The Sketchbook Project - Dragon Chica by May-Lee Chai

So here is another entry into my book for The Sketchbook Project.
This character Dragon Chica came in from May-Lee Chai.
I really liked the dance and shape shifting abilities of this character. Makes for a heroine that could have some pretty cool action scenes.
Just as a reminder, these drawings are being done on a 5″x8″ moleskin notebook. I lay down some quick pencils with a 6h lead pencil and then use a sharpie pen to finish them. This particular sketch took about 7 minutes to do. But it took me like 5 minutes to think about what to draw before I even started.

Here is the description of Dragon Chica in May-Lee’s own words.
Dragon Chica is the name of a Cambodian American super hero whose
family came to America after surviving the Khmer Rouge regime. She fights
injustice, discrimination, and stereotypes.

Her super power: she kicks ass!

She can dance superfly, traditional Khmer style and hip hop, which gives
her amazing agility. She first grew up in a small town in the Midwest where
her family was sponsored as refugees. She later moved, and has lived on
both Coasts of the U.S., but as a superhero she can travel to where she’s
needed.

Because of her experience having to fit in where no else looked like her,
she can shape shift, too.

And whatever you do, don’t ever call her Dragon Lady.

But if you’re alone and being stereotyped, or being attacked for your
ethnicity, gender or sexuality, just call on Dragon Chica! She will lend a
hand and use her superpowers against your enemies.

After all, she’s Buddhist and believes in helping others in need.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

The Monkey King

So I’ve been trying to do a new Monkey King t shirt for quite some time now. I originally wanted to do a dark version. But every time I’m at a comic convention, everybody keeps asking me to do a cute version.
Sooooo, I came up with this drawing.
I actually do kinda like it. And think I will eventually make it. But probably not for a couple months.
It would end up being a 4 color print, which…in my opinion is a lot of colors for a dude to be wearing.
But maybe it works with this drawing???
Here is a scan of the artwork in black an white.

This was drawn with my Sharpie pen as usual. The original is only 9″x12″. And I did all the coloring in Adobe Illustrator.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

The Sketchbook Project - Joji Yamagato by Keiko Agena

Here is another installment to my sketchbook project book.
This character was created by Keiko Agena. Keiko was super nice enough to take time out of her busy schedule to do me this favor. You probably know of Keiko from The Gilmore Girls. But I was lucky enough to meet her from Secret Identities.
While doing some book signings with her, I got to know her a little bit and found out that she has her own jewelery line as well as a stationary line that features her own characters. You can find out more about her stuff at her site MANGOPOP.
Her characters are so well illustrated(she probably could have just drawn this herself) and have so much charisma to them, I figured I would try to draw her character Joji in the same “hand”. I probably failed miserably, but hopefully Keiko won’t mind.
This is obviously the only color sketch I’ve done so far in the book. I felt like I had to do it in color just to try an match Keiko’s awesome drawings. I haven’t used my markers in a while, so I could only find a few of the colors I was looking for.
Here is the story for Joji Yamagato in Keiko’s own words.
In the Yamagata Family there has always been a strict code of conduct.
The first born son, of the first born son, for the first year of his life is
blindfolded during the day and kept in a dark room at night. He is deprived
of all sight until the anniversary of his birth. For generations this has been
the way and so strict is adherence to this tradition and so shameful the
reason for the practice that over the many years, even members of the
family lost the initial reason for it. Some say if the boy looks upon anything
he will immediately die. Some say he becomes horribly disfigured or that
his mind “breaks” and he is destined to suffer a lifetime of mental illness.
The practice of blindfolding these boys continued well into the modern era
in which Hiroshi Yamagata grew up.
Hiroshi, who wore the blindfold as a baby himself, heard the fear filled
rumors all of his life. But more than that, he felt the danger. He knew, in a
way deeper than superstition, that it would be wrong to abandon the
tradition, and when his wife gave birth to a boy he immediately clothed his
son in a blindfold. But this boy, Joji, was different. Whereas all the other
Yamagata boys pleasantly dealt with the cloth, as if it comforted them, Joji
fought it from the beginning. Karen, his mother, would spend all of her days
putting the mask back on. Karen began to plead with Hiroshi to give up this
archaic tradition, that it was damaging their son, that it was unnatural. But
Hiroshi was adamant. No! No son of his would be without the mask. For a
year Karen and all who came in contact with the boy, abided. But, on the
last night before his first birthday, Karan was rocking Joji to sleep, and she
dozed off herself. Joji quietly pulled down his blindfold, and before Karen
awoke to put it back on, Joji saw three things…around his mother’s neck,
a necklace with a tiny silver fish charm, within the design on her shirt, the
faintest outline of a bird and embroidered in the corner of his burping cloth,
a lion. That night the Yamagata household arose to the screams of the boy.
They were the sounds of death, and his parents ran to the crib! The boy
writhed in pain. He seemed to be transforming…first from a baby bird, wet
and screeching…then to a lion…with a growl of insecurity…and to a fish
with silvery scales…gills inflamed…from one to the other the boy kept
morphing! The only thing of Joji that remained were his eyes. His eyes were
filled with fear, strength, and a fierce anger…
Hiroshi immediately reached for the nearest object to kill the beast his
son had become. His own eyes filled with regret and anger as he hoisted
the stool above his head. It was Karen’s hand that stopped him. And all
of the family wept that night. What would become of this abomination???
It took many years for Joji to learn to hide his “ailment” and many more
for him to learn to use it.
At 18 he can now transform from beast to beast at will. Joji can become
one or more with a thought. When he is all three there is a strength that
wells within him… as if being his “true” self gives him sharp insights and a
great physical strength.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

