Tomorrow I'm off to the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, WA. I'm really excited because I will be offering--for the first time ever!--a bound volume of Brushpen Breakfast drawings.

May I present BRUSHPEN BREAKFAST, the BOOK:

The idea is to make it look as close as possible to an actual Muji sketchbook. Dig the sticker! It says "Brushpen Breakfast" in Japanese on the first line, and "Martin Davis" on the second [I feel immensely clever about that (thank you, magic internets!)]. The whole thing will be spiral bound just like one of my Muji sketchbooks--and just like one of my sketchbooks, it will be filled with brushpen drawings.

Looks like I'll be bringing about 50 up to Seattle. They will be for sale. I'll have another 50 or so left at home, so if you're interested, give me a jingle. It's sure to be a collectors' item!

MUJI PEN!

Here is the famous Muji Brushpen, the implement responsible for most of the drawings posted here over the years. Still for sale at a very reasonable £2.50 from England, (buy in bulk, because the shipping is a killer).

Where can you purchase these? Why, RIGHT HERE.

Here's my other favorite panel from my story in the new T.A.G. Annual Sampler: the climax of The Teen Ellis story.

Rick Schmitz and I will have a table at the Emerald City Comic Con and we will be selling copies of this delicious tome. We'll also be doing drawings. Please come by and say "Howdy!"

Print-on-demand T.A.G. Annual Sampler available HERE....

For Emerald City. Rick and I are hoping to mount this poster somewhere and watch the crowds start to flock.

Guess I better get that sketchbook printed in time--my first in-person banner, and could already be accused of false-advertising....tsk, tsk.

Back cover!!

(How embarrassing to write about yrself. It's off to the printers, otherwise I'd redo it all....)

Sister page to previous post (it'll be a two-page spread! pretty posh, huh?) Just some more thoughts on method.

 The lass looks unimpressed.

Some explanation as to how I go about editing the images posted here. For the sketchbook book project.

Here's the one page done in those crappy pens that did make it in.

'Cuz y'know...puppies.

Here's a page that didn't make the cut for the sketchbook. Drew it with the typical sort of "brush tip" felt pen art stores sell. Not like my Muji.

A glimpse of my "Monsters & Dames" page for the Emerald City Comic Con. Going for a Gibson Girl type.

Felt-tip markers with Pho-Sho enhancement.
An image that fairly screams: "Happy St. Valentine's Day!"

I like working from little bronze statues because you can really find a meaty core shadow map. Just dragging the brush down the figure following the soft and hard edges of this core shadow really makes for an amazing study.

Works great when you do it right...so evocative. I remember guys at the Watts Atelier that did some amazing charcoal work like this--Ron Lemen & Jeff Watts of course, but also Aaron Westeberg and Stan...Stan...what was Stan's last name?

I should do more like this! (From a long-ago Getty trip, dug up for the sketchbook project.)

Putting together this sketchbook project, some of the coolest art I've found are sketches done while visiting museums--in particular, sketches of sculpture--and even more particularly, sketches of Rodin sculptures.

This one was done at the Rodin Museum in Paris, which everyone will tell you is fantastic and a must-see.

And they'd be right.

From that same El Segundo SBUX.

They still get an absolutely great crowd of faces and types...most of 'em pretty posh, but still....

...how can you resist someone wearing a "BEACH GOTH" sweatshirt--with pentagram sun beams?!?"

Dropped Dear Wife at LAX this a.m. With this sketchbook project in mind, I drove to my old haunt, the fancy SBUX inside El Segundo Plaza at Sepulveda and Rosecrans. Found the place still doing brisk business, but with a staff I didn't recognize.

This fancy stand-alone store had just been built when we moved to the area back in '06. I was looking for a way to replicate my old Paris routine of going to Paul for coffee and drawing my fellow patrons while I sat...nothing new or revolutionary in that. Thought it would be a good way to get back to the brushpen, and to get out in the morning. This is where Brushpen Breakfast started.

In the very beginning, I played the naif as long as I could, asking if I could get a refill on my latté--which the girls working the bar usually allowed, taking pity on this old man and his sketchbook (these were the famous "Starbucks Sisters"--I never had the courage or skill to capture them properly in brushpen, DANG-IT), (and honestly, I wasn't familiar with how SBUX did their beverages, so I wasn't being a total skeez)(not totally, anyhow).

Very fun to sit and give the interior a sketch. I should do more of these....

So the estimable Rick Schmitz got it into his head that those of us affiliated with the long-standing T.A.G. Blog, (and, afore that, the actual Tuesday Art Group of San Diego, founded by the late Shel Dorff, originator of the famous San Diego Comic Con), should collaborate on a book.

A T.A.G. Annual Sampler, if you will (tho' everyone else spells it "TAG").

After a lot of cat-herding and late night layout, that book is done. I have a story in it (The Teen Ellis), which is a five-page humor piece. I also did the cover, which you see above. Rick did the coloring, which you can see on the final book HERE.

And you can buy it HERE. We self-published thru Lulu, where the book is available at cost. Which is a deal, I think.

The final book exceeded my expectations--the art is all so varied, and all of it is interesting. Most of it is non-narrative (character design, gag drawings, etc.), but there are a few stories peppered thru-out, (fer instance, Rick's CREEPLE). One happy outcome of all this: everyone who contributed is more fired up than ever to do a second edition--and everyone who skipped this one wants to be involved in a second. So we are truly looking at the first of an annual thing here.

It all came together beautifully, (great job, Rick!), and makes for a really good reading experience. You'll love it.