The Classroom Curses: Of Lockers and Lockets

Here’s a short spooky comic I created, just in time for Halloween! The Classroom Curses: Of Lockers and Lockets is free to read here: ClassrooomCurses2

Awards season

I was happy to learn that Cooties #11 was nominated in the Comics category for the 2018 Association of Mormon Letters award! Feels nice to be noticed.

While unrelated to anything noticeably Mormon, the theme of the issue, sibling relationships, was heavily influenced by both my Mo upbringing and my experience as a parent.

Just having my name mentioned in the same category as such great people as Jake Parker, Brandon Dayton, Noah Van Sciver and Brittany Olsen is such a huge honor for me. It blows my mind that putting the challenge to myself to produce an entire comic issue in 30 days has resulted in this kind of reception. I’m more stoked than ever to keep producing stories for this series!

 

 

New Nerdy Storybook Cover print design

I’ve finished another design for my Nerdy Storybook Covers print series! Combining Harry Potter and Dr. Seuss. I think it works! I’ll have these available for purchase at FanX in April.

Served: a missionary comic anthology

While I am not much of a churchy person anymore, from 1995-1997 I served as a Mormon missionary in the jungles of Guatemala and Belize. I had a ton of memorable experiences, and I get to share an aspect of them in a new book put together by a bunch of former missionaries! Served: A Missionary Comics Anthology is about a week old on Kickstarter, and has already been funded, so this thing is a go!

My contribution is a 6-page story entitled Creatures Great & Small, mostly chronicling my encounters with Central American bugs. I’m really proud to be able to work alongside so many talented artists & writers; check out this article from the Deseret News for more info. You can back the project on Kickstarter to get a copy, as well.

Update: Additional coverage on LDS Living

Salt Lake Comic Con 2017

Earlier this year I purchased booth space at an Artist Alley at a video game convention. It was pretty much a huge disaster. A scene that epitomized the whole experience happened when a shirtless man carrying a giant faux battle-axe walked through the mostly deserted aisle where my table was located. He was dragging his significant other by the hand, and said in a very loud voice, “We are not here to buy ART!” So yeah.

Even though I had tried to mentally prepare for the fact that I was experimenting with a new venue, and that it might not turn out that great, it still put me in a huge artistic funk. I just felt burnt out on the whole convention experience, and was not in the mood to keep coming up with ideas for new products to sell. Putting pen to paper was a super frustrating experience, so I was not looking forward to Salt Lake Comic Con this year, even though I had already purchased the booth space.

I packed up what few things I had available and trudged to the Salt Palace on Thursday morning. My son Nate had some space at the table as well, and I was grateful I didn’t have to try and fill it. I was actually kind of pissy as we set up the booth. I was not looking forward to dealing with my social anxiety for the next three days.

Thankfully, I have a good friend who recently introduced me to some techniques for dealing with anxiety. I won’t go into the details, but these combined with the atmosphere that is Comic Con combined to lift my spirits immensely. Out of the streams of people walking past my booth for the next couple of days, it was great to see the various reactions to my Storybook Cover parody prints, among several of my other drawings; and I was able to push through my introversion to have a few great conversations with some truly awesome people.

So, although I made most of my table money back, it wasn’t a great success nor a huge disaster. However, the experience has motivated me to create like I haven’t done in a long time. I’m in full-on writing mode for my next Cooties book, and hope to have it completed in time for next year’s convention, along with as much other stuff as I can create. I’m so grateful to be a part of the great community of artists in Utah!

 

SpiderForest Anthology Kickstarter

The awesome webcomic collective I belong to, SpiderForest, is Kickstarting a 100+ page comic anthology! It includes a 4-page Cooties story by yours truly, and the $40.00 tier comes with a sketch card by me of a character of your choice! Go back this project here.

You can also contribute a small amount to show support even if you don’t want the book. Thanks!

Where you can stick it!

I’ve been keeping up with my sketch card habit; I love being able to take a few minutes one or two nights a week and doodle a fun character. I’ve also been trying to come up with ways to make each drawing become a source of passive income, instead of just selling the drawing at the next comic convention or my Etsy shop and having it vanish.

My latest attempt at this is…stickers! I’ll be tabling at Salt Lake Gaming Con in July (more info on that soon), and I thought that would be a good place to try selling sticker sheets of some video game characters. I got these small batches from stickermule, and I think they turned out pretty good! I really hope this becomes a good way to do something additional with my sketch cards.

You can see all of my doodles over on my Instagram.

nickperkinsart.com

The past few months doing freelance work has given me enough material to finally put up a portfolio website. Go check out nickperkinsart.com and have a look!

The tightest in all the land

Just felt like doing a sketch of some of my favorite Jimmy Fallon silliness:

Nerdy Storybook Print: No, Deadpool!

