mocca fest was a blast this weekend! met some really awesome talented people, saw some really badass comics and art, and hung out with great friends, old and new. thank you, stephen, for being my ever-willing comrade in arms. and shout out to meg for this sweet diptych instagram action.
now time to recover from comics overload and chill out in new orleans for a week! then maybe i can go back to actually posting drawings and stuff to this sad sad neglected tumblr?
day job
so i don’t say much about it in the blogworld but i thought i’ll post a little bit about what i do at work.
i’m really lucky to work at a place where i get to do a little bit of everything for animated projects, but what i end up doing the most is fabricating for stopmotion jobs. i started out basically knowing nothing about puppet and prop building, but accidentally and happily fell into it as an intern a few years ago. it’s been really rad getting to work with some of the best fabricators in town and learning how to make stuff. and i still have lots to learn!
some props i’ve made in the last several months:
effigy of a sea caption that was eventually set on fire for a music video — structure made of cardboard, face painted over with tinted beeswax (to create some neat melting effects), shredded paper beard, and entire body stuffed with fireworks. last picture is of effigy’s real-life counterpart.
penguin puppet — cardboard body, head sculpted from magic sculpt, sewn fabric exterior
penguin in action. it massages people.
octopus tentacle — lots of hand-sewn suckers
glaciers — carved out of blue foam and given a quick paint job
a still from an overseas mcdonald’s spot — i illustrated and painted the popup book elements.
a garden from another popup scene in the spot
barn in progress — wood texture is a must!
final barn and chicken coop
that’s all for now. yaaay making stuff!
been too busy these days to post (excuses excuses…) but here’s what my desk has been looking like lately. i have a table at mocca fest this year and will be selling comics and art and stuff. the process is slow but at least moving. it’s nice to be motivated!
coyote’s strawberry: a crow tale
this comic and the one i posted before are based on stories from a book of native american myths and legends i found in a used bookstore in LA. the stories took decades to collect, passed down for many generations through word of mouth. native american storytelling is interesting; the stories don’t really follow conventional narrative patterns. plots turn on a whim and characters and events change according to what the storyteller wants to express. it reminds me of dream logic, when your dreams only make sense to you while you’re sleeping.
coyote appears in both these stories as completely different characters. he’s a great figure in native american mythology, representing many facets of their ideology such as the process of creation and renewal and the value of cleverness for survival. but he is also viewed as the fool, the rogue, or the mischievous trickster. he’s seen traveling through life having a good time. sometimes he bites off more than he can chew. other times he triumphs. coyote’s strawberry is not one of those times.
an okanogan folk tale, explaining the creation of earth and how the human race came to be.
don’t be a creepy baby
the american bison. how graceful how elegant.
paint sketch: low tide at cape cod
