drawing n stuff

axu; illustration student at mica 2017; find me on twitter @epershannd

[dandelionwinecollective]

It’s here! Add Value/Add Time is our second anthology of short comics that explore the space that public transportation takes in our daily lives, premiering at MoCCA ‘Fest 2017. 

Featuring the work of the following artists:

Amanda Castillo - tumblr / twitter Amanda Rae - portfolio / twitter  Ann Xu - portfolio / tumblr / twitter / instagram Binglin Hu (Cover Artist) - portfolio / twitter / instagram Blair Nakamoto - portfolio / behance Bree Sullivan - tumblr / twitter  Cynthia Cheng - portfolio / tumblr / twitter / instagram / store Evangeline Gallagher - behance / tumblr / twitter / instagram Iris Ahn - portfolio / instagram Joy Ho - portfolio / tumblr / twitter / instagram Margaret Huey - portfolio / tumblr / twitter / instagram Rhiannon Hernandez - behance / tumblr / instagram

For those attending MoCCA, be sure to drop by our table at H260!! We will be selling our new anthology, our last anthology “3 AM”, and tons of fantastic work from MICA students. 

Also follow our twitter & new instagram to stay up to date!! 🌼🌼🌼

[annxu-blog]

Grab a copy of this at mocca ✌️

[annxu-blog]

new self portrait for my website bio

[annxu-blog]

A short 12-page comic I started last semester and finished up recently! It’s meant to be the prologue to a longer story I may or may not revisit in the future. I had this as well as Same Place Same Time for sale at the undergrad MICA illustration table at SPX last weekend. Thank you to everyone I talked to, bought from, traded with, etc.! I had a great time there on Saturday.

[powerandmagic]

POWER & MAGIC: THE QUEER WITCH COMICS ANTHOLOGY

15 comics about queer witches of color, created by 17 women, demigirls, and bigender people of color.

POWER & MAGIC is a comics anthology about queer witches of color for teens and adults ages 14-and-up. The book is over 160 pages long, black and white, and contains 15 original stories blending fantasy, drama, humor, and romance.

On January 27th, I asked if any women of color out there were interested in making comics about queer witches of color, an archetype near and dear to me… The answer was a resounding yes. POWER & MAGIC is brought to you by a team of 17 women, demigirls, and bigender creators of color.

The witch is an icon of power. She represents transcendence, healing, insight, defiance, feminine monstrosity, and a sacred relationship to the self, the community, and the universe. From the euphoria of holding the stars in your grasp, to the sacrifices we make to reach them, POWER & MAGIC explores what it means to be a person of power in all its complexity.

After 7 months of hard work to complete the anthology, we’re ready for your orders! Every dollar we raise here on Kickstarter goes toward covering print costs, paying the creators, and rewarding you with limited-edition extras and ever-increasing book quality! Read below to learn more about our backer rewards and about our system for paying creators.

POWER & MAGIC is edited by Joamette Gil, a queer Afro-Cuban cartoonist and founder of P&M Press. You can learn more about P&M Press, our mission, and our journey at PowerAndMagicPress.com.

Back POWER & MAGIC on Kickstarter today to make the magic possible!

[annxu-blog]

(Same Place Same Time)

If we lived in the same place at the same time,

you might have cut my hair all crooked, just like my sister's.

Before I go out the front door, you'd ask, "Meimei, did you put on a jacket?" And we'd go to the backyard together and pick apricots

If you were still here, if grandpa were still healthy, I think that as a kid, I probably wouldn't have understood what it meant to burn hell money.

I'd just like to carefreely spend time with you two

We could go feed grandpa together

plate after plate of fresh apricots.

But we never lived in the same place at the same time

A 16-page autobio comic I made for my junior mini-thesis about apricots, not having a relationship with your grandparents, and what-ifs. Flipping left to right it reads in English; flipping right to left it reads in Chinese, and the two parallel stories meet in the center. (I’m sorry if any of the grammar or wording is off!! I did my best and asked a few people to help with the Chinese, so hopefully it reads ok.)

I’m hoping to get the printed copies in my hands in time for SPX!! Either way, I’ll physically be at table E8 with Alternative Comics on Saturday, and my work will be at W70 with MICA Illustration.

You can also read this comic and see the full cover and center spread illustrations at my website!

[powerandmagic]

September 7th. It’s almost here.

Magic, wisdom, community, and misbehavior.

For many people across the world, the witch is a symbol of feminine strength and complexity. Power & Magic collects fifteen original comics about queer witches of color as they master their abilities, discover their traditions, and navigate love as beings with incredible power. Featuring the work of seventeen women, demigirls, and bigender creators of color, this queer witch comics anthology is as rich an experience as womanhood itself.

Power & Magic Press is an independent comics publisher in Portland, OR. Our mission is the creative and economic empowerment of queer creators, creators of color, and creators at the intersections. 

Follow us here and on Twitter to keep up with the campaign, and subscribe to our newsletter for a chance at free and reduced shipping when you order Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology.

And of course, spread the word! <3 <3 <3

[powerandmagic]

POWER & MAGIC CREATOR PROFILE

Today we’re going behind the scenes of Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology to chat with Ann Xu, creator of “After The Dust Settles.”

What is “After The Dust Settles” about? Why tell this story?

“After the Dust Settles” is about a girl trying to recover lost connections to her family and heritage. It’s my own uncertainty and feeling of being lost with my family’s first language transposed onto this character in a magical setting. I know there are a lot of people who feel the same way I do. In that, it’s not a new story by any means, but an important one, and I feel compelled to tell it anyway.

Tell us a bit about your cultural and creative backgrounds. Does one influence the other?

