random drawing

I did this at SPACE, about the different customers who pick up and buy "Gay Kid."

Sketches from PIX

I had a super time at PIX two weekends ago! I (for the first time ever) sold back the cost of the table, and then actually MADE. MONEY. It may be in part due to the fact that the table cost only $25, but I'm still feeling pretty good about myself.

Since I was at the show by myself, I had a lot of time to work on my comics. So of course I didn't; I just doodled the whole time.

Oh man it's been a while

Wow. So....wow. It has been far too long since I have posted here. Let me start with the most recent drawing I've done and work my way back from there.

I got a new job!!! I finally have left the life of barely managing. I was cobbling together hours from two part-time jobs (one as a museum guard, one as a visitor service rep. at another museum), never going out to eat and pre-gaming before going to bars because I was so poor. I am now working for the League of American Bicyclists (check them out at here) in the Membership and Events department. One of my responsibilities is to work on a quarterly publication we distribute to member club leaders. The illustration above was for this publication; May is National Bike Month, and May 21 is Bike to Work Day, so we needed a pic of a city-smart bicyclist.

In other news, I moved houses (again) from a kind of old, stuffy neighborhood in DC to a more hip and young one. Also, the new house is $300 a month less, which is DEF an improvement, especially when coupled with a regular income, and is with one of my best friends.

Also, my dad got married two weekends ago. So things have been really busy here, and there hasn't been too much time to draw. It's really hard for me to get myself going when I have no routine, spend most of my days by myself, and therefore get lonely and depressed. Being mad is always a great inspiration to me to get drawing, but being sad is like the WORST writer's block ever.

So, long story short, there will be more drawing to come. I am working on contributing a weekly strip to a gay blog (big surprise), and will post a link here once that gets up and running.

So I work this dumb security job at an art museum in DC. The one benefit of it is that you are surrounded by interesting things to look at. The downside is that, after looking at them for 7 hours a day, they aren't that interesting anymore. Here's a drawing I did of a grandfather clock that's on the old side of the museum. I did it on the back of a receipt, which is why the image looks a bit bogus.

More good news!

I put in my first bid for a job as an artist two weeks ago. It's doing the cover for a document being put out by a small non-profit here in DC. AND I GOT IT! I am so excited. This is really helping me understand--even more--how quitting the full-time job I had was the best thing I have ever done for myself. Period. I have never been so happy as I am right now: getting paid to do what I would be doing for free otherwise, working with Matthew Smith on some great minis, and finally getting my act together regarding this coming out comic. Outside of drawing, I am loving the city (yes, DC can be called "the city." If you think NYC is the only city, check out a map.), I have a great girlfriend, and wonderful friends. I am also getting better at cooking, which goes nicely with the fact that I have very little money to spend going out for dinner since I left the full-time gig.

Snow day!

Oh my God I. LOVE. THE SNOW. Like a crazy person. I went to college in Massachusetts, and one of the main reasons I headed all the way up to the snowy north (besides the ladies) for my schooling was because of just that: it is the SNOWY north.

Whenever it snows in DC, the city really just shuts down. Everyone goes home and stays put. I love the few hours during a snowfall when the sidewalks are clear of persons, but not of snow. I walked from Dupont Circle to Shaw (from work to dinner at a friend's house) on Saturday, through ab out five inches of snow. It was about a mile, and was like being in heaven. I love all snow. City snow is no better than any other type of snow, but it definitely has it's own perks: you get to see how snow looks on a variety of buildings, the sky turns that gray-orange from the street lights reflecting off the clouds, and everyone becomes more friendly in that "well, we're all in it together" sort of mentality.

Here's a picture I drew from an image that stuck in my head on my walk. I felt like a crazy person for stopping and standin for no reason in between spurts of walking as fast as possible so I could keep warm.

 

The text reads: "It snowed last night. I walked from work to a friend's house for dinner. It was still snowing. The sky was that orange it gets when it snows in a city at night. When the city is quiet and when you stop, you can hear the snow hit the ground."

Completely unrelated

Hi!

So the other day I was alone. All alone. Being alone would definitely belong in the top five things that Katie is bad at (the others being: spelling, writing in a non stream-of-conscious way, getting up in the morning, and not being a grandma). By about one o'clock, I had already sent out two emails to my ladyfriend and to my friends being like "what are you doing tonight. hanging out with me? for the LOVE OF GOD say yes." Thankfully one of them, who had stayed home from work that day, suggested that we both head down to Tryst. Tryst is a great coffee shop in Adams Morgan and the hub of the unemployed/artist/angtsy-people-with-DC-flag-tattoos crowd. It was a really good idea; no longer was I overwhelmed by feeling completely alone, and I was able to bust out the below drawing and the 12-panel next installment of the COC. Here's a drawing that I did after sitting in the same place for three hours, having drunk the well of inspiration dry.

COC page 2

Hello out there! Please enjoy this second installment of the COC (Coming Out Comic). As always, click for a legible version.

I spent all day today working on the draft for a Suggestion Box #3, which I am really looking forward too. I will upload more on that later! But for now....

If you really want to live this moment with me, click here.

Basically what's going on right now.