151

I had some tea at some place in Piedmont the other day. Licee. No. Lackee. Leekee. The name of the tea was something like that. It had those scary balls at the bottom that look like rat eyeballs or large fish eggs. Whatever the case it was excellent. I even ended up liking those insect eggs or whatever the fuck those things are.

I drew this picture of some dude sitting like a foot and a half to the side of me. Luckily he left so I didn't have to explain how I stole his soul and put it on paper. Remember this is a tea place. A few miles from Berkeley. They'll think shit like that. Anyway it was done with acrylic ink, ink, and white charcoal pencil on gray tinted paper.

The other night I hit on a beer wench(that's what she called herself, I told her never to let anyone call her a wench). Mendoza was convinced I'd chicken out since she was the cutest there. The singer of a band I was watching cracked his head open. My friend Taylor said he heard Mendoza on a video tape later say, "Come on keep playing, it's just a little blood, thats what we came for". Mendoza is so evil sometimes I think we must bow to him. I drank 151 proof. That was pretty much my halloween in Berkeley.

Adrian

Of Mud Sharks and Zeppelins

The title is a reference to a crazy story that supposedly happened involving some famous people, a big fish, and a groupie. On drawing Jam over at the Drawing Board:
(not work safe)
http://www.drawingboard.org/viewtopic.php?p=654125#654125
The picture is all right. Once you do something on this kind of paper it's really hard to fix it. The face didn't capture the the girls face and I drew the whole thing while watching Hostel 2. Acrylic paint and white charcoal on cardboard paper(just brown construction paper). My next one is way better. This girl is laying in mud, hence part of the name.

I'll get into Hostel 2 later. The main girl is Fantasticus. In other news, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is not going to be Wonder Woman. Cobie Smulders(one of the better names on the planet earth) isn't either. Why do I care? Because I have a vested interest in any girl who looks like Wonder Woman or is smoking hot(or in the case of Cobie, smuldering hot...sorry).

I have to get my Blade Runner paintings ready for the DVD coming out. It's my all time favorite movie.

Maybe this is lame, but I went and saw a Weezer cover band that was actually note perfect. That was after the Cure cover band who was pretty good. And a wierd Duran Duran cover band. It was fun. I'm a sucker for cute girls in costumes(thank you, kittens of SF, Dorothy from Kansas, Qouthe Keon:"I'm never seen a Dorothy who wasn't hot" ). Good sushi boat food. Clement street, SF.

Adrian

Iron Fist/Book Reviews/Mac

Mendoza requested I draw Iron fist and I did. I think it is a good drawing, although it is weak in several respects. I obviously tried to cover up some weaknesses in effects and details. But, at a visceral level I like it a lot. I'm thinking of painting the original sketch I drew in my sketch book. It's a little different and maybe it can give me the chance to draw a simpler more powerful design. I have a Vampirella sketch fully pencilled and ready to be inked.

My days have been increasingly dull and uneventful. The ladies have all but disappeared from my life. Tv is actually getting boring for me(I find good stuff, ask anyone). The books have been all right.

Marcelo Frusin drew an amazingly cool annual of Wolverine that he colored himself. It is stunning with an original, yet realistic pallette. J.H. Williams(who I still need some original art from) drew three issues of Batman that were the best that comic has seen in decades(aside from the wonderful Batman Black And White series). Tomm Coker finally came back and drew an issue of the Ride that kicked ass and has an issue of Moon Knight coming out that is rad. After the Western he did a while back this is a good year for him. So comics have been good this last half a year.

I finished Steven King's the Dark Tower. The first four books were inspired madness. The last three, even when they got violent were okay at best, and sometimes flat out filler(the violence was the only thing keeping me awake because the plot was useless). In the last few pages he makes a good point that the end of the story isn't the important part. It's getting there. The journey. Unfortunately he fucked that up. And luckily the last twoo closing chapters were great. Otherwise all that made up languige stuff was super irritating.



Reading Last Call by Tim Powers right now. It is fucking great so far. It's like a magical realism take on poker playing useing tarot cards(he even made up really cool way of playing called Assumption). And people are embodiments of ancient gods and figures. Bugsy Siegel is the Fisher King. Another dude is the Green Knight. Not literally, just in a sense. And all kinds of things can be divined by poker, cards, tarot cards, astrology, luck, and chaos physics. It's really cool and crazy and smart. Like a comprehensible Gravities Rainbow. I read it because I thought tarot cards were cool as clues to very old archetypes and meanings that have lasted for centuries(I'm not into them for all the mystical crystal bullshit new spirituality). I always thought that Joseph Campbell(scholar on achetypes and myths) really missed something by skipping the meaning of the cards and why they have lasted so long(hell I can see parallels to even Star Wars in cards[the Old Man, the Magician, the Fool, The Knights]).

Also read The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. One of the coolest main characters I've read in a while who only wants one thing: Revenge. He lives in future where people can teleport by will so prisons are underground and in the dark. He has this huge tattoo on his face that makes him look like a tiger. One character is so irradiated that no one can be in a room with him for more than five minutes. And the novel has a Dues Ex Machina that actually is good. Excellent and it still holds up after fifty years.

The abduction drama from the BBC and now on HBO called Five Days is very well written. Just when I thinnk its going to be lazy and cliche it goes somewhere completely different and uncharted. Only five episodes. Recommended.



