As of Monday of this week, I have leveled up and am now officially a storyboard artist for American Dad! Really excited!!
Your Revisionist is Evolving!
in News, Storyboard
News
Season 2019 Recap!
in Career, News, Storyboard, Kidlit, Illustration, Comics
This is the fastest way to sum up 2019
Uh, it’s been like 15 months, where have you been?
I forgot I had a blog. Well, not really, but I practically did because of how absolutely off the rails 2019 went. When last we spoke, gentle reader, I was wrapping up Juneicorn in 2018. Then suddenly— ! It was 2019! And then, suddenly— ! It was less than 30 days until THE END OF THE DECADE.
Let that sink in for a moment.
So skipping over the second half of 2018 cuz it was mostly job hunting, training, and freelance work, what exactly went on in 2019 for me? Let’s get caught up. Get a cuppa, this might take a minute.
Fox TV
January started out with wrapping up two longterm freelance projects I had at the end of 2018, Aspen Mascots and some more work for Learning A-Z, but we’ll come back to those. As is the way of the entertainment industry, a sleepy, overcast day where I was deep into Kondo-ing my house got completely flipped on its head with one phone call.
I legitimately misheard the voicemail as “This is (name) from AMERICAN DEBT calling!” and I started to sweat.
So next thing I knew, I was walking into the Fox TV studios for my first day of work as a Storyboard Revisionist on the show American Dad. I have done quite a bit of storyboard work for independent animated shorts, commercials & whathaveyou, and even in-studio at Snapchat (which I guess I never mentioned in 2017/2018… whoops) but this was my very first job at a traditional animation studio. It’s been a lovely, wonderful rollercoaster ever since. The crew is amazing, the job has been challenging and fun, and I’ve learned more than all 8 years of art school and 6 years of freelance combined in a short 12 months. Take THAT, Master’s Degree!
Aspen Mascots Graphic Novel
February rolled around, and my next piece of amazing news dropped— Aspen Mascots was going to be released as a trade paperback graphic novel! I could hear 2015 Joie “SCREEing” through timespace when I got to hold this baby in my hot lil’ hand! It even had distribution in bookstores and Targets, not just comic book stores!
Conventioneers
But then March was like “hold my beer” because all of the things I had committed to do before getting the job at American Dad started to dovetail, much to my stress levels’ chagrin.
First, I had signed up to do a project that would debut at Emerald City Comic Con with my creative partner Jackie Ball, and it was a real doozy— an interactive comic ARG (alternate reality game; in this case, essentially a scavenger hunt) about two plucky child heroes very into cryptids and paranormal mysteries. This project deserves its own post, so I won’t wax poetic about it now, but needless to say it easily required 500+ hours of work (especially folding and stapling), and I pulled more all nighters than the entirety of my art school days combined. Thank goodness for very good friends who volunteered their time to help us pull this together.
The project went off with several hitches (as projects like these do) but we called it a success! We had at least 6 players fully complete the entire game, AND they said they had fun. Win!!
WonderCon & Mare the Merrier
Second, WonderCon was once again coming up, and because of how busy I’d been, I felt a little underprepared. That said, I still managed to get together a printed release of my one-shot comic The Mare the Merrier! My pretty ponybois were ready to prance their way onto my convention table and spread the joy of their colorful (literally) story to the masses.
You can read more about this bad-boi right here!
Cons are, if you didn’t know, physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. They have razor thin profit margins, require a ton of planning, prep work, packing, research, creation of merchandise, hauling, set up, and then 12+ hour days standing at a booth for 3 or more days in a row attempting to sell your wares, all the while eating unhealthy food, drinking absolutely too much, and not getting enough sleep. If you’ve done this even once, you know that to con is to pretty much need to die afterward— and I’d done two of these back to back. And then had to go right back to work on Monday.
SCBWI
THIRD, because March couldn’t have just gotten to this level of “out of control.” No, no, it needed to really twist the knife in my sleeping schedule— I had an article for the SCBWI Kite Tales blog that I’d been asked to write 6 months prior that was due. Had I done it in the 6 month lead up I had? Of COURSE not! I like procrastinating as much as the next artist and BOY did I pay for it. That said, somehow I still managed to both write and illustrate the sucker, and I’m proud of it. You can check it out here!
