Halloween treats = Husband's flesh.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Oh god, I just love fear, and fantasy and it's just the sexiest, funnest most creative holiday there is. This week's Comic Media and Concepts project took a Halloween twist. WE were to write a horror story and a happy story and juxtapose the two together to create a new story.

here's what I did.

The text is from the Horror story I wrote about a woman who wakes up tied to a chair being fed her husband's flesh by a creepy happy couple of canibals. I understand that it's a little more complex than it should have been, too much information, too many details...and the result makes it a little too hard to read.

The thing I'm most proud of is the clarity of the images. I've been trying to redeem myself for that projectile vomit sunday page. and with the halloween comic, the images are a big improvement. I learned a little more, I progressed a little more. and the ink is...well still a bit rough, but again...I think it's better.

better is better.

ok gentle viewers, I'm off to get some body glitter for my sparkly vampire costume. jealous?
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Jas.

ps, don't see Paranormal Activity. It will either have no effect on you and will waste your 10$ , or petrify you so bad you need to sleep with the lights and tv on. I personally, fell on the latter side.

"Language"...go.

This project is about "Language".
...Anything about "language". Anything at all, as long as "language" is the main feature.
doesn't that seem a little vague to you? It is, and it was challenging.
I don't know if it was because this week was just particularly deadly or what...but I had a hell of a time coming up with an idea. Language. I got caught up in my head big time (what else is new) and began to flounder without finished work. Ideation and Process has forced me to keep looking at who I am as an artist.
I'm funny!
kinda...
and I have this one joke...a blond joke. original, I know right? so I went with it.

and 13 hours and 3 conceptual/exhaustual meltdowns later...

here's what I did .

p.s - the letters are from the french guy.

being an Ideation and Process class, we are constantly being pushed to think outside the box in terms of frickin displaying our art. I couldn't just slap this on the wall or prini it out and pass it around...I wanted to have a little more fun with it...

"why the hell?" you ask?

Why not?

ohhh kay...what did I learn from this experience? a few things...

1. I didn't even learn a little French after all 4 years of high school. The french is wrong, but since the project is technically about LANGUAGE...it fits.

2. sometimes I should just stop floundering. ESPECIALLY for ideation and process...calm down, take a break, eat a cookie, get some work done.

3. Overhead projecters are fun. it was super cool seeing this little comic projected on the wall across the chasm of the 3rd floor gallery view. I just wish all three could have been going at once. damn...(next time?)

K, tomorrow HALLOWEEN COMIC!!!

Speaking of being flayed alive...

Midterm week really did feel like torture. The removal of skin is the running theme of the week. long hours of work, worry and sleep deprivation. It's really getting to me. In addition to my skinless drawing project...


The worry of all this has sparked my serious self mutilation habit.
my skin is LITERALLY being slowly removed from my fingers.



some people eat meat, some people eat vegetarian. I eat the skin and nails of my fingers and toes.

maybe I'll go eat some skinless chicken tonight for dinner to run with the theme.

"School = Skin. Removed"

Sunday School.

Oh hey folks, This has been a crazy week here at MCAD. Midterms flayed me alive, but luckily it's over now. It all kicked off with two crazy crazy Conventions. I can't even believe the luck I had just randomly stumbling upon Joe Benitez's table! If you don't know, Joe is the artist that took over for the legendary Michael Turner on the soulfire arc. He's also done super big name work on supergirl, Batman, Outsiders and he did his creater owned book, Wraithborn. He was just sitting, ALONE. He was all by himself and I was a little boy with a notebook. I went up to him and hung out for like an hour. We chatted about life as a comic artist, working, living. I geeked out on him hardcore, gushing about Soulfire and Wraithborn, He gave me some inside info on the big soulfire transition. He said he wished for a better transition to the magic realm. I told him the seam was pretty awesome, the transition from Turner's work to Benitez's Here we were chatting about Frickin SOULFIRE!! How harcore is that?????..he gave me some advice, he looked at my sketches and he took a picture with me! Joe Benitez is awesome, you heard it here.





So that was my geeky freakout, now onto some actual work.
Comic Midterm
...the name of the game Is Sunday Pages. These are the old school, big ass, print comics. So the challenge here was to design a page with a layout that works on a big 22x17 paper. ouch. Thanks again to my roomate Max for helping me print on the epson, I was ready to give up and ink directly onto my pencils again. Max had us out of there in an hour. My design was a sequel to my TV comic from last post. Here's what I did.



It's a bit rough, because I was kind of overwelamed this week because of midterms and 3 gaint crits in a row. but i do enjoy the random fun this comic has. I like my imagery, and like how I get voted off in the end. so fun. I'll put up the inked one later.

kick off a crazy COMIC weekend.

What exactly does one do in a Comic Class? This. Check out some examples of my work from various courses at MCAD, yep, even the pee one.

This is the second page in a three page story about a group of space travelers who have the ability to teleport through time and space. and end up in different situations. This page finds the group in a prehistoric field being attacked by neanderthals. The beauty of this project is that it was the first story we ever worked on. This means that we students were given complete creative freedom to illustrate the characters and sets however we wanted. Unoficially, is was also our first chance to show off our skill to the teachers.

This is a more recent page, my first foray into autobiographical comics. This is my imagination given the ability to dream surf through some of my favorite and obsessively watched tv shows. It was also done "organically", pretty much meaning...I didn't know where the hell I was going with it until I reached the bottom of the page. Normally a no no, but here it works.

oh jeez, I really need to re scan this one. It's very smudgy, probably another curse of being left handed. It's cool though, this was only an in class assignment. Believe it or not, instructional comics are actually very important. They give the objective, "make it so clear and readable that anyone can understand it" which should apply to every comic I make. not to mention, if you ever forget how to pee - this page will save your life.


Friday, October 9th
Today we had two lovely visiting artists, a regular occurance at MCAD. We've never had two in one day though, which, among other things, made this a really weird comic themed day. Coincidentally, both of these artists were FEMALE. which was weird, and cool. Ursula Murray Husted (umurrayhusted) who taught me to finish my inner heart project babies so I can move on with my life. RIGHT! i've never heard someone give that advice! so yes, I will get on that.
and Gabrielle Bell who taught me to steal copies from kinkos to make full profit on future mini comics. good advice.

and MY final story of the day, I made some BUSINESS CARDS!! how professional, right? well couldn't have made a better move printing them today, becasue I actually had the opportunity to use one for the first time! the SAME DAY they were printed!! How weeird is that? Bre says that the comic fate loves it some Jason Belden. ohh yeah. check it out...

The Blog Exists.

ohh what a pleasure it is to finally be online, I must say it feels good. I've been living the complex life of an art student all this time without anything to show for it! What to say in my very first post? well, I'll start by telling you a little about me. Jason... I am a comic art major in the cold, dark north. I dream of illustrating gorgeous, inspiring characters that live in the sunlight. If you knew my style you could see what I mean...I should probably show you something of my style just so you know. It's all about process here folks, so don't judge me on incompletion! I'm working on a full out website so you'll be able to explore me more indepthly when that's finished :) but...I'm more sensitive than you might think, everyone thinks i'm strong because i'm sassy and i'm brassy, but these walls are paper thin. so you should go easy! three woos for the first post! woo! woo! woo!