| My Helium Distress! |
[Nov. 28th, 2009|11:50 pm] |
I stayed inside and piled all my grandparents' stuffies on my head during black friday, so I didn't buy a thing! If you are like me, and fear being trampled on any old day at the shops--let alone in December--perhaps you'd like some holiday shopping help? I put a few paintings up on My Etsy Shop, plus I added my Mickey's Diner Print to my BigCartel Store, and screwed around with a goofy Linney T-Shirt. |
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| Downloading Optimism |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|11:06 pm] |
Oh man, eventually the words are going to completely take over my comics and I'll just be writing out essays by hand. And yet, I could have written so much more! Must... stop... and focus on... my actual scheduled work for today...
I drew this last night and tonight, and Linney helped. Cats are such jerks.
Atwood's new book (The Year of the Flood) is a follow-up to Oryx and Crake, which I read when I was eighteen or nineteen, and which made a profound impact. Nelly and I actually read it together while we were traveling by train, and had to read it aloud to one another in order not to fight over who's turn it was with our one copy. It gave me a serious fascination with genetic engineering, especially pertaining to the food and drugs we put in our bodies. I'm really loving The Year of the Flood, but I'm trying to read it as slowly as possible, to draw it out as long as I can (and because it tends to give me very strange dreams, so I try not to read it before bed). A warning; if you plan to pick up either of these books, you will never see scientific-breakthrough product commercials the same way, again.
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I'll have a table at the Chicago Holiday Renegade Craft Fair in about three weeks, with my crafty pals, Nelly and Nora. There will be so many comics and bags and neat stuff for sale! And I'm gonna sell little on-the-fly watercolors at the request of visitors-- so it's your chance to have me paint whatever your heart desires! Whee!
Come visit us, please? See you there! |
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| Wordy One-Pager |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|10:53 pm] |
To be fair about my paralyzed reaction to this sort of contact, I had no idea how to deal with boys, despite being about 13 and having almost only male friends. Up until that year (when Gareth noticed I was female), I was...um... I had a singular style, and never had to think about boys beyond how much I enjoyed hanging out with them and playing Ren and Stimpy on Sega Genesis.
In order to draw this comic, I did a little research into bottle-base sidewalks. They were made to illuminate the basements below the city buildings, because NYC is so crammed that it's mostly built up and down. Turns out, there are a TON in downtown Manhattan, where I was a kid. They exist in other cities too, but they aren't that common, anymore. What's really sad is that a lot of them are wearing away-- the prisms busting out and breaking. But look: aren't they fascinatingly beautiful? |
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| I am an (ok) teacher! |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|10:05 am] |
I spent this week totally re-organizing and cleaning out my studio, so I'm sorry I don't have a proper comic for you guys (but I've started one). Instead, I thought I'd share some of the work being done by my 10-year-old comics students, and some of my thoughts on teaching comics to kids. (Also, if you'd like to see the first five handouts I made for the class, you can read them here)
( My students are just brilliant. I have nothing to do with it. )
Man, kids comics are absolutely the best. |
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| Info and Art |
[Oct. 18th, 2009|10:25 am] |
Thanks to everyone who bought my Hot Dog! T-Shirt last week.
(Mine was delivered on Friday. If you buy one, too, we can all match! Twinsies!)
You can still get all 12 dogs on one mere shirt at the super-secret friends page link, right here:
Hot Dog Shirt on Shirt.Woot
Speaking of buying stuff:
1. I'll be at Third Coast Comics with Chicago comic pals, Spike and John Campbell, doing a pre-Halloween comics party and signing, on Friday, October 30th. I will be there in costume. Will you?
2. If you live around Chicago and you're lookin' for good holiday shopping, I got a table with a couple friends at the Chicago Renegade Craft Holiday Sale, where I'll sell books, paintings, drawings, cards, shrinky-dinks, and a whole bunch of knitted icords (they are all I know how to knit). My pals Nelly and Nora will be at the table, too, with awesome bags, pillows, expertly knitted items and all manner of fun stuff.
3. I'm due to update a lotta new stuff on my Etsy store--maybe tomorrow? I'll see if I feel up to it. This Etsy update will include some prints of Mickey's Diner, some more original art, and a whole bunch of little watercolor sketches I made in my convalescing, so they may or may not have flu germs on them. ENJOY!
This has basically been my entire week. Every now and then I would rally enough to make a watercolor sketch with my little portable watercolor set. Mostly I ate soup and watched episodes of "The Nanny."
