The Seahorse

Very Goodly

2008-05-07T08:46:00.003-05:00

I'm always inspired by the HULASEVENTY blog and I'm officially signing on for Andrea's color week challenge. She's so ding dangety good at projects and photographing..her world seems especially vibrant and filled with groovy fun found objects or murals and everything cool. It seems like a nice extra thing to add to my daily life.
So, the premise is- each day (mon-fri) is assigned a color and the objective you set out for yourself is to actively photograph that color. Preferably in interesting ways.
green-Monday
yellow-Tuesday
orange-Wednesday
red/pink-Thursday
blue-Friday
It's a great reason to observe the world around you more closely and celebrate the little things you come across each day. And a good reason to move about a bit. We all could use that.
But, the question is, should I jump in with both feet mid week? Or wait til Monday? eh- maybe both. I'm more of an 'and' type than an 'or'...

The Porkchop

2008-04-26T14:54:00.003-05:00

My friend Wendy calls Archie, our cat, Porkchop. "Hiya Porkchop!" she says when she stops by. I have my own pet names for him, but it really suits him because of his meaty drumsticks. Being a bob tail, they are a bit more substantial than most cats. He's a good old gentleman.He's been struggling with a series of really horrid 'colds' lately. Three since Lukey died. The vet has had him on three courses of antibiotics but a little over a week passes once he is well and he gets the same thing again. I'm really stressed out. He gets good vitamins and stuff. I'm all for holistic treatments and boosting the immune system and I know antibiotics aren't a good idea for an extended period of time. But it's really difficult when his nose is blocked and he can't really breathe or smell. Anyone out there in webland have any similar stories? The vets tests have all come back 'negative' for any of the feline illnesses. I've used naturm muraticum 6c and goldensea. But even that has brought us no real improvement. Dedicated cat parents...have you any advice?

Fleurotica

2008-04-01T19:24:00.000-05:00

I volunteered last Friday Night with Kristina at Fleurotica, the 100th Birthday Party Event for the Garfield Park Conservatory. It was a fashion show where all of the models wore clothing created out of flowers and plant material. It was pretty interesting to see the behind the scenes of a fashion show with models being made up, poked, prodded, designed upon, draped and decorated. I'm sure it's not much different at a show where the clothing is made out of...well, clothes. Haute Couture doesn't really look like the most comfortable of things to wear.
We were photographed a bunch of times, due to my Swamp Think shawl and Kris' forsythia boa. I crocheted a fuzzy green netlike scarf thingie and draped a fern garland from JoAnn fabrics in it. I'll have to get a better photo of it here at home, but go here to see us and others snapped by this Image website for nightlifey people.
www.imageworldwide.com ( I tried to make a link...I swear. But no luck.) Here are the photos I grabbed. I think credit goes to Dave Sheppard as the photog.

Didn't get many other shots. All of the good seats near the Runway were taken by ticket holders who shelled out the big bucks. We volunteers did get to see the show fro the general seating area. We chatted with some of the millinery models. This was one of my fave hats.
A close up of my scarf turned out to be a closeup of my necklace...

The Conservatory is beautiful in the evening. I wish I could have a sleep over in there and sleep with the crickets. They were really chirping.

Lookathis!

2008-03-27T15:16:00.000-05:00

http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Trixie-Jill-Thompson/dp/0061170453
Magic Trixie is available in July. Look! She's all up on Amazon.com! That's satisfying. Now all I need is a book tour.

Granada means Pomegranate

2008-03-23T15:12:00.000-05:00

So everywhere we went in Granada, we say all of these architectural details that looked like pomegranates. On fountains, on signs,as guide posts. Brian whacked his shinbone really hard while walking through a plaza one afternoon. As it turns out the city is named for the Pomegranate. So, ya learn something new every day. But what I want to know is, where were all the pomegrantate trees? We saw lots of oranges growing everywhere...I only saw one pomegrante branch with a fruit still attached hanging over a garden wall. I thought for something to be named after something it was supposed to be ubiquitous.
On Sunday we all made our way to the Alhambra. I can understand how this castle inspired many a writer to pen fables and fairy tales. Spring was well underway and those of us from midwestern climes were thankful to carry our sweaters and jackets and feel the sun for a day.Each room sported intricate carvings that covered nearly all available surfaces. Arches had arches and those arches had arches. It was difficult for the camera to find what I was trying to focus on. And then, there was the view past the intricate interiors. It was wild. I can't begin to fathom how one designs that or plans for it's construction. I wanted to touch everything as well, because it is all so old but created by artisans...can't do that though. It's against the rules. The oils in our hands and the lotions and creams and sweat and stuff must be destructive (or attract destructive organisms) to the stone and wood.