I also had a great trip to Sacramento for the SCBWI North/Central California Spring Spirit Mini Conference in May. It was just a one day conference, but it was jam packed with great keynote speakers and breakout panels. I was also thrilled to meet a few fellow artists who knew me from my Juneicorns (hi, if any of you are reading!) Which brings me to…
Juneicorn
June. Time for another installment of Juneicorn! I was raring to go, ready for another 30 entries in my series and… if you’re an astute reader you’ll have caught on to having just about burnt myself out so far this year. I ended up with 6. That said, I was focusing more on quality over quantity this year, and I think I delivered. My 6 humorous horses were, I think, much more detailed and better written than the year previous! Maybe in 2020 I can bust out all 30 at this level.
Famous last words.
Absolutely none of the 2019 Juneicorns were cheesey jokes. Well ok, except for this one.
Hawaii District 2
Continuing in the pattern of “Everything slams together in one month, why oh WHY can’t things be more evenly spaced throughout the year: a memoir by Joie Foster,” I had a work trip to Hawaii in June. Fox TV is a union studio, so that meant that I was able to join The Animation Guild (Local 839), and got to help serve my union by being a delegate to the IATSE District II convention in Honolulu.
Yes, I mean, twist my arm it was in Hawaii, but honestly it was two days of real work to build our union’s image, meet and form connections with other fellow IATSE locals, get updated on important legislation, and other tasks.
Zinefest
ALSO in June was TAG’s Zinefest, which was the last convention for me for the year (and forseeable future, if I’m honest). Thankfully, this one was a way smaller (one room), shorter (4 hours) show that didn’t leave me ready to collapse at the end. It was actually an excellent way to network with fellow Guild members and comics creators, and I had a blast!
Learning A to Z
Lastly in June, my previously mentioned work from January was finally released and I could show it in my portfolio! I worked with Learning A to Z on their ELL Grammar Packs, which focus on teaching verbs. I had some pretty complicated illustrations to compose that were jam-packed with “verb-y” details!
Otis College of Art and Design
Things finally started to calm down after June, and my summer was mostly me trying to get my adult life in order. When you’re this busy, things start to fall by the wayside! Remember the Kondo-ing I’d mentioned in January? Well that hadn’t been finished, so I was back to it.
OH BUT WAIT. There’s a moment to breathe? I could start to bring my shoulders down from around my ears? Nonsense, I’ll have NONE of that.
Once again, everything got turned on its head in August with just one email from Otis College of Art and Design asking if I’d teach their storyboard class. I was hired a hot 24 hours before class began... so there I was the first day of class, having screamed through LA traffic from Fox to Otis, blinking at a room of 20 students all eager to learn… and I didn’t even have a syllabus.
Anyway, it all came together in the end, and my semester teaching thus far has been both challenging and delightful. I swear my students have taught me more about life than I’ve taught them about storyboards, but I digress. The school liked me enough to ask me to teach this coming Spring semester too, so I guess I haven’t sucked too much!
LASIK
During my hiatus (a normal part of television production schedules where there’s a gap of work in between seasons), I also finally fulfilled a lifetime dream of mine: being able to see into the 4th dimension! And by that I mean getting LASIK to correct my absolutely awful eyesight.
Now I can see through walls!
Getting surgery on one’s eyes is scary enough, but when your eyeballs are 100% pivotal to the career you’ve built your entire life and identity around… phew. “Scary” is the understatement of the decade (which is almost over so let’s not top that, please?)
But I’m so glad I did it— being able to see better than I ever did with contacts or glasses is one of the best gifts I’ve been able to experience in life thus far. On our annual drive up to Oregon, I was shocked and awed at the gorgeous scenery that I could actually SEE for the first time! Like, in HD detail!!!
Background Design and Site Update
And finally, we’re almost caught up to real time! To help tide me over during my hiatus, I got to do some freelance background design for American Dad. I’ve done quite a lot of backgrounds for animated shorts (and in general with my illustrations and comics work) so it was really fun to do it for a television show! Look for them in the last two episodes of next season!
My corgilicious contribution to the TAG Post-It Note Show on Friday, December 6th in Burbank!
