So my strip about my 14-year old fashion sense comes to an end. I sure do love my Mama a lot, when I was working on this last page I was just thinking about how sweet it was that she made me CLOTHES, you know? I mean, the lady sewed me up a matching shirt and shorts, who cares if it was a few years past their most fashionable application? My mom’s a sweet lady, she deserved better than me in high school, but what can I say, not many of us were saints to our parents in high school, am I right? Not that that makes it any better or anything.
I think this is going to be the last strip I do at this tiny (5.25″ square) size with brushes–I was doing these as a tryout for the longer stories I’m about to begin, but the size + brush combination is just not yielding very good drawings. So I’m going to return to nibs for awhile, at my customary (still tiny) size of 8.5″ wide. I passionately want to be able to ape Kaz Strzepek‘s awesome idea to work small enough to be able to carry it everywhere, but it just hasn’t worked out yet for me. Besides, I need to stylize things more anyway, I keep trying to put all these dumb details into backgrounds, and the drawings end up looking watered down, somehow overworked and underworked at the same time. Preposterous!
In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this little story. Of all the ones I’ve done, this one produced a lot of response from people. But my favorite response was from Mike Konold, who sent me this amazing picture of himself and his sister wearing some sweet jams in front of Niagara Falls! I don’t know if she is really wearing jams, but hey– tie goes to the runner, I say.
Mike included this little anecdote: “Your comic is reminiscent of the time I went to school with my hair blow dried back with the sides slicked back with gel thinking it was way cooler than my standard towel dry and comb forward style. I faked an illness so I could go home after first period, sparing myself 7 more periods of humiliation. I think my parents knew what was up since the very next day I had my old hair style back.” HAW! I love it! Anyone else have more pictures in jams? Because guys: let’s share.
Awwww. What a nice ending.
I'll have to look at my parents house over the holidays for a picture of me in Jams. I'm positive there is at least one. I probably will also be rocking a bowl cut with the long bangs. I was rad!
That idea of a portable studio is one I've had to adopt since getting a day job and having two small ape-like children swarming my home. i have a bag all set up with stuff to draw with so I can get things done whenever.
That's great. Love the ending. I too hate to carry around big drawing paper/boards so I've been playing around with using standard sized sketchbook/typing paper that I can carry around but only drawing one or two panels per sheet and then I just put all the panels together. Chester Brown does the same thing. Or at least he did with Louis Reil. From what I've read, for that book, every panel was it's own sheet of paper. This works great for me but it is problematic with the idea of having nice original pages ready for sale.
I read an interview with Kaz where he talked about working small enough to whip his stuff out and draw on a park bench or at the doctor's office or wherever, and I got all excited. Part of the problem for me is that I've been using brush, which is okay for doing main figures in a small panel, but terrible for anything smaller–you end up just sort of making approximate marks.
This is why I'm hot.
I made a sweater for my daughter a couple of years ago. After watching me knit for years, she asked for a sweater and drew me a picture of how she wanted it to look. I took measurements, matched the design to a pattern, and knitted it as I got spare time. I had to learn several new skills to make that sweater.
She wore it once. Once. Just for me to take pictures of. And she never wore it again.
Lesson learned about crafting for kids. It's not their fault that they don't understand the time and effort involved, but the fact remains that they don't. It's hit or miss as to whether they'll love it or toss it aside.
Eh, at least she loves her homemade socks.
Oh man but LATER she will realize! If I had those jams today, they'd be among my most treasured possessions. The folly of youth!