End-of-Year Housekeeping

Literally: housekeeping. I need to clean up this mess.

Highlights (to me):

• Kevin Dart "Space Shuttle" prints, hanging up to uncurl. There are three of them there. I saw them down at SDCC years and years ago and have regretted not buying them ever since. Fortunately, Dart did a reprint, so I jumped on it immediately (oh hey, they're still available).
• Brand new super bright bulbs in the work lamps, very pleasing. I bought a ring light to try to get nice diffuse light on my work surface, but the thing was made of super cheap plastic and felt like trash. I took it back. Then there was this up-facing lamp I wasn't using, and I figured if I slammed a bright-enough bulb in there, I'd get diffuse light reflected from the ceiling. So far, so good.
• Christlemas chili-pepper lights.
• Seriously, if you are displeased with your work area, try getting a cheap little lamp with a shade. It really does cheer things up, and a light behind your monitor can help to reduce eye strain.

Gotta clean this all up and get it tidy so that this is a nice place to be inking. Also considering moving the computer desk over to the drawing-desk wall.

Watercolours???

The roll of paper towel and the green tape are there because I've been doing (learning how to do) some watercolours. As a gift for a close friend/family member, it is a "house portrait."

The only problem is that I haven't used watercolours in at least a year, and before that, my practice has been pretty spotty AT BEST.

First attempt:

Now, first of all, if you are a watercolour pro, PLEASE DO NOT ROAST ME FOR MY WARPED PAPER. I'm working with what I got, and I don't got the tape necessary to soak the paper first.

I knew I wanted to make the most of the medium, which meant embracing wet effects and letting it be relatively loose. Unfortunately, on this first attempt, I think the golden base wash was too overpowering. And the composition feels weird to me, and the trees in the back need some work.

Overall, I did not achieve what I was trying to achieve.

Unfortunately, I also did not know how to get to what I was trