Season 2019 Recap!

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.

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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!!

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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.

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The entire delegation

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839 Represent!

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!

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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!

"My Shadow" - Illustrations for Learning A to Z

Last year, I joined the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) with a goal in mind: I wanted to branch out into drawing pictures for kids! I went to the LA Summer Conference and met some of the nicest, most supportive people in the world... and crammed my brain full of as much info as I could at the same time. I now had a mission: add stuff to my portfolio to attract children's publishing clients! Go go! Time's wastin', fam!

Almost a year later, I'm excited to reveal my very first project: illustrations for the Robert Louis Stevenson poem My Shadow, published by Learning A to Z.

These illustrations were meant to match the poem's stanzas by showing kids playing with their shadows at specific times of day. There was a scene with candlelight, sunset, noon, and one at early morning dawn.

As I was working on the sketches for these, the only thing I could think about was my "Drawing From Imagination" professor, Stephen Player, and the day in his class where we had to learn about drawing shadows in perspective. A notoriously difficult course, that day was so taxing I went home and went to sleep out of sheer mental exhaustion!

As I was painting, I made sure to reference my copy of Color and Light by James Gurney often since there were so many times of day to work with! If you're an artist, you should probably own a copy of that book. It's highly recommended, insanely useful, and pretty much a requirement to own! Get thee to Amazon and get a copy if you don't have it yet. I'll wait.

Detail shot of the skateboarding boy!

With this particular piece, when the sketch round's notes came back, the AD asked me to add a car (specifically an early 70s Ford Pinto in orange) in the background. GASP! HORROR! The bane of many an artist's existence: drawing CARS! Somehow I soldiered on.

Detail shot of the car behind the skateboarding boy!

This last one turned out to be my favorite from the series-- no, not because I enjoy painting 10,000 flowers-- but because of the color palette and mood. I've never painted a misty morning scene before, and I quiet enjoy the quiet moment it represents.

Some close-up detail of the girl in the flowers!

All in all it was a terrifically fun project, and I hope to have more kidlit illustrations to share with you in the future! Which one of these is your favorite? Leave me a comment and tell me!

Kato Chef Tasting: 4th Course

Be sure you've tasted course one, two and three before moving on to this one!

So at this point in the meal, I've noticed a trend. Each dish has a stronger flavor and heavier consistency; they play upon the tasty notes that have already been established, and are definitely ramping up to a crescendo. We've got a Flavor Symphony, here! Is this how all meals are meant to be? Is this real life?

These ribs might be short, but they're tall on FLAVOR

These short ribs with turnips and chili were mind blowing. The flavor was hearty and while quite heavy, and the meat was extremely soft and supple. It had been cooked in such a way that it practically fell apart on my fork... which led to some scrambling and attempts at covering up how ungraceful I am. The turnips on top lent the dish a nice crunch to it without detracting from the flavor. I dipped each bite in a tiny bit of chili sauce to really round things out with a ZING!*

This illustration was particularly challenging because of the delicate veins in the turnips-- they're so subtle that I had to be careful not to overdo it.

Next will be course five of the chef tasting, in which we go full tilt flavor!

*I used to hate hot sauce, but I'm slowly becoming a lover. I'm pretty sure this was a house sriracha, and it was DELIGHTFUL.

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As a working artist, I have to exhibit at comic and art conventions in order to grow my audience, sell my wares, and meet art directors. Each show requires a ton of prep work, and then a certain amount of recovery time afterward as well. This show was totally food related though, as I just debuted my very first set of food illo art prints and pins!

Deliciousness for your wall or photo frame!

Kato Chef Tasting: 3rd Course

You see that fish there? It's so soft that it's like eating straight butter. Oh yeah.

And we're back with the amazing Course Three in my Kato Chef Tasting Experience. Be sure to read parts One and Two first!

