Thoughtful?

"A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door."
--Friedensreich Hundertwasser

I’m usually a classical architecture guy, but I’v got to fess up to loving the Hundertwasser House in Vienna.

On a more personal note, a friend of mine, Jason Arkles, was recently featured in an NPR interview. It’s the story of the unexpected way he ended up as a sculptor at the Cecil Studios after starting out as a puppeteer. You can listen online here.

Neat.

Personal Best

Graphic Novel Update:

I'm working on the final round of story edits for Zita the Spacegirl: The Long Way Home. It was very helpful to sit down with my editor in NY and go over the whole book with an eye to making the story as strong as possible. In the process of these edits I managed to draw what I think is my favorite panel in the whole book. Here it is:

Maxing Out

More fan art this week!  I was recently asked to contribute to the website Terrible Yellow Eyes, a collection of works inspired by Where the Wild Things Are.  Now this was something I couldn’t turn down because not only is Sendak a huge influence in my own work, but I can recite Where the Wild Things Are by heart!

Terrible Yellow Eyes a great collection of images and a fun collection of artists.  Go ahead and take a look around. It’s worth it.

MoCCA: I Love New York!

 Every once in a while you are surprised and enchanted by something that you never thought you would enjoy, and you love it all the more because it’s an unexpected love.  That’s what happened when I stepped off the Bolt Bus into the fantastic madness that is New York City.

I am Peter Venkman, raising my arms to the sky and shouting  “I love this town!” 

As for MoCCA, it was great.  Long time internet friends became real life, we’re-eating-hambrgers-together friends.  I met a lot of fellow First Second authors and artists.  And, of course, I brought home a modest stack of great comics!  Those include:

Jellaby Shorts by Kean Soo

Take Out minicomics by Raina Telgemeier

Never Learn Anything from History by Kate Beaton

Korgi, book 2, by Christian Slade (a highly recommended silent comic)

Mail Order Ninja by Joshua Elder and Erich Owen

Special thanks to First Second’s Gina Gagliano for being SO HELPFUL.

MoCCA Anyone?

So, short notice here:  I will be at the MoCCA Art Festival in New York this weekend!  It’s a long, long time since I’ve been to New York, so I am very excited for this adventure.  Plus it’s probably the last event of this type for some time where I won’t be tied down to a table, hawking my wares.  Expect a full report with pictures!

In preparation I have put together a little book of my art and illustrations through Lulu.  It turned out pretty well, so I’ve posted a link on the sidebar so that anyone who is interested can order a copy.  But be warned, probably 70% of the pictures have appeared on this blog at one time or another.  Take a gander:

Lot’s of good art coming up!  Including a piece that I really want to post today but won’t be able to post until next week.  But I guess you can click here for a hint...

UPDATE: I just received a couple copies of the portfolio book above and it looks terrible!  I am removing the book until I can take the time to properly prepare the files.