Birthday drawings for my friend Kristen and my co-worker Doug, featuring Sailor Jupiter from “Sailor Moon” and Lois Griffin as Yukari Hayasaka from “Paradise Kiss.” Drawn and colored on 4″ X 6″ post-its with blue Prismacolor Col-Erase pencil, sepia Faber-Castell Pitt artist brush pen, and Prismacolor warm grey markers.

I posted the drawings to their Facebook pages by snapping photos of them with my iPhone, and applying filters with the Flickr app. I love how they turned out, so I’m sharing them here as well:

My mom’s wish was to have the entire family go with her to Boston to celebrate her birthday – March 11 – and visit my brother Andrew, who is attending Berklee College of Music. She got her wish; all of us vacationed in Boston last week from the 9th to the 12th. Managed to do two sketches, which were penciled and inked on my mom’s birthday. The first was done in the morning at L.A. Burdick in Harvard Square, and the second during a celebratory dinner at Toro Restaurant.

On Saturday, I went with my mom to Salon Vertigo, where we both had an appointment with my favorite hair stylist, Yasaman Gharavi. My mom’s appointment was before mine, so while I waited, I sketched the view of the entrance in front of me. It made the wait go by so fast, it was my turn before I knew it. A productive visit overall.

By the way, for any of you living in the San Diego area who are looking for a great hair stylist, I highly recommend Yasaman. I have been seeing her and no one else for over five years now for all my haircut needs. Don’t mind making that 120-mile drive for her, either. She is that good!

Sketches of antique luggage and gift boxes for Will Weston’s Composition for Animation class at the Animation Guild.

My friend April Connors has her own private space within Keystone Fine Art Studios in Glendale, where she works as a figure painting and drawing instructor. Every Wednesday night from 7 – 10 PM, she hosts these figure drawing workshops, where the model dresses according to the theme of the evening. I attended her workshop for the first time last week, which was themed “Belly Dancer” and featured Gallery Girls model Olivia Lopez. These are my favorite drawings from that session:

The last drawing event of 2012 at Gallery Godo was on Friday, December 7. The theme was “Sugar Plum Fairy,” with Gallery Girls models Jennifer Patton and Olivia Lopez posing for the night, all done up and donning shimmering fairy costumes. Their makeup artist was present as well, curious to see how people were depicting her handiwork.

Among the artists that night were select members of Girls Drawin’ Girls, including Leen Isabel, whom I had met online in May that year after she introduced herself to me via Facebook. In her message, she said that she identified with some of the feelings that I shared in my Drink and Draw post, that she loved my art and blog, and encouraged me to keep writing and drawing. It was such a huge compliment to me that I friended her back, and since then, have remained in touch.

Anyway, we mailed Christmas cards to each other over the holidays, with me slapping a Post-it drawing onto the one I sent her. It was fanart of her webcomic Pole Dancing Adventures. She loved it so much that she posted it on the PDA site, crediting me and referring readers to my blog. Now I’m returning the love by telling you to check her stuff out because she’s a gorgeous, talented, and funny lady.

Need proof?

Drool over these cosplay pics.

Stare in awe at the Christmas card she gave me:

Jealous?

And read this, my personal favorite PDA strip. Haha! Yeah…

Later, everyone!

“Classic Pin-Ups” was the theme at Gallery Godo last Friday night, where I was hit with some bad news, and then good. Bad news: from what I overheard Gallery Girls model Jennifer Patton telling my friend Pierre Bernard, it was Gallery Godo’s final late night drawing event, as the gallery was closing its doors indefinitely. Good news: the late night drawing events will now be held at the Animation Guild, which is only a few blocks from where I live. Awesome!

“Simpsons” character layout artist Paul Wee was the special guest that night, drawing among fellow artists, and selling sketchbooks of his personal work. I wanted to introduce myself to him, but I was so in the zone with my figure drawings that night, the desire to have a few words with him simply slipped my mind. I think the fact that I don’t know what he looks like played a part as well.

The drawings featured here are posted in the order that I drew them, using black and blue Tombow dual brush pens on 9″ X 12″ Canson Universal sketch paper. Poses were 25 minutes each.

I was informed via mass Facebook invite of The Weekend Pilots Live at Titmouse Inc., which was to take place on the night of Wednesday, December 12, 2012, or 12/12/12, the final day that three numbers will align until the next century. Discouraged by the ticket price and my lack of knowledge on the Weekend Pilots, I headed over to the band’s website to see what all the hubbub was about. After giving their debut album a listen, which is available for free, I was convinced. Snagged my ticket online, and, when the day came, left work early to join my West Hollywood animation studio neighbors (Fox TV Animation and Titmouse are practically ten minutes away from each other) for an unpredictable night of comedy, music, and mayhem.

Weekend Pilots musician Jay Schultz gave an opening speech before Dick Figures creator Zack Keller and animator John Dusenberry took the stage to talk about their new web series, Duke of Fancy, for YouTube animation channel Rug Burn. The first episode of Duke of Fancy was then screened, followed by Rug Burn shorts Axe Cop, and Dogsnack.

Special guests Jerrod Carmichael and Ron Lynch were up for the stand-up segment of the night. Jerrod’s clever observation that being gay today is comparable to being black in the ’70s was a hoot among audience members, though Ron was clearly the top dog comedian, snagging the figurative trophy for inventiveness, as he employed microphone tricks to render his words nearly unintelligible, as if spoken underwater. Had this been a comedy standoff, Ron’s lip sync to a parody of Disneyland attraction “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” peppered with adult humor, would have been the coup de grâce.

The Weekend Pilots were the final act, bursting into song with various wardrobe changes and flamboyant antics to rival that of The Mighty Boosh. Never-before-seen animated music videos of “Business Bear” and “Make A Wish,” with art by Henry the Worst, were showcased, with the former video having it’s own live accompaniment. “El Lobo” and “Panty Survey” were the last two songs of their stint, with Jay Schultz running out into the crowd to wave maracas in people’s faces, or ask unsuspecting ladies how many pairs of panties do they own. Dozens of panties were dumped onto the audience, obviously during the latter performance, and thrown around. Pretty much the start of a typical Titmouse party.

Speaking of parties, the after-party was a success, with most of the audience sticking around to converse with the artists of the night – and perhaps to take advantage of the free booze and cake pops, but only a little! As for me, I got to do what I always look forward to doing at Titmouse parties: hang out with my Titmouse buddies. In this case, it was my favorite members of the “China, IL” crew: character layout artist Sakari Singh, storyboard artist Ben Li, and fellow LMU animation badass graduate David Reilly.

I also snagged a photo with Weekend Pilots musician Ray Timmons and “China, IL” background supervisor Martin Lopez. God, I look so out of place standing next to those super-stylish men. What the hell!?

To see more photos of the event, check out the set on Flickr.

Seth MacFarlane’s birthday is coming up this Friday, so I thought I’d take a moment to share a video I captured of him one year ago today at his house in Beverly Hills. The occasion: a “Guys and Dolls”-themed birthday extravaganza with a celebrity guest list that included Aziz Ansari, Mel Gibson, Jonah Hill, and Topher Grace. It was a night made unforgettable by the pitch-perfect sound of Seth’s voice as he sang the classics of Frank Loesser, accompanied by breathtaking aerial dance acts by skilled trapeze artists, as is evidenced by the 32-second clip below:

Here, he sings “Luck Be a Lady,” a favorite of mine since I first heard it in the movie “Mrs. Doubtfire” back in ’93. It’s not shot particularly well, as I have very little experience shooting movies, but I like it because it’s my own special memory of one of my animation heroes.

For photos of the party last year, check out the set on Flickr.