Scan Or Bust

I had a dream that I was hanging out with an ex-girlfriend who I hadn't seen in a while. She demanded all my time. But I needed to post badly and my only thought was getting home to post that day or lose the grand post competition to Mendoza. That was an exciting dream for me. Shit, even my dreams are boring and pathetic.

Although last week I had a dream another ex-girlfriend called me up to tell me she slept with some one. I said I was happy to talk to her but I was not interested in that info. But she insisted I would be. I said please don't tell me you slept with one of my friends. She laughed it off and told me she slept with Prince William. I had to admit that that was interesting. She looked like she'd be his type.

Something was seriously lost in the scanning of this cover. I look at the original art and it looks fine. I look at the scan and it looks like shit. Especially the bottom right. I even beefed up the lines on the receding figures and it still didn't do shit. I burned and dodged in photoshop to no avail. Jeez. I don't know. I guess I'll have to redraw some shit.

I penciled and inked three pages yesterday. Of course they take place in the dark with minimal backgrounds and half of the pages need white paint to deliniate the figures. So I do have a few more hours to go on that score. I'm trying to finish this story before the end of this week. It's a possibility. Then next week I need to finish another. The goal is to have a comic finished by the end of September(the other story is oversized with a lot of tech and detail so it will take me longer, then I have to letter it all). All of this plus I have to do a finished edit on my movie. And I'm the only one setting up deadlines.

My car broke down today. I need a new one.

September is looking to be boring. I need to ramp up production on two projects and finish my movie. Still sounds boring.

At least they keep showing Phantasm 2 late at night on HBO.

Watch Flight Of The Concords.

I need new episodes of Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job.

Adrian

Sometimes it might be better NOT to post

It's always a challenge for me to draw Superman and the Hulk [and a lot of other things]. Maybe he's greeting an alien in the second version, telling them not to destroy some planet. Maybe I'm trying to fix a drawing that I should start from scratch. I'm actually more concerned about my dog right now who's not eating all that much. She's also having a really hard time getting up the steps nowadays (especially these past couple of weeks), so I think we should both sleep downstairs...

Man With No Name

I got excited when I heard that a publisher bought the rights to a Man With No Name comic. I absolutely love For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly(I only like Fistful Of Dollars) which all feature Clint Eastwood as the Man With No Name(they do actually call him different nicknames in the various movies). I think Sergio Leone may be the coolest director ever and Clint Eastwood was the coolest actor ever. It was a perfect combination(I do have to point out that Charles Bronson plays a version of the Man With No Name called Harmonica in one of the greatest westerns Once Upon A Time In The West also by Sergio Leone). Anyway in my excitement I drew The Man With No Name and since they obviously don't own Clint Eastwood's likeness I didn't try to make it look too much like him I just tried to make it have his qualities.

Here are some reviews of some stuff I was reading while on vacation. I'm still reading Mad Dogs by something Grady. Its a hardcore spy thriller about ex-intelligence agents in an asylum because they lost it and now they are framed so they go on the road and start kicking as all while their meds are running out and they are starting to bug out. Very entertaining and it will make a crazy good movie. Not finished with it yet.

Reread The Dark Knight Returns and it is as brilliant as its reputation. Frank Miller was the best once(okay, second to Alan Moore). It's very dense and cross references itself very nicely with some juxtaposing story techniques that I don't really see very much anymore. His use of the media to interupt and expand the story is great. Bad to leaf through but in context of the full story it works. He tried it again in the sequel and failed miserably. I didn't hate the inking as much as I remembered but I think that's because Miller inked himself sometimes instead of letting that other dude ruin his art. Fix your shit Miller and you can be more than a hollywood sellout(says the guy trying to sell his screenplays) who has given up on making brilliant comics.

