Western Illustration

An Illustration I did for a western themed show

The Show with No Name....

Saturday, July 9

7:00pm - 10:00pm

Catalyst

6630 Westminster Blvd

Westminster, California

Alice in Wonderland

An Illustration I did for a project called

What is the Use of A Book Without Pictures?

Artists are assigned a paragraph from the book to illustrate. My paragraph takes place at the tea party. The door mouse is telling Alice a story about 3 sisters that live in a well and get sick from drinking the water.

Ron Swanson

This guy is my hero! Best character on "Parks & Recreation".

Drawing In Public 5

In this session I explore an office building courtyard and a Wendy's. I do not recommend the grilled chicken sandwich.

Drawing In Public 4

Some loose sketches I did at lunch. Gesture posses and of course faces. A lot of people walking by pretty fast, so, I did mostly memory sketches. My main goal was to have fun and just draw without thinking too much.

Using a new Pentel refillable fountain pen, which I really like for sketching. I also dig this little leather bound landscape sketchbook, very good for on the go sketching.

Drawing in Public 3

There were a lot of people out today, almost too many. I had a hard time concentrating on what I was drawing, every time I started a sketch I would see another person more interesting to draw. A small group sat in front of me half way through, and one of the guys had a big funny mustache which I had to draw. These sketches were inspired by them.

One of the main things I have noticed is that I struggle with my approach to life drawing. I can't decide whether I should concentrate on capturing a good likeness or capturing a good pose. Ideally I would like to do both, but I find that I am usually able to do one better then the other, depending on what is more appealing to me at the time. In this case, capturing likeness was more of a concern, although for all you know, they may look nothing like the people.

I had a good amount of time to study my unknowing drawing subjects which always seems to make my drawings boring. I start drawing whats in front of me, as if I were back in school in a formal life drawing class. In these cases I feel time is the enemy and spontaneity is key for what I want to accomplish. I want to concentrate more on capturing mood and personality through the pose. I will work on these points and try to apply them next time.

Creatures

I was just drawing the first things that came to my head. I ended up with these funny creatures. When I'm drawing characters I try to think of interesting shapes and proportions that contrast each other. I could push these a lot further, right now they are all the same size. I could also exaggerate proportions and size to make the relationships more dynamic. If I ever come back to these characters I will keep all that in mind. For now I just image what kind of conversation they are having.

Lights Out!

I wanted to post some scans of the progress of the new forever freshman comic, but the power went out at work so I couldn't use the oversized scanner. Here are some drawings I did while waiting to see if power would return. Fortunately it did not and I was able to leave a little early. I'm gonna pencil a few more pages this weekend and I'll scan them next week.

Drawing in Public 2

So, I'm gonna call my little life sketching sessions Drawing in Public. This is session 2. I'm thinking more about the overall pose before I begin drawing, which makes for more interesting drawings. Still mostly drawing from memory and trying not to creep people out by staring too long at them. I think sitting further away from people makes it easier to capture their personality. I find when I am super close I focus on details too much. That's 2 this week! I have no set schedule for these, it's pretty much whenever I get the chance.

The Fighter

Worked through lunch today had to draw at the computer. This is the angry drawing that came out. Could have exaggerated the pose more. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Lunchtime Sketches

I have decided to take back my blog which was being used as the Forever Freshman website. You can go to www.foreverfreshman.com to see the new set up. Thanks

Did some life drawing during lunch. It's always a challenge to capture the gesture in such a small amount of time. I'd like to do more of these, I'm gonna try for once a week. I left in my under drawings to show the struggle I have finding the pose. Usually I only get a glimpse of the person walking by and have to work from memory. I hope to get better at capturing quick gestures and then concentrating on other details.

Salabration and Other Freshman News

Last night we hung out at Geeks to celebrate owner Sal's B-Day. We had a good time and good cake with fellow creators JIM LUJAN, RAUL AGUIRRE, GRASIELA RODRIGUEZ, GEO BRAWN IV and of course the man of the hour Sal Felix. It was a very relaxed atmosphere with cool people. Everyone contributed to Sal's "Avengers" themed card. Our Contribution was the alcoholic sexually ambiguous Iron Man. The highlight of the night was when Neil was officially inducted into the Cartoonistas. He swore on a copy of the Superman Chronicles that he would uphold the values and standard of excellence that the Cartoonistas are universally known for.

