The Other Side

Museum Rules

This week on Incidental Comics: chaos and exploration in the art museum. For today's comic and Thursday's comic, I used rough sketches (pencil only, please) and photos (turn off the flash, sir) from visits to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, Denver Art Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Art Institute of Chicago.

The Algorithm

Why I Draw

Special thanks to sculptor Tom Otterness (a fellow Wichita, KS native), Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and anyone who's managed to snap a photo of the elusive Bigfoot. 

Is this why you draw? You can pick up a print in my new and improved poster shop.

Burning the Midnight Caffeine

I sketched this comic away from the comfort of my subterranean apartment, working instead at my parents' house in my youngest brother's room. This was a good excuse to draw the objects that litter the living space of a high school freshman: cheap keyboard, out-of-tune ukulele, assorted athletic gear, Skype equipment, and sweet band posters. I think the comic captures this environment of disorder - maybe at its own expense. Local shout out: the poster with the flaming orange spectacled head is by Kansas City's storied Vahalla Studios for one of my favorite bands, The Hold Steady.

Public Art

Inspired by some of the fine public art in Kansas City, MO. Except the last panel. I just wanted to draw some  Yuko Shimizu-esque mushrooms.

Museum Rules

I recently returned from a weeklong road trip across the upper Midwest. I had a chance to visit the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The one thing these great museums had in common: draconian rules.

Frustrated Artists Society

Apparently the society meets in an extravagant loft overlooking downtown Kansas City. They were originally called the "Frustrated Artists Guild," but changed due to the unfortunate acronym.

Museum of Contemporary Art

I half-heartedly included visual references to some renowned artists in this strip - decorations in each panel are inspired by Pollock, Kandinsky, Miro, Rothko, Warhol, and Picasso, respectively.