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Lucy Knisley

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Cats, Art and Sentimentality (also the title of my imaginary Lifetime Network movie) [Oct. 1st, 2010|12:06 am]
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Fall weather has brought sweater-happiness and back-to-school-mindset hard work and barometric-pressure-change headaches. Busy and nose-runny and cozy.

Do you like following people on twitter? I am on twitter. Just sayin'.





Cat Experiments Number 2!




Wonder Women!


I did this "Wonder Women" painting at a live-art charity event last week, to benefit AbolishSlavery.org.
I'm hoping to be able to offer prints of this painting for sale, soon!

Here's a very red photo of me working at the event.
Me Painting "Wonder Women"




Have you seen all the great cartoonist self-poketraits over on Portrait Dex?
They are all so amazing.
I made one.








Sudio Blog!

We've been updating The Burrow Blog every Sunday night!
Very serious stuff, obviously, all of it.



I put together a few thoughts on the technical work that went into making "Salvaged Parts." If you're interested in making your own travelogue/sketchbook/comic-notebook, read on!


Behind the Scenes of Salvaged Parts


In making Salvaged Parts, I knew how much I wanted to include, and had an idea what sort of format I wanted. It was important to me, in this project, to have a cohesive object that bound the whole story together (a satisfyingly obvious marker of my progression through the emotions involved). Because I was traveling a lot during the time I drew the book, I wanted something portable and compact, that would withstand being in the woods and in a bag.

Salvaged Parts, Behind the Scenes


I made a booklet with 1inch book rings and bristol, so I could carry the pad around during my travels. I included a piece of cardboard to back it. The paper was printed with panel guidelines so I wouldn't have to measure out each grid of panel border. I included a guide dot for where I had to hole punch the paper so the bookrings would line up.

Salvaged Parts, Behind the Scenes


Bookrings are cheap, and can be found at office supply stores. If you're like me, and like free movement and lots of control over the size/shape/paper type and printed rules in your sketchbooks, I very much recommend making your own custom sketchbooks with bookrings.

Salvaged Parts, Behind the Scenes


What's especially nice about a book like this is that you can take the pages out of the rings quite easily to scan them, and it's easy to flip back to check your progress while keeping all the pages in the correct order.

The Blade


Finally, here's a photo of my grandfather's propeller blade that I wrote about in the final chapter. You can see how weathered it is, and how beautiful.

Happy October!
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Comments:
[User Picture]From: [info]spectre_general
2010-10-01 05:39 am (UTC)

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This was a whole bunch of goodies.

That Portrait-Dex thing is amazing. I'll be wasting much of tomorrow over there.

What else is amazing is Salvaged Parts, and I really appreciate this behind the scenes. I'm very close to my Gramps, and am also working on a comic about him, so that struck home.

What is the process you use to print out pre-paneled paper? Photoshop?
[User Picture]From: [info]misstwist
2010-10-01 05:51 am (UTC)

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I love that Wonder Woman painting! And your sketchbook idea. AWESOME.
[User Picture]From: [info]erikamoen
2010-10-01 06:00 am (UTC)

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Aw, awesome! I love your process journal posts <:) Love the illustrations, as always. KNIZEE
[User Picture]From: [info]kafuness
2010-10-01 06:01 am (UTC)

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I'm currently doing a thumbnail / rough draft version of my graphic novel in a book held together with 3-inch binder rings. It's great, because I can take them all out and look at them all at once if I want to, or take out pages easily, or add as many pages as I want, but still have the satisfaction to be able to hold my whole graphic novel in it's own novel-y form. Binder rings make the process so editable and versatile. *thumbs up*
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 06:08 am (UTC)

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いないみたいけど、病院？
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 06:21 am (UTC)

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このＰＰ，かなり可愛い。
[User Picture]From: [info]awcomix
2010-10-01 06:49 am (UTC)

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Wow thanks for sharing Lucy! I just had a flash of inspiration from your idea using a ring binder. I usually draw my comics in my sketchbook because it's portable, but this is limiting in a number of ways. You have given me the idea to make my own portable book, DUH!
I also like the thought of not having to rip pages out to scan but also being able to keep them all together!
I was also curious if you could give any technical specs of the images in your PDF for 'Salvaged Parts' size, dpi and file types. I'm playing around with a whole bunch of combinations, trying to come up with the right fit for digital distribution.
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 06:55 am (UTC)

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ほんとうは、本人は病名を知っていて、かくしていた。
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 06:56 am (UTC)

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本人はあまりよくわかっていない。
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 06:57 am (UTC)

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本人はあまり詳しく理解していない。
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 07:04 am (UTC)

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かなりかわいそうな病気だと思う。。。。
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 07:33 am (UTC)

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北原さんのお家って、横須賀にあるとか聞いたけど、
これって、旧竹田宮家の別邸を買取したものらしい。。。。。

