because I am hyped up on coffee…

November 13, 2012November 13, 2012Leave a comment

here are a few random drawings & doodles that I found on my hard drive…

Enjoy

Also, some announcements!!

1.) Paula J Knight successfully participated in her 1st (I think) comics fest! At ComicaComiket
2.) Hannah Berry appears on HuffPo– because comics (and she) are AMAZING.
3.) Katie Green(Bean) is almost done w/ her GN AND The Crystal Mirror is now taking supporters
4.) Ellen Lindner is in England & there was a successful launch for The Strumpet #2
5.) Smoo’s in America to launch Smoo Comics #6–come and party!

Election night drawings…

November 7, 2012Leave a comment

Whilst most people were glued to their computers, tv’s or smartphones awaiting the election results, my roommate & I were huddled around a friend’s space heater in our apartment–sans heat AND internet.

This turned out to be pretty ‘good’ for me, as I was able to work on a drawing for an acquaintance who is having to move back to Seattle, I’m liking how this is turning out and also the direction my ‘swirlies’ are going. Now I just have to figure out a way to get down to the studio, so I can scan this baby in & print it out before she leaves…

Stay tuned…..

PS A grand merci to everyone who sent me texts, tweets, fb messages & emails regarding Sandy.

Unless, you’ve been living under a rock, you prolly know of 2 major events:

October 31, 2012October 31, 2012Leave a comment

1.) Halloween!!!!

Pumpkins! Sexy costumes! Candy Corn! What could be better? For the 1st time in ages I went to a Halloween (or in this case, pre-halloween) party, chock full of interesting people: writers, physicists, professional photographers, and french people. Our hostess provided us with an amazing spread of cheeses, bread, wine, and….

tools for pumpkin carving!!! I brought my own pumpkin (smaller is cuter), and after grabbing a good knife & refusing to share, I got to work carving out my ‘masterpiece’. Now, I have carved a pumpkin in nigh on 18 years, and everyone was uber enthusiastic–including my buddy who’d won last year’s contest–so I had some competition. I decided to stick to my strengths and, eschewing the usual ‘face route’, proceeded to carve my usual trademark:

2.) Hurricane Sandy

Thankfully everyone is okay–a bit of a wild ride, though, as my mom was visiting me and I live on the borderline of zone A & B. My uncle graciously took my mom in to his apartment in midtown manhattan, whilst my roommie & I ‘fled’…er…relocated to Brooklyn, where I was already scheduled to cat sit for my friend. While we never lost power down here, there was definitely major flooding up in my neighborhood, as well as that explosion at the ConEd plant a few blocks away. Not sure when I’ll get back home, so til then, I’m hanging out in another one of my favourite coffee shops–here are some sketches:

A grand merci to everyone who’s checked in or sent well wishes. If you’d like to donate to the red cross, here ya go.

Stressing & Swirlies

October 11, 2012October 11, 2012Leave a comment

These last 2 & 1/2 weeks have been just crazy busy–deadlines galore, anxiety & overall stressing out. As such, the majority of my time has been devoted to my “work–work” as opposed to my comics work, but I’ve found a few spare moments to grab a glass of wine (or as tonight, an americano & a pint of ice cream) and scribble out something.

When I am upset or anxious, the thing that I automatically draw have been these designs (for lack of a better term) that I call “swirlies”–they just seem to flow from the tip of my pen as I am drawn into a rather zen-like state…I’m not sure exactly when I started drawing these patterns, but I’m hazarding a guess that it might have been around the time I was in high school–an artistic sign of ocd tendencies? Who knows, but I have seen others draw similar haphazard designs in a similar vein, so sometimes I wonder…

Recently, I have started trying to use these designs in larger pieces, such as this one, but I’m not quite there yet. Until then, though, I’ll keep drawing these things forever, I have no doubt.

Thank heavens it’s almost the weekend.

1, 2, 3, 4…

September 28, 2012September 28, 2012Leave a comment

I’ve always had an interesting relationship with numbers: for something so “scientific” they’ve actually been a source of consternation for me during most of my life. From a young age, I counted the number of stairs there were or how many times I’d scuffed my feet, and then of course there was the “eat at least 3 bites of everything on your plate” dinner rule (which I appreciate now more so then I did as a child).

As I got older though, numbers became less manageable and rather scary: and I’m not just referring to those dreaded calculus tests! I started counting the miles I had run (always hoping for a larger number), the calories I had eaten (always hoping for a small number) and how much I weighed (also hoping for a low number.) It’s a strange and uncomfortable world to live in when you’re always freaking out over numbers.

So, it was a bit of an interesting experience to design the numbers for the 2nd edition of The Strumpet. I covered pages and pages of my sketchbook with numbers–but this time, it wasn’t numbers of calories or pounds, it was just…numbers–numbers that I created, drew and redrew, to be used for something other than beating myself up.

I realize that this sort of thing might not make sense to many, but, in a small way, creating these numbers marks another step forward for me and I am grateful for that.

https://introspectivenarwhal.com

design & drawings by bonnie l. millard