Alec Longstreth Illustration Blog

100 Watercolors #24 - No Time

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

Some of you might recognize this week's illustration. It is a repainting of a self-portrait I drew for the 2008 Blog Archive page on my personal website. Each year I try to come up with one image that sums up the big events going on in my life. At that time I had just begun freelancing, which was very stressful! So it seemed like a good image for this theme. Appropriately, I got to paint this version of the image during another extremely busy time in my life. It's always therapeutic to draw how you feel, right?

Previously I was mixing my colors on a piece of scrap paper and then applying them to the painting. I'm not sure why that was my method... Usually I would run out of the color, and have to remix it, which was always a bit different. Lately I have been mixing my colors in a plastic palette, which is working much better. I can mix up a bunch of a color, so I make sure I have enough to cover an area. Also, when I'm mixing another similar color, I can do it right on top of an old one, so I collect some of the previous color, which helps unify the color scheme (hopefully) and leads to more unique color choices. It's a small (probably obvious) step, but I feel like it's making a big difference in these paintings. I've got another 76 of these to go, so hopefully I can discover some more good tips along the way!

Next week: Trouble Lurking!

100 Watercolors #23 - Cat

2012-01-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

I have never been much of a cat person, so when I had to sketch out ideas for this theme, most of what I came up with was pretty negative. I know there are tons of super-enthusiastic cat people on the internet, and I feared that perhaps even you, dear reader, loved cats. So I dug a little deeper, and came up with this image:

Personally, I find it kind of terrifying that cats wander around killing small animals and then bring them back to you as a sign of affection. So for me, this image is totally creepy, but I'm hoping that it will also be totally endearing to cat-lovers. Eh?! Maybe? Hmmm....

In other watercolor news, I received a huge burst of inspiration this week, as Scott C's new book East Dragon, West Dragon arrived in the mail!

Not only is Scott one of my favorite illustrators working today, but the watercolors are beautiful, his character designs are unparalleled and it's full of DRAGONS, so what's not to love? He's got some samples from the book over on his site, so check them out and order this book. You won't regret it.

Next week's theme: No Time!

100 Watercolors #22 - Mother Nature

2012-01-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

Boy oh boy I had a blast painting this week's theme. Watercolors are perfectly suited for a big rainy scene and I had a lot of fun laying down colors quick and loose and then adding in lots of additional sloppy layers of color. This is the second of my 100 watercolors to have rain in it (and a bit more successful than the first, I think). Perhaps I can think up a few more, before the end of the series. I sure do love the rain... (Can you tell that I was raised in Seattle, or what?)

Next week's theme: Cat!

100 Watercolors #21 - Vacation

2012-01-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

Well, after a two-month hiatus, I'm back working on my 100 Watercolors project. I had a lot of fun painting this one. I feel like I am getting a better handle on mixing colors and applying them in a consistent manner.

My only regret on this one was not digging a little deeper for my reference. I was in some sort of rush the day I drew the final, so I grabbed the first image that came up for "tourists" on Google Image Search. Generally I think this is a bad idea, but that Duane Hanson sculpture is so dead on, I decided to use it anyway. At least I changed the colors around a bit.

Next week's theme: Mother Nature!

Ramen Music #8 Cover

2011-12-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

Ramen Music issue #8 came out last week, and once again it has one of my illustrations on the cover. You can listen to the entire issue for free, by following this link. As usual, it is chock-full of all sorts of interesting new music, all wrapped up in a beautifully designed, interactive package.

For this image, I used an old idea that has been haunting my sketchbooks for years. Originally the concept was to have a spiral of three-dimensional lettering floating above a birds-eye view of some sort of scene. When I started sketching ideas for these Ramen Music covers, it occurred to me that I could have the piano keyboard spiral down, instead of lettering. By extending the spiral endlessly, I'm hoping this image will hint at the infinite possibilities presented by the keys of a piano.

I still have one more Ramen Music cover which has not been used yet, so we'll see when they choose to break it out... hopefully some time in 2012!

Sketchbook XI

2011-12-21T20:49:00.000-05:00

As many of you probably saw on my personal blog, I finished my first graphic novel last week. This lined up almost perfectly with the end of the semester at CCS, and as luck would have it, I also finished off my tenth sketchbook yesterday. Since I'm officially on Winter Break now, I spent today building a new sketchbook from scratch.

As you can see here, I covered it with an old flannel of mine that was starting to fall apart. I cut out the pocket from the shirt and sewed it on the front to hold pens and scraps of paper. I did the same thing with my 9th sketchbook. If you are interested in making a sketchbook of your own, check out my Flickr set with step-by-step instructions and links to all of the tutorials I use. It's really fun and imbues your sketchbook with a lot of personality.

Probably my favorite part of making a custom sketchbook is picking the paper. I chose some yellow copy paper that I have had lying around forever. The cheapness of the paper frees me from being too worried about the quality of work that goes on in here. I believe sketchbooks are a place to experiment and have fun. In the back I put some nicer drawing paper, which I will use for quick brush pen illustrations. I often do final work right in my sketchbook, instead of on loose bristol.

Next week I'll get back to posting actual art... maybe something from these very pages! Happy holidays everyone.

Not in Harry's Name! Chocolate Frog Card #5

2011-12-14T09:18:00.002-05:00

For my last Chocolate Frog Card, I got to depict one of my all-time favorite scenes in the Harry Potter books, when Harry turns his back on the Minister of Magic and walks away. It was the perfect moment for these cards, because Harry stands up to authority and fights for his rights.

This moment was also turned into one of my favorite songs, by one of my favorite bands, Harry and the Potters. Check out track 9 on their album The Power of Love to hear this moment musically rendered. Fingers crossed that they'll play this at the Yule Ball this weekend in Boston. I will be there!

Remember, the Harry Potter Alliance is still selling their fair trade chocolate frogs, so order a box if you would like to get a collectable card with one of these illustrations on it. The chocolates make great holiday gifts!

Not in Harry's Name! Chocolate Frog Card #4

2011-12-07T08:58:00.001-05:00

For this week's Chocolate Frog Card I got to draw my favorite Harry Potter character, Albus Dumbledore. I chose the scene from the end of book five for two reasons: 1) It is the only time in the books that Dumbledore faces off against Tom Riddle in a wizard's duel. Of course Dumbledore is the stronger wizard and Riddle flees. 2) In an effort to shield Harry, Dumbledore also destroys the offensive statue in the lobby of the Ministry of Magic, which depicts wizards as being a superior race to elves and centaurs and goblins.

Next week I'll post my last illustration for these cards (one guess who it will feature!). Don't forget you can still order The HPA's fair trade chocolate frogs from their shop. They make a nice holiday gift, and you'll get one of these cards as well!

Not in Harry's Name! Chocolate Frog Card #3

2011-11-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

This week's Chocolate Frog Card was the easiest one to design. Hermione Granger's Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare (or S.P.E.W.) is a perfect parallel to the Not in Harry's Name campaign. She stood up to authority, and tried to make the world a better place for others.

Claire and I ordered a box of The HPA's chocolate frogs and they arrived this week. They were great! Please consider buying a box to help support a good cause and try enact some social change. You'll also get one of these illustrations printed on a collectable card! (We got Dobby :)

Not in Harry's Name! Chocolate Frog Card #2

2011-11-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

This week's Chocolate Frog Card features Ron Weasley. I must admit, it was surprisingly hard coming up with a heroic moment for Ron... Off the top of my head (and under serious deadline pressure) I couldn't think of a scene from the books where he stood up to authority. Instead I decided on a moment where he had to face his fears to destroy the horcrux in Slytherin's locket.

Since last week, the Harry Potter Alliance added their fair trade Chocolate Frogs to the shop section of their site. For $9 3/4 you get three chocolate frogs, one of the cards with my illustrations and more information about the Not in Harry's Name campaign.

Not in Harry's Name! Chocolate Frog Cards

2011-11-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

I'm currently ten pages away from finishing my first graphic novel, Basewood. I'm finding it very difficult to split my focus during this home stretch, so I thought I would take a break from creating new 100 Watercolor paintings for a few weeks, and instead share some recent illustration work I did for The Harry Potter Alliance.

A few years ago The HPA contacted me about a new campaign they were developing, called Not In Harry's Name, which has now gone live. You can follow this link to read more about the campaign, but the basic gist is that Warner Brothers is using ethically reprehensible sources for the chocolate in their Harry Potter brand Chocolate Frogs. One of the main messages of the Harry Potter books is basic human rights for everyone, so the HPA has been confronting Warner Brothers, trying to get them to change the source of their chocolate to a fair trade manufacturer.

Here is a web banner that I roughed out for the campaign back in 2009, when the idea was just getting started (click to see bigger). This was never used, which is probably a good thing. While I think it gets the idea across, it's a bit too cute for such a serious campaign. I think the bold, dripping-chocolate design that is being used on the site works a lot better.

Warner Brothers has not complied with The HPA's wishes, even though The HPA's petition has already garnered 16,000 signatures of support. So The HPA decided to create their own Chocolate Frogs, to prove to Warner Brothers that a product with certified fair trade chocolate could still be profitable. As any Harry Potter fan knows, Chocolate Frogs usually come with collectible cards featuring famous witches and wizards - which is where I come in!

A few weeks ago, the HPA contacted me to see if they could use some of my existing Harry Potter illustrations on the cards, or if I had time to create some new ones. Honestly, I didn't really have time to make new ones, but I dug deep and made time to create some. These are the kind of illustration jobs that I cherish because I get to draw something I love and it allows me to use my illustration skills to help a great organization enact social change.

Using pre-existing images of Harry Potter characters in random scenes seemed to me like a missed opportunity. Instead, I decided to depict a few main characters in key moments from the books, when they had to be brave and stand up against injustice, or face off against great evil. That way, when someone buys one of the HPA Chocolate Frogs they will be reminded of the parallel theme from the Harry Potter stories, which is the whole idea behind The HPA. The first idea that popped into my head was the newly-freed house elf, Dobby, blasting his previous master, Lucius Malfoy.

I made four other illustrations for the HPA Chocolate Frog cards, so I will post one a week, which should buy me enough time to finish off Basewood. In the meantime, please check out the campaign, and consider signing the petition. I couldn't find a link for buying these HPA Chocolate Frogs, but if I do, I'll post it here!

100 Watercolors #20 - Fortitude

2011-11-09T10:02:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to lie to you guys - I had to look up "fortitude" in the dictionary before I could start sketching ideas out for this theme. My iMac's built-in dictionary gives the following definition: "Courage in pain or adversity." Using that as a starting point, I came up with this illustration:

I used to skateboard when I was a kid, but I was never good enough to attempt a halfpipe. If I ever had, I'm sure I would have ended up like this poor fellow here, though I'm not sure I'd have the fortitude to give it a second try! ;)

Next week's theme: Vacation!

100 Watercolors #19 - Gray

2011-11-02T09:15:00.002-04:00

Back in 2003 I was at the Burke Museum in Seattle when I saw four men sitting in the museum's cafe. From left to right, each man was a bit older than the next. It was like a living, three-dimensional comic! Here is the sketch I made later that night, to try and remember the moment:

When I started sketching out ideas for this week's theme, that old sketch popped into my head, and I decided to try and modify it for my illustration. Here's what I came up with:

I thought a lot about the colors in this one - to try and pass at least one element from each character to the next, to reinforce the sequence. Also at the last minute I decided to leave out a background. I felt like the characters got the idea across just fine on their own.

Next week's theme: Fortitude!