I apparently have an unhealthy obsession with Mac(the make up company) counter girls. My sister has figured it out and uses it as an excuse to make me go there and buy her make up all the time. I'm a sucker for women who know hot to wear make up. I went out with a girl once who all the counter girls just loved(because she was one of their own, a hot semi-goth girl).

The cat is my cat Bean. I did it with Gesso on the black cover of my old sketchbook. I intended to color the eyes but never did. She use to belong to an ex girlfriend but now the cat loves me more than anything else in the world.

Adrian

A couple of airport sketches

Still haven't kept up with posting here or on my other blog. Haven' even drawn all that much thanks to work, reading, and watching some movies here at home.

These were done in Denver, I think, while we waited for our delayed flight. Relatives told me that there was a bomb scare at Oakland (where I was flying to), but I didn't know that as my cousin drove me to the airport.

The two bald heads that you see here are obviously two different people at the same gate, so I was surprised at how shiny both of them were. I didn't really make that clear with the five minute PS coloring job on these, but believe me, you'd want to have a pair of sunglasses around these two gentlemen. I didn't realize how still some people sit while waiting for their flight while others fidget a lot, and move around like a sugared four year old.

I also noticed that ever since I downloaded the latest driver for my scanner, the shadow in the gutter of the sketchbook is more pronounced. My sketchbooks aren't any thicker, so I don't know why this is happening. If you look at my drawing from inside the plane, a lot of info is actually lost. I'll figure it out when I have the time.

Again with the shiny, bald head. Wouldn't you guys just shave it all off at this point?? I would if I were that bald. I'd look funny, but I'd rather have no hair than have a comb over or something like these two guys.

-cm

....I feel like I should have written more to fill up this space here...

...nothing else really...Oh, that podcast called Word Balloon is interesting. There's a lot of time at my job for music and podcasts, so I've heard a few interviews with different comics creators.

Weird Paper

Finished inking a 9 page story for my own anthology. Unfortunately it is not the story I am sending in for approval(it's too weird and sick). I am working on an 11 page story on 14x21 size. My usual size is the standard 10x15, so this may take a while. Although there technically shouldn't be more stuff, it should just look clearer since I am more comfortable drawing big. This is not an excuse to fill the panels with more information although it is hard not to.

I drew this picture in pencil inside of Peet's, but they were closing so Mendoza and I got Pizza. I painted it there. Mendoza was about to pound the guy behind the counter for not knowing what the fuck anchovies were. He was pissed(and I was pretty pissed too because the guy was obviously a rapist) but I soothed Mendoza by explaining the guy was just a harmless idiot(even though his personality dictates he has a beautiful woman waiting for him at home who he treats like shit). The pizza wasn't worth it but I did finish this picture there. Done with pencil, white charcoal, and acrylic ink(which is too thin for this paper which soaks up at least 50% of it. I should have used real acrylic with low viscosity. Oh well, you learn something new everyday. ). I didn't know whether to darken the paper or lighten it to either bring out the highlights or show shadow. It is very confusing just the concept of what to do on this paper. It's called Kraft Pad(or Kraft paper I assume). It isn't a great picture but it is my first on that paper. Next time I'll do better.

I hope to finish the rough cut of my movie this week with the approved music(as in I don't have to pay for the music). After tht I send it to Paul to edit the little things that I may have messed up on(I'm literally talking less than a second cuts that could be trimmed differently and better by an expert at editing). I am the guy who is cutting the scenes into bits and picking which camera shots to go with. I am also pretty relentless when it comes to cutting my own dialogue(which is the great thing about having also written it, I am the only one who can complain about what was cut, in terms of dialogue). Then it gets sent to Doug to fix any audio problems and smooth the parts where the audio wasn't suffiecient or was lacking. Then I get it back and probably end up editing it a little bit more since I'll have had some time away from it. Then it is ready to send to film festivals.



I saw Eastern Promises yesterday and it was fucking great. It was an excellent follow up to A History Of Violence. And Viggo Mortnesen was super great. He didn't do any hollywood leading man bullshit. He was just awesome and you couldn't believe that he would have a fight scene naked. The movie was very original in its conclusion and you have the feeling it came from a book rather than a screenplay because it doesn't have anywhere near the normal ending for a gangster movie.

Saw Wrong Turn 2 and holey shit was that first scene gross and messed up.

Saw Roger Dodger and wonder how everyone in that movie isn't getting paid to do all the best movies. Cambell Scott gave a performance that I would never have seen coming. The kid was great. Jennifer Beals was facinating as an older romantic lead for the kid(in a way). Elizabeth Berkeley was very sweet and did great. Issabella Rosselini is as always great. The plot was excellent and never took the easy way out. The ending was not what I expected and I am glad for that because I thought it almost had to end in a cliche way. It didn't. The direction was perfect. Part voyeuristic but not too much. It made you feel like you were the kid but also made you feel like you were watching something intimate. Big plus, it had the hottest woman ever in the form of the Wonder Woman girl from Serenity and Firefly. Amazing that this is overlooked and these people are not working enough.

Adrian

That's MY trailer

I shouldn't be so snotty when I say "my". I've come to notice that anybody who says "I" or "my" like they contain two syllables has a serious attitude and are high maintenance. "I-ii am gonna have my-yi baby no matter what my momma says", you hear 14 year old girls on Maury say.

