Tarzan and Jane Goodall process

 

I'm sort of projecting my childhood memory of Jane Goodall in this cartoon. I realize I am portraying her as the person I learned about in elementary school some forty years ago. Many 20-year olds probably only know her as an old woman—if they know her at all. She's 81 this year.

Goodall is best known for her study of chimpanzee social and family life. She began studying the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, in 1960.^[16]She entered the world of primates back in 1957 after cold calling Louis Leakey while in Kenya.

 

Some interesting trivia from Wikipedia: Leakey, believing that the study of existing great apes could provide indications of the behaviour of early hominids,^[9] was looking for a chimpanzee researcher, though he kept the idea to himself. Instead, he proposed that Goodall work for him as a secretary. After obtaining his wife Mary Leakey's approval, Louis sent Goodall to Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where he laid out his plans.

In 1958, Leakey sent Goodall to London to study primate behaviour with Osman Hill and primate anatomy with John Napier.^[10] Leakey raised funds, and on 14 July 1960, Goodall went to Gombe Stream National Park, becoming the first of what would come to be called The Trimates.^[11] She was accompanied by her mother, whose presence was necessary to satisfy the requirements of David Anstey, chief warden, who was concerned for their safety; Tanzania was "Tanganyika" at that time and a British protectorate.^[8]

Leakey arranged funding and in 1962, he sent Goodall, who had no degree, to Cambridge University where she obtained a PhD degree in Ethology.^[8][12] She became only the eighth person to be allowed to study for a PhD there without first having obtained a BA or BSc.^[2] Her thesis was completed in 1965 under the tutorship of Robert Hinde, former master of St. John's College, Cambridge, titled “Behaviour of the Free-Ranging Chimpanzee”, detailing her first five years of study at the Gombe Reserve.^[2][12] The rest is history.

Baby Thumbs

Here are some thumbnails redlined on 1.5 x 2 inch post-it notes. I go over them with a Bic ballpoint pen (and sometimes a sharpie) and then finish them off with a quick splash of black watercolor using my Pentel waterbrush. These crude little thumbnails really take care of the “heavy lifting” in the creative process. I am amazed at how close the finished cartoons resemble these baby thumbs. You might recognize three of these panels as they have already been posted as completed pieces (far left/ Torches and Cocktail Forks; upper right/ The Easter Bunion; lower right/ The Shallow End of the Jean Pool).

The View From the Pew

Some faces from church.

Studies

 

Linework done with brush and India ink, followed up with Pentel waterbrush.

Studies

 

Linework done with brush and India ink, followed up with Pentel waterbrush. 

Peck sketch at A-1 Comic's Creator Con

Practice

Contour: Verithin Black

Shading: Black Watercolor with Pentel Waterbrush

Detail: Micron 01

on Canson Coldpress Watercolor Paper

Initial form: Verithin Black

Mechanical Pencil to finish (#2 lead)

on Canson Coldpress Watercolor Paper

Practice

Head Shots

Playing with my Pentel waterbrush this evening. Used various pencils (HB, Verithin Black and Prismacolor Gris Chaud 90%) along with washes of black watercolor.

Wheeee!

Here's my latest cartoon:  You can see below the red line /inked version. And then the crude little post-it note sketches I played with before compositing the final lay out.

Dreaming Big

You'll note that I made the caveman smaller in the final cartoon. I also cropped out the ground to imply a slight worm's eye view. I wanted him to appear more incidental on the back of the brontosaurus—like an annoying fly. I redrew him a couple of times to really get that more accurate "bronco buster" feel. With the bronto's expression, I wanted it to appear mildly surprised. 

Rockwell Homage

Side note: Tomorrow (Friday, November 15th) is the last day to order a 2014 Incompatibles Wall Calendar!!! To order, surf over to http://incompatibles.bigcartel.com/product/2014-wall-calendar. Here's a sneak peek at the month of November:

This is a parody of the famous Norman Rockwell painting, Freedom From Want. Initially when I came up with the "Turduckow" concept, I thought I'd just do a beauty shot of a holiday turkey on the table. But then I thought it might be nice to have a family around the table waiting in anticipation. Then it hit me: Normal Rockwell already painted an image that fit the bill.

Below is the final redline inked over. Note the blank matted frame on the wall. Initially I was going to put one of my earlier cartoons there, but then my wife had the great idea of making it a painting of the dinner ingredients.

And here's some of the initial musings. Note how round my initial turkey was. Also I felt it was important—in the final piece—to have the bovine legs/hooves stand out, so I made the cow a Holstein:

Red Rough

Here's a hodgepodge of cartoons I've been working on lately. I like to work small on post-it notes. I can  break up the compositions into pieces, recomposite elements in P-shop, and then reprint them as a larger redline for final inking.

Doh!

This guy just realized he forgot to order an Incompatibles 2014 Wall Calendar. Don't let this be you! Act now, the order deadline is this Friday, November 15th. Packages will ship in early December, just in time for holiday gift-giving. To order, surf over to http://incompatibles.bigcartel.com/product/2014-wall-calendar

Note: The first 50 orders will receive one collectible Incompatibles button, plus a signed calendar and personalized doodle by the artist.

Discourtesy Clerk process

Here's process on my latest Incompatibles panel. You can see how I corrected my inaccurate wordsmithing in the rough. It was redundant saying: “kill a dolphin” and “clog our landfills.” Both phrases point only to plastic bags. Luckily my wife saw the error and I corrected it to reflect both plastic and paper. Also, you'll notice I spliced the head in lower right of the page onto the body of the clerk. It seemed to catch the critical vibe I needed in his expression.