BURN 2.0….

So here is yet another illustration I did in hopes to revive my old comic BURN. I started this piece by just wanting to draw a Chinese Dragon wrapping itself around the characters to help frame them off. I hope I accomplished that here.
The original drawing was done in my sketchbook. I really didn’t expect to actually like this when I drew it, but I think it came out ok.
I think maybe…the guy Troy, his hair might be too “big”…but still, I like what happened here as a finished product.

Here is a look at the inks of the piece without its color.
This drawing was done with a sharpie pen again. On a 9″x12″ piece of paper. I actually did all the coloring in Adobe Illustrator for this piece. And I’m obviously experimenting by piling on the textures. I’m trying to use organic-like textures to keep it from looking too computery.
If that makes any sense.

Ok, I’m going to try to do one of these BURN redo pieces a week. Now I have to get back to doing my sketchbook project drawings.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

The Sketchbook Project - Shadowrunner by Jonathan Abad

So here is another two pgs in my sketchbook. This entry comes from Jonathan Abad. I turned the sketchbook over to the horizontal angle to try to keep the sketches looking a little different. I didn’t want to have all the sketches going the same direction on every page. It would just get boring real fast that way.
But I really liked this entry from Jonathan. I was lucky enough to exchange a few emails with him and delve into why he chose to create this character Shadowrunner. And it turned out that we both had a lot in common. I only hope I did his creation some justice.
Again, these sketches come in measuring at only 5″x8″. Which is MUCH smaller than I’m accustomed to drawing on. And I’m trying to do each sketch in about 10 minutes. To keep them actual sketches and full blown illustrations.
I tried to show our character Shadowrunner in action running, and “shedding his weight”. Hope that is conveyed through my sketch.
That being said, here is Shadowrunner’s description in Jonathan’s words.
Shardowrunner
Created by: Jonathan Abad Johnny Pedrezuela was a border-line obese Philippino-American that was born and raised in Livingston, NJ.
A suburb. Suburbia was more of a if you were popular, you got around alot. If you were a nerd and an
introvert, you stayed in your room. Alot. As a kid, he was bombarded with family urgings of eating large portions
whether it was Philippino-food at their festivals or American food by the usual lazy American life. By the time he was
a teenager, he was made fun of, names called “Snorlax” or “Juggly Puff” from the Pokemon series, “Fattie,”
“Chubby Chink” and - worst of all - “Porky Pinoy.” “Put down the chop-sticks” was a common phrase spoken
behind his back. No confidence with the girls. Nothing but his comic books, video games, movies, TV, and a bare
minimum of friends as well as his imagination to keep himself sane by escapism.
One day, he was browsing through the school sports programs and found that the Cross Country team didn’t cut
anyone. If you wanted to join, you were in. One of his very few friends was able to talk him into joining. He joined
reluctantly, not knowing his full potential.
Freshman, sophomore, junior, senior years - he lost the pounds at a dramatic rate but it took all he had to keep it up.
He was never the best. And was in the 4th tier out of 4, never winning any medals, and still was shy with girls.
Then something happened that changed him forever. One day, on a timed run - he ran so fast, he broke a record.
He kept breaking records every chance he got until he was known as the blur.
It was then and only then that his power of speed appeared. Speed that was so lightning quick, nobody could see
him. Soon, throughout school, strange things were happening when bullies took lunch-money from smaller kids.
One second the bullies had the money, the next second it was gone. One student that forgot his book at home found
his book 5 minutes later mysteriously on his desk. Once there was a gang coming down on some nerds and, before
they knew it, all of them mysteriously had punch-marks all across their faces.
John realized his powers had come to fruition. He decided to use his powers for good. Soon, there were stories
about mysterious blurs in New Jersey. Blurs that were so fast, witnesses could only describe them as shadows.
Muggings, attempted rapes, arsons, mafia crime, anything - all lost in the shadows.

