24 Hour Comic Challenge Live Blog, 2008

The Challenge: I have from 10am Saturday to 10am Sunday, twenty-four hours, to draw twenty-four pages of a new comic.

9:52 am:
Got up on time, everything was in order, I had some oatmeal and emergen-c vitamins. Portland is fairly vacant at 9:20 am, Saturday morning. Picked up some snackums from Safeway and rode along 10th to school. I recognize one guy in the library from last year. He drew a bunch of separate images and them compiled them together. BT is here and a dude I think I remember and a girl I have never seen before. Most everyone I know is busy busy busy. I am just not busy enough to do this. Plus it is nice to have something really complete and final to do to relax myself. This is all for me, yay! Now I am just counting minutes till the start time.

10:02 am:
I figured out where the plugs were and took a spot on a table instead. Now I am kitty corner to BT and next to Genevieve.

10:49 am:
Good thing I grabbed breakfast because they are only supplying us with coffee and tea till about 1am when I think there will be pizza. Mmm!! BT moved elsewhere to work and Kim is now across from me. I am doing a haiku comic. I am writing 24 haikus and they all tie together and it is one for every page. I have five written and thumbnailed. I'm unsure if I want to stick the haikus on the pages and just leave it wordless. Well, I'm only one fifth of the way done with planning it out.

11:42 am:
Another hour and just about four more pages thumbnailed. Watching the new Pushing Daisies episode. I really hope it doesn't get cancelled.

12:22 pm:
16 haikus and 16 thumbnails. Eight to go. Can't wait to start drawing and inking! Watching some BBC documentaries about magic now.

1:26 pm:
24 Haikus. 24 thumbnails. And the afternoon lunch for the challenge has arrived. I shall eat, and then start the real meat of the comic! Now I enter the long haul. Bryan stopped by for a little bit earlier on. He isn't doing the challenge but seems like he is going to hang about and work on the painting assignment.

1:51 pm:
Oh boy! They brought us lunch from Baja Fresh! A massive platter of burritos and lots of fixings to make your own eatables. Very delicious and filling and healthy. I scarfed and now it is back to the paper to start my panels. Now I'm watching Nevermind the Buzzcocks. Some of the lovely people around me have taken interest and I've shared my streaming video location secrets with them.

2:45 pm:
Just finished sketching my fifth page. Making good pace and progress as I am only about five hours in. Karen said she is going to stop by.

3:36 pm:
Sketching my seventh page. Took a little break when Karen came by. Showed her those Views on Color magazines. Suggested some movies (Kill Bill, Requiem for a Dream, and Waking Life). She is photocopying now but will probably sit and draw with me after. It is deathly quiet in here. Now watching magic again.

4:54 pm:
Page 12. Why is this taking so loooong. Well it probably just feels long because it is the afternoon. Still watching the Magic stuff. Talked to Dominic, August, and Jon. And by talked to I mean that I gave them some candy. Share the sweetness. Close up magic tricks are quite awesome.

5:40 pm:
17.

6:05 pm:
19 and a half. And I just brewed my third cup of green tea. Two in the morning, one to give me some extra pep to get me through my pages. Kim is making an awesome comic about llamas. Really lovely detail. She is taking it one full page at a time.

7:10 pm:
All my pencils are done. Now the fun part: inking! Chelsey stopped by to take pictures of us hard at work. I'm so thrilled and psyched. Hell, I may even break my record depending on how the inking goes.

7:51 pm:
Two pages inked and looking great! Added a touch of grayscale in there as well. Watching the last few episodes of the Wire now. Omar's coming!

8:37 pm:
Up to four pages now. We are putting copies of our finished pages up on the wall. The largest number of pages is around 10. I plan to put mine up two pages at a time. Almost done with The Wire. Also for Christmas I would like Speedball Super Pigmented Acrylic Ink. Black preferred, but all colors would rock.

