Survivor's Guilt

Hurricane Harvey, as in Harvey Pekar.

As I settled in that Friday night I understood that this weekend would be serious rain event. And while I anticipated serious flooding all over town I never imagined it would get this bad, a storm a million times more curmudgeonly than the main man himself.

It started on Wednesday with word of rainy weekend. "A storm is brewing in the Gulf," everybody spoke of at home and work. We gassed up the cars, made one last trip to the store for some bare essentials and hunkered down for a mind-melting 4 day weekend. The constant pitter-pattering of the incessant rain, the infinitely grey sky with no sun and the claustrophobic confines of the house secretly drove you nuts. Meanwhile as the weekend went on the constant bombardment of bad news coupled with an immense feeling of helplessness was enough to leave you emotionally exhausted in a few hours. And I know what I'm describing really ain't shit compared to those who have lost it all. I'm not trying to downplay their experience like mine is just as bad or anything. But here's how it looked on my side of town.

Saturday, Brays Bayou is on the rise.

Sunday the bayou peaked.

I think my lens was smudgy from all the moisture. keep in mind it was drizzling even in this shot. that's why these shots look washed out.

past those submerged shrubs and trees is Old Spanish Trail or OST, aka Rt. 90.

water almost touching Lidstone Bridge.

Facing north, downtown center right, with UH Central on the left.

 The water got high in the streets but never made it halfway up the drive way. My studio is the lowest lying room of the house and it's up front, so I was a little worried for a night or two that water would rise high enough to seep in. But alas, this neighborhood and the other surrounding areas drain out pretty well so flooding was kept mostly to the streets.

Over the last few days I have since gone back to work, but much of the city is still underwater. Various neighborhoods built on flood plains around the great reservoirs to the west (yes, that's right: built on the flood plain) are still underwater and have evacuated because it's still getting worse. While a lotta people have been displaced and have lost a great deal, if not everything, there has been a steady outpouring of help and aid in the form of citizens helping citizens and that has left me blown away. 

If you are interested in helping in any way there are numerous local organizations handling donations, contributions, and accepting volunteers to help out. I'm not saying don't give to the Red Cross, but there are other local organizations that could use money and will see to its utilization in a swifter, more efficient way so consider that when donating. A friend and local artist David Anderson has gone thru an ordeal so if you want to help a working artist get back on his feet you can help here. Another comic-making pal effected by the storm, James Roberts, could also use a hand here.

Harvey is gonna be a game changer in the real estate market: does this place flood, like Harvey flood?

Houston will never be same, and it'll be some time before it fully pulls itself back together. But if the people here are any indication of our strength there won't be any shortage of actuation and volition.

Now we just need to have some serious discussions about where and how to rebuild.

Duckin' and Dodgin'

Quick sketch outta my sketchbook. Did you see this video of the seal swimming for his life away from some orcas? He hid out on some humans' fishing boat. Oh the suspense!

You see that seal's expression? Where have I seen that face before....

Washes & Works

Greetings! I hope everybody had their fill of stuffing and other heavy foods. It's now time to proceed to that lovely season where we brave the hustle and bustle of the shopping season and, well, more eating and drinking of heavy foods. In the meantime 2016 continues to kick our asses.
Yup, and the hot topic on everybody's minds, whether you like it or you're just sick of it, we have a new president! It's almost been a month since the election has been over and I guess this joke is really starting to sick in. Sorry folks, nobody's gonna come from around the corner and be like "Psssh, SIIIKE! You're on candid camera, man!" This shit is here to stay. And without making a whole post about it, yeah it sucks but it is what it is. I guess the part I'm excited about is the possible wake-up call for us Americans to take a good honest look at ourselves. Only then can we stand up to make the changes and progress necessary to make the world a better place.
Now here's what I did this month.

Every now and then I'll check in to see what the prompt is on #Sketch_Dailies and if it's interesting and I have a sec I'll take a crack at it and whip something up. This time around it was She-Ra, Princess of Power. Come to think of it I've always known about She-Ra but I've never drawn her. At all. My lil' sister had her action figure, as a counterpart to my He-Man figures. But, I've never drawn her...until now.

 

She-Ra, Princess of Power, in a standard action pose.

 She-Ra, Princess of Power, having a cigarette after kicking the shit out of evil.

Earlier this month I came up on a 11x14 watercolor pad in a clearance bin. I've since started drawings in it and I dared myself to fill it cover to cover every page with a watercolor piece on it. The following pages are each a page in this new book. The first piece is the new banner my website right here.

 

a post-future frontier cowgirl, "Vamoose" LaRose, a main character in a new series I'm developing.

 a drawing of my friend Chris as he painted.

Newt Scamander, author and star of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

 The Return of Mac the Knife.