I’ve also had a chance to finally give my website a bit of a facelift. Inspired by a Post-It piece I did for the Animation Guild’s Post-It Note show, I added a new logo, restructured my pages, and updated just about every part of the site (which you will likely notice just by reading this blog post).
So when I tell people that 2019 was the craziest whirlwind year I’ve ever lived, hopefully you can see that I am not speaking in hyperbole. I can’t even sum things up in a conclusion, so instead have this excellent photo of my Studio Assistant being the Crimmas Tree Gremlin to wrap things up.
"Hoomans solve my riddlez three
to get treatz from Crimmas tree"
So I hope you enjoyed this recap (how many cups of tea did it take you to get through the whole thing?), and that you have a lovely end of your decade.
Did I finish my Kondoing? No. Guess that’s gonna be a two year project now…
Happy 2020, everyone!
New Book: Aspen Mascots Halloween ComicFest 2018!
Aspen's 2018 Halloween ComicFest Aspen Mascots cover, art by yours truly, inked by Gabe Carrasco, and colored by Justice!
Exciting news-- this year's Halloween ComicFest titles have officially been announced, and this year, Aspen will be presenting Aspen Mascots as theirs! I did the cover for it, which was revealed yesterday-- and it's the first cover I've done since Everstar back in 2014. I'm so excited about how it turned out.
The inside will be coloring-book style as usual, and it'll feature my pages from Aspen Mascots as well as games and puzzles! It'll be available FOR FREE at a participating comic book store near you this October.
Be sure to snag a copy of @AspenComics' THE ADVENTURES OF ASPEN MASCOTS #1 by @VinceHernandez8, @JoieArt, Justice, @GabeLantern73 & @micahmyers for FREE this Halloween ComicFest!@halloweencomic pic.twitter.com/b30rIZHul1
— PopCultHQ (@CultHq) June 13, 2018
“A complete listing of all the HCF titles, including the HCF Commemorative T-Shirt by Eisner Award-winning creator Eric Powell, can be found in the July issue of Diamond Comic Distributors’ PREVIEWS catalog, on sale at all local comic shops on June 27th, 2018. ”
Check out my posts about previous years' Halloween ComicFests with Aspen!
In Comic Stores Near You - Aspen Mascots
Today I've got some really exciting news... well, news that I probably should've shared two months ago but NEVERTHELESS...
I've been working with Aspen Comics since late last year on an all-ages title called Mascots! The story is written by Vince Hernandez, penciled and inked by Joie Foster (ME, in case somehow you're lost and don't know whose blog you're on...), colored by Justice, lettered by Micah Myers, and edited by Gabe Carrasco.
What's it about??
This sums is up rather nicely!
A milipede villain (villipede?) named Wormier must rescue his worm-y village by any means necessary, and builds a time machine to achieve his goals! And of course because it's time travel, nothing works the way he wants it to and he goes off on a zany adventure through time with his gryphon buddy, Griff. Yes, a gryphon named Griff. It's a thing. A ton of the mascots, creatures, and other critters from popular Aspen titles are involved, so be ready to get your cute-and-hilarious on!
Featuring a sense of humor that is very in tune with my own...
How do I buy the thing??
At your local comic book store in the back of any Aspen title that comes out this year! And... uh... turns out Chapter One came out in February, Chapter two in March, and Chapter Three this month... so I'm a bit late to the game in telling y'all about this. Whoops!
At least that means you can binge read it?
Luckily, most comic stores have issues from the last several months so if you go, you can probably still find the books that my story is in. Also, here's a handy-dandy list to make your shopping trip easier:
Chapter 1 can be found in: Charismagic (vol 3) #1, Shrugged 3 #1
Chapter 2 is in: Charismagic (vol 3) #2, Shrugged 3 #2, Jirni (vol 3) #1
Chapter 3 is in: Charismagic (vol 3) #3, Portal Bound #1
And for those of you who are visual:
A gratuitous shot of my comp copies to make life easier for you... including Portal Bound which you should DEFINITELY check out since my buddy Gabe is a writer on it!
Buy and then read all the things, and then tell me what you think. Be gentle, us artists are delicate beings.
Chapter 4 comes out soon, so make sure you're ready for it! (Oh... uh. Speaking of, I'M not ready for it, so I better get back to the drawing table like NOW...)
Typical artist.
