating them all into a big Google Spreadsheet; realizing that we only had time to illustrate a tiny fraction of what we wanted to; then collaborating long-distance in the evening to make chapter headers (and a few splash pages).

Getting the book typeset, printed, and bound, was a bit of an adventure. After a wayward attempt to teach myself LaTeX/ConTeXt in a weekend, I typeset the book in Apple's Pages word processing software (which wasn't half-bad, and was a little friendlier in typography respects than Word). The typeface we used was Andrew Leman's fantastic Shipley Rough font, which was based on a 1920s pamphlet for the SCIENCE LEAGUE OF AMERICA. Shipley, you had me at Science League.
(If it isn't horribly obvious, I eyeballed all of the typesetting; now, having read a half-dozen typography books in the intervening months, I can see I made lots of terrible type-n00b mistakes in the leading, tracking, and general justifying.)

One of the nice things about living in Utah is that quality paper is easy to find. Because of the popularity of scrapbooking here, I was able to hit up an xpedx during a workday and get a ream of "Classic Natural White" linen paper with a good, toothy texture.

Then the plan was to get it printed up at ~~Kinkos~~ FedEx Office. Doing this is actually VERY convenient; you can bring a PDF on a thumb-drive, hand them the paper, and they'll print it while you wait. Even fold it (...which is a significant time-saver), for a minimal fee. I'm sure the typical indie-comic creator is well-aware of the awesome machinery available in a copy shop; I'm still agog at it all.

There's one more complication, though, before printing.
If you'll notice, most hardback books are put together with the pages grouped together in what are called signatures.

If you're printing four pages of a book on a single sheet of paper (two on front; two on back; folded in the middle), then grouping sets of 2-4 sheets together to make signatures, ...you have to do a little bit of math to figure out which pages need to print where. Both Pages and Word output PDFs in standard page order, too, so you need to shuffle the pages. This page shuffling and layout is called "imposition."

Thankfully, there's software that does this for you. If you're using a Mac, I highly recommend Cheap Impostor, which does all of this math and page-shuffling for you, and makes the job MUCH easier ...easier than it should be, frankly.
(If you're using Windows, a quick internet search turns up this list of imposition software that may fit the bill.)

So now comes bookbinding. Bookbinding! I had bound a book once before, so I had some bookbinding glue on hand, had bought some (canvas) duck cloth at a fabric store, owned a giant piece of chipboard (for the cover), and knew ...vaguely what I was getting into. I had a mad idea to take advantage of the Utah Book Arts program, which I'd just heard about only days before; they were extremely friendly, but it was far too late-notice to even see their facilities.*

Instead, I followed the detailed instructions from Indiana University on making a case-bound book. And unlike the previous bookbinding experience (which was much more, um, adventurous, and involved learning to use a sewing machine), I decided to stick to the instructions, this time.

(Note: It definitely helps to punch holes in the signatures with a fat needle before you do the actual stitching.)

I'll gloss over the remaining details (Step 1: Start bookbinding. Step 2: ???????? Step 3: BOOOOK!), because the Indiana tutorial linked above has more than enough, and the rest was just stitching, slicing, gluing, and gluing some more.

All in all, it was a lot of fun! I recommend bookbinding whole-heartedly if you've never given it a try. And I'm certainly biased, but I think the illustrations came out crackerjack.

(The above impressive illo of the space pirates' ransom, stowaway, and "quantum coral drive" by mineral_town.)

...and more in the slideshow below.

* I actually got to meet the lively Utah Book Arts crew finally (along with shiga!!) months later, thanks to jimmytrout, but that's a story for some other time.

NaNoDrawMo

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:35:41 GMT

This November, I foolishly volunteered to participate in NaNoDrawMo.

NaNoDrawMo was an unfortunately-named variation on NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month) that was kicked off by Steven Frank, one of the super-talented gents at (awesome-Mac-software-foundry and official Katamari t-shirt haus) Panic. (Incidentally, their company blog launched recently, and it is quite possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen produced using WordPress. But that's getting waaaay off-topic.)

The general idea was to draw 50 pictures* in 30 days (during the month of November), all having a similar theme or telling a single story.
* ...because NaNoWriMo shoots for an end-goal of 50,000 words; a picture is worth 1,000 words; ergo, 50 pictures.

Ironically, while I was drawing every day for work (user interfaces!) I wasn't drawing the things I'd planned to draw (cars!), and with work piling up, side projects fell by the wayside.
Here's what I did get done:

November 1.

