Happy Holidays!

Enjoy yourselves! I'll be unreachable until January 4th. I'm leaving today on a ten-day road trip from Utah to Mexico and back. See you in 2010.

Progress

I don't have a title for this piece yet, but here's the progress on it. Most of what I do, I outline in either micron pen or brush and ink, but now and then I like to leave them out and use just the watercolors for the sense of shape. It's good practice and has a very different feel.

Once finished, this piece will be put up for sale on Etsy. Stay tuned if you're interested in it.

Gavin McInnes

I did a little portrait of Gavin McInnes for Christmas:

Studio

This is my studio.


This is what I was working on today.

Christmas Card Preview

Just a little taste. Can't give away the surprise...

General Process

I finished a new Improvised Weapons piece earlier this week, this time on commission. I've done enough of them now that it's a pretty set process for me, and I thought I'd document it.

I have little rules that I follow to keep the series consistent. For one, the kids always have helmets on, and I try to get some variety in what kind of helmets they're wearing. So the first thing I usually do is pick out the helmets, then the objects they're holding. There are rules about the objects, too. First, they can't be weapons. They have to have some other purpose. Second, I prefer that it be something with a handle, something that is meant to be held, to be used for something.

So for this drawing I picked out a SWAT-style helmet and a rake vs. a hard hat with a tennis racquet and dustbuster.



First I block out the general position of the two kids on a piece of scratch paper, which you see at the top of the drafting table. This saves me a lot of back and forth on the watercolor paper, getting the positions right. Sometimes I change my mind between the scratch paper and the final; in this case, I originally had the dustbuster extended in the left hand, and I swapped it for the tennis racquet in the final. On the watercolor paper, I start very rough in pencil to get the general blocking down, then I go around the drawing and get the details penciled, though it usually stays pretty rough until I ink it.



In this case, I'm inking with a micron 03 pen. You can see that a lot of the pencil lines are still rough. Once the piece is inked, I erase my pencil lines and color the kids with watercolors:



And that's it. Here's the finished piece:

September: Gimme Coffee

Dan Bones and I are going to have some work on the walls at Gimme Coffee at 495 Lorimer in Brooklyn, NY for the month of September. Here's a little sample:



Go check it out but for God's sake please don't get any coffee on the art.

Dr. Ph. Martin's

Becca Solow gave me a set of Ph. Martin's concentrated watercolors last time I saw her, and I've been playing with them some. They're vibrant. I like what I get out of 'em. Still feels a little unfamiliar, but I'm getting used to making bolder choices.

Haliku

So this is where it went.

Also, if you're looking for a soundtrack to this image, I recommend The Mofos.

Haliku pencil

did this sketch on bristol at dinner tonight.


This guy's origin was a drawing I did for my brother Aidan. I think there's more to him than that drawing, so I'm seeing where it goes.

Sometimes you draw something that ends up sticking with you; this is one of those. I always liked the muse take on creativity, the idea that inspiration comes not from within one's self, but from somewhere else, somewhere hidden but for those rare moments when a spark gets through and ends up on paper. This is one of those cases where I feel like there is an idea somewhere telling me to give it a face and a name. So I try to pay attention.

Orcus/Submit to Satan

My friend Thom asked me to contribute to his heavy-metal-themed art zine Submit to Satan. This is what I made for him: The head on the monster is an orca skull (a.k.a. killer whale), and they're named after Orcus, underworld god of unpaid debts, or something. There's also a metal band named Orcus it turns out, but I listened to some samples on iTunes and didn't really like it.

Anyway, here it is.

Bike Blog NYC logo

I did a logo for Michael Green of Bike Blog NYC:


It's also a great case study of my process. Michael came to me with a very clear idea of what he wanted: handlebars and stem, fists clenching the grips, visible knuckle tattoos in classic tattoo lettering, with "NYC" on the head tube. With this information, I gave him a few variations from which to mix & match his ideal:

The feedback he gave me was very specific (which I always appreciate) as to which elements he liked and wanted to see in the final product. With some faith that he'd be able to envision the final result from a sketch, I sent him the pencil rough of the final logo:

He loved it, so I went ahead with the ink, and there you have it. The final result, with some minor tweaking in Photoshop, is what you see above.

