Summer odds and ends

I'm really proud of this postcard from The Hollywood Theatre! It's a gorgeous, iconic building that shows new movies and rare/thoughtfully curated ones. It holds a lot of good memories for me.

I took this photo of the theater on a misty night after Naomi and I saw Tekkonkinkreet (seriously, watch the trailer--it has some bonkers tracking shots of the most gorgeous, fanciful cityscapes!). That was the night my bike wheels were stolen, so this is the view of the theater from the nearest bus stop. I haven't done a lot of rainy streets or neon lights in my postcards, so this was challenging for me.

The sketch on the left is from BwPCon, the 1-day comic convention at Books With Pictures. On the right is a diagram of the Hawthorne Bridge. I drew it when I was asking some other cyclists how we're supposed to handle passing on the bridge, but there wasn't a consensus.

Naomi and me at home:

I took a tree-drawing workshop at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. Since this SuperButch issue takes place out in nature, I thought it would be good to get a few pointers. Zoe, the instructor, works at the gardens and does animation. The workshop was a good combination of "Here's a thing to try" or "Here's a way to think about it" with plenty of time in between to practice and let things sink in.

Here's another peek at the comic I drew for Jonathan Baylis' next issue of So Buttons, which debuts at the Small Press Expo in 2 weeks!

The drawing on the right is a nod to Al Hirschfeld, an artist who spent decades doing inimitable caricatures of actors and celebrities. In the original script, Jonathan was going to be wearing a t-shirt with Hirschfeld's famous portrait of Leonard Bernstein on it. But that would have been too small to read well. Hirschfeld-ifying Jonathan was a challenge, but a challenge too enticing to pass up. I copied a lot of Hirschfeld drawings, then tried to transition into "What Would Hirschfeld Do."

I've admired this downtown apartment building for awhile. In the afternoon sunlight it looks like an Edward Hopper painting. It's surrounded by newer buildings and parking lots, so it really stands out. I finally pulled over and took a photo one day.

I can't decide whether I like the postcard better with the bluer or darker shadows in front of the buildings... I scanned the version above and then fussed with it some more. This may be one of those instances where it feels like a huge difference to the artist, and the artist only. What do you think?

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