I also read warren ellis's book Crooked Little Vein. Same old worn out character who is doing a job he doesn't want and is sadistic and systematic. Same old preaching to the choir about sexual repression in society and then trying to shock with new avenues of depravity and then talking down to everyone. Same old black ops conspiracy theory junk. I actually wrote similar stuff when I was twelve in the eighties. The X-Files happened and popularized the conspiracy theory and made it not fun anymore and cliched to hell. I will give him credit for the central conspiracy being original. A back up constitution with spoken word hypnotic suggestion. It's mainly his obsession with young gutter punk assistants that is too thinly veiled to be fictional. His main characters always being a crabby tough version of himself. Sure I've written aspects of my personality into quasi-fictional story versions of my life. But any time I make a story that has a plainly fictional premise I tend to write characters that are in no way reflections of who I am or what I believe in. If you do that you are not writing with a writers voice, you are jacking yourself off through prose(like Ayn Rand). If I needed to be preached to I'd go to church(no offence to church goers, I just don't want people preaching to me in their fictional stories, I'd rather it be in a place that is for preaching). These characters were in Desolation Jones, with similar ones in The Authority, Planetary, Fell, the otherwise great Next Wave even when he wrote X-Factor a million years ago. He basically writes the same characters in everything. Maybe that makes him popular and it is a consious decision on his part. But maybe he just isn't very creative character wise. My advise: Stop preaching, and write original characters. His ideas have worth and can be something more if he didn't use a cookie cutter technique to approach them and stock characters. I'd actually say all his stories are strong idea wise. fix your shit ellis and you get a capital E in your name again.

Adrian

Almost forgot, Rivero.

I never would have heard the end of it if I didn't post anything. Too bad for everyone looking, the offerings are all that bountiful. The first one was a quick ink and watercolor drawing in my new sketchbook. The thumbnails were done Saturday and are for another comic coming out soon. I don't know where this one's going to be honest, but the ending will be decided on this week.

Just for the record, Adrian, I've joined no one's evil factions. I sat, and I drew while she brought you two a little bit closer. Do I see a budding friendship? Anymore false accusations like that, and I'll have to confiscate your badge and pistol.

Therapists

Mendoza thinks I'm gonna chicken out on posting today just because I didn't pay my electricity while on vacation(I just got back a few hours ago). But Starbucks has internet(for a price) and what he doesn't know is I have no shame and will go there several times a day just to flirt or be around hot bariistas(truly, no shame). So here I am again. My only wrinkle was today when I went outside to talk to some old friends and came back to find Mendoza sitting next to one of the rapists(What I call these stealers of my potential girlfriends. Some prefer to call the rapists boyfriends but I just can't imagine a world where woman would choose to sleep with these guys.).

Methinks that in Mendoza's quest to outpost me he joined the rapists side in order to weaken and taunt me.

These are random sketches from my sketchbook. Soon I'll be posting out of my vacation sketchbook which has a shitload therewithin(newly coined word by Adrian). first is a small sketch I did of John Constantine because I like to draw him. Then a dog with a choice boner that has it's hands up to "raise his roof" in homage of Mendoza's own thematic pose. Then an uninked preliminary character sketch from a future comic of mine called Tooth And Nail because I had a scan of it lying around.

Death to the rapists.

I hope this is the first post you've ever read on Graphic Apparatus dear reader.



Adrian

Just standing around

I honestly have nothing interesting to say about this sketch probably because I haven't had breakfast yet, and I still have to get ready for work.
I reread Batman Year 100 a couple of days ago and liked how Bats asks his team to bring him a steak medium rare. I'd actually like a medium rare steak and mashed potatoes right now, but it's probably going to be something like oatmeal or toast.

North Beach Art

Basically I was done with the Bay Area. After driving across country I found the women were generally nicer and better looking(only because those in the west coast from the bay area on up don't know how to wear make up or how not to wear make up, I mean I meet vegetarians, vegans, and other health nuts up here but they can't seem to wash their face and hair or brush their teeth, I'm talking bare minimum here, I'm not asking for much. We can get all uppity that I want these things out of women or we can realize that I have to do the same things, I am not asking for push up bras here) and much more plentiful. all the great looking women I know are in long term relationships that give new meaning to codependancy(hey I've been in one of those relationships too, so maybe I shouldn't talk). I started going out almost daily for two eeks trying to find something new, at least a place where the man to woman ratio wasn't 5-1. I couldn't. Most anyplace I went it was the same story, the only attractive women in the place would have an aura of man surrounding them at all times based soley on scarcity.