Well right now the trailer below is my baby. Well, actually it's the pacifier. But it's proof my baby exists. Yeah, she'll come to disappoint me and make me feel like I should have been a better parent, but I made her and I finally made some mark on this world. Right now the movie clocks in at an hour and twenty five minutes. It could end up being a few minutes shorter since I cannot stand anything that makes me bored about it. There is a lot of killing, and gross stuff. Plus some weird humor by Doug Clarke(co-creator) and I. I am very proud of some lines I wrote for Paul Gordon's(the villian) character. I created a weird ass guy and Paul basically embodied him. I'm really close to the last edit. Very excited.

I drew Pheonix because she has a cool costume and you know she's hot if Wolverine and Cyclops can both lust after her. I know she'd never sleep with Wolvie though(like in that stupid Ult. X-men story) because once you go Wolvie you never go back.

Adrian

New Trailer

Adrian will probably write more about this cut of the trailer, but he sent me this new info. The link in the sidebar is updated, too. Enjoy!

Wasn't away that long

The last post I put up was about taking a break from drawing and posting here. My sketchbook went along on my trip to Austin, Tx last Thursday, and I just had to draw in it. That must be a good sign if I can't completely give up sketching. Can I actually make money with the skills that I have? Still not sure especially when there are people out there who can draw circles around me. There are many people out there who can tell stories, compose interesting paintings, and design amazing characters. On the other hand, there are those who just know how to get their stuff out there, land those jobs even if they don't draw or paint that well. They are getting freelance jobs and working from home, not worrying about a day job that sucks the life out of them. No, I'm not jealous of those artists. Good for them. Where does that leave the rest of us? Those who haven't gotten that first job that gets things going? I honestly don't want to think about all that stuff right now. The actual pleasure I get out of drawing with no intention of promoting pieces and getting published is enough for the time being. If someone wants to pay me so I can quit my day jobs, then I'll be more than happy to give it my best. That's enough for now because, like I said, I just want to do what I like.
The ink drawing above was done with a Faber-Castell PITT pen. The guy was either asleep or reading because he didn't move for the longest time; he definitely wasn't dead because he eventually got up.

Here's a pic of the pen set that I picked up a while ago next to this neat key chain that I found in a used game shop in Austin. The store focused on older games and even had old consoles like Atari and Intellivision. I'll link to them as soon as I ask my brother or Jason what the name of that place was. Game Over? I think that was it.

-cm

Comic Book Idol

I lost Comic Book Idol. Hell, I didn't even make a runner up. I will
admit I could see where at least 8 of them were better then me. For
real. 8 People without jobs kicked my ass. Different styles, same
styles, whatever. Better. More complete, more professional, and just
all around cleaner. By that I mean that their art is almost perfectly
pencilled. Not messy at all. And one of the runner's up was clearly
the best of all 14 in the running(I wasn't even a runner up, shit) but
he dropped out(and I know I own a comic of his, it may have been Paper
Museum). The only bummer was where I could see how one or two of them
weren't as good as I was in certain ways they should be(if they beat
me out). I think they were picked because of some style preference
of the judges(and I have a very open mind to different styles, I just
don't like derivative without skill).

None of this means I suck. It just points out that no matter how good
I am I need to be great to be a comic book artist. Good doesn't work
anymore. In the 90's they would almost literally hire anyone. The
80's were filled with artists who could barely draw, but they put the
work in and got stuff on time. The 90's boom changed that. The
founders of Image made a company that started out(Image now is
completely different and I'd love to work there, and it is the first
place I would send my stuff to) as style over substance. They started
hiring anyone who could ape their style. Writing didn't matter. You
hired a high school friend for that. It was all about selling comics
to go into a bag and be kept for future generations college fund.
Even as a young teen I knew there was something wrong with that
mentality. And the comics just fucking sucked.




But the point is they hired anyone with a pulse. Then the industry
collapsed. A bunch of losers were left without a job(and some
talented people too who got lost in the shuffle). The amount of jobs
basically were few and far between. There was no room for new people
unless you were absolutely brilliant. And really there are only a few
who are actually that good. Actually great.

People tell me I am a great artist all the time. This is not
bragging, all artists hear this. It is based on how well non artists
draw or who they know. But when you are in the industry and see
people like Moebius, Mike Mignola, Geof Darrow, Adam Hughes, Travis
Charest, and others, you know deep down you have a very long way to
go. I think I am good. But I know I am not great. But getting to
great and the potential of getting there is what fuels me.

All this just points out how futile it is for me to do anything but my
own comics. It's like a secret backdoor into the industry. It's funny because that was my reasoning for making my own movie(And yes the link doesn't work I hope to get it up very in a week). I can
act, write, direct and I'll be a movie maker no matter who takes
issue. In fact since it's finished I basically am. Now I just need
to get it into a theatre. Then I've really arrived(like making my own
comic, and then getting it published).

So I'm not discouraged. I just know I have to up my game. And doing
that will make me great. It may take a year. It may take five. It may take a lifetime. But
it will happen. I don't give up.

