Get back get back up

I was too tired/happy to post anything at the time, but I finished my Oni book last week!!!!


I really wanted to finish before the holidays. Now I have a bit more capacity to handle the holiday+birthday+other time constraints and stress that are coming up.

I made this progress chart in November to help motivate me to finish:


(24 penciled/inked/toned pages in a month, what's up)

The 9 check-offable boxes after 'Celebrate' were a joke, but looking at it later I decided that I should create 9 distinct rewards for myself -- turn it into a kind of ritual and commemorate the end of a big book project. It was fun coming up with a list of things that I'd been wanting to do (rather than buy, it being the holidays anyway and material rewards requiring less creativity/more money):

• Spend a day drawing fan art
  
• Climb the *****'s fire escape onto the roof
  
• Hike somewhere nice and watch the sun rise on New Years morning for good luck
  
• Go to the Sky High trampoline gym (can you tell that I like heights??)
• Christmas movie marathon (The Snowman, Just Friends, Love Actually, Die Hard, Tokyo Godfathers, Elf, Rudolph)
• Get dressed up and spend a day going into EVERY boutique on 23rd (more to satisfy my curiosity than to actually shop...how are there so many nice boutiques on one street?!)
• Go into Counter Media (The porn scares me off every time I think I'm going to go in! xD But I've heard there are good comics in there...!)
• Spend a long, lazy weekend morning at the gym (work out, hot tub, sauna, shower and get dressed nicely, eat lunch at one of the nice restaurants upstairs)
• Draw a cover for my Ghibli sketchbook and give it to the next person to draw in

I've done 2 of these already, and am looking forward to the rest. :)

So take it easy I'll make it so easy

I'm sorry for the absence here; I went out of town for a few days for Thanksgiving, got pretty sick right afterward, fell behind on work, etc. I've been having a lot of fun, though, too--going out more than usual and saying 'yes' to more invitations.

Emi and I did an interview on Wednesday with the Pedal Powered Talk Show that was SUPER fun. We talked about Emitown V2 and Between Gears, which are coming out at the same time next year. We also had an impromptu, on-show challenge with some high stakes! It will air in January, and I'll be sure to post when it does. Here's the set, Emi, the back of host Boaz Frankel, and 2" of my forehead:


December is characteristically jam-packed with stress and joy. One of my books wraps up next week, my family is going on vacation again and I need to decide whether or not I can join, my birthday is the week after that, I still have pretty much all of my presents to make/buy, and then there's a slew of holiday parties, the actual holidays, and back to encroaching (or blown!) deadlines...

I used to get really sick every Christmas; it was too much excitement and my body invariably succumbed to some awful thing. I'm going to try to get healthy quickly and stay healthy this year, take one thing at a time and not be dumb about biting off more than I can chew.

Okay okay okay, but how about some art??

I'm inking the LAST CHAPTER OMG of my book with Jamie! And I'm trying to find a panel I can post as a preview...but I'm pretty sure that every single one is in some way a spoiler. Sorry! There will be new art soon. Whole books full of it!

This is what I've been obsessively listening to lately.

You've journeyed far

Oh boy oh boy! Image Comics's February solicitations just went up on CBR, and Between Gears is among them!

"BETWEEN GEARS TP
story / art / cover NATALIE NOURIGAT
FEBRUARY 22
304 PAGES BW T+
$19.99
This honest, autobiographical account of a college senior’s life will transport you to the land of Jell-O shots, term papers, job interviews, road trips, and sanguine optimism in the face of uncertainty and change. Trade paperback collects the comic in its entirety, with 30 pages of new material!"

Here's a preview of the cover artwork:


I am incredibly excited; this is my first book and I am honored to see it get the Image treatment!

I'll post more in the next few months with more book previews and any new ordering info. Please help me spread the word between now and February 22! :)

He rights the outlaw wrongs on Mars

My studiomate Dustin Weaver introduced me to The Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast last week. It is "a staged production in the style of old-time radio" and it is absolutely hilarious. There are a lot of great segments on the show, but Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars is by far my favorite. I overcame my podcast ineptitude to download and listen to everything currently available. Naturally, here is some fan art:



There are several hours' worth of material available on iTunes. Go! Listen! And people have made some pretty awesome art for the show that you should check out.