November 2.

November 10. (11/10/9!)

~~November 30.~~ December 1.

So in the end, I took the Sandler Variation. (Which, now that I'm coining it, is akin to the Gaiman Variation in 24-hour comics.)

Maybe next year. Wait, better--maybe I'll make more time to draw before next November rolls around.
As the drawings above show (and Danny Gregory exhorts), it doesn't take very much time to fit drawing into your day, and I'd eventually like to learn how to draw cars. (Better.) Two problem areas that I identified that I need to work on: tires (tricky!) and undercarriages (never tried).

(I should definitely note: my brother is a three-time victor of NaNoWriMo. Go, Nato!! I haven't read this year's Raymond-Chandler-esque opus yet....)

Running Hacks

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:14:15 GMT

Although this is mostly a sketchjournal, there's a rarely printed subtitle of Jason Learns How To Draw (and other adventurey things). This is one such adventure: running in cold cold cold weather.

The first trick to running in winter is to dress warmly, but not so warmly that you'll be suffocated by clothes, sweating so much that your wet garments draw in the chill. Layers are key.

You don't need fancy running togs, but if you're planning to do a lot of winter running, I highly recommend getting a three-piece outfit including a long sleeve top, spandex leggings, and a vest. (Trust me, the vest makes a big difference when it gets below freezing.)

First layer:
Shirt, running shorts, socks. I recommend shorts and socks with cool-max. (Eddie Bauer makes some great, thick socks.)

Second layer:
Long-sleeve overshirt, leggings, mittens, knit cap.

TOTALLY USEFUL HACK #1: Use old cotton socks as mittens.

This was a tip I got recently from one of my ol' high-school teachers. I was skeptical, but it works! A sock keeps your hands warmer than the cotton gloves that have fingers, but breathes enough so that your hands don't get too sweaty.

Third layer:
Vest, MP3-player loaded with podcasts, ...and (of course) shoes, not pictured.

TOTALLY USEFUL HACK #2: Stop your headphones from squeaking under your knit cap.

My earbuds tend to rub against the inside of the knit cap (since it's over my ears), causing a constant squeak squeak squeak as I stride.

Easy solution: put duct-tape on the earbuds.

No more squeaking.

Brrrrrrrrrrr. Hoppin' from foot-to-foot here.
It got down to 9° F today. Stay warm, people.

What are your tricks for winter running?

Word balloons.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:36:57 GMT

More later, but 12 pages in 24 hours at the 24-hour-comic house party with Derek, Rachel, Alan, Geoff, Elias, and Ryan.

Next time, whenever that may be: draw something funny instead.

The old slcomix crowd will probably recognize this as me fiiiiiiinally giving “The Page” siblings. This probably isn't a <airquote>true 24-hour comic</airquote> since it's an idea that I've had, thumbnailed, and thought about for the past ...two years almost. I thumbnailed about four pages beyond the above, but stopped at around the 23 hour mark and made waffles.

The Page:

It was originally a non-silent, slightly-more-detailed comic, set in a bar, not an art gallery.

Another doodle thinking about the topic:

At the very least, I can say that I've learned the term "meet-cute" from all of this.

Derek & Rachel, thanks for hosting. Alan, "Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix)" is over here.

Figure drawing at the U!

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:38:44 GMT

Went to a figure drawing session at the University on Saturday morning with jimmytrout, and saw a bunch of the other Draw Night folks there, too (Geoff, Ryan, and pirate_club).

We only got two quick 3-minute poses for gesture-drawing before the lonnnng 3-hour pose.

The full set of sketches:

The model had a long neck, and so you can see me doing some measurements on shoulders-to-head-height. The drawing below the waist on the left is a little disproportionate (thighs don't ook quite right).

Details:

(Drawings behind the cut, due to nudity.)

...which brings up a question of netiquette for the artists who are more livejournal-savvy: when posting sketches from nude figure drawing, do you mark it as "adult content"? I don't think I've ever seen someone do so, but I've always been logged in so it's probably never brought it up. Is labeling these tremendously sketchy scribbles "adult" overkill?

January.

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 06:49:36 GMT

A sketch to kick off 2009:

(From an image found on dryponder's blog after the election.)

I like this one.

Happy 2009*, folks. May this be a great year for you, wherever you are.

*I'm late even for the Chinese New Year.

INEXACT SCIENCE #1: Human Attraction.

