Eyeliner Animation Loop

Eyeliner Loop from Natalie Nourigat on Vimeo.

Hey, all!  How is everyone's December going?

I'm doing well -- between working on commercial projects, I've been having a ball making this animation for the December LoopdeLoop challenge.  Since coming back to the US this summer, I've been pushing myself to learn new software and expand my skill-set, particularly in animation and multimedia.  I've been adding a lot of new work to my portfolio and seeking 2D art positions in animation and game design studios. 

Jumping in with practical applications always seems to work best for me, so I'm grateful for challenges like LoopdeLoop and #onegameamonth that encourage people to learn by doing, and keep things fun.  I've also started attending local ASIFA events, and been thrilled by the fun activities and welcoming atmosphere there. :)

That said, I've got a good amount of comics work lined up for the new year, and I am excited to get into that.  I'll make some announcements soon that I hope will excite you! :D

New releases: Bee & Puppycat #6, Tally Marks #5

I have two new comics out today!  

Bee & Puppycat #6 (ok ok, I just did a variant cover, but I'm excited about it!), and Tally Marks #5, which has 30 sketchbook pages from France and England:

 

 

 

 

"What would I even do in Portland?"

So, are you only in town for the day?  Don't worry, because here's your...

The PDX Airport carpet is a whole thing.  Don't photograph the wrong pattern (there are a few in the airport, but only ONE is correct for your selfie, Grasshopper.  Unless you want to get it wrong ironically, in which case +10 Portland Points for you).

Vector art by unknown artist.  You read my mind, unknown artist.

Are you in town a little longer?  Get out into some of the beautiful nature surrounding Portland!  Like...

Here's the Oregon Metro brochure for the 4T Trail Hike.
Also, you can of course start this loop in a different place.  If you're staying in the South Waterfront, for example, you could start with the TROLLY and end with the TRAM.  Here's a site with good info on the hike.

I'm going to keep the rest of my recommendations to text, so I can come back and edit them when I inevitably think of something I missed.  Leave a comment if you live in Portland or have visited before and have suggestions for things to do in town!

If you haven't visited before and these things sounds like fun, check out the many great resources available to help you plan a trip!

Detroit Lake, photo by Ron Chan

NATURE
Near to downtown (no car necessary): Wildwood Trail, Pittock Acres Park, Washington Park, Forest Park, Mt. Tabor, Japanese Garden, Rose Garden, Lan Su Chinese Garden, Springwater Corridor
Nature you probably need a car to access: Mt. Hood, Timberline Lodge, Mt Bachelor, The Gorge, Oregon Coast, Painted Hills, Crater Lake, Tamolitch Pool hike, Rogue river rafting, Multnomah Falls, Bridge of the Gods, Sauvie Island, Cougar Hot Spring (clothing optional), Silver Falls, Pacific Crest Trail, Camp Sherman Campgrounds, Lost Lake Campgrounds, Devil's Punch Bowl, Haystack Rock, Sea Lion Caves (outside of Florence, OR)
For the best weather, visit between July - October.  You can have fun at other times, but if you visit during the winter or spring, pack a good umbrella, boots, and warm rain jacket.  What you've heard about the rain is not an exaggeration.

EAT/DRINK:
Cafes: Tea Zone, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Public Domain, Coffeehouse Northwest, Sterling Coffee Roasters, Barista, Fresh Pot, the usual chains
Restaurants: Higgins, Montage, Portland City Grill, Blue Hour, Mother's Bistro, Olympic Provisions, Tasty n' Sons, Pok Pok, Sushi Land, Sakura Sushi, Old Town Pizza, Sizzle Pie, Little Big Burger, Brunch Box, Elephants Delicatessen, Saint Honoré Bakery, Papa Haydn, Southpark, Kenny & Zuke's Delicatessen
Food Carts: Thai Sky, E-San Thai, Nong's Khao Man Gai, PBJs Grilled, Gauffre Gourmet, Mr. Taco, Don Pedro
Dessert: Salt & Straw, Ruby Jewel, Papa Haydn
Pubs: Deschutes Brewery, Bridgeport Brewery, Burnside Brewery, Henry's, McMenamins (many locations)
Bars: Rontoms, Doug Fir Lounge, Camellia Lounge, Vault Martini, Paystation, Departure, Portland City Grill, Saucebox, Tugboat, Shanghai Tunnels, Whiskey Soda Lounge, Momo's, White Owl Social Club, Rialto, Bungalow Bar, The Matador
Brunch: Sunshine Tavern, Slappy Cakes, Screen Door, Junior's, Stepping Stone Cafe
Local foods: visit the Portland Farmer's Market, Tillamook Cheese Factory, and the many breweries/distilleries that offer tours.  Also, have you ever eaten a marionberry?