That is what his name would be. Shadowrunner.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

BURN 2.0…

I’ve been wanting to get another shot at redoing my old comic/property BURN. And I’ve let my good friend Brian Yang talk me into doing it. So this time around, I’ve really changed the environment more than anything. And I’ve been putting much more work into creating a more unique world that these characters will be living in. Pictured above would be the entrance to Chinatown. Where there would be a bamboo forest used more or less as a “wall” from the rest of New York. And when you get through the forest, you’d be entering a more old school version of China.
Now I know this is not what you’d expect out of New York City. But I’m obviously going to be making some major creative liberties here. I’m going to be making an extreme version of each neighborhood. Looking back at BURN now, I wish I would have made things not so real. And more fantastic and wacky. So now that I’m doing it over…I figure why not do all those things that were irking me before, now?
It’s not that I think the old version is bad or anything like that. But it really has been a while since that story/comic has been out. So I think it’s just due for an update.

This here is a quick sketch of the main character Troy. He’s basically stayed more or less the same as before. I’ve just added a tattoo on his right arm and given him “bigger” hair.
Both of these illustrations were done with my trusty sharpie pen. Then I did all the textures in Photoshop but finished each piece in Illustrator. For some reason, I just feel more comfortable doing this stuff in Illustrator.
Anyway, hope you guys can get into this. I’ll be posting more of these illustrations every once in a while.
-jerry
www.epicprops.com

The Sketchbook Project - Guan Yu by Dashiell Tevis

Here is the second original character added to my sketchbook. Which translates into pgs 4 & 5.
This was actually the first character submitted via the angryasianman site.
Even though this was the first character submitted, I really loved what Dashiell came up with here. He really nailed exactly what I was hoping to get.
And here is the description in Dahiell’s own words:
The character is Steven Kwan, a fairly average, Chinese-American school student.
He’s not particularly athletic, and he’s not exactly the best student in the year as
the stereotype usually goes, or even that popular. He’s simply an easy going guy
who’s caught between two worlds: that of his family, which remains fairly
traditional, fairly pushy and deeply in touch with their Chinese roots; and that of
America, where he was born, raised and culturally brought up as. His family is a
fairly standard Chinese immigrant family. His grandparents don’t speak any english
and often maintain some prejudices against other people, particularly Japanese,
often saying things that Steven gets annoyed by. His parents are both hardworking
and fairly well off white collar workers who put a great deal of responsibility on
him, while spoiling his little sister. Despite his family pushing him and indeed
insisting that Steven do things to familiarize himself with Chinese culture- such as
going to Chinese school, hanging out with Chinese friends, etc. etc.- Steven himself
nonetheless remains a cultural American, some what different from the white
mainstream, but just as unfamiliar with the culture of his roots.

All that changes however, when he visits a Temple to Guan Gong, the God of War with
his grandparents. When there, he is suddenly infused with an aura- and discovers
that he is in fact the re-incarnation of Guan Yu himself- the great warrior of the
Three Kingdoms period. Because it is a time of turmoil in the world, the Jade
Emperor and the other gods had decided for the God of War to return to the earth, to
protect the innocent, and to uphold honor, courage and righteousness in the world.
Steven finds himself turning physically into the God himself (almost like the Mighty
Thor) equipped with his mighty Guan Dao and his mighty steed Red Hare. However,
Steven remains at his core Steven, and he uses his new found powers (somewhat
awkwardly at first) to fight against any trouble, be it criminal or mythical. Not
because of any personal tragedy, not because of any type of real material gain, but
just because it’s the right thing to do.

Thanks again for reading. Hopefully have some more sketches by the end of the week.
-jerry
www.epicprops.com

The Sketchbook Project - Hide by Parry Shen

I thought I’d repost this image of Hide with his bio as written by Parry Shen.
Again, the pages are much smaller than you think. So I wasn’t able to really do what I wanted with the bio page unfortunately. But I still think as a whole, it looks pretty cool. Just so you guys know, the ink from the previous pages drawing bled through to page 2. So I had to…and will do so going forward with each “bio”, lay it out in adobe illustrator. Print it out, and then cut it out and double side tape it down onto the blank page.
Just in case you aren’t able to read the text, here it is:

David “Hide” Takeda’s mother grew up without her parents after the atomic bomb
hit Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 . So when David was born, she made a vow to
never leave his side.

Growing up, David was showered with the love and attention any child could hope
for. He was a normal, happy, Japanese boy who was extremely well-mannered and
held all living things with the upmost of respect, especially his mother.

It was when he first entered elementary school that he noticed his extremely dry
and cracked skin. Doctors initially attributed his condition to Eczema. But as
the years passed, his epidermis worsened and callouses would develop over
previous layers of hardened skin. By the time he was in his teens, David’s skin
took upon a bumpy, armadillo-like texture.