Something that I thought was remarkable about Kato's dining room was how small and minimalist it was. The walls are light, the floor is wood, and there are absolutely no frills. Artwork sprinkled around and a simple tea light on the tables count as the decor. I'd say there are, what, 10 tables total? 15? I find it interesting that they took this approach, and I expect that it's so you can focus on the food. No gaudy decorations or talking animal heads here! (Apologies to lovers of Rainforest Café, heh.)

I suspect that's also why they don't serve any alcohol, and their drink selection is extremely limited. Green tea or sparkling water work just fine when alcohol could detract from your enjoyment of the delicate flavors they're putting in your face. Plus, realtalk, as a restaurant owner I bet it's just easier to get through life when you don't have to worry about booze permits.

So! The delightful third course of the evening was trout with chili and seared cabbage. This dish, seriously. UNG. I almost died when I put it in my mouth. The trout was cooked in a sous vide so it actually burst apart as soon as it left my fork, and the amazing flavors locked inside are the kind you'd write home to mom about. Or... write about on a blog on the internet.

The chili sauce is apparently fermented, and while it has a dash of heat, it uses it subtly to enhance the other flavors. The seared cabbage* is crisp and its strong flavor sticks with you long after this course is over, but in a good way.

Stay tuned for Course 4! "How many courses ARE there?" you ask. The answer is five, plus dessert, plus additional food we ordered at the end to round everything out. In other words, I've got a lot of drawing to do.

* I am definitely not supposed to eat cabbage. That's that FODMAP thing again that I mentioned before. I'll get around to discussing it, one day. I ate it anyway though, in the name of art!

Trader Sam's Passionate Python

Lemony Snake-it's "Series of Unfortunate(ly Empty Cuz I Drank Them) Drinks"

I went to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland recently, and ordered this delightful drink called The Passionate Python. "Ah," you say, "NOW I get the joke in the caption." Well ssssspotted, Hungry Reader! This drink is described in the menu as "Dark and Aged Rums, Red Passion Fruit and Tropical Juices garnished with an Orange Peel 'Python.'"

I really enjoy drawing drinks-- there's a fun challenge in their simplistic design. Drawing glass and getting the subtle gradients shifts in the liquids just right can be tough, especially with markers. Markers are a rather unforgiving medium, mind you. One small twitch and it's all over.*

This particular illustration was an exercise in playing with layering techniques. I don't like going straight into a piece with my most vibrant marker-- no no! I'd rather layer a saturated color over a less saturated base to keep the color from becoming unnatural (not... that the color of this drink was natural, but I digress).

To achieve this bright red orange without going overboard, I first put down a layer of Goldenrod (PM-69), put Poppy Red (PM-13) on top, and then finished it with hits of Scarlet Lake (PM-5).

"But what about that ghostly lemon peel and the straws in there?" you wonder. There are clearly no pen lines, so how did I do that? I'll tell you in Parseltongue: Ssssssssssss sssssssssasaaasss sassssssssss shhhh sssssss!

You're welcome.

*Note to self and others: Do not attempt to Marker while drinking the subject of this illustration. The results won't go well! Please Marker responsibly.

Kato Chef Tasting: 2nd Course

There is no ham in hamachi

Welcome back, hungry reader! This is the second post in a series about my Chef Tasting experience at Kato Restaurant in Santa Monica. If you haven't yet, be sure to read Part One first! Kato is a restaurant that specializes in Chef's Tastings, and is a Californian/Japanese/Taiwanese hybrid. And no, Chef Tasting doesn't meant we ate the chef, in case you were wondering.

Kato itself is hidden in the corner of a strip mall in Santa Monica-- it can actually be quite difficult to spot until you're practically standing on top of it. One might even call it a Room of Requirement-- it's impossible to find unless you're desperate for tasty, well-crafted food. The dining room is terrifically small, so you MUST make reservations... and make them, like, a week out because this place is very popular.

So on to our second course, which was hamachi and cucumber topped with a charred scallion sauce. What are the herbs on top? I'm not entirely sure, as I'm not good at identifying these things by sight yet.* Fennel? Maybe? The dish's flavors were gentle, cool, and seemed slightly pickled. This made an excellent pair against the good punch in the mouth that the charred/smoky flavor of the sauce gave you!

