Liz Prince comics

you too(yes you!) can read the lovely Liz Prince's comics here, they're fantastic!

somewhere between anxiety and elation

I’ve been feeling like a complete fuck up this semester because I’ve been doing poorly. I don’t have a good work ethic and my assignments all suck. I’m constantly sneaking off to draw or seeking out things that get me excited about art because 3D just doesn’t cut it for me. It’s not aesthetic, it’s tedious and I personally find it unrewarding.

But all of that stuff's not important. The important thing is that I learn that not everything is for me and that I just have to learn it and move on. What I’ve learned from this semester is what I don’t want to do which is just as valuable as finding something you do because now I feel motivated to work on the things that are rewarding to me and make me excited to sit down and get to work

.

Everyday is a roller coaster of emotions. I either feel extremely excited for what I really want to do with my future or I feel extremely anxious about putting off the work I don’t even care to do. It’s a weird mix but I’m enjoying the ride somehow.

It’s amazing how knowing what you want to do with your life can make you feel.

Love <3

girl on the subway

Girl i saw on the subway today. She had really distracting cracked out eyes. I should have pushed it more.

shady mc shiester

Clearing out a stack of drawings from my clip board, this one has something to it that i like. Too bad i never finished the other arm.

ethics

This was part of a conversation i had at a 100 dollars show i went to see with Lisa. It was a good show, though, we were too tired and lazy to stand and watch so we just drank beer from our table and listened.

missing out

with love, and apologies to ed and ollie, who's faces i butchered here.

i used to be a dirty raver

A couple of months ago I downloaded a bunch of old happy hardcore songs that I used to listen to back in my hardcore candy kid phase. I used to love this shit and really, I still do. This is still the kind of music that makes me want to dance my ass off.

This was an extremely liberating time of my life. It was the first time I really had control over my own life. College was something that wasn't even in my head as an option. I had no ambition or any idea of what I wanted to do with my life... and really there was nothing I wanted to do. I was working a dead end job in a call center with no apparent way out.

So, instead of being productive, I partied. It was awesome, me and my friend Dave would work full time at shitty jobs through the week and drive up to Toronto on the weekend to do drugs and dance all night long. After destroying ourselves on the dance floor we would drag ourselves back to our shitty small town sketched out, sleep deprived and not at all in proper condition to go to work. This is what our lives seemed to become about.

As much as reminiscing about these times tends to glorify them it is also important to remember how confusing it was. I have to remember I was generally depressed and hopelessly lonely. The partying wasn’t that amazing most of the time, I would dance by myself most of the time. I made some new friends and lost a few old ones. I learned to love and about loss.

Eventually I got on with my life and started to work towards my dreams. I don't think I would be who I am today without having done this. It surprisingly opened me up a lot and made me a lot less shy than I used to be. It gave me some hope that life could be good and worth living.

peace. love. unity. respect. <3

some comic bullshit

the latest self defeating caricature of myself. i know it doesn't really really look like me but i do kinda like the design. I guess i would say its more of an interpenetration.



I had considered doing a journal comic for a month... in that i would do a strip a day on the bus. I wasn't concerned about the quality of the art whatsoever. I'm a huge fan of Jeffery Brown... and i don't think you need amazing drawings to have amazing comics. It just helps. My main concern with this was just to start actually making comics so i have a point to get better from.

I gave up on the third day because they kinda suck. I should keep doing it until they don't suck so maybe I'll pick up the idea again when I'm not so busy with school. A journal comic is also really uninteresting unless you're James Kochalka.

In the new year I'm going to attempt to pump out a quality comic page a week. I don't know what i will write them about... I want to do a mixture of auto bio and non auto bio. I'm not sure really. but I'm going to do it.

also...

After going to Canzine me and and Lisa have been inspired to do a cooking zine. Not a huge undertaking, but we're going to do our best to make it really nice. We're even going to splurge on a couple of color pages with photos and a nice cover. Lisa is going to do all of the recipes, while i do all the design work as well as a couple of illustrations.

We're totally stoked. it will be nice to have a project to work on together.