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:38:14 GMT

A very very long time ago, I agreed to draw 20 comics about science. Then life got mildly extremely busy.

Here is the first one.

My first run through with Manga Studio and a Cintiq. It takes some getting used to.

I also hope that the future comics won't be all over the place like this one was.

Further reading (and sources) can be found here.

The Greatest Meme.

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:35:02 GMT

Bold talk, calling it "the greatest meme," but who can argue with this for all the benevolent educational awesomeness it'll produce?

beatonna just finished drawing 20 comics about historical figures, and now the gauntlet has been thrown, and a whole slew of people are jumping on board to do the same, but for different subjects, from literature to sports to comics, and more. Against my better judgment: Count me in!

I'll take the first twenty comments about scientific principles and draw comics about them. Lasers! Botfly gestation! Hawking radiation! Quantum mechanics! Bring it ON.

(Science. Who can resist SCIENCE?)

EDIT:
The list is complete! Thank you all. Stay tuned for...
1. Human Attraction
2. The Fundamental Theorem of Combinatorial Enumeration
3. Cold Fusion
4. Delta-32 Mutation
5. Quantum Double-Slit Experiment
6. Evolution
7. Ant Pheremones
8. Fitt's Law
9. Stem Cell Research
10. Strong vs. Weak Nuclear Bonds
11. The Periodic Table of the Elements
12. Bernoulli's Principle
13. The Coriolis Effect
14. Prisms
15. Phylogenetic Systematics
16. Exothermic Chemical Reactions
17. Background Radiation of the Universe
18. Prions
19. Something To Do With Parasites
20. Echolocation

#5: Not a superpower.

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 16:48:57 GMT

(See the larger image...)

...and that's five! This was fun.

You probably already knew this fact, though.

(Reminder: Comment in the original post if you want a holiday gift of five questions yourself.)

#4: Plotting something!

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:19:41 GMT

(See the larger image...)

What would a plot of your fears look like?

#3: A misspelled crown. (Not Korean Won.)

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:48:51 GMT

Next answer is up at the old post.

(Click to see the larger version...)

#2: Antarctica

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:24:33 GMT

Question #2 is answered, over on the other thread.

(See it at a readable size...)

Meeeeeeme? Meme. (FIVE QUESTIONS.)

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:16:34 GMT

No fancy exposition here, because it's late. Waaaaay back in early August(!), I volunteered to be asked five questions by shumashi in some LJ meme, with the intent of answering in comics form. This month, I picked up a homebrew cartridge and a truly amazing little drawing program for the Nintendo DS after reading about it on a blog somewhere. The nice thing is that there's an associated Java app (by Ben Jaques) that can re-render your paint strokes at larger resolutions, or let you playback the paintings in faster than real-time.

So, after much dalliance (I've been rather busy), I've started to draw the answers on the DS. It's a bit of a challenge, what with the newness of playing with color...with no layers and no undo...but I figure it's a fun experiment to learn the ropes and doodle in free time.

I'll put all of the answers in this post, with a new notice as each is finished, so if you check back, they'll all be in one place.

1. What's the best meal you've ever eaten?
I really hope this didn't come across as picking a fight with vegetarians.

(That's resized by 1.5. The original, just to give you an idea of what it looks like on the DS screen; blown up twice the size; and here's the .drw file, if you want to see it play back.)

Stoneground is a restaurant with an amazingly tasty menu.

What I don't mention is that all of my meals earlier in the week were pretty much meat-free, so I guess I was craving some iron and proteins.

I'm actually really surprised at the detail you can get from a DS. It's no Cintiq, but it's not shabby at all.

2. You move to Antarctica. What is a typical day for you like?

(And as before, the .drw file, ~156KB, if you want it.)

I guess I have a thing for Antarctica. A few good resources, if you have a crush on the last unspoiled continent as well:
Lonely Planet: Antarctica by Jeff Rubin (amazingly comprehensive!).
How to Survive in Antarctica by Lucy Jane Bledsoe (a FANTASTIC book).
ANTARCTICA: The Last Continent by Kim Heacox.
An Alien In Antarctica by Charles Swithinbank.
The obscure and wonderful Antarctica FAQ by sandwichgirl.

Anyone have any other resources (books, sites, etc.) to recommend?

3. You are proclaimed King of the Universe. What does your crown look like?

(Once again, the .drw file, ~258KB. This one might be kind of fun to watch, because there were several missteps and backtracks as I figured out what to do on the fly.)

