New Year's Bash!

Hello world! Happy new year! My blog has been quiet the past couple months because of me keeping really busy as always. I think it's time to share all the new work that I've been cooking up. Enjoy.

Solocom 2014

A couple weeks ago, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see many hilarious and touching shows at the Solocom comedy festival at the PIT. All the performances were great, hilarious, and amazing. I think that the ability to put yourself in front of a group of people and not only perform, but share your story with strangers is amazing. 

That's what I love about art, comedy, and performance. The ability to share stories and celebrate life in some capacity. Each performer I thank for their amazing show.

Happy Halloween!

Orange is a great fall color.

Thoughts on Creating Art

Writer's block. From the outside, it probably looks like you're sitting there and doing nothing, but every person who's ever experienced writer's block knows that it's the complete opposite. It's the continuous struggle to eek something out of your conscience and put it out there into the world.

I like to compare this struggle to having a conversation with yourself. When you face that blank paper, you come face-to-face with yourself, and ask, "What am I thinking?" Then your conscience tells you, "I want ice cream." Then you tell yourself, "Okay, ice cream is good. Let's get some." Then ice cream is consumed. "Okay, what are you thinking now?" "I don't know. Bears are funny. Draw a bear." "Okay, why are bears funny?" "I don't know. This is tough."

More often than not, this is writing. Dealing with your stubborn self. But as you dig deeper, you begin to unravel what you truly think about life. Through this process, you begin to understand the world and yourself a little better.

So, to those out there interested, I recommend to create something. Maybe a story, or a picture. And if it becomes too hard, have some ice cream.

Lastly, from my labor this week, a doodle of my family.

I like this doodle

Shopping around in the market

Okay, this title doesn't make much sense, but it is a bit more interesting than Marketing 101, which a lot of web pages out there are labeled (Why are they all named like University courses?!). But a big thing about growing a business is putting yourself out there. I will not lie. I am horrendous at this. The good news is I am trying to fix this.

Marketing for Children's Book Illustrators

That link right there is a pretty good one for freelancing children's book illustrators. To sum it up, the name of the game is persistence. As I have learned, sending out one postcard does not make any clients flood my inbox. It is very important to always be letting people know what the heck you're up to without becoming a pest. It is a lot to take in, but with practice, it'll build to bigger and better things.

Also, I changed my profile pictures in Facebook,Twitter, and LinkedIn. I thought people should have a nice picture of me.

Some New Comic Pages

From a graphic novel idea that I am currently working on. These are fun.

Posh Living for a Bear

Yes, if I had all this nice stuff in a big mansion, all I'd do is dust too. So don't judge the bear too harshly.

Patterns in Furniture

I am really proud to show this off as it is my first venture into patterns. On a trip to the Met, I explored the American wing looking particularly at early American furniture. The craft of the designers then were exquisite, and it blows out of the water the couch that I normally sit on.

What struck me then were the amazing patterns in the fabric. Here, a question that's been on my mind for a long while popped on. "Huh! How do they make those patterns?" I never realized how easy it was to make repeating patterns until I looked it up online.

So, patterns and some Photoshop magic, here we are!

Letting the characters speak.

This is very important when writing a new story, especially character-driven stories. Stories flow from me when my characters tell me what to do.

Does that make sense? For example, let's say I draw a dog, and I tell him to be funny and goofy, but if that dog doesn't look like a funny, goofy dog, he's not going to do what I want him to do. Instead, if he's drawn like a sad, droopy dog, then he's going to be sad and droopy.

When the characters that I draw start telling ME who they are, that's a good sign. The earliest character that did this for me was a girl named Bev. Right away from the drawing, I knew who she was. She started informing me what her thoughts are.

I share this because while I was drawing and thinking up new picture book ideas, a character yelled at me and said, "HEY! I'm this kind of bear and don't you forget it!" No longer am I writing then. I'm more like reporting.

Here's Merlo, being all hip and cool.