Dr. Sketchy's - April 16, 2011

Went to my first Dr. Sketchy's event ever, right here in Philadelphia. Here are some of the drawings:

above: a couple 5 minute sketches that ran into each other

The theme of the event was 'Art Deco,' and the hostess had a couple challenges for us. One was to incorporate some kind of leashed animal (real or imaginary) into the sketch above. I liked the way the pose turned out, but I kind of ran into a wall with the animal part. Probably for the best.

Libra

The second challenge was to transform the pose into a letter, number, or astrological sign. My two sketches for this were more successful, and Libra, the image above, was my favorite of the day (because everyone knows that Libras are the best!).

F

And above is my attempt at the letter F.

So, there you have it. It was a lot of fun. I plan on going again. And you should go if your own city has them. The end.

Secret Prison #4 and MoCCA this weekend

Secret Prison #4 makes it's debut this weekend at the MoCCA Comic Art Festival in New York, New York. I have a comic in this issue which I'm really happy with, and I can't wait to see the rest of the stellar art from the contributors. In case you can't make it to MoCCA, or are not in the greater Philadelphia area, I've posted the comic (a color version, no less) at the link below.

click on the image, and all will be revealed

The Muon combines a little science (though I won't attest to its accuracy) with a dose of galactic spirituality, which is something that I've been wanting to explore within the universe of Supernova Lullaby. It's an element of the comic that I hope to develop over time.

As for MoCCA, I'll be there, though I won't have a table this time around. I didn't do so hot money-wise last year, which was a bit discouraging, particularly since MoCCA is one of the more expensive shows to get into. So I'll just be a humble attendee this year. I'll bring some books to trade and give to publishers, pass out some postcards, buy some comics, make some friends...who knows, maybe I'll even run into the love of my life. It is New York after all.

Honestly, it'll be nice to not have the pressure and hassle of sales, and to just enjoy comics with like-minded people on a Spring day.

A Painting of Sarai

This post is gonna require some background so bear with me. Late last year, I held a Kickstarter fundraiser for the latest addition to my comic series The Ballad of Toby & Sara. Among the rewards offered were some commissions for original artwork. My friend Lori was lucky enough to pick up one, and she gave me free rein to come up with a painting.

I honestly had no idea what to do. But I did have an image in my head that I had been meaning to make, which also happened to be a character from the series that had not yet appeared. I made a drawing for Lori, and she gave me the green light to make the painting.

So, this is Sarai. If you've read Track 5, you know that the story has a double-sided nature to it, part of it taking place in present-day Omaha, the other part taking place in the ancient city of Nineveh in Mesopotamia. The connective thread between the two eras is the wandering archangel Raphael, who in the present story goes by the name Ray Azzarus. By the end of Track 5, we catch a brief glimpse of a young man named Tobiah who Raphael has been looking for in Nineveh, which coincides with his meeting of Toby Jasinski in Omaha.

This idea of counterparts is one of the key narrative hinges in the series, but it's taken time to establish. And so Sara Reynolds, the young woman that Toby has a crush on in Omaha, will have her own counterpart in the past in the person of Sarai, a young woman who bears similarities to Miss Reynolds, but has her own unique demons to fight (literally).

Confused? Yeah, it's a lot to understand. It's given me a lot of challenges as a writer and creator, and there are a lot of question marks still to fill in, one of these being where and how to introduce Sarai to the main narrative. But I at least wanted to give her a visual persona to inhabit, to at least bring her out into the world and give her some kind of existence in people's minds.

And one last thing: Sarai's dress was inspired by a number of artistic sources, most of them from Persia circa the 16th century C.E. This is a bit inaccurate since the Nineveh story takes place around 700 B.C.E., but the fashion fits with what I was trying to accomplish in the painting. At the very least, it's a place to start for the her design in the comic.