How are you doing?

I'm doing (art for a movie called) SUPER.

So.

It's like this: the fairly badass James Gunn wrote this fairly badass script, a hilariously dark take on a man who attempts to reinvent himself as a superhero. It's starring equally badass actors Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, and other household favorites.

Rainn Wilson's character, Frank, is... well, I don't want to say sadsack, but he hasn't got a whole laundry list of things going for him. What he does do, is he likes to draw, and tape those drawings up to his wall.

That, ladies and gents, is where I step in.

"But Danielle!" you cry. "You can draw real good."

"I know," I say. "I do draw real good."

Thing is, Frank doesn't. A local studio in town is working on some vfx for the film and due to my close, personal ties with "someone" working there, when their initial passes didn't cut the mustard (ie, they were too good), I decided to give it a go. I basically drew as I did when I was 8. Which was really quite fine for an 8 year old, but pretty bad for a 30 year old professional artist.

James Gunn liked them.

I lost count of how many drawings I did that weekend-- I was told on Friday I was working on the project, and on Tuesday we had to deliver something like... I don't know, 100 drawings? James gave us a list of about 50 things to draw, and the rest we just started brainstorming. They became rather ridiculous. All the while, they all had to look like how I'd been drawing. With 3 different people that can be difficult so I'd end up redrawing some things. We put in one 14 hour workday, and at the very end, we were emailing drawings of one shot to James, and he was writing back saying, "They're too good, make it simpler..." I was so exhausted, I had lost the ability to be truly awful.

Wednesday morning of that week was the first day of shooting. The first scene being shot was a wedding scene, and they needed someone on set to draw. I went out there, in 30 degree weather, and surprisingly managed not to snot all over the drawings. They were filming inside of a local house, so the art department, where we were finishing up some work, was the bathroom, which we actually had to clear out of when one of the star needed to use it.

And I can't very well show you photos of my artwork, or how it looks in the movie. You'll have to just wait for the theater. Or! Or! How about, how about you buy it on bluray and we'll freeze frame it! And then look at it! Rainn Wilson told me not to get too attached, since it'll be in there for like 4 seconds, so I think that's what we just hafta do guys.

Check out James Gunn's website for any SUPER production details.

APE

Oh, right, I remembered just now that I have a blog.

Flying out to San Francisco on Thursday to go to the Alternative Press Expo. This time Art Squared won't have a table--the cross-country moved distracted from applying in time-- but I'll be roaming the aisles.

Exciting.

You have to be joking.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from danielleg's posterous

Stranded in Dallas

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from danielleg's posterous

My objective to post more regularly via my camera phone and posterous has been thwarted due to TOO MUCH HAPPENING.

Just know stuff is happening.

Why my car service is The Worst

So, last Saturday night, when I realized I was running late to Kelly's birthday (#1 of 2 birthday parties I was going to that night) so I called the car service and asked how much a ride to Williamsburg would be. $12 or whatever it was sounded fine so they headed over, and I jumped in the cab saying, "North 6th and Berry in Williamsburg!" and then busied myself on my phone. So then what happened next maybe I would have noticed it had I not been on the phone, but really, it didn't matter.




I'm providing a map for those of you who don't know NYC well. Just know, I live in Queens. Williamsburg is a neighborhood in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is a borough directly south of me. Across the East River from both Queens and Brooklyn is Manhattan. Y'know, the place with all the buildings. There are a number of bridges that connect Brooklyn to Manhattan, one of which is the Williamsburg Bridge, named such, because it sorta starts in Williamsburg? And then it goes to Manhattan? Got it?

Basically what this idiot did was jump on the exit for the bridge to Manhattan.


I looked up just in time to see the "You're leaving Brooklyn; Oy vey!" sign and see that I was over water and I was like "What are you doing?! Where are we going?!"
Him: "We go to Williamsburg!!"
Me: "We're going to Manhattan!!!"
Him: (scoffs) "You never been to Williamsburg?? You don't know how to go??"
Me: "WE ARE GOING TO MANHATTAN. WILLIAMSBURG IS IN BROOKLYN."
(we come off the bridge and drive west on Delancey Street, now firmly in Manhattan)
Him: "This is Williamsburg!! You don't know Williamsburg?!"
Me: "DO YOU?? Williamsburg is a neighborhood in BROOKLYN, you took me to THE WRONG BOROUGH."
Him: (continues to scoff) "No, no, not Brooklyn!!"

I then called the dispatcher and put him on speaker and went, "Out of curiosity sir, where is Williamsburg? Is it Manhattan or Brooklyn?" "Brooklyn!" "Well your driver just took me to MANHATTAN. We're on Delancey Street!" "What! You wanted to go to Delancey?" "NO YOUR DRIVER DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING" the dispatcher was like, aw man, and got off the phone with me to call the driver. At this point, we just kept moving further and further away from the bridge... but there was no U-turning anyway because of the traffic. And then it occurred to me I didn't want to depend on this idiot to drive me anywhere so while we were at a red light I just got out without paying him (i threw a couple of dollars and THAT was too much, in hindsight), and flagged down a taxi who took me to Williamsburg. In Brooklyn.

So that is why I hate my car service.

Mocca, etc.

Well, I officially hate my camera. That's what I learned at MoCCA.

My scanner completely and ultimately pooped out on me, and so I wasn't scanning pieces as they were finished, and being that I have a craptastic little Sony point and shoot, I didn't really get any snaps of them at home. It occurred to me once the pieces actually started selling that I didn't have record of them. Duh.

So, utilizing the awful lighting in the Armory, I took some blurry photos of the table.


Not many really turned out too well. Bah.