I drew these two pages when Steven Grant let out an open call for
talent on his online column(which has excellent political commentary
and dissection of comic storytelling techniques). I pencilled it on
Canson Blueline Comic Book Paper. The paper is pretty good. A little
rough for my taste since I feel my art doesn't really come together
until it is inked. I mainly use Sakura refillable brush pens after
they have lost their pointiness. They last forever as frayed dry
brushes. I used microns for all the perspective stuff. I've been
told it doesn't match too well with my dry brush(which is an excellent
observation) so I may need to modify my storytelling to exclude
details that would need a pen(at least a normal pen, a croqeul pen may
work since in the past I have used ti for tiny parts of dry brush
drawings. I think I need to also not darken or contrast it so much
because it looks better with more watery or translucent ink. I don't
know how Greg Ruth keeps it so dark. I noticed Mark Shultze and Toby
Cypress use a lot of translucent ink(by that I mean watered down to
get a smoother effect, another reason I like plate finish although I
know that they don't use Plate finish). Whatever, now I'm just
rambling.

Adrian

Vacation Sketches 4

I said everything I want to about Batman. Did this with acrylic ink. This was my first acrylic ink painting. I always used watercolors and guache before. The Cliffhanger post and Green Arrow pic were aslo done in Acrylic ink. It's a lot of fun and much easier for me to use than regular acrylic and maybe even the watercolor mediums.

I'll post some pages tomorrow.

Adrian

Cliffhanger

So after that two day cliffhanger the answer is: I will keep posting on Graphic Apparatus. I'll try to get others in on it. Maybe Taylor or some other friends who draw, but mainly I'll be working on Mendoza. He does all the crazy adventures(like the time he talked to Lee[therapist]) and all the other starnge gambits he always ends up in. For now I'll just keep on keeping on. I have story pages I have to post and still a bunch more sketches(and if I ever get a deal to fucking publish I have a bunch of stuff I have held back because I don't want it stolen that can be shown). Everything is cool between Mendoza and I, he just works like 6 1/2 days a week or more so drawing is pretty tough.

Hopefully this(what I hope is a) sabatical will be of the sexual type. After all it's hard to draw when you're doing it(said in an unsavory voice).

For now, the readers will have to put up with a bunch more of my rambling, introspective, long rants that will never mean anything until I'm famous or dead. Wonderful.

This is a picture of my biggest crush this summer(which compared to last summer's draught is actually pretty amazing, I was doing something both right and absoletely wrong this summer) who I will never see again in anything other than what will surely be an awkward situation. Yeah, she was mentioned in a previous post. And yes, Lee is keeping her warm. And yes, I am creepy and alone.

If it gives me any points I didn't draw her until I never saw her again.

Shit, I just thought of a funny story. Once she sat with me and asked to see my drawings. I showed her a bunch(careful to flip quickly past my Batman fetish) and she liked them. Suddenly the flipping stops on a picture of someone that looks a bunch like her. I stutteringly explain that I'm bad at likenesses before I realize it totally looks like her and have to backtrack and explain of course I was just drawing someone who looked like her but not her(but if I am so bad you woulnd't be able to tell the difference anyway, arghh, headache).

And no this picture isn't the one she saw. This is an obscured pic of her(to keep her identity secret, "but Adrian I thought you were bad at likenesses?", you say, okay I did it like this so I don't have to try to make it look like her, jeez)

Adrian

Looking back and looking ahead

First of all, I should apologize to Rivero because I asked him to go out tonight and draw at a cafe, and I didn't even draw (not uncommon). He completed a sketch, but I just wasn't contributing anything to the creative atmosphere in any way, so for this post I'm making an announcement for this blog and its growing number of viewers (just basing it on the counter in the sidebar). Before I say what I have to, I'll tell you a little bit about how Graphic Apparatus came about just because we've never done so.

Sometime in August of 2006, I asked Adrian what he thought about the idea of doing a team blog where we could push each other to draw on a more regular basis with some kind of regular posting schedule. I think I had started a sketch blog of my own but wasn't doing much with it. I also was enjoying some art blogs created by different groups of artists and seeing all the potential of online sketch journals where people were focusing on process and not necessarily just finished work. He agreed to it and we talked about what to name it, and he came up with the title we have now. Looking back to the end of August 2006, we just started posting without ever really explaining our intent or the purpose of creating a team blog. It was just an experiment anyway, and we never really specified how much or IF we would promote the site. Graphic Apparatus would just be a push for us to do more work, and I really wanted to focus on being more consistent--something I could never quite achieve with my college work because I was a shitty art student with no direction and declining motivation. Five years after school, I'm not that much different save for a brief time prior to this year's Comic-Con. So, here we are over a year after starting, and Adrian's been good about producing more work and getting input from others who check out drawing forums.

So why this long-winded explanation with no sketch or any images? Tonight, I said something to Adrian about setting aside my artistic endeavors to make some changes to my life, and I also said this was not some way of baiting him into saying something nice about my ability to draw. It wasn't some sneaky way of getting compliments from a fellow artist in order to feel good about myself. It was an honest thought on my part that I wanted to say out loud. He was nice enough to say I was good at what I do, so should just stick with it to keep improving. It was a nice thing to say, but I was still thinking about my overall lack of identity and body of work as an "illustrator" or "artist" or whatever I've tried to label myself as. In short, I was grumpy and fed up my lack of effort over the past year[s].

Where does all this leave Graphic Apparatus now? Well, I say that Adrian keeps posting all the stuff he cranks out on a daily basis. I step away from posting to do a lot of thinking about what it is I'm looking to achieve now that I'm 30. Is it comic book work or some other niche in illustration? Maybe Rivero will decide to focus on Art Dump (the other site he started but put on hold since we were focusing our efforts here) or he could start something new. I'll talk to him about it soon, but it's really up to him, and whatever it is, anyone who comes here to browse should keep checking on what he has to share. He has plenty of ideas on the drawing table, so you won't be disappointed. His next post here should let you know where he's going to be posting.

