The Jason Turner Project – Page 2

The Big Slow Re-watch

I drew some comics about stuff that happened when Jesse was visiting last month.

At some point in May, Manien and I had the idea to re-watch Twin Peaks. We were recalling how pleasant it was watching the Return last year, only having one episode per week. The modern love of “binge watching” often turns shows into a bit of a blur. The weekly schedule gave us more time to savour it. So we decided to re-watch, but only one episode per week, meaning it will take the better part of year to get through everything. It also finally gave us inspiration to make a chalk board on the side of a shelving unit.

I was looking for something to draw and came across a still from a movie called Wonderwall. I have never seen it, but it seems like something I would have come across before!

I continue to be fascinated by different enviro houses. These cool looking earth houses are in Dietikon, Switzerland.

VanCAF, Questing and so forth

Most of May, and April I suppose, I was busy trying to get my new comic done in time for VanCAF. I did get it done but just barely. I was running around copying it, and making copying screw ups the day before the show. I have been making zines for 30 years, you would think I would have the process down by now. The new comic is Questing, and I also printed up my latest issue of Vinegar. Number 40!

Here are drawings I did of the Questing characters, so that I could stop flipping back to some pages from last year in my sketchbook.

VanCAF was a delight, as always. I was lucky this year to be in the front hall rather than the gym, which tends to get pretty hot. My table neighbour was Bria, who was great to sit by. As well as being a well run show, the people showing tend to be great too. I have sat next to many wonderful folks over the years. My Bird Comics continue to be a hot seller.

For the second time, we had a comic jam in conjunction with VanCAF. It was an awesome time, good turnout. Not quite as crazy amount of pages produced as last year, but still 60+.

Another fun aspect of the VanCAF weekend was that my old pal Jesse came to town for a visit. It felt like a good time for him to come by, he could see what an awesome show VanCAF is, experience the Vancouver Comic Jam, and then have a few days to hang out afterwards. We had such a grand time, many ridiculous ongoing routines. One of those friends where even if I have only seen him twice in the past 15 years, when we get together it is like we were just hanging out yesterday. It was so much fun. I may have a whole Vinegar issue’s worth of material from our six days together.

Birds, Memories and Dreams

I continue to inch forward with my D&D comic, which I had best get moving on if I want to have any chance of getting it together for VanCAF. In the mean time here is a comic that will appear in Vinegar 41, and drawings of a dream I had.

Drawings from 2018

I am inching forward on my fantasy comic. Some rough pencils and some writing. I need to apply myself more vigorously to it. In the mean time here is stuff I have been drawing in my sketchbook.

I found photos of women from the 1920s with wavy hairstyles. I love when I find groups of photos like this that have a real variety of faces. I’m assuming these were from my go to website for old timey photos these days Vintage Everyday.

I did this drawing of Albert Hofmann, the fellow who discovered LSD, on his birthday.

I was doodling Popeye characters and somehow ended up filling a page with Wimpy in a psychedelic burger fugue. This weekend the Popeye movie is playing at the Cinematheque, but the timing isn’t good for me. 11am the morning after a comic jam?

More Vintage Everyday, British people dancing from the 70s (I think).

And more. Women of the French Resistance in World War Two. Fighting Nazis! The ones in the second picture have grenades on their belts!

I guess mostly I feel like drawing people from old timey photos lately. These were men on postcards wearing fancy costumes.

And here is an actress Mary Nolan, from some time in the past. Oh probably almost 100 years ago! I still have trouble believing we are 18 years into the 2000s.

And here are some women from the Humanae Project.

Hourly Comic Day 2018

A Couple of Comics

I realized I have just been posting drawings lately. Probably because that is all I have doing recently! Though I am very slowly getting rolling on my next comic, tentatively titled Questing.

Here are two little comics I drew last week.

December Drawings

Year in Review? It seems like a long time ago that Fir Valley came out, but it was this year! And then all those glorious months of Twin Peaks. What a great year! Of course there was also a lot of shrieking and awfulness. All year long.

Regardless, here are some drawings I have done in the past month.