9:49 pm:
Hitting the twelve hour mark. Six pages inked, 18 to go. Karen and Diana cruised by for a visit and I shared some candy with then. I am so wired. Had another cup of green tea. I am so freaking set. Also had a couple slices of the pizza. I've been snacking so I haven't needed much in the way of the meals the provide. Switched from The Wire to Daily Show. Need something light hearted.

10:58 pm:
Just noticed that I added an extra haiku that I didn't do a thumbnail for. So I'm adding in that extra page that bumps it up to 25. So that means I am on my 10th right now.

12:40 am:
Working on page fifteen now. Really chugging along. There's a lot of black coming up. That means no detail. Yay! Working hard and it's coming out. Looks like how I wanted it to...fourteen hours ago.

1:03 am:
There is nothing better than comics, food, and an endless supply of TV and movies.

1:49 am:
The nice guy who bought us Voodoo doughnuts just left. The first major leaver. He was mostly working on his own projects. Half an hour left in The Wire. Boo hoo!

2:21 am:
Eighteen pages pinned up. The upcoming pages are easy.

2:28 am:
Finished The Wire. All of it. No more.

2:59 am:
TWO. ZERO. Five left. And they are easy.

3:27 am:
I have three left. I'm tired but I am almost there. Just a little bit more and then I can sleep. And then I can go to my job interview.

3:53 am:
I am done. Seventeen hours, fifty three minutes.

4:47 am:
After taking advantage of the free copy machine access and making several copies of my work, I set out. Well I said goodbye to everyone and cleaned up my space. That table has a lot of little ink flecks on it and I used up a ton of my ink. But there is always more ink in the world. I was the first to complete the 24. BT was mostly working on other things (having everyone around you working makes for a great environment). Kim and Genevieve were napping. I had another cup of tea a few hours ago but I think sleep will win over now. Only one car went by me on my way home. It was a wonderful, clear night. Portland is a very quiet city, even on a Saturday night. Err well I guess Sunday morning. Now I am going to go to bed and the next you will hear from me will be regarding my job interview that will take place in eleven hours.

24 Hour Comic Challenge Live Blog, 2007

The Challenge: I have from 10am Saturday to 10am Sunday, twenty-four hours, to draw twenty-four pages of a new comic.

10:44 am:
Rained as Sean and I left the dorm. Got two bags. Blankets take up a lot of space. As does snacks. I'm sitting at my own private little desk. It took a while for the wifi to get up. Watching Doctor Who in the background, working on the first page and going over ideas in my head. Not quite sure where I want to go. Slow start, but I left later than I would have liked.

11:51 am:
Still raining. Another Doctor Who episode down. Might watch Spaced or some Tennant next. I dunno. Inking my second page. Don't know how the story will go. Might try a different style, something more speedy. Had a doughnut. Mmmm.

12:54 pm:
Well I'm trying a new style and it is going pretty well. Four pages, but they are kinda sloppy so I feel like I am cheating. I dunno. Might pick up? Might start again? Argh frustrating. Hard to do this when you don't have a real plan because you are not allowed to have a real plan. Sorta wish I was sitting at a table, they are all chatty and making friends. Ehh I also like my privacy. Well I can always walk around. Watching Spaced.

1:21 pm:
I got another wind with this style. Really enjoying it. Sure it is going fast but I can always go back and redo some of it. And I might change it up in some of the coming pages. Six pages. Eighteen left. Switched over to music.

1:38 pm:
Loosing steam, I think I'll redo this page now that I know where I am going.

2:29 pm:
Steam regained a little. Might be adding a lot of filler pages though. On my ninth. I shouldn't really be on my ninth right now, I'm not challenging myself enough?

3:23 pm:
10th page. It is slowing down a little but that is how I intended it. It is coming together. The coming 24 Hour Comic things should go a little better methinks, once I know more about what I am doing. Ate some chips, walked around and said hello to people. Some great artists abound.

3:57 pm:
Jim's been hanging out for an hour or so. Now he is going to leave. Still tenth page? Woah.

