Ecclectic Directive

Innocence: A Preview

2011-10-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

I recently finished a six-page comic for a storytelling show called the Story Collider run by one Ben Lillie and my oldest friend Erin Barker. It's a great show, and if you're ever looking for something to do in Brooklyn on a Wednesday night I recommend checking it out, you'll be glad you did.

The comic is part of a collection of four, done by myself and three other very talented New York artists, each illustrating a hilarious biographical story heard at the Story Collider live shows and available on their podcast. The compilation is being given away in return for donations that help keep the Story Collider going. The story I illustrated is one by David Dickerson: author and regular contributor on "This American Life," about his troubles finding love, and one man's chances of finding magic in the world.

Now I agreed not to post the full comic here, so if you want to read it you'll have to donate to the fundraiser in Indie Gogo and get a copy of the full book along with some neat other stuff. But I am going to post my favorite panel, to give you a little taste.

That's it. Donate here to help keep a worthy chapter of New York's live comedy scene afloat. And I'll see you next time.

Whalehawk

2011-10-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

I recently finished a logo for a delightful musician from Queens called Whalehawk, I thought I'd share it with you. He's an awesome fellow, an upstanding gentleman, you all should look up his music. Hear it here

And as an added bonus, you may one day see this stenciled on the moon

Another Visit with our Friend the Lion

2011-09-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a little story. Back in 2009 I was working on this animated short, a fun little personal project in my own spare time. I got pretty far on it, too. So far that I was actually starting to record voices for it. I used my own voice for all the characters, not because I don't eventually want to use real voice actors but simply because there weren't any in the room with me at the time.
Now here's where the story takes a turn. You know how a lot of actors say they can't stand watching themselves on screen? Well, watching this cartoon where all three characters had my voice was so painful to sit through for me, I became convinced this short was the worst thing I've ever done, decided none of the jokes were funny, and vowed never to show it to another living human soul.

Jump to two years later, about a month ago in fact, I was digging through the old files on my computer, and I came across the old movie file and decided to watch it again. And you know what? After such a long time I'm far enough removed from the experience of recording it that I actually kind of regret that I stopped it. This project seems pretty funny to me now. I think I'm going to finish it after all.

Here's what it's going to look like.

You can see the original test cells in this old post here.

If only I hadn't stopped working on it two years ago, this 7-minute animation it might be almost part of the way done by now! (Animation takes forever!)

-Joe

Hulk Smash!

2011-02-21T21:44:00.000-08:00

I don't often draw characters that aren't mine, but I recently checked out this new Avengers cartoon and it got my mind going on the Incredible Hulk.
One of my favorite parts of the Hulk's mythos is that the angrier he gets, the stronger he becomes, putting the upper register of his powers right up there at infinity. Here you see my vision of the big green machine raging at about a 9: at 10 he just bulks into a pulsating green ball with fingers and a smushed-in angry face.
At first I was drawing the "SMASH" in big stone letters crumbling under the weight of him, but it just looked so Schoolhouse Rock, I had to go in a different direction.

The trademark on the Incredible Hulk is owned by Marvel, which is owned by Disney, who's majority shareholder is Steve Jobs, who also runs the same company that made the computer I used to create this image. Thus, should anyone take issue with me posting their trademarked character on my little blog, it's their own fault for giving me the means to do so. Nyeh.

Mile High

2011-01-15T20:56:00.000-08:00

Somehow you can always tell whether a sexy lady drawing was made by a male or a female artist. I don't mean that male artists sexualize the female form any more overtly than women do -- if anything, some of the raunchiest, most big-boobs-havin' art I've seen all came from ladies. Women are just better at it. Not that there aren't amazing pinup artists who are men, and terrible ones who are women too. There's just this strange dimension girls can inject into that subject matter; like a respect or maybe a secret like fraternal (hah!) understanding. Some mysterious energy that, for the life of me, I've never seen a man be able to capture. Could be women just know the physics of curving in those same places better, from experience and all. For a man, drawing the female form is always like guessing at something exterior. I don't know, it's mysterious.