Geeky fun: Wild/Grimm/Leverage/Portlandia/Goonies/Shining sets, Ground Kontrol, Sequential Art Gallery, Floating World Comics, TFAW, IPRC, Oregon Museum of Science & Industry ("OMSI").  Check out Geek Portland for events!

EVENTS
Weekly Events: Saturday Market
Monthly Events: First Thursday, Last Thursday, OMSI After Dark
Annual Events: Naked Bike Ride, Beer Festival, Bluegrass Festival, Rose Parade/Rose Festival, Zoo Lights, Rose City Comic Con, Hump Fest, PDX Soapbox Derby, Oregon Zoo Concert Series
Other Events: Blazers / Timbers / Thorns matches
Pick up a free issue of a weekly paper like The Portland Mercury, Willamette Week, or Just Out for more ideas.  You can also find events online at PDXPipeline.com.

Concert venues: Crystal Ballroom, Doug Fir Lounge, Aladdin Theater, Wonder Ballroom, Roseland Theater, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Keller Auditorium, Moda Center

Shopping: Nob Hill (NW 21st and 23rd avenues), SE Hawthorne, Pearl District, Mississippi Ave

Mississippi Avenue has a lot to offer, from brunch (Gravy) and restaurant spots (Mac!, Samurai Blue, Por Que No) to ice cream (Ruby Jewel), comics (Bridge City Comics), clothes shopping, galleries, insane hipster crap, taxidermy + curios (Paxton Gate), the nicest sex shop you will ever visit (She Bop), and great bars (Bungalo Bar has a huge outdoor area with fires and table/chair SWINGS!).  I recommend spending a day on this street if you want to get out of Central Downtown and experience a fun Portland neighborhood (the #4 bus runs regularly between Mississippi and downtown).  If you visit in July you can even catch the annual street fair!

More fun/weird stuff: McMenamins Kennedy School, "brew 'n' view" theaters, Morgan's Alley, Living Room Theater, The Roxy (24-hour diner), Portland Rock Gym, Glowing Greens (glow-in-the-dark, underground, Pirate-themed putt-putt golf), Voice Box, Vista Bridge, Prasad (part yoga studio part vegan-friendly restaurant), Eagle's Lodge, Jupiter Hotel, 24 Hour Church of Elvis, Hat Museum, Portland Spirit Cruise, Portland Segway Tours, flotation tanks, ChocoLab

Places that take some arranging to visit (do not just knock on the door), but maybe you have a friend or professional connection within the company?: LAIKA, Dark Horse, Oni Press, Top Shelf, Wieden + Kennedy, Nike campus, Nike/Adidas employee stores, Periscope Studio.

Illustration process breakdown - color blocks and interior line art

Hey, all!  I've been experimenting with a new style recently, and I wanted to make a post breaking it down for anyone interested in the process:

The main difference between these illustrations and my usual style is that I don't start with line art; the figures' defining shapes are mostly separated by contrasting colors, and I only use line art, sparingly, for interior details.  

Here's one figure from start to finish (all done in Photoshop):

 Loose sketch, just using the pencil tool

 Tighter drawing, still just using the pencil tool

On a new layer set to "multiply", I use the pencil tool and trace the main shapes with different colors, then fill them in.

 Here's how that looks when I hide the guiding sketch layer and set the colors' layer to "normal"

Next, I add line art on a new layer with a lightly textured brush.  I use a reddish tone because I like how it looks compared to just plain black line art.  I use the fewest lines possible; just clarifying sections that overlap, like this guy's armpit and a few wrinkles in his clothing, plus his face.  Rather than outline his front leg overlapping the back, I mute the colors in his back leg to create the illusion of depth.