I’m a second-generation Chinese-American who grew up around other Asian-Americans, but I didn’t do a ton of thinking about my cultural background up until a few years ago. When I was a kid, my after-school art teacher would ask us every year if we wanted to do this contest about growing up Asian in America. I never did it because I didn’t understand the difference between growing up Asian and just growing up. I didn’t really have a point of reference for that. It’s different now that I’m older, though. Even if I never experienced most of the more common ways that Asian-American kids get discriminated against, I can see now the ways that culture and immigration affected my life, and lately those themes sneak into my art and writing. My background permeates the rest of my life and my creative work whether I’d like it to or not.

What motivated you to get involved with the anthology?

I’m trying to take bigger steps in putting my work out into the public, and applying to anthologies has kind of been my first foray into that. At the same time, I’ve also been thinking a lot about family and relatives, communication, and being disconnected. It’s just the way that my art and writing naturally lean recently. I was excited about the message and intent of Power & Magic especially, and I felt like it would be an apt place to show this kind of story.

Finally, what are some of YOUR favorite stories about witches? Bonus points if the witches are also queer and of color!

The two big ones are probably Harry Potter and Charmed. I watched so many episodes of Charmed with my sister when I was a kid.

Follow along on Tumblr and Twitter for all the latest from Power & Magic Press, and subscribe to our newsletter to learn the exact date and time of our Kickstarter launch (free and reduced shipping options for Early Birds)!

[powerandmagic]

Meet the Cartoonists Bringing You POWER & MAGIC This Fall!

Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology is bringing women of color, demigirls of color, and bigender people of color together to create 15 original stories with one thing in common: 

Queer witches of color as the leads.

Follow us here on Tumblr for progress updates, behind-the-scenes production work, and interviews with the creative team as we make our way to the official Kickstarter launch by summer’s end!

Without further ado, Power & Magic Press proudly presents the coven: 

AATMAJA PANDYA (Cartoonist: Travelogue, Baker’s Dozen, Chainmail Bikini: The Anthology of Women Gamers)

ANN XU (Cartoonist: 3 AM Anthology from Dandelion Wine Collective)

ARIANNE HOKOKI (Cartoonist)

COCO CANDELARIO (Cartoonist)

FYDBAC (Cartoonist: i.pity.mé, RAW: Hannibal/Will Fanthology from Bad Influence Press, Monster Anthology Volume 2: Demon Edition)

JEMMA SALUME (Cartoonist: Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard Volume 2 from Archaia, Broken Telephone)

JOAMETTE GIL (Cartoonist, Editor, Publisher: EverydayFeminism.com, Sweaty Palms, Dates: Queer Historical Fiction Comics from Margins Press)

JULIETTE G. DE M. MEDINA LOPEZ (Cartoonist)

MARIA LLORENS (Writer) & DEVAKI NEOGI (Artist: Curb Stomp from BOOM! Studios, Mumbai Confidential from Archaia)

MILDRED LOUIS (Writer: Agents of the Realm, Lil Poopy Superstar colorist for Oni Press) & MYISHA HAYNES (Artist: The Substitutes, Elements)

NAOMI FRANQUIZ (Cartoonist)

NATASHA L. BARREDO (Cartoonist)

NIVEDITA SEKAR (Cartoonist: Mermaid, Mehndi)

VERONICA AGARWAL (Cartoonist: Elements, Tiny Chef, and Magical Girl Problems, Magical Girl Solutions)

VEXINGLY YOURS (Cartoonist: Forgotten Roots)

[annxu-blog]

i’m super late reblogging this!!!  but please keep an eye out for Power & Magic later this year, there are so many great creators in this lineup and i’m really excited to be part of this project!

[annxu-blog]

wip preview of a short comic for an upcoming anthology ^o~

[annxu-blog]

Mixed drink illustration/recipe spread for lifestyle, plus an imagined alcohol label to go with it.

(Recipe is from here btw; it has such a lovely color and name to it that I had to choose it for this assignment.)

[annxu-blog]

fifth paper doll set for the semester

i thought these would match in my head a lot more than they actually do but!!  i’m super very into the ref i found of someone wearing a crap ton of leather, tulle, dark lipstick, and a very adorable clear star-laden purse (also that fur coat and Lipsticked Vampire Mouth bag lol)

[annxu-blog]

First assignment for advanced character design that I did back in January; we looked at cropped details of photos of people and chose three out of eight to take to final and intertwine narratively.  An older woman and her adopted assistant run an inn in rural northeast China, where her longtime friend from Russia often stays to rest and talk in between traveling around the continent.  

I got kind of interested in some stuff about the China/Russia border lately, and my own family is from northeast China too, so it’s not uncommon to see Russian influence or stuff when we go back.  For this one in particular I was thinking about a pair of travelers I saw at the train station (I don’t really know if they were Russian or not, but that’s how it is in my head).

[annxu-blog]

hey look whoa it’s some dolllssssss

ref’d from tokyo fashion, lil honey princess’ instagram, miu miu 2010, random bits and bobs from google, and the cat print clothes my sister made during her cat phase in college (she is arguably still in a cat phase now, but afaik not making any more cat print stuff)

[annxu-blog]

animation bits for a sketchbook assignment

[annxu-blog]

“50 Things” poster from last semester and a few details

50 childhood foods--a mix of Chinese food, supermarket snacks, and some miscellaneous things that we specifically ate in our family.

[annxu-blog]

A little mock-up of some plant-themed Facebook stickers for character design, and simple animated samples of two of them.  

[annxu-blog]

breaking that radio silence..i want to post regularly this semester

went to get my milk tea fix today, here’s a diagram of two high school kids with extremely slouchy backpacks i saw there