Anyway, here's a drawing of a sexy lady in the sky. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-19T23:30:00.000-08:00

If you don't know who the Krampus is, or why Santa might want to be killing him, strap yourselves in because it's kind of amazing. Once upon a time some parents thought it wasn't enough to threaten that if children misbehaved, they wouldn't get their share of free stuff at Christmas. No, back in the day Santa had an evil counterpart who crept into the beds of naughty children to stuff them in his canvas bag and steal them away into the night, never to see their parents again. In the English-speaking world this was Black Peter, an ape-like man in blackface, just to make it even more offensive. But in Germany, Black Peter became the Krampus, and was upgraded to have horns and chains and usually a giant tongue. German legends have way cooler badguys, that is a fact.

Anyway, it stands to reason that Santa, champion of childrens' hearts, would take issue with the Krampus and its nightmare ways and thus a centuries-long battle would begin and end, here, today, on this very blog entry, with Santa as ultimate the victor.

Hey, do you guys think I need a cooler signature? I kind of just write my name, I think maybe I should add some flourish or something. I don't know, I'll work on it.

Two Frogs Fighting

2010-12-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

I noticed in the last two updates that I used a similar orange/violet color palette for both, and far be it for me to want to pigeonhole myself, so I decided to switch it up to a more red/green deal today.

Zombie (with Pet)

2010-11-27T22:09:00.000-08:00

Hello, how was your Thanksgiving? This one's a little different for me, with the boarder and everything. Wanted to try it, you know how it is.

Don't worry, the bird will be fine.

Grape Ape

2010-11-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

I drew this tonight because I wanted to draw something. Gorillas shouldn't play with swords, kids.

-JoeW.

New Character!!

2010-02-05T21:38:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody

I have a new villain! I just designed him from scratch; came up with him to antagonize a new story. I'm thinking of calling him Grin. . .

Is This Monster Yours?

2010-01-11T23:44:00.000-08:00

" i deaded ur monster "

This is a character from a comic. She's like a demon queen archetype, only one who's fallen on hard times. All done in photoshop. See? Here's the sketch.

Test Cells!

2009-11-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

I know you all saw me post the animatic for "Sprinkles For Bravery," last time, but SfB is going to work out to be seven-plus minutes long. Too ambitious for a first-ever attempt at the medium.
What I have here is a keyframe from a different animation which I was developing in secret. This one is called "That Lion Is A Hater" but that's a working title.

I really haven't been sure how I would render these sketchy images for the final animation: these are experiments to help me settle on a style. I don't exactly like the fully-colorful one above but I put it here for posterity. I'm a lot happier with this second attempt.

The short starts out with her talking to the audience as if she's recording herself by webcam. But then . . . something cra-a-a-a-azy happens

The villain is a lion, just like real life.

The hero:

Sprinkles For Bravery

2009-10-20T17:35:00.001-07:00

Hey there, been a while huh? Guess what? That animatic I've been flouting for the last two posts? It's Done! Hoo, I'm so excited! Want to watch the whole cartoon, minus sound, with only sketchy representations of the images existing somewhere in the hazy region between storyboards and keyframes? Well you're in luck!

Just click right here!'Sprinkles For Bravery' - Watch Full Storyboards!

Here's a proof of concept with the Kid Shift character running on endless loop.

See you next time!
-JoeW.

Animatic Storyboard PART TWO! ftw.

2009-09-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

Hello again, dear readers!
Thank you all, everybody who gave feedback on the new work! I've been putting this blog together in a vacuum for the longest time; it's great to finally get input from real-live humans and not just the imaginary ones.
Response was so positive, in fact, that I decided to finish up production on the second instillation of the story: what we will call Animatic Storyboard: Part Two! This one was a lot more work because I only had bits and pieces of the artwork finished beforehand, so I had to fill in huge gaps with new art.

