What Just Happened? 2013 in Review

It's been a helluva year.

I'm not just saying that about my personal year. It's been one crazy year. There have been mega-highs and ultra lows. The most diffinitive thing I can say about 2013, personally, is that it ripped in like a hurricane and punched out faster than mantis shrimp.

The first half of the year was marked with deaths, loss, and change. Lots of change. My step-dad, his dog, a friend. Moved myself twice before July. Moved mom to Florida, first time she's lived outside the Susquehanna Valley since 1980. My jobs flipped as to which was the predominant job (this is a change I am most happy about.) New car, new phone (finally entered the realm of 'smart' phones.)

The early part of the year saw the beginning of an endeavor almost 25 years in the making. Life long friend, Shawn and I began laying the foundation for Counter Monkey Comics, and what would be our first (and not last) appearance at the Baltimore Comic Con.

Between moving myself, my mom, a family vacation, 2 jobs and all the beautiful insanity of life we reached our goals for the convention and I self published my first comic book. Which is now entirely SOLD OUT! It wasn't a profit winning undertaking, but it was fun and so very satisfying.

The second half of the year, which saw the completion of the comic, it's printing and the convention - also allowed me to settle into a rhythm of sorts in this new normal. Teeth were pulled, literally. And I realized that I was finally entering the goals I had set for myself when I moved back to PA in May, 2011.

A little over 2 years and a lot of unexpected twists and turns and foolish selfmade detours, and I was finally getting to where I wanted to be for this chapter of my life.

I can't be the only one to have realized this. Many times. While perpetually forgetting it: Stop trying to make God's plan for your life something you can plot out and control.

I'm a firm believer in not saying, "I can't." But this is one of those situations where it applies.

I had this vision of what I wanted to do when  I moved back to PA. Then I read inspiring books. Had conversations with wonderful and amazing people. I lost sight of my vision and started following the experiences of someone else.

In a way my step-dad's passing presented the opportunity of solitude and silence to hear something God must have been saying for the year and a half prior.

"Kid, what're you doing? These are good things, but not what you were made for."

Some how I had gotten it in my head that pursuing my dreams of writing/drawing and storytelling were some how selfish and unimportant. No one said this to me. I said it to myself. I had convinced myself that I was not severing God fully if I wasn't immersed in helping people with every waking breath. I filled myself with pride and some sort of ambition to do things I wasn't called to do. I misread situations as signs and direction.

Like so many, I became my own worst enemy. Fortunately God doesn't give up on us. No matter how long it takes, when we truly let our hearts be still, we can hear him. And I did.

Write    Draw   Tell stories   Love God & Neighbors

These are my directives. I can't compare what God has given me to do to what others are doing. I can't map out what roads his leading will take me on, or what people I will encounter along the way.

So, 2013, you were a hell of a year. In good times and hard. You were better to others, and even worse to many more. You're a part of my history now, and I can't change that, nor do I want to. In ending this post, here's one of my favorite quotes from The Fellowship of the Ring:

"Home is behind, the world ahead,
and there are many paths to tread
through shadows to the edge of night,
until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
we'll wander back and home to bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
away shall fade! Away shall fade!"

 Have an incredible 2014. It'll be incredible at times. It will have moments that truly suck. There will be days or hours that seem unbearbale followed by moments that set your soul aflame.

Just put one foot in front of the other, and keep living. No matter what tomorrow brings, only you control how you will respond or react. Strive to respond rather than react.

The world is what you make of it, so let's make it better this year.


grace, peace + HOPE
-Jesse

Sketchbook Dump

This is pretty much a dump post of all my sketches in my current book.  This will increase dramatically as the days come.  I may not post everything that I sketch, but I'll be trying to draw for at least 15-20 mins a day unitl ideas and concepts start happening and I go for hours.

So here is the latest image from Jan 6th.  I just doodled the girl on the left.  She's a bit crosseyed, and has alignment problems with her nose/mouth but I was happy with the hair.  Inspired by the Adam Hughes "Powergirl" portion of my Mac background.  Which is where the random eyes and mouth come from.  The lips in the upper left, and the eye in the lower right are from another AH sketch of Wonder Woman.  The pair of eyes is from Power Girl, and the bottom eye is just my interpretation of my interpretation of the right eye.

Cthulhu here is just an unfinished doodle of the creepster from HP Lovecraft's amazing stories.

This one is pretty self explanitory.  Just sketching during Easter service at church a few years back.  If it helps, he looked less European in my mind, it just didn't translate to paper.

This one is just a toonish girl.  Her hair is starting to become kinda tentacle-y.  Watch out.

Ok, so here's kind of an artsy-fartsy thing.  I just had this idea going through my head about what people believe etc, and wrote the words down.  Then I sketched in pen and these random images are what we have.

Ok the next 2 images are from a story I'm "working" on.  The first is a villain who was pretty much what I thought the "boogey man" looked like.  Slimey-mud guy, with a mouth that can open the entire length of his body.  The name Bubak comes from "research" I did on wikipedia about folk tales etc.  He's seriously a bad dude despite this cartoonish rendering.

The faires fighting over a pickle slice.  Seemed like a great way for the hero to think he's loosing his mind.  He's an American office drone working in London.  He looks out the window of the whateverteenth floor and sees this. 

So the Easter Bunny gets the birds and the bees conversation.  Meh.  I think I referenced a t-shirt for the basic design of the bunny.  It was a squirel.

I was anticipating "300" coming out a month after drawing this one.

I think I had just watched "The Messenger - The Story of Joan of Arc."  She is a fascinating person and has an incredible story.  So this is her getting burned at the stake.  Delightful, I know.

Awakened

So, a few months ago a friend sent me a link to a letter.  A letter challenging the North American churches in regards to artists.  It really connected with me, not so much in the vein it was intended, but that it awoke some, thing, with in me.  The artist that has been dormant far too long. 

From that spouted a conversation with my pastor about using those talents, and he suggested/asked that I make our churches Christmas Eve Story/Coloring book this year.  Two months later, barely on time for deadline I produced "Gordon."  It was the most hands on drawing I had done in years. 

3 to be exact.  When I last went home for Christmas.  Right after creating Gordon, I went home to PA again.  I had a few really great conversations over the scant 3 days I was there.  Conversations that have given birth to new ideas.  Conversations that are still reverberating with in me nearly 2 weeks later.

I got a few books by comic artists that I love, and studied their work, and words (if provided) about what they learned as they drew etc.  I then purchased a cheap set of new markers. 

Breaking them in lead me to the following image below.

He came from the idea of doing poster like images of Bible Stories.  Since we're talking about Daniel at the Bin this month, I figured I'd start with Daniel in the lion's den.  I roughed out a few thumbnails, and was frustrated.  So I thought I'd just try a close up his face.  So I googled "old man's face," and sketched this fellow. (I just re-did that search and you can probably find the basis for this sketch there)

There are things I like and don't like about it, and that's all good cause it's a sketch.  Granted it took about 30-45 mins so it's a long sketch, but there he is.  I will continue working with my style and try to find a place I like.  When I get the full image of Danny with the lions, I'll share it too.   I do like the different line qualities the different pens gave.  I found a loosenes in the line work when I inked it that I've not experienced before.

Thanks to J. Scott Campbell for the idea of the "black triangle" bust look.  I'm sure others have done it, but I know that's where pulled that black "V" from.  (I think it ended up giving him an Obi-wan vibe.)

For now, I going to try to sketch at least 15-20 mins a day and shake the rust and cobwebs off the old drawing hand.  See what comes of that.

Til then, Happy 2011!