An Update of Sorts

Hi!

I've been a busy bee. Neglectful of this poor little blog. So, I've decided to dust it off, and make a new entry letting you all know what I've been up to as of late.

My major passion projects for 2013 are both in the realm of comics. Los Animales is in the webcomic arena, and Epilogue is in the traditional comic book arena. I'm super excited for both, and have been working super hard on them. Simultaneously.

Los Animales is a new webcomic about Music, Animals, and Broken Hearts. Basically, it's a soap opera type comic about hipster animals who (hardly) work at a record store, called Animal Sounds!

I co-created Los Animales with my friend Liz Ohanesian, who I've known since we were both 15 in highschool. Yes, really! I'm honored to be working alongside her, and couldn't ask for a better collaborator. She's a super talented writer, DJ, and I love her snarky sense of humor. Must be a “Valley” thing.

We recently completed Los Animales' debut chapter: Fours on the Floor, which you can now read in it's furcovered entirety! Chapter 1 clocked in at about 50 pages. I am insanely proud of the work I've been doing on Los Animales, and I really feel it shows. For a brand new webcomic on the block by a couple of n00bs like us, we've gotten some fairly good press and interviews. MTV Geek, Defective Geeks, Geeksmash, IANYAN mag, Drawn, etc. Our brand new webcomic can't even crawl yet, so thank you everyone for your support! It truly means a lot. :)

We also just soft launched Los Animales Chapter 2: NADARAVE! Here's the cover for it. We were going for a post-apocalyptic feel for the cover. What is Nadarave? We're about 8 pages into their tale if you wanna find out. Click here to read: NADARAVE

Speaking of things of a Post-apocalyptic nature, that brings me to Epilogue. Epilogue is a project I'm working on with my good friend, Daniel Levitch. Daniel has his own comic company, Ancient Squid Media and is no stranger to the comics industry. He's also director of Swine, a post-apocalyptic series of shorts with a steampunk aesthetic. He's currently working on turning Swine into a feature length film, and I couldn't be more excited for him!

The most I'm gonna say about Epilogue is that it's a 22 page comic about post-apocalyptic roaches. Daniel is a very talented writer, director, storyteller in whichever media he chooses. I'm very thrilled to be working on this project with him, and we're planning on debuting it at San Diego Comic-con 2013! I know it's gonna get a lot of attention, as it's a unique idea that truly deserves it. Here's what I can show you, a character lineup of some of the main characters in Epilogue. They'd make rad toys!

The comic is actually going to be a Prologue to Epilogue! A perfect introduction to the tale. Thanks for bringing me along for the ride, Daniel!

Combine all this w/ freelance work, and you'll figure out that I'm feeling like a bit of a madman right now. On the freelancery front, I'm currently a design consultant on a “top secret” project for Topps, the card company. I couldn't be prouder of the work I've been doing for them, and word is around the office their brand guys and high-ups dig my stuff! I've also been doing a bit of occasional word processing and graphic design work for a company called Inspector Playground. They inspect and check the safety of children playgrounds. I also designed their logo.

There are other freelance projects weaving their way into my life, brain, and hands soon, but I'll tell you about those when they come closer to materializing. That said, I am always on the lookout for freelance work. Get in touch with me if you, or someone you know is looking for someone like me for a freelance gig. I'd appreciate it.

Crazily yours,

Jeaux

What do you give to a Superhero Couple?

Before Art by Jack "The King" Kirby

After Art by Jeaux "How do you say that?" Janovsky

I've been itching to share this w/ you guys for awhile now, and now I can!

This is a wedding present I made for my friends, Daniel Levitch & Amber Levitch, who recently tied the superheroic knot. This is what you give to a super couple.

I doctored an old Fantastic Four comic and illustrated Daniel & Amber as their superhero alter egos: Multiple Lass & Squid Fingered Dude! (Please note the wedding band on one of Daniel's Squid fingers.) Also, they are battling, I mean WALKING, their new pup: DASH el Gigante!

Here you can see the Before & After!

I had an epic time Daniel & Amber, Thanks, Congrats, and here is to many, many years together for the 2 of you!

The happy couple at Comic Con!
-Jeaux Janovsky

Swine Time!

Recently, I had the pleasure of doing some freelance for my pal Daniel Levitch's film company, Well-Oiled Machine and their property: the Swine trilogy.

Daniel thought I'd be a good fit for creating the illustrations for the DVD covers to each trilogy installment, I think he was right!

Daniel & I both love the B/W work of Tim Bradstreet, and used his style as an inspirational springboard for the design sensibility of the cover illos.

My process was easily complicated.

• Daniel gave me a few pics to use of his actors.
• Once I found my choices, I brought the pics into photoshop and manipulated them into something that sort of resembled a B/W photocopy machine look.
• I toyed around w/ laying out and arranging the pics and shared the mockups w/ Daniel.
  
• Once Daniel okayed the mockups, I printed out the B/W characters on separate pages and prepared them for the hand drawn inking process.
• I taped the images to my lightbox and went to work w/ my sharpies and ink pens.
  
• I rescanned the inked characters and brought them back into photoshop and placed them in their proper areas, the same areas as when I layed them out for mockups.
  
• I sent Daniel & his friend Koren the PSD files and they created the final DVD covers.
  
  

I haven't had a chance to check out the final look, but I'm sure they did an awesome job. Pretty excited because Daniel & the rest of Well-Oiled Machine will be debuting Swine at Comic-Con this year!

Åsa Wallander as Wallace

Kelley Gallagher as Cahill


Kellsy MacKilligan as Mercedes

Jackie Becker as Amelia

Alanna Brown as Renn

Emily Chetner as Beck

Chris Wiley as Nixon

Gregory Lee Kenyon as Erickson
Thanks for letting me be a part of Swine, Daniel! I'm sure it'll kick loads of ass, bud.

To check out Swine, head over to the film's site: swinefilm.com, watch the trailer, here, friend & like 'em over at the official Swine Facebook page!
-Jeaux

Even More Cool Peeps!

Remember my new Sketchbook that some Cool Peeps drew in?

Well, here are some more quality Cool Peep sketches in my (now complete) sketchbook!

Ok, so Ray Harryhausen didn't sign this in my sketchbook. It's a doodle I did of him, when he visited Calarts a couple years back. I cut it out of another sketchbook and taped it in the newer sketchbook. Still pretty friggin' awesome if you ask me.


I love John Pham's work! He's a great guy and an even greater storyteller & artist. Very laid back. He drew this for me at a Chipotle in Burbank! Go buy John's book!


I met Joe Murray at a Lecture/Q&A he recently did at a local Barnes & Noble bookstore, promoting his very awesome book: Creating Animated Cartoons w/ Character! You should really pick it up if you are interested in creating and making your own cartoons! Highly recommended!


Guillermo Del Toro! Holy cow! I met him at a sneak peek for the dreamworks film MegaMind in a theatre in Long Beach. I'm sure I made a fool of myself, but he was very welcoming and even took the time to introduce me to his family. I asked if he would doodle on the back of some ticket voucher thing and he loved the drawing utensil my girlfriend had with her! I hope I run into him again someday!


Here's a fun pic collab from myself, my girlfriend Ava, and our pals Amber and Daniel! Can you guess who drew what?

I can't believe my sketchbook is finished! It is so very valuable to me now, as these drawings can truly attest to.

I should probably begin posting more of my own stuff around here too, eh?
-Jeaux