patokon blog

My favorite Weapon X, Laura Kinney is my daily sketch today.  Immediately I want to start critiquing. I'm getting better at hair, which doesn't say a whole lot, and my proportions are so much better than before (the big head is on purpose, jeez!). The pose isn't dynamic enough - too stiff, the leather texture needs work and the head should actually be bigger to match the proportions I used yesterday (consistency dammit!). This might be a good candidate for re-drawing in the big notebook. 

Spider Woman was the first collected comic I ever got (back in 1980) and I've been fascinated by heroines ever since.  There were other Spider Women, but she's always been the only one for me.

I got a new Moleskine sketchbook in a human size after drooling over JR's (see  http://jimssketchblog.blogspot.jp/)  nifty LotR one. Mine is the ltd. ed. Mickey Mouse one, so there! Anyway, after talking to several artist friends, I've decided to use this bigger sketchbook to explore things I've drawn in my smaller one.  This is my first big sketch. It's Deadpool because I recently started reading Deadpool MAX (almost wrote DP MAX, but that would be oh so wrong) and I really liked it. Kyle Baker is so awesome and he's the reason I bought it.  This is the smaller piece I did yesterday that inspired the bigger one.  I won't be doing the big drawings every day, but whenever I want to explore new stuff or try new techniques I'll use the bigger book to do so. The challenge for this particular piece was doing all the scarring. The texture overwhelmed the costume tatters as I was afraid it would, but I'm still not unhappy with the results.  I'd be happy to

Sun. night I was sampling too much beer when I drew this pretty #monstober #inktober monster.  Then afterwards, I drew a li'l Deadpool which I'll share in my next post. 

Okay, I'm about to post some crazy $#!% so hang on to your ballbags. When living in Tokyo (and probably any other part of Japan), you get the opportunity to add a bunch of slashes to your skill set. Where in NYC, most of the people you meet are waiter/dancer, waiter/screenwriter, waiter/actor, most of the people I know are teacher/artist, teacher/voice actor, teacher/writer, or teacher/singer. Though according to my various targeted CVs I am a translator/interpreter, an artist/animator/illustrator, a writer/proofreader/editor/copywriter, and/or a teacher/lecturer, I've also been called upon to do voice work, motion capture work, and good-ole fashion acting. It started when I was asked to translate the script for a short animated segment and then was asked to do a test voice for one of the characters. The director, Yusaku Furuya  liked my portrayal and I ended playing a bucktoothed trailer trash yokel (my kinda guy) who joins his friend on a roadtrip across Japan. In their

Guys (including myself) are seriously ugly when we cry. Nothing keeps me more humble than remembering how butt-ugly my cry-face is.  For contrast, I drew a Heian-kyo inspired lady of the court. 

[Note: Check This $#!% Out was originally a seperate blog but is now a feature of patokon blog ] Since my kindergarten class where we had a guest teacher with a monkey puppet that spoke only French, I've been interested in the French language. My interest never went as deep as my interest in Asian languages, but deep enough that I have several dozens of books in or about French. My first French movie exposure was the stylish thriller DIVA . The opening opera scene still gives me goosebumps just due to the amazing singing of Wilhelminia Wiggins Fernandez . It would be another few years before I got to see Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita . A few years after that I saw the fantastic comedic horror (or horrific comedy)  Delicatessen , and the classic slapstick spy comedy, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe .   I really enjoyed these two genres of French film, the comedy and the action thriller and always looked forward to finding new works by these actors and directors. T

This is one of the characters that was designed by Tomoko Hirabayashi for our webcomic Hexenringe. I just love her character design.  Rockin' Heroman is a rock-a-billy Ultraman cross-hybrid hero and will be showing up in the strip eventually. I like him so much I'll be using him in some spin-off strips that I'll draw myself.  I've nowhere near the skill of Tomoko, so my sketch today is practice so that I don't do too crappy a job.  Next I'll have to practice "kime" poses that live-action heroes are always doing. 

OFinally catching my breath since the int'l comics event and I realized that though I'd been sketching everyday, I hadn't been posting to this blog.  Day 3 Kokeshi Day 4 Practice for a commission from an old friend.  Day 5 Hypnoid One-eyed aliens seem to be my fall back.  Day 6 Don't you hate when... Day 7 Today's sketch I realize I need to do more with my line without forcing it. Thus the "work in progress". 

 I'm home from Tokyo Big Sight and my feet are set on "hurt like hell", but I had an amazing time. I got to meet some greats, sold a good number of books, promoted the Hexenringe webcomic (http://hexenringe.blogspot.com, still promoting :c) ), made some contacts, and picked up some great books! This was the chaos that was the "patokon" booth.  Jim R. really helped out with the boothing and stuff.  Tomoko Hirabayashi, the artist of Hexenringe, and I gave out sketches to people who purchased the Preview Book    Her sketches are the really tight ones. I sold out of the American Comic Sound Effect Dictionary again (woohoo!) and the preview book did really well, but the Zombie Alphabet book didn't do great. It could have been the price and the fact that there's no Japanese (or maybe the art, but I don't wanna go there).  After the event, there was an After-Party and I got to talk to two of my favorite Euro comic artists - Guarnido (Blacksad) and dePins (

I stopped by Gallery U today, but first I got all spiffed up in a kimono.  Being the incredibly humble artist that I am, I made a beeline for my own work before even glancing at the other works.  I was glad to see my Kokeshi were in a good spot, but the overall level was so high, though proud to be in such esteemed company, I'm not sure how I measure up.  Let's look at some of the dolls I thought were extremely cool.  These dolls by Etsuko Kurimori really show off the beauty of the wood and incorporate a fresh, natural style.  I love the damaged schoolgirl motif and also the style used here, which while tackling popular manga/anime tropes uses a clean, original style. The animals held by the girls are great additions   Of the figures here by Masaya Miyashita, the Nature one really caught my eye, but I'm a sucker for moon motifs as well.  Speaking of moon motifs, these three moon dolls by Tomoko Miyakawa are just gorgeous. I love the deep blue and how the characters follow t

Here's my quick Supergirl sketch.  And I did a quick one on the train in response to a FB thread about fezzes and leather and heavyset dudes.  Don't ask me why, but I like this one better. Okay, I have a fez fetish. A fezish. I'm a fezbian.  #inktober #dailysketchchallenge

So I've been missing a few days here and there when posting to my Daily Sketch Challenge group on FB and I want to make sure I get back to a daily schedule SO I'll be posting number of days in a row again.  Here's my new Day #1 Sketch: Alphonse McFrankensteel.  Past sketches here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/690019427681034/

My homepage is online just in time for two big events this weekend. The kokeshi event that starts tomorrow and the Int'l Comics Festival . Nothing spectacular, just a little story that leads into links to my social networks including this blog here. It's just a starting point. I was so sick of the last page and I needed something quick and dirty that I didnt hate.   Check it out and tell me what you think. The new face of patokon.com

I combined three themes for October.  #monstober , #botober , and #inktober October will be a busy month for me as I'll be exhibiting in a Kokeshi (Japanese traditional doll) exhibition from 10/15 to 10/27 at Gates Inn Gallery "U" ( http://gates-inn-gallery.com ) and ill also have a booth at the International Comics Festa on 10/20 ( http://kaigaimangafesta.com ). I'm also working on rebuilding my crappy homepage ( http://patokon.com ).