100 Watercolors #18 - Rainbow

2011-10-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

I had a much lamer idea for this theme, but as soon as I started sketching it out, the above idea jumped into my head, which was A LOT more fun!

If you can believe it, this is my 45th post this year. That's only noteworthy because it makes this my most bloggingest year so far! If you check the sidebar of this site, you'll see that in 2008 when I started this blog, I tried to post once every week, but I only made it to 44 posts. This time hopefully I'll make it through the rest of this year and beyond!

I did some very tight-deadline illustration work for the Harry Potter Alliance last week which I'll share with you all in November, and it looks like Ramen Music will be using another one of my album covers in December, so I'll also have that to share. In the meantime, I'll continue posting more of these 100 Watercolors images. Onwards!

100 Watercolors #17 - Blood

2011-10-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

This week's theme is well-timed for the month of October. I think this is about as close as I will get to posting a halloween image, even though it's another dozen days until the official holiday. Claire is making me some wizard robes for my costume this year. I'm going to be Dumbledore, since this will be my last halloween with an insanely long beard.

Next week's theme: Rainbow!

Paul and Alison Wedding Photo Watercolor

2011-10-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, I thought this week I would take a break from the 100 Watercolors challenge to show you guys a commission I painted for some friends of mine this summer. Those of you who are familiar with my Phase 7 comics will no doubt remember my friend Paul who loaned me his copy of Understanding Comics, thus changing my life forever. Well, Paul wrote me this summer to see if I could repaint one of his wedding photos as a watercolor, for his wife as an anniversary present.

Here is the original photo of Paul, his wife Alison and their dog James:

And here is the watercolor that I made, based on the photo.

Obviously, I pumped up the colors a lot for this, but I also played with reality a bit and turned James's head and got rid of his harness, to make things a bit more picturesque. This was a lot of fun to work on because Paul and Alison are great friends!

Next week's theme (for real this time): Blood!

100 watercolors #16 - Questioning

2011-10-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

The first thing that came to mind for this theme was one of those classic "good cop, bad cop" questioning scenes from any number of police movies or TV shows. But then I thought it might be funny to do good and bad CAT, instead! As I have already shown in this series, I am more of a dog person than a cat person, so I tried to make these cats seem pretty mean. Sorry cat lovers... maybe I'll be able to redeem myself in future watercolors.

I had a really good time mixing the colors for this one. I'm starting to see the wisdom in some of those old art school tips like 1) never use a color straight from the tube - ALWAYS mix it with at least one other color! and 2) don't just use black, MIX black (in this case with a dark brown and deep blue).

I've been chipping away at many of the future themes. I've got the next seven all penciled out and dozens more of the concepts figured out. It's hard to believe I'm still only 16% done with this. Oh well, I'm having fun and learning a lot, so I guess it's all going well. Hopefully these are enjoyable for you as well.

Next week's theme: Blood

100 Watercolors #15 - Silence

2011-09-28T10:00:00.000-04:00

For this theme, I figured the only thing quieter than space, is a MIME in space! I had a good time layering a bunch of colors to get a nice rich space backdrop. I used a dark green, then a dark blue and then a layer of black over the top. I also used some masking fluid to make sure the star areas stayed white while I was putting in all those dark colors. Then I hit them with a little blue to push them back, so the pure white on the characters would pop a little more. This one was fun!

Next week's theme: Questioning

100 Watercolors #14: Smile

2011-09-21T10:08:00.004-04:00

This week's theme is Smile. As I was sketching out various ideas, I remembered one of the most touching smiles I have ever seen. I went to Oberlin College and during my first year there I had a few classes with this one girl who always seemed very bummed out. She always looked like she was on the verge of tears. Over the next four years I would see her occasionally in classes or around campus, and it was always the same; she seemed so sad and downcast. Then, magically a few weeks before the end of my senior year, I saw her walking across Tappan Square holding a bunch of red roses and smiling quietly to herself. It was the last time I ever saw her, and it was so wonderful to see her finally smile.

Above is my clumsy attempt to illustrate that moment! I'm pretty happy with how the grass and trees turned out in this one. I feel like I'm getting better with layering different hues, and not overworking stuff!

Next week's theme: Silence!

100 Watercolors #13: Misfortune

2011-09-14T10:00:00.000-04:00

Dropping your ice cream cone as a kid was the most misfortunate thing I could think of for this theme. I tried to have some fun with the composition with this one, so that the ice cream on the pavement is the last thing you see. Of course, only after I finished it could I see that there are WAY too many yellow dashes in the middle of the road. I might as well have made it a solid yellow line! Oh well, I guess my hopes of a perfect painting were dashed in the street... (Pun intended!)

Next week's theme: Smile!

100 Watercolors #12: Insanity

2011-09-07T10:00:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure this one 100% makes sense, but when I was brainstorming ideas for this theme, sitting in an office 40 hours a week felt like one of the craziest things to me. But society views a steady office job as probably THE most sane thing, so I thought I would jumble them together. I kind of like the idea of this guy punching in every morning right at 9am and sitting there all day.

Next week's theme: Misfortune!

100 Watercolors #11: Memory

2011-08-31T10:00:00.000-04:00

This week's theme is Memory. Even though this image is kind of sad, I still had a really fun time painting it. One of the watercolor tips Claire gave me is that if you're filling in a big area (like the blue sky background here) you should wet the area down first with clean water. That way it's easier to spread the color around and mix it with other colors while it's still wet. I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out, though I think I overworked the tree a little bit. Live and learn!

Next week's theme: Insanity!

100 Watercolors #10: Breath Again

2011-08-24T11:00:00.008-04:00

This week's theme is "Breathe Again." Those words made me think of being trapped at a party where everyone is smoking, and the wonderful feeling of being able to breathe again after you have left. This happened to me a few times in college (somehow, both of the girls I dated in college smoked - blech). While drawing this, I was thinking about those ol' college days, so I made the protagonist in this drawing my best friend from college, Gabe, who is the most outspoken anti-smoking person I have ever met.

Next week's theme: Memory!

Watercolor Warm-ups

2011-08-17T10:00:00.007-04:00

Hey, does anyone remember my 100 Watercolors Challenge? I won't blame you if you don't! It's been almost THREE years since I last posted a painting. That doesn't mean I haven't been working on it though! For this past year, I have been secretly chipping away at some of the preparatory work for the project: brainstorming visual ideas for the different 100 themes, penciling them out, transferring them to watercolor paper, etc. etc. etc.

I have also been getting mentally ready to paint watercolors again. Last October, my girlfriend Claire Sanders moved in with me, and she is a watercolor wizard! Here's an example of an awesome watercolor present she made for our friend Liz. It's a reimagining of the Monster Bash pinball machine's backglass, but with all cats, because Liz's cats are named Dracula and Wolfman, remember?

Talented, no? Yes! So much so, that soon after she moved in, I asked Claire to collaborate with me on my yearly blog archive image. We did it as a watercolor, so I could learn some of her tricks. This was the first time I had used watercolors in a long time, but with Claire's help I already felt like I took a step forward with the process.

Then, in May, Claire and I headed up to Montréal for a 24-Hour Comics event, and again, I asked her to collaborate with me. I did all of the drawings on watercolor paper and Claire colored them all. It was a crazy eighteen hours of work, but when we were done, we had a pretty cool 24-page comic, and I had learned a TON about watercolors, from working side by side with Claire. You can read the whole comic over on Grandpapier and here's the cover image to give you some idea of how it turned out:

So! With all of these warm-ups done, I feel like I'm ready to dive back in on the 100 Watercolors challenge. Starting next week, I will be posting one painting a week, unless I have some other exciting illustration stuff to share. As I stated at the beginning of this project, my main goal here is to get better at watercolors, so hopefully by painting the remaining NINETY-ONE themes I will accomplish that goal!

Weezer Icons: Hurley

2011-08-11T07:35:00.001-04:00

Today I am posting the last batch of Weezer Icons which covers Weezer's latest studio album, Hurley. There are also a few bonus icons. Descriptions below!

In comics order: 1) my drawing of the Hurley album cover 2) A weezer soccer ball, from the bonus track Represent, which Weezer wrote for the USA Men's World Cup team 3) "playing hacky sack, back when AudioSlave was still rage" from Memories 4) a Moog synthesizer, a brand of keyboard sometimes used by Weezer over the years 5) the lightning bolt guitar strap that Rivers uses.

So there you have it. 61 icons in all! I hope you all enjoyed seeing these.

Next week I will change it up again and show a new project... or maybe an old project with some new work in it!

Weezer Icons: Make Believe, The Red Album and Raditude

2011-08-03T12:30:00.000-04:00

This week I've got another double dose of Weezer Icons, this time from their fifth, sixth and seventh studio albums. As ever, I'll put descriptions below for those of you who are not hardcore Weezer fans!

In comics order: 1) The "weeze" T-shirt from the end of the Perfect Situation video, which Karl modifies with a sharpie, to make the first "weezer" T-shirt 2) That famous sign for the song Beverly Hills 3) a perscription bottle, for the song We Are All on Drugs 4) The chorus from the song Peace 6 - 9) these drawings are of the Weezer band members, based on their personas from the cover of The Red Alubm. I like to think of them as "Badass Brian" "Professor Pat" "Cowboy Cuomo" and "Stylin' Scott" :P

In comics order: 1) a can of Pork and Beans 2) one of the cows that Rivers's friends used to tip over, from the song Everybody Get Dangerous 3) Rivers's parents Tercel, which he drove 65 in a 25 zone, also from Everybody Get Dangerous 4) Heart Songs 5) Some new ninja sword, ALSO from Everybody Get Dangerous, which I guess has a lot of awesome imagery that I was picking up on 6) Pig, which was a bonus track for The Red Album, but which I moved into regular rotation 7) Sydney the jumping dog from the cover of Raditude 8) the official Weezer handsign thrown up at weezer concerts.

I've only got one more set of Weezer icons to upload next week, which will bring us up to the present day in terms of Weezer's musical output. Until then, have a rocking week everyone!

Weezer Icons: Mix Tape

2011-07-27T10:00:00.022-04:00

Okay, this week's Weezer Icons span a few different albums, kind of like a "mix tape" of different Weezer stuff. As ever, there are descriptions below to help you decipher these images, if you are not a hardcore Weezer fan.

In comics order: 1) The Kitchen Tapes - an early demo tape of Weezer's 2) One of the songs on The Kitchen Tapes was called Paperface 3) This is my redrawing of the fan-created cover to the never released Weezer album Songs from the Black Hole 4) M1 was the name of the robot on board the spaceship in Songs from the Black Hole (voiced by Karl Koch!) 5) One of the sumo wrestlers from the Hash Pipe music video, with a neon green background similar to The Green Album cover 6) Island in the Sun, another hit from The Green Album 7) A section of the Maladroit album cover, redrawn in my style 8) Space Rock, track eight on Maladroit.

Okay, that gets us through some early stuff and Weezer's first four albums. NEXT WEEK: Albums five, six and seven!

Weezer Icons: Pinkerton

2011-07-20T10:00:00.079-04:00

This week I've got some more Weezer Icons to share, this time from their epic 1996 album, Pinkerton. Many of these made it onto the Memories Tour VIP Posters, but here I am posting them in their original, full-color format. Below each image collection I'll post the references, just in case you are not a hardcore Weezer fan...

