Great moments of 2007 -The Cold

So, there's only a few hours left in 2007. Be careful out there, if you are inclined to celebrate. I'm going to make sure I spend the end of 2007 and all of 2008 laughing and smiling as much as possible. It is only a coincidence that I shall be drinking little stars.
I thought I'd share some of the photos I took throughout the year. I tried to be as chronological as possible. I'll start with the cold. This one, though, was not so cold. Last New Year's day found Chicago basking in an unnatural 50 degrees or so. It was warm enough for me to jump on my bike and head to the lakefront where I stuck my hands in the frigid water to collect beach glass. It's like Peter Pan's self portrait before Wendy sewed it back on.It got really cold in February and March and the river was frozen til St. Patrick's day.
And the bandshell in Millenium Park looked like a big frozen spiderweb...

It's kind of beautiful, in a lace like way...
Wild temperature fluctuations made this...

I want to make a graphic novel out of this...

Brian and I just got back from seeing House Theater's brilliant performance of the Nutcracker. Now this was not a ballet, but a play and I wish I had seen it earlier so I could have recommended it to everyone. This weekend is the end of it's run at the Steppenwolf. I can only hope it will be around for a command performance next year because I would make sure it was a Christmas tradition amongst my friends and relatives. Here is a review of it. http://centerstage.net/theatre/shows/4969.html#review
I completely disagree with their slight poo-pooing of the song and dance. The dance is organic and part of children's play and wholly apropriate for the scene. I enjoyed the songs as well. Ain't no reason not to break out into song if you are a toy, or if you are honoring a memory at Christmas.
Great use of puppets and props. I loves puppets. The costumes were lovely. The acting poignant and fun across the board- Clara, bravo. Drosselmeyer, huzzah!, Monkey, monknificent.
Snow falling in faux, yet real flakes. It worked for me on all levels. ( I got a crazy thing for set design. I looove a fake environment. It's more real to me sometimes than reality. Maybe it's because everything has been placed there for a reason.)
Anyway, I could easily turn this into a 100 page graphic novel/big ol' comic. Or paint a storybook of it. Someone call me.
This version should be made into an animated feature or something. Live action.
I find it to be a spectacular modernization of the Nutcracker, but yet something that could be dressed in any period clothing. Timeless and Timely all at the same time. I know I am an easy mark about things like this, but, yes- I had my heart strings tugged several times...I welled up with tears on a few occasions. And I laughed at all the laughy parts. Here's the House Theater's website. If you're lucky, perhaps they will post extended dates and times.
http://www.thehousetheatre.com/shows?show-id=the-nutcracker
I wish I had a dvd of it so I could watch it again, right now.
Hmm. Did I say I loved it?

Let me just rest my head here on the desk for a minute...

Boy this month has flown by. I have been pulling really late nights trying to get Magic Trixie #2 done each day. They all look good, but I wish I had my pile of 20 done. Tonight's an early night for me...it's only 10:50. I've had a pretty stressful month on top of work. I hadn't posted about it before now because it was all happening rapid fire...I had two trips to the vet (one emergency) for our kit kats...they are okay now, but it was terrible scary there for a while. We still don't know why Archie's back leg decided to stop moving or drag behind him. And his front legs got all tremory twice. It was horrible. The trip to the vet ruled out all sorts of things but never conclusively diagnosed the cause of the episode. He was on antibiotics to make sure he didn't have toxoplasmosis (he didn't). About a week into his convalescense, his brother Lukey stopped eating. So it was off to the vet with him. He had a bacterial infection which was efficiently destroyed with antibiotics...But my heart was really stressed there for about two weeks. We love those furry fellows and would be lost without them.
I could tell when Archie was feeling better, because he was mad to go outside in the snow. He loves to walk in the yard around the perimeter of the fence when we have nice weather and he continues to meow about it during the more inclement months. It's like he's doing yard time in the pen or something. Lukey on the other hand, enjoys lounging in the sun. Archie does laps and then goes back in the house for a nap. But now that the winter is upon us, he is dismayed each day that he finds snow on the ground, or rain coming down, or ice cold stone. He gets a disgruntled look on his face and looks at me after he sticks his head out the back door. "We still have a few more months of this, Arch, before we get butterfly and grasshopper and catmint weather back..."It doesn't stop him from sauntering down the steps, though.
He hasn't much patience once he finds that there is snow all over the yard and he high tails it back in.

