Posts Tagged ‘illustration’
17 items.
Back to School
Posted In: Blog, Illustrations
IS ARCHIVE
There was a week or two before SPX when all I did was complain about how busy I was. My apologies for those around me who had to listen to my whining. I had taken on way too much work between illustration gigs, reprinting comics, and starting my second year at the Center for Cartoon Studies, not to mention spending time with visiting family members.
It was worth it though! Sure I may not have finished the weird little comic I wanted to sell at SPX, but I did get to do a lot of work for Prairie Dog and Planet S and their big Back to School special.
Cooking while aroused
Posted In: Blog
IS ARCHIVE
A friend of mine started a cooking blog, and she asked me to design the masthead for the site. BUT it’s a sassy cooking blog called Sassy Simmerings, so the masthead looks like this:
Gone are the days when thirteen-year-old Dakota would attempt to draw sexy ladies, then erase them, then crumple up the paper, tear it up, and toss out the pieces in several different garbages so that no one could ever possible reconstruct his terrible, dark secret. So needless to say, I was a little out of practice, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. If nothing else, I was reminded that looking at and drawing women in various states of undress might sound like a cakewalk, but it’s difficult work. I also want to mention that I’m really trying to avoid any inadvertent double entendres right now.
Anyway, if you like recipes that are easy to make, tasty, and often vegetarian, vegan (or at least possible to make them so), OR if you simply like to to be frequently reminded that sex exists, then this is the site for you!
Also, here is the page where they say nice things about me and my alleged virility.
Canadian Improv Games Poster
Posted In: Blog, Illustrations
IS ARCHIVE
In my other life, I do improv. There’s a nation-wide high school tournament in Canada called the Canadian Improv Games. I played on my high school’s first team in 1998. Since then I’ve volunteered for the Games, doing everything from delivering workshops, to hosting and helping to run the tournaments in Regina in Montreal.
Since about 2001, I’ve done illustrations and/or designed the poster for the Regina tournament. Here’s the poster for this year’s tournament:
And of course, you can’t have a tournament without tickets!
The Improv Games are often referred to as a ‘loving competition.’ And if the 1980s taught us anything, it’s that love is best personified as a bear shooting laser beams out of its stomach.
I’m really sad to miss Regina’s tournament this year. This will be the first time since 1998 that I won’t be present at a Canadian Improv Games tournament. Hopefully I’ll still be able to feel the tummy lasers from across the border.
Happy Holidays!
Posted In: Blog, Center for Cartoon Studies
IS ARCHIVE
Every year, The Center for Cartoon Studies sends out a Christmas Card to a bunch of supporters, visiting artists, alumni and other community members. And this lucky guy got to do this year’s card.
Why yes, that is CCS spiritual founder Inky Solomon masquerading as good ol’ Sandy Claws. Though this was James Sturm’s suggestion, as my initial sketches just had three elves working. That’s why he’s the headmaster at Hogwarts, and I’m still trying to get wingardium leviosa to work.
Anyway, this was the first thing I did after classes ended. It was a Christmas miracle!
How Romantic!
Posted In: Blog, Center for Cartoon Studies
IS ARCHIVE
We recently spent some time learning about Romance Comics at CCS. Robyn Chapman came in to share her vast knowledge of all things comical and romantic. After we covered the history of romance comics in Survey of the Drawn Story, Steve Bissette assigned each of us an era of romance comics in Drawing Workshop. We then had to design our own covers authentic to the assigned time period.
I was given ‘The Swinging Sixties”, which for the purposes of this assignment was about 1966-1971. This was long after the Comics Code Authority had been introduced, so while the covers weren’t particularly racy compared the pre-code comics, they did demonstrate a hilarious misunderstanding of counter-culture. I guess that’s what happens when a bunch of out-of-touch old guys get together and try to figure out what’s hep with the kids.
Dig it:
CCS Facebook 2010
Posted In: Blog, Center for Cartoon Studies
IS ARCHIVE
This ain’t your grandkid’s Facebook. The Center for Cartoon Studies Facebook is one of the first major projects undertaken by new students each year. The idea is simple: everyone creates a bio that can be reproduced on a photocopier, and a self-portrait in the form of a screen print. Then everything is bound together to make a book of memories and friendship that students will cherish into old age when they are impoverished and alone from a lifetime of underappreciated cartooning.
I volunteered to be on the design team, along with Bill Bedard, Melanie Gillman, Sean Knickerbocker, and Katie Moody. After much nerdy discussion, we decided to work with an arcade fighting game theme for this year’s Facebook. So, Street Fighter II is what I’m trying to say, I guess.
Planet S Gets Energetic
Posted In: Blog, Illustrations
IS ARCHIVE
I may be attending the most funnest school evar, but that doesn’t mean that the homework doesn’t get overwhelming sometimes.
A couple of weekends ago, I was swamped with work and only had time to eat, sleep and draw. When things get this busy, it’s important to take a break from all that work to keep from going crazy. So I did the only thing that made sense at the time: worked on a cover for Planet S.
The editor was putting together a feature on the dangers of energy drinks, and wanted a cover that was in the visual spirit of Rat Fink and Kustom Kulture. I’ve never tried to imitate that style before, and I’m being totally earnest when I say it was a fun way to spend a Saturday night!
Oh cross-hatching, let’s never fight again.
IS ARCHIVE
This is likely to be the last Prairie Dog I do before I make the move to Vermont and begin classes at the Center for Cartoon Studies. Time allowing, I’d still like to do stuff for Prairie Dog while I’m away, but it will probably be less frequent.
This was a fun cover to work on because the editor wanted everything to be hand-drawn, including all the text and the Prairie Dog flag itself.
Sadly I fucked up everything with a lower-case ‘e’ by somehow managing to forget the ‘e’ ‘Sainte-Marie. I fixed it in the image below to pad my bruised, oozing, comatose ego.
This completely kills this cover for me for three reasons:
- Proper spelling banishes evil spirits to the land of hungry ghosts.
- My parents named me Dakota because they liked Buffy Sainte-Marie, and she named her son Dakota … I feel like I should know that shit.
- A girl who liked my comics used to email me wanting to hang out and she spelled my name ‘Dakoda’ every single time. It drove me crazy, and many evil hungry ghosts snuck through the veil of the living during those dark days, let me tell you.
Anyway, also included in this issue is a new Dennis: The Poor Little Poor Boy strip, which can be found on the Dennis page.
Don’t Feed the Ants
Posted In: Blog, Illustrations
IS ARCHIVE
Someone in the office asked me to make a sign reminding staff to keep the lid on the sugar and creamer.
After all, we wouldn’t want to attract … THEM!