Surreal Artist Pen & Ink, Comics And Animation

HEY APATHY! Free Comics Online

Like most people living similar lives to my own, the past few weeks have been extremely busy. The Christmas holidays have come and gone and the New Year began without any notable incidents. I have remained as productive as one might while flinging myself from dinner to dinner at all ends of the city. I do not like shopping or travelling during the busiest time of the year but I really enjoy getting together with family and had the most delightful time seeing my new niece and playing with my 2 year old nephew. There are some troubles at home with my aging ailing uncle but otherwise all is well and everybody else was happy and healthy. Nevertheless, as an avid workaholic, I am excited to get into some uninterrupted time drawing in the studio.

During the festive frenzy I managed to finish last weeks webcomic ( on time for once!) and I went on ahead and finished next weeks installment as well. I also got some concept sketches done for a kid’s cartoon show and a few of these surreal face pen and ink illustrations (above). The animation, on the other hand, got put aside before Christmas because it requires too much concentration and I didn’t want to botch it. Tomorrow I have a couple of business meetings so I think I have to wait until Tuesday before the cartoon gets going again. I finally got a camera (thanks Dad!) so I’ll add some animation process shots to here when I start production again. SEE MORE ART HEY APATHY

Thirteen Stories, forbidden tales of the apocalypse

HEY APATHY! Independent Comics and Art

A plant has attacked a corporate office, a mad scientist and his twin assistants have set about replacing people of varied societal positions, a centaur is still chasing the supermodel, amorphous nightmares runs rampant through the streets and the city of gears spins on! The past year has been, well different, but it always is. One of the most significant of these “differences” has been my dedicated, though feeble, attempts at writing stories. As a street artist, 2004-2008, I had little use for the written word managing all my interactions verbally and with an experienced eye for unspoken communications. The streets are all about the eyes and body language which I would then perceive and create a verbal approach accordingly. Around the fall of 2009 I started building a website and all of a sudden there were none of these options forcing me to use the only means available for online communication, words.

I made a number of failed attempts at essays and descriptions for my site but found the work overwhelming, scattered and ultimately poor. I put that project on hold and started with something smaller, little blog blurbs, but on a daily basis. I made sure to do about 200 words everyday and started working with little structures. I’d do 100 words on the story in the art, and 100 on the story behind the processes. Soon the word count doubled, and while still not satisfied with the finished paragraphs, the ordeal slowly became easier and was soon a regular in my daily routines.

Prior to this it must have been 10 years and the only writing I’d done was papers for an art school. Nevertheless what choice did I have? On Tuesday April 12, I ran out of things to say and started making things up. At this time I’d never actually written, or properly considered writing, a stories with words. When I “write” graphic novels I do so directly with the ink on paper. They are basically composed like silent films and the dialogue/text are the last thing on my mind. Animations are made the same way, I just make it up as I go along. Telling the stories on the streets is again, entirely contradictory to the written version. For example I can change my choice of words on the spot depending on the demographic of the viewer. You can’t do that online or in printed text.

The process of making things up proved immediately gratifying. Although I have been putting a some efforts into producing drawings this year, my primary focus has been on developing new animations. These things take for ever and you don’t really get to think about the narrative developments because so much attention I required for every 2/22 seconds of the film. Basically in the same time it takes to illustrated a single panel artwork telling a world of stories, the animation might only get the characters from one scene to the next (if I draw fast). Knowing full well that I can’t make animations and comics at the same time, the written stories really fulfilled a need to produce ideas rapidly while engrossed in such a technical process.

So I decided to write 13 stories with illustrations to use on my site. I think there are 7 posted and few more hanging around the blog. I maybe only edited 2 of them properly but I won’t start inserting scolding coat hangers in the veins beneath my toenails if that doesn’t happen before the new year. If I can get all thirteen ideas into pages, I’ll be satisfied for now. I’d love to see the work published in a little black hardcover entitled “Thirteen Stories, forbidden tales of the apocalypse” or something like that.

WEEKLY WEBCOMICS

Toronto Artist

HEY APATHY! Toronto Artist

Getting ready for a long winter in the studio.

What a beautiful winter’s day for a stroll. The winds are blowing a white dust around. The ground is slippery and slushy but repeatedly painted white, as was I after ten minutes with a coffee on the corner bench. The computer says it is – 8 with 44 mph winds but it doesn’t really matter I made my way obtrusively through all my chores. These obstructions slowing my route had nothing whatsoever to do with the weather but merely mistakes and poor planning on the part of myself. I made way to the pet store to get crickets for my lizard forgetting of course that they are closed every Tuesday. Half way to the art store I remembered using up my supplies but realized at that moment I’d not brought enough money. I made my way home through the snow and back to for the supplies, another quick coffee and I was settled in the studio by three. I actually enjoyed the mild weather making the travels rather pleasant. I hate being cooped up no matter how productive it can be. At any rate yesterday my face froze in minutes and I couldn’t travel without a protective hood.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and organizing all my upcoming projects. Throughout the pleasant seasons I tend to carry very few supplies and travel around creating work. It is really keep track of my materials this way but obviously affects the kind of work I can produce. Now, as the freezing imprisonment approaches, I find myself working on multiple tasks and all the equipment gets scattered. Today was my third three hour session in three days of tidying and I’ve finally got all this stuff together. When you need a ruler or eraser, it is really convenient to know where it is.