And that's how I do it.

Badge Design for Dead River Company

My buddy Lindsey is in Brooklyn's Dead River Company and asked me to design a badge for the band. Here it is:

John Prolly Adventures

I made a comic about John Prolly:

See all three pages in full-size at nickjam.es.

More guys fighting

(I saw Taken)

Spacesuit

This reminds me of the kind of stuff I drew when I was a kid.

CHE LA ink

I've been working with Jim Mahfood, David Brodell-Lake, and Ray Ting on a new project called CHE LA. Not gonna say much more than that for now, but here's a preview:


More as it develops.

For a Film

Illustration for a screenplay pitch - client wanted Nigerian militants with future weapons.

Tracklocross Flyer

Made this quickie for Mattio and Drew's race this year. The content was inspired by Luke Stile's photos of the first race in 2008, which I helped plan.
When I have time, I'm going to color it. I'm thinking brown mud, gray cyclist. Keep it simple.

Comic: Dick Jones in Body Modifications

Just finished this today.

Comic Preview

Quick preview of something I'm working on (in progress).

Happy Valentine's Day

Maska Linework

I found this great Russian helmet and decided to start a drawing around it.

Saturday at NYCC

Dan Bones (pictured) wasn't able to get a day pass, and wasn't interested in waiting outside to buy one off someone leaving for the day, so he got some breakfast with me in the food court, looked over the programs, and then went home to work.

Alexa and Brandon had urged me to go see the Wolverine: Origins game preview, and it was as ridiculous as they promised. I'm not much of a gamer but I'm excited to see more of that. After the Wolverine preview, I caught up with Brandon Bird, and hit up the Image booth where Ming was behind the table promoting Comic Book Tattoo, for which she did one of the 50 stories. It looks great, and it's always nice to see a friend's work in print.

I also chatted with Meredith Gran, creator of Octopus Pie, at the Dumbrella booth for a bit. I've been reading her comic for a while. When she saw my work, she mentioned Jim Mahfood, who I hadn't heard of, but I saw his work at the Nerdcore booth. Model Justine Joli was there for the Nerdcore catalog, I'd actually seen her last weekend at Ellen Stagg's birthday party, but I talked with her for a moment, then met Jim Mahfood himself, a really nice guy who I'd like to stay in touch with. I was actually familiar with a lot of his work without having known he was behind it.

I left Javits around 5p and made a quick stop at Gowanus Studio for dinner and the first screening in their film series. I left a bit early to make Jim Mahfood's gallery reception at YUME Gallery, where I met up with Brandon and Alexa.



I did not return to the Con on Sunday - two full days of it is overwhelming. Until next year...

Friday at NYCC

Friday: I hit up two panels, one on self publishing, one on the transition from script to pencil work. Tomorrow I'm going to a panel about page layout. I'm still riding the fence about whether or not I want to make comics. I'm curious about what it would be like to draw something someone else wrote, but it would have to be something I felt strongly about. We'll see. Drawing something that I've written would be very satisfying, but I'd have to start with writing something.

I ran into Alexa Rose, Brandon Bird, Ming Doyle and a few other people who I only met in passing on my way out, and Alexa and Brandon and I went for a drink and some dinner near Penn Station.

Alexa Rose


Brandon Bird and myself

Headed back tomorrow, hopefully with Dan Bones, if I can get a hold of him tonight and make sure he wakes up early enough.

American Spectator February Cover

Picked up a copy at a newsstand today.

Life Drawing

Went to life drawing at Society of Illustrators tonight. Good session. I stuck to quick drawings, even on the 10/20 minute poses. Trying to get as much as I can out of only a few lines.

Click image to see all five.

>> see more

New York Comic-Con 2009

I'm headed to New York Comic-Con again this year, but this time as a "professional creator". I got the weekend pass and will be there all three days. Most of the panels I want to see are on Friday afternoon: one on story structure, one on self-publishing, and then a couple on page layout, inking, etc. I'm looking forward to it.