Even after writing this, I'm not sure it was even necessary, but it's rather therapeutic to get it off my chest. I could be back as soon as next week, but who knows.

Thanks to all those who continue to check out this blog! AND thanks to anyone who took the time to read all of the above.

-CM

ps: just to be sure we're all clear, this is NOT the last post for GA, so check back!

Proof Of Life

Sydney Poitier from Deathproof was my onscreen crush for 2007. So hot you wonder where she's been all your life. I mean , I knew her dad(on screen not in real life) for so long you just can't believe you haven't seen his hot daughter(whose name sounds exactly the same). I couldn't watch the new DVD without drawing her. Her detached coolness is just irresistable.

My sister went to her friends sweet sixteen party tonight. I have no idea what to make of that. Except I want to out brat all those girls(I know the girl and she's not a brat).






This Batman shit is getting old. Get over it, dude, you're not gay, so he'll never sleep with you(and I don't think Batman is gay either, although that Robin thing is making me wonder). Stop drawing Batman!

The girls near Rockridge BART are pretty hot. Just saying, better quality than most of the Bay Area. Not North Beach quality, but good. Need to find an excuse to go back to my sweet Austin(where Deathproof was filmed, so it is true, hot girls hang out there).

Drawing some huge ass pages this week. 21X14. Sci Fi stuff with space ships and aliens and armor and warfare. Wrote the story a few years back and am finally drawing it. It's for my own comic. It needs new name. I like one word titles generaly.

Might buy Halo 3 tomorrow. Bought Stranglehold and that kicked a nice amount of ass.

I made a buhnch of commitments for Saturday and I can't remember a single one. I think maybe I was supposed to record some music or go to a signing or something. I told people shit and chances of me coming through are not so good. Oh well.




Oh and Katharine Mcfee is getting married...I hope he keeps her warm for when I get famous and steal her away from that old fucker. If you don't think she is hot I hope you starve to death on an iceberg. She is so hot I would rip the skin from the bottom of my feet and make sandals for her.


Adrian

Another Lee

I don't have time to write anything for this post right now, but at least the sketch is posted. This blog should be turned over to Adrian and someone who can post better quality work on a regular basis. Argh. Need to manage my schedule better. Maybe less sleep, more drawing.

-cm

Vacation Sketches 3/Drakes Bay

I really like the movie the Fog, the original, and no it isn't very
good except it has some great scenes done in Drakes Bay north of
San Francisco. I went there with my sister one day for no good reason
except we were near the golden gate bridge. She's cool so she just
went along with my weird ocean obsession. It is like this weird
remote bay/park/lost part of the coast with no real houses(except
those seen in the Fog), a crazy lighthouse, and the windiest part of
the west coast. It is like another state altogether. I stared at the
ocean for a really long time looking for whales or even more
ridiculous, great white sharks, which would be a one in a thousand
chance to see(the sharks, not the whales, I was in the wrong time of
year for the whales). Long miles of remote beach. You go there and
you just know that despite new theories to the contrary, Francis Drake
had to have landed there. It is really a sight to see. Later on this
summer I flew over San Francisco and saw that it was so ridiculously
close to the bay. It was like the distance to Oakland. Just the
plane turning made us go over the bay bridge, over SF, then over the
golden gate, and really near Drakes Bay(it's basically the roads and
uneven terrain that make it like two hours to get to). Recommended if
you like nature and are obsessed with history and the ocean, and the
remote parts of california.



There are a lot of historical places that people ignore if they don't
know otherwise. I remember reading accounts of the Mussle Slough
Massacre that took place at the turn of the century in the middle of
California. Shoot outs involving Ambrose Bierce(The author of the
great story "Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge"). All this shit just
happens around us and is forgotten. Whole tribes of indians existen
in the bay area and disappeared before we ever recorded them(as did
the tribes that met Francis Drake, they even sacrificed shit to him
and tortured themselves for him, he declined the compliments, and now
his shipmates are the only recorded history of them from that time).

I was looking at some maps of lakes in california and found all kinds
of weird names that had to have stories behind them(Killer's Cove
among them). That was only because I remember from childhood going to
Clearlake and hearing stories of people dieing in ponds because of the
gases in the springs(and man did I see some weird ass creeks and coves
in Clearlake).

I even found a resource for Bigfoot sightings in all these places I
had been. Really funny half done reports from decades ago of hairy
giant apes running down cliffs and making crazy sounds at
night(seriously, those accounts are like episodes of In Search Of,
another of my favorite shows ever).

I don't know what I'm talking about. It's 4:30, I should be
asleep(what I'm waking up for I don't know, lack of pussy cloud's
men's minds like Obi Wan Kenobi, there you happy, now you have an
example of the problem, I'm kidding). Keep drawing, keep living, keep
loving. Something like that.

I want to dress as a Jack O' Lantern for halloween if not for anything
else then to homage Halloween 3, a shitty movie, but it has the
greatest Jack O' Lantern seen ever. For real, find it on youtube,
it's fucking messed up.

Jack O' Lantern filled with bugs and snakes

And just because I'm in love with the theme.

