Seven Goat Coat, 24 Hour Comics Day 2012 preview

Hello there!  So to catch you up, we're at hour 13.5 in our 24 hour stretch of drawing comics here at the Winooski Welcome Center in Winooski VT.  That means it's 11:30 p.m. E.S.T. and I'm feeling pretty punchy.  Here are three more page previews.  Once we're settled back at home, real scans will be made.
Which reminds me!  I will also try and post my 2011 twelve-page comic.  I don't think I have yet!

I am at page 7 so far (not counting the cover) so there is some semblance of hope.  I'm also the blogger for our event (which means also FB & Twitter, etc.) so I have to be kinda realistic.   One bonus with having the computer right here at hand:  GOAT IMAGE SEARCH.  I am so happy with my goat on the right.  He's a pretty boy.

five hours in and three pages finished...

It's 24 Hour Comics day, once again & around the world!  I'm at the Winooski Welcome Center with many of our usual crew from previous years at Artists' Mediums.  Once again I'm just attempting a twelve page story where everyone else has hopes of doing a full 24 page piece.  

The story seed I pulled out of the bag was "A Seven Goat Coat."  Which has a lot of potential, but right now I feel like I'm just treading water with it.  Five pages plotted out loosely and I'm not sure if it's going to turn into a teenage angst story (don't we have enough of those) or a magical realism story.  

Just one more comment for now:  Urgh, why in the world did I choose to do a story with humans!

(Edited to add that I'm feeling a bit better about the characters now (page 7), but it was a rough climb to get there.)

Well, my goodness.

I've been mentioned in one of my favorite blogs!

Now I have to address the "identifies herself primarily as an illustrator" bit.  Do I?  It seemed the best phrase for my short listing in the Art Hop, but I'm open to suggestions.  Whimsical is a word that fits much of my work, but I'm honestly done with it.  So if you have an idea, shoot it on over!

A pair of birds

I'm waiting to hear if the recipient likes this design.  She'd missed her chance on obtaining an earlier piece of mine, so I'm revisiting the theme, but it's turned out quite different from the first.  

There's just something I love about the way a crow quill pen scratches across textured watercolor paper.  This may get a bit of color later on.  Remains to be seen.
While drawing this, I took advantage of my fancy-pants laptop's DVD-playing abilities, and went through three episodes of "All Creatures Great And Small" (Season One.)
Fantastic show, and I'm familiar enough with it that I just listened to it, audio book style.

Inking away

My poor, neglected acrylic paints.
They think I don't care for them anymore.
This past week it's been all about ink. And more ink.

Arkonbey & I have been following Jake Parker's blog, especially his wonderful execution of an ink drawing a day for the whole month of "Inktober"
(Not only does he post his own fantastic artwork, he also provides extra inspiration via ink illustrations by other artists, some well-known, others new to me)

A few months ago I dug up my old bamboo pen and did a few big ink portraits, as yet un-photographed. But for your viewing pleasure, and also because I wanted to write an entry for the AM Blog, I present to you some new work: portraits of Buzzy (top) and Purple Easter Man (with chair.)
Higgins non-waterproof ink on 11x14 paper, with nibs by Speedball & a new favorite, though vintage: Esterbrook.
More to be seen on the Artists' Mediums Blog!

Pen & Ink for winter

The last two months, I've barely touched the acrylics. But I have been wearing out my crow-quill pen, I'm down to the last few drops of Higgins Black Magic, and my watercolors are finally getting used up.
Yes, there's a bit of a reading theme now. Perhaps I could do a story after all, despite my protests to the contrary.