I’ve always found Jeff’s anatomy to be problematic. I’m just looking for a simple solution to drawing his legs, and then making them arms when they need to be arms. This is my latest attempt at simplifying things. You’ll notice they look a lot different here than what’s going on in the comic at the top of the page.
Archive for September, 2011
From Nasa‘s website, a view of an aurora from the International Space Station!
I attended the Northern Ohio Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Cleveland over the weekend. In the presence of so much talent I couldn’t help but feel very small.
Still, it was a great conference with awesome speakers and I learned quite a bit. I have a lot of work to do. Time to get to it.
Oh, and Ellie resumes transmitting next Monday, October 3rd.
Paste Magazine.com has listed Ellie On Planet X as one among “14 Awesome Webcomics To Distract You From Getting Things Done!” Anytime we get to be included with the likes of Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant and Jonathan Rosenberg’s Scenes From A Multiverse is okay by me. Plus there’s another eleven comics I need to check out now. I’m especially tickled by the idea of Hipster Hitler (as wrong as that sounds). Read the article right here. Ellie’s on page two.
Check out this amazing animated piece by Céline Desrumaux, via Drawn. Ellie will resume transmitting on Monday, October 3rd.
Countdown – HD from Desrumaux Celine on Vimeo.
I previously posted how the 50th anniversary of issue one of the Fantastic Four was being commemorated by Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, Michigan. 26 artists were asked to contribute their interpretations of one of the pages for a show opening next week in Green Brain’s Headspace Gallery.
There’s a nice write-up about the show in this week’s Metro Times (the local Detroit alt paper) that features amazing artwork by some of my talented friends (Sean Bieri and John Nagridge – Sean’s is the first one, John’s is the last), as well as my page too. The show opens next Wednesday, Sept. 21st, and will be on display until December 31st. Check it out, True Believers!
UPDATE: WDET.org has posted a blurb about the show too!
I first came across Michael Sloan’s work via Drawger.com. I really admire his minimalist brush work, where there’s just enough information given to tell you what you need to know. He recently illustrated a dream he had one night, and upon waking he wrote it all down so as not to forget it (as we all often do). He was compelled to do so because the dream was a particilarly coherent tale. Click the pic to read it.
Michael Sloan is also the creator of the Professor Nimbus comics, many of which can be read online, right here.
I thought I’d share these wood block paintings that my super-amazing girlfriend, Azucena Nava-Moreno, is doing for a gallery show (not sure which one or where yet). Anyway, we’re working on a website for her so she can strut more of her stuff. For now, I give you these works in progress!
In looking for something to post today, I came across a video of philosopher (among many other things) Denis Dutton speaking at a TED conference last year. The subject was beauty and how our ability to discerne it evolved along with us.
That got me to thinking about Planet X and its inhabitants. We’ve only had Ellie scratch the surface as to what Jeff and Muffin might appreciate. Jeff seems to value food at least, and apparently so do his “people” the Quadrapodes, as they’ve seen fit to incorporate their love of the culinary into their version of the constellations (though we can assume Muffin’s culture recognizes the same star patterns). Muffin, so far as we can tell, values being a hermit, but how this manifests itself in the Marf culture is yet to be seen. The only other items pertaining to their respective cultures that we’ve glimpsed are their houses and clothing, but these singular items tell us little of their cultures as a whole.
The one thing that popular sci-fi like Star Trek and Star Wars have led us Earthlings to believe is that aliens are a lot like us (except for wrinkled rubber appliances glued to their foreheads). I’d hope that despite a somewhat familiar, even cuddly appearance, we will expect the unexpected when it comes to our Planet X friends and their way of life. Who knew that Jeff tasted with his skin, and what effect does that have on his worldview? How might that manifest itself in Planet X popular culture if there is one? As Grand Admiral Thrawn pointed out (semi-obscure Star Wars reference there) that to understand a culture’s art is to understand that culture.
Here’s that video of Denis Dutton. It’s only 15 minutes long, so give it a watch. I like the whiteboard animation that makes an already interesting talk even more accessable. I think I’ve seen him before, but this is the first I took the time to actually find out more about him. Unfortunately he died last year, but at least he left us some interesting ideas to ponder.