In comics order: 1) "You say 'like' too much" from Falling For You 2) The letter to Rivers from one of his Japanese fans which inspired Across the Sea 3) "'Cause I'm a burning candle, you're a gentle moth, teaching me to lick a little bit kinder" from Falling For You 4) "Make a record of my heart" from the double time bridge of El Scorcho 5) Tired of Sex, a spoof on the Trojan condom packaging 6) Pink Triangle - this was another one where I originally drew a pink triangle patch, but when Karl showed it to Rivers, he said that it had actually been a button on the girl's sleeve, so I corrected it 7) "Holy sweet goddamn you left your cello in the basement" from Falling For You 8) "She's got a tattoo and two pet snakes" from No Other One.

In comics order: 1) "Hear me: I want sugar in my tea" from The Good Life 2) "Without an old man cane, I'd fall and hit the ground" from The Good Life 3) A pizza box, from The Good Life music video 4) "Maybe you could break my heart next summer" from Why Bother 5) "It used to be a game, now it's a crying shame" from Getchoo - a spoof on the Trivial Pursuit game design (I know this one is a stretch, but there's not a lot of visual information in the lyrics of this one!) 6) "Yesterday I went outside, with my momma's mason jar. Caught a lovely butterfly" from Butterfly 7) The flying W which is featured prominently in the El Scorcho video (and all live Weezer shows!) 8) Giacomo Puccini, whose music inspired many of the lyrics and songs of Pinkerton.

NEXT WEEK: Weezer Icons Mix Tape!

Weezer Icons: The Blue Album

2011-07-14T11:32:00.000-04:00

Hey, remember those Memories Tour VIP Posters I made for Weezer last year? Each poster was made up of a series of little drawings or "icons" - one for each track on that poster's album. What I haven't told you though, is that most of those icons were not actually created FOR those posters!

Last September, I got to go backstage at a Weezer show in Vermont, where I met Karl Koch, who has worked as the archivist / web master / fan relations guy / photographer / roadie / everything for Weezer since day one. At the time, Weezer was about to launch their new website, which is kind of like Facebook, only JUST for Weezer fans. Each fan gets their own page where they can blog about the band, post their own photos and covers, "friend" eachother, etc. etc. etc.

That night after the concert, Karl sent me a login for the new site, so I could help test it out before it officially launched, and while clicking around I came across a "gift" section. It was full of these horrible generic "gift" icons. You know - smiley faces, champagne glasses, a graduation hat - basically CLIP ART. I thought, "Why not have Weezer-specific gifts?!" and emailed the idea to Karl the next morning. He was into it. So I started drawing, and needless to say, I came up with A LOT of ideas. As I joked to friends while I was drawing them, "I have been training for this illustration job my entire life!"

Some have since been put up on the site, but because of some back-end problems, the resolution on the icons is really horrible and they are not getting much use. Here's a screenshot of how they actually look on the site:

A little dissappointing, right? Especially for the ones with text, which is completely illegible. Anyway, a few months later, Karl emailed me to say they are now using some of the illustrations as weezer "badges" on this site EarnMojo.com (I don't pretend to know anything about this. It's something to do with smart phones I think?). Here's a screenshot of what some of THOSE look like:

Again, these are so small you can't read any of the text, or really enjoy the illustrations. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining! When the call came in to use some of these icons for the Memories Tour VIP Posters, it felt like every instant I had spent on these drawings had been well worth it. But lots of people have told me how much they enjoyed the posters, so now it seems a shame that everyone hasn't seen the REST of the Weezer "icons."

SO! For the next couple of weeks I'm going to post them, in groups by album, along with cheat sheets, so you know what each of the drawings references. This week I'll start with The Blue Album icons, some of which were later used in the poster. Please note that these were originally created in full color - I recolored the poster versions with a limited palette based on the album covers.

BLUE ALBUM 1 (in comics order): 1) "Heartbeat" the massive build from Holiday 2) Surf Wax America, a spoof on the packaging for Sex Wax brand surf wax 3) "when I'm away she puts her makeup on the shelf" from No One Else 4) A juice box, which Rivers takes a sip from at the very end of the Say It Ain't So video. I always imagined it was apple juice... 5) My Name Is Jonas name tag 6) "molecules of oxygen and carbondioxide" from Only in Dreams 7) The Garage, from In the Garage 8) "your wallet photograph" from The World Has Turned and Left Me Here, which is a bonus one, because I made his girlfriend that super cute girl from the Buddy Holly video who Brian is making eyes at.

BLUE ALBUM 2 (in comics order): 1) The chorus from Buddy Holly 2) A 12-sided die from In The Garage 3) "Don't look now, but I've lost my shoe" from Buddy Holly 4) A sweater, with a strand, ready for pulling from The Sweater Song 5) "We will write a postcard to our friends and family in free verse" from Holiday 6) "Bokkus" the character on Pat's bass drum which is featured in the Sweater Song and Say It Ain't So videos 7) When doing research for these drawings, I looked up the line "This bottle of Stevens" from Say It Ain't So, and found a BUNCH of stuff on the web that said this was referencing Stevens Point brewery so I drew one of their bottles for the icon. When this one made it onto the Memories Tour posters though, Karl showed it to Rivers, who said that it is "Steven's" in the possessive (the name of his step dad, who the song is about) and so it is still referencing the "Heine" from the first verse. Thus, I redrew 8) a bottle of Heineken.

NEXT WEEK: Pinkerton!

Site Redesign! New Portfolio!

2011-07-06T11:01:00.001-04:00

Well, after some hemming and hawing, I finally decided to totally rearrange this illustration blog, which now redirects to: www.aleclongstreth.com Basically, I added some pages at the top of the site, which absorbed all the static content from the previous site. You can now easily see my client list or use the contact page to get in touch with me for projects. I also put up a biography page and moved all the links from the sidebar of this blog to their own page.

I also made these little drawings for the sidebar, to link to my Flickr and Twitter accounts, because I always like it when other illustrators do that on their sites.

Last but not least, I made a new portfolio page! I am pretty excited about it. I used this fancy issuu PDF viewer thing to embed it (a trick I learned from Keny Widjaja). Here, I'll embed it below too so you can check it out. If you click the arrows on the sides, you can scroll through the images at this size, or if you click in the middle, you can view them in full screen mode, which is pretty cool. Just hit escape to get back to your normal screen. This will be much easier to update than my old portfolio site, plus people can download the PDF if they want to print it out or look at it later.

I'm pretty sure I've ironed out all the bugs with the new site - old entries are forwarding to the new domain, and the old RSS feed still works (I think...) but please let me know if you notice anything that needs tweaking! Next week I'll have some new stuff to show you all. I hope everyone is having a good summer so far!

Comics Express!

2011-06-29T18:06:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Chris Duffy which read a little bit like the setup for one of those retired bank robber movies. You know, "We're getting the gang back together, for ONE more job!"

Chris and some of the other designers, editors, art directors and artists who used to work for Nickelodeon Magazine decided to make a special comic book just for the kids of Joplin, Missouri, whose town was recently wiped out by a tornado. It's going to be called Comics Express.

Since the turnaround was so fast, they asked me to adapt a preexisting image of mine, specifically my 2008 Heroes Con Indie Island T-Shirt design. I drew a kid to take my place on the island:

One of the designers drew the title text, and I'm not sure how it will all be laid out in the end, but you get the idea. To make this project possible everyone is donating their work and the editors are using the fundraising site indiegogo.com to raise money for the printing and shipping costs. They have already reached their goal! There is still one day left though, and any extra money raised will go towards the Joplin Public Schools' Adopt-a-Classroom Fund to help replace classroom supplies. So if you'd like to score a copy of this book (or some of the other awesome extras) please donate some money to this good cause.

The book will also have a full color version of my Doctor Octopus comic in it, as well as comics and gags by SO MANY awesome cartoonists and illustrators. Check out the indiegogo page to see the full list of contributors!

Rebecca Engelberg Baby Shower Invite

2011-06-22T16:30:00.027-04:00

Remember last year when I made those wedding invitations for Rebecca and Matt? Well, as the saying goes: "Oh what a difference a year makes!" A few months ago, my Mom asked me to make an invitation for Rebecca's baby shower, which my Mom hosted, along with my sisters Courtney and Galen. She requested an illustration with a series of animals and their (CUTE!) offspring. Here's what I came up with:

Obviously, I have grayed out some confidential contact info here, but I wanted you all to see the text so you could get a better feel for how the whole thing was designed. I guess the shower went well, and Isaac Okawa Witcher was born this past weekend on June 17th! Rebecca and Matt have posted some photos of him on their blog. I know they will be great parents, and I wish them both lots of luck with it and a big congratulations!

Ramen Music #5 Cover

2011-06-15T10:00:00.006-04:00

Oh man, I'm so glad that I didn't just post all of the covers I did for Ramen Music last year when I drew them. Instead, I get to re-plug this awesome project every time they use one of my covers! This month being just such an occasion. For the cover of Issue #5, I had my Nogard the Dragon character (from my upcoming webcomic Isle of Elsi which should start in 2012?) blowing some hot jazz through a trumpet. I love dragons, and I played trumpet for about 15 years, so this image was a lot of fun to draw.

If you haven't checked out Ramen Music yet, you really should! By following this link, you can listen to the entire 5th issue FOR FREE. And you can share that link with as many people as you like! The idea behind Ramen Music is that they charge a subscription (right now it's $29 for six issues a year) and then they accept submissions from independent musicians and curate an awesome music "magazine" every other month. It's a great mix of a website, a music player, a zine that has interviews with all the bands, and the whole thing is beautifully designed.

Then, unlike MOST music business stuff these days (record labels, iTunes, etc.) they split up the lion's share of the incoming money and give it back directly to the artists. Right now they are paying $150.00 per track to artists, with very fair terms. Wait! Why am I trying to explain it with WORDS? They made this great info graphic to show you what the deal is:

(click to see bigger)

This whole project is the mastermind of my buddy Sudara, who I went to Oberlin with a long time ago, and who is ALSO the mastermind behind alonetone.com, which thousands of people use to post their music and share it with people. It's a real honor to be involved with such a cool project, and Ramen Music still has a few more of my covers banked, so I'll post the next one when it goes online!

Nickelodeon One-Pager and Phase 7 Funnies

2011-06-09T06:29:00.002-04:00

Every time I sent in a batch of gags to Nickelodeon Magazine, I also sent in a pitch for a one-page comic. The pacing for these comics behaves a little differently than a single-panel gag cartoon. You have to sort of stretch out a joke over the whole page and then have a big payoff in the last panel. If you want to see some great examples of what I'm talking about, check out the comics section on Dan Moynihan's site, which is full of great one-pagers that made it into the magazine.

I tried all kinds of weird things for my one-pagers; a page full of puns, a page with one panel for each letter of the alphabet (in sound effects), and one-pagers with various characters I invented. But none of them quite hit the mark. I put all of these one-pager attempts, along with a bunch of my unaccepted gag ideas, into two issues of a minicomic that I made called "Phase 7 Funnies" which you can read about on my other blog.