I could have stayed up there all day with a picnic lunch and a book. Or my sketchbook and paints. I would love to sleep in one of the rooms and see what it looked like in the morning sun! Or lit up by candles or oil lamps. Or a fireplace. I'll have to add some of these elements of the architecture or courtyards to some part of Magic Trixie. I think the Luna Theatre has many Moorish influences in the lobby as well as in the theater. I don't think we actually make our way inside in the bok I'm working on...or number 4. Oh well. I'll still design it for some future story.
The gate to the court of Lions was guarded by that amazing fellow. He was black in the shade and chestnut in the sun. He gave the squinty eye to the loud tourists. But as you can tell, he's seen it all, and he probably takes no guff.

best poker face

2008-03-22T15:36:00.000-05:00

So, I'm pencilling a page of Magic Trixie and the Dragon (#3-only 90 pages to go) and watching Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmer on the Travel Channel and it occurs to me that you never want to play poker against this guy. Sure, maybe if you are on a team and he's your partner...but if you have to determine whether or not this guy is bluffing and you are going all in or not?
I mean he has eaten the testicles of every male animal known to man and never made a yucky face. His eyebrow does not even twitch. Sometimes he does not even wash it down with a swig of beer! He must have a trophy or a plaque on his wall proclaiming his superiority at this. Who wants to topple him from his Number One Perch?
He's eaten giant creepy larvae that did not have the benefit of being tossed in the deep fryer (I'm sure most things are easier to eat once they are deep fried...) bats, frogs, snakes, eels, rotting what have you... he's like the Tasmaninan Devil in the Bugs Bunny Cartoons...when that growly tornado starts zigzagging through the forest and all the other animals go stampeding off in the opposite direction to avoid being eaten- that must be what it's like when this guy goes to the zoo- or the park or what have you. The local fauna must send their version of Paul Revere out to warn critters to head for the hills.
He'll try anything that grows, too. A human plague of locusts grazing his way through the landscape. Glasses of green spirulina? Glug. Natto? Down the hatch. Durian, the custardlike, disturbing smelling Asian fruit is the only thing I think I've ever seen cause him to ... back down.
Here he is staring down a frog. Then downing said frog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvmOsGkXRH4&feature=related
All in? I fold.

granada part one

2008-03-20T22:18:00.000-05:00

We did get to Granada without a hitch in our plans. And was it a wonderfulconvention- famous guests, great fans, fantastic art vibe, hot cosplay, a beautiful venue and all of it sponsored by the city... some selected scenes ( the in focus ones..I am ditching my broken camera this weekend. drat that thang)
Brian and Kiki Dennis happily figuring out where we were and where we want to go.We were treated to an amazing feast of Octopus and wine. All of the convention coordinators and guests and volunteers attended. At first we were suspicious of the gymnasium like setting--harkening back to grade school potluck PTA meetings and all the rewarmed casserole offerings. But on the plywood and sawhorse tables we feasted like kings on cheeses, olives, jamon and sausage...boiled octopus with potatoes and olive oil and crusty bread. Add bottles of local white wine and cans and cans of Alhambra beer then top it all off with whatever that local homemade liquer is called and sweet almond cake dusted in powdered sugar and voila-"Night of the Kraken!"

Zing Diddly Crumpets

2008-02-26T08:11:00.000-06:00

See Magic trixie's mom? See her expression? tha's how I feel right now as I prepare to take an overseas flight and we just got hit (an perhaps it still is snowing) with 7 inches of snow! O' Hare is the king of cancelling flights. I do not relish the thought of getting to the airport super early to go thru security and then spending the hours on pins and needles to find out if you are actually going to be flying or not. International flight have lots of lead time for the security...Good Mojo Good Mojo...
And there's 300 cancelled flights worth of people there already...

186 pages down...186 pages left to go...