I’ve added a new print to my Nerdy Storybook Covers series:

This is based on one of my favorite books to read to my sons when they were little, No, David! It might be a little too gruesome, but there might be an audience for it. We’ll see. I hope to have some for sale if I get approved for a table at FanX in March (crossing fingers).

Sketch cards: I hate winter

I think spring needs to come the day after Christmas, but no, we have to wait for 2-3 more months for the cold and depression to beat us down for a while so we can appreciate springtime or something.

Anyway, last week I fought back by drawing some ice and cold-based characters:

Elsa because Duh

Mr. Freeze

Iceman!

Cute lil Jack Frost

And Killer Frost because The Flash is the best comic book show on TV right  now.

Hope you all can stick it out through the rest of winter, unless you live in Hawaii or California because I hate you.

Freelance Friday: dibujando en espanol

I recently got some semi-steady freelance work illustrating a High School Spanish textbook. Fun stuff!

Throwback Thursday: Frozen

Previously published in The Utah Statesman in Feb 1999

I still hate winter; although not as much as some people…

Review: Little Bot and Sparrow

I’ve been a huge fan of Jake Parker for several years. He is a talented illustrator who shares his wisdom freely. He was a presenter at last year’s Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators conference, and I got to see some of his process for creating this great new children’s book, Little Bot and Sparrow.

This is a beautiful book with a humorous and touching story about a robot who befriends a curious little bird. They learn about their similarities and differences, and it actually has kind of a bittersweet ending that teaches kids how to handle goodbyes. The illustrations are gorgeous enough to spend quite a bit of time devouring. I bought a copy for some of my nephews & niece; I hope they have as much fun reading it as I did.

Sometimes you just draw trees

Just a personal study for fun.

It won’t stop

So now this sketch card thing has become a mostly daily habit. This is pretty awesome, in my opinion. They’re relatively quick, and I am still finding time for other projects which I’ll post about soon. Here’s my most recent batch:

 

Wise advice from a former president

a tribute to the late Carrie Fisher

Tiny lil’ Ghost Rider

Sketch card mania

I’ve been steadily doodling since the new year started, and loving it.I did a few more Gravity Falls character sketch cards:

Dipper Pines!

 

Grunkle Stan,

 

and Soos!

And maybe I was just feeling a little murdery today, but here’s a Red Skull with a smoking gun for you, too:

I’ve also been particularly busy with some freelance work. More on that tomorrow, maybe. Later!

Gravity Falls art: Mabel Pines

My kids and I have finally discovered Gravity Falls. It’s everything I love in a show: humor, mystery, adventure, and a great cast of unforgettable characters. I’ll probably be drawing more of these guys 🙂

December Ink Week: Rocket & Baby Groot!

Ink week took longer than a week this month. Oh well. I am super stoked for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2!

#Artsnacks – DuckTales

I’ve recently subscribed to Artsnacks – a subscription service that sends you a different mix of art supplies every month, then challenges you to make a piece using them. Wondering what to do with the 5 primary color watercolor pencils I got, and after seeing the teaser for the DuckTales reboot, I scribbled this out. It’s not that great, but it was fun, and I’ve got materials to practice new media & techniques with every month!

Also, I think more than any other animated cartoon, DuckTales has influenced my approach to storytelling profoundly. Most of the cartoons I grew up with (Transformers, TMNT, Thundercats, etc.) all pretty much stuck to the same genre and plot structure. But DuckTales would have an Indiana-Jones style adventure one episode, then switch gears and have everyone time travel back to medeival times, then have superheroes the next episode, then be about a Civil War re-eneactment the next episode. It asked “why would we possibly limit ourselves to one type of story?! Let’s just have fun.” This is the philosophy I intend to adhere to as I take up Cooties again soon.

And yeah, this teaser is literally a tease, but it worked on me…

December Ink Week: Drax

 

December Ink Week: Gamora

December Ink Week!

Um you guys better freaking believe it’s Guardians of the Galaxy week up in here, a-holes! This is one of the greatest trailers ever. BABY GROOOOOOOT!

Doctor Strange ink drawings & review

I was really inspired this month to create these drawings after watching Marvel’s newest superhero movie, Doctor Strange, or as I like to call it, “Iron Man Goes to Hogwarts!”

While the story is, by this point, a run-of-the-mill Marvel origin, the visuals and performances of the main actors definitely make this film a feast for the eyes and push all the right nerd buttons. Cumberbatch is perfect for the role of Stephen Strange, and Ejiofor & Swinton provide excellence all around in their roles, as well.

As per usual, a great actor is wasted as an underexplored throwaway villain; the visual effects and a truly creative Dr. Who-esque ending save this film. Loved it.

I’ll be selling these as a set in my Etsy store soon. Keep your eyes peeled!

Throwback Thursday: Snow driving

created August 15, 2007 – A True Story

It’s supposed to be the first snow day of the season in Salt Lake today. This year I have snow tires. Be safe, folks.