5.31.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 40

5.30.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 39


chiaroscuro, huh.

5.28.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 38

5.27.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 37


I remember this pretty vividly - Bradford and Bubba had come from Baton Rouge to visit Mickey, Jonathan and me. We went to Gulf Shores and spent the day at the beach, then crashed that night at Jonathan's grandparents trailer in Orange Beach. We were up all night drinking beer and "expanding our minds..." Not sure about the scribble, but the tiny, highly detailed adventure in the lower right corner was done by Bubba, sitting on the tailgate of Jonathan's truck. He was mostly silent while he drew it, lost in his own world, but once in a while he'd laugh or gasp in amazement. After about an hour or so, he presented it to us... I remember him being really surprised at how small it was.

5.26.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 36

5.25.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 35

5.24.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 34


Oh man, this is awesome. We had a coach/consumer economics teacher named Coach Woods who was hilariously eccentric... He was kind of a countryish fellow who had a big ol beard and wore camouflage hunting jackets to work. He liked to mess with his students, and generally got a kick out of being really weird (which was obviously a lot of fun to him). He especially enjoyed waking up class-sleepers in creative ways. For example: he would open up all the cabinets in the room during a lecture, never pausing or acknowleging what he was doing, then starting at the back of the room, run along the wall slamming them all in succession. Another time, I remember him stopping mid-sentence, dropping to the floor and commando-crawling down the aisle between the desks, until he was right under the sleeping person's desk, at which point he would scream something at them from below. Basically, he loved scaring the hell out of his students.

He was also always good for a totally absurd non-sequiter. You'd see him in the halls, for instance, and say hello, to which he'd reply something like "oh yeah, motorcycles are good times." Or something.. Anyway, one afternoon, my physics class (taught by the also-a-lot-of-fun Coach Coleman, a sometime cattle farmer,) was outside in the parking lot doing some kind of experiment. Coach Woods comes out with a dead-rat in one of those conical water-cooler cups. He interrupts whatever we were working on, walks right up to Coach Coleman, and goes "Hey kid, you always wanna know what makes that noise in your fan belt and goes: (insane noise and facial expressions..)? Well, I took mine apart and this is it!" He holds up the dead rat in a cup. "This is what powers your TOY-YO-TOE" (that's how he said it) "Just wanted to show all my people..." (here's where he acknowleged the class for the first time) "...that I know what powers my Toyoto." -dramatic pause - "Rats on a belt."

and with that, he turned around and beelined outta there. I just had to write it down so I'd remember it, 'cause I knew I'd probably want to post it on the internet for y'all to see one day.

5.23.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 32-33


another two pager... I didn't draw this, though. I'm pretty sure this is Karen Carver, during class.

5.22.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, pages 30 and 31


This is an interesting one - I was really getting into Gustav Klimt at this point, as you can tell by all the fun patterns. This is a double pager, so it's nice and big. It's a picture of Mickey.

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 29


This was done by Bradford.

5.20.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 28

5.19.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 27

5.18.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 26


This is my bedroom at the Riveroaks house in Fairhope, Alabama. I had come up with the brilliant idea to replace my bed with a couch - it was rusty orange pseudo velvet - to make my room into more of a 'loungy' kind of place to hang out with my friends. I had an easy chair in there too, so there just wasn't enough room for a bed. I slept on the couch for about two years or so, and it really was pretty comfortable. I have to admit, though, around the time that I was preparing to move into my dorm in Savannah, the couch was leaning to one side and had developed a sunken crater in the middle... which was probably not a sleep situation conducive to spinal health. I guess I was glad to migrate back to sleeping in a bed. But I did love this couch... I'm pretty sure there are more drawings of it later on.

5.17.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 25


i'd like to apologize that the beginning of my sketchbook (so far) has been kind of boring. but I will tell you - I've been looking ahead to see if it gets any better any time soon, and it does. we're getting closer to the better. persevere.

5.16.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 24

5.15.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 23

5.14.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 22

5.13.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 21

5.12.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 20

5.11.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 19

5.10.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 18

5.09.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 17


I guess this is more of the comic book stuff shining through. It was a tough habit to kick.

5.08.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 16

5.07.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 15

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 14

5.05.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 13


I'm not sure who this is, but it was most likely done during class at Fairhope High... this would have been my Junior year. dated 2.19.97

5.04.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 12


This is obviously from the time in my life when I thought fisheye lenses were the coolest thing ever. -- dated 1.21.97

5.03.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 11


1.15.97 - I still like this drawing.

5.02.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 10


This is kind of a funny-weird transistional drawing, the more I think about it. Between the age of somewhere around 11 or 12 until 14 or 15 I was really into comic books. I collected them like crazy, read several titles religiously, went to conventions, tracked the values in price guides, etc. It was before I or anyone I knew had a car, so whenever we could talk one of our parents into it, a trip to the comic book store was a weekend highlight.

I created my own characters, too, and for a while, I was actually really serious about pursuing a career as a comic artist. Reading and drawing were always my favorite hobbies, and I think that this was probably my first real realization that a person can combine visual and literary art into a cohesive statement. This sort of synthesis of media is what I love, and it's why I eventually decided to go into filmmaking. It's interesting (but makes total sense) for me to consider that my first taste of the appeal of visual storytelling was in comics.

Anyway - one of the reasons that these early sketchbooks of mine are so interesting to me is that they were made during such an artistically transitional time for me. I was going from being really into comic art - where realism, detail, and dynamics were the ideal - to becoming more and more interested in art "ideas," expressionism in line, unusual subject matter, geometry, absurdity, distortion, and so on. Basically, I was beginning to discover artists who I had never heard of who were extremely fascinating and influential on me. I was developing my own style, and I was quickly losing interest in drawing superheroes.

When I look at this drawing, I can totally see the comic style that I had been working on for a while. It's obvious that I was moving away from it, but it's there. It's also kind of funny to me that I was getting into figure drawing, which I had always gravitated towards, but I was sort of just starting to deal with the problem of drawing figures without superhero costumes... so I had no idea whether I should draw the dude's junk or not. I remember it being a perplexing dilemma. I guess this is one way to solve it... but don't worry, there's plenty of nudity in future updates.

5.01.2006

SKETCHBOOK #1, page 9

Frankly, I'm not entirely sure who drew this. My best guess is Jonathan Smith. He's a pretty trippy dude. Maybe I can get Jonny to look at this and either confirm or deny these allegations.