Silver Shamrock commercial

I drew the sketches while waiting in Chicago for three hours on the tarmac sleep deprived and hallucenigenic(didn't even try to spell tht right). The Batman I drew on vacation in Miami after sleeping a few days from the plane ordeal.


Adrian

I've been keeping in touch with friends outside of California and outside of the United States through a certain site. Short version is this: there's a werewolf icon used on the site, and I didn't like the way it looked, so I started drawing one in Photoshop on my tablet which had just been sitting in my room, neglected. I came up with the blue one first because the icon had that hue to it; that's what my memory told me anyway. The second was was just playing with layers and different blending modes. Not too different except I kind of liked the blue-ish tint to the face area, and it ended up having the traditional brown fur that werewolves have in movies or books.

On another note, congrats to Rivero and everyone else on finishing the movie. I think I said it at the bar, but may have forgotten thanks to the beers. Can't wait to see the final edit.

I also need to do more with my previous posts--Spider-man and the Drawing Board Jam stuff.

-cm

I Finished My Movie!!!/Vacation sketches 2/I Heart Batman

I'm thrilled, frightened, and a million other colors of emotions because I finished filming my movie on Sunday. I can die tomorrow and something I created exists no matter what(I won't die tomorrow, but I just heard that famous fantasy writer I never read Robert Jordan died, and since he is the contemporary of George R.R. Martin whose Game Of Thrones I've gotten around ten people to read, I am thinking about mortality and completing things before I die.).

We filmed the final scene of the movie plus some inserts. We had something of a celebration afterwards. Actually it lasted all day. First we finished filming the endiing scene at around 2 PM. Then we headed over to a pub that Paul and Taylor wanted to hang out at. We bullshitted about our future stories and movies. We talked about my favorite book Hyperion and how it practically is the last word on Science Fiction and how it's a massive look at literature, poetry, and the common tropes of science fiction. It is Star Wars times 30 and smart and emotional. Then I showed them the collection of 1939-1940 comics by Fletcher Hanks called I Shall Destroy All Civilized Worlds. They freaked out at how completely vindictive the omnipotent character was and how ignorant the writing was. It somehow ends up being genius in its stupidity. Everything infantile about comics is realized in it's pages. Doug joined us a bit later. We sat there drinking great beer for 7 hours. 7 hours of beautiful intoxication and talking with friends. After we shot the night scenes(that's why we were waiting around until dark) we went to a tiki bar and drank for another three hours. Even Mendoza joined us. He told us disgusting pizza stories. It was a blast.

This first chapter of storytelling in my life is almost over. The hard work is done. I am happy. But at the same time I feel weird that this is a chronicle of some pretty low times in my life realized as a fictionl single aspect of who I am. During the making of this I have gained friends, lost friends, had my heart broken, changed my whole attitude towards life, moved, lost a pet to a stupid disease, become the legal parent to my sister, and worst of all, lost my mother. In a way this needed to end to turn the horrible page and clean the slate. I've never had it worse than those years. Everything was at the edge of being lost. My sister, my money, my life, my stories, my friends, everything. I only complain about things now because I have entered into better place and I still have a few things I have to fix. But those things are relatively small. I have this chronicle. It doesn't explain who I am or my motivations, but it gives a small glimpse. I've looked at my other screenplays and i see myself much more.

This was written by Doug Clarke and I years ago as something to do. Something to express our sense of humor, and to show how weird we think Paul Gordan is(he's the villian and Doug is the hero, I'm the goof off friend, and no this is a skewed version of reality, no one is a villian or a hero and I can't just be a goof off and that's it). Paul's dialogue was like a fetish of mine. that is where you really see into my mind. his strange logic and the way the scenes with him are funny in a dark yet goofy sense. It's my ultimate asshole character and how I feel the world treats me all at once. I want to be him and I want to destroy him. And, yes Paul does sort of act like him. He tried to act a few times and missed the point. There is no need to act, the words come out of his mouth this way with no affectation. Of course, Paul is a nice guy, the asshole part was basically all me. The opposite of me but me.

I look at my other screenplays and I see the pure unrefined me. Goode Apples, my comedy is all the stupid things I think but can't say because they are just stupid. It is all the weird things I've seen about people and the innocent yet evil ways people can be. You love the characters but they are brutally stupid. They don't apologze for it. You have to accept that people are flawed and beautiful all at once. My Samurai action movie, Tooth And Nail is everything I feel hasn't been done properly in action and all the crazy thiings I've always wanted to see. A Thousand Words is the closest to me. It's about me. My life, my relationships(yet fictionalized since half of people and situations in this are fictional) and my personality. How I react to people. My inadiquacies(sp?). And how my weakness to women is a strength, yes, but also a sort of innocent ignorance that I need to grow from. It is real. Emotionally it is real. My friiendships, the fun times, the bad times, it is all me. I am the most proud of it and the most scared of showing it. Only Taylor and Mendoza have read parts of it. I wrote fifty pages of it in one day. I ended up changing about two pages of it. After editing it and editing it. The Dead Next Door, my first movie had seven edits. Goode Apples had three. Tooth And Nail had two. I'm talking finished edits with new scenes and fixed dialogue. I am not finished with A Thousand Words but so far I am 99% happy with it. And I'm 80 pages in with a target of 120 pages.

But for now I have this movie. The Dead Next Door. For now this is the closest you can get to me. This is the yard stick to my mental personal space. And a part of my life is forever behind me. That is great and terrible. Now to finish editing it.

