It’s a Chanukah miracle!

Happy Chanukah, everybody! I hope you’re all having a good holiday. While I don’t have any gelt for you, my Chanukah celebrations will include updating this blog every day! That’s right: every single day of Chanukah. It’ll be difficult to simultaneously draw content and stuff my face with latkes, but I suppose I shall have to learn.

Speaking of latkes, are you guys going to the Latke Festival this year? I want to go with pretty much every fiber of my being (um, hi, endless tables of latkes!), but the estimable Mr. Mike O’Malley has a show that night that absolutely takes precedence. He’ll be rockin’ The Way Station‘s open mic night on Monday, so those of you in the NYC area that are not eating mounds of delicious latkes should come hang out, have a drink, and listen to his musical stylings with us.

In other news, I don’t know what’s gotten into me, but I’ve been on a super-girly kick lately. I can’t stop painting my nails! (I blame blogs like The Beauty Department and their insane collection of how-to posts.) So, I figured, what better way to kick off my Chanukah celebrations than with a ridiculous manicure? Check this bad boy out:

(Please excuse the messy bits around the edges–I’m pretty unskilled at painting with my left hand.) Overall, I think it came out kind of cool, though. Want one of your very own? Here are some instructions.

I don’t have any particular brand loyalty when it comes to polishes, but in case you were wondering, here are the ones I used:

*OPI Alpine Snow

*NYC Matte Me Crazy

*NYC Taxi Yellow Creme

*Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Bright Blue

If you try this out, please send me a picture! I’m nosy I’d like to see how it looks in other people’s capable hands (and brushes).

Pop goes the sonnet!

I post an awful lot of drawing to this blog (perhaps because, I dunno, it’s called a sketchblog?), but today I have some news about a writing project I’ve been working on! Check this out:

I’m part of a writing group called Dilettantes’ Ball, whose other members include Paul Swartz, Mike O’Malley, Zachary Garrett, Tim Becker, Emily Curran, Christine Elliot, and Rhett duPont. This is the cover design for Pop Sonnets: First Folio, our debut zine. Pop sonnets are today’s songs in yesterday’s words, combining Shakespearean rhythm and vocabulary with the delightful inanity of top 40 hits. They’re fun to write and (we hope) fun to read!

If you’re interested in reading some of these pop sonnets, you’re in luck! We’re launching our tumblr tonight, so you should go check it out. If you’re interested in hearing some pop sonnets, you’re in even more luck! We’re hosting a reading/release party this very week! Come by the Brooklyn Launchpad at 8:30 pm on Saturday, November 17th to hear us read some sonnets, see our lovely new book in person, and taste some drinks and snacks! Admission is $3, and it’ll go towards supporting the Launchpad (which is a fantastic new event space in our very own Crown Heights) and towards printing more books. You should definitely come check it out! I’d love to see y’all.

Press Start!

The excellent Mr. Mike O’Malley came to visit this weekend. (Have you checked out his album yet? If not, you should!) One thing led to another, and of course we ended up talking about what our stats would be if we were characters in a fighting game.

…well, what do you talk about when you’re on the subway?

I think the watercolors work like a poison attack: they do a small amount of damage, but the effect lasts for a long time and can really add up. I don’t know that this is a very good caricature of myself, but I like how the paint blobs and the pose turned out. I’d like to say it’s the pose that I usually paint in, but I can only hold it for a few hours before my back starts to go out.

Paul’s cougar impression is pretty fantastic to hear, but I’ll admit it’s hard to draw. I think I got his hair right, though.

This was my first attempt both at drawing Mike and at drawing a bouzouki. I think both of them came out pretty well, considering.

Overall, I like this set. If I have the time this week, I think I might add some color to them and see where they go. :)

I am not dead yet!