Hmm, let's see, what else have I been doing?
Well, I jammed some Chistmas stuff in during late nights after I finished my pages. I made like Santa's elves and created some gifties for the childrens. I painted seven portrait thingies for our nieces' bedrooms. What? When did you have the time, Miz Broken Arm? Well, usually in between the hours of 2 and 3 in the am. I'd spend an hour each night painting the canvases, then another night drawing their faces, then other nights painting...eventually I got them all done. Here are the Azz girls on Christmas Eve.And here's detail of the Thompson girls. That's a dark violet line, not black....
I also made this for a little pirate guy I know.
It was a good way to use up some old tshirts.
Last week I managed to get rear ended by a taxicab while sitting at a red light. On my way to a doctor's appointment.That was a fun way to spend an evening. I'm still trying to reschedule the missed appointment.
Believe it or not, four days later I got into another accident. This time I backed into a..refrigerated thingie on a truck while parallel parking. It was in my blind spot! I never saw it in my rear or side view mirrors. it was exactly as high as where the rear spoiler used to be on the Scion. Oh, the poor, poor Scion.
It wasn't all woe and hard knocks however, I did manage to get out on WInter Solstice to celebrate Yule at my friends Ron and Kristina's house. We burned the yule logs in the yard and all the guests were suprised by the wonderful band.They played kinda, New Orleans-y, jazzy music. It was great.
Then, lessee. More comics and drawing, andpacking up presents to mail them off and drawing...and finally Christmas.
I think I should save the story of Santa's gifts of the Seven Seas until next post.
Nighty Night!

Merry Christmas 2007

And to all a good night...

olde photos are the best

We don't have many holiday photos from my childhood ( I remember the big camera that you had to pull the accordion front out, and then count before you could take the backing ooff the photo...I think once we ran out of film for it, that was the end of that. Til we upgraded to the flash cube and still, the camera would have film in it for a year), but I ran across this one. I love it.
My brother Steve and I are in the middle and we're flanked by Dave and Jill Johnson-our neighbors from across the alley.( In Chicago, you always know who's across the alley. You have front neighbors and behind you neighbors...and on the sides neighbors...) We kids were best friends til the Johnsons moved away. I still feel bad for the scowly gal in the back. As I remember, we were having neighbor Christmas and one of the Johnsons' friends dropped by with their little girl. As it was an unexpected drop in, there was no gift for her under the tree...

I forgot!

I forgot this photo! This is the Logan Square Christmas house. Don't you love it? Brian and I drove to see it when we were first dating. And I forgot all about it until I was driving back from the Garfield Park Conservatory a couple of weeks ago. (I'm going to be taking a class there to become a Master gardener!) I was pleasantly suprised. I hope their roof is covered in solar panels, tho.
I love walking around looking at the Christmas decorations holding hands. Then you go somewhere warm and have a drink or something. Maybe if you're lucky, it's snowing big fluffy flakes...
I think my favorite decorations are when trees are kinda all webbed up with lights. I like the branches wrapped individually, too, of course, but when it's all kind of webby and wrapped around--it makes me think some great big, golden, electric spider has decorated the branches with jewelly droplets.

Happy Solstice! Good Yule!

Before I get to the drawing board today, I thought I'd share some pretty decent photos of our tree. I can't ever get a truly accurate photo of how the tree looks all lit up at night. It's really good and sparkly with my zillions of ornaments all in amongst the branches. You actually can see them quite well. But, when you try to take a picture it turns all orangey. And if you try to use the flash, it washes out all the depth and the twinkly lights. So, this is the best I could do.Brian knows I love strange and interesting ornaments and being excellent, he gets me a cool one every year. It's my favorite present. I love traditions and memories and adding to the tree is one that makes my heart feel good. I'm not good at remembering the year that I got them, but you should see how excited I get when I'm unwrapping them and decorating the tree. I forget some of them from year to year , so it's like a huge suprise when I find them again. "Hey! it's the golden Earwig! There's the spider! And the Pirates! There's the Jughead my friend Rick gave me. Or the Angels the girls made! There's the leaf Brian gave me! The fishies and...clownie! Hello ornaments! "

Lukey hasn't done this in years. He used to really like lying under the tree. Not so much the past couple, so it was nice to see him lounging. It's cold on the floor there, so I'm sure that's why no one wants to hang out with the presents. Especially not with the radiator so close by. Better to lounge on the warm thing.And I always have to hide this guy way in the tree...I mean I usually do put ornaments inside the branches and not just outside, so there are layers of things to look at...but him-he needs to go way in there, lurking and looking out you.
Okee dokee. Back to the drawing board!

nature! The way I likes it.

Well, it snowed and it snowed last night. Getting to the Christmas party was not so fun. The streets needed plowing in some spots. The wind was blowing the snow every which way. Sometimes up, sometimes sideways, sometimes it just fell to the earth in the proper gravitational manner...And, while it was all a pain in the backside to travel, it was kinda nice. Especially when We woke up and the sun was shining and the snow was super beautiful white. It smelled clean and good outside, and even the streets stayed a bit white before the traffic got going. Nicest of all was the A and R snow removal that came and cleared all the sidewalks (or footpaths as my neighbor Martin calls them). No, that's not a company , but two of our neighbors with snowblowers. Annie and Rich fire up their machines and together they clear all the neighbors front walks! How's that for an excellent neighborhood? We are really fortunate to have a great block with helpful people on it. We all do nice things for each other when we can.
What's best of all is that, despite the messed up ecosystem, we got some snow in the proper snow month! For so many years now we have suffered snowless December and Januarys. We need the snow now, so we can have a proper Spring! You can't look forward to the growing season without knowing there is a good amount of melting. The earth needs the moisture. Like I said before, I hate the inconvenience, but I love all the seasons.
It feels good to be inside snuggling up with a good book, or some knitting, looking over at the Xmas tree when it's all shnowee outside. Maybe having a bit of coffee or hot chocolate...maybe add a bit of Baileys in there...hmm. I think I know how I will spend the rest of my evening...once my works are finished!

