i am now posting at quixotic mama

i am moving over to my other blog
though it is a pain in the butt
i like the name better over there
trying to feel more quixotic
and less apocalyptic

(sorry for any inconvenience!)

bluejean & the moonfish

look at me go

i’m already working on page 43. it helps when i already have the dialogue ready to go, the storyline. then i can get to work faster.

plus i need to stay off of facebook because i’m starting trouble over there. or that’s what it feels like to introverted me when i speak out about something i feel strongly about. well, my brother hasn’t unfriended me yet….

i love the way the page looks when it is all just clean little lines like this. my next step…who can say it with me? ink & then more ink! yes. i do ink brush shading & tones next. then i finish by roughing up & darkening some of those clean little lines.

so that’s what i’m posting today. the clean page 43 before i ink the crap out of it.

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just me and my lizard brain…page two

i think i am exorcising some demons with this comic.
which is good.
i’m not sure how long this comic will end up being…
if it will be just one story,
or a continuing story.
but right now it is strong in my head
so i figure i should go with it.

i like the way the art turned out. i like using a different font. i developed the font i letter with in moses jones & other works in like..what..1998? 1999? so it is fun to use a different way of lettering with this comic. then, in a tribute to ralph steadman, i mess it up a bit. i like messy.
messy is fun.

also! i may have mentioned that i am putting my quixotic poetry together into a collection. well, i decided to put ALL of the poetry i can find that i have written over the years into that collection and to maybe try to find a publisher? maybe self publish? maybe enter it into a contest? but, fuck it, i am doing something. all that raw emotion & terrible verse just begs to be ridiculed by the public (haha!)

and i still want to be doing more ink brush painting. i think i need more paper. maybe that’s what my block is with that.
so i need to find an art store.
does anyone know any independent art stores in central illinois?

i’m here i’m here i’m here i’m here!

let’s recap.
last summer, a year ago this week, i was homeless for a month and a half while waiting for our new apartment to open up.
then at the new year, i packed up my four minions and moved two hours north of dusty to a different home.
then, this spring, my landlord/housemate asked me to leave so she could have the place to herself.
and i moved again.
this time to another state, to my childhood home, with dusty & the minions.
i wasn’t ready to live with dusty again.
but circumstances….
so now, though i think of moses jones & other projects every day, i have a new place to settle. land & house in serious need of care-taking. a yard & garden. a flock of chickens. two dogs who need training. four minions on hyper-drive as they try to adjust to the fourth move in a year….

i’m here though. never far away. treading water.

i am in the process of collecting all of my poetry from my other blog to put into a collection of sorts. then i will delete the bulk of that blog to convert it (once more) into a different blog. this time about the dysfunctional adventures of a homesteading family.

and i look at my barely started first page of just me and my lizard brain every day, sighing softly.

and i daydream about doing some fantastic & wildly popular chinese ink brush paintings of the central illinois landscape.

and mojo. i think about mojo. her humble beginnings, her journey thus far, and her future in the graphic novel world….

progress report

slowly…so slowly.

i would make a poor current events comic stripper.

however, unfortunately racism isn’t going anywhere anytime soon (unless my fantasy of donald trump as the pied piper leading all of the racists out of town comes true.)

i did start working on my second racism-themed comic, my racism/kraken comic. i started it in my head this morning as poppy lay screaming at me. i am trying to wean him from nighttime nursing. i am losing the battle. he is a very tenacious baby. and i feel like a bully for trying to wean him…but my boobs!

i digress.

i started writing my kraken comic in my head this morning & then somehow snuck some time during the day to draw it out. i wish i were more eloquent. i wish i was more artful. but this is what i got.

as far as the memoir/personal insight into racism comic goes. i am still working on it. but as stated in the previous paragraph, i am suffering a lack of creative confidence.

but i am working on it. wondering if i really do have anything to say…but determined to at least whisper it…if not scream.

if i could change the world

i am so bothered by the news of racism i see every morning in my facebook feed (which is my news source–i follow several news groups, etc.) my heart hurts with every report. i see that trump is stirring up even more of it. and i am deeply worried. it is such a destructive direction in which our country is headed.

