Merry Chrismas

<3

walkabout

Thinking up some new story ideas. doodling.

Sickypoo

I’ve been feeling a little under the weather for the past couple of days. The best thing about being sick is that it’s an excuse to take some time away from the world and do a whole lotta nothing.

The movie in question here is Persepolis. It’s one of my favorite movies and is a shining example of the amazing things that can be done with animation outside of kids movies. If you haven’t seen it you should really check it out.

Two years left

This is my submission for the upcoming issue of Ganglion(number 3!). They're awesome people doing some awesome and interesting things so you should check them out.

snow

I know this looks like a bit of a mess but it was fun experiment.

Tired. At work.

It's such a pain when people forget something and need to run and get it when I've already started cashing them out because it makes it a hassle to cash anyone else out. It's not that big of a deal but after a long day of work on no sleep i have no patience for anything... even completely reasonable mistakes. I was talking to Lisa about it last night and we were laughing that you know you're tired when you're angry at old ladies on the subway that cant move fast enough to get the hell out of your way.

I feel I should note that I always keep my composure. I would never call anybody a "fucking asshole" for such a slip. I do, however, torment myself by letting it make me miserable.

oh, and if anyone is confused by where I'm working now, I'm working at a natural foods store called the Wheat berry here in Ottawa. It's a good job for the time being. I work with nice people there.

Love! Jason <3

Christmas kid character design

This started off as a doodle for a character for a Christmas card I’m designing… but I got carried away and brought it to this stage.

I’ve been trying to figure out ways to use illustrator quickly while utilizing its strengths. I’m finding flat shapes of color are the most effective because doing vectored ink lines take forever to do properly. Another thing I’m learning is to figure out exactly what you want before going into illustrator. It's a powerful cleanup tool... but it's a terrible program to draw in and I wasted a good hour or so trying to fix some mistakes caused by bad planning.

I’m super stoked about this illustration of the week project and I have a lot of fun ideas planned. I’ll keep you posted!

Love! Jason<3

Week 1 - Mumphrey Monster gets his feet wet

I've decided to start up a little project for myself called, simply, illustration of the week. In an effort to start building up a portfolio of finished work I am going to be posting a new illustration every week.

Since one of my rules with this project is to try something new with every illustration I thought I would try to do all the cleanup with this one in illustrator. I've been so reluctant to use that program for years... but I'm quickly realizing its potential when used in conjunction with Photoshop, especially for the kind of illustrations I want to do. I'll be playing with this more in the upcoming weeks.

Until next week!

Self loathing!

EDIT: changed a couple of things that were bothering me about this

Seclusion

I think Trent Reznor has an interesting way of approaching music. He lets sound design be part of the writing process. So, he might start with a drum loop, and then keep adding to it until a song emerges. He doesn’t do with every song but it’s refreshing to hear music without much of a formula. Also, I like that he sits in a studio without a band and creates this intense sound pretty much by himself… kind of like a cartoonist.

I’ve always wanted to make music. There have been a couple of times I have tried to learn instruments but I have just given up before I get over the learning hump. Then I have to start over from scratch. I seriously want to make music in some capacity at some point.

When I do, it will likely be by myself with a computer and sound.

suck

I realize that you have to fail a lot before you really figure out how to do things... but, the failing part still kinda sucks, y'know?

Mr. Delainey

Here's a design for a little something I'm working on for the third issue of gangLion, a new(ish!) comic anthology based out of Toronto. In this issue we're experimenting with spot color. We're using green! It's exciting to have a new tool to use as a narrative device.

I'm having a lot of fun working on something that's pure fiction so I hope it works out!

Boredom Pays#1 finished!

So, it’s finally done.

This is the first mini in a series of (hopefully) more than one. Initially I was going to call it Fragments but I changed it to Boredom Pays. I want to be able to do whatever I want with the title so something a little more ambiguous is fitting. All of the comics are online, here, though I have taken care to re-letter a bunch of the older ones to make them more uniform without bothering to go back and change the files in the older posts. Some of the writing has been tweaked too, though, not much. The comic itself is 20 pages, 8.5x7 and will have a color cardstock cover after the first printing (which, dear readers, is disappearing fast!).

I’ll get it up for sale on here and Etsy soon; in the meantime I’m down with trades if anyone’s interested.

Canzine 2009

This past weekend Lisa and I tabled at Canzine, Toronto’s big annual zine shindig.

Last year we went to Canzine on a whim to check it out for what it was. We came out so inspired and jacked up with excitement that we talked about making zines for a good couple of hours. We knew we just had to make something.

So, after a few months of procrastination, we made our first zine! We decided to make our small vegan cookzine, Small Potatoes because we love food so damn much. Lisa made all of the recipes and wrote them out in pen while I did the illustrations and formatted the book for print. It has been quite well received and we plan on making two more volumes when we’re a little less busy with life.

Also, over the past year, I started making comics. Comics are something I have always been interested in doing but never thought I was good enough. Before I went to art school I had made some comics but lost interest when they mostly turned out awful. In my final year of animation school I used comics as a distraction from the work I was supposed to be doing. I discovered that I really do love making them.

