Strawberry Dough Season's Sweetings: Summer Bliss

Since this artist and this song has been buzzing around my head and iPod for months, allow me to share it with you. Play it while reading this post:

 

 

Paul Hardcastle, a multi- instrumentalist jazz musician from Britain, provided me with one of the many sounds I've used as a sugar glider drawing playlist for the past few months. The hotly awaited season of summer is about to arrive here in the states, and what perfect way to ring it in but with the release of Strawberry Dough Season's Sweetings: Summer!! It is now available for purchase on my shop.



 

 

 

I remember sharing this cover art for the final season for this series a month ago as a penciled sketch on my Instagram page once Spring was completed. From the very start of my character choices for the first Strawberry Dough, many readers were shocked at the omission of certain obvious animals native to the Australian and New Zealand lands. At the time, they didn't fit the comics I drew out, so I left it to the Winds of Fate -again- to remind me when was the perfect time to unleash the two new characters onto the Alpine Outback

 

Let's start this preview with a bright first page, shall we?!

 

 

I have to give a ton of credit to the Aussie Instagrammers out there for providing me with such vast landscapes and wonderful native birds to draw for this latest comic's intro! Of course, such dazzling décor would be disrupted by-



 

FIRECRACKERS!! Set off by a mischievous... Platypus... 

 

Before I continue, I must state the context of this page. Being an animal lover since age five, I've done my best to educate others on what exactly ticks certain creatures off. I felt that it was necessary to warn others of the use of certain objects that can cause damage. In this case, fireworks and firecrackers frighten the living daylights out of many animals. While this was used for comedic effect for a plot point, make no mistake: the way those birds reacted is VERY similar to how your dog, cat, guinea pig or rabbit would react if you took them out for a 4th of July celebration. They are safe indoors!

 

Now, onto why Platypus exists.

 

 

With the summer season hitting the Alpine Outback, the ever- so mythical Northeast region begins to bloom in popularity the way Kiwi and Dingo shared with the others during Spring. Platypus acts as the herald for the region, carrying out acts of naughtiness to fend other animals off until his -gulps- leader says to let them in.

 

 

He was a character long in development to appear in a book! Thanks to the platypus being an unusual creature to zoological standards -duck- billed, beaver- tailed, otter- bodied-, his overall design will make for a great sticker to add to the series collection! As seen above, his leader I'll speak of at the end. 

 

One joy I had while finishing this book was reuniting Squishy and the Alpine crew with Kiwi and her kiwifruit to see the side effects and wonder of their full journey unfolding!  

 

Note to self: Bandicoot can't avoid thunderstorms easier than trees.

Since this IS the ending book to the current Strawberry Dough series, there has to be cap- offs to things that have happened in the previous seasons. Case in point: Goanna still exists-

 

And Bilby arrives with Dingo! Once a month passes, I'll have a blogpost detailing exactly what I was going through at the time I started this book and finished it. In a weird philosophical way, Summer is the encapsulation of my latest transition in the Bay Area for the past two months. Much like I've described in Brooklyn By The Bay, it's a change I saw coming.

Much like how Kangaroo makes her grand entrance in the book!

 

 

 

Thank you all for reading, sharing and supporting my books! I'll be back to talk about something more key to my career... on Monday.

Student Showcase! "The Muji Story"

There are many times in which the Winds of Fate will pull you in a direction that doesn't quite meet your game plan. Usually, it's by nature that we all will plan against reality since we believe it's ALL in the palm of our hands.

Thankfully, that's not the case!

Once my two Cartooning classes were underway in autumn of 2015, I dipped my bare cold feet into rather warm water. Both classes were composed of deeply impressionable elementary school students, all of which had either an inkling or fine reasoning as to why they wanted to learn the ways of the Cartoonist. Take it from this slim fit jazz buff; I was impressed.

While my K- 2nd grade group took a few weeks to warm up to my existence, my 4th- 6th grade group couldn't help but peek at my book projects -especially SolForce- at least once a class for inspiration. Midway though the semester, I noticed that I was slowly but surely giving the students revised character designs, story ideas and even comic titles! Of the ten students, only a few of them produced concrete ideas to take them a step further.

Allow me to introduce you to two of my Cartooning proteges: Jenna and Alice!!

Starting out as close friends since the 1st grade -their words, not mine-, Alice and Jenna joined my first Cartooning class already in love with three things: animals, magic, and comedy. When asked on the first day of class what were their favorite comic or cartoon characters, both replied Calvin & Hobbes; I almost teared up. Oddly enough, talking with them both together made me consider how much in common they have with my 5th grade- self. In the olden days of my youth, Pokemon, Harry Potter, and SpongeBob SquarePants were my pop culture obsessions. They ended up having a huge pull on my art style and storytelling, just as much as the Looney Tunes, Pink Panther and Garfield comics had on me since I picked up the Crayola crayons in pre- K. 

Working alone for the first seven weeks of class, Jenna created an assortment of animal characters for a household setting that included a trouble-making beagle, a wildly sweet cockatoo and a shy kitten. Me and her often debated on names; the cockatoo's name being Snowy was fitting, but Spot for the beagle I thought was too... common! So, I suggested a name with more weight on it like Magnus! Jenna brings that incident up every chance she gets. Oh, the hilarity.