Upon hearing the song again and relishing how dark it is for such an energetic jazz standard I couldn't help being reminded of that old McDonald's ad campaign "Mac Tonight." Not only did their names sound similar, the mascot played a piano (with mannerisms similar to Ray Charles) to the tune of something that sounded kinda like "Mack the Knife." So I went ahead and drew Mac Tonight as Mack the Knife, doing what Mack the Knife is famous for. While it was such a while back when the campaign came out Mac Tonight is not at all forgotten about today. He lives on in a vapor wave video, his ad campaign is having a resurgence in Asia, and  hilariously enough he's the image part of the Moon Man meme, where a moon-faced man uses his text-to-speech voice to cover rap songs in a racist, parodic manner.

Working on updating this page for more user-friendliness, and I have some other store fronts in the works as well. Gonna pop out into 2017 with new merch and ways to buy it. Onward.

Morticia's Murder

..of Inktober drawings! You know, the grouping, like a murder of crows! A Murder of Inktober drawings! The 2016 run-down from this month. As for Morticia, you'll see her at the end.

This year's prompt list. It's not mandatory to follow, by any means, but it makes for a great jumping off point to come up with some interesting ideas. The highlighted are ones I completed this year. The middle of the month I was a bit preoccupied (see last post) but I think I turned October out nonetheless.

 

A noisey-ass One-Man-Cyclops Band. I imagine he doesn't smell very good either.

 

Inspired by AM2R, gotta collect all them Metroids...and EXTERMINATE them.

 

Feed me Seymour! Audrey 2 at the Little Shop of Horrors is hungry.

 

Why you so sad, La Sad Girl? So sad, so very very sad.

 

Indiana Jones and the Secrets of the Hidden Temple: in this episode Indy stumbles into the jungles of south-side Houston in the mid-90s and meets a local rap group, the Blac Monks and learns a ton of life hacks and smokes a lotta dope.

 You're never Lost on the Yellow Brick Road. Onward to Dildo-I mean, Emerald City.

 

Let's blow out Doc Brown's gigantic amp with our goddamn American rock music.

 

Broken Android

 

David Lee Roth caricature. JUMP! A lotta people drew him on this day.

 

The old cliche of the two wolves within a person: the wolf of good and the wolf of evil, which one wins? Whichever you feed more...ooohhh!

 

That Rupert Holmes song Escape always trips me out. Placing an ad to meet a new woman to leave your current woman and [spoiler alert] it turns out it was your current woman all along. And then you both just laugh it off and somehow your boring relationship you were trying to escape is renewed and it's all good after all.

 

Harry Potter and the Flight of the Hippogriff.

 

When the internet is slow. 

 

A Dozen and One Dalmatians.

 

A tired Marathon Runner.

 

The View from My Flower Box.

 

An Ode to the Creepy Guy who sidles up behind you and let's you grind him at the club.

 

Fire-Man, of original Mega-Man fame.

 

Surprise! It's a little alien!

 

 And you made it to the end. Here's Morticia, and her cute lil' hubby Gomez, of Addams Family fame (duh!)

Happy Halloween!

Inked Up

I tried to keep up with Inktober. I really did. Ha, who my kidding? I drew stuff and posted it when it was convenient. Still, it's a fun exercise in daily discipline. If there's ever a reason to whip out an inky drawing and post it daily Inktober is certainly a fun way to go. And now a few of my Inktober posts:

From the #RejectedBatman tag

When you run into the room dressed as Batman and jump on the bed the cat is sleeping on.

 This right here is reason enough to have a cat.

I thought about this action and then I thought if I dressed him up as Batman I could use the daily hashtag.

Entagled

 What started as a freestyling exercise turned into this piece. Is it a possible scene from an upcoming story I'm developing? Only time will tell. Or me if you get me drunk. Finished right on time for Inktober.

The MC

 These last few weeks overseeing the artistic direction of my MC friend Shrey Day, in the studio making music.

Deadly lil' Miho, of Sin City fame

A Dusty Old Mummy

Pimple, seething, ready to smash  (ha! sounds gross on purpose)

 Okay, well now that I see them all here looks like I had a weak Inktober, volume-wise, but I'll be ready next year. And hell, I do this shit all year. Fun.

M. Bison / Triceracop / Halloween2015

Feb Stomper

Because of the the show I haven't been doing much else. When I was keeping the gallery open on the weekdays I did set up a table in the window, complete with a light, and did drawings to see if I could spark the interest of anybody walking by. It worked a few times. I mainly just water-colored in my sketchbook, finishing sketches and pages I would have otherwise ignored or put off. The following is a bit of a glimpse of those selective pages.

a strange Kurt Cobain caricature

a Miss Cornpoppy sketch with a blunt in her mouth, entirely from my imagination.

Hermione Granger and her failed transform potion.

a robot and character color study. Thought worth sharing.

Characters from Streets of Rage. The white dude from Final Fight I get mixed up with this guy so I combined their names. 

really cool anthropomorphic dinosaur warrior which I just may use in an upcoming comic title I'm developing. 

While I don't dislike drawing caricatures of babies, I do think they sometimes turn out looking kinda weird, mainly cuz (technically) it's setting out to look like a specific baby. Here's a commission I did for a friend's niece, to commemorate her first birthday. We were going for a Pebbles Flintstone look, I'm guessing it was the theme. They put up this lil' piece at the party. 

Trust me, when I guet bizzy again, you'll know it.