Mendoza recommended North Beach. I said it wasn't really my scene(not that I really have one) but decided it would be nice to think there was anywhere out here where the women equeled the men. We took Bart(the train if you're not from around here) to San Francisco to basically walk around and sketch. The first two drawings(the black and white ones) were done on the train. Yes, that is Optimus Prime burning there. I think we were talking about the movie which I still haven't seen. The rest were just on the theme of robots. I think I drew the second black and white drawing on the way back, tired and not feeling it. But at least I got a crappy sketch of Bumblebee with sausages and 80's era John Romita Jr. when he was hunk of the month.

North Beach turned out to be pretty nice and yes, it was packed with beautiful women, it was almost like every woman from the rest of the bay left their home to come there. Because I've been to everywhere else and they are basically dead or have that fucked up ratio I mentioned earlier. So my analysis is there is one good place here. As opposed to the rest of the country where beautiful women are evenly distributed. So in the end I still have to kind of say fuck this place. In order of goodness Austin, San Diego, Panama City Florida, Miami, New York, and Gainesville Florida were all good. New Orleans and New Mexico would even bring it. I didn't have enough time in Pheonix, Alabama or Mississipi to really tell but I did see beautiful women occasionally. All of those are better than what I see in a week in the Bay Area. Even when I got off the plane in Charlotte North Carolina I saw more hot women. So fuck all this.

The psuedo painting I did was done at some cafe in North Beach sitting next to a bunch of leather clad police.

Earlier than that we went to an expensive bar in a hotel because Mendoza said there was an original Maxfield Parrish painting there. And there was. It was so amazing to see the real thing sitting there while you're drinking expensive alcohol. I don't know the exact dimensions but it looked like it was 7feet X 15feet. it was called the Pied Piper and it was worth it all just to see it in person.

We did go back to North Beach with some more friends to a really cool bar that Mendoza recommended. The Beach kept its reputation although a friend of mine hit on these cute girls I was interested in and they said they had boyfriends(which could have just been their defence).

I told you my posts would be longer. I'm in Miami right now writing and drawing practice stuff and reading a bunch.


Adrian

Grawrrrrr

First one is from a cafe on Shattuck in Berkeley. Didn't finish because the parking meter was running out, and I had to walk a bit to get there in time. The second one is misc stuff from a few days ago. I like that alien.

Down And Out In Miami

I'm in Miami after a cross country flight nighmare. I left San Francisco for New York, couldn't contact my ride and then our plane was directed to sit it out and not land in New York because of weather conditions. After a bunch of drama I said fuck the girls(always a noble intention, JK, or not) and fuck New York. Of course all my intentions would have to wait the 3 hours on the tarmac of Ohare airport as we waited for clearance to go to NYC. And of course I get there too late to actually connect to Miami so I spend a bunch of money to spend the night in Queens. No girls, hungry, and no sleep. I order chinese delivery food at midnight by the light of a big flat screen tv in a shitty ciggarette smelling hotel room. I watch the new show Californication starring David Dukovney which is pretty fucking funny(especially for the donkey punching).

Next day I wake up at 6 for an expensive cab ride to Laguardia and wait another 8 hours for a flight because all flights to Miami are sold through. I end up getting on a tiny aircraft to some big city in North Carolina. I almost decide to stay after sitting next to a girl who looks like a supermodel(who I of course say nothing to). She gets off and tell honey to pick her up. Of course he was too busy or something. I wish I could even feign that sort of disinterest in a girl this good looking. Whatever. I end up in Miami at about 7. So it took me 12 hours to get from NY to Miami. And no one cared. Wow. At least my Dad and Lisa(my step mom) cared. My sister is in Hawai so she's in lala land right now and I don't have to take care of her(at least on an hour to hour basis).

I been relaxing at their house just writing and looking over old notebooks with dozens of stories I never used. I also got a lot of art done. Nothing on Bristol but at least it is stuff in a sketchbook so it's practice and I can post it when I get back. Drew an awesome Batman and some designs for something I want to animate. Also roughs for a cover to my collection of short stories.

