Harry Potter Character Vignettes

Last July, two weeks before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, my cartoonist friend Matthew Reidsma had the idea to draw one character from Harry Potter per day, until the book was released. He put up a master list on his LiveJournal but unfortunately, at the time, I wasn't able to participate because I had too many deadlines to meet.

So, even though I'm not playing within the posted timeframe, I thought I'd give it a go, as it is fun to draw these characters, and I'm in need of a small illustration challenge these days. This will keep the illustration parts of my brain in action while I am paying the bills with teaching work and spending my "spare time" on my comics.

So for now, here are the first five (Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Argus Filtch & Mrs. Norris, Crabbe, Malfoy & Goyle, and Fred & George Weasley), which I had already completed this Fall. Next week I'll put up a new batch!

Friends of Lulu Prints

My buddy Jed, over at The Albatross Press contacted me a few weeks ago about making some letterpress prints to benefit Friends of Lulu. For those of you not familiar with the organization, Friends of Lulu is a national nonprofit organization that promotes and encourages female readership and participation in the comic book industry. A good cause if ever there was one!

Jed wanted me to try and capture that feeling of immersion one gets when returning home after a comic convention with a stack of new comics. One girl is reading up a storm and the other has made the jump to creating her own comics! These were a lot of fun to draw. :)

These will be two individual letterpress prints, which will be available for sale at this years MoCCA Arts Fest June 7th and 8th in New York City. If you can make it, swing by the Friends of Lulu table and buy a print!

(jeez, my fourth post in a row in black and white... I gotta get some color going in here!)

Karaoke Encryption Fan Art

This week I'm posting a piece I just finished for my good friend and fellow illustrator, Aaron Renier. This is my take on two characters from his recent minicomic The Karaoke Encryption, Tommy Attilo and Paul the dog. This was a lot of fun to draw and it will be printed in the back of Aaron's NEXT minicomic, which has a title so hilarious, I dare not type it here, for fear of ruining the surprise! It should be out next Spring in time for the Stumptown Comics Fest.

CCS Lecture Cover

I've got about nine different projects in the works right now, but none of them are actually finished and ready to share. So for now, I thought I'd post this drawing I finished up last night. It will be the cover for a handout I am making to go along with my upcoming lecture at The Center For Cartoon Studies. It will basically be an updated version of a previous lecture I gave in 2005 with Aaron Renier, called For The Love of Comics.

Even though this drawing isn't in my "finished" style, it was still really fun to cut loose on a piece of notebook paper with very sparse pencils and then a brush pen and some ballpoint pens for ink. It's a bit sloppier, but I'm afraid that's all I have time for at the moment!

UPDATE!  You can now read these lecture notes in their entirety on my other website.

Dr. C. Everett Koop Tattoo

This week I'm posting a tattoo I recently drew for my friend Ann Gavaghan. It is of Dr. C. Everett Koop, the once SURGEON GENERAL of the United States. (??!) Ann sent me some photo reference, including a picture of her standing with Dr. Koop himself! The tattoo will be inked onto her arm sometime soon (maybe I'll post a follow up picture?)
I gotta say, it was pretty intense drawing something that you knew was going to be on someone's arm for the rest of their life! I'm pleased with how it turned out though, and more importantly, so is ANN! :)