COMICS

I absolutely adore looking at a comic page before the word bubbles get filled. Something about the way bubbles break up a page and the potential of those bubbles really appeals to me. I like lettered pages too but there's just something wonderful about the unlettered version.

I really enjoyed drawing the latest page for All Stories Are True! This comic business if spectacular. Spectacularly fun. Panel four with Haleigh's head sticking into Derek's word bubble is my favorite.

It certainly takes a long time, though. The breakdown for this page is roughly:

Pencils: 3 hours
Inks: 2 hours
Shading: 1.5 hours
Lettering & Editing: 1 hour

All Told: 7.5 hours (!!!)

I assume this to be an upper bound, though, since the art for this one was rather complex for me (so many people, panels so small!). Here's hoping the total bill will go down!

I'm thinking the update schedule for now will be Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We'll seeeeee.

Underwater

Really beautiful underwater photography by Elena Kalis. Ethereal and fragile and at times fantastical. Some of my favorites...

Little House on the Prairie/Jackie O

EDIT: Pictures removed.

So I finished this dress... two? three? weeks ago but never got around to posting this because... I'm lazy? Yeah, that seems right.

I used a 1970s McCall's pattern. The plaid fabric is a thick polyester-y cotton – not my favorite texture in the world, but it was the only decent cheap fabric at the store and my friend Jon said it reminded him of Jackie O. Plus the thickness meant no need for lining. The bodice went remarkably smoothly (attaching sleeves is fun!) but ruffling the skirt was amazingly frustrating (you try getting 100+ inches of fabric down to 25"... it's hard!). My strings kept breaking and in the end I had to draw the ruffle on only one string since I didn't feel like redoing the second string after three or four failures :)

The zipper was also death incarnate, but eventually I think it turned out okay, and I even added some bias tape detail:


But everything would have been dandy if it hadn't been for... the collar. As you can probably tell from the pictures it's really poufy and doesn't stay down and ironing doesn't seem to help. Also the notches are uneven, ha!


All-in-all it was a fun experience, though! I learned a whole lot but really it's all about practice practice practice. Now for the next pattern!

Week in Review

My affection for J.Crew finds its grounding not just in their clothes, but in their styling, photography, and graphic design. I love this font they've been using recently.


Henry Darger's watercolors are amazing. Delicate, epic, eerie, innocent. And such lovely use of color. I love the thin lines, the ornateness. To think he did all this by tracing commercial drawings! Repurposing at its best.


The Chloé Classic Paddington Bag in Pink Berry. L'amour.


Mika Kato is amazing...


...and so is Trish Grantham.