4:20 pm:
Wow I've been at this for six hours? Huzzah! 11 pages, almost to the halfway point. Some great art is going on around here. Kinda chilly. Brrr. Watching Gridlock, one of the few good Tennant episodes.

5:46 pm:
Mum called. I'll call back on my break but I have a good pace going so I don't know when that will be so mum you can donate the denim jacket and the red one, it is okay. I left them behind for a reason. Though I could try and sell them...hmmnn. Working on the thirteenth page. Going well! Yeah. Listening to stuff from youtube now. Loads really fast.

6:20 pm:
Page fourteen almost done. Going really well, I'm excited to see this to the finish. As one guy is talking about it does not feel like a "sixth" hour. Raining outside. I think it is time for a break. Hmmn.

7:27 pm:
Thirty minutes till pizza! I can't believe I have been here almost ten hours. Damn! Well I should finish. That free comic is MINE MINE. ALL MINE. Even if I do one page an hour that still makes me done at 5am. Err. Woah. Well I think I will sleep and walk home with the rest of the dormies if it comes to that. There is Sean and Matthew. I'm really liking this story. The guy next to me has 15 pages laid out.

8:57 pm:
Sharks will only attack you if you are wet. Sixteen pages.

9:54 pm:
Twelve hours working. Seventeen pages done. Seven to go. Time to return to computer music. Not yet into my second vitamin water nor the majority of my snacks. My teeth kinda hurt from sugar though. Bugger.

10:25 pm:
Just got my eighteenth page done. Clipping along at a nice pace thanks to some music suggestions to pump me up. Hells YEAH. This story is ending up kinda sad. But it will end happy I swear!

11:07 pm:
Nineteen pages done. Certainly clipping on right good now. Need a break. I know exactly what the next five (five!) pages are going to be. I hope this is as good in the morning after sleep as it is right now.

12:13 am:
Four pages left. There are some people who look to be finishing up with enough time and some that are just focusing on making great pages. In the coming years I hope to make great pages. Hmm. My mouth hurts. Totally all the sugar, will eat some raisins or something. Haven't been to the dentist in a while. Back to watching Doctor Who. Yay for Eccleston!

1:00 am:
Twenty one pages down. Three to go. I can't believe I am doing this is such record time. I hope people get what I am doing with it. Sean just finished.

2:05 am:
Two pages left. Took my ages to do this panel. No energy. Blaah. Oh my word. Well at least I know how this will go. My teeth still hurt.

2:59 am:
This second to last page took forever. The last page will be fairly simple so that should get sorted out fairly quickly. Still, seven hours to spare. That's enough leeway time to go through and make sure I checked her skirt and darkened his tie. La la la. Sleep will be good and plentiful tonight and tomorrow night. None of that sleeping in and then staying up because I can't sleep stuff.

3:30 am:
Done. Twenty four pages in fifteen and a half hours.

4:48 am:
Walked home with Sean. Got my comic all photocopied and turned in to BT. Huzzah. Matthew took off so we didn't walk in a group. I hope he is all right. The streets of Portland at 4am on a Sunday are dead quiet. Only passed two people. The walk was so long lugging all the stuff about. I'm so tired...

2:07 pm:
I set my alarm clock, thinking I would wake up at about 11am so that I would be able to get to sleep easier tonight. Instead I rolled out of bed about 15 minutes ago. Hahah, more tired than I thought. Hopefully not so tired that I can't get to sleep at a reasonable time tonight. Looking over my piece I do like it. Some of the poses are a little awkward but I like how I varied the panels on the pages. As I got more tired it shows but that is how it goes with this type of thing. I'm quite proud of myself.

I have the key, I have the power

My keychain is always expanding. Now I have a little key that opens up the paper towel dispenser AND the toilet paper. Booyah! I also have a card that gets me into the studio building. The training with Robert was pretty brief. He just showed me around and told me to sweep, mop, clean and change things out. Not much too it. Simple job; just time consuming. The wind brought in a lot of leaves so I swept those up. Only one soap needed replenishing, I added some toilet paper but none of the towels were out. Mopping was a challenge, never had to use the mop before. The David Sedaris story comes to mind about how mopping doesn't clean anything and how you have to actually scrub the floor. Also the water gets grungey because of the mop. Need one of those swiffer mops, this thing is just useless. I wish I could have cleaned all the windows, I loved cleaning the windows at the library.