WonderCon Anaheim 2018!
My my, it has been a hot minute since I've updated my blog! I'm alive I swear-- and not only that, I'll be physically standing at my booth in Anaheim this weekend, March 23-25 (2018, if you happen to be reading this in the future)!
I'll be in the Artist Alley at table B-43! Geez, I need to update my self portrait...
From Friday to Sunday I'll be present with fistfuls of my comics and art for your viewing and buying pleasure! I also have the honor of showing with my normal show-partner-in-crime, Ria from Ria Art World! Yay! You'll spot us immediately, since we're the booth with All The Cute Stuff (TM). Hope to see you there!
Review of Heavenly Kibble Guardian Corgi from The Grand Geek Gathering Podcast
Don't you love it-- I tell you to start watching my Instagram Stories and them promptly stop updating both them and my blog, too? Fear not, I'm not dead! I went on a scheduled vacation up in rural Oregon where I didn't have much in the way of cell service or internet. Actually, it ended up turning into a roller coaster of a work-cation, but that's a story for another day.
I may have had to work, but at least this was my surrounding scenery!
But I'm back. Huzzah! Half a day was spent fighting through my extremely backed up inbox, but I'm now back at work, back at Instagram Stories, and of course, back to the blog.
These guys are the best. Seriously, they've got a lil' something for everyone!
I'm really excited to share both a review and an interview about my comic series Heavenly Kibble Guardian Corgi from the one and only Grand Geek Gathering podcast!
"The Grand Geek Gathering is a multimedia network dedicated to celebrating the geeky things we love that make us who we are. Every Gatherer has different interests, passions, and traditions. We love that. As you get to know us on the Gathering podcast, we do not hesitate to share those passions and interests (or shove it down your throat)."
They also have do videos, livestreams, and a slew of other things. I was really pleased and humbled to be the subject of both episodes 66 and 67 of their show "IndiComix."
Episode 66 features an interview I did with Tyler, where we chat about Guardian Corgi, its influences, my inspirations, and a closer look at my process behind creating my comics. He's such a blast to talk to, so there's not a boring moment! (Approx 30 min)
Interview with IndiComix about Guardian Corgi
Episode 67 is a fantastic in-depth, round table review of all three issues of Guardian Corgi! Tyler and Jeff covered their thoughts on my writing, jokes (they lived through the puns, hah!), art style, character design, and the colors.
They had delightfully nice things to say, including that they felt the fun, bright colors, and simplicity of the series made it very accessible and a different voice in the current indie comics industry. I was extremely pleased to hear that, as I aim to make my stories a fun experience for anyone-- comics fans or not!
Roundtable Review of Heavenly Kibble Guardian Corgi
Thank you for all the kind words, GGG!
Get Behind the Scenes With My Instagram Stories
Do you follow me on Instagram? Yes? Hooray, thank you! I hope you enjoy my posts there. I like posting in-progress shots of my work, pictures of me at conventions, and pics with my art buddies.
BUT.
There's more that you might be missing!
Instagram has a cool feature I've been playing with called "Stories." Much like the famed Snapchat, Stories lets me build a little fun narrative. They're usually snapshots or tiny videos of what I get up to throughout the day that give you an extra special behind-the-scenes peek.
You can get quality humor like this!
And amusing, melting self portraits like this!
And don't forget great snaps of my Studio Assistant!
Bits and bobs about my process as I go...
... and weird closeups of the tips of my markers!
These stories constantly update throughout the day as I add to it, so you can see what weird art-related (and sometimes totally personal) shenanigans I get up to! Some days I post more than others, and I'm sure some days I won't post at all. These stories also disappear after 24 hours, so it's always immediate "right now" content... and you might be missing stuff if you don't check in daily (that's the scheme, see? Good thinking Instagram. I don't even want to talk about how much of my day I spend watching others' stories...)
Here's how to see 'em!
So if you're on board, head to your Instagram app and check the top of your feed! There's a horizontal row of profile pictures with a little sunset-gradient circle around them. Those are all the people you follow whose Stories you might be missing! Alternatively, you can go to my profile and click on my pic (as seen above).
Hope you enjoy, and maybe it'll inspire you to try it for yourself, too! See ya there.
Aspen's Halloween ComicFest 2017
I am a part of Aspen's Halloween ComicFest's issue again this year!
