Surrounded by subconsciousnesses

Here's a little Over the Surface 2 preview for you. I am toning page 17 now, and I should be done well ahead of my Wednesday deadline.

Backing up obsessively! :P

I took my love down to Violet Hill

My primary thesis adviser likes my second draft a lot better than she liked my second draft. PHEW!!! This is a very good thing.

Back to toning pages 13-24~

What if I say I will never surrender?

3 pages yesterday! If this thesis is a war, I won yesterday's battle >:D

That puts me at 19/24 pages for chapter 2 (though 6 still need to be toned), and 35/40 overall. I still need to make the chapter 2 cover as well. The deadline is Wednesday, May 5. 6 days.

The written portion of the thesis is not going so hot. It needs major revisions, and my primary thesis adviser wants to edit one more draft before I turn in my final on Wednesday. 0__o So, writing tonight and all day tomorrow.

And I am not afraid to try it on my own

I'm calling it a night; I have an early train tomorrow to Portland! Woohoo, Stumptown Comics Fest weekend!!!! Before I turn it off, here's a preview from Over the Surface 2:

(I have 15/24 pages done on this chapter, 31/40 total, and 11 days remaining)

I realize I must have gone a million miles away

I will be at the Stumptown Comics Fest this weekend in Portland at table 114 with Emi Lenox and Angie Wang! Come on by! I will have the same things I had at ECCC (4 new minicomics, 2 prints, buttons, con sketches) PLUS a print of my Monsters and Dames illustration!

I haven't posted in a while, but you haven't missed anything. It's just thesis, thesis, THESIS at my house, punctuated only by a couple of commissions. I gave a first draft of my essay to my primary and secondary advisers at the beginning of the week, and I am drawing page 13 of the comic today (29 out of 40 total). I have to turn in all of the finished art and the final version of the paper on May 5...14 days from now. Dear God back to work.

I will try to make Over the Surface chapter 2 available as a minicomic in my Etsy store in late May.

I'll be there as soon as I can

Here's another preview from Over the Surface 2:
(7 out of 24 pages done!!! Drew 6 of them in 5 days!! WHOOO!)


I don't want to give away so much in these previews that it ruins the comic, but enough that you don't have to go without new art for the next month.

My mom is coming to my thesis defense next month. :) D'aww. <3 As stressed as I am scrambling to finish the art and the paper this month, I am really pretty stoked about my thesis. I have awesome professors on my panel, I was allowed to do exactly what I love in lieu of a very long research paper, and having to do so much work has made me a better artist.

EDIT: from the second page I drew today:


It is a day for drawing my horrified characters, I guess :P

There's so many ways to act

Drawing page 5 of Over the Surface 2 today! I have this great energy going--I want to read what happens next but can't until I've drawn it. I'm getting caught up in the tension of something I wrote, haha.

Overall, I have drawn 20 out of 40 pages for my thesis! Yow, halfway!

This is the world that we live in

Here's a preview of Over the Surface chapter 2, page 3!


Oh man, I have had such a hard time with the planes. Even if I had experience with drawing machines, brush pens are not ideal for straight or controlled lines. Lets just say that those planes in panel 1 did not start out as black silhouettes. :P

Still, I am really excited because I see a big improvement in my ability to draw cities and landscapes. When I think about how challenging panel 2 would have been for me a year or two ago, it's a good feeling. You've gotta dive into subjects you're bad at...it may be painful for a while, but it's the fastest way to learn.

I had a dream that I was falling down

I'm back from a long weekend in San Francisco!

Emi drove us down to San Francisco on Thursday for Wondercon and other adventures. We toured the city, went to a roller derby match, and got a tour of Pixar from Josh Cooley while we were there! It was pretty dang awesome. Bucket lists were shortened.

Now I'm back at school and, as you have heard for the last several weeks, back to work on the thesis. I was relieved to get confirmation last week that the paper length for creative theses is generally 20-30 pages (vs. 40-50 for academic theses), and to receive a sheet of paper with guidelines for the written portion of creative theses that was not available online (I do not know why; it was very, very helpful).
Today, I am trying to type out everything that I can, knowing what I know at this point. Basically, I am making my roughest rough draft. Once I have all of my own knowledge down on paper, I can see what is missing and what I should spend the next 2 weeks researching and filling in.

Unrelated: did anyone see Fringe last week?! EPIC!! And the 80s intro made me laugh out loud!!!

And Windy has stormy eyes

Working away on my thesis! Chapter 2 thumbnails are done:


Chapter 2 is one and a half times as long as chapter 1, so I am very nervous about meeting my deadline (and leaving time for the PAPER part of the thesis). I have to turn in my thesis May 5, and present May 12, so the next 5 weeks will be all about drawing these pages and writing a very important paper.

Ain't no clouds getting in my way I must be running on sunshine

Aaaand here's draft one of the Over the Surface cover:

Forever is a long long time when you lost your way

I am really happy with the art of Over the Surface (my thesis comic) so far. Each page starts out with a panic and ends with me proud of how it turned out. However, I'm concerned that I scripted the whole thing completely wrong for the time/content parameters given by the thesis.

