SHOP UPDATE
So I haven’t added anything new to the shops lately… I’ve been thinking about maybe adding at least a few of my comic strips to INPRNT and/or Society6… but I don’t know. Is that something you all would be interested in?
Part of me is like, that’s weird. Who displays comic strips? But then I was framing a bunch of old prints I’ve collected, and bought a few new prints from other artists, and like at least half were comic strips from artists I enjoy…
So yeah… do you buy comics? As prints? Books? Other merch, like shirts? Not at all? I won’t consider any feedback a promise to buy…I’m mostly just curious how other people enjoy the medium! So, let me know in the comments!
ART
Honestly, it feels a little odd not having updated my shop last month. Like, what, was I not working?!? What was I even doing?!
Yikes…I was definitely working. Just looks a bit different now…
I have to remember that slowing down and focusing on quality is not a bad thing. I really like my workflow right now. Taking time working on drafting out values and composition. Knowing that I can experiment and play and create new illustrations that maybe don’t make sense as a standalone print, but may become something really really cool in the future…
Like this original character! She doesn’t have a name yet, nor her cute fluffy sidekick. But I definitely want to start incorporating them in some fantasy and/or science fiction illustrations. Maybe do like a comic page illustration with a bit more narrative elements? I think that would be really neat, and it’s kind of the plan! I’m really excited to make more art with them in the future, and have all kinds of ideas for worldbuilding and stuff that I hope to expand out and include in some of my future illustrations and offer as prints in my shop!
Also I’ve been spending a lot of time in my sketchbook. Again. Always. I know it’s something I’m always struggling with, but it’s also really really important.
I’m trying to get more structured in some ways — like I’ve divided my sketchbook into different drawing prompts of things I like to draw, and things I need to practice. I’ve also loosened up my expectation for sketching too — it doesn’t have to be some amazing finished piece (but also it’s cool if it is), and I’m becoming more open to drawing fan art.
It’s weird, but when you practice drawing from an old master painter it’s a “study.” When I draw like a favorite cartoonist or comic artist, it’s “just” fan art. I originally made a choice not to share any fan art as an artist, but it kinda stifled my sketching…because fan art is a lot of fun! And it just felt off limits (still not gonna sell it though). But now that I’m thinking of it more in terms of practice and study and learning, I’m drawing A LOT more. I don’t know if I’ll share it specifically, but it might pop up now and then in a neat sketchbook spread. And I think that’s okay…
So definitely keeping busy!
I will say my plan of “breakfast sketching” has gone out the window. I’m just not a morning person. I always resolve to become a morning person. I try to structure my days around traditional office hours. But I am a late-middle-of-the-morning until middle-of-the-night kinda gal. Oh well. Maybe I can make an evening decaf coffee and enjoy a baked donut for dessert and that can still count in the spirit of breakfast sketching. 😀
BOOKS
Wheel of Time progress report: I finished the second book! YAY! But also now I need a major break to read something else…
So instead I finally finished Book Four of The Expanse series! FINALLY. And I just started Book Five. It takes me forever to get through them, but I love this series so much. It’s just so fun. And I can definitely take breaks in the series and come back to it without feeling lost, which is nice. Hopefully I can do the same with Wheel of Time…
THE REST
President’s Day weekend is our Action Movie Marathon tradition. This year we kinda let it take over the whole month. It started with The Rock, quickly turned into the rest of the 90s Nicolas Cage trilogy (with Con Air and Face/Off). A few other John Woo movies, all the Mission Impossible movies. Crank, which was absolutely bizarre, ridiculous, and also a lot of fun, turned out to be our favorite despite originally sounding so dumb. (…so it’s like the movie Speed? But it’s just a guy?…) And we did watch a LOT of bad, dumb action movies. The Blood of Heroes (the guy from the show Silicon Valley talked about it on Stephen Colbert’s show and made it sound WAY cooler than it really is). Chuck Norris’ The Hitman was just a mess. Just a lot of bad movies. It was a good time… But, it’s not really fun to watch our usual action movies right now, so to end the month we returned to our beloved kung fu movies and watched Kung Fu Panda and Drunken Master– classics!
We’ve also started watching a lot of rugby again with the Six Nations’ Cup. I still don’t understand most of the rules, and especially the last game we watched (one team was down multiple players for reasons even the commentators didn’t seem to understand). But it’s still pretty entertaining, and easy to watch in the background while playing video games or working on an art project.
And now that MLS has started up again, and the Premier League still going on, we’re watching more soccer than ever. This is our first season living away from our home team, which is weird. We were like, do we watch the local team too? Is that allowed?? We decided it is, because they are separate conferences anyway, so at least watching the local team is introducing us to half the league…because our team just never plays them (such a dumb set-up). So now it’s even more soccer to watch! SO. MUCH. SOCCER… YAY!
I thought this was going to be a very short newsletter, but it turned into a sort of ramble. Oops!
If you’re still here, thanks for reading!
Summer Child Designs 