About a month ago, on a routine trip to Flax in San Francisco with Rene, I bought myself a sketchbook. The last time I had bought a sketchbook was when I needed a dedication book for my Eddie Guerrero Day of the Dead altar in 2006. I realized that the art that I had drawn for my comics is terribly disorganized and not well kept and I thought having a solid central book to contain my new work would be exciting.
Things didn’t exactly work out as planned. I’m starting to realize the limitations of the bootsy-ass printer/scanner that came with my computer. It prints great but the scanner bed is too small for my sketchbook. I was still able to scan two of my drawings and color them in Photoshop as a late night escape.
I drew this portrait of Mariela very loosely and inked it using a set of pens I’ve been meaning to use. The result is something I’m very happy with, it’s simple and reminds me a little bit of Nancy Hom’s work.
This second piece is much more in the style of my comic strips. I’ve been thinking a lot about Jughead and my strong identification with him lately. I think the whole crown motif is really appealing to me. The background is my Photoshop freehand take on the infamous Chinese Food and Donuts on the corner of 24th and Mission. I love their food, especially the Egg Foo Young, but you need an iron stomach to digest most of the menu options.
Peace,
Rio
