"When The Duck Comes By"

This is a scene from a slightly longer story I've written. It may become a comic someday, but for now it's a storyboard-- my very first, and the beginning of my storyboard portfolio! I love all the similarities storyboards share with comics. I really enjoyed the process of revising the story: it's a lot easier to do when it's only panels you have to redesign and not entire pages, as in comics. Now that the beats are all clear, I'm already thinking of page designs...

Seedling

Inspired by my stylish sister, for her birthday. <3

Comic Class

At the beginning of the year, I thought I was going to be teaching an after school comic art class to middle-schoolers. As it turned out, not enough students enrolled, so it was cancelled. But as I was preparing for the class, I was asking around for advice from all my friends. Jenny raised a good point about the disciplinary aspect of teaching, and it made my imagination fire up- and thus, this comic was born!

The top tier of panels were inked with a Hunt 108 and fine Pitt pen. The bottom tier was inked with a sable brush. The reason for the variation... well, I thought it was only going to be three panels at first, and when I decided to do the second tier I had a big itch to use the brush. That's all! It's interesting seeing how the tones interact with the different line weights.

The last panel was a challenge. After trying to draw a crowded classroom with nothing but classic perspective and elbow grease.... I fell back on google sketchup. What a lifesaver it is! Besides, why not use every tool available? Sketchup will help me learn to see and understand three-dimensional environments. All in good time.

This is the first comic that I toned using Deleter ComicWorks. Oh, how I love it! I find it to be a lot faster than using Photoshop to tone. Panel four went through two other variations before arriving at this tonal state. I'm happy with how the contrast creates a feeling of shock and stress. If I continue doing little strip exercises, I plan to use ComicWorks, to learn more tone techniques!

I Can't Write About That

I'm playing with short little autobiographical strips! This is strip #2!

Tools: Sable brush and Photoshop CS2

Toast

I'm playing with short little autobiographical strips! This is the very first! 

Based on a recent morning. ^^

Tools: Quill pen and copic marker

Sailor Iron Mouse

Chuuu!

2012 Reflection

Doing this grid was a cool way to put the year into perspective! It all feels like such a long time ago already!

April and May were entirely consumed by costume making. This has been a trend of mine for the past couple of years... I should start posting my costumes on this blog, shouldn't I? They really are very pretty! Lots of hand-painted details, jewelry crafted of metal, clay, and resin-- and sewing, of course! :) This year's costume is very low effort, so there will be plenty of time for drawing! 

I didn't turn up any completed projects in July or August! Oh no! During July, I was a comic teacher's assistant for the summer youth program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I did a lot of sketching and reading comics during that time.

The fall was my most productive season in 2012. Maybe what they say about northern weather affecting productivity really is true. If you're not able to run around outside, you might as well be running around in the fields of your imagination and MAKING stuff! ^^ I also sold artwork at three conventions during the fall. They provide nice, solid deadlines-- versus my flexible, self-imposed ones.

This year, I'm kicking off with a handful of comic strips! Mystery, mystery~! I'll post them soon. ♥