I’ve spend the last few months focusing on writing Awesome and Oops. I’ve got drafts written for the first three story lines, which currently comes out to 22 issues, and specific plans for the next three stories. I’ve been having a blast working on this material and can’t wait to start illustrating!

Last February I started to think about the title logo for the comics/website/etc. Last night I took another stab at it and this is what I came up with:

When I’m taking a break, or before I’m quitting for the night, I like to look over various artists’ work online. What interests me most right now is how folks are balancing crosshatching with solid black areas and then coloring their work in Photoshop. I found this image at Comic Art Community. I was fascinated by the texture and detail that Hughes accomplished here. And these other two images that show how the drawing was colored and then adjusted for the final cover. If you’re not familiar with Adam Hughes’ work, check out his website!

For years I’ve been hearing good things about about the Drink and Draw Event at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn. It’s $15 for non members, $10 if you bring a friend, and always FREE for Members. They provide the model, sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, and all the PBR you can drink. This was my first time going, and found it to be a great opportunity to do some figure drawing.

The event was 2.5 hours, with one major break. Initially the model moved slowly from one pose to another. And then she held poses for increasing periods of time.

Given the diversity of my work, I want to avoid building one website that could eventually become too dense with material. Instead, I’m going to put together some micro-sites to focus on each particular project. And here is the first:

SketchesAndStreams.com offers previews of all the comics collected in the book and links to the Etsy shop where you can buy a copy.

This was the first Mocca Fest to be run by the Society of Illustrators. In preparation for the show, they put together a catalog and tumblr site for the event.

Like previous years, the show was at the 69th Regiment Armory, but right off the bat, things were different. The aisles were much wider and separated big red curtains. On one hand, I missed being able to see across the showroom floor, but it allowed exhibitors to hang signage and art from the curtains, and drew more attention to individual tables as the attendees explored each aisle, looking for specific exhibitors.

Attendance at the event itself was an improvement from last year. My book sales were decent, but I didn’t sell much art this time around, which hurt my overall profit. It’s gotten me thinking about what I can do differently. I may try a color print for the next show, and see if my black and white collages sell better online.

But I must admit to the satisfaction of seeing people take the time to go through all the images in my binder. It’s these moments that make me think that I have an audience. I decided years ago to aspire to make things for others, and not just myself. And when strangers, with no obligation to do so, spend time with my work, it makes be feel like I’m doing something right. My favorite experience this weekend was when a young boy went through all the comics in Sketches and Streams, pointing out his favorite moments to me. It’s got me fired up to get my next comic finished and out there.

I’m continuing to use free food to get people to come over to my table. I’ve previously used brownies, but wanted to find something else that wouldn’t leave folks with oily figures. This time I went with Stella D’oro “S” cookies, which were a bit hit. I remember having these at my Grandparents’ house as a kid, and I got a kick out of introducing them to a new generation of cookie eaters.

These things tend to start out terrible, but have a solid finish in the end. For those of you that see this, there might be some appreciation of the development process, or some humor to be seen in some of the wrong turns I’m bound to make along the way.

With this in mind, here is the first sketch of a title logo for the covers of my comic series, Awesome and Oops.

Fernando is the first story in an on-going series called The Amazing Adventures of Awesome and Oops. I plan to begin publishing the series later this year, initially in black and white, and then in color, once the treatment of each comic is complete.

The series will focus on an extraordinarily unorthodox family, bound by needs and values I hope we can all relate to. Our introduction to their world is by way of Fernando’s story, which takes its inspiration from the Planet of the Apes franchise, but instead deals with two very special rabbits.

Here are the first few pages of my story Fernando. I am hoping that you will share any constructive criticism you may have. Let me know if anything doesn’t make sense, what you like, and don’t like. But please keep in mind that I am trying to manage a slow reveal of information to keep it mysterious.

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy.

After making the collages for Cut and Pasted, I wanted to apply a more painterly style to my comic book illustrations. Here’s a peek at what the art in the beginning of Fernando is looking like.

I’ve started working on my comic book series, The Amazing Adventures of Awesome and Oops. The first story’s working title is Fernando and focuses on the development of Super Rabbits. I’ve never drawn a rabbit, at least one I can remember, so started by doing some research online, then made some sketches based on the source material.

The beginning of the overall story of Awesome and Oops is pretty grim, and the fantastical nature of it needs to be grounded, so I’m leaning towards more naturalistic renderings to start it off. As I tell more stories, I want to explore different perspectives, which can then dictate how the images are rendered in terms of style or media.

I grew up with the work of Dave McKean (Cages) and Bill Sienkiewicz (Stray Toasters), so this seems pretty natural to me. I hope my readers will find it as engaging as I do.