Process: Staying Fit (well, kinda)

Last year, I pretty much became a work-from-home illustrator. By "pretty much", I mean that I still work 1-2 days a week for my other awesome job, but those other 5-6 days are spent writing, drawing or coloring. Although I love working from home, it can be challenging to not completely devolve into a Playdough-like lump. And while writing, drawing and coloring are all great cognitive exercises, my mortal being was left feeling...well, a bit Playdough-y. So...

Step 1.) STANDING DESK. That's right, I stand up and work. And I love it. No more backache or crappy posture from working in front of a computer for 10-12 hours a day.

Step 2.) GOOD OLD-FASHIONED EXERCISE. I will be the first to admit that I have a really hard time being consistent with things (long-time readers of this blog will agree). Daily exercise is a chore, and between paying bills and cleaning and cooking, I don't really like to subscribe to additional "adult" responsibilities...but, with the persuasion of Liz Prince, Joe and I started the INSANITY WORKOUT (when you read that out-loud, it should sound all epic and reverb-y). You may have seen the late night infomercials advertising fitness guru Shaun-T's "Insanity Workout", or his classic "Hip Hop Abs". Well, I totally dig it (oh, and while we're on the subject of late night infomercials, the Magic Bullet Blender is pretty rad too).

Liz, Joe and I have been working out 5-6 days a week since late November, and aside from the occasional soreness, I feel great. Like I want to Hulk-out all the time. It's awesome. The best part is that it's FUN. When you workout and can laugh at all the silly crap you're doing (see images below), it makes it rather enjoyable. Ok. That's enough about that. If you really want to read more about our experience, you can check out this blog. And now, here's me sweatin' and lookin' silly:

Fan Art Friday No.1

Yup, you read it correctly; every Friday henceforth shall be known as "Fan Art Friday". I will post drawings of my personal fan art for things that I love, as well as commissions from conventions.

This will be obvious to most people that know me, but I LOVE ADVENTURE TIME. It's design, animation, voice acting, writing, and backgrounds, as well as gratuitous use of gastropods, make it one of my favorite shows EVER. So here is a doodle of Finn and Jake (and maybe a rogue gastropod) the night before a quest:



Also: Adventure Time has a comic now!!

Robot Quilt

Our good friends just welcomed their new baby; this was my baby shower gift:



To make this quilt, I first did some doodles:



Then I tightened up my favorite design (and did some maths!):



And then I cut out about 204 squares and sewed them all together. With my sewing machine! I'm not sure if I'll ever get past plain old square quilts (I'm very intimidated by anything other than squares), but I figure that'll pave the way for Tetris and Legend of Zelda quilts. Maybe someday I'll seek counsel from the amazing quilter-seamstress-toymaker-designer Claire Sanders, but until then...Yay 8-Bits!

Process: Writing

Prior to this past year, I had either written and drawn all my comics, or drawn comics while working from a script. For the work both written and drawn by me, most were mini comics, or short (2-12 page) stories for anthologies. I had never really given much thought to separating writing and drawing, but a number of opportunities presented themselves...like writing a one-page story for Mike Allred's Madman: 20th Anniversary MONSTER! Actually, he asked both Joe and me, so we worked together (awwww). In this post, I'm going to outline the process that I used to write the script. I'll be doing this with future posts as well, since I've recently written some other comics-y things.

BRAINSTORMING...or IN WHICH MARIS AND JOE TALK ABOUT NERDY THINGS OVER COFFEE



This might be my favorite part. Joe and I spent many walks and coffees discussing what may happen in the story. We do this for each other's respective projects as well; sometimes it's good to just talk stuff out.



FIGURING IT OUT...or IN WHICH I MAKE ILLEGIBLE MARKINGS WITH A WRITING UTENSIL ON A FIBROUS SURFACE


I should mention that I wrote a brief synopsis to send to Mike before we started laying out the panels. Also, I re-read o bunch of Madmen comics to get my head in the story. Research = fun! (Especially when it involves reading comics!)



THE ROUGH PANEL LAYOUT...or IN WHICH I MAKE ILLEGIBLE MARKINGS WITH A WRITING UTENSIL ON A FIBROUS SURFACE (part 2)


I guess this would be the second draft (but who's counting); scrapping things that don't fit, and tweaking the dialogue and settings to make sure it flows.



THE SCRIPT!! or LOOK, MA! I'M USING A COMPOOTER!!




Yup. Looking a bit more...professional? I really like using a pen and paper (stubborn and old-fashioned, I know), but typing it out is nice. I can make those final edits, and even scribble on the script some more. After looking at the final script, Joe combined a few panels/lines of dialogue. When you look at his layout sketch, you can see how ridiculously dense it is (sorry, Joe):


If you'd like to see more about Joe's process (including some very silly reference photos), they can be found here and here and here.

Mike Allred's Madman: 20th Anniversary MONSTER is out now! I'll be posting more about my writing process for other projects, as well as my pencilling/inking/coloring process. Until then...bye bye!

Turkeys are done, People are finished...

That's right! I finished coloring the book about primates! Written by Jim Ottaviani! To be published by First Second! Let me just say that Jim is THE BEST. Last night, I received some Zingerman's Chocolate-awesomeness from Jim (stealthily delivered by the ninja-like Liz Prince):



All that's left are the lettering and the cover!! Woot!!