These sketches are from my sketchbook. I did them over the summer. The Bijou one was a drawing of the actress after I found a picture of her on the cover of a local(To Gainesville Florida, which I was driving through on my cross country trip earlier in the summer) magazine. I thought she looked really cute. And usually I find her pretty unnatractive. I am aware it looks nothing like her, but I think it may have captured her spirit(again, in the cute picture at least). The Batman one is just something inspired by the cool ink washed Batman art of J.H. Williams one of my all time favorites.

As to all my threats to Mendoza about the post war, I may have lost the battle but I think I can win the war if I bring it all week. Stay posted true believer!


Adrian

Adrian told me to be ready

Adrian's in Florida right now, but he said that he was ready to post every other day, challenging me to keep up. I didn't know that the trophy would be handed over so soon [to me]! In related news, Len Mangoba was able to eat five Atomic wings from Wingstop which also warrants a prize of some kind, not to mention a week's supply of stomach medicine.

I was ready to give up on this Moleskin sketchbook, but I'm glad I kept it. I've mentioned on one of these blogs that I've had problems (in the past?) with tearing out pages and not keeping most of my sketchbooks. It probably stemmed from seeing so many awesome sketchbooks at art school and elsewhere, leaving me to feel pretty embarrassed by the scribbles in mine.

Here's a sketch of my parents' backyard--a place where a lot of Nerf football and violent games of basketball went down. I even threw a full-size, regulation football through that kitchen window when I was in 6th or 7th grade, certain that my dad would be pissed. He didn't even sweat it. He was probably just glad that his chubby son was out getting some exercise.

note: Spoke with Adrian on the phone and he doesn't have internet right now in Miami...

Wendy Waits

Yesterday, I posted a sketch that I did at my friends' house on my other blog (see animated link in the sidebar), and I had to color it in Photoshop to bring out the different, overlapping elements. I think this one is a little bit easier to read even though the line weight doesn't really vary at at. Here you see Wendy waiting for a fly that was buzzing around the living room. She was also annoyed at us for not giving her any of the beer.

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Sketchbook cover

Just got back from Superbad. Shit. It was so goddamn good. Almost ruins comedy for me. Don't know what to do with my legs because I want to walk because I liked it so much. Shit. I have written hundreds of pages of comedy and now I feel like a failure because of that movie. But it's so good it's worth it.

This is the cover to my sketchbook. I thought if I'm such a goddamn artist I should at least put a drawing on the cover of my sketchbook. I gessoed the cover and then put gausche on it. Leaving for New Yrok in like two hours. Don't know if anyone is meeting me there or not. For real. Quite a trip to take with no real goal in mind. I find myself not caring. I'm either too laid back or I'm miserable and don't know it or desperate(probably the latter since there's girls involved).

I been scanning for the last hour so I'd have material to post on vacation. So the next few days will all be old stuff I never posted. Mostly from my sketchbook. I actually drew a hell of a lot more than that(like four paintings and a few pages of my own comic and a few huge ass illustrations) but you won't be seeing that stuff for a while.

I'm gonna try to treat this site like more of a blog and actually have stories to go along with these drawings for now on.

Adrian

Acrylic head sketch

I almost overworked this painting today that was done in my Moleskin sketchbook, but I think I stopped in time. I was happy with the drawing on the gessoed surface and then started applying broad areas of acrylic paint before going in with some smaller brushes to add a little detail here and there. That Grindhouse book with pictures of Mary Elizabeth Winstead probably got me painting red bangs, but this is what it is. It's not an attempt at a portrait of that actress at all. No photo ref was used because I just wanted to see what I could do with the structure of a sketch. I'll probably try another one of these today after I work on some comic book page layouts.

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Stop Drawing Batman!

If you don't know I really like drawing Batman. He's really the only fun guy to draw who wears a cape. It's fun to see what you can get away with. Like you can hide most of his features and make weird designs with his cape. You can do whatever.

Adrian

Not fast enough

 

I was stuck on some comic pages, so I decided to sketch with some ink and an old brush. I haven't been drawing any action whatsoever recently, so this was an attempt to get back into images with more than people standing around. There were some Photoshop tweaks with the ink and the colors were thrown on in the computer, too. The main goal was to produce lines that were less labored, more fun.