Since I have finished posting all of my accepted gags on this blog, it seemed like a good time to put these minicomics online, so that all of you can compare the accepted gags to the rejected gags, as well as the level of detail in my pitches. Anything that is not a gag in these collections is a one-pager that I pitched (most have been reformatted over several smaller pages). You can read these minicomics in their entirety by following these links: Phase 7 Funnies #1 / Phase 7 Funnies #2

By the time I was sending in my last few pitches to Nickelodeon, I had almost given up hope on ever getting a one-page comic accepted. I remember right before I sent off my penultimate batch of gags, there was one gag idea that I hadn't been able to condense down into one panel. Something about a judge and how in court they are always taking recess, like kids do at school. Then, instead of trying to condense it into a single panel, I decided to expand it into a one-pager. In about five minutes, I dashed off a silly rhyming idea, using the recess idea as a framework. And it worked! As Chris Duffy put it in his email: "And now, brace yourself, Alec. YOU SOLD US A ONE PAGE COMIC! Somehow your hypno beams got to us and we're going for Judge Jasper." Here's what the finished comic looked like:

(click here to see it at a bigger size)

Well, that's it! That's everything I ever did for Nickelodeon Magazine. I hope you have all enjoyed these gags. I want to thank Chris Duffy and Dave Roman for being the coolest editors I have ever worked with. Even just the fact that I am now able to post these gags and comics is a testament to how much they understood and respected independent artists like myself. They offered fair contracts, good pay and plenty of laughs along the way! I'll be lucky if I can find another venue for my gags someday that is HALF as cool.

NEXT WEEK: something entirely different!

Nickelodeon Gag #16

2011-06-02T07:31:00.000-04:00

Okay! Here it is, my last gag that was approved by Nickelodeon Magazine in 2008. This one and a few of the previous gags were actually probably printed in 2009, which was the last year the magazine was in print. As you know by now, I think Beavers are like the funniest animals on earth. Have you seen the great IMAX documentary BEAVERS? Highly recommended!

I actually have one more thing to post from my days at Nickelodeon, but it is not a gag! So next week's post will wrap up all of this stuff and then we'll head off into different realms of illustration... Until then, have a great rest of your week!

Nickelodeon Gag #15

2011-05-26T08:57:00.000-04:00

Well, we are getting down to it. This is my penultimate gag, that was published in Nickelodeon Magazine back in 2008.

This seemed like an appropriate gag for this week, because I am now officially on summer break from my teaching job at the Center for Cartoon Studies. I've already got some new illustration stuff to post, after the gags are done, and I'm going to be working on some NEW stuff as well, which I'm really excited about. I'll try to keep these weekly updates coming all summer long!

Nickelodeon Gag #14

2011-05-17T08:52:00.000-04:00

Oh jeez, this is kind of embarrassing. The next gag which I have to share with you, which was published in Nickelodeon Magazine way back in 2008, is a desert island gag, involving a tsunami. Please take my word for it, this was a pretty funny idea three years ago when I came up with it.

NOW, Of course, we know that tsunamis are not funny AT ALL, and that they are absolutely, terrifyingly, horrifically destructive. I thought that I should just skip this gag and not show it, but then John Martz had a blog post yesterday about a bunch of artists who are donating their art for an auction in which 100% of the money raised goes to AmeriCares to help with Japanese earthquake and tsunami relief.

So I decided to post this after all, to let you all know about the auction! All the pieces are listed on eBay and there is some really great stuff in there. If you like my illustrations and comics, I have no doubt you will find something that you will want to bid on. Especially for such a good cause! Some of the auctions are running out soon, so please head over and check it out. I already placed my bid, and just in case I don't win, I donated some money to the AmeriCares link above as well. Please think about doing the same!

Next week, I will have something slightly less embarrassing to post! (I hope!)

Nickelodeon Gag #13

2011-05-11T04:47:00.000-04:00

Well, you guessed it! This week I have another gag from Nickelodeon Magazine. This was one of four gags that was approved in my last successful pitch, which was in 2008. It's a scene from a picnic, which is potentially topical, now that spring has finally sprung up here in Vermont! I'm sure someone out there is having a picnic.

There are three more gags to go! Then I will be changing things up a bit around here.

Nickelodeon Gag #12

2011-05-05T09:10:00.002-04:00

Okay, we've made it all the way into my 2008 gags for Nickelodeon Magazine. This was the only gag of twelve that I sent them, which was approved in January of 2008. I guess I was getting rusty or something. Anyway, I thought this one about a forbidden love was pretty funny, so I was glad that it made the cut:

I've only got one more batch of gags to share, and they should be wrapped up by early June. Then I'll have some new work up here. I'm hoping to jump back into the 100 watercolor challenge this summer!

DRAGONS! Covers

2011-04-28T15:44:00.000-04:00

Each year for the last three years, my buddy Greg over at Tugboat Press has ganged together with a few other Portland-based publishers to make an anthology for Free Comic Book Day. This year, he asked me to help him put together a free comics and activity book for kids, called DRAGONS!

The first person I told Greg we had to get for the book, was one of my favorite illustrators working these days, Dan Moynihan. He came up with this brilliant dragon image for the back cover:

I love the playfulness and spontaneity of Dan's drawing style. I could stare at his illustrations all day long, and they inspire me to keep trying to loosen up my drawings. Before you read another word of this post, I insist you go take a look at his wonderful work.

Well, after Dan turned in that image, the pressure was on! I had to come up with something fun, that could hold its own, on the other side of such a great back cover. Lately, I have been completely obsessed with Carl Barks (or really, for my whole life) and so his cover designs were at the forefront of my thoughts while I started sketching out ideas. I liked how many of his covers had a simple gag on a uniformly colored background. That was the kind of comics cover that I grew up looking at.

With that style in mind, I sketched up some ideas and sent them along to Greg.

Greg thought these were okay, but none of them were getting across the whole idea of the book, which was that it was jam-packed with puzzles and mazes and gag cartoons and comics and all kinds of other fun stuff. He said he wanted something a bit more like my Microcosm Publishing catalog cover with lots of different characters doing all kinds of things. Once he gave me that feedback, the finished cover idea just jumped out of my pencil. It incorporates a lot of characters from my upcoming (in 2012!) webcomic Isle of Elsi. We both immediately liked this version a lot better. Here's the final!

DRAGONS! features a 15-page comics story by yours truly, plus gag cartoons, mazes, connect-the-dots, puzzles, craft activities, poems, dragon-libs and all kinds of other fun stuff. You can get a full run-down of all the contributors on my other blog. DRAGONS! will be available in select comic book stores on Free Comic Book Day, which is May 7th this year, and I will be sending copies out to all the Phase 7 subscribers this summer.

Nickelodeon Gag #11

2011-04-22T17:08:00.001-04:00

Aw man, I thought I was going to have enough time this week to do an extra-cool blog post, but alas, I'm still playing catch-up from my recent trips to New York and Portland, Orgeon. Next week, I promise!

Instead, this week I have another beaver gag for you all! This was the last 2007 gag of mine that was accepted and run in Nickelodeon Magazine.

It was pretty fun trying to get across the multiple paddle hits (similar to Neville Longbottom's legs in this illustration I did of him). You can see me struggling with the no-frame idea here. I tried ending the composition at the edge of the table, but somehow without the legs it didn't feel like ping pong. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, it seemed right to give the beaver a jersey with Oregon State University colors. Go beavers!

Okay, next week we'll take a break from the gags and take a look at some other illustration stuff I have done recently! Have a great weekend everyone.

Nickelodeon Gag #10

2011-04-13T09:26:00.000-04:00

Alas, it'll have to be another short post this week. Luckily, this gag pretty much explains itself! It was the tenth gag of mine which was run in Nickelodeon Magazine, back in 2007. You get the idea.

Okay, well, I'm heading out the door again, this time for the Stumptown Comics Festival in Portland, Oregon. Please swing by and say hello if you live in that neck of the woods!

Nickelodeon Gag #9

2011-04-06T18:34:00.001-04:00

Here is my ninth gag which was accepted by Nickelodeon Magazine in 2007. You can see me still struggling with the new "no box" concept here, but even just having the UniCORN (and its lunch) break that bottom line creates more depth, don't you think?

I'm afraid it'll have to be a short post this week, I'm off to New York City tomorrow for the MoCCA Arts Festival. I'll be at table H-10 all weekend long. Swing by and say hello if you are in the area!

Nickelodeon Gag #8

2011-03-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

In 2007, I graduated from Pratt Institute's AOS illustration program, with highest honors. I worked harder during those two years than I had ever worked at anything else in my life. I learned so much about illustration and drawing and painting and ART.

After graduating, I decided to stay in New York for one additional year, to try and support myself as a freelance illustrator. I wanted to see if I could put my newly honed skills to use! Needless to say, that was one of the most stressful years of my life (thus far!).

I drew up a budget and discovered that I had to make $66 dollars a day to pay for my rent, food, student loans and all my other expenses (cell phone, MTA card, internet access, etc. etc. etc.) And if I didn't make $66 dollars on a day, I had to make $132 the next day, or $198 the next day. You get the idea. After freaking out for a few weeks, I finally decided that the only way to survive was to blindly believe that I was INVINCIBLE.

There were no windows in my room in Bushwick, so it was easy to tape pieces of paper up all over one of my walls. Each piece of paper was an idea category: "Teaching" "Illustration" "Comics" etc. I tried to think of any possible way I could use my illustration skills to make money. (You can see a list of everything I did to make money that year in my lecture notes from Your Comics Will Love You Back).

Obviously, one of the first things I did during this time, was send in a new batch of gag ideas to Chris Duffy and Dave Roman, over at Nickelodeon Magazine. Unbelievably, it had been eight months since I had last pitched them anything, a sure sign that things had gotten awfully busy during that home stretch at Pratt.

They approved three of the eleven gags I sent them, but this time, in addition to the written email response, I also received this hand-drawn piece of advice from Chris, or "Professor Science K. Duffy" as Dave referred to him in the email.

This was such a simple piece of advice, I almost felt ashamed that it had never occurred to me to leave the box off my gags. I think because I spend most of my time drawing comics, I was approaching each "single panel gag" as just that: a single PANEL of comics. But that's not how gag cartoons are drawn! I mean look at ANY GAG. They are ALL vignettes! And always have been!

Once I had this pointed out to me, it was almost painful to look at my old gags. Imagine how much more dynamic the Octo-goalie gag would have been, if those soccer balls had been bursting forward towards the reader, instead of being cut off by the unnecessary panel border. Oh well! There was no turning back, so I had to just press on and try out this new technique on my future gags. Below is the final gag Chris referred to in his advice.

See how much BETTER that is?! See how nicely it sits on the page? With the sky blending into the paper tone? See how the negative space heightens the gag? There should be a telephone pole there! But poor ol' Wally just couldn't resist. This gag was also my first beaver gag, of which I ended up with many. For some reason I think beavers are like the funniest animals around, so get ready of more gags in the same vein.

ANYWAY, that was my gag epiphany! Thank you Chris Duffy. And if any of you are ever drawing a gag cartoon, think outside the box!

National Geographic Kids Gags #4 & #5

2011-03-24T07:51:00.002-04:00

This week I thought I'd post my last two gags that I drew for National Geographic Kids in 2007.

The first gag was published in the June 2008 issue, and plays off one of my favorite animal facts; that cheetahs can run like sixty miles an hour. I remember reading about that once as a kid, and then whenever I was in the car with my parents, driving on the freeway, I would think, "a cheetah could pass us right now!" But what if the cheetah was going too fast?

The second gag was printed in the May 2008 issue, and it's pretty straightforward. Bats hanging upside down is funny, right?

I should apologize here for my very North-America-centric view of the world. When I was in Australia in 2002, I remember seeing these maps of the world for sale in various shops that had all the continents printed "up-side-down" so that Australia was at the top and center of the map. Really, with a spinning orb, floating in space, it's all pretty relative! Have you heard of the Peter's Projection Map?

Next week I will FINALLY post the "gag epiphany" I was talking about a few weeks ago, and you will see a drastic change in my approach to gag making!

National Geographic Kids Gag #3

2011-03-17T09:53:00.000-04:00

Okay, this week we finally pass into my 2007 gag work! Here is another one that I drew for National Geographic Kids which was published in their June 2008 issue.