Baby it's cold outside

Whew! Done working for today. 9 pm on a Saturday night... pretty good seeing as how I was up til 3 am last night.I'm working like mad with my Magic Trixie deadline and my stupid shoulder (tired...painful...grr) to get this all done.I don't think I'm going to get it all done for next Friday. I'm pulling a couple hours to unwind tonight before I get back up and do it again tomorrow.
So, now to doll myself up for a Christmas party! It's snowing like crazy and has been all day. While the snow is quite beautiful, my fancy dress clothes are not sensible for the weather. Sigh. Time to drag out the big boots...at least until I get to the party.
So in the snowy theme, here are some old xmas cards I've made from years past.
I used to paint each one individually in an assembly line like process and would make about 25 to 30 of them. I think one year I made 50. And then I wised up and got myself to the copy center. The only downside is they used to be mounted on a nice colored background. I should see if I can borrow some from Craig Russel or Linda Reinhold and scan them so everyone else can see them. I think they have most of the original ones I did back then. Why don't I have a copy of each painting? Cuz they go to family and friends! And I wasn't forward thinking enough to go get a color copy or anything before I mailed them all off.


I actually made these two snowmen in our patio last year after our first big snow.

See?

And, here's another.

my illustrating process

In response to the comment posted on the previous post...
after I pencil the comic page, I go in with my watercolors and paint in all of the area that need painting. This is very much like the old fasioned blue line hand coloring process...without the blueline or the acetate overlay.


Then I go in with brush and more paint and outline the figures and objects. Yes, it is like inking...but no ink is being used. All of the holding lines are pure color. Say I'm drawing around a red object. I will fill my brush with a really dark mixture of alizarin crimson and a bit of windsor violet. or perhaps a green.

it's really turned out to be an odd process. it takes much more time than painting in a painterly way...but my watercolor paintings are usually large...unless they are li'l travel drawings. I find that I'm really drawing with paint here more than painting.
I suppose I'm cartooning.

Magic Trixie pencils and layouts

I've had many requests to show what a page of pencil drawings for my painted comics looks like before I start putting paint to board. I usually forget to record those steps because I'm jamming toward a deadline. Also, I don't feel the need to record each step like I used to when I was simply pencilling comics that someone else was going to ink. I'm controlling the final outcome of the page and that's what I want the reader to see. But it is nice to keep a record of the process.
So, I stopped myself and scanned this one before moving ahead. Because most of the art comes from the color, you'll seee that just the bare bones are visible. This is what I work from...

Layouts look like this. not much different. Mostly I just tighten the line up and clean up the stray pencil markings.

A good day

So, it's the first day of December and Brian and I did some good wintry things. We got up and braved the cold to support the local farmers at the Greenmarket at the Nature Center in Lincoln Park. We got some cider and some great greens from an extremely local urban farmer. There are always some farmers from outside the city in Illinois and some Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana farmers. But these guys were growing greens in vacant lots. So we picked up some nice mixed lettuces and stuff. I got one more pumpkin for making raviolis and cornbread. Some apples for tarts. Some amazing goat's milk cheese. I also got some nice yarn for knitting Xmas presents from a farmer who not only raises livestock, but keeps sheep for making cheese. His wife spins the roving into yarn from when they shear the sheep and she knits a bunch of cool stuff like mittens and hats! So far all my textile projects are variations on the square. Like a scarf, or a pocket... I did complete an afghan thanks to the drive to and from the Cleveland area over Thanksgiving. I started out crocheting a granny square a couple of months ago (working an hour or so every few days) and it kept on growing. It is satisfying to actually finish one of my bright ideas.
We warmed up with big bowls of noodle soup at Tampopo and then because it had begun to snow as we left- we got our Christmas tree. He's a good looking tree, with long branches and big gaps to hide monster ornaments. I'm a sucker for the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. You know the type-those slightly crooked fellows on the tree lot that others seem to pass up because they are looking for a perfectly shaped tree. I love them all. This time, they all had straight trunks.
It's nice to know that someone is growing trees on purpose. And, for every tree that is harvested three are planted. One day I'm going to get one with a root ball and plant it. Though I have heard that the survival rate for replanted Christmas trees in the Chicago area is only 20 percent. I will have to look into it.
It smells really nice in the house from the tree and from the sage. I chopped all of my sage bush before the freezing rain started. I'm drying it in the oven. It smells like stuffing in here. I'll have to roast a chicken and make some stuffing in it.
And right before the weather completely digressed into sleet and rain, I made this little fellow.

Now to paint a page of comics.