Have you heard of this new show, Quirky? It’s a show all about product design. A social media community, Quirky.com, is a company that crowdsources ideas for innovation, let’s the community vote and influence products, and then if the idea is accessible, designable, and marketable, THEY BUILD IT. And whoever came up with the idea, ‘the inventor’, can make up to six dollar figures from the profits! I know, this intrigued me, too.

Well they made it into a show on Sundance Channel, but I’ve been catching it on hulu (the first episode is on hulu for a few more days!). I got the opportunity to work their premiere party at the Metropolitan Pavilion as an Invention Illustrator. Party attendants with ideas came to our booth to pitch us problems in the world that could be solved with a great invention, and we took to pen and markers to make them realized visually. Thanks again to Jordan Diatlo from Quirky for the opportunity!

(Right to Left) Ana Benaroya, Jordan Diatlo, Myself, and Frank Espinoza. These guys were brilliant illustrators, so give them some Google Analytics stats!

Here’s Ana taking on some lightly intoxicated, but enthusiastic inventors. Photos stolen from Quirky.com’s Facebook.

We got a lot of traffic! We were invited to get food and drinks but couldn’t with the volume of idea pitchers. And in addition, people were intrigued by the 3D Printers that sat next to us, printing off future Quirky designs right before party-goers. Thanks for reading, check out the video below. Don’t blink at minute 0:54 where you’ll see all three invention Illustrators get our draw on!

This summer I spent a little time working on an editorial illustration for RE:COM Magazine, a publication dedicated to the world of Stand-Up Comedy. It accompanied a story by comedian and writer Lauren Vino, who you can follow on twitter. Lauren’s story was an account of her time performing at a women’s prison as a young white brunette woman. One of my favorite parts of the story is how even the other comedian on the bill rips her in front of the inmates, as if there is no camaraderie during this gig between female comics. Anyways, Thanks to Kristy Mangel for the opportunity! I love drawing crowds, so this was totally up my alley.

Preliminary inks

 Cleaned up inks with bars added digitally

Final image spread

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A very exciting new project just hit Kickstarter. Cartoonist Dave Kellett and filmmaker Fred Schroeder have put together what looks like one of the most important pieces of film journalism that the comics community has seen. It’s a serious talk about past and present, a medium that can’t keep up with a changing world, and how technology changes art and craft that’s essentially been the same for decades. It’s about adaptation, and as a young cartoonist I feel caught between a tradition taught for years and a curveball pitch that could make that tradition obsolete. It’s an honor to be part of such a special project, along with some of the greatest cartoonists I grew up admiring and loving.

Meg Golding, Madeline Rupert, and myself were interviewed for the documentary. I had the privilege to sit and talk comics with two incredible talents at SCAD. It was a very emotional chat. We talked aspirations, our hopes for our careers, our doubts and fears about the business and how that shaped our perspective and affected our craft. But by the end of it, we all agreed that we just want to find our place.

Please contribute to what will be a very powerful film for comics creators, historians, and lovers and enthusiasts. Comics and cartooning will never be the same as it once was, and already truly isn’t the same now.

I remember two years ago I was obsessed with Aziz Ansari, and now two years later, he’s starring in movies, gracing the covers of magazines, and becoming an art critic. Complex Magazine scoured the internet and came back with their top 5 most interesting pieces, and mine made it into #4. Check it out at minute 0:54! (you can even see it right there on the video image preview!)

I’m glad that he actually responded positively to my illustration. But I was hoping to make him cry over it.

Here’s the process to that piece! (Update: Oh no! I lost the final image artwork! It must have happened when I redesigned my website. Thank god I updated my website before Complex did their search.)

I have a pretty good studio. Actually I love it. I’m always inspired by blogs that show off artists’ workspaces, and I dream of being featured one day in them (that’s when you know you’ve made it!). I’ve had many workspaces when moving around every year as a college student, and I wish I had taken pictures of all of them. But here now is the studio I’m in the midst of leaving. (more…)