so i keep trying to work on this comic. kind of more of a memoir/thought comic than my usual. so i am struggling with it. i am not sure of what kind of illustrations to use. if there will be dialogue. things like that. i have been playing around with lighter illustrations to offset the heavier subject matter. also, doing stories close to my actual experience (aka memoirs) is difficult for me. i thought maybe more cartoon-y would relieve that a bit.

i did start to ink a page. i went with this format. i think it will work. with the amount of text i have, i think it will be four…maybe five, pages.

so i’ve started! even though my minions work against me…(aren’t they supposed to work for me?) i keep giving them lectures on how i need me-time to get things done. maybe one day…. instead they are always on top of me–fighting for attention. and my comics are the ones who suffer for it.

one day…one day.

words….

i am not getting much work done. living alone with four kids, i fall asleep when they do. i did get two pages of text started. mostly text. more words than pictures. i hope to work more on it today. but times are tough.

no time.
no money.
no dusty…except on the weekends.

i am living in a new town. a small town. a northern(ish) wisconsin town where the liberal/conservative balance i was used to in madison has shifted to the conservative. just one more change for me to get used to.

i am feeling a bit isolated. i even lived without the internet for my first 26 days here. that almost killed me. not doing art is having its effect as well. so i need to get busy.

tomorrow i am sending off a package to a literary agent a friend of mine suggested. fingers crossed that this will go somewhere other than the recycle bin!

& more mojo soon!
might be she will be text heavy. i need to get some story established. it’s a slow process in the comic form. let me know what you think.

 

paper mache is cool

i finished bluejean’s arm for my art class.

i’m pretty happy with it. i really love paper mache. the messiness of it even is fun for me. i want to keep experimenting with paper mache and related projects.

also, i have worked a lot on my second big whimsy piece (somewhat visible in the background)…i have been adding random visuals. stuff i pull out of my ass. i think my epitaph will be “she was good at pulling stuff out of her ass.” i got that from my dad. thanks, dad!

anyhoo, i am starting to like the piece better. it’s getting weirder & weirder. which is good–but i worry that i am just david-lynching it up. whenever i watch a david lynch movie i get the feeling he was thinking, “let’s throw a dwarf in right here. that would be weird.” i want my weirdness to be pertinent to the story. but i also like weird…hmmm….

so i’m having fun with my art, which is the point, right? i need to have the big whimsy piece–yet to be named–done by monday for my critique.

plus! for my digital media class, i have to make an “alter ego website.” so i am making a website for bluejean. the big whimsy pieces will be presented in a “reading rainbow” fashion via a video and my narration. argh. i hope it works!

 

so much done…so much more to do

this is what i worked on last night while my children slept and gotham played on my laptop. i may have missed a few plot turns in gotham…but i got more of this project developed.

this project?
a large panel of stark raving whimsy. here is a few shots of my progress:

these large pieces take a whole lot of time! i am used to just getting a page done in one or two sittings. i have spent several hours on this already. i hope to get a second one of these done before the end of the semester. plus! i really want to do a paper mache of my face & arm & upper chest to turn into a 3D bluejean casting that i can then make to look like bluejean but also draw a story onto.

progress depends on the sleep schedules of my children.

sleep. sleep, my little lovelies….

page 36

here it is. i’m afraid my scanner sucks. and i am kind of distracted so my work looks sloppier than usual. but here is page 37. i hope it is readable. also enjoyable. if you feel like you have forgotten the plot line due to how long it has been since i last posted…go over to moses jones on tapastic where you can read the entire story from start to end.

recap of my roadblocks to page 36:

packing
moving (like four times over the summer??)
homelessness
dusty’s infidelity
broken elbow
and, of course, the ever present & delightfully distracting minions….

but it is here now…& that is what matters. right?

so today i go back to art school at uw. i am taking an introduction to digital media & intermediate drawing. so watch out, people. i’m only getting better from here.