Here’s a commission I did for someone that was reading the Americus blog. She wanted some image that had both Doctor Who and the new Sherlock in it.

As always, I struggle with spotting blacks and giving things a sense of form. I think this is a good example of how even just doing the simple shapes of color in Diary of a Space Marine help out with that. I wish I didn’t have to rely on the computer. Oh, well. There’s always something to be working on, right?

Also: If you live in Portland and are interested, I am teaching a cartooning class this Sunday at the Woodstock Library on SE 49th Ave from 2-3! You can click on the link in the sidebar to the right to register or get more info.

So I know that things have been a little quiet lately, but I swear I’m working. It’s just for a secret project that MK and I are getting together for SPX, and I don’t want to spoil any of it. That, and we’ve been filling out a shit-ton of promo stuff for the Americus release.

I did have to do some work this week for the Pacific Northwest Inlander out of Spokane, which I can share. It was for an article about how people can write bad reviews on Yelp anonymously to bring a restaurant’s score down. You can read the article here.

Also some exciting news regarding Americus:

First off, we got news last week that Americus was chosen as one of the 2011 ABC New Voice titles. Here’s the little blurb we got:

“The ABC New Voices titles are chosen by a dedicated committee of independent booksellers around the country (chaired by Cathy Berner in Houston). Only twenty titles are chosen every year – ten middle grade and ten young adult – written by outstanding first time authors.”

And one of the first major reviews for book is out at Publisher’s Weekly. Check it out!

Okay, now back to working on secret stuff…

This is like a week too late, but this was the illustration I was working on to celebrate getting to see Neko Case at the Edgefield last week with Jen, MK, and Greg.

I haven’t really worked on anything finished in a couple of weeks, and I feel really rusty, so I’m not completely stoked for this illustration. I’m a little bummed because I’ve been wanting to do this image for a long time and now that I finally have, it isn’t exactly how I wanted it to turn out.

I’m hoping to get out of the funk this week by being super productive. I think I’m just at a weird crossroads where I don’t know what I want to do with my art life right now. I feel like I need to change things up a bit and rethink how I do things. Hopefully the projects that I have on my plate this summer will help with that.

In non-existential crisis news: I got the light table working! It was as simple as finding the right light bulbs! They are discontinuing the kind of light bulbs it needs next year, so I will eventually have to rewire the whole thing and change the ballasts, but for now it’s good to go. Well, besides that I still need to get the glass and frost it, which is on my agenda for later in the week.

Anyhow, here a picture it all of it’s lit up glory!

I had a pretty busy week last week, so I didn’t really get to post at all, but I thought I would sort of do a dump of some things that I’ve been meaning to post about.

First off, a couple of weeks ago, was the Stumptown Comics Fest, at which I did a lecture on Pacing & Rhythm in Comics. I was pretty nervous and kicking myself for not picking an easier topic the day before while I got the presentation together. The reason I was kicking myself was because I kept wishing I picked a topic a little less abstract, and a little easier to make concrete. Anyhow, I really have a passion for the subject, and in the end, I think that helped me get it done.

I was pretty nervous until I hopped up on stage, when my teacher instincts took over. Anyhow, the lecture went really well – it was standing room only, people seemed engaged, and there were questions asked. Good times.

Since I’m looking to get back into teaching, I was thinking of making a section on the website for resources for educator and librarians for teaching comics. I’ll probably record and post a version of the lecture up there. I’ll keep you updated.

Also, here’s an illustration I did for the WW last week. You can read the article here.

Also, the initial pitch for the Searchers got turned down. It got me pretty bummed out for a little but, but I’m not discouraged. I still feel like I have something there that should be fun to read, fun for me to draw, and very personal. I think it does mean that I’m probably gonna slow down the production on it for a bit to work on some other things at the moment.

Oh, and one more thing: THERE IS ONE LAST DAY TO BID ON ARTWORK FOR THE AUCTION FOR THE WSD! There are still lots of good pieces that don’t have any bids on them. Go bid on some of those pieces right now!