As you can see in the sketch below, I originally had a different caption for this gag, which the editors had me change (for the better, I think).

I'm not crazy about the composition for either of these drawings, but what can I say? I've learned a lot since 2007! Next week we'll wrap up the National Geographic gags and then we can finally get back to the Gag Epiphany I was talking about a few weeks ago!

National Geographic Kids Gag #2

2011-03-10T11:57:00.000-05:00

Okay, here is my second gag that I drew for National Geographic Kids back in 2006. It was published two years later in the May 2008 issue. My favorite part of this one is that the poodle teacher is wearing a poodle skirt! I wonder how many kids picked up on that...

While I'm posting these gags I'm slowly but surely working on some other illustration projects AND original content for this blog, which I'll start posting some time this summer when I have a bit more time on my hands. Right now I'm busy working on the next issue of Drop Target Zine, two issues of Phase 7 and I'm also teaching up a storm at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Busy busy!

National Geographic Kids Gag #1

2011-03-03T07:04:00.001-05:00

Whoops, the "gag epiphany" I spoke of last week will have to wait for a few more posts. This week I (very carfefully!) reread my old gag contracts with National Geographic Kids, and it looks like the rights for those gags have also reverted back to me, so I'll be posting them here. In keeping with a chronological presentation of my "gag career" (thus far!) I'll post a few more that I drew in 2006, before we move on to 2007. I hope people are enjoying these gags!

Here was my first gag for National Geographic Kids, which wasn't actually published until June of 2008:

I often feel like this old spider, complaining to my students about the internet! Originally that little spider had fangs, but they made me take them out, and for some reason I was to remove the "ball hands" from the grandpa, but it was okay to leave them on the kid spider. National Geographic preferred to credit me in type on the published page, so my signature has been added here.

This was another great gag gig that I found out about through my friend Karen Sneider (who now does gags for the New Yorker!?!). 2006 was a pretty exciting time for me, getting gags printed in two major magazines. I guess I got to enjoy those last couple years of the magazine heyday, before stuff started closing down. Unless I'm mistaken, I think National Geographic Kids is still running though!

Nickelodeon Gag #7

2011-02-25T12:18:00.000-05:00

This was the last of my 2006 gags, which were printed in Nickelodeon Magazine. In my mind I always called it "Octagolie."

This one is a bit embarrassing for me to look at, because it's so obvious to me now how to make it a more exciting image... but more about that NEXT week, when I'll talk about my big "gag epiphany" and we'll move on into my 2007 gags.

One small area of improvement in this gag, is that I finally reversed my signature out of a background area with pure color, instead of putting a white stroke around it, as I had previously done. It's a small thing, but it makes the signature easier to read and a lot cleaner, graphically speaking.

The other big breakthrough for me on this gag was how to properly draw a soccer ball! Before this drawing, I thought a soccer ball was a series of hexagons. But after an hour of trying to make that work on the page, I finally looked at some reference photos and discovered that a soccer ball is actually a black PENTAGON, surrounded by white hexagons. Who knew?!

A Crane for Galen

2011-02-22T14:42:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, my sister Galen sent me this photo of her writing desk, and all of the art that is hung above it, some of which I drew, and some of which is by other folks.

Mainly she sent me this photo so I could see where she hung the Christmas present I got for her, which was the original art for the cover of her first published picture book, Yes Let's which was drawn by the extremely talented Maris Wicks. You can see the black and white line drawing on the top left (in the green frame), which I bought from Maris at SPX last year. Here's how it actually looks on the cover of the book, in wonderful full color:

There are a ton of places you can order this book, which are all listed on the Tugboat Press website (including at Powell's!) and of course I'm biased, but I highly recommend that people pick up this book. It's about a family making a day trip out into nature. Galen wrote it in delightful rhymes and Maris's illustrations add a lot to the story and will have you smiling through the whole thing. Anyway, highly highly recommended.

Another item on Galen's wall is a crane that I drew for her a few years ago when she was living in Portland, Oregon. At the time, she was really fascinated with cranes, so I drew this for her birthday. I think during this period she also wrote an alphabet book all about cranes and their many parts. I've never read it, but hopefully some day that will see the light of day!

Nickelodeon Gag #6

2011-02-18T15:15:00.000-05:00

Here is the sixth one-panel gag of mine that was printed in Nickelodeon Magazine way back in 2006:

My inspiration for this gag was the Ying Yang symbol. At first, I was trying really hard to balance everything out on opposite sides of the water line. Here is the original sketch, which had a MINE in the bottom right corner, to balance out the sun. Obviously, I was asked to take that out, so I replaced it with my signature.

Nickelodeon Gag #5

2011-02-10T17:32:00.001-05:00

My sisters and I grew up in Seattle, Washington and when we were kids back in the 80s, we would often drive by the Rainer Veterinary Hospital when we went to pick our Dad up after work. On the street by the building, they have TWO fire hydrants, one painted blue with a "HIS" sign on top, and the other painted pink, with a "HERS" sign. They are still there! I was able to grab a low-res photo of them using Google Street View:

This was always HILARIOUS to me when I was a kid, so I adapted the idea for a gag for Nickelodeon Magazine, back in 2006:

Ramen Music #3 Cover

2011-02-04T19:48:00.002-05:00

My friend Sudara's newest creative endeavor Ramen Music is still going strong. He is currently paying musicians $150 for new tracks, which he groups together into "issues" which are then available for download to paying subscribers. Anyone can listen to the music for free, streaming online. The more subscribers he gets, the more he pays for each track. Needless to say, this is one of the coolest distribution models for music in use today. No one's getting screwed over, and it is a great chance to hear some original music.

Above and beyond all that, each issue is also beautifully designed. There is a cover image (I drew the image for issue one, remember?) and then Sudara and his team design a sort of digital music player/interactive liner note webpage which is extremely pleasant to scroll through / read / listen to. Here is the link for Ramen Music Issue One, if you want to go experience it.

The cover for Ramen Music Issue Two was done by the incredibly talented Lisa Hanawalt, and then the cover for Ramen Music Issue Three (which just came out today!) was done by yours truly. The theme for this issue was Beats, Drums and Rhythms, so this six-sticked, drumming octopus seemed appropriate:

I really can't recommend this music enough. You really should go give it a listen! And if you are a musician, Ramen Music is looking for new tracks for the next issue, so you should send them your stuff!

Nickelodeon Gag #4

2011-01-28T10:58:00.000-05:00

This semester at the Center for Cartoon Studies, I am co-teaching Thesis Seminar II with the amazing Steve Bissette. Each week, Steve brings in some sort of contract or legal paperwork from his long and distinguished freelance career, for the students to look over and learn from. Last week we were talking about Submission Agreements. Steve's advice was to never sign one of these documents, because it basically states that none of your ideas are original, and gives the publisher the ability to steal your ideas without compensating you (and he had some stories where just such a horrible thing had happened to friends of his).

Now, Nickelodeon Magazine was owned by Viacom, one of the largest TV corporations in the world. And so, before anyone at the magazine could even LOOK at any of my gag ideas, I HAD to sign a submission agreement. I knew however, that my editors Chris and Dave were good guys and that a TON of other cartoonists I respected and admired had worked for Nick Mag, so I wasn't worried about them stealing my ideas. The way I interpreted the wording of the submission agreement, was that they have so many people submitting ideas, they might receive the same idea from multiple people, so you can't sue them if your idea appears from another person. And that very thing happened to me more than once when I was drawing gags for Nickelodeon. I'm sure it happened all the time, because gag ideas are often so simple.

As an example, here is a gag that I submitted to Nickelodeon on July 5th, 2006:

Then, on January 24th, 2007 Graham Annable posted this hilarious video on YouTube, which uses the exact same gag concept:

MY werewolf astronaut gag was "banked" (turned in to Nickelodeon, but saved for a later issue) so it did not see print until AFTER Graham's video hit the internet. At first, I was very self-conscious, that people would think I stole his idea, but eventually I realized that this kind of thing happens a lot.

As another example, here was a gag idea that I submitted to Nickelodeon a few months before the werewolf gag, in 2006:

I was pretty surprised when this gag was not approved, because it seemed like a surefire winner. It had a solid DOUBLE pun and a reference to Harry Potter which was at its all time highest popularity. But a month after I submitted this idea, there was a two page spread in an issue of Nick Mag where there were all kinds of characters doing strange things, and the reader was supposed to figure out which movies they were referencing. And there, in the corner, was a Hairy Potter!

Each issue of Nick Mag was prepared many months in advance, so there's no way they could have taken my idea, it's just that someone else thought of the same joke!

Guide Magazine and Gag #3

2011-01-23T17:41:00.000-05:00

Last summer at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina I met an incredibly talented illustrator named Brandon Reese. A few weeks after the show, he dropped me a line to see if I'd like to do some illustration work for Guide Magazine, where he works as an art director. I said "Yes!" and we got to work. It was a real pleasure working with an art director who was also a working illustrator. He made my job easy and didn't noodle with things or ask for a ton of changes.

Anyway, when I came home from Florida the other week, there were two copies of the magazine in my mail with my illustration on page one! I drew this wintery image during the summer, when it was hot, so it seems VERY appropriate that it arrived in January (the low in Vermont today was 19 below zero!). Below you can see the finished illustration and a small scan of the magazine spread, so you can see how it was used.

I really enjoyed working on this drawing. It's not often that I get to just read a story and come up with an illustration to enhance it. I would love to do more of this kind of work in the future. Also, since I knew it would be printed in full color, it gave me a chance to try a new rendering method for snow, which was to overlay a sheet of dots (drawn with a sharpie and a lightbox) and just color them white with Photoshop. It was MUCH faster than The Basewood Method, but I still think I probably spent about an hour moving around individual snowflakes, to avoid weird tangents. That stuff is important!

Lastly, here is another gag that was originally published in Nickelodeon Magazine way back in 2006. This was my third one, and as you can see here, it shows how much I love a good pun!

A Florida-themed post

2011-01-15T12:21:00.000-05:00

Claire and I just got back from a trip to Florida, where we went to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which was totally awesome. This morning it was -8 degrees in Vermont, so I thought I'd post a few Florida-esque illustrations so I could reminisce about our last few days spent in that warmer locale!

First up is a T-Shirt that I designed for a trip my cousin's swim team took to Florida!

If this looks somewhat familiar, it's because I designed a T-shirt last year for the same group! Click here to check the design from 2009.

Secondly, I wanted to post another gag that originally appeared in Nickelodeon Magazine (RIP). This one is about a roller coaster, of which there were many in Universal Studios...

To this day, I still think this is probably the funniest gag I ever came up with. And let me tell you, after riding a few roller coasters in Harry Potter land, I felt just like that poor bottle of soda!

Okay, I've got a bunch of other cool stuff lined up, so I'll try to keep posting every week. I hope those of you who AREN'T in Florida are staying warm!

Organizational Overhaul!

2011-01-09T13:37:00.000-05:00

Oh man, I just spent the last two days going through this ENTIRE BLOG and the illustration section of my Flickr account, to get the two to sync up! Before when you clicked on an image in this blog, it would take you to an empty page with just the image, sometimes blown up, sometimes at the same size. NOW when you click on (almost) any image in the blog, it will take you to the corresponding page for that image in my Flickr account, so you can view it larger, favorite it, share it, etc. etc. etc. The only images that WON'T do this are process drawings, or sketchbook things or little images that I use for news posts. Basically there is now a Flickr set for each label on this blog.

