This week I finished laying out 211 pages of fairly detailed thumbnails for my graphic novel. I am so glad to be done with that! The last seven pages were tough. It was like being in the desert and seeing a mirage. You crawl toward it, but it seems to get farther away.
I scanned all the pages in and thought, now what? I debated whether or not to draw the final roughs digitally or by hand. Drawing digitally is so painstaking, but if I can master it, it would make the process faster. I don't think I'll get used to it anytime this year, so I've decided to hand-draw the whole book. I'll color it and maybe do the lettering and word bubbles digitally. All of the people who make comics that I admire draw their comics traditionally with ink and paper, so I don't feel as bad about not going completely digital.
The art store that I frequent just ended their big sale a couple of weeks ago. Just my luck. That always happens to me. During the sale, I don't need anything, but as soon as it ends, I need something.
I went to Blick Art Supply this morning because they had a buy-one-get-one free sale on their Strathmore drawing pads. I had to rush because the only parking spot I could find was a 15 min. metered one. I like to browse art stores, but this got me to hurry up. When I got there, the sale didn't apply to the particular paper I needed. Bubble burst. They didn't have half of the other stuff I needed. It was just as well because I had to get back to my car.
Since Michael's was nearby, I went there and found almost all of the stuff I needed. They even had a BOGO deal on canvases which I had to get anyway since my cousin wants me to paint vintage style Hawaiian paintings for her house.
I had to buy the Winsor & Newton Series 7 size 2 brush on Amazon which was actually cheaper than if Blick actually had the items in stock.
Overall, even though it seemed like I had bad luck, it actually was pretty good. The 15 min. parking got me to hurry up so I was able to pick my kids up from school on time. It was a minimum day for them, so if I had stayed any longer, I might've been late. I did save money in the end.
I started reading Recipe by Lucy Knisley. It's about her life growing up with parents who cook gourmet food. Her parents and their friends consist of chefs, caterers, and food critics. When she was in preschool and had a birthday, instead of the standard cupcakes that kids bring, her mom brought a blowtorch and made crème brûlée. How lucky is that? She drew out recipes in this book of some of the things she ate. It makes you hungry.
Here's a quick sketch I did of my kids at a Japanese restaurant:
Have a good weekend!
Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/