Ready for what happens next

Now that my fifth semester is in full swing I'm starting to get an idea of what 3d is all about. Overall i don't really like it... i just find myself giving up on working on my projects to go drawing. I've come to the conclusion that i just don't really like 3d. I don't find it aesthetic, its boring to work in and my job prospects look underwhelming in it.

I'm still going to learn it, but i think I'm going to concentrate on the things that i really want to do. Things that i am passionate about and would actually like to pursue as a career. Rather than doing something that i could do i would rather do something I'm excited about doing.

I'm concentrating on learning how to animate in Toonboom (and flash hopefully, soon after) because there is a huge market graphic 2d stuff in Toronto. I would love to get a job designing for some of these shows, whether it be characters or layouts. Something like that. maybe i'll try to post some animation stuff on here eventually.

Also, i'm trying really hard to get out to life drawing and really work on my draftsmanship. I have a new life drawing teacher, Joe Park, who is really inspiring and supportive. His philosophy and encouragement are making me rethink life drawing. Both in how important it is in all aspects of my drawing and how enjoyable it can be to just sit and draw for hours.

A webcomic too. One that i actually try to draw the best shit i'm capable of. I know i have some good comics in me. I know i have a lot to say, i just need to start saying it. I've been doing some writing for it, i'm thinking of starting it up sometime in the new year. I'll let you know.

in the meantime heres a couple life drawings from the last couple o pads.

cheers <3

genuine and beautiful doodles

doodles in letters are fun.

i should write more letters to more friends.

cheers <3

i think this drawing has something to it that most of my drawings dont. working on working on it.

some new sketches

scanner = destroys colors

this was a sketch to try to figure out how i would draw Ollie in a comic strip. kinda got outta hand.
<3

life is pain - computers hate me

computers are quickly becoming my life. and they hate me.

...just another subway comic doodle. pretty stupid... but fun fun...

life is pain - people.

this guy was awesome, he just mumbled "i don't care about no fucking line" after cutting everyone off. I don't usually say anything... but it pissed me off.

i might do more of these, just doodle comics... probably took me about 15-20 mins total... it was fun, it reads like shit and i don't care. if i keep doing this I'll consider it some sort of journal.

when i think of these people i think of this song. it makes it better.

quickie.

wonderland out, school in

So, wonderland is over. I don't have any of my good caricatures to post... but by the end i was able to crank out some nice ones. I would consider going back next year if i cant get a job straight outta college... which definitely might not happen. It was nice to draw all day throughout the summer. Even through the rough frustrating times it was still better than landscaping or moving furniture.
school is now back in full swing. This is the big bad year of 3D where you're supposed to learn a skill that will actually get you a job.i just started my second week of school and the projects are already starting to roll in.

in an attempt to keep up on and improve and hopefully even get slighty good at it i have started a sketchbook that is going to be designated specifically to design. the first page is above. yippy yay rah.

at the zoo

i tried going to the zoo with a bunch of friends after going to a wedding the night before. there was an open bar at the wedding.

my drawings from the zoo sucked.

bunch of doodles

click for fullview

so yeah, this is what i do when I'm not drawing caricatures at work. mostly cafe esque sketches or fragments of ideas that wont go anywhere... fun stuff!

These are from the past week or so. most are drawn with col-erase and cleaned up with a big fat markette. i think drawing caricatures all summer has improved everything... especially my faces.

i'll post the last of my caricature work when i get pictures from other peoples camera's

:)

what chiu lookin at?

cafe sketches from this Sundays sketching with Bobby Chiu. I'm starting to really enjoy getting a little more loose and a bit more flow into my lines... for a long time i have been caught up in trying to draw what i've been seeing... now I'm just trying to spit it back out as an interpretation. its a hell of a lot funner.