Here, I'll show you how it works! While I was going through my Flickr account, I realized that I never posted these album covers that I drew for the Harry Potter Alliance. (You can still download this compilation for FREE at www.stopbigmedia.com/potterwatch/ )

The other nice thing about this set-up is that it allows me to post the images a little bit bigger than I was before. I also changed the design of the actual blog, to accommodate the width (though I know most of you are probably reading this via RSS).

Anyway, I found a few other things in my Flickr that I never posted in here, so I will be posting those soon, along with more gags and some other recent illustration stuff I have been doing. There's a lot more on the way, so keep checking back!

Nickelodeon Magazine Gags!

2011-01-04T13:41:00.002-05:00

The last issue of Nickelodeon Magazine was released in December 2009. I frequently contributed gags to Nickelodeon Magazine from 2006 to 2009. I even had one in the very last issue! The amazingly fair contract that Chris Duffy and Dave Roman always had me sign, stipulated that Nickelodeon had the publishing rights for these gags for a period of one year, at which point all rights reverted back to me.

Well, it's been more than a year since the last issue, which means that ALL of my gags are now mine again, to do with as I see fit! So I thought I would post them in here, one a week, since I suspect MOST of you never got to see these in print. And so, here was my first ever gag for Nickelodeon:

I landed my first gag assignment through my friend Karen Sneider, who is easily my favorite living gag cartoonist. She did so many great gags for Nickelodeon and now she's doing gags for The New Yorker (!?!) She told me that Nickelodeon always needed Desert Island Gags, so I always tried to throw in a few of those with my submissions. On this one I guess I was channeling that old Bugs Bunny joke about digging tunnels to get somewhere, and then ending up in the weirdest places.

The coloring and layout of this gag are both pretty crude, but you'll see as I post more, I got better and better at it, thanks to some expert advice from Chris and Dave, the two best editors I ever worked with. Well, there's more on the way! I'll keep posting gags one a week until I run out.

Claire's Dumbledore Portrait

2010-12-31T17:00:00.003-05:00

Since it is the holidays, I thought I would post some photos of a gift I painted for my girlfriend Claire last year. It was a portrait of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the greatest headmaster that Hogwarts ever had. First I bought this old antique gold frame, and then I painted his portrait, using some special "Wizard Paints" that I ordered from a shop in Diagon Alley.

Claire and I were both amazed how well the Wizard Paints worked, because from time to time Dumbledore will get up to visit his other portrait frame in the headmaster's office at hogwarts!

Claire moved in with me a few months ago, so this painting now rests above the head of our bed. It's nice to know that Dumbledore is watching over us as we sleep, unless he is away tending to other important matters!

Happy New Years everyone. Let's hope 2011 is a good one. I'll do my best to post on here more regularly, so that you don't all have to wait until next winter to see what I've been working on all year.

Weezer Memories Tour VIP Posters

2010-12-15T13:09:00.002-05:00

There's no way for me to know what the rest of my illustration career will hold, but I DO know that this year I got to draw the two coolest illustrations I will probably ever get to do. Yes, as the title of this post says, I got to draw two posters for my all-time favorite band, WEEZER.

This summer, I got to go backstage at a Weezer concert in Vermont, which was easily one of the coolest nights of my life (the above link is a 3,000 word summary of the show). After years of correspondence, I got to finally meet Karl Koch that night, who runs their website, documents and archives all kinds of information about the band, and in general, keeps the Weezer world turning.

Well, a few weeks after the show, I got an email from Karl, asking if I would like to design two posters for Weezer's upcoming "Memories" tour. The idea for the tour is that Weezer plays two nights in each city, and on the first night they play a bunch of hits and then close by playing the ENTIRE Blue Album from start to finish. Then the next night they do the same thing but play ALL of Pinkerton. So NOT ONLY did they want me to do some illustrations for my favorite band, but they wanted me to focus on my two favorite albums of theirs. This was a dream assignment, if ever there was one.

For the tour, Weezer is partnering with I Love All Access to offer these amazing VIP packages, which (for $500 a ticket!) include a meet and greet with the band, front row seats and some exclusive merchandise, including my posters! Since most of you probably can't afford those rates, here are some .JPEGs for you to enjoy instead (click to make bigger).

The deadline for this project was pretty tight, so Karl suggested I start with some other illustrations I had been making for Weezer (more on that later!) and put them in a grid - one illustration for each song. If you don't know every word to every song on these albums, I'm afraid most of these will go over your head, but I was assuming that people who are paying $500 for a ticket will get the inside jokes!

Initially the posters were in full color, but then Karl suggested I limit the palette, which I did, based on the cover art of each album (I also carefully matched all of the lettering from both albums). Then as a last step, Karl showed the posters to Rivers for final approval. Rivers asked us to hide a secret message in the posters, which I did. Needless to say, it was SUPER cool to have his input!!!

For payment, I received some money, but MORE IMPORTANTLY, tickets to the New York stop of the Memories tour! Claire and I are heading down to the city on Thursday and this weekend we are going to ROCK OUT, old school Weezer style!

Baby Nogard for Sam

2010-12-05T13:29:00.002-05:00

At the end of last school year, the CCS operations manager, Valerie Fleisher, gave birth to her first child, Sam. Here's Sam with his Mom a few months later, at the 2010 CCS graduation party.

Because CCS is a school full of cartoonists, our boss James asked us all to make some drawings for Sam, which he collected in a book and gave to Val after Sam was born. I decided to make a drawing of my Nogard the Dragon character as a baby, sort of like the Muppet Babies or Tiny Toons or something. I tried my best to make it as cute as possible!

L'âge Dur Guest Drawing

2010-11-28T08:01:00.007-05:00

Another project that my Belgian friend Max de Radiugès recently wrapped up, was his minicomic series "l'âge dur" or, "the difficult age." Each minicomic contained a short story about a teenager, and all of the stuff that happens to people at that age. They were drawn straight to ink, as a relaxing, fun project for Max to work on while he was taking a break from his big book "Demi" which he is ALSO wrapping up (he's a busy guy these days, can you tell?)

On the inside cover of each issue, Max has a guest artist draw a moment from those difficult teenage years. I was honored to be asked to make a drawing for the very last issue. I chose to depict one of my most important teenage moments - sitting in the back of my Chevy station wagon, during lunch hour, in the high school parking lot, on September 24th, 1996, listening to Weezer's "pinkerton" for the very first time. If you've never heard this album, I suggest you check out the deluxe edition, which was just released. I believe it is one of the most incredible albums ever created.

A collection of all the L'âge Dur minicomics (plus a few new stories!) will be out in January 2011 from L'employé du Moi.

Before the Catastrophe

2010-11-21T09:00:00.008-05:00

For a long time, my Belgian cartoonist friend Max de Radiguès was making a series of drawings from life, which he called "Before the Catastrophe." Each drawing is labeled with some amount of time before the catastrophe (ie. "three days before the catastrophe") which gives the whole series a sense of impending doom.

Another Belgian self-publisher, Nicolas Verstappen (who works at the amazing BD shop La Bulle d'Or) decided to make the 20th issue of his comics interview zine XeroXed a tribute to this project, and collected "catastrophe" drawings from a variety of other cartoonists. If you understand French, you can read more about it on this page. Here was my contribution:

This is a drawing of my Grandparents' bed, in Charlottesville, VA. I traveled there this summer to attend my Grandfather's funeral. At the time, the deadline for this illustration was getting closer and closer, so I thought I would make a drawing of his bed from life. However, the weekend was very hectic, so I had to settle for drawing this from a photograph, after the fact.

In this drawing, the bed is unchanged from how it was during the last night that my Grandfather spent in it. The portrait on his bedside table is of my Grandmother, who died lying in this exact same spot, four months later.

NEXT WEEK: Something a little less depressing!

Rebecca Engelberg & Matthew Witcher Wedding Invites: Part 2

2010-11-14T09:01:00.003-05:00

If you've ever been involved with the planning of a wedding, you know that more than one invitation needs to be sent out! Below are a few more invitations that I designed for Rebecca and Matt's wedding. The first one is for the rehearsal dinner, which was held at the Chinese Cultural Plaza. Rebecca said she wanted Chinese lanterns, so I drew these, and used Google Translate to look up the symbols for "Happiness" and "Love" which I put on the lanterns.

There was a brunch the morning after the wedding that also required an invitation. I was drawing a blank about what image to use, and then for some reason, the idea of using a hermit crab came to me (maybe because my sisters and I had a pet hermit crab when we were little?) He sort of fit with the beach theme, and I hoped that the continued use of hand-lettering and a similar format would tie everything together. Supposedly a lot of people wrote in to say how much they liked this little guy!

Lastly, they needed an RSVP card. I had some lame idea, which I can't remember now, but Rebecca had the great idea of using a message in a bottle. This made it very easy on me, and I knocked out the rest of the invitation, no problem.

Next week... something entirely different!

Rebecca Engelberg & Matthew Witcher Wedding Invites: Part 1

2010-11-07T09:07:00.004-05:00

Wow, three and a half months without a post on this blog?! I've drawn lots of illustrations in that time, I just haven't had the time to post them! I'm going to try and get caught up with my posting during these last few weeks of 2010, so that I end up with more than the pathetic 11 posts I had last year.

This week I'll be talking about some wedding invitations that I made for my oldest family friends, the Engelbergs. Their daughter Rebecca asked me to design the invitations for her and her fiance (now husband) Matthew. Rebecca sent me a lot of ideas from various wedding magazines and websites, but said this was her favorite:

UPDATE: I finally found out this beautiful invitation was designed by Anna Bond who makes custom wedding invitations at Rifle Paper Co. She also has an awesome design blog - go check out her work!

I always feel weird when clients ask me to base an illustration off of another, but it does save me a lot of time, and in the end, I always change enough, that I'm using the original piece as inspiration more than just copying it. But it still doesn't feel quite right... Anyway, here's the sketch that I sent to Rebecca and Matthew:

Rebecca and Matt were married in Hawaii, so I added a beach with a palm tree, Diamond Head in the background and instead of animals, I changed it to a single heart constellation. The initial design was 2-color (blue and black) but Rebecca and Matt decided they wanted the design to be in full color, so they could incorporate some orange, which was the wedding color. Here's the final design, which you can click to make bigger:

Next week I'll show some of the other invitations that I designed for this wedding!

Ramen Music #1 Cover

2010-07-22T21:46:00.007-04:00

Today, my old friend Sudara launched RamenMusic.com which is one of the coolest ideas for a music website ever. It's going to be kind of like a bi-monthly music anthology and it takes the standard music business model (where the label keeps almost all of the money, and the artist gets very little) and turns it on its head. You can read a lot more about it on the site, and you should, because Sudara is one of the most brilliant guys I've ever met. (He's also the mastermind behind aLoneTone.com if you've heard of that).

So when Sudara came to me at the beginning of this year and asked if I would like to do some art for Ramen Music, I LEAPED at the chance. It met all of my criteria for an illustration DREAM job:

1) I got to work with a close friend, whom I respect and admire.
2) I had complete creative control. (the only requirement was that the images somehow related to music)
3) The illustration would be used to help a project that I really believed in, and wanted to succeed.

Below is the first cover I drew, which they will be using for the very first "issue" of Ramen Music, which will be out in September.

I did four other covers, which I will post as they are used on the site. For now, please go check out RamenMusic.com You can sign up for a subscription, or if you are a musician, you can submit your songs for review. If they are accepted, you will be paid well for your work!