Aspen's HWCF 2017 Cover by Simone Di Meo
"Aspen Comics' jam-packed, activity-filled, absolutely free coloring book returns... but, this time with a TWIST, and a whole gang of Aspen Animals ready to usher in a new era of fun! Readers can Choose Your Own Adventure in this time-spanning, fantasy realm-busting and speed-bursting new interactive tale! The Aspen Universe has been split into three and it's up to Aspen readers to help guide our hero creatures to safety and unite these worlds back together, all in one exciting coloring book!" - HalloweenComicFest.com
I did pencils and inks for one of the story branches in this choose your own adventure-style comic, which, I gotta say, is a pretty cool concept. I read a ton of those books as a kid, and loved them. Ah, the 90s. In addition, if you've followed my art for even five minutes you'll probably have figured out that I love drawing animals, so a title featuring just animal characters had me super jazzed.
And what is Halloween ComicFest, you may ask? Well, they made a handy video to explain it so that I don't have to!
This book will be available for FREE at your local comic book shop on October on Saturday, October 28. Make sure you get one for yourself!
New Illustration and Website!
in Illustration, Kidlit, News
Today is a day of new things: new illustration, new website, and fun new career goals! Wait, what?! I’m getting ahead of myself, let me explain!
First– my new illustration, Spotted! A girl who rescues an injured pegasus must keep it hidden from the world that won’t understand its existence? This is totally one of my 12 year old self’s fantasies. Straight from the heart, for sure! This piece is meant to be a cover for a mock middle grade novel of my own invention showing us a tense moment when the girl’s pegasus is spotted!
Second– new website? Why yes, you're on it right now! Awhile back, I had some technical issues with my old illustration website (you remember JoieArt.net, right?) and I had to take it down, redirecting the URL to my comics website. Now that my comic site’s hosting plan is up for renewal, I decided to move hosts, relaunch my illustration website and consolidate everything on here! Make sure to change your bookmarks!
Third– over my career thus far I’ve worked in a lot of industries simultaneously including table top games, theme park design, animation, and primarily comics. Diversification is the name of the game when you’re a freelancer!
I’ve been wanting to reinvigorate the illustration side of my business for awhile now, and children’s literature has always appealed to me. When I found out about Middle Grade* publishing, I got extremely excited and wondered if it was something I could do, too. In my research so far, I’ve found quite a few all ages comics artists that I admire cross over into the line of Middle Grade illustration, and I think that’s got a lot to do with both industries having similar topics and art styles. Plus, I’ve had no less than three art friends/colleagues practically hit me over the head telling me to try it– so now it’s a new goal of mine to work toward!
Since this goal takes me into uncharted waters (for me), I have a ton of research to do! I’m excited though, because doing illustrations like this hits a nostalgic nerve that is hard to describe. My time between the ages of 9 and 13 is precious to me, as it was when my imagination was free to roam and my creativity was at an all time high. I’d love to recapture some of those moments in illustrations, and perhaps inspire a “Me too!” moment in my audience as well.
So that said, there’ll be more illustrations like this popping up soon! I’ve got another one that’s almost finished, and quite a few more in the planning stages. Additionally, I’m going to the SCBWI conference this weekend here in Los Angeles and it promises to be an amazing time. I’ll be sure to blog about my experience there later!
*Middle grade is a term for books that typically are targeted at kids ages 9-12, give or take
Last Minute Show: RoninCon
in Comics, Illustration, News
So a new show popped up this year down in Little Tokyo-- Ronin Expo! I hadn't heard of it before, but they had some last minute table openings for the one day show, and I jumped on it! It was my very first outdoors convention ever, so I'd never had to take wind into consideration with my display before. I didn't have too many problems, but some of my neighbors were just about blown away.
I was also positioned directly in front of the main stage, which had its pros and cons. It made it super loud so I could hardly hear customers when they spoke, but when traffic was slow, at least I had a show to watch-- and there was this really cool cosplay group called The Corps Dance Crew that performed all day! Cosplayers that dance! My college-age-cosplay self was just pleased as punch, since that's basically what I had wanted to once upon a time.
Overall it was a fun, short, and affordable show, and as an added bonus it was well-situated for lots of great food!