( Big Ol' Pile of Lil' Watercolor Sketches )
It's only October! This does not bode well for my hardiness in enduring another full Chicago winter... |
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| Mahem at Mickey's Diner |
[Oct. 7th, 2009|02:55 pm] |
Here's the image for the print I'm bringing to FALLCON, this weekend. I'll also have my Zombies at the Riviera print, and all of my books, original art, portrait prints, sketches and my big dumb ol' face. Come see me! |
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| GUILTY! |
[Oct. 1st, 2009|10:37 am] |
A note on creativity, productivity, weather, and guilt:
A few months ago, when I really got into the swing of working on RELISH, I put the kibosh on posting color comics. They took too big a bite into my time that I should have spent working, and I compromised by allowing myself to be distracted enough to make a black-and-white "for fun" comic from time to time (usually drawn very gradually while I'm taking breaks from the script/pencil/scan/color work for the book). This week, the winter weather swept in and halted my will to work with a cold and malaise. Sometimes I need to follow my whims in making comics in order to get back on track, so I wanted to make a little color comic instead of doing the book pencils I had scheduled for this week, so I did.
But I felt plenty guilty about it!
The comics class I teach at a local elementary school starts up again, today. It'll be great to get to hang out with people of my emotional maturity level, again (3rd, 4th and 5th graders). We're gonna make so many comics! |
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| On mondays, we like to ask her if she wants some lasagna. |
[Sep. 28th, 2009|11:40 am] |
I spent all last week making a whole pile of potential T-Shirt designs (which won't be official for a while yet), and working on pencils for my book (which won't be published in LIKE FOREVER*). So I don't have anything to post here, for now, but my mom called to yell at me for not updating in a whole week, so here you go!
( A page of--mostly cat--doodles. )
(She also called me a crazy cat lady. Pff. Whatever, MOM.)
Ps: Here is a video of Linney making biscuits: Biscuit Time!
*Seriously, though, my book will be finished in this century. |
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| New Halloween Repeat Pattern Thingie |
[Sep. 17th, 2009|04:49 pm] |
Just for funzies, I made a little repeat pattern, entitled "The House Where No-One Trick-Or-Treats."
Now it's up for a contest, possibly to be made into a neat fabric on the delightful website, Spoonflower.com.
So if you like it, and you might consider buying it as a fabric for your tablecloth, bedspread, cushion or what have you, please, won't you....
Vote for it!
(Please vote! I'm up against a lotta super nice fabric designs.)
( Here's a bigger version, suitable for computer backgrounds! )
Also, in case you missed the broadcast, you can now download the interview I did with Erika Moen on the Words and Pictures KBOO radio station, right here! |
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| CHAI! |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|09:34 am] |
( Chai Tea Syrup Recipe Comic )
Yum City, this one. I cobbled it together from various internet recipes, and felt my way through as I made it. Lately around our apartment, we've been drinking Pimms cups with cucumber slices before dinner, and now chai cups afterwards!
Very colonialized British India.
Then we go out into the square in our cricket whites and talk about this pesky drought.
Not really, but I would look great in cricket whites... |
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| But, Lucy, you like EVERYTHING. |
[Sep. 9th, 2009|03:21 pm] |
I read My Life in France a couple of years ago, and LOVED it. It was the inspiration for the Child parts in the J&J movie, and is lovely and wonderful and sweet. I can't recommend it enough. And because I love them, I'll mention that the book includes a bunch of great photos of her, looking gorgeous and larger-than-life and Frenchy. Just lookit her!
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My Wacom Cintiq 12wx arrived yesterday (thank you, pals, for the good advice on buying it!). I'm still fumbling my way through figuring it out, but it's mega cool. It's pretty sweet to see a line appear under my pen, and then to be able to "undo" it.
I've been using it flat on my desk, which is how I prefer to draw with paper. It's so naturally like tactile drawing that after spinning the stylus around to use the eraser side, I automatically brush my hand and blow air across the paper to rid it of eraser bits. But there aren't any eraser bits, because it's allll digital. Neat.
(I drew this on it.)
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| Pickles, Appearances and Purchases. |
[Aug. 29th, 2009|12:41 pm] |
"On a hot day in Virginia, I know nothing more comforting than a fine spiced pickle, brought up trout-like from the sparkling depths of the aromatic jar below the stairs of Aunt Sally's cellar."
-Thomas Jefferson
( PICKLE RECIPE COMIC )
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I'm back in Chicago after a week at home in New York. I spent my little trip attending weddings, swimming in lakes, poking around in my mom's garden, playing with her dog, petting cows at a county fair, and choo-choo-ing down to the city to eat good food and reminisce with a fabulous pal. Also, I made pickles. Sometimes the Hudson Valley is just TOO gorgeous and full of deliciousness to even withstand.
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Appearance:
Oh my!
I'll be at the Midwest Comic Book Association's FALLCON in Minnesota this October 10th and 11th. Their website seems to be down, at the moment, but it seems like a grand old time. I'll have books and posters and stuff, plus I adore meeting nice people, so please come and say hello to me.