Stay tuned for the 3rd Course coming soon!

*I'm learning, I swear. At least, it's on my "To Learn" list. So I'll get around to it. No really!

Kato Chef Tasting

You can't find delightful piles of fish like this easily

Last month we tried out a highly rated restaurant in Santa Monica named Kato, a Californian/Japanese/Taiwanese hybrid chef's tasting restaurant.

Hungry Reader, you may be asking "Um wat?" which is the exact same question I asked myself because I, too, think in memespeak. Luckily for you, I went and found out! A chef tasting is when a restaurant's chef designs a menu that takes customers on what I like to call a food experience. A Foodsperience, if you will. The flavors of each small course are meant to work together like a team to send you to Tasty Town.

It began with what's called an amuse bouche, which is sort of like an appetizer but smaller. It literally means "to amuse your mouth." It was a tapioca snack with roe (fish eggs), and while it was brownie-like, was also very salty. Think "sea salt brownie with heavy emphasis on the sea and possibly as dark as it is because maybe squid ink?" Regardless, it was delightful and I was ready for more!

We then received our first course, which was tuna tartare with eggplant and herbs over crispy rice. Seriously I put this thing in my mouth and the world stopped*. The rice gave it a fantastic crunchy texture that contrasted with the softness of the tuna. The vinaigrette had almost a minty note to it, and the shallots gave the sauce absolute sass. SASS, I say! The dish was very light overall, which, by the end of the meal I learned is the best way to start a Foodsperience so you can build a flavor symphony over time.

But more on that next time with Course 2!

*"The world stopped" is going to be a phrase that I use often in this series with Kato, because spoiler alert: THE FOOD IS REALLY GOOD

Review: Fiesta Martin

Yes, that fish still has its head

So my husband and I moved last fall, and in our old neighborhood we had an amazing sushi place. It was so good that we went about once a week. We always lamented though, "Gosh, we really wish we had a good Mexican place around here."

Lo and behold, our new neighborhood has a dearth of sushi (sigh), but has the exact sort of Mexican place we asked for: Fiesta Martin at 1330 N La Brea. We've been here quite a few times, and the atmosphere is warm and inviting. The service can be a little slow, but it never lacks for friendliness. I think we've had the exact same waiter every time, and this dude is just the nicest. Is he the Martin that likes to Fiesta? I can't say.

The menu here is nothing short of huge-- there's an array of house specials, seafood, caldos (soup), and appetizers. Their tacos are tasty, the fajitas phenomenal, and the burritos boat-sized. For me, a win is that they have chimichangas. I know that they may be a cross-cultural invention... but I just happen to like them. Also, their salsa is of particular interest to me, as it doesn't have many onions/the onion chunks are large enough that I can pick them out.*

A repeat dish I've ordered is the mojarro frita , which is an entire tilapia, deep-fried. Yes, with the head on. It's crispy, light, and is seasoned well. There are also plenty of things that are more traditional like the Milanesa (A+!), and then some truly this-is-a-bad-idea-but-it-looks-so-good dishes such as the Camarones Costa Azul (A+ for clogging ones' arteries!).

The chili powder on the rim was a... surprise

The drink menu is staggering as well-- they've got standard margaritas, and then complex, frankly ridiculous-looking cocktails that feature sidecars and upside down beer bottles that seem to defy the laws of gravity.

My favorite drink, however, is called the Cantarito and it originates from Jalisco, Mexico. It's served in a clay pot, has tequila, grapefruit soda, various fruit juices, and then has bits of fruit floating on the top. Plus, the drink is less than $8. As a previous graduate student, that is the perfect price to get a bit fancy, especially here in Los Angeles.

So is the food good? 4 out of 5 tacos!

Expensive? Nope

It's LA, what's the parking like? Meh, there's a tiny parking lot out back, and some street parking in the surrounding neighborhood.

