Vintage: City Tree & a Short Comic

While I work on drawings that I cannot yet reveal, here’s a little bit of history for you.

This drawing is circa Fall 2007, right when I had moved here to Portland.  My love for ink, brush, and charcoal really began at this time.

Drawn on 11 x 14″ Bristol board, this began as a doodle and ended as a finished piece.

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During this time, I was attending my first semester at PNCA, and taking a class called “Time Arts”.  This class covers all time-based arts – animation, film, performance art (ahhhhhh!!!!!), and sequential art – comics!

Here is the first, and as of yet, only comic I have ever made, Balloon.

During the critique, some of my fellow students found the 8th frame confusing, and I agreed – it’s a bit unclear.  The little blob underneath the girl’s body is her shadow as she slowly floats away, becoming a balloon herself.  Curses!!!  You mean, I’m not perfect?

Also, you can definitely see the Edward Gorey influence in these drawings, as around this time I had been studying his work.

So why haven’t I done anymore comics?

It just ain’t my cup of tea.  I like cramming my narratives with so many quirky little details, in a single shot, rather than having moments dragged on, frame by frame.  Comics are a lot of hard work, and if I were to ever make a graphic novel, I would obsess so much about the quality of each frame that it would take me twenty years to finish one.

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Yes!!!  The DMV, my most favorite place in the world!  I wish I lived there!

Tomorrow Jake & I must venture down there to take care of….well, a lot of things actually.  Which means we’ll be there forever.  How could I not bring my sketchbook?  It’s like a goldmine of people-watching.  I mean, the last time I was there, I saw a grown man crying like a baby.  Alright!!

-LW