‘Hector Is a Robot’ was a story that’s I’ve worked on about a year ago with my friend Ray Sohn. I wrote a rough draft and gave it to Ray who in turn interpreted it according to his own fancy. I thought the story would fit Ray’s sensibilities, and I’ve been wanting to do a collaboration with him for awhile. I didn’t see pencils, just finished art, which was surprising because his visual and narrative interpretation of the story is so radically different than what I would have done if I were to draw it. We did some editing following that, with a few additional panels and pages drawn. I wanted Ray to go the extra mile and do another set of revisions, with a new ending in mind, but alas, that never happened. Even though, I am happy with the result – a very strange yet striking story with some unique visuals. This is very very NSFW, so please be advised.

Without further ado, I present you with Hector:
Download the story (6.1mb pdf)

I came up with this concept a few months ago, while staying in Gig Harbor, Washington. During my stay I got really interested in the abundance of life that kept washing up on the shore; mussels, oysters and barnacles, small crabs laying under rocks and so on. My initial thought was to draw two embracing figures coming out of the waters covered with various sea life to the point where they are unrecognizable. I held off though, feeling that something was missing from the rough sketch I made. Other projects kept coming in and I had to put this idea in my mental drawer. A few months later, I came up with the solution, only one of the figures will be obscured by sea remnants, the other will be bare – a contrast to the first. I also changed the angle, putting the girl high above and the other figure coming from below adding more tension to the composition.

The drawing and even more so the colors, were inspired by the japanese wooblock print artist – Kawase Hasui. In his prints there is often an impression of nature and man’s mark in it, at a certain time of a day or season of the year, I feel like if there was such a thing as visual haikus – he’d be the undisputed master.

A print of Ebb & Flow is available in the printstore!

There’s a new print available in the print store. The drawing was inspired by an old pulp novel cover and was a personal un-commissioned project which I worked on during some off time. The final art was inked with a japanese nib (I usually use a #3 brush) – it’s a great tool for getting a more detailed and controlled look.

The first 10 people to order the print will get an additional ’surprise’ signed mini print for free! so get her while she’s hot…

Check out the gallery of old illustrations I’ve uploaded to the facebook page, most of these are from my senior year at SVA. At the time I was already starting to zero in on my ‘commercial’ style. Maybe one day I’ll muster enough courage to show older images, from when I was still trying to figure out where to go.

This was an article for Utne Reader magazine; the author was offered to give a public speech in a conservative christian school regarding his struggles as a gay man coming from a christian background. He decides to decline the job, then changes his mind when he finds a letter online from a gay student from the same school who is suffering greatly and contemplating suicide. The AD wanted to emphasize the idea of courage in the face of a hostile environment, since the author had to muster a lot of inner strength to be able to come up and talk.

These are the finished illustrations I sent:

The Ad decided she wants to stick to a more clean line so I reworked the second image giving it clean ink lines rather then pencil. Sometimes its better to clue the AD in before trying something new…

P.S
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