Ey ey ey

We named the kitty Ella and she is staying. :) Her full name is Cinderumbrelleanor Roosevelt.

You've just gotta do it your way

We tried something new at life drawing last night: rather than pay a nude model, we asked attendees to bring any props or interesting outfits they had and model for the group if they were willing to. It was free, it was great drapery practice, and it got really fun when we brought out the handguns.





At the time, I really hated my brushpen sketches, but in hindsight they are my favorites. I need to not even bring a pencil next time and force myself to focus on light without worrying about proportions.

Dare to be one of us girl

Here are some sneak peaks at my project with Jamie Rich:




I only have 24 pages left to draw! It's racing by. I am thumbnailing the last pages for my other graphic novel this week as well. I've only been working on these books for 10 months, but it's going to feel like the end of an era when I wrap them up.



My roommates and I are watching THE CUTEST cat this week. We are considering adopting her, but she tested positive for Feline Leukemia Virus and we need to learn more about that and whether or not we'd be able to give her a good home.

At least for now, though, KITTY!!



I really hope that it works out. We have been talking about getting a cat since we moved in last year, but we need a cat that is grown, well-behaved, can be alone during the day, and is alright being an indoor cat. Until now, we hadn't found one. Toushe is a tiny, grown, female cat whose needs I think match ours. She's quiet as a mouse, loves people, and has a calm demeanor I just LOVE. Having claws and long hair were not on my list of ideal traits, but the more time I spend with her, the less I care.

Today's the day

Woah, hey! What's this? 5 new books from me available overnight? That's right!! My dad just launched his series of children's books! I spent the last year illustrating them, and even got to work with Cat Farris (cool colorist) and Emi Lenox (incredible inker) on books 2-5. Check them out on Amazon!

I'm stepping out

Doodles from this month's life drawing session (NSFW!!!!):

I'm a lady got my mind made up

Comics Underground last night was AMAZING! Thank you to everyone who came out! I had a great time and I know the other presenters did, too.

I put my comics from the event online; click on either title image to go to the comic:

Now I see the world as an ancient place as a smiling face

Baby you could sit and hope that providence will fray the rope

Two Wonder Womans! One for Women of Wonder Day...


...and one will be auctioned along with some other Periscopers' artwork for Dylan Williams of Sparkplug (you can also catch the end of Floating World's fundraiser for him today).

You oughta see you

Here's the first of my 2 contributions to Women of Wonder Day: Buffy!




Love love love Buffy. Talk about an empowering character. I'm kind of glad I saw the show for the first time at 22. Adults need strong characters to emulate, too!

Try not to panic

It's been an unusually long absence for me here--3 weeks! I have been guh-rinding on my can't-show-you projects, with the exception of yesterday when I took the whole day off, got a massage, walked around in the sun, and went to dinner. The graphic novels are coming along (I'm nearly at the halfway point with them both), and the children's books are in their final edits. Soon, soon there will be things to show!

Oh! And Eric Stephenson mentioned this in an interview last week: Between Gears will be published by Image in early 2012!!!! So there's been some necessary prep for that, even though the comic is done, to design the book and extras and such.

For now, please accept these early pencils for two side projects:



It's Monsters & Dames submission time again! I'll post all of the process sketches for this eventually; it went through a lot of different versions before I drew this. I still want to change several things...


Pencils for Women of Wonder Day, previously Wonder Woman Day. You can draw any empowering female character this year, but someone's gotta represent WW ;) As always, I encourage all artists to submit artwork for this! It will be accepted, it will get exposure, and it will raise money for an awesome cause.

My love Isobel living by herself

I went a little bit fan art crazy this week. Periscope's doing Avatar the Last Airbender for this week's sketch challenge and I just read the first Hunger Games book. :D

E-mail me to buy any of these originals ($75 + $10 postage US or $15 international.). 9"x12" on nice Bristol.