今、郵便で、おもちゃ博物館から資料が送られてきたけど。。。

海に面していてなんか素敵なお宅。。。。
たしかにイベントとしては最高だけどね。
[User Picture]From: [info]tarpo
2010-10-01 08:25 am (UTC)

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su su sudio
[User Picture]From: [info]spazmodic
2010-10-01 09:04 am (UTC)

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wonder women would make a rad pattern too!
[User Picture]From: [info]theidolhands
2010-10-02 12:24 am (UTC)

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agreed. Fabric.
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 09:21 am (UTC)

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羽田発着便は10月21日から。
ルイスはこの頃、東京に来ます。
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 09:22 am (UTC)

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10月下旬？
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 09:52 am (UTC)

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私のＬＪって復活する？
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 09:53 am (UTC)

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ルイスに会ったら、LJは卒業。
[User Picture]From: [info]jaymarcy
2010-10-01 11:03 am (UTC)

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Very cool post, and that sketchbook idea...man I could get something done with that!! Also loved the "Sudio" post-good to have "a smile from funny pics" moment before work in the morning!!
From: (Anonymous)
2010-10-01 01:06 pm (UTC)

Wonder Women

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Oh! I would buy that print in a heartbeat!
[User Picture]From: [info]frogonius
2010-10-01 01:14 pm (UTC)

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I always get so stoked whenever i see a new blog from you! This one is awesome as usual :). Your grandpa's propeller blade is awesome! It's literally a little piece of american history, crazy. LMAO at your poketrait! Who would have thought of a portrait dex? What a fantastic idea haha. Makes me wonder what my poketrait would look like. Loved the wonder woman painting as well. Amazing work as always! Thanks so much for sharing.
[User Picture]From: [info]9mmed
2010-10-01 01:51 pm (UTC)

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Great post! Love the WW print a lot :)
[User Picture]From: [info]shoomlah
2010-10-01 04:52 pm (UTC)

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Eeee, I was hoping to see a photo of the propeller- that part of the comic got me all misty-eyed.

Awesome process! Might have to steal it.
-C
[User Picture]From: [info]hanataro
2010-10-01 08:30 pm (UTC)

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Very cool! How did you print to bristol? : )
[User Picture]From: [info]cirquoise
2010-10-01 10:21 pm (UTC)

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That's a great travelogue set-up. I've been trying to get myself to use bristol board more often, but it's hard when all I've got is an 11x17 block of it, so the rings are a great solution.

A question--this blue pencil you sketch with, which disappears when you scan it into your computer. What are these magical things called, and where can I buy one? Do the lines really just disappear when you scan them?
[User Picture]From: [info]lucylou
2010-10-02 01:34 am (UTC)

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Teeeechnically, the pencils are "photo light blue" pencils, which are SUPPOSED to disappear, but really don't (not with newfangled scanning technologies). Most any light colored pencil will work similarly, though. As long as you stay away from using regular pencils, which are black and get confused with the inks. Once scanned, you send it through a photoshop adjustment called "threshold," which completely does away with the pencil lines for you! Marvelous thing.
Give it a try! I like to use .9mm blue lead mechanical pencils, which you can get at good art stores, or art supply places online.
[User Picture]From: [info]theidolhands
2010-10-02 12:21 am (UTC)

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Propeller is awesome, low-tech can be smart, and nice to see you around.

Questions: Knizo is you...but male? And nanda with all the Japanese comments desu yo?

Edited at 2010-10-02 12:22 am (UTC)
[User Picture]From: [info]kitkate7
2010-10-02 02:59 am (UTC)

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Thank you for the prop blade picture. Do you know what kind of plane, specifically, it came from? Looking forward to the Wonder Women prints!
[User Picture]From: [info]daaakota
2010-10-02 04:20 am (UTC)

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Where else can you see a cat quote Oscar Wilde? And here... it totally fits right in.
[User Picture]From: [info]zygopetalum
2010-10-03 09:06 am (UTC)

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Linney just wants that weird piece of paper to scratch her head!
[User Picture]From: [info]Mitchelle D'souza
2010-10-04 01:36 am (UTC)

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I love your blog. I was just wondering if anyone knows, how do you post on portrait dex?
[User Picture]From: [info]lucylou
2010-10-04 05:02 am (UTC)

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It's a pet project of Steve Wolfhards(http://monstro-draw.livejournal.com/)
You should ask him about it!
[User Picture]From: [info]Mitchelle D'souza
2010-10-04 06:45 am (UTC)

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THKS!
[User Picture]From: [info]joey_shabadoo
2010-10-06 03:04 pm (UTC)

Wuh-wuh-wuh-wonder....

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Oh man, I am in love with that Wonder Woman print! Want. Buy. Please.

Lovely work as always, Lucy. Now how can we get you to come out to Boston for a visit? :)