Alice created characters more for the forest. Her first was a rascally rabbit named Flora. The others were a wildcat, a bluejay bird and a fish that I redesigned as a mud-skipper. Look; when I meet anyone of any age with a genuine love for animals, I try to expand to expand their vocabulary even if the next sentence is "I DON'T WANT HER TO BE A DOG. SHE'S A PUPPY!"

Fast forward to week eight of the class, the duo told me that they wanted to make a comic together. I assumed that they wanted to make new characters, so I let them roam free for 30 minutes. And this is what they came up with:

Yes. Within 40 minutes, this character concept and story summary were drawn and written by them! What I managed to get out of them was this: there's a school of monsters that all look and act similar, but out of the blue an evil sorceress casts a spell on them all which causes the monsters to mutate with differing animal body parts. Now, they embark on a quest to find that sorceress to reverse the spell! 

Huh!.... The idea hooked me, especially for a comic that can have continuing stories. So, I told the girls that I'm taking home their summary and character for some editing. -they hate that word, by the way- Later that Thursday night, this ended up being the revised summary and character design.

At first, I thought I took too many liberties with the character design. "How can two 4th graders draw something like this?!" I thought in the WAY back of my cynical adult brain... But after witnessing the passion Alice and Jenna had for creating something original and telling a story, all of those doubts were dropped that night. And I even helped give the monster species a name: the Muji. The main character I thought should have a name that's youthful and connecting like its creators, so I named him Kee! His circular spiked body type and bat wing- crab arm fusion served as the basis for the Muji designs.

Next week, I presented them the revisions... and their excitement flew sky high. Within minutes, we were drawing out comic thumbnails! As a parting gift for the semester, I drew them a visual concept of the Muji comic:

This, of course, led Jenna to asking a very peculiar question when all of the other students left the room: "Can we, like, make this into a book like your stuff?!"

I looked at her mom with a big smirk and asked "When can we start?"

Folks, this is what led to Alice and Jenna being my "first clients" in comic creating. After a few weekend classes thanks to their mothers, Margot and Noelle, and another full ten week semester, I'm happy to present their first book, The Muji Story! 

Donned with 24 black and white pages, the three- chapter book follows the band of parasite- like creatures that after exposed to a hex casted by Ali- Tabada, an evil sorceress-in-training, mutate as combinations of animals, and now must find a remedy to reverse the hex!

The Muji Story, according to the duo, was only the beginning. Over their summer break, not only do we plan to work further on "Book 2" of the Muji series, but they're also joining me at my first book expo in the Bay Area: the Bay Area Book Festival!! We'll be located in Teen Town, since our projects are all- ages graphic novels. I'm beyond excited to see what the future has in store for my students and I.

Or... just call us "AJA" if we're all spotted together. 

I Heart Sol

It all started with a simple task: a certain date named St. Valentine's Day is upon us and I figured it'd be a fun idea to draw a couple of postcards based on SolForce. The only two I thought of were Geraldine and A.C. As I fleshed out the compositions more, something became obvious to me; they were both drinking their favorite beverages. Geraldine sticks to her rabbit inhibitions and downs some carrot juice on her way from the farmer's market, while A.C. smirks after buying his first (out of five) latte macchiato's within his workday. 

 

Here's a secret: I pictured A.C. with a Kojak- esque voice in the colored version. 'Who loves ya, baby?'

 

These two pieces led to six more card designs with RaiStar Twinkle, John Clue, Martha Clue, Revenda Delgatta, Stephanie Monroe, and Essa and Aamoco Gerbil with some form of their favorite food or beverage drinks. This was the purest opportunity to test out a marketing plan that can reach all year round instead of only February. I titled it I Heart Sol! 

 

 

The official logo!



 

Without further ado, here are the original eight chosen for this test!

 



 

Ceasar 'A.C.' Southermire and a Latte Macchiato

 

Geraldine Archer and Carrot Juice

 

John Clue and a Martini

 

Martha Clue and Lemonade

 

RaiStar Twinkle and Cherries (lots of them)

 

Revenda Delgatta, Milk and a Mambo Dancing Gingerbread Mouse 

 

Stephanie Monroe and Mint Ice Cream Cake

 

 

Essa and Aamoco Gerbil and a Bowl of Cereal

 

 

One day over the week, I'll make these available as a package to order! Seeing them on a screen is great, but physical postcards with cartoon characters loving food is too tempting to pass up on.

 

Till then, have a great week and stay Sol-ful! 

 

 

 

 

character_re_re_design_2016_final_promise.png

If I were a betting man, I'd put at least 24 of my best watercolor pencils down on how many artists of every kind use that naming process! For the sake of this post, allow me to explain.

 

During my year of creative reincarnation, -2013 for those interested- I spent many a day and week in bookstores, cafes, and libraries. I could've stayed home on Google Images and Tumblr blogs to find whatever fix I needed to recreate my SolForce characters or at least push their ready- made designs from years prior, but fresh air and sunshine does this introvert well! One Wednesday that August, I drew this picture out: 

 

 

 

Four of the villains I've been drawing consistently for at least twelve years prior to 2013, but there is ONE figure that seemed to have come right out of the blue during that sketch session: the one running to the right with wings sprouting from her hair.