The post by Mendoza, Sorry Spiderman reminds me of that Hollies song, Sorry Suzanne. I've been studying them to write songs in that vein for Goode Apples.

The first picture is some stuff I drew on vacation in Miami. It shows what I was thinking about and how I felt that day. The second I drew last night(the date is wrong by a day). I just love Batman. I love lighting him, drawing all the different plains of his face and mask. Making an asskicking scary guy of the imaginations of millions into a reality of my own mind. My own vision of him. Have to stop drawing him already.

Adrian

Sorry Spider-man

It's funny that Adrian's been posting Batman and Spider-man drawings because that's all there was for a long time at my house when my brother and I were growing up. I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I liked Spider-man and he liked Batman, and it was an unspoken battle for a few years until I wised up and read Year One, Dark Knight, Action Comics Annual 1, and those Alan Davis Detective issues. Now, we read whatever we think is good without thinking who's publishing it, so I always think it's weird when people still say that they only read one or the other. And what about all the good comics that aren't published by DC and Marvel? Those folks are missing out on a lot.

Here's my first post in a long time and there's so much I want to try with drawing Spider-man and Mary Jane. I'll try to keep at it and post a follow-up.

Vacation Sketches 1 - Batman 1 - Oil Wrestling

I drew this on vacation. I was in Miami just chilling. Drawing, reading, and hanging out with my family. It was really nice. I became obsessed with trying to draw a really scary Batman(which if you've read any old posts you know I am obsessed with trying to draw him scary enough). I think this is the closest now. I've drawn better but not this scary. I penciled it, inked it, and then tried to correct little tiny things with white paint but the white paint kept mixing with the black ink to kind of a cool effect.

I ended up going to a party because an old friend of mine told me some friends from high school invited him. There ended up being basically every band in my area with every hot goth chick(yes, my favorite, so I was happy) in a ten mile radius at the party. But that wasn't what sold me. It was the oil wrestling. I guess the person who threw the party(the friend from high school) hired some girls to oil wrestle. Apparently there wasn't enough so they asked for volunteers which meant goth chicks covered with oil in only their underwear. Again, very happy was I. It was so good I even hit on the lesbian one. She was butch(not looking, just the way she carried herself) but she was like twenty(my magic number with women) and she had a hot girlfriend that she led around. Really, you don't see a lot of hot goths in their underwear covered in oil(unless they are your girlfriend, and yes, I have). The world needs more of that. Whats with half of the goth girls now bleaching their hair. It's hot, but it almost guarantees high maintenance. I ditched early, because leaving early is my new thing, went to Ruby Room in Oakland and was reminded about how much the Bay Area sucks.

I think I have gotten nothing done since finishing those Batman samples. I have a bunch of half finished things laying around. I need to ramp up my output.

Adrian

The Scorpion

The Scorpion is my favorite Spiderman villian. I grew up on Spiderman. I bought Amaziing, Spectacular, and Web Of, and even those reprints that came out in the eighties. Because of that I had a nice overview of the character and not just the current one but the past interpretations. I actually think half of my moral compass comes from Peter Parker(for better or worse, I think for better). I loved all his colorful villians with their own inadequacies. Green Goblin was fucking crazy and wanted to bring Peter with him. Adrian Toomes, the Vulture was old. Doctor Octopus fucking slapped Spiderman after beating him in those old Ditko comics. Mysterio was awesome with all his special effects. The Lizard had his whole tragic story. Sandman was just a plain thug. But I loved Scorpion most of all.

Scorpion was a crazy thug named Mac Gargan who was picked by J. Jonah Jameson to defeat Spiderman. He was given powers and went crazy. For some reason now he wanted to kill Spiderman and Jameson. I always loved how weird he looked for no real reason. His mask didn't cover his eyebrows. He clearly shaved all the hair off his body about twice a week. Showers didn't seem to be in the picture. And he was mad. Like madder than anyone. Hulk level mad. I remember my friend Roland showing me a row of panels where he just got madder and madder just standing still. And the Stan Lee captions just explained how mad he was getting.

I also worked all night last drawing this and revising my Batman pages. Here is a direct link to them.

www.graphicapparatus.blogspot.com/2007/07/batman-pages-inked.html#links

At least 50% of it has been changed drastically. Now it's back to drawing my own pages. Thank god. Whatever.

Adrian

Baristas

So this is an embarrassing story. My summer of failure was dotted with near moments of coolness punctuated by dismal embarrassment. As was the case here. I came into the Starbucks with Mendoza to ostensibly flirt with my favorite girl, we called her Original Sauce(of course the more I like them the longer it takes for me to get up the nerve to do so) only to end up flirting with another. Original Sauce happened to be working and I talked to her a little, but another beautiful barista ends up sweeping near me. I can't help myself and start talking to her. I notice that this barista is also gorgous and nice. Next thing I know my balls have dropped and I start full on hitting on her. I even resort to old standards like how pretty her eyes are(I was actually being honest and the moment that came out of my mouth I realized how trite and cliche it was). I try to justify it and at the same time hit on her more by telling her I should just paint her eyes onto this picture I'm working on. She laughs and I can't help but do it. I end up hitting on her more, shes really cool about it and it is now just obvious, and finally she knows she needs to tell me the jig is up because the phone number question is about thirty seconds away. She subtely tells me that the guy working complements her eyes. I figure out what that means back off and look down at my drawing of her. I think Mendoza was laughing but I wouldnt even look him in the eye.