Good for groups?  Yes

Reservation required? Nope!

Is it QUIET? No, but especially no when there's some sportsball game going on.

Final verdict: YUM. Fiesta on, Martin. Fiesta on.

*No, I don't hate onions. I actually rather like them, but I have to keep my diet fairly low FODMAP, which I will get into at a later date on this blog. Feel free to Google it now if you like though. Go on, you know you're curious.

Petit Fours from Valerie Confectionary

Tiny ovens, anyone?

If you're an LA local and you haven't visited the Grand Central Market  downtown yet, get thee a Lyft and go. Right now. I'll wait. No, really.

Back yet? Or maybe you're at work and can't leave your desk. Alright fine, I'll just tell you about it instead. The Grand Central Market is a magical wonderland that brings together various LA cuisines and cultures in a delicious way, and each time I go my definition of "YUM" gets redefined.

We went this past Saturday evening, and we happened to catch Valerie Confections when it was open. The first time we went to the market it was closed, and I spent a good 15 minutes trying to lick the chocolates through the display case.

We were able to sample their petit fours in two flavors: Earl Grey and Champagne. I haven't mentioned this yet here on my blog, but my favorite dessert? Cake. And cake dipped in chocolate is an upgrade to an already perfect dessert, especially when said chocolate is named "the best chocolate in LA" by Los Angeles Magazine. So.

The Earl Grey petit four had a very strong bergamot flavor to it, but was light and airy.* The lemon ganache on the outside was extremely complementary, and I was left feeling refreshed. There was a tiny silver fleck on top, and I suspect it may have been silver lustre dust.

The Champagne honestly didn't taste like champagne at all, but I didn't mind. I loved that it had dark, bittersweet chocolate, and the buttery cake inside really broke up the flavor before it became overwhelming. The tiny bit of edible gold on the top was a nice touch.

"But what does gold taste like?" you ask. I... don't think it's meant to have a flavor. But I'm still learning, so maybe it was just too subtle for me to have noticed.

The end verdict: I can't wait to try more from Valerie's. Besides the petit fours they've got chocolates, truffles, toffees, cakes, coffees, and more, so if you like sweet things you're probably covered. Go try it!

*As an aside, I'm a weirdo and have always maintained that bergamot has echoes of a Froot Loops flavor. I am apparently not the only person who has this opinion, but maybe the rest of you may think I'm insane. Doesn't matter, because it's my favorite tea thank you very much.

Sous Vide Pork

You really can't lose when you have mashed potatoes

Have you seen the new cooking craze, Sous Vide? Well, it's not new-new-- the technique has been around since 1799 and was "rediscovered" and refined in the 60s and 70s. It's basically where food is put inside a vacuum pouch and cooked at a steady temperature by water or steam.

It's "new" in that now it can be achieved with a fancy kitchen gadget that is finally affordable for the average consumer. It is an electronic stick that you put in a pot of water with your vacuum-pouched-food, set the temperature, and let 'er fly.

My husband and I got one for Christmas, and let me tell you-- it makes AMAZING meat. We've used it to cook steaks a few times, and in this case we cooked up a pork tenderloin that turned out phenomenally. It was mouth-wateringly moist, and the salt and pepper we put on the outside really brought out the flavor of the meat.

Did YOU know that pork tasted like something? I mean, bacon notwithstanding. Pork actually has a flavor. I used to not be a huge fan of pork, and I'm wondering if I just kept having overcooked meat all the time. That's understandable, since there was that whole trichinosis scare back in the day. I'm pretty sure I cooked my porkchops into a pile of ash out of fear.

Now they say it's really not that much of a threat anymore. And thank goodness for that! Our pork was perfectly medium-well all the way throughout, and exceptionally juicy. We paired it with some mashed potatoes (frozen, yes I know... travesty, but they work in a pinch!) and some steamed spinach.

Have you tried the sous vide technique? Let me know in the comments!