2008-02-23T08:57:00.000-06:00

I finally finished Magic Trixie #2. Break out the champage and chocolate! After months of life throwing horrible obstacles in my path...I packed up the final spot illos yesterday and sent them off to Harper Collins! Yay! So. One hundred and eighty six pages of painted art in the can ( minus covers and title page art and spot illos) and only one hundred and eighty six left to go. And, while I am very pleased with Miss Magic Trixie and her monstery pals. I can honestly say, I wouldn't mind a plain old pen and ink vacation! It will be lovely to go to a convention in Spain next week and do some pencil drawings. I do not know why I didn't think that drawing and painting 372 pages would not be a bit daunting...it seemed like a breeze at the time. But, I will be very proud of myself once I've finished all my books. Really, I think it's at about the 53 page mark that your brain goes..."Isn't this enough? Whaddaya mean I have another 40 pages to go? You must be insane!"
So I will be happy to recharge my batteries with some travel and photographing and walking and meeting new people...( do I have my watercolor travel book ready to go? Yes...I always do...but those will be different. It will be non deadline related art...and maybe monochromatic even) or doodles! Probably done while sitting in a cafe over a glass of wine or something... So, here are some of the fruits of my labor shrunk down to uploading size...I'd love to share all of them with you, but you'll have to wait til July when Magic Trixie #1 comes out.
And, thanks to my neighbor Teresa's birthday, I did get to celebrate with champagne and cupcakes. Sure it was for her birthday, but my "take one home with you", breakfast cupcake was all for Magic Trixie!

love is lovie love love

2008-02-15T18:04:00.000-06:00

So this is an old photo of me and Brian but it is one of my favorites. Why? Well, as you can tell it was hard to contain my happiness and it was all but streaming out of my pores. I should have had one of those religious painting halos around my head or golden rays of sunshine or some other estatic special effect. I have to say it makes me giddy to feel my lover's arm around me or to have his hand in mine as we walk along. It makes you feel safe and also special because it's like everyone knows that you have someone who is crazy about you and that they are proud that you are their gal. Makes me feel shiny. And doesn't he have the best smile?

Didn't see much of that growing up so I'm sure that's why it is so important to me now.
In fact, it made me think of this girl I knew in high school. I remember meeting her parents at a party once and being amazed at how much in love they were. They were much older than my parents, but they were always smiling and winking and joking with each other. And I don't think I'd ever seen adults hold hands so much. At one point in the evening the dad was offering advice to all of us girls about the type of men we should accept into our lives.
In his thick italian accent he said, "If a man's wife is no happy, then he is no happy. Because if she is always smiling, already his life is better! If he no listen to you, if he do this ( and he made knob turning motions at his ears to indicate tuning out like a radio) you no want him. A woman always talks from her heart, and the man gotta protect her heart! It's my job to help my girls whatever they want. She say, "honey, can you.." and I say "Of course!"
At the time we all were giggling about his demonstative way of speaking and his kissy face ways...we thought "whoa! I guess old people still do it and junk... ewwww!
I hadn't thought about that couple since I was a teenager. But, I was over at my friend Kristina's house the other night for dinner and we were talking about being anxious to start some seeds germinating indoors (and how it's better to have a lightsource that you can raise and lower like the platform in Frankenstein). And so her husband Ron says "Just tell me where you want it and how much space you need and I'll build it." He was doing exactly what my school friend's dad had been talking about. And Kris, who had a great smile, smiled really big and Ron got a bunch of kisses and the love was palpable.

So, be a valentine everyday. Pay attention to your friends and lovers and parents and creatures around you. Take note of what makes them feel loved or what they need and help them do that thing.

More Lukey

2008-02-02T17:54:00.000-06:00

When Archie was sick in December (and I suppose Lukey was, too, we just did not know it and he did not show it) Lucien cuddled that guy so much more than he usually did, and they were good cuddlers. One afternoon, Brian found them both in the box nice and warm, but both heads next to each other. (usually they had a lot of yingyang action going on) and saw Lucien put his arm around Archie. I worry about Arch now, because while we love him more than anything, he has no feline friend to cuddle with or clean. And, it's cold dark winter and we are all cooped up in the house.