Unbeknownst to David, The Department of Energy’s Human Genome project had been
tracking the development of Asian American citizens directly affected by the
atomic bombs for decades.

David was recruited into the DOE’s Atomic Progeny Program with the promise that
his curse could be turned into a gift with their assistance.

It was there that David was trained to harness and utilize his ‘invulnerability’
as a government asset and also found the love of his life — a fellow progeny.
However during a hostile security breach, David’s pregnant girlfriend died
trying to fend off the attackers.

Since that fateful day, David’s sensitivity hardened along with his exterior and
he’s only looked out for himself. He severed his ties with the APP and went
solo as a ‘Hero For Hire’. But like an athlete, it’s his endorsements on his
uniform, merchandised images and phrase “It’s Bashin’ Time!” plastered onto
posters, book bags and lunch boxes that bring in millions of dollars for him.

However, deep down inside there still lies a lonely Japanese Boy who wishes to
be someday loved once again.

POWERS:
Hide’s abilities stem from rapid skin regeneration. Whereas dead skin
periodically falls or flakes off a normal human body, David’s skin continually
grows layer upon layer and deadens his nerve endings so that he hardly ever
‘feels’ pain. His hide is currently 3 inches at its thickest point.

David possesses the peak athletic strength and endurance of a man who regularly
engages in intensive physical exercise. He can still be hurt/killed by large
explosions or traumatic falls but as he ages, the callouses have begun to encase
his internal organs, hence protecting them from damage as well.

However, the added weight around his lungs and heart has begun to inversely
affect his breathing. It’s only a matter of time before David must decide on
seeking assistance to excise his internal callouses before his skin becomes
virtually impenetrable to operate on.

These are pgs 2 & 3 of my sketchbook. Only…93 pgs more to go!
-jerry
www.epicprops.com

The Sketchbook Project

So here is the first character sketch I’ve done for The Sketchbook Project. This sketch actually translates into pg 3 of the book. The 2nd pg, which I have yet to do, will be a description of the character and who created him/her.
In this case, I drew the character Hide. Hide is one of the characters from Parry Shen’s Hibakusha story.
Parry was actually the first person I asked to write up something. Even though most if not all of you know Parry from films like Better Luck Tomorrow and Hatchet, he is a really really talented writer as well.
His story The Hibakusha is about the children of the survivors of Hiroshima experience and the strange side effects from it. The Hibakusha is one of the featured stories in our graphic novel, Secret Identities.
I’ll refrain from explaining exactly who and what Hide is, as I’ll be designing a “bio” page for each drawing. And I’ll scan and post that page once I’m done with it.

But I wanted to get this sketch up because I was just pretty excited to get it done.

So many thanks to Parry for being so cooperative on this. I’ve also asked a few other friends to participate in this project with me. Jeff Yang, Keith Chow, Keiko Agena and Bao Phi to name a few.
I’ve also been getting a bunch of great ideas from people. And am getting ready to start all of those. This book is turning out to be a really fun project for me to be a part of.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

The Threadless Loves Comics Contest!

Hey everyone.
Recently my good friend Cliff Chiang had done a comic themed tee for threadless.com.
The shirt had debuted at the San Diego Comic Con and was a hit!
Honestly, talking to Cliff about it while he was doing it…made me want to do one as well. But I mean…honestly, there is basically no way I could hang with him on something like that. I mean he’s friggin Cliff Chiang!
But lucky me…Threadless was good enough to open up the contest to us commoners. And…I figured I had to take the chance to do a design.

I knew going into it that I wanted to do something a little more cartoonic. And something that would allow me to fully utilize multiple panels. I always thought super heroic drawings on a t shirt looked a little wonky unless it was a silhouette.

Soooooo, I came up with this idea. I call it “The Evil Within”. I thought it would be cool using a innocent looking character having some sort of demonic creature coming out of his “soul”.
I drew the original on a 11″x14″ piece of smooth bristol. Using a 6H pencil to draw it first. I love using 6H pencils as it gives you a light grey clean line. I then used a sharpie pen to “ink” it in. And then finally scanned it in and did the flat colors in Adobe Illustrator. I then did all the textures in Photoshop.
Honestly I’m a little scared entering this contest…as I mean…there are sooooo many talented artists that submit to threadless daily. I’m just hoping to keep it respectable and stay in the game. I read that they will boot your design right off the site if you score very low in the beginning.
So please….please help me make sure that doesn’t happen to me.
And vote for me…HERE!

If this goes well, I’m hoping to get more involved and submit more designs to threadless.

Thanks a lot guys.
-jerry
www.epicprops.com