ArtJournal

Wordy One-Pager

lucylou@gmail.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:56:46 GMT

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?

I am an (ok) teacher!

lucylou@gmail.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:08:42 GMT

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)

Sometimes I think that my comic-book students would benefit more from someone who was a little more of a disciplinarian-- Who was really ON them to make comics with an eye towards form and legibility and coherency, and who didn't let them go off on crazy tangents where they began with a comic battle that then turned mildly physical (oh, the great pencil battle of aught eight, wherein I intervened in time to have the #2 scars to prove it). Perhaps I aught to better discourage nudity and violence in their comics (as if children aren't completely aware and cognizant of these elements of human nature).

My own experiences with art education (from the student side of the desk) often worked best when I was given a lot of free reign to stretch myself. The teachers with the lighter touches often inspired me to prove myself and bring their notice through harder work and wider exploration.

I also remember the dark ages of childhood, before I was studying art as (more or less) a full-time occupation, and would be forced to sit on my hands in class to keep from doodling (this rarely worked, but my teacher's wrath upon finding me drawing in class was swift and terrible). When I was allowed to draw, it was controlled, censored, disciplined and directed by my teacher. I will always remember how much it rankled with me.

My own prejudices and experiences in classrooms color my teaching methods so much that I worry, sometimes if, perhaps, I should not be in any sort of position of authority over these kids. I'm only in my second year of teaching this after-school elementary-age comic-making class-- I'm still feeling my way around.

During class, I wander from student to student, joining them briefly for a collaboration or a dramatic reading of their comics. I lend ideas to choruses of "what should I drawwww?" and I gently try to redirect attention when it strays too far. I bring comics that excite me to class to share, and show them tricks like photo-light-blue pencils and cool art pens and using the window as a lightbox. Then, when class has already been over for five minutes, I frantically glance at the clock and race around the room trying to clean up and get everyone's backpacks on the proper backs to be only mildly late for dismissal. And at the end of every two-month session, I scan their comics and put them in a mini-book for each of them.

Every class, I'm impressed with these kids and their ability to make incredible comics. When I'm really cranky and fed up with this whole business of comics-- how hard and time-consuming and self-promotive and naval-gazing and hand-paining it can be-- It can be hard for me to even look at a paneled page. It's so refreshing to spend a few hours being reminded of the natural, instinctive PLAY of comics that I can forget when I'm worrying about a book contract or stressing myself out about spreading myself too thin and busting my hand (and my youth) with "Being a comic artist," when I do this because I WANT to make comics.

So in a fit of feeling bad about my undisciplined, unfocused teaching methods, I scanned this session's comics for their book, and then felt much better. There are a few kids who've taken my class a number of times. They tell their friends-- the class grows. I had a lot of comics to scan. In the midst of the drudgery of scanning and laying out their little book, I could see, REALLY CLEARLY, how their comics have improved-- become easier to read, to understand, and how their attention has turned (pretty much on their own) towards making a beautiful, funny comic. These kids are making comics I want to read-- I want to look at them, and when I do, I'm impressed and revitalized in my own process. What a kick-- that I'm helping them to make them. That I get to read them first! I guess I'm not the absolute worst teacher in the history of the universe. Or maybe I am, and they're just that good. Who knows? (The Candyman knows!)

Man, kids comics are absolutely the best.

All we really need is a major network to back this project...

lucylou@gmail.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:58:10 GMT

I wonder how many times Falcor shows up in my comics... So many times...

Info and Art

lucylou@gmail.com — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:29:14 GMT

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."

The earlier of these were made during FALLCON, last weekend.

It's only October! This does not bode well for my hardiness in enduring another full Chicago winter...

Oooh! Hot DAWG!

lucylou@gmail.com — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:36:55 GMT

I loved researching for this design. I loved every bite of it.

10-Dollar Hot-Dog T-Shirt on Shirt.Woot, Designed by Your's Truly

Mahem at Mickey's Diner

lucylou@gmail.com — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:58:39 GMT

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!

GUILTY!

lucylou@gmail.com — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:40:20 GMT

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!

On mondays, we like to ask her if she wants some lasagna.

lucylou@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:43:15 GMT

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!

(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.

New Halloween Repeat Pattern Thingie

lucylou@gmail.com — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:52:48 GMT

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.)

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!

Erika and me on the RADIO! (Heavily censored, don't worry.)

lucylou@gmail.com — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:36:23 GMT

Hey guys, Erika Moen and I were interviewed back in April for KBOO's Words and Pictures Radio Show. They're airing the interview live in about an hour, at 1:30 Central Time (11:30 Pacific, 2:30 Eastern, 7:30 Parisian!).

You can listen LIVE to our rambling and edited swears here!

There'll be a downloadable file to listen to at your leisure, later on. Uncensored! GASP.

CHAI!

lucylou@gmail.com — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:37:27 GMT

I'll tell you right now, this stuff is CAFFEINATED.

