Favorite Movies Series

personal

Like a lot of folks in these quarantine lock down days, I’ve been spending a fair amount of time catching up on old movies on the streaming services. I find myself thinking a lot about the films I’ve seen when I’m at work the following day, and sometimes am inspired to do a drawing to get it out of my system. Caught up the the John Cassavettes film “Gloria” from 1980 on the Criterion Channel the other night. Gena Rowlands is a favorite actress, but I’ve only seen her in a handful of films, and she gives a fantastic performance in this one, as an ex gangster’s moll, thrust into caring for a young boy, the only survivor of a gangland hit.

Promo Postcards

Self Promotion

Been doing some marketing over the past several weeks. I’ve tried a few email blasts to potential clients, which is a new thing for me, which I am more than dubious about. Let’s face it, I don’t like nor do I ever read unsolicited emails, but with everyone stuck at home during the pandemic, perhaps it might be a way to reach certain clients. The second of these emails will go out tomorrow, and possibly one more to follow in a month. I’ve also got three postcards going out via direct snail mail in the next month. The first two postcards will feature some of my comics work, and the third will feature the above image which I’ve been working on over the weekend. Checking my records, it seems I have neglected to send out mailers (other than the holiday Krampus cards) for almost five years, so it is more than overdue. Time to shake those bushes again.

Hippopotamus

animation, Jukejoint Handmedowns, personal

In addition to the animated ‘Craig Emcee’ segments that I created for the Wheatland Kids Hill video (see previous post), I also created this partially animated children’s song featuring my band mate Nate and his song “Hippopotamus”. I had a lot of fun with this, especially the challenges that it presented (building a four legged character and figuring out the walk sequences), not to mention the fact that it involved a deadline, which has not been an issue with my previous animation projects.

Meanwhile, I’m still working on my self promo piece from yesterday. Did a little more work into Maggie’s dress, and blocking in some more color. Need to work on the hands, the ‘noodle bucket’ and the background a bit more. I’m also thinking I’m going to set this in a rainstorm, so will need to work that and some Hong Kong back alley scenery into the left side.

Self Promo In Progress

personal, Self Promotion

Another in my “favorite movies” series. This morning I’m working on a possible self promo postcard piece with portraits of Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung from the film ‘In the Mood for Love’ (an absolutely beautiful film I recently revisited on the Criterion Channel, and has been on my mind for the past few weeks). Above is an ‘in progress’ snapshot of how Maggie is coming along, below the text is another ‘in progress’ snapshot from later in the day, and below that, another shot from later in the afternoon as I started filling out more of the background. At the bottom is the initial rough sketch I started with.