Incompatibles 2014 Wall Calendar

The Incompatibles 2014 Calendar is out! Act now, the first 50 orders will receive one collectible Incompatibles button, plus a signed calendar and personalized doodle by yours truly.

Note: Order Deadline is November 15, 2013. Packages will ship in early December 2013, just in time for holiday gift-giving. To order, surf over tohttp://incompatibles.bigcartel.com/product/2014-wall-calendar

doh!

Lost a riddle wager on Facebook. The consequence was posting a giraffe image for my profile picture for 3 days. I didn't like the pictures I saw on Google, so created my own pic.

Dabbling with Tan Paper

raw bacon (er, cornelius bacon that is)

Here's what Bacon looked like before I struck the red under-drawing out. You can see I change my mind a lot. In case you don't know, this is Cornelius Bacon from my graphic novel “Peck.”

odds and ends

genghis

shopping for faces

Here's work-in-progress on an upcoming Incompatibles installment. I like drawing iterations of characters which I can easily splice into an additional redline once the comp is scanned in.

Save the Date: May 2nd Exhibit Reception

Save the Date: Thursday, May 2nd, 6pm–8pm, Reception for “Breathing for Dummies” an exhibit of 50 Incompatibles cartoons at the Sac State University Union Gallery. Come on by, grab a bite to eat, and take in the process of my humorous scrawls. I will be raffling off a few framed prints at the reception, as well as selling and signing "Bride of Lichtenstein" prints. For more info and a parking pass, surf over to:

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/e/estiokom/breathing_flyer.pdf

Hope to see you there!

Blow Comics

Just found Incompatibles listed on a site called Blowcomics.com. As of today, April 1st 2013, it ranks 207 on the Funny Webcomics list of 925. Woot!

U-NITE 2013 at the Crocker

SAVE THE DATE: U-NITE at the Crocker Art Museum is coming up on Thursday, April 11th! This is the official kick off for Sac State's 2013 Festival of the Arts. If you're interested in seeing a showcase of artistic talent, come on out and take it all in between 5:00–9:00p. Various faculty and student groups from the College of Arts and Letters will be performing throughout the afternoon and evening. If you'd like to learn how I conceive and craft my weekly "Incompatibles," you can catch my visual presentation at 7pm in the Works On Paper Study Center. For more info, surf over to http://www.crockerartmuseum.org/programs-events/events/event/2311-U-Nite

The event is free to students, alumni, staff and faculty with a valid Sacramento State ID, otherwise regular admission into the museum will cover the festivities. Hope to see you there!

Franken-Reference

I recently paid homage to Roy Lichtenstein by doing a parody of his famous painting Kiss V. “Bride of Lichtenstein” involved swapping in the faces of Frankenstein and his ill-fated bride to be. Really it became more of a hybrid of the original images and the new likenesses; I wanted to hold on to the woman's blond hair yet incorporate the white streak, bandaged hand and possessed wide eyes. I also set the cartoon in larger Ben-Day dots than the original piece as I wanted to make the effect more obvious. Below is the result.

Tra La La

Above are some of the exploratory sketches I did on my latest cartoon installment. I videoed my wife skipping and observed a lot of reference on the subject to get the physics right in the final version. I really wanted Sigmund to give off the feel of child-like joyous abandon.

[Creak]

Well, it's way overdue: I'm starting to take the Peck out of mothballs. If you're not familiar with my whimsical comic creation, surf over to http://peckcomics.blogspot.com/ and click on the “Read the Novel” link on the right to view Issue #1. Essentially he is a quirky one-armed superhero who's trying to clean up Dodge. Anyway, it's been a while since I've done any sketches on him. I need to shake out the cobwebs and redevelop the muscle memory. I want to tackle Issue #2 by this summer and I need to be in full Peck-mode so I can hit the ground running come June.

The Natives Are Restless

Here are some of the preliminary studies for this week's cartoon. I do these on post-its or in my small moleskin notebook and then composite them in P-shop. This is particularly useful in layering elements that overlap in space.

To Belly Or Not To Belly?

Here's my latest Incompatibles (La Brea Armpits) from rough sketch to finished piece. Note above that I was indecisive on the face and belly of this guy. I was giving him a goatee and thought to myself: “Why?” Also, his navel and t-shirt length kept moving up and down as I toyed around with how much pooch to show. Having a higher t-shirt led to more belly hair and just ick. In fact, the attention was just being drawn to that hairy black hole the more I exposed it. In the end, simplicity won out. I focused the detail in the proper place—the mammoth and sabertooth.

Dragon Border

This is an adaptation of a chinese dragon I'm doing for my Dad. It's going to be a border on the promotion certificates for his martial arts organization. Definitely more intricate than I'm accustomed to drawing. I have complete empathy for tattoo artists who do work this kind of detail!

Thumbering

Here is a story I'm developing for Yarns 2. I'm not totally sure I'm going forward with it. I wanted to chew on it in visual form to see if it might speak to me a bit. Sometimes I will just start brainstorming a story visually in short sequences, just to see if it leads to something. Wandering thumbnails I guess: Thumbering.

Gleaning

Here's something I did to warm up tonight for some thumbnailing. I used a Pigma brush pen for the line work and a Pentel waterbrush for the shading. I really love laying down work with a brush. It so free and real. I suspect I will be doing work on a Cintiq sometime in the next year or so, but the humaness of analog is something I never want to lose in the work. Below is the colorized version done in P-shop.