Liz Prince Thank-You Paintings

2010-06-30T14:21:00.005-04:00

As some of you might have seen on on my other blog, I recently bought a Pinball machine. This all came about because of my good friend Liz Prince, who put me in touch with the previous owner of the pinball machine. Not only that, but Liz also introduced me to my amazing girlfriend Claire. Liz ALSO put me up at her place a number of times while I was visiting Claire's family in Santa Fe, traveling to a comic convention and buying the pinball machine. I therefore decided that a thank-you painting (or two) was in order!

I decided to take a leaf out of Gabby's book of tricks and try to do paintings of Liz's two cats, Wolf Man and Dracula, whom she loves very dearly. Step one was to find some reference of Liz's cats, which was super easy, because Liz has tons of pictures of her cats up in a Flickr set. Below is an example (can you guess which cat is which?)

Next, I wanted to get some reference from some old monster movies, because Liz had no Wolf Man or Dracula MONSTER stuff in her apartment. I found some old posters with really great hand lettering:

Next I drew the cats, and the lettering, then lightboxed them onto some watercolor paper and painted them. I used some Martin's Dyes for the lettering and bases, to really make the color pop. This is not the best scan in the world, and as you can see, I'm no Gabby Schulz, but you get the idea. (Click on the image to make it bigger!)

I waited for a few days, and didn't hear back from Liz... I was starting to get worried that the paintings might have gotten lost in the mail. Then, one day I found a letter from Liz in the mail! (Click on the image to make it readable!)

You're welcome Liz. Thank YOU! So yeah, if somehow you don't already know, Liz is a really great cartoonist. You should totally go take a spin around her site, LizPrincePower.com It's got an awesome art section, with tons and tons of her comics posted online for FREE, and there is also a store section, where you can buy all of Liz's minicomics (including her BRAND NEW comic, I Swallowed the Key to My Heart #1). She's one of my favorite cartoonists, so if you haven't already, you should definitely go check out her work!

"Eat to a New Beat" comic

2010-05-19T20:27:00.005-04:00

My old buddy Ezra Claytan Daniels contacted me a few weeks ago about doing some comics for a cool new site he built, for a campaign called Eat to a New Beat. The idea is to get kids and teens to eat more healthfully by making it seem cool through comics, movies and other internet hijinks. You can check out my comic, and comics by my friends Aaron, Nate and Sarah on their Comics page and there are even little mini-interviews with us too!
Also, I've been working on some other small illustrations lately, so hopefully I'll be posting those in the coming weeks. Until then!

Microcosm Catalogs are in Print!

2010-03-25T18:11:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I got a whole box full of the new 2010 Microcosm Publishing Catalogs. They look great! I'm really happy with how they turned out. The 2-color printing looks pretty rad on the newsprint. They ended up using the Wolf spot illustration, but not the dragon one, oh well!

Claire sent me this photo, showing a copy she found in her local coffee shop in Oakland, CA. And Nate said he saw some a few weeks ago at the Chicago Zine Fest, so these things are OUT there! You can get one for 1 cent over at Microcosm Publishing or I'm sure they'll throw one in ANY order you place for the rest of this year. I'll also have copies to give away at a bunch of comics shows this year, so check it out!

Nate Beaty Thank-You Painting

2010-03-19T09:38:00.006-04:00

I made this little watercolor for my good friend Nate Beaty, who helped me update my personal site when he was visiting a few weeks back. This, hot off the heels of his massive Top Shelf overhaul. Nate spends A LOT of time on the computer and one of the main themes in his comics work is his hatred for the machines, so this image seemed like something he might like.
I'm still focused pretty heavily on comics and teaching right now, but I HAVE done some illustrations recently, so once they are public, I will post them here!

Links!

2010-02-18T00:08:00.005-05:00

I finally put some links into the sidebar of this blog. I split them up into three sections: 1) Homies - other friends of mine who are illustrators, including some of my classmates from the Pratt illustration program. Making this list made me realize that I need to create an updated links page on my comics site so that I can list all of the AWESOME cartoonists I know, which would be a list THREE times as long as this one. 2) Leaders - these are contemporary illustrators, whose work I admire the most. 3) The Greats - in my opinion, these are some of the greatest illustrators who ever lived!

If you see some unfamiliar names on there, please follow the links, they are all highly recommended!

2010

2010-02-08T21:01:00.006-05:00

Here is an illustration I drew for the archive of 2010 blog posts on my personal site. I create one of these each year, and with each one I try to visually show what is in store for the upcoming year. Well, in 2010 I'm pretty excited about Pinball (though astute followers of the silver ball should immediately notice something wrong with this playfield design) and I'm going to be working pretty hard on my personal life, as well my professional life.
I thought this post was going to be all about how I'm trying to stay focused on comics this year, so I can finish up the next chapter of Basewood. I thought there wouldn't be many illustrations coming out of me this year, but a few 2010 illustration projects have already reared their heads, so I guess I'll be posting some stuff on here after all!

Swim Team T-Shirt

2009-12-01T18:07:00.007-05:00

I recently designed this 3-color t-shirt for a swim team that my Cousin coaches. They are making a trip down to Florida for some intensive training, so I thought it would be good to have a 'gator gag.

AlecLongstreth.com redesign!

2009-11-22T00:35:00.006-05:00

Well, after many weeks of toil, I am finally ready to reveal my totally redesigned illustration portfolio website! For those of you actually viewing this blog at its URL, you can just hit some of the new navigation links at the top of the page, and for those of you reading this from an RSS reader, just follow this link!

When I first sat down to redesign the site, I was having trouble trying to figure out what image I wanted to use for homepage. I wanted it to really reflect me and the kind of illustrations I want to be doing. Luckily, I remembered an old piece of advice that Aaron always used to tell the CCS summer workshop students: "you have to draw what you LOVE!" And well, I love drawing wizards and dragons and tree forts. So I cast myself as the wizard and then tried to fill my imaginary tree fort with as many personally meaningful objects as I could, so the space would reflect me. I really like how the image came out, and I don't think there is anyone else on earth (besides me) who could fully understand what every object in the drawing means to me.
Anyway, if you have a minute, take a lap around the new site and please let me know if you find any bugs! ALSO: a huge thanks (as usual) to Nate Beaty for some last minute help tightening up my coding!

Microcosm Publishing 2010 Catalog - Spot Illustrations

2009-11-20T13:20:00.001-05:00

As promised, here are the spot illustrations that I did for the upcoming 2010 Microcosm Publishing Catalog. Again, these feature characters from the Isle of Elsi book I'm working on. If you're curious, you can check out their first story over at Dark Horse Presents. The first spot shows Draziw the Wizard making some zines with his wand. If only it was that easy!

Next we have Nogard the Dragon and R.J. Jr. delivering some zines!

And lastly, for good measure, some of the 'ites (as I call them - actually Stalagmites and Stalactites) mailing off a letter. It looks like some zinesters had their way with that mail box!

This one isn't actually going to make it into the catalog, but I thought I'd post it just the same. It depicts one of the wolves giving a ROCK show for all the 'ites. ;)

I'm almost done wrapping up a big illustration project, which I will post on here as soon as it's done. There's more on the way!

Microcosm Publishing 2010 Catalog - Cover!

2009-11-13T19:22:00.002-05:00

I recently finished up some illustrations for the 2010 Microcosm Publishing Catalog. I thought I'd share the cover image this week and some spot illustrations next week!
For those of you that don't know, Microcosm Publishing is a super awesome zine distributor and publisher. They've been carrying my Phase 7 Comics for years and they have published books by some of my best comics friends. When they asked me if I wanted to draw the cover, they said that I could draw pretty much whatever I wanted, and that it was going to be printed with two colors (score!) I decided to use some of my Isle of Elsi characters from my Dark Horse Presents story that was released back in May.
There have been some great Microcosm Catalog covers in the past, so the first thing I did was look at those to see how some of the other illustrators handled the two color look. I especially liked the ones by my friends Liz Baillie and Sarah Oleksyk but instead of dropping the second color into a black line drawing, I wanted to try and utilize the second color throughout the illustration, so that I could get a variety of lighting and texture effects. Here's what I came up with! (click for a larger view)

Now all I have to do is wait for a printed copy, to see how it all turned out. I'll let you all know once it's out there so you can order your copy (I think they are usually like a penny if you place an order with Microcosm) and like I said, I'll post some spot illustrations from the inside of the catalog next week!

Judge Jasper in Nick Mag!

2009-10-29T14:32:00.006-04:00

I received a stack of the latest Nickelodeon Magazine in the mail yesterday, which includes one of my single-panel gags and also a full page comic, called "Judge Jasper." Here is the first panel, to give you some idea what it looks like:As most of you probably know, Nickelodeon Magazine has been canceled and will be ending soon. This issue is pretty light, so I'm not sure how many more are in the pipeline... Maybe it'll go until the end of the year? Anyway, this issue is in bookstores and magazine racks right now if you want to pick up a copy while you still can!

A Lone Tone Album Covers

2009-08-26T16:37:00.005-04:00

When I was a freshman in college, I met this remarkable guy named Mark S. Williams. A few years ago he changed his name to "Sudara" and started the incredible music site A Lone Tone. A Lone Tone makes it super easy for anyone to post their own music online, and to share it with the world. Users can upload their recordings and then create digital albums by grouping the songs.

Well, I used to record a lot of music, and I'm trying to get back into it a bit (for a SUPER TOP SECRET PROJECT which I probably won't really talk about for another year or so). So I decided to set up my own A Lone Tone account as a place to archive my old music and hopefully a place to put up NEW music as it starts happening. A Lone Tone allows you to upload an image, which acts as the album cover, so I decided to quickly whip up some cover images for my two albums "The Curtain Tapes" and "My Adventure Soundtrack." I thought I'd post them here for people to see.

Since both recordings were made at very specific times in my life, I decided to adapt single panels from my minicomic Phase 7, which visually describe what the music is also trying to convey. The Curtain Tapes was recorded in Los Angeles, in my room with three walls and a curtain. And My Adventure Soundtrack was recorded while five years of hard work and dreams were crumbling down around me in Sydney, Australia. I chose to depict each of these depressing scenes with just one additional color (besides black) to try and keep it simple.

I'm slowly lining up a few small illustration projects which I will get to as soon as the next issue of Phase 7 drops in early October. So hopefully this blog will see some more action in the last few months of 2009!

An Anaconda Ate My Homework!

2009-08-07T17:44:00.004-04:00

Not only do I work as an illustrator and cartoonist, I am also a colorist! Well, I just found out that An Anaconda Ate My Homework has finally been released! This children's book was illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators working today (and my good friend) Aaron Renier, and I did all of the coloring. Every single page of this book is jam packed with tons of detail and some really beautiful page layouts by Aaron. It's definitely worth picking up! It's available from Amazon.com and should be in books stores soon. Ask for it!

What Would Dumbledore Do?

2009-07-14T17:32:00.006-04:00

The Harry Potter Alliance recently started a new campaign, called What Would Dumbledore Do? To help promote the WWDD? campaign, the HPA created a banner using one of my old illustrations of the greatest headmaster that Hogwarts has even known! The banner is posted above and the original watercolor illustration, which I painted for a Harry Potter fan art show at the Padlock Gallery, is below. Dumbledore is far and away my favorite character in the Harry Potter books, so it's a real honor for me to be a part of a campaign honoring his memory! The new Harry Potter movie comes out tonight at midnight, so I hope people have a Wizardly Week!

Custom Bicycle Helmet!