I don't drink coffee, or even tea that often, so I'm pretty sensitive. I had like a tiiiiny cup of this to taste it after I finished making the syrup, last night, and stayed up for two hours following my usual bedtime, making this recipe comic!

When I wanna treat myself, I'll buy that "Oregon Chai" stuff from the store, which I love, but I'm sick of spending money on it. If you're not a cooker, though, I highly recommend it. This recipe of mine is attempting to basically equal its deliciousness, and I think it does a pretty fair job of it. I know that this Americanized chai is way different from "real" chai, but still so goooood.

At least it's not the powdered stuff. Ugh.

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...

But, Lucy, you like EVERYTHING.

lucylou@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:23:51 GMT

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.)

Fluffkin.

lucylou@gmail.com — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:05:22 GMT

Sunday Evening Kitty-Cat Doodles:

Naturally, I don't need access to my keyboard or mouse in order to operate my computer.
No, no, you just stay there and continue to make the error noise with your butt on the space bar...

Pickles, Appearances and Purchases.

lucylou@gmail.com — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:43:51 GMT

"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

This was my first time making my own pickles (though I've helped my mom make 'em from recipes before).
This year, she wanted to make half-sours, and when I insisted on also making ACTUAL pickles (full sour, if you will), she told me I could make them myself. So I did, and invented this recipe as a sort-of amalgamation of other recipes I found. It's by no means tested foolproof, but I loved the pickles I got out of it, so I'm passing it on.

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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?

Journal Parisien!

lucylou@gmail.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:37:26 GMT

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!)

The finger along the nose is very important.

lucylou@gmail.com — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:54:12 GMT

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.)

Blah blah blah

lucylou@gmail.com — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:27:59 GMT

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.

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!

The Paris Journal Continues

lucylou@gmail.com — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:03:54 GMT

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...

Skyscraper condemnation affiliate.

lucylou@gmail.com — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:18:16 GMT

Six more pages of my travel journal are posted.
It's much more London. Read on!

Thanks again to Sarah (jabberworks) for inviting us out for such a delightful evening!

(You can read the previous pages here: Paris Journal. Also, the most recent few pages here.)

Sunday is when John and I try to get things in order-- so today, Monday, is the day when the apartment is clean, the cupboard is full of spotless dishes, my desk is swept of debris, the gardening is content, and my to-do list seems manageable and full of possibilities. Also, I'm finally unpacked. Took me long enough.

Turn your calendars, August starts tomorrow.

lucylou@gmail.com — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:10:43 GMT

I somehow upset the delicate balance that is my website, so until my pal David (who kindly runs my site for me) gets back from his holiday and fixes what I mucked up, like the wizard at the end of Fantasia, I'm posting the newest pages of my Paris Journal on here.

(You should still be able to read pages 1 through 20 in the Paris Journal Gallery)

I've been working 5AM to 6PM all week.
What I've done: Scanned, colored, edited, texted and thumbnailed like a madwoman...
...and played Plants Vs. Zombies.
I have the golden sunflower trophy. Do you?

We are ready for the weekend.

PJ, continued.

lucylou@gmail.com — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:46:46 GMT

Guess what?
There are three more pages up on my:

Paris Journal

And because now it's tradition, here's a picture of my cat.

Gross.
This is what she does when I am trying to work at my desk. So... So annoying.
My nose used to be enormous, before she licked it all away.

More, plus pie

lucylou@gmail.com — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:42:49 GMT

As usual:
There are four more pages up on my...

Paris Journal

Today I made Banoffee Pie (I used this recipe, but I made graham cracker crust, instead), and... well.... Things got out of hand with the whipped cream...

Okay, it has come to my attention that there are... perhaps... a few pictures of my cat on this journal.
I don't think it's becoming a problem... yet.
Here are some more pictures of my cat, and also my pie.

I have an interview with Chris Arrant over on Newsarama!
It you'd like to, you can read it here.

Five more.

lucylou@gmail.com — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:57:54 GMT

There are five new pages up from my travel journal.
There's some mild naughtiness. Please enjoy.

Paris Journal

Here's a picture of my cat in a green hoodie:

(It matches her eyes)

Paris! Hurrah!

lucylou@gmail.com — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:07:30 GMT

John and I are home from Paris. Jet-lagged and cheese-fatty. It was a great time.

I kept a little comic journal of my trip (in this little home-made booklet). The whole thing is about forty pages long, so I'm posting it in installments. Here's the first bit!

Paris Journal

(Please excuse my terrible French and inability to date things in the correct year.)

Here's me with a chocolate macaron from Le Grand Epicerie. Aaaugh so good.

Here is a photo of us near Chatalet Les Halles, in Paris.

We also took a brief jaunt to London for a few days! Here's John with London Bridge.

We took a bunch of great pictures.
I won't subject you to all of them here, so if you want to see more, here's the whole lot.

Au Revoir!

lucylou@gmail.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:10:13 GMT

John and I leave for Paris in an hour.
I'm so excited, and I can't wait to get there.
I'm gonna eat so much cheese.
And I'll have some drawings to show you, when I get back!

Back in about two weeks!