4. Describe a time when you were genuinely and deeply afraid.

(Aaaand here's the .drw file, ~228KB.)

Who doesn't like charts, I ask you?

In my excitement to plot data, I almost didn't answer this non-question, but yes, almost falling out of a plane is far more frightening than the actual act of falling out of the plane, surprisingly. And the fear actually increases the second, third, fourth, and fifth times, because now you know what's coming. I'd expect that eventually the level would dip back down, but I don't have enough data.

Speaking of plots, a Poincaré section is a plot of velocity as a function of position, with a series of velocity-position dots plotted over time. It's used to map pendulum motion, and can help you determine if the motion is periodic or chaotic. (It's been a long time since physics, so please correct me if I'm wrong.) It's named after physicist Henri Poincaré, polymath and all-around awesome dude.

What would a plot of your fears look like?

5. What's something about you I ought to know, but probably don't?

(Complimentary .drw file, only ~436KB.)

DID YOU KNOW? Drawn in an airport and on a 2 hour flight!
(A heartfelt happy holidays, O few people who are actually reading this.*)

"Mimsy," whose nick I'm likely misspelling, is one of the CAs with seniority. I sadly will not be able to go this year, because things at my job are (a) not game-related, and (b) getting verrrry busy right around that time. BUT! If you remotely think making games is interesting, I highly recommend applying to be a conference associate volunteer. It's a wicked splendid deal, and a tremendously fun week in the Bay Area.

[* zeldacomic and shumashi: I will get back to you soon on your fives, no worries.]

Same rules apply. Want to play the game? Ask in the comments if you'd like me to come up with five questions for you, and I'll oblige.

(Mini)Sketchcrawl, 11/4!

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:40:46 GMT

As Jeff said, he, Robert, Nathan, and I did a short sketchcrawl yesterday afternoon around the Liberty Park area. It was a good time, especially towards the end.

(Excuse the bad image quality; these are digital photos rather than scans. Yes, I know.)

Gilgal Park is a small backyard sculpture garden that's now maintained by the city, nestled in the shadow of a Wonder Bread factory (with a pervasive smell that oscillates between fresh-baked white bread and burnt popcorn), and it's utterly bizarre. I took photos, but unfortunately, they're stuck on my other computer a few states away for the moment, but I will post photographic evidence. Because: brick pants. Seriously. The photos on the Gilgal website linked above will give you an idea.

I never would have guessed that such a place was within walking distance of Liberty Park. Wow.

Thanks again to jimmytrout for organizing this!

24-hour comic "A Fish Called W-." over on slcomix...

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:23:18 GMT

Hello, happy people!

Last week's 24-hour insaaaaaaanity is now posted at slcomix.

(Feel free to comment either here or there, if you're so inclined.)

24 HOURS WITH FOURTEEN ARTISTS. Insanity. Hilarity ensues?

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 06:16:12 GMT

This Saturday (and Sunday), starting at 10am MST, I'm doing a 24-hour-comics day, against my better judgment, at Night Flight Comics with the likes of jatg and jimmytrout, others from slcomix, and possibly some "professional" comickers, too. I don't know if I'll have internet down there, but feel free to post random ideas here, and I'll refer to the comments here (if I can) when the creativity well is running dry in the long, dark teatime of 2:30am.

Wish me luck. Or just cluck your tongue at me. It's all good.

(SCA != LARP) ...or so I'm guessing.

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:11:47 GMT

jimmytrout is fascinated by the SCA, so he proposed a sketch night at Sugarhouse Park to draw the local knights and fencers.

That looks nothing like jimmytrout, but he was moving his head faster than the fencing swords behind him.

Then, yesterday, I was riding past Liberty Park, and there was a gaggle of LARPers making funny voices and hitting each other with boffers. The difference between the two groups? The local SCA seems to take their re-enacting far more seriously—they had actual suits of actual armor. The LARP participants had actual suits of actual cardboard. (Take your pick on which is more endearing.)

I'm not dead yet.

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:59:11 GMT

Here's the first of a couple artdumps.

