Here is a doodle I just did for a SKYRIM TUMBLR

Hagravens, the cool witch hippies of Skyrim land!

And here is a sneak peak to something I just worked on but I`m not clear if I can show it yet:

Adventure Time, the show with characters that look like they are having FUN!

It’s that slippery slope between feeling happy that you are busy and the feeling that you are spreading yourself too thin OR that you are not working on the things that make you really happy/rich.

Conversations that lead to getting infected might start like:

Good day!! We are company XYZ, we L O V E your style and we would like to work with you!

We need XYZ done yesterday, there is no budget available (seeing that this is a pitch)
and we need the XYZ to be technical and 100% correct.

We basically want your style… but with someone else’s way of drawing.
It’s important for us that you have fun, but do it quickly, don’t focus on making it look good and do it just like the scribbles our CEO has drawn on a dirty napkin.

SO YOU START DIGGING:

“So I need to get that stuff ready, as well as scribble for the other pitch they had mentioned…
But I can’t forget to work out some story kinks on my own project. That needs to get
printed soon and I have no ending yet…”

“I also need to update my blog”
“Blog story X and story Y have been sketched already and just need inking…
Z still needs a better panel layout…”

And I can’t forget to go out and do some sketching… Life drawing is scheduled as well…
This friend of a friend also wanted a drawing of Superman and SuchandSuch was asking if I could make a small quirky Icon for his/her tumblr.

“?”
What’s this rusty old thing down here?
OH… my online portfolio.
I really need to spend some time on that!

And because this is not enough stuff that is going on… one more thing!

“XBOX DATING TIME!”

Oh the troubled life of a cartoonist.

I`m working on my comic, getting close to finishing issue one, but to keep this blog alive and pumping, some tidbits from the real world.

I had planed to make it only ONE comic (one update) but the topic is bigger and I wanted to take more time. So here it is, the center of nearly every conversation I had in the last 3982 hours, PALEO PART 1!

What does that mean?
TORONTO FAN EXPO IS HERE!

Costumes, Comics, Captain Kirk!

And the people of THE ANTHOLOGY PROJECT are going to be there, smiling, drawing and selling comics!
So if you want to see fun people in tight costumes OR meet celebrity’s like the guy from that show that was on 20 years ago
where he played that one robot in the back of that episode, COME ON BY!

COPA ONTARIO 2011

Coming in, it felt like everyone was seizing each other up.
Could this guy be one of my opponents? Or that guy?

Things were already happening, the tournament had started a couple hours earlier

Some things I saw before I got called to the mats:
A guy blowing out his knee before the match even started

And another breaking his nose on his opponents knee while going for a take down

But then they they called my name and I started warming up

and stepped on the scale to show that I had “made” weight

AND THEN IT WAS TIME TO FIGHT

To face the unknown monster that is looking to overpower you

In my head, I had planned to do great things.
Street Fighter moves!

Bud Spencer moves!

Astro Boy moves!

But in reality, most fights (between the inexperienced) looked like this:
Lots of tugging and pulling and not really any clear action.

After the first match, and only 5 minutes, my hands were already powered out and felt like dead pancakes at the end of my arms

And in my next fight, I nearly got caught in a triangle and got chocked unconscious

I was so tired afterwards, I could not even tie my belt and I was afraid that I might puke on the spot

But lo and behold, it had been enough to bring home a shiny silver object!

I had an amazing time thanks to the great people of Toronto BJJ and especially the guy behind it all, Jorge Britto.

(more pictures and a small write up HERE)

BONUS:

Thanks for reading!
Coming up soon: “How does it feel to get choked until you sleep?”

Just some doodles from the current sketchbook. I`m thinking about how I should develop a big story and its good to remember sometimes that everything should start with fun drawings.
I get trapped in “story structure”, “what does the character want” and those kind of things and forget to just have fun with creating fun pictures.
And Batman is there too.

Joan Sfar wrote about this story stuff ON HIS BLOG recently and I think he makes excellent points.
AND SPEAKING OF JOANN SFAR
I just stumbled over the “Making of Le Chat du Rabbin” videos on Vimeo.
They are well done, not trying too hard to “just sell the movie” and I`m impressed on how they are able to mix 3d, traditional Animation and digital 2d.
It looks fluid and timeless.

And seeing that they just took loose reference from the actors instead of using glued ping- pong balls to do animation, is always great!

Here is some recent work, from two different comics, missing its words, panel borders and greytones
1)

2)

And I`m currently on a “classic movie” trip.
I felt a bit lame-o for having a giant “No-I-have-not-seen-that-one-yet” hole and decided to go through IMDB`s Top 250 List, watching everything that was made between the 1940′s and 1970′s that I have not experienced yet.
It did took a bit of BITING THROUGH in the beginning but I`m getting into it and I`m always surprised when old jokes have “kinky” stuff in them or when James Steward says something genuinely funny.

One of those movies: DR.STRANGELOVE.
Amazing film and I really cracked up at the end, when Peter Sellers is able to make the actor who plays the Russian Ambassador (the big guy behind him), fall out of his role and grin.

Here is Sellers, playing Dr. Strangelove and everything is fine and stern.

But haha, that was too much for the russian! He cracks up in the middle of the scene.

Looks at the side of the camera for a split second and WUPS, back to his stern demeanor.

WELL DONE MR. SELLERS and HOLA MR.KUBRICK, intentional or what?