Drawr-ings, Ramblings, and Pick-Me-Ups.... the Book?

So here's some possibly exciting news. I'm looking around at various options on putting a book together showcasing the work I've done over the past ten years or so. That, or a finely-tuned version of what I've done on this blog (more better-er and less mitsakes, hopefully).

Just to see if I even had the work in the first place, I dug up my old sketchbooks, portfolio folders, even my graffiti "black book" from high school (who didn't go through this phase?), plopped them on the main work table and flipped through to see what I've got.

I've covered an odd mix of subject matter and mediums over the years, so it's a little tricky figuring out how I'm going to break down the book. One idea is to do two books! I'm thinking one in a zine/manga format with black and white work, sketches and ramblings, and another slightly larger coffee table style book that focuses on my full color work. Thoughts and recommendations are... um, recommended.

And no, I won't be using any high and mighty "The Art of Mike Dutton"-ish titles either. How about Mike Dutton's Art? ... hmm...

I'll leave you with a self portrait I did in art school, a whopping decade ago, doing an imitation of the Godfather.

Journaling

I've been having a lot of fun scribbling and playing with different styles lately, but felt like slowing down and messing around on a single page for a change. I seem to end up with this look once a year. I think it's seasonal.

And here's some scribbling from last week. Visited my ol' pals. Look at'em, working hard.


Have a great weekend!

Doodles and Dillon R&R

I wanted to string a few ideas together based on the big U.S. election to make this post seem poignant and clever. Like the cottage having something to do with the current mortgage crisis, and the newspaper bins being empty because of the election results.

But I was pretty much over the idea by the second sketch, and in all honesty, I drew these cuz the cottage was cute and news bins are kinda cool in a retro sci-fi kinda way. Still, what a week it was.

Dillon

Alex and I got to go to Dillon Beach for a day thanks to Veteran's Day being in the middle of the week. Of course, I still had plenty of work to do. But a change of scenery is always nice, especially when it looks like this.

My station where I did some inking for this week's One Swoop Fell.

Spent some time watching a Quentin Blake video, and it rubbed off. Pen and watercolors are fun!

One more doodle for fun and posterity.

Mini-Vacation

My good friend and fellow illustrator, Julien Alday is here, and I've been enjoying a mini vacation as a result. You can see in this cartoon what a lovely time we're having.

Speaking of screaming girls and hanging out with talented artists, I met with good pal Dice Tsutsumi, who introduced me to the legendary Katsuya Terada over lunch last week.... the awesomely talented Derek Thompson also joined us and gave us a tour of Pixar's Wall-E gallery, which he did story work on. Oh, and the "screaming girl" part is in reference to me, which is what I was when Terada-san tore a page out of his sketchbook for me.

Actually, he tore it out of a tiny spiral notebook, full of incredible, spontaneous doodles. This inspired me to go smaller and thinner as well. Carrying around my wide format heavy bound journal is not always convenient (maybe I'm just not 'core' enough). Here's a few doodles from the new notebook.

Penguins at the newly reopened California Academy of Sciences.

Alex rocking out on Rock BandMy bro-in-law doing the same. And yes, the bass pedal is missing. Give him a break. He's just a squirrel.Absent-minded noodling about while watching Ocean's 13 for the umpteenth time (it never gets old).

One more tangent, this time on the topic of inspiration - I attended the Alternative Press Expo over the weekend and was overwhelmed by all the stuff I wanted to buy. I burned through my reserve pretty quickly, but picked up a number of things that I think you should pick up too... I'll try to put together some sort of list later on. For now, I need to get some more work done!