He was so pleasant and good natured. You could always count on him to follow you wherever you went, to sit on your lap, to watch tv with. He's walk on two legs for a treat. If he was ever mad at me, I never knew. Sometimes he'd be prickly if we were out of town for too long and he did not get his tv time...but, that quickly passed. Mostly you could count on him to chirp at you when you talked to him, to purr when you pet him, to come when you called him, or whistled or clicked your tounge. When he was outside in the sun, I'd ask him"Hey Monkey, (cuz he used his hands lots to pick stuff up or grab things from you), are you hungry? You want some lunch? C'mon!" and he'd get up and trot up the stairs to get fed. I wish I had taken video of him...chasing a grasshopper, or that squirrell that would chatter at him that he'd chase around the yard, or when he was up on two legs grabbing a treat, or when he stole the corn on the cob and ran into Brian's office and was holding it down with both feet and eating it. There was corn flying everywhere. And was he growling. Ha, his kill. If only we had a security camera or some such back then. I'll bet there were some amazing moments that no human got to see.
But he was a sweetie. I miss his unconditional love, his smiley face and his kind eyes. It's a wonderful feeling to know that a being trusts you completely. You felt that from him. Everyone should be able to trust like that. In a perfect world.
Best of all was when we'd all be on the couch, covered in blankets, cuddled up watching a movie or something. And both the fellows liked to curl up on me when I was knitting. I am comfy, I guess...no one is interested in the yarn.

I suppose I should drag out the "What's Michael" or "Cat Getting Out of a Bag" by Jeffrey Brown and revel in cat behavior. If you don't have "Cat Getting Out of a Bag" run out right now and do so. It's hi- larious. Well, it was to me.

Lukey 1991-2008

2008-01-14T21:42:00.000-06:00

He was the greatest. King of Lukey's garden, chaser of squirrels, corn on the cob eater, chirpy chirper, best cat brother, connesieur of grasshopper drumsticks, kitchen kitty, two legged dancer, master of the monkey paw, couch cuddler...

best of 2007- food

2008-01-07T00:29:00.000-06:00

We ate so many great things last year. Some while we travelled in Italy and lots that we made ourselves. This tasty plate was one of the many delicious antipastos we had with our aperitivo. Might have been in Reggio Emilia or maybe Lucca.Or it might have been in the airport in Rome! Even in the airport you can get great food. I always take pictures of what I eat when I travel. (so I remember and cuz it looks so pretty)>This artichoke was grilled under a red hot brick at the restaurant Evangelista in Rome. I could eat one of these every day.I finally made a perfect loaf of bread. Super crispy on the outside and moist and crumb-y on the inside. The crust made crackly noises like Rice Krispies in milk as it was cooling on the counter. It's fun to hear your bread snap and fizzle.And I have a li'l fig tree in a pot which allowed me to gather about a pint of figs. They are one of my favorite fruits. And, I made some pizzas. One time I made three that were perfectly circular in shape...now they always turn out more...organic looking. But they are tasty. This one is a four cheese and mushroom. Can't go wrong with that.We also had this amazing dish of spaghetti with bottarga (salted roe) while on our way to Giuseppe and Jessica Camuncoli's wedding in Tuscany. I think it had three ingredients in it and it was one of the most intense, complex, yet direct dishes I've ever eaten. Soon after we returned home from the lovely italian wedding, my tomato plants bore fruit. Before long we were up to our ears in heirlooms. We ate them nearly every day. In September, we hosted our dinner club and plied our friends with ubertomato harvest. Sliced up with roasted garlic basil and parmesan and arranged in tarts, I had our first course. These were on their way to be baked in the oven. They tasted like pizza, but with a pie crust. The colors are unbelievable. (I'm also a fan of purple, red and white carrots.) And sliced on fresh bread with smashed avocado and salt and basil.I saved lots of seeds and I can't wait to plant them again.
Yeesh it's late. I have to get up in 6 hours. More food another day. And I totally forgot to post the photo of my lovely Christmas gift. And my painting of tomatoes...But, I yam so tired. And muh shoulda jernts hoit!

Great moments of 2007 -The Cold

2007-12-31T18:28:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-12-29T22:06:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-12-28T22:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-24T19:09:00.000-06:00

And to all a good night...

olde photos are the best

2007-12-23T18:44:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-22T11:04:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-22T10:26:00.000-06:00

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.

2007-12-16T17:49:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-15T20:35:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-07T22:50:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-03T12:14:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-01T16:35:00.000-06:00

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.