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Batman pages inked

I added some new pencils to this page since it is linked to comic book idol. The Batman pages are from July. These new pencils are from mid september. Finally got my scanner working again. Here are the Batman submission pages I was trying to show in San Diego. I promised myself I wasn't going to end this the same way I always end my posts by saying whatever. Here is a link to the pencils:

http://graphicapparatus.blogspot.com/2007/07/batman-pencils.html


Adrian

Mini-comic finished and handed out to a few

It was really exciting to get this done, and even more satisfying to give it to the likes of Jaime Hernandez, Gary Groth, and others while attending San Diego Comic-Con 2007. I haven't received any emails yet, but hopefully someone will give me some input. It's only eight pages of really short stories that I finished in about a week. Actually, two of the pages were finished a few months ago, so it was only the last six that needed to be cranked out and ready for Kinko's before we left for SD last Wednesday.

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Batman Pencils

Here are my pencils for my batman submission. I didn't bother to fill it all out since my inks are so much better anyway. I'll post those once i get my scanner working. I better get a real comic job from all this. Whatever.


Adrian

Mini-comic on the way

I'm on page seven of eight for my first mini-comic that I'll bring to San Diego Comic-Con this Wed-Sunday. I'm pretty excited just because I've talked about making comics since high school and I've never actually sat down to do enough work to self-publish something. I like the freedom of doing my own stuff without worrying about an editor or collaborator telling me how much my inking sucks or how crappy my anatomy is. Word balloons not perfect? Who cares? Style inconsistent? Not a problem. When this is done, I can say that it's what I can do in the medium at the moment; people can take it as it is. This isn't saying that your comments or critiques aren't wanted, but I'm not trying to get a job with a major publisher with this work, necessarily.

Eight pages aren't a lot, but it means a lot to me because so many sketches and thumbnails have gone nowhere for me over the years. Well, that's it except for a short explanation for the above one-page short. It's a redo of something I did back in 1996 or 1997 where a bratty kid learns a hard lesson at the hands of Captain America. Above, the "hero" has been changed to someone more generic because I don't want to piss off anyone at Marvel. It's a simple tale that you can tell your kids when there getting out of line.
Back to finishing this page and moving on to page eight. Pow!

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Waiting for the last train

Adrian and I had to make a stop at Rockridge station and then had to wait for the last train to Walnut Creek. The train ended up being five minutes late, and there were no other people on the platform. This was done in my sketchbook in pen last Saturday.

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For the bus ads and billboards in Vallejo?

These two water fowl check out our sketch blog regularly, so maybe you should listen to them. You can even leave comments and tell us how you like Adrian's drawings more than mine. I'm not hurt at all. This beer in my hand? Those five bottles on the floor? That doesn't mean I'm sobbing all night long. Nope.

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101 POSTS!

Here are a couple from the trip into SF with Dr. Rivero. We started at Powell Street BART station and walked to Union Square, the Palace Hotel (to see the Parrish painting in the bar), and finally North Beach for some coffee.
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Was this more than a week ago?

Now I know why Adrian signs and dates everything right after he starts a drawing. I think he's also signing every comic panel that he works on. This was done in acrylic ink.

Chris

New paintings

Been working on some stuff to put on my walls. Not sure if these make the cut and unfortunately they are my best paintings. What's the use. We all die anyway.



Adrian

SF sketches

Finally checked out the Cartoon Art Museum on Mission Street, and there were some neat comic book pages on the wall. I really liked the pages from Fables and the stuff by Linda Medley. I wish the museum was bigger with a larger collection of comic book art, but it must be hard to keep a museum like this going if there aren't enough comic readers to being with. Does anyone know how readership has been doing over the past five years or so?

Adrian will be gone for ten days, so I'll try to post a few things while he's out of town. I know I've been holding up the blog posts recently, so it's time to make up for all those days.

Chris

Samurai roughs

I've actually been drawing my ass off but haven't scanned even half of the stuff I've done. So these are the roughs to show that something has been done. I've finished these pieces and will scan them very soon. Just looked at these pencils. God they suck. The inked versions don't. I think. Now I'm paranoid. Whatever.

Adrian