 

This character would go on to be drawn as a full design a month later and she was named Marcy Silver, also known as "Mercury!"

 

 

 

The first sketch needed to show the offset influences I had in re-creating this character. And there were many to--

 

Wait... recreate? Wasn't this character ONLY created a month before?!

 

Nope! "Mercury" was originally conceived back during my freshman days in high school. -well, one of the better days I hope- There was an English assignment our teacher gave the class where we had to draw out multiple Greek or Roman gods and goddesses after reading a few passages on Greek and Roman mythology. I chose Mars and Mercury and since Mars was the God of War, I portrayed him as an explosive weapons monger with no mercy only towards his own purpose and people! The War on Terror was big news at the time, folks; don't blame me.

 

Next, I drew Mercury. Believe it or not, my loose sketch of Mercury above is almost exactly the way I drew Mercury back then. Of course, there are a couple of differences. One, I drew much better at 24 years old than I did at 14 years old! And two, -most importantly- the character's a woman now.

 



More based this time off of the Greek god Hermes, Mercury's Caduceus device (which is normally a staff in mythology) contains the element of Quicksilver that grants her the power of super- speed, teleportation and duplication via electricity. As seen in the sketch above, I wanted to keep the wings that sprouted out of her hair after the power grant, but in the more finalized design below they were ditched in favor for a tiara that lights when she is at maximum speed! 

 

 

By the end of 2013, I was diving more into using ink-on-watercolor as my medium of choice to replace the digital paintjobs of Photoshop. With that said, Mercury was a prime target for me to test this out on! So in March 2014, I did.

 

 

 

As you can probably tell, her scarf is now a bright carmen red as opposed to the dark grey used in the design before and her figure is now a bit more defined. If I had to guess, the anatomy studies I had lying around in my older flashdrive came out in full bloom when I drew this poster.

The image above shows the progress of how this character was recreated throughout a full year and provides the point of this post. Within art, it's always about the timing and connections. Had I not felt the need to recreate a couple of characters to become B-List villains for SolForce, I would've continued to draw every other one I've redesigned since 2013. And thanks to my short- lived period in grad school, I shared my work with many impressionable art students. I never looked for praise or perfectionism with my work, since I tend to have a rather specific style especially within cartooning. Nevertheless, most people were blown away enough to realize that I created all of these characters and stories on my own. And then, they would point me to references that would help redefine my designs! I ended up doing the same.

 

 

 

This concludes this weeks' spiral into memory lane on how my character design process works on those bought back from the sketchbook grave! Her name was always Mercury, but in one story she'll be dubbed 'Salted Caramel'. Don't count on me to tell you why right now.

 

If you liked this post, maybe I'll describe how another SolForce villain came back last weekend in my Moleskine journal in a future post...

 

'Solely Stitched: A Documentary'

One day in April 2015, a fellow Academy of Art colleague Alan Tsao asked me something peculiar during a short photo-shoot:

"So, I'm taking a Documentary class next semester. And since we've worked together a few times while you were still in school, I'm thinking. I want to make a documentary based on you!"

My first response was to look at him with a raised eyebrow and devilish smirk. Of all people you want to make a documentary on, why me?! According to him, it's thanks to my sudden return to San Francisco last year to take on a teaching job all the while continuing my upstarting art career.

I find this documentary's existence as somewhat surreal. Maybe it's my obscene modesty, but I never felt that my livelihood during my mid- 20s would be important enough to capture on camera. Last year was truly a twisted spiral on my taking on more of an "adult life". And yet, the completion of SolForce: Wave One by June and my attendance to the Independent Author's Book Expo in New Jersey in last October helped keep my artistic spirit alive.

What helped even more? The two Cartooning classes I pitched to my organization were successes! Now I have something of a fan club with elementary school students.

Thanks to film major maestro Alan Tsao, you folks can now get a 10 minute glimpse into how 2015 spun my upstarting art career upside down!

Oh, & some of my students make an appearance. Beware.

Solely Stitched on Vimeo.

Happy Holidays From a Bunch of Animals

I'm taking a few days off with the flight back to San Francisco tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll be seeing you all again in 2016.

Thanks for reading, sharing, and being the best support I can ask for. I appreciate it.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday and New Year!

"So The Horror!" The Collection

It's mid- October. Green leaves are becoming harvest- colored camoflauge, blazers and jackets are fully blooming from cramped closet spaces, and most of all... Halloween is near. Remember when I showcased a particular SolStars poster in the summer titled The Haunted Valentine? Well that was just the beginning of my Halloween based cartoons. Check these out for size:

 

Dracula

 

Frankenstein's Monster

 

The Wolfman

 

The Bride

 

The Mummy

 

The Gill- Man

 

 

I drew my doggy a costume. ;)

 

 

The Toll Freeze crew returns! I missed them.

 

A SolStars- based video game CAN happen one day!

 

 

And thus concludes the Halloween posting! Happy horrors to everyone and stay tuned for more.