Manien and I were visiting her sister’s family and there was a waltz playing. Manien’s niece was trying to identify the composer, and accidentally mashed up Strauss and Waltz so it came out Schmaltz, which became…

Then I drew Strauss, because he had great hair.

Some men with hats from an old photo.

And a father daughter beret team.

A cute little temple with nice fall colours in pencil crayon.

I have been on a bit of Clash kick recently, watching documentaries about them and such. Drew this from a photo. Kind of botched poor Mick Jones’ face.

The rest of the country was in a deep freeze over the holidays, while Vancouver was its mild and rainy self. I thought I would draw some Arctic explorers, in sympathy for everyone dealing with the cold.

This month in drawings,

I am just slightly starting to work on two comics, while also still trying to wrap up Vinegar 40. Mostly though I have been puttering away doing drawings of stuff.

Here is a bricky cabin I found on Cabin Porn, a site that sometimes comes through for me with a nice cabin to draw. And it has great looking cabins, anyways.

Here are a couple of old time-y girls having a mystery snack. I think I found this on a site called Old Pictures, which has quite a lot of old pictures. Also a bit of an old time-y website.

Continuing my fascination with drawing temples, I found this one on googstreets in the United Arab Emirates.

And I came across a picture of this temple in New Mexico. I drew it while listening to the lovely Sam Beam of Iron and Wine, on WTF. He has the greatest laugh.

Here is something that happened one night when I was walking four blocks home after hanging out with Doug Savage.

And here is an old time-y lumber mill. I think I found it on that Old Photos site too.

Temples and Shacks

I haven’t been making much progress on comics, though I do have issue 40 of Vinegar almost ready to go. I drew the cover the other day.

In October I had that spell of drawing old time-y stuff. I drew these old time-y women in their swimming costumes.

I was also reading a book about utopian communities in British Columbia The Promise of Paradise by Andrew Scott, and that got me thinking about the history of Vancouver. I occasionally think it would be interesting to try to do a comic set in the early days of Vancouver. Here are some squatters’ shacks in what eventually became Stanley Park.

Here is the town of Yale, British Columbia, in its early days.

Here are some men working on the street car tracks at Main and Hastings.

I was reading another book, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Most of the book takes place in the Amazon, and part of it took place in Manaus, so I got on the old Goog Street View and found this colourful scene by a dried up river.

Once in a while if I am looking for something to draw, I will draw some tarot cards. There is a lot of crazy stuff going on in them, and it is an extra challenge when a card is upside down.

On Halloween I did not dress up as Mega-j, but I did draw this, inspired by the little pumpkin I carved.

I continue to find temples and the such enjoyable to draw, with all the crazy detail on them. I forget where this gateway was.

This is a gigantic monastery in Tibet.

One day I felt like drawing an astronaut and found this jumping chap. I thought it was from the first moon landing, but when I went to check it turned out it was from the LAST moon landing, Eugene Cernan, the last man on the moon. Kind of crazy how brief a period that all lasted. I also enjoyed how clunky and non-sleek the landing modules were.

And lastly a shack by a river in Lagos, Nigeria, with big houses across the way. Yeah it is all temples and shacks for me these days.

Things to Draw

When I don’t have an active comic project to ink away at, I will find myself looking for something to draw, to give myself something to do while I listen to a podcast. So here are some of the random things I have drawn recently.

Here is Mark Rothko. Someone posted a nice photo of him on twitter, so I tried to draw it.

Manien buzzed my hair for me again, and I was trying to think of a Halloween costume, and I thought “El, from Stranger Things!”

There is this website called Filmgrab, and its random post feature sometimes comes through for me when I am looking for something to draw. This is from Upstream Color, a movie which I might put in my top ten.

At some point this year I was looking at a photo of all the different body shapes of Olympic athletes, and I think that planted the idea that it might be interesting to draw different women athletes. I found shot putters on youtube and boy they go through a lot of postures in a single throw! And they make great faces when they are lost in that moment of throwing. Then I did some javelin and discuss throwers too.

I came across something claiming that Carl Jung was a spy in World War 2, and his codename was Agent 488. So I drew that secret agent.

After drawing lady athletes, I thought it might be fun to draw old time-y boxers for some reason. I couldn’t find much in the way of interesting photos of them though. I did find this.