I'm kinda dying to get back into life drawing now though, my anatomy is awful right now... just needs some studying.

so tired... must post.... drawin's...

new kid. i think I'm getting a better general likeness day by day... but its still the specifics are still frustrating me. i find it hard to get a likeness that blows people away like some of the drawings my co-workers are capable of.

i'm almost sad that i only have half a season left to grow in the medium before school. if i dont get a job straight out of school (which could very well happen) i'll probably go back for another summer. i find thats when you really get the hang of it, like my friends ed and ollie have.


i would like to incorperate more of this kind of stuff into my caricature work. there have been a few little sketches like this that i have really nailed a likeness on. its interesting how much you can suggest with such simple lines.

new cartoon alter ego

click to see image larger

i really thought this one wasn't going to work out until near the end... and overall I'm pretty happy with it even if i didn't go as far as i really could have with it.... i could be nit picky but I'm not going to bother.

this is pretty much me attempting a fleshed out drawing in flash to see if i can do it for a 2 page comic i wanted to do in a powerpuff esque style. I've always been a big fan of it.... my biggest problem right now is not going wonky enough with the backgrounds.... but thats a small detail.

the comic shall feature my alter ego, turtle jay.

my cartoon alter ego, turtle jay.

old man

I've been trying to get more cute simple lines into my cafe sketches lately. Also, I've been trying to get all of my drawing slightly more uniform... as in i don't have a completely different way of drawing when it comes to character design than from when I'm doing life drawing or cafe sketching... just trying to make things bleed over a little more so the skills translate.

I'm going to go for more of this.

ollie

today me and my buddy ollie were doing cheap caricatures at a street festival in Toronto.

i snuck this one in while he was drawing someone else. no markers here, its all color sticks and probably my best caricature to date.

it was really nice to draw people for cheap... somewhat more inclusive. we got an entirely different crowd than what we would have got at wonderland. I'm using the money i earned today to buy rejects, the amazing book of extreme caricature art by Joe Bluhm. overall, its been a good day.

batters up!

this is what i've been up to today. just a random not really thought out design. it was fun. i think i'm going to go for more color, try and experiment a bit more... working in color at wonderland is really helping me get a bit more comfortable with it.

just trying to sketch more often... i'm not really happy with my draftsmanship and the only way to improve it is to keep on trucking... so here i go.

i should probably be working on other projects... but i just kinda felt like turning my brain off, watching movies and drawing.

A couple of comics

here are two more installments of my comic. nothing to write home about. i think i mostly need to do more planning when I'm laying these out and actually spend a good chunk of time on them. I've felt a chunk uninspired to do more cause of these.... I'm thinking less often much better comics might be a better idea.

chers!

under pressure

click on image to make larger

not as big of a fan of this one, but i figure you win some, you lose some. i might as well make my mistakes now.

this one was pretty much a doodle from start to finish. the music theme was added to give it more cohesion than was in the original draft. the blurb at the top was added mainly to tie the whole thing together... but also because the top panel wasn't planned out at all and had no real purpose from the get go.

still, it could be worse.

jason <3

anywhere but here

so, for the summer i'm doing a web comic.

this is the first of a series of autobiographical comics i will be doing for the next couple months(i'm going to try to get one out a week), and if all goes well i hope to build up to bigger stories in time. for the meantime though, this will be my testing ground.

i'll keep anyone interested in reading it updated.

portfolio stuff

click on images to enlarge

here are some images that i've been developing for my portfolio... trying to lean more towards cutesy fun stuff cause i think i would enjoy doing that the most.

drawings

update 2008

so the forest pans above were my last layout assignment of third semester. i had a lot of fun with it. i was trying to go for a bill Watterson type of forest but i ended up just going to town and doing whatever the hell i wanted with it. (click to full view) the top one was a five field repeating pan with three overlays(which i neglected to scan). that was the biggest layout i have done yet but i was able to pump it out in a couple of hours. the other one was a small two field pan with a slight up shot.

overall there were five full layouts with characters and all but with this i think you get the point. I'm thinking of bringing the main one to inks and full color then compositing it with a walk cycle going through it for a demo reel that is to come.

this is probably the best thing i have produced to date, everyone loved it and i got a damn good mark on it too!

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this was a model sheet i did for my final character design project. I decided i wanted to design a really pampered, nerdy kid who was trying desperately to break out of the fascist dictatorship that was his home under his mothers rule. it was fun to design but i don't think it was as good as it could have been given the amount of time i was given to work on it. I also designed the mother but the drawings aren't worth posting.

the purpose of the assignment was to design two characters and make a maquette out of one of them. so, i did a maquette out of my punk kid which overall turned out well for a first attempt. i would post photo's of it but i unfortunately didn't take any and don't have it anymore either.