I wanted something that could be a stand-alone short story and also set up elements for a much longer one, but I made the classic mistake of going too epic and needing chapters and chapters just to establish things. I just feel like, at this point, I should have written a good 40-page story instead. I have other long projects I want to work on next year, so why did I feel the need to write 3 graphic novels' worth...? Just in case? It came at the cost of what might have been a good short story.

Maybe this isn't the sort of thing I should put on display, but I prefer being open with you guys, and writing it out helps me to learn.

/SELF-DEPRECATING RANT

I'm almost there

One down, fifteen to go! I think I can! >__<


Guess who saw The Princess and the Frog again today xD;

I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly

Begun, the thesis final art has. I penciled the first page today, tackling two establishing shots of Ava's village. I'm happy with the pencils but nervous for the inks.

Have some sketcheray:

How hard must I try for you?

It's the first Wednesday of the term, and I am going to try to fulfill one of my goals: to leave Wednesdays as completely sacred, free days for working on my thesis. I did all of my homework for Thursday last night before bed, so today is wide open for the thesis (with breaks throughout the day for a work-out and meals). As a reward, I'm going to have a second cup of coffee at Starbucks and work there until I need to come home. Let's see how it goes!

Here are some things I did this morning:

Urban landscapes kill me, but this comic is a challenge on purpose! I can't draw planes well yet, either, but this script will force me to learn.


Here's a set of thumbnails. I stay very loose at this stage, just trying to figure out the page layout, the size and shape of the panels, and basic blocking of characters and setting. I usually write notes in the margins instead of correcting things at this size (2.5"x3.5" makes for tedious drawing).

Dreams do come true in New Orleans!

Here's a test page for my thesis comic. It's that time! I plan to finish thumbnails for the first 2 chapters by Wednesday, and it'll be a pretty busy schedule to get the final art done by May. The first chapter will be done and printed in minis by ECCC, so if you're going, you can read it there!



I think it's time to ink with a brush, even if it's still messy. I plan to work at bigger dimensions to minimize problems with things like the face in panel 2. Flat grayscale because I've grown to like that this year, and it prints oh so much more nicely than dithered dots. P.S., I have no idea what's going on in this page. I just wanted to draw a variety of character placements and backgrounds!

Why do they congregate in groups of four?

I give my thesis prospectus presentation today in class, so last night was a scanning frenzy as I tried to get all of my sketches and thumbnails into my PowerPoint file. I thought I would share what I have so far for my thesis comic here as well:

The early stuff:





The male lead, Victor, went through SO MANY CHANGES. I tried looking for inspiration in actors from the 20s, 30s, and 40s, but I can't draw those slicked back hairstyles!! Now he looks like pop star Shaggy, but at least I can draw him consistently.





A side character. He's quite fun to draw.


And more...




This is random, but I like it.

Hana ya ki ya kotori no kotoba o anata ni mo oshiete agetai

Sketch duuuuuuuump.

Watercolors from the thesis comic:

Aaaaaand we have achieved male lead!!!!

He has an egg head.

Other sketches from the past couple of months:

I won't deny it, I'm not trying to hide it

I stayed in again to read and write for my thesis. It's still vague, but taking shape every day. I have this sinking feeling that the only way I will be able to free my mind and make some new images for the story, though, is by finishing my other art projects first.

Tonight, I read The Art of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind: Watercolor Impressions, which is deceptively named, as it contains ink work, preliminary sketches, quick art given as gifts, and a lot of valuable interview material from Miyazaki in addition to a host of watercolors. It would be really nice to own this book.
I felt a great sense of relief reading about Miyazaki's 3 year incubation period, where he read the work of others and created a library of motifs and sketches that would later become 4 of his films. He had so many changes of direction with Nausicaa, and times when it looked like it wouldn't turn out well, it was actually inspirational to see that he had doubts, too, and yet it turned out so well for him.


Though Miyazaki was humble throughout the book, he seemed genuinely upset by some of the covers he produced on Nausicaa. He particularly hated images of Nausicaa looking at the camera and smiling, since he thought those were so contrary to her character, that is, disconnected and hard to approach.

He also hated anything that screamed 'I AM A COVER!' :P


These were two of his favorite cover images:

Just for me, the church bells rang

Here's a preview of the cover for my senior thesis comic, tentatively titled The Second Witch of Wilheim. If all goes according to plan, this will be a self-contained 100-150 comic to accompany a research paper on comics' societal influence, and cover my thesis requirement to graduate from the UO honors college (due this coming May). I am very excited about the story and some of the things I'll get to draw. Action, magic, animals, old houses, and environments, ganbarimasu!
I've been using brushes more and more to ink this year, and think I'm finally ready to try a serious, full-length story like SWW with them. It'll be challenging for sure, but I really like the feel of brush lineart opposed to nibs or pens.
A nice alternative to using a brush is the brush pen, which Emi swears by and encouraged me to try. I finally bought a Pentel brush pen and tested it out by branding a new sketchbook:
I really like it! I want to try drawing more with it. :)