Click here to watch PART TWO!!

Part Two; Second Act; Segment #2/3: this new instillation is many things but nothing if not a continuation. If you're reading this for the first time, I insist that you wait to watch this piece until you've seen Part One first.

-JoeW.

Another Storyboard; this time better.

2009-09-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

Well! I liked yesterday's update so much I decided to have another one! Here is another animatic storyboard for you to watch. I'm not embedding this one here, though. You'll have to click this thumbnail to be taken to a separate page to watch it there.

Click here to watch!

This storyboard was made a long while after the one in yesterday's post. Today's characters were derived out of those from yesterday, though I ended up making so many alterations that the only ostensible similarities remaining are that one is a girl, and the other is diminutive. I doubt I'll ever have the time or resources to take this short to final, but if I were to try, the characters would look a little something like this.

Neu and Kid Shift, respectively

OKAY: you win. here's a giant robot.

2009-09-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

If it isn't loading, just give it a sec. It's a big file, it takes time. It plays on a loop so if you want to start it over from the beginning just... um... refresh the page or something.

Observation + Scenery = OBSCENERY

2009-05-19T06:20:00.001-07:00

ballpoint pen each 20 to 30 minutes

Rainbow Of Bleh

2009-04-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well, it took a week to work up courage for it, but I've just finished coloring the first piece.

Happy with it? Not the word I'd use. Turned out better than it might have, that much reassures me. Some things work, other things don't It's good news, though, because now I know what to try and what to avoid for when I do this sort of thing again. I feel much better, more comfortable, about this method of working. I'm quite looking forward to the next one.

Who Drew Two New for You? [a Clue: t'was me!]

2009-04-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

First, I've worked that Clinton sketch from the previous post.

Clinton

Also look at this other weirdo. It's about time things got uncomfortable, did anyone else feel that way? Just me? Here's something I noticed when I was a kid--if you ask people to describe what they think the Boogeyman looks like, every single person will tell you something wildly different. Some people see him with horns, someone I knew thought he was a businessman who wanted to bury her in the yard. We all know Tim Burton's sack full of bugs.
Anyway, when I was a kid, I always thought the Boogeyman would look something like this:

Boogeyman

I hope the things I draw aren't in some Freudian way cryptic expressions of what I have inside me, because I'm pretty sure this one would mean something bad.

Clinton

2009-04-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

This man is named Clinton, he lives across the street from me. I think the landlord must pay him for something. He's a class act, that Clinton. I'll miss him after I move.

So It Begins

2009-04-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

This thought came to me, feeling at my worst, like a breath of fresh air: Why not just draw?
To my way of thinking it's been two years since I last finished a drawing. At work I deal in vector points --tiny little headaches made of math. Then, in private time, I scheme these projects so grandiose, so sprawling in their scope, they'll bear nothing worth showing for five years at least. The formula would read thusly:
Workaholic Lifestyle X Two years = No Returns to Show For It.
Artistically this led to a malaise. Eventually, having sacrificed everything else to gain momentum, I had nothing left to do but wallow when that momentum ran out.
Then the thought occurred: Why not just draw?

So I drew this.

This started out a gesture of a boy in space, gazing leftward, no idea who or where or why. After him I saw a hole in the composition, so I filled it with a girl. Continuing in this manor, soon enough, I filled the whole thing in and felt contentment, a long time coming.

I wouldn't call this image great, but there's potential here. I'm pleased with how the background came out. I'm still not confident about coloring it. See some later entry for that noise.

HELLO.

2009-04-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

My name is Joe Wierenga. I'm developing a drawing style. Let me tell you some things.

I started this Project on my 24th birthday, April 12, 2009.
On that date I'd been an art school graduate just a little shy of two years --from the Maryland Institute College of Art, with my B.F.A. in Illustration, back in 2007.
Now, on my 24th Birthday, I live in New York City
I work in videogames

See my artwork from the time before this blog at:
http://www.joewierenga.com/