 Here's what the line art looks like when isolated

On a new layer, I add a texture to the figure.  I select all, then subtract the negative space, so I just have the entire figure's outline selected.  I use a textured brush to add a marble-y desaturated blue.  This is what the layer looks like when isolated.

 ...And here's what it looks like when set to "color burn" and 70% opacity over the colors layer but below the line art layer.  It affects dark colors more than light colors, so I noodle with opacity and sometimes darken the texture effect over light sections, like his skin and socks (which still end up having less of that textured look).

I select the entire figure again, expand the selection by about 20 pixels, invert the selection, and fill the background layer with a color I like.

Ta-da! :D

Don't mix the Paris Metro and funny podcasts

Paris throw-back comic!  I think this particularly bad public outburst was the first time I heard "Bye all my buddies!" on The Thrilling Adventure Hour.

In other news, I'm gearing up to draw my next creator-owned graphic novel, Over the Surface, for Oni Press.  If you want to stay up-to-date on news about that, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr.

Also, it's Inktober!  Do you know what that means?  Thousands of artists are posting new inked sketches daily for the month of October!  Bryan Young posted his awesome 2013 inks here, and you can find new stuff by following the tag "Inktober" on sites like Tumblr and Twitter.

Lastly, I did this outfit meme I saw on Oliva Huynh's Tumblr. :D So fun.

How to make long-distance relationships work

I try to keep things pretty highbrow around here. 
This comic features the lovely and talented Erika Moen and Ananth Panagariya!  Read all of their stuff if you haven't already; it is stellar. :3

Issue #3 of Tally Marks (my Eurotrip sketchbook series) comes out on October 1, and you can pre-order it now!  This issue covers Christmas and New Years in London, plus my trip to Picardy.  Coats and fur hats abound.  Here are a few previews:

I tabled at Rose City Comic Con this past weekend in Portland, and it was great!  In my head it was all a big post-Europe welcome-back party for me so I could see everyone and catch up all at once. :) I sold out of Husbands and a bunch of my prints, and got down to my last copies of Between Gears and A Boy & A Girl.  I am trying to minimize my boxes for my next move, and I may be selling off my remaining books in the near future with incentives like free watercolor sketches inside or free prints.  Stay tuned for that.

NYC: Maybe don't try to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2 hours

...And then there was a Renoir room.  We were late.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is incredible.  Lesson learned: next time I'll take at least half a day to see everything I want to and not sprint to a lunch meeting.

So no, I'm not back in NYC this week; this is a retrospective comic from my trip in July (featuring @passingfair!).  I have a BUNCH of comic ideas from the past year that I'll be going back to complete retroactively -- look forward to those! :D

What have I been up to since coming back to Portland at the end of July? 

• I scanned and edited alllllllll of my Europe sketchbooks for publication - issues 1 and 2 are out now!!  More coming soon.
• I had an art show to promote Sarah Mirk's new book, which I drew illustrations for
• I did a few solid weeks of commercial storyboarding/illustration work (much needed and appreciated!)
• I resumed work on a project with a friend and posted this little teaser for it:

• I was a guest at Boise Library Comic Con (which was a BLAST!)
• I took a short vacation to Central Oregon with some comics friends

 

• I helped out on Abigail Baird and Matthew Melis's "Aerial Animation" project (featured on America's Got Talent!)
• I met with my publisher about my next graphic novel
• I ate a LOT of Mexican food
• I did my taxes X_X
• I've been appreciating family/friends time after a year away.  Lots of movies/dinners/coffee/drinks
• I've been continuing to sketch, trading Parisians for Portlanders:

 

 

 

...and plenty of things from my imagination :)

I'll post again ASAP with more!  Thanks for reading :D

Tally Marks: Eurotrip sketchbooks!

Great news: MonkeyBrain Comics is publishing a series of digital comics collecting my Europe sketches from the past year!!  We tested it out with my Amsterdam Sketchbook, and your response was so good we’re releasing 6 more comics with a similar format, covering my travels in NYC, France, Switzerland, England, Spain, and Italy.

Issue #1 is out TODAY; click here to check it out!  This issue includes 25 sketchbook pages plus a full-color comic and a page laying out the materials I use when I draw.