Now, a few months later, I have a collection of comics I’m proud of.

I don’t think we would have done this stuff if we hadn’t gone to Canzine last year.

This Canzine was our first time ever tabling. I felt a little nervous being on the other side of the table selling our stuff in person for the first time. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a huge sense of accomplishment. It’s rare that those conversations that you have that get you so riled up to create stuff go anywhere. I’m so proud of us for sticking to our guns and doing it. We’ve come full circle.

All I want to do now is make books and draw comics. I feel, for the first time in a long time, that I’m on track and I know what I want to do with my life.

- Jason! <3

A sort of apology redux

I thought it might be fitting to re-do the first autobio comic I did to kick off the last year or so of comic making for the last page that I am doing for my first (real) mini comic.

Enjoy!

True life stories

For the past month and a half I've had this temp job delivering compost bins for the city of Ottawa. I had to get up really early every day which has really screwed up my sleeping schedule. I cant stay awake past 10:30pm.

The job itself is alright. Well, if you can stomach your co-workers comparing Somalians to Cockroaches(which I can't). The weird thing with these kinds of jobs is that you get some of the most undesirable people together and put them in a truck. Over the past six weeks I've heard some of the most horrific, bigoted things I have ever heard in a work place.

I feel very out of place.

Yesterday I almost sent a co-worker to the hospital by knocking over a stack of bins weighing 240lbs. It came about two inches from his face. Today I called in sick and I don't think I will be returning to the job.

Hard to believe, I know, but it's a true life story!

blah blah blah's

I've been doing a lot of work lately getting amped up for the collection of autobio comics I'm putting out near the end of the month. There's been a lot of slightly mind numbing re-lettering, rescanning and touching up some of my older comics to try to unify them with the most recent comics I've been doing.

Here's an illustration for the inside i did.

I'm really starting to enjoy using the brush. My biggest mistake about approaching the brush has been that I have been drawing much too small to get any subtlety into my line. I think in the future I am only going to use the brush when I'm drawing on a decently large scale.

kitty lovin'

I love my kitty.
<3

The leaves that are green...

If I were ever to color a strip this should be it. I kind of want to, I just don’t have the time.

I’m enjoying being careless with comics again. It’s actually fun.

Something Better

This is a comic I wrote nearly a year ago. I’ve always liked it and thought it had something that most of my other comics lack. I thought I would make a slightly better version than the doodled out one I have kicking around.

Unfortunately, I wont be at this years NCN either due to unending financial strife.

I will, however, be tabling at Canzine on November 1st. Lisa and I will be showcasing our cookzine, Small Potatoes. Also, I will (finally)be debuting a collection of autobio comics I’ve been publishing on here over the last few months. It’s our first time tabling so we’re pretty excited.

You should come and check the event out if you’re in Toronto.There are going to be so many amazing people there.

Much love,

Jason

Morning Glory

I've been taking way too long on my comics lately so I figured I would try to do one without a brush using much smaller paper to crank it out in a couple of hours. It's so hard to capture the spontaneity of life if you're only putting out a comic a month.

Something my buddy Ed wrote over on his blog made me give a lot of thought to what I've been doing:

"I'm learning that the only way I really learn is by constantly fucking up and failing rather than simply perfecting to the point of masturbation. And it's that idea that everything has to be perfect that keeps me from having fun with my imaginative stuff."

We should strive to fuck up by trying not to. Otherwise we're not learning anything.

I think I'm going to do more of these.

One fine day!

This one is about a day that Lisa and I went out to the Toronto islands and had a picnic while riding our bikes about. It was a really important day to me because it was the first time I felt like i had really gotten away from the depression I was feeling from my third year of school. It was like, hey, life's alright... yknow? It's funny, this happened in like... May and I'm only now getting around to finishing a comic about it.

Been designin'

So, I’ve decided to take part in the 11-second animation club this month. I’ve been meaning to get around to doing some more animation and this month’s sound clip is just too good to pass up.

Here’s a character I designed for the clip. Should be a lot of fun.

A sad song for happy times

I hate work!

The one thing I hate more than work itself is looking for it. I’ve been putting a lot of time into looking for a job since I left Toronto and not nearly as much time into art.

But enough whining.

This is a comic I wrote a couple of months ago and only just got around to illustrating. I have always had this really bad attitude towards work, which is where this is coming from. I have always thought that we could accomplish so much if we weren’t stuck working dead end meaningless jobs. Anyway, I generally really liked drawing caricatures for a living but some days the work routine still really got to me.

I really want to make art that I’m proud to show people but some of the strips that I’ve done over the past year are simply embarrassing. I think the art in this one is probably the best yet. I’ve been trying to put more time and effort into them and I hope it shows.

Anyways, until next time,

Jason

Going to Ottawa

So, in two days I'm moving with Lisa to Ottawa. It's been an insane month to get ready for the move and as such I've been having trouble finding the time to work on my projects. Hence, the lack of updates.

I have been working on writing a lot of comics and really only have to do the actual drawing for a good six or seven one pagers that I'm going to be getting to in the coming weeks. The writing is sometimes the hardest part for me anyways.