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Potential Purchase:
I came within millimeters of buying my very own Cintiq. I've been pining over the damn thing for years, and now I finally have a real excuse to get one (200+ pages to digitally color in the next year or so). So I went down to B&H to give it a try (there are no floor-models in all of Chicago), and was instantly in a huddle with their handsome be-yarmulked staff, debating the merits of the 12WX vs. the 21UX. I was actually reaching for my checkbook, when I decided, with caution, that I'd think about it and come back that evening. I ended up staying out late with my friend and listening to salsa music in Soho, so I didn't make it back up to the store in time, but I continue to ponder the chipper little 12WX, the adorable salesmen and their sexy low price...
I'd still blow almost my entire wad from the convention sales this summer, but...but...
Advice from Cintiq users/owners?
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| Journal Parisien! |
[Aug. 20th, 2009|03:34 pm] |
Here it is! The last entry in my Paris Journal:
Paris Journal
Saaad, now that it's over.
Director's commentary:
The whole thingamajob was drawn in this little homemade notebook:
I used thick cardboard for the cover, which I covered with a few pieces of fabric I had lying around, and then sew-bound the pages together with thick, waxed thread, reinforcing it all with duct tape. There were 40 pages, total, and I filled the whole book! I really recommend doing these for your own travels. Now I have this totally home-made book that will help me to remember the trip, years from now. It was hard to keep up with drawing and writing for an hour or two (almost) every day, while on vacation with John, but I'm glad I did it.
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I'm traveling again, tomorrow, back home to New York for the wedding of my closest friend from my teen years. It rocks my world to have someone to whom I was so close, doing such a grown-up thing. It still feels like it was last week that we were staying up until four AM to watch old episodes of Kids in the Hall, and drawing conversations back and forth instead of doing our homework for math class the next morning.
(PS: I failed math, but drawing conversations back and forth turned out to be more important for my future career. Still, I sometimes wish I could remember what a "polynomial" is... NOT. Stay in school, kidz!) |
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| The finger along the nose is very important. |
[Aug. 12th, 2009|06:51 pm] |
I've been up to my ears in work, lately. It feels good to be keeping tight to a tough schedule, but I'm a little... tired.
Today, photoshop decided to run reeeally slowly. So while I waited for it to get its act together, I drew this:
(For the record, I'm mostly a head-scratcher. I'm only a thumb-sucker when I'm particularly sleepy and overextended.) |
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| Blah blah blah |
[Aug. 10th, 2009|10:25 pm] |
Get ready for bad French and more nudie scenes!
I posted a few more pages on my:
Paris Journal
This is likely the second to last post of the Paris Journal-- there are only four pages left.
Some other stuff:
John and I drank some wine and made exquisite corpses the other night. I'm slowly getting him to draw more, mostly because I think his drawings are hilarious and great, but also because I think it's good for everyone to draw.
It's one of those things, like singing, that most of us were taught to stop doing after a certain age, and I think we're the worse for it. This societal halting of creative acts seems really harmful-- to cease doing the things that human beings have done naturally since our earliest existence.
And the association between singing and drawing for enjoyment and immaturity or childhood, makes the fact that I (and most of my friends) never stopped and now spend my adult life doing mostly one or the other seem a little degraded.
Anyway, look at that little worm-fingered-elf thing John drew! Genius.
I also like that it's hard to tell, in parts, which are drawn by a professional drawer and which are drawn by a computer engineer who nearly never draws.
Check 'em out.
( Exquisite Corpses )
I had to go to the doctor today, to take some advantage of my fancy, grownup health insurance (actually it's John's, and he's the grownup, but I'm his domestic partner/freeloader, so I get it too). I don't care for the doctor's. I have, not only once, spilled my pee sample cup on myself.
So I came home, finished my work, and then did a tiny comfort-watercolor of this guy.
Sorry, spider-haterz. I'd hate it if I was looking at a picture of a snake, so I sympathise. Snakes are cute in theory, but I would rather be in a cage with a polar bear than a boa constrictor.
I can't even watch that scene in Indiana Jones without convulsions of horror.
But spiders? Those guys are okay by me. I just love those goofy eyeballs! |
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| The Paris Journal Continues |
[Aug. 5th, 2009|03:01 pm] |
More pages ahead:
Paris Journal
I hate making posts without images, but I don't have any good kitty photos at the moment,
so here is a really old picture of Mortimer.
I miss that guy! He hasn't been around much lately...
Wow, my Mortimer disguise is way less of a disguise now that I actually wear glasses kinda like those.... hm.
My Wii-Motion Plus and new Harry Potter video game came in the mail today. John bought them for me as a graduation present (and so I would bug him less all the time).
So, I finished all my work early, and... well... |
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lucylou's journal