It's a bit of a crosspost with slcomix but these (sometimes friends-only) artdumps will have more commentary.

jimmytrout challenged me at one of the SLC RoCo meetups to draw 10 minutes every day for a week. He kept it up a whole lot better than I did, but here are the results:

: The Stoneground is this excellent Italian/wood-fired pizza joint that's across the street from the library, and one of the few restaurants in town that's open late.
: Sketch from one of three photos that Jeff sent out. I sketched too slowly and didn't get the other two folks in the photo, which is a shame. Original photo:

I also tried to make the words in the background silhouette the barn that's in the photo, but that didn't really work because I obviously had to explain it!
: David Elsewhere is that guy you've seen in the infamous Kollaboration video, where he pretends to be the know-nothin' outsider dweeb at an Asian break-dancing talent show and then stuns the crowd...

...and he helps remix life in the VW Golf GTI commercial, and in the Heineken commercial (they digitally composite other people's faces on his body in both). Original source image here.

: Another one of the photos sent out by Jeff. I drew too slowly to get the spindles and looms in the background. Original reference:
: Cats! Original photo reference here:
: The top of my stairs is always messy. And, yep, that book is The Creative License.

: From a random photo passed via IM from mineraltown. D'oh: I am obviously lysdexic and meant to write that I didn't hit my stride until the lower LEFT corner. Which shows. I think too much in the early crosshatchings.

~~(Stef, do you have the original reference image?)~~
[Thanks!] Original reference photo:
: This was a bit of an intriguing curiosity: a big abandoned building that looked like an old church, but that had the word "GRUMACO" painted in an early 1900s font on the glass over the big front double-doors. Googling for grumaco slc, I stumbled upon a Flickr thread from just a month earlier, that details the interesting history of the building:

Turns out that there's a Utah historical Flickr pool, frequented by historians both amateur and professional, and it's a great place to learn more about the city (and the state). I really hope they don't tear this building down, like some of the comments imply they might.

I saved a higher-res version of this sketch in the hopes of attempting to color it sometime.
: Sketched a family eating dinner at the local fresh-mex place called Cafe Rio. I eat at Cafe Rio far too often.

This was a very rushed sketch. (Are the sunglasses on the mother's head legible?)
: These two sketches were done at the RoCo. See Jeff's version of the same, from the other side of the table.
: I was waiting on my front stoop to tag along with a different Jeff* on an art supply run and sketched this tree and hydrant.

The Host, I must add, is a very enjoyable monster movie, described quite accurately by this Jeff as a cross between The Royal Tenenbaums and Godzilla.

(* There seem to be an awful lot of Jeffs in this town.)

Next up, after a short break: last week's hourly comic. (Probably friends-only.)

Embarassing Nerd Cred. In Latin.

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:56:08 GMT

I was cleaning out my storage room today, and found the following pages of my second-year Latin notebook, thought long-lost. Was I really such a dweeb at age 14?

YES.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. In Latin.
All drawn sometime in my freshman or sophomore years of high school.

This last one was used on a final exam for extra credit. (Ugh. Nerd-meter maxed out.)

...said of the photo "very russian constructivist in its composition."

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:24:17 GMT

Ian suggested the photo du jour (after he thankfully rescinded this one).

Drawn over about a half-hour while listening to his interview on NPR. I made the mistake of trying to add the yellow with a watercolor pen, forgetting that the ink in my Tombows is far more water-soluble than the trusty ol' Pentel Pocket Brush.

Scanned while chattin' with K, who provided the title.

No! Sleep! 'Til Brooklyzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:51:04 GMT

A sketch from last week, actually seen around Spooner Lake in Nevada:

It looked JUST like this. Honest!

A sketch from last night, which has pretty good hair and very bad eyes and may look familiar:

(I hope tomorrow night is a relatively early night.)

Blub-blub?

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 05:02:09 GMT

Original reference photo, from parts unknown:

See how it got squishified? The gill is warped and the whole front of the fish is snubbed to the aft. Weird.

JUNE de Vivre!* After the MAYlaise.

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:21:43 GMT

Ze Frank says to make something every day; I'm in a pact with Stef and Mario and Paul to draw daily for May.

Wait...May? That didn't work out so well, due to being sick

(too sick to correctly spell dizziness!) and craziness at work.

And moose-dragons. Let us not forget Moose-Dragons!

They leave a lot of destruction in their wake, let me tell you.
(The prose below was taken as dictation...I can't claim credit for it, and I missed the early parts of it.)

So now: June!

The original image:

And that's about it for now.

* Thanks rstevens.

Disappearing hands hold invisible coffee

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 05:23:32 GMT

Before ceding the day, a quick ten minute sketch (abridged comics workout) from this image.

And the original image...

Hopefully this weekend is productive and artistic! Happy Friday the 13th. Whoo.