The next few months are going to be divided between three primary tasks. The first is more animation. For this I use two pens, two brushes, a light table, one stack of 8.5 x 11” blank paper and another with finished drawings. Because of the magnitude of this project I have (now) a small area dedicated to this production. It is always set up so anytime I feel inclined I need only pick of the pen. The second endeavor is the ongoing weekly webcomic. For these drawings I use the same two pens and brushes but work on larger illustration board. I only do this once a week so I’ve got the boards and long rulers stored in a easily accessible and visible place. The third, and somewhat terrifying, winter project is working on the website. I cleaned out my computer and have all the hard copies, photographs and drawings ready by the scanner. Found piles of unlabelled cd/dvds to go through also. (The picture above is from one of the mystery discs) I’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do. A large portion of my site was built before I even knew what miniscule bits I now understand about the computer. Anyways it should look a bit better than it does now.

That’s enough about my boring life. Probably a little hyper from all the coffees today but I think this little ramble helped me sort out my own mind. Hopefully tomorrow will be consumed less by trivial duties and more with the new animations. In the meantime check out the HEYAPATHY! comics online.

Toronto Artist "A Paper-work Nightmare"

HEY APATHY! Comics Online

My Toronto artist studio floor is camouflaged with forms, essays, applications and endlessly bureaucratic pages of budgets and text. Hardly a drop of ink to be seen, the spots now entirely engulfed by the chaotic compilation of documents accompanied by randomly scattered brown envelopes and data discs. The theme to Gilliam’s Brazil echoes through the hallway as I dodge spelling errors, wrestle resumes and struggle to defeat the deadline horizon of this years granting season. The accumulation of two months worth of typing, reading, writing and rearranging words, numbers, pictures and accomplishments shuffles about slicing my ankles, stifling my every move. Duplicates, triplicates, multiple copies and only 1 copy of each form, sent to various addresses, all labeled with the artist’s name and the title of the proposed program of work or proposed grants program, each asking for the assistance in the development of a socially satirical body of animated atrocities. A little odd isn’t it? As one who spent most of his life perfecting a humanist art form derivative of folktales, street performances and the inspirational chaos conjured out of random experience, the penetration of paper work made me feel as a surreal Sisyphus might if only the boulder was a cabinet of forms which could never be completed. But alas I conquered the nightmare and that work is done.

As the opening description might suggest, the completion of said task was not an easy one. In order to get all this stuff done, and to the best of my abilities, I decided to make a meditation out of the event. I refrained from all drawing, recreational reading, and leisurely use of the internet. The only exceptions would include a late night cartoon or two after I’d exhausted my ability to produce proper essays and forms. I did get into one short discussion about the Justice League on facebook, but it was completely by accident as I actually went there for business purposes (I don’t usually chat on that forum).Abstaining from these small pleasures wasn’t too difficult because they all involve using the computer. After 8- 12 hours of working on the machine the last thing I felt like doing was traveling anywhere online. The most trying factor of the ordeal was suppressing the urge to be creative.

I stayed focused throughout the work but was perpetually taunted by my imagination. As soon as I’d step away or lie down the stories would start to flow, ….a tale of a dead man kept in motion by larvae and vermin feeding on genetically ingrained experiences, missed opportunities, broken dreams and embarrassed emotions… and things like that kept popping into my head. The next page of the comic, the animations, an idea, all crashing at my psyche attempting to overthrow the mathematical and essay driven obligations I’d imposed upon myself. It is certainly a strange battle, the artist, itself an anti-established deviation who throws paint on walls and lives free from all anxieties, forced to wade knee deep through imaginary paperwork in order to continue his mission of making a mess.

Despite the contradictory nature of the artist seeking finance from a world that he/she cannot help but criticize, the process is actually quite logical and certainly fare. Most of the applications require a brief, yet succinct, written account, some visual support material and summarized budget costs. It is amazing how many forms and copies you have to fill out in order to convey that simple information, but in the end if one knows what they want to do, and the work is of any cultural value, then one probably stands a good chance. At any rate finalizing all this organization of materials proved far more rewarding than repulsive and seems to have ended much swifter than it began. Well the letters are all sent and the remaining papers brushed to one side, so I think I’ll spend a day or two cleaning before doing whatever it is I’m going to next. HEY APATHY!