2009-06-16T12:51:00.011-04:00

I have a few new illustrations in the works, so until those are ready to post I thought I'd show some photos of a custom bicycle helmet I recently painted for my friend Jon Chad. Jon is a great cartoonist and illustrator who rides his bike a lot, but didn't have a helmet, so I thought I'd try to make one SO COOL that he'd want to wear it. There are some photos below, and you can see more in my Flickr account.

Dark Horse Presents

2009-05-06T17:58:00.008-04:00

Above is the first panel of a new, full color, 8-page comic that I did for Dark Horse Presents. It just went up today, so please check it out! This story features my dragon character, which I have used in a number of self-promotional illustrations over the years. So you can finally see him in action!
I'm working on a lot of little illustration projects right now, so hopefully I will have some stuff to post on this blog during the summer. I'm also slowly but surely working on a redesign of my illustration portfolio site. So there is more on the way!

2009 Blogging Schedule

2009-01-17T21:23:00.010-05:00

One of my goals for this year is to not stress out as much about my work. So with that in mind, I'm going to throw away my old system of posting here once a week (which was stressing me out plenty!) Instead I will post new illustrations or drawing challenges in this blog whenever I can. Sometimes I will post a lot. Other times not so much.

Okay! So here are a few drawings that I made for my girlfriend Rachel over the holidays, posted with her permission! The first is yet another cover image for a mixed CD I made her. (Hedgehogs are one of Rachel's favorite animals)

The other is an image drawn specifically to be used as a desktop image for Rachel's new computer. (Rachel's favorite holiday is Halloween). The chicken is dressed up as my dragon character, the snake is dressed up as Max from Spiral-Bound and the hedgehog is dressed up as Harry Potter (OF COURSE).

Alright, well, I hope you enjoyed these drawings. I'll update again as soon as I can!

Blogging Hiatus

2008-11-10T19:45:00.005-05:00

I started this blog in January of this year. My goal was to post pictures of my latest illustrations every week, with the idea that it would generate interest in my illustrations and hopefully create some more freelance work for me. Well, it worked! I'm working on A LOT of different projects right now, and I've got some big deadlines looming on the horizon...

This past week, I have been trying to find ways to free up more time to work on these projects, and unfortunately I think a break in posting on this blog will do just that. I made it 43 weeks, posting regularly, and I would have loved to have made it to a full 52 weeks, but for now I need to buckle down and devote my time to projects that are on deadline.

I've also been thinking about the layout and content of this illustration portfolio site, which both need to be updated, so perhaps I will start posting in this blog again once I revamp the site a bit. Until then, I appreciate your patience!

100 Watercolors #9: Drive

2008-11-03T22:42:00.004-05:00

Oof, last week's watercolor ended up being kind of depressing, so I was determined to have a little bit more fun this week. Mission accomplished! I'm working on a children's book featuring this here dragon, so I might use him as a reoccurring character in these watercolors, as a chance to draw him more.
I'm still learning a lot each time I do one of these paintings. I can't imagine how much knowledge I will have gained after the next 91 of them!

100 Watercolors #8: Innocence

2008-10-27T00:31:00.005-04:00

For the last few weeks I have been trying to come up with a good image for the theme of innocence. I went through three pages of ideas in my sketchbook but nothing seemed to quite sit. Then this morning, this image popped into my head. In the morning I thought it was great, in the afternoon I thought it was too confusing, and now I don't know what to think! Either way, it was good to break out the watercolors again. I'll try to keep these going in the coming weeks!

Vermont Institute of Natural Science sketches

2008-10-20T00:05:00.006-04:00

This week I am working on a big batch of one-panel gags, and my first full page comic for Nickelodeon Magazine. Unfortunately, because of contractual restrictions, I cannot post those illustrations in this blog. So instead, I thought I'd show a few drawings I did this week in my sketchbook.

One of the great perks of being a fellow at The Center for Cartoon Studies, is that I am allowed to sit in on any class. I can also tag along on field trips, as I did this week, when Steve Bissette took his Drawing Workshop class to the Vermont Institute of Natural Science to draw real live birds of prey! These are birds who have been injured and cannot be returned to nature. Some of them were quite large, and it was really amazing to see them up close. I also took some notes about some of the things we learned, so make sure to click on the images below to see the larger versions.

This American Kestrel had imprinting problems (it saw a human when it was a baby bird, so now it thinks it is a human!) It did a lot of squawking, and also it can see in the ultraviolet spectrum (?!) It was definitely my favorite bird.

I also really liked these owls. They made the most beautiful "WOO" sounds, and the Horned Owl even horked out a pellet while we were drawing it!

Next week I should be back to the watercolor challenge. Until then!

Screen Printing: Part 2

2008-10-11T01:22:00.004-04:00

Okay, FINALLY, here are the results from my very first screen printing project! Each year The Center for Cartoon Studies makes a "Facebook" for the new batch of first year students. Each student (and Fellows, like me!) creates a self-portrait which they screen print with two colors on cardstock. Then all of the portraits are assembled into a book!

I have resisted learning screen printing for years now, because I thought it might tempt me into making screen printed covers for my minicomics (which would only take LONGER to make). Well, I can now safely say that such a thing will never happen. Because it is SOOOO much work to create a screen printed image! I'm glad I learned how, but I'll be surprised if I use this technology again while I am at CCS... I will say that I now have a much greater appreciation for screen printed comics!

Anyway, as you can probably tell here, I printed the red layer first and then the brown layer on top. There were only so many paper colors to choose from, so I chose yellow, to keep things warm. The image represents a sort of "before" and "after" comparison for how I will look this year! I made 60 copies, which was enough to bruise and blister my hands. I've got a few more images to make for the book, and then I'm probably going to hang up my screen for a good long while!

Rachel CD cover

2008-10-06T23:12:00.007-04:00

Whoops! I wasn't able to find an internet connection this weekend at The Small Press Expo so I am a little late in posting.
This illustration is a cover for a mixed CD of Harry and the Potters songs that I made for Rachel. Back in May, Rachel and I went to see a free HATP show at the main branch of the New York Public Library, which was pretty epic (they had a HORN section!) There were two people dancing around in lion suits (as Patience and Fortitude) and Rachel also screwed up her ankle that night, which is all pictured here. The title is a play on words, spoofing Brad Neely's brilliant Wizard People, Dear Readers. Inside jokes abound!
I've got a few things in the works... so I will definitely have some stuff to post next weekend - on time!

100 Watercolors #7: Heaven

2008-09-28T18:54:00.005-04:00

Did I say I was going to post my first screen print this week? Whoops! That process is taking a bit longer than I thought it would, so in the meantime, here is Watercolor #7! I'm not sure this one makes PERFECT sense... but every time I look at it, it makes me chuckle, so that's good enough for me!
I'm going to out of town next weekend at the Small Press Expo in Washington D.C. so we'll see what happens... I'll post something!

Screen Printing: Part 1

2008-09-21T23:38:00.001-04:00

This week at CCS I will be learning how to screen print. This will be my first time ever, so I am pretty excited! Our first project is to create a "Facebook" for the new class. Each new student (and the Fellows) will have a photocopied bio on one page, and on the other we get to have a two-color screen-printed self portrait. My design is above, which shows how I started the school year, and how I will most likely end it, with my Basewood Beard.

Next week I'll post the finished image. Wish me luck!

100 Watercolors #6: Break Away

2008-09-14T23:29:00.004-04:00

I had a lot of fun with this one. And as predicted, I am learning a lot by working on these watercolors. Hooray for art challenges!

Top Secret Illustration

2008-09-07T23:30:00.003-04:00

I didn't have time to paint another theme this week, so instead I'm posting this illustration I have been working on, from a top secret project that I have not yet "officially" announced. Some of you might be able to guess what this is... I'll let the cat out of the bag over on my other blog, probably within a week or two!

100 Watercolors #5: Seeking Solace

2008-08-31T22:47:00.004-04:00

Well, I'm back in Vermont, and so it's back to the 100 Watercolors challenge! I've got one new illustration project in the works, but I'll probably keep going on these watercolors for the next couple of weeks at least. See you next week for theme number six!

Two New Alecs

2008-08-23T15:16:00.003-04:00

If you have ever checked the homepage of my other website, you might have noticed that I have a few different variations on the drawing of myself, so that I can adjust it accordingly, depending on what's going on in my life at the moment. This week I drew two new variations of myself!

One has much shorter hair (and shorts as well!) I recently cut off all of my hair, and my plan is to never cut it again, until my graphic novel Basewood is complete! I guess I'll have to draw some new variations of myself every few months, to keep up with my hair growth.

The other one is a new rain drawing. The old one showed me in my red and blue raincoat, but now I am the proud owner of a DRAGON Rain Coat! This one is a lot more fun. :)

Well, I will be back in Vermont for next week's post, so I suspect I will dive back in on the 100 Watercolors challenge. Until then!

Robin's Nest

2008-08-16T16:02:00.007-04:00

This week I'm taking another short break from the 100 Watercolors to show this spot illustration I just finished. It will be used on a Baby Shower invitation, for a woman named Robin (of course!) My instructions were to make the robin plump and cute.

I'm off to Seattle for a week to visit my family and to attend a wedding. So next week's post will be from the road. Until then!

100 Watercolors #4: Dark

2008-08-11T19:24:00.005-04:00

Here is this week's watercolor! I guess it is kind of similar to last week's painting, though the emphasis is reversed...

In other news, I've finished lettering the forthcoming French edition of PHASE 7. I'm also working on another small illustration project, which I will share eventually. Until then!

100 Watercolors #3: Light

2008-08-03T23:01:00.002-04:00

Well, I've moved to Vermont! I'm not all the way unpacked and settled in, but enough so that I broke out my watercolors tonight to paint the next theme!

French Endpapers and a Naked Mole Rat

2008-07-26T21:02:00.011-04:00

Well, tomorrow I am moving to White River Junction, Vermont to be one of the 2008-2009 fellows at The Center For Cartoon Studies. All of my watercolor supplies are packed away, so instead of the next theme, I thought I would share some other illustrations I have been working on recently.

First is the design I developed for the endpapers of my upcoming collection of comics, which is being published in Belgium by L'employé du Moi.

First, I drew one object from each of the stories in the collection (a pair of glasses frames, a cracked bowl, a worm, a firefly, a turtle, a spray can, the big dipper and a skateboard. Then I chose a blue that had a middle value, with the idea that the black would stand out just as much as the white. Lucy Knisley was nice enough to explain a tricky method for creating a repeating wallpaper pattern (as seen on her LiveJournal background image) but for the life of me, I couldn't figure it out! So instead, I just copied the objects over and over and placed them "by hand" one at a time. I think it has a nice non-repeating balance.

The other piece I finished recently, was an acrylic painting of a Naked Mole Rat. I made this as a going away present for Rachel (who made ME a Dragon Coat!). Back in December, when I finished the Animal Alphabet paintings, I had two extra "canvases" which were already primed and ready to go. So I just used my same exact process from that project. The Naked Mole Rat is Rachel's favorite animal and let me tell you, it was a real challenge trying to make this repulsive (yet fascinating) creature look even moderately cute! Here's my attempt:

Alright, well it's time to finish up my packing and then hit the road. I'll be posting next week from the Green Mountain state!

100 Watercolors #2: Love

2008-07-20T20:43:00.005-04:00

It seems like I have a lot of friends who really love cheese. So naturally this image came to mind, when trying to come up with an illustration for the theme "Love." :)

I will most likely take a break from the themes next week, as I will be moving from Brooklyn, NY to White River Junction, VT on Sunday. But fear not! I will have some other cool things to share, which I have been working on. Until then!