I'm planning on having a full on, well produced mini comic by late October so that I will have come comic work to sell along with Small Potatoes at both Canzine and Expozine which Lisa and I are hoping to attend this fall.

In any case, all is well with me, expect more comics very soon.

Love, Jason <3

My kind of vice

After a bit of a hiatus I’m I’ve decided to get back to doing these.Click on the image for full view :)

Small Potatoes is now available!

'Small Potatoes' is a collection of 13 original vegan recipes. Each copy contains both original illustrations and 4 color photo pages. The zine has a hand-printed card stock cover.

This cookzine contains both savoury and sweet recipes, with a few gluten, nut and soy-free options.

Here's the table of contents:
Tomato and Roasted Eggplant Spread
Roasted Beets with Balsamic Dill Dressing
Springtime Barley Pilaf
Roasted Cauliflower Salad
Oma's Summertime Borscht
Spiced Chickpea, Zucchini, and Fennel Stew
Fresh Tomato Salsa
Sweet and Spicy Fried Tofu
Two Bean Chipotle Chili
Cranberry Almond Rice Pudding
Rhubarb Pear Crumble
Chocolate and Apricot Drop Cookies
Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger Cookies


Printed and assembled by hand in Toronto, Ontario
Quarter-size (4.25 x 5.5")

For anyone interested we're selling it for $5. Feel free to message me and we can work something out, otherwise, feel free to check out our Etsy: smallpotatoeszine.etsy.com

Table scraps

So, after a bit of a hiatus from this story i've decided to call it quits.

The story was spawned from my depression in my final semester of school and desperately wanting out. It's about realizing that something wasn't for me and how that's alright because there's a million other things to do in life. It was nice and positive for a change.

I think, overall, while I liked the story overall and I was happy with some of the experimentation with the writing I did in the thumbnail stage. I have been trying to think of the juxtaposition of words and images differently as well as paying more attention to pacing.

I think I learned a lot from sitting down and writing this but I am simply not enjoying finishing it. I've been trying to make my autobio stories a bit more universal, so that people who don't know me might be able to get something out of these stories but I feel like the story itself wasn't universal enough to be interesting to anyone besides me.

Also, the art was going in a direction that I am tired of.

In any case it's sad to see a few days of hard work go down the toilet. I think, overall, it's for the greater good.

This means that the actual mini I'm planning on putting out with these stories will be delayed by a while. I'm thinking of making it a bit longer than I had originally anticipated. I want to replace a couple of the stories I'm unhappy with with a couple stories I will be proud to publish.

Also, I'm considering making it a series of autobio mini comics so I would have a place to publish them. I don't know though, just thinking.

Whatever, I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Dinosaurmageddon pt. 1 (of2)

This is a comic i've been working for the split mini that I'm doing with Oliver.

I thought I would try something a little different with this one. I've been inking it with a Faber Castell fineliner. It's been a nice step out of my comfort zone and I'm learning a bunch from doing it. It's fun to use a lot of little lines; it will be interesting to see how I attack the brush after this. The one huge drawback I'm wrestling with is legibility...

Probably the best thing about this process is that I'm able to do most of the drawing in transit. I think it's safe to say I drew about 50-60% of this stuff on my way to and from work over the past week. I think I'm going to do more stuff like this in the future simply because I can get more done my time that would generally be wasted.

anyway, I'll post the other half of the story when it's done.

cheers,

Jason

Fragments ver.1.0

So, the mini comic me and Oliver were doing didn't come together for TCAF. we really didn't have enough time, though, I have a pile of sketches and thumbnails for a story for it that I'm excited to get to when I have the chance.

Instead, I put together a little 12 page half letter size comic full of the stuff i've posted on here over the last couple of months. I'm going to be putting most of this stuff in a larger mini when I have more pages done but I really wanted to have something to give out to the people I meet at TCAF.

After I put it together I sat down and read the comics for the first time since I really started making them. It's interesting to read them with out being too close to them; I think I can actually look at them with a critical eye. Overall I'm happy with them for what they are, though, they are flawed in so many ways that they can only really get better.

Anyways, if you're at TCAF and you want one, hit me up!

Slowly but surely

I have a couple of weeks off before my job as a caricature artist kicks back into full swing so i've been spending my time drawing comics. The story I'm working on is ten pages...and, sadly, it's the longest thing i've ever done. I'm about four pages through it and it's kicking my ass.

Next week my and my friend Oliver are going to try to pump out a mini to trade at TCAF. That should be fun.

yeah. comics.

<3

American Elf

So here’s my homage to James Kochalka. I was trying to make a modeling demo reel and I thought it would be fun to take a couple of typically flat designs and flesh them out into a 3-d world. Originally, I was going to pose and texture him out like a Pocoyo character because I love the designs in that show. That could have been fun, though, by the time I got to that point I was already pulling my hair out in frustration with the limitations and general ugliness of Maya so I scrapped it.

In any case, now that I’m at the end of my career as an animation student, I decided to share this with any other James Kochalka fans out there. You can check his work out at americanelf.com.

Back to drawing comics <3