Oh em god, you guys, I am so sorry about the long delay in updates! I didn’t mean to ignore the blog for so long, but this is what the last month has felt like for me:

I’ve been having a good time, but with HeroesCon, moving drama, Drawn Out Storytelling prep and performances, computer failure, preparing for my camps next month, and trying to print a bunch of books and stickers, my mind has been in, like, eleven different places at once! I think that I should be back on track with a decent updating schedule now, though. I’m in NYC for the next week doing shows for Drawn Out Storytelling, which you guys should totally come see if you’re in the area! We’ve got three shows coming up:

The Adventure to Misadventure – Friday, June 24 at 8:45 pm

Featuring stories by Jeff Simmermon (illustrated by Paul Swartz), Adam Wade (illustrated by Bailey Sharp and myself), and Kevin Allison and Adam Newman (illustrated by Bailey Sharp and Pat Barrett).

Rubber and Glue: Stories to and from Geeks, Dweebs, and Losers – Sunday, June 26 at 8:00 pm

Featuring stories by Ben Lillie (illustrated by Paul Swartz), Seth Lind (illustrated by Ben Horak), Leslie Goshko (illustrated by Pat Barrett and myself), and Erin Barker (illustrated by Ray B.).

Identities: The Secret Fantasy of Our Reality – Wednesday, June 29 at 8:45 pm

Featuring stories by Cyndi Freeman (illustrated by myself), Steve Zimmer (illustrated by Pat Barrett), Ophira Eisenberg (illustrated by Paul Swartz and myself), and Jefferson (illustrated by Pat Barrett and Ray B.).

All of these shows will feature musical accompaniment by Mike O’Malley, Ray Gehring, Steve Lipshutz, and Carson Moody, and they’re all part of the Comic Book Theater Festival at the Brick Theater. Tickets are $15, and you can get them online here or at the door. We’ve been working super hard on this show, and we’d love it if you could stop by!

Speaking of which, it’s about time for us to head over to Williamsburg and do some prep work before tonight’s show. If you have a chance, please come say hi! You’ll be treated to a delightful combination of live storytelling, music, and illustrations such as these:

This is an image I did as practice for Joanna Bradley’s story last week. I’ll be working in a different style tonight, as the story I’m illustrating is slightly less classical and Sapphic, but I promise it’ll be fun. Hope to see you there!

Little doodles and big news!

Hi, guys! Thanks for all your feedback in regards to my crests. I’m still making my final decisions, so I’ll leave the polls open for a few more days in case you’re still interested in voting. I’m planning to screenprint them sometime in the next two days, so I’ll let you know what the results are then!

As you can probably tell, things are getting to be super hectic here. I haven’t had a chance to do much non-thesis work, but I do have a little doodle for you today:

I’m not just busy with thesis stuff, though! I’ve also been working with Nisse Greenberg and Paul Swartz to organize a pretty awesome show called Drawn Out Storytelling. Check it out:

Drawn Out Storytelling is our entry in the Brick Theater‘s Comic Book Theater Festival. It’s a show that combines live, note-free storytelling–the kind you might hear on Risk! or The Moth podcasts–with comic art! Performers like Nisse (and several others that I can’t reveal just yet) will tell their stories on stage, accompanied by either live drawing or a prepared slideshow of illustrations by artists like Pat Barrett, Ben Horak, Bailey Sharp, Paul Swartz, and myself. We’ll also have live musical accompaniment by Mike O’Malley, Jonathan Anderson, and possibly more. We’ve got four shows scheduled:

Saturday, June 18th at 5:30pm

Friday, June 24th at 8:45pm

Sunday, June 26th at 8:00pm

Wednesday, June 29th at 8:00pm

Interested in coming to the show? You can buy tickets here. Want to help us make the show happen? Check out our Kickstarter! You can donate as little as $1, and we’re offering some great prizes in return for donations. (Can you say, ‘custom original art’? AWW YEAH.) Even if you can’t attend or donate, we’d love it if you’d help spread the word. I’m really excited to be a part of this show, and I hope it’ll be a big success!