Neil did some custom drawings for fans of the comic, and talked to them about his process.

We appreciate everyone who came down and we hope you had fun.

In other News:

Here are some new drawings for ya'll

Finally here are some rough draft samples of the new comic entitled Forever Freshman and the Cunning Code Crackers of the Girl Network. The freshman will infiltrate girl world to gain information about a new student. The whole time trying to avoid evil hall monitors who will stop at nothing to put the freshman in detention. We have finished the layout and are moving on to final artwork, a little later then we original hoped, but we are determined to get this too you guys asap!

Thank you all for the support.

Live art event at GEEKS!!

Neil will be joining the Cartoonistas for a live art event in honor of Geeks owner Sal. This is a great opportunity to see the artistic process in action and meet some incredibly talented comic creators, animators, and fine artists. Geeks is a great comic shop that celebrates the independent spirit and for that we SALabrate! Come hang out with some fun and friendly people Saturday Feb 26th 7pm-???

Geeks

6747 Greenleaf Ave, Ste A

Whittier, CA 90601

(562) 696-9393

Freshman News

Hello everyone we are hard at work getting ready for the many events we plan on attending this year. The biggest of coarse being San Diego Comic Con, which unfortunately sold out in one day. If you were not one of the lucky ones who got tickets you can always catch us at the Anaheim Comic Con coming in April.

We will be printing a second run of our premier issue as we continue working on the next Forever Freshman comic that is progressing nicely. The size and length of this next book will increase to standard comic size and 24 pages of awesomeness. We have been working on a storyline that will take place throughout the next 3 books, each one leaving you hungry for more, or maybe just hungry. This upcoming book will introduce some new characters of the female persuasion and the freshmen's attempt to infiltrate their secret world. What will happen when awkward band geeks try to interact with the opposite sex? I'm sure everything goes smoothly.

We are very pleased with the progress John Ottinger is making with the Neil figure. He's got some more detail in the face and hands and adjusted the posse to really make him look like he's bustin a mean air guitar. This picture is still in the rough stage. Just wait until you see it all cleaned and polished. John is an amazing talent and we are so happy to be working with him. He took a few rough drawing and turned them into an amazing sculpture! I can't wait to cast and mold them. Check out his characters Lucky and Fluffy

One last thing, a great big thanks to all of you who bought our Valentines Day Cards. We appreciate your support and we love you all!

Valentines Day Cards on sale NOW!!!!!!!

Wanna tell that special someone how you really feel, but can't find the right card? Fear not, the Freshmen are here to help!

For a limited time you can pick up 6 CUSTOM Forever Freshman valentines day cards! Just like the one's you got in grade school. They are great to give to co-workers, classmates, friends, and family.

Valentines Day is just around the corner so order now to get them on time.

There are 6 cards per sheet, printed on high quality cardstock. Shipping is included in the price.

1 sheet - $1.25

5 sheets - $4.50

10 sheets (60 CARDS!!!!) - $9.00

Order online from our store via Paypal (Most major credit cards excepted)

or email your order to info@foreverfreshman.com

We will accept checks or if your in the area cash always works.

Freshman Figures!

Here are the first pictures of the Forever Freshman figures. Sculpted by John Ottinger creator of Lucky and Fluffy.

I got to see the start of what will soon be a detailed sculpture of my character (Neil) rocking some air guitar. John will then start work on Ray, in a full on metal posse. Once these two figures are finished and put together they will definitely rock your world!!

The figures will make their debut at San Diego Comic Con 2011. Check back for more updates on the figures and other Forever Freshman products and events.

Keep up with all things freshman by signing up for our mailing list, just send an email to info@foreverfreshman.com

Thanks

Neil & Ray

Sketchbook

These are a few studies of Annie I did over the weekend, along with some other sketches, just for fun.

Lorretto

This is our good friend Lorretto, a flag girl whose personality is bigger then life. Just watch out for flying flags and rifles when she's around, they leave nasty bruises.