Craig, Mia, Andy, Esteban and Pete were all in the studios today so we were all "hey" to each other. I will get to meet a lot of the higher up artists through this job. And if I don't meet them I will at least see their artwork as I sweep the hallways.

One of the MFA students was working on a project with hay. Had to clean up that mess.

Doing the full job took four and a half hours. The last was spent touching up. Maybe I will get faster at it but it is just time consuming.

Brynne and Dan came into town right as I was finishing. I rode home and dropped my bike off and walked down the the Starbucks on Park street and met up with them. They didn't look out of towney at all, they could have been the Portlanders and me the new comer! We drove into the Pearl District and had Hot Lips for dinner (yay more pizza). Well at least Hot Lips is point at the slice and they heat it up for you and bam, 2 minute meal. Tea Zone would have been about 20 minutes for food and all that. I gave them a brief tour of PNCA and we parted ways. Not a lengthy visit but a visit none the less. Hopefully they will stop by tomorrow during the comic challenge (which is not about comedy) and we can talk more.

Delicatessen was playing first at the movie night. More brilliant than the first time I saw it. Just a beautiful movie, the colors and shots are so well done. Going to art school is really making me appreciate/notice the flaws in movies more. Jean-Pierre Jeunet has no flaws. Pi took me a little longer to get into but it was so brilliant in the end. Trepanation/Trepanning as a way to get the word and name of God out of your head? Woaaah!

The streetcar was 25 minutes away so Sean and I walked back. It was raining softly so I got a little chilled but I had my thick coat so it balanced out. Next to the Hajime Yoshio poster near Anthropologie is a poster designed by Cho-Chan. Digmeout 2006, huzzah!

I am now stocked on snacks/fruits/drinks/yogurt raisins for the 24 Hour Comic Challenge.

Arvie Smith's Workout Scarf©

So in drawing we started out doing gesture drawings and we posed for each other. Some people were shy and didn't want to get up there. We didn't even have to stand still, just had to keep a body part in the same position as a reference. I went after Arvie who had wowed us with waving a scarf around and doing all sorts of large movements. I got up quite simply, sat down, and placed my right hand on the platform. Then I laid on my back and stuck my legs in the air and waved them about, did some bike pedaling and general balance things. Then I rotated and sort of moved around my hand a little. The last thirty seconds were spent in a back arch, my other hand holding my shirt up so I didn't you know...embarrass myself after all that flopping around. I had a headache but it was lots of fun and worth it.

After the gestures we drew chairs for two hours. Uhg. Hate to think that the chair is probably the more beneficial of the drawing practices.

I didn't get much sleep so I was dead all day. Digital tools was torture trying to stay awake and focus on the texture project. At least it is finally done. Not so psyched about it but far better than the photoshop assignments Sean is getting in Slappe's class. I acted out the letters of my costume for Jim (after I had whispered to Karen and..ohh shoot I forget her name, she has an awesome mermaid tattoo) and he didn't really get it. Ended up telling him anyway. The little acting out gave me some pep for the day.

During lunch I met up with this maintenance guy in his tiny little hidden office, filled out the paper work and got my work study and hours all sorted out. Starting Friday, 12-5, I am a custodian for the PNCA studios. That is right: I have a job. I will only be working five hours a week, so it isn't enough for me to do it on my own. But it is a start and now I won't have to feel too guilty about spending a little payola on comics. Won't go crazy but it is nice to have some leeway.

There was some construction blocking my route home on 13th so I looped down around it. Another bicyclist was taking my same looping route. He was a cute ginger. Tee hee.