I've said many times how bad I am at likenesses so I never was really afraid it would look like her anyway. But, somehow, this one time, it does actually look a hell of a lot like her. I look at her behind the counter just to check if I am wrong about the likeness and if she is really with the guy or I was just imagining things. Of course both things end up true and on top of it I hit on this girl in front of my real crush. I try to pretend it isn't her by changing the hair color but it doesn't change a thing. It is her. On top of all that I'm kind of friends with her boyfriend so it was really humiliating that I was such an idiot.

Anyway, they ended up both being super cool and pretending I wasn't the idiot I am. I saw them a bunch more times after that and hung out with them while they were on break once. They want to buy the painting. She even called it the painting with her eyes which totally made me blush, because again I tried to change it but it was clearly her. I even changed the hair color. Oh well.

And the other barista, Original Sauce, had a boyfriend the whole time so I never had a chance. I don't remember why we called her Original Sauce maybe because she was like the best barbecue sauce(or something stupid like that).

None of them work there anymore. I was sad to see the couple go because they were genuinely cool people. But Original Sauce just broke my heart. She was so fucking cool and hot and sweet and smart. I never painted anything of her. I was that weak. But sometimes I look at things I painted there and I can tell there is something...just something that reminds me of her. And now I probably will never see her again.

It's weird how people pop in and out of life like a few frames of film in your own personal movie. I wish I had a pause button.

Adrian

I just realized...

that I have to post something before going to work today. I'll try to get something done in the next 30 minutes; maybe it's time to look at the Drawing Jam section on The Drawing Board. Rivero's been telling to check out the site more and post more often.

update: 2:48pm sketch added... will work on it a little more and maybe do an inked version that takes more risks... photo ref from The Drawing Board--August 07 Drawing Jam.

-cm

Green Arrow

I lost. The post contest is over. I went to Oakland yesterday for the art and soul festival. Afterwards me Taylor, Sara(taylor's girl) and Sabrina went bar hopping at like 6 PM. We got tanked at Radio, the bar I once filmed at for my movie(the link on the side has a clip from that bar). I invited Mendoza. We got more tanked met up with Paul at the Ruby Room. Then a few hours later after we were too fucked up to walk to Taylor's Paul drove us to his and Doug's house where we eventually got kicked out of because we were too loud(actually Paul and I were too loud but he lives there). We then walked over to Taylor and I drove Sabrina home and met up with Mendoza at 24 hour Starbucks where we talked for another hour about my love life(not really much of a love life more like several crushes who have rapists[boyfriends]) and how pathetic as it is it is officially over. Slates clean, time to start over. Or cut off the equipment for lack of usage.. All of a sudden I realized that I forgot to post. And it was like 5 in the morning so I was way too late. Mendoza got a hearty laugh out of it and I sulked my way home and wished him good luck going over his ghost bridge to Vallejo. Mendoza won the post contest.

I think Green Arrow is cool. He is a crazy billionaire liberal. Basically Richard Branson as a crime fighter. I sat around today and felt like sketching so I drew Green Arrow. The sketch was only okay so I slapped some paint on it. It's called polishing a turd. It kind of worked here but I still didn't take it too far becuase it was just a page in my nearly 400 page sketchbook. Maybe that's laziness. Whatever. I didn't plan on commiting to a fucking full painting when I started sketching today. Wow, excuses excuses. It was done in pencil then painted over with acrylic ink, then back over with white acrylic, then inked with india ink and acrylic ink, then gessoed over in places, then inked with a micron pen. Polishiing a turd.

I also added a half done page of art I was working on because I like the way it looks half inked. The characters are supposed to be in almost complete darkness. So the panels are supposed to be about 90% black.

Adrian

Studying the best

Like studying the work of masters in a museum, I decided to look at two amazing artists--Jaime Hernandez and Paul Pope. Yes, I copied these panels, but only to learn something about spotting blacks and only drawing what is necessary. Again, I only did this to learn something and I apologize to the artists for doing such a bad job of imitating their line work and inking styles...

Blade Runner

Barely made it home in time. Dropped off my sister in Sacramento and rushed back to post. It is a sickness, this posting. I had a better picture but no time to write the elaborate story behind it so here is a fast one. Bladerunner is my favorite movie ever. I've been obsessed with it since seeing it the second time in the eighties. I originally saw it in the theatre but it kind of blew my mind through the back of my skull and into the theatre wall. It took another viewing to absorb it and accept it as something other than reality. A work of art made by man. It is still the best looking movie ever. Every set, frame, lighting, everything. I could definitely die after making a movie that good. There would be nothing left to do.

I drew this in my sketchbook on the 25th anniversery of the movieon June 25th. It's in pencil. This is one of my all time favorite screen shots. After Deckard gets beaten up by Leon he comes back home with Rachel(so hot in this) and he gets some whisky. As he drinks it he backwashes a tiny bit of blood into it. It is so small you think you wouldn't see it but the lighting is so perfect and Ridley Scott is so fucking great that that little detail is amazingly clear. I drew a small trickle of blood going into the alcohol. The best!

Adrian

My head hurts, so no captions, no story.

Okay, so maybe I'll write something... Borrowed a GL Corps trade from my brother after seeing Patrick Gleason's artwork at his table in San Diego. Really nice guy, too. The other stuff is ... is... kind of crap when I look at it.

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.