In this one, I put little asterisks (...which you can't actually see unless you click on the image. ha.) on the ones that I still have, and didn't sell. I actually brought even more in on Sunday, and sold out of all the new items. So out of the 20 or so that I made, the ones you see with the asterisks are all that's left, and going onto etsy in the next day or so.


And quite frankly? I can't decide whether to be upset or glad that this one didn't sell. It's my favorite one. I did it at TCAF and it didn't sell there either. Seriously, people; it's a bird and a donut. How can you turn your back on a bird and a donut? I will probably make a print of this just to have for myself in the event that the original sells either via the blog or etsy.


This was something else I liked, and it sold pretty much right off the bat. A guy pointed at it, and asked his friend if someone would like it, and the friend was like, "If you don't get it for her, I'm going to get it". So that was pretty cool.

The Armory was hotter Sunday than it was Saturday, I think, and a prolonged lunch up the street was most welcome. I then came back and melted awhile. I didn't really get to walk around like I promised myself, except to buy Meredith Gran's excellent third volume of Octopus Pie.

All in all, MoCCA was a fair success. I am looking forward to Comic Con in San Diego, though I know I'll have the opposite issue with the temperature; I will freeze my butt off and run outside for brief moments where I can sit in the sunshine... and watch dudes joust on the terrace.

MoCCA.

I didn't bring all of my business cards by accident today, and so they were all snatched up. Some people who may have gone to my website may wonder why they are looking at a blog, and not a real website. Well, let's chalk it up to "not being able to get my crap together in time", and so I just set it to redirect to my blog. It's exciting stuff.

So far, it's going pretty well! I am at home, exhausted, not doing fun stuff, because not only did I do too much fun stuff too late Friday night, but it was hot in the Armory. By the way, MoCCA is in a freaking National Guard Armory. It's sort of strangely forboding, like, you feel like you're trapped inside while the zombie hordes are clamoring outside. It's huge and hot. I was very tired by the end of the day, despite consuming a total of five shots of espresso and one grande iced coffee from Starbucks.

I sold a number of framed pieces, and like I said, gave away all the business cards that I had. I managed to walk around briefly when my friend Nicole arrived. I also acquired the following things:

This great shirt from Squid Fire

and


This amazing print from artist Stephanie Yue.

I didn't get any books, or much time to look at any; I had to head back to the table to hold the fort down while Joe drew caricatures. Tomorrow I aim to score some more sweet loot, probably including the latest 'Octopus Pie'.

I better take some photos, too. I always forget to. Mostly because I'm stuck sitting behind a table, not wandering around...

Dear NBC

Three things.

Number One: we have enough tv shows where people can read each others' minds. It was a neat episode of 'The X-Files' (i'm... pretty sure it was an episode of the 'x-files'), but let's just move on.

Number Two: If you're shooting for having a suspenseful drama, don't name the protagonist Toby. Toby. For Chrissakes. Seriously.

Number Three: Soft lighting works for Tyra Banks, but not for a primetime drama. About reading minds.

If you're wondering what I'm referring to, it's the new summer hiatus time filler The Listener. Why we couldn't just have a night of reruns of '30 Rock' I'll never know.

Oh you crazy kids and your robots and comics

So, MoCCA starts Saturday. A problem I had with TCAF was just that I didn't have the ability/opportunity to make enough originals or to make prints. I'll have a few more originals this time around, and also some prints. I'm emphasizing the words some prints.

But whatever; I'm looking forward to it. The Art Squared table will have all the books of course, including 'Famous Corpses'. I'll be there with my tiny corner reserved for the mini art, and I'll sign copies of 'Famous Corpses' as they sell. I'm interested to see how it sells at this crowd; the NYCC and Mega Con saw a bit of interest, but it was TCAF where people were all over it. I'm assuming because it's a more indie, irreverent crowd? And so is MoCCA. So we'll see.

TCAF 2009: A recaf. I mean recap.

So this is how it went down: 9am, I piled into a van with fellow artists Joe Bluhm, Brendan Burford, and Rina Piccolo, and we drove a million hours and crossed the border into exotic Canada. I experienced Tim Hortons. I say "experienced" because all of my Canadian friends have waxed poetic about it for so long. My experience was mundane, though tasty.

It occurred to me upon arriving that, oh shit, I didn't have business cards. Cue hurriedly throwing something together on a laptop and then running a thumb drive to the least helpful printers in North America. But whatevs, I ended up with cards.

Essentially, I was there to sign copies of 'Famous Corpses', but I also--at the last minute-- brought some mini pieces of artwork, which sold very well, considering I really didn't bring enough, and particularly didn't bring enough robot pieces, because as we all know: People love robots.

No matter! I'm going to be completely prepared for MoCCA, which is creeping up on me.

At any rate, I had a lot of fun in Toronto, met some fab people, and saw a good number of things. I just wish I'd been able to buy more books-- I did manage to pick up Kate Beaton' book, which I heard sold out. I believe she should have more at MoCCA, for anyone who may be there. It's totally worth getting.

Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis

In which he interviews cartoon pilot and star of 'Mad Men', Jon Hamm. So dreamy.

TCAF 2009

Now that I've remembered there's an internet to be on, let me take a moment to say that the answer to your burning question is that yes, I'm going to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Art Squared will be at a table (most likely dominated by a banner featuring George Costanza's giant head, as seen on Rachel Maddow (about 18 seconds into this clip) and I'll be sitting there. If someone wants a book, I'm there. If someone wants to steal my chair so they can get drawn by Joe Bluhm, well, I'll be... right over there.

At any rate, WOW! Exotic Canada! I've never been! I one time went to the Canada Pavillion in Epcot. The educational video I watched tried to tell me that everyone in Canada ice skates, and is either a fisherman, a dog sledder, or a cowboy. Scott Pilgrim tells me everyone is a cartoon, and when you fight people, coins appear from the sky. So I don't know who to believe.