Was dead when I got home. Blah. So tired. Lounged around, ate some ravioli and hung out with Sean and ate popcorn and Trader Joe's "oreos" while watching Transformers. That movie is so LONG, dang. Good effects sure but really long, not well balanced, the color is off on the people and really fatiguing to watch.

I got the confirmation that I am in for the 24 Hour Comic Challenge. Sean registered as well, not sure if he got in. Should email Matt, Craig and Andy and remind them to register. Hmmn.

sand spikes and unique shapes

Tracey was in my Art History class. I remember her now. Wow.

I went to a lecture starring Allan McCollum today. I went with Matt and saw a few of the other MFA people that he knew and a few Digital Tools people that I knew. If I write a paper about the lecture I can get some bonus points, woo whoo!

It was a very good lecture. I liked how his Ginger Jar project wasn't about making art from the mockery of everyday objects, but was more of an embrace of those images. His comments about how art does end up as sort of the background in a lot of cases and it reminded me of Germany's product placement laws and how there are companies that just make fake background products for use in TV and movies. He did a lot of work about arts role in where it is considered and it wasn't hokey at all how he talked about it. I loved where he got his ideas for mass produced unique objects such as the symbolic numerical plates, the sand spikes and the folgerite casts. And he seemed genuine about how he didn't like that his mass produced work couldn't be given out the the general consumer for cheap. It had to be bought as a whole (as per museum's prattyness). I was kind of hoping he had print outs of his individual shapes for everyone in the world by 2050, and he would give us all our own individual shape. That would be awesome.

Afterwords Matt and I got some McDonald's and went back to my place and watched Heroes. Fun time!

I slept in and didn't have time for breakfast so I had to get a muffin at school. The first hour of art history is always murder, I'm never fully awake for it. I always perk up after our break and I can focus real well. I saw Jim in the morning when I got my muffin and again at break, both times he was buying coffee. I'd say it would stunt his growth but he is already full grown and tall.

Punched out one amazing print for class. Teacher couldn't tell what it was so it worked!(then Nell guessed it. I'll still get credit though). The next print still looked like what it was and I think I worked on a third picture but I don't really remember.

I forgot to put a plastic bag over my seat and so it was a little wet but not by much. Saw Mike and Mollie outside. Mike tried to say something about Tracey but it didn't come out right (religious views about death never comfort me). It was still wet so I went back inside and joined Jim, Diana and a large group of people for lunch.

A lady came out and talked about Tracy, a man sang a song for her and Michael Hall gave a little speech. I didn't know her so well but I can still feel that void and it was hard not to cry. We all sat there in silence for a while and started talking about how we knew her.

I parted ways for a little bit and talked with Lindsay upstairs and came back down and read some of the "I Saw You"'s from the free weekly the Portland Mercury (oh and read Perry Bible Fellowship. Arf Arf. hee hee). I feel like writing in a fake "I Saw You" and directing it towards Jim. "You: tall, skinny, curly hair. Me: short, thin, brown hair. Saw you on the boardwalk on 10th. I waved as you walked by me talking on your cellphone." Something like that. I dunno, funnier in my head I guess.

Darkroom was really empty, people don't really care enough about showing up for class. Tabitha dyed her hair, it looks great!

Time Arts, we watched a video from the 90's about how advertising blah blah subliminal blah bad self image. Advertising rarely makes me want to buy anything. When it came to buying mascara I just thought "which of these are advertised as having the type of eye lashes I want". Then that kind was too expensive so I got something else and it works fine.

Rose told me how I was doing in class and she said I was doing great, always on time AND she gave me some bonus points due to my animation being totally boss.

We split into groups and starting sorting out the symbology for our video project about doing visualizations of poems and whatnot. I have Megan and...ohh I forget her name. Dang it! Shes really cool too. Well yeah there are three of us and we seem to have some good ideas.

Met up with Matt after class and we headed into South Portland for the PSU lecture.

24 Hour Comic Challenge is this weekend. I just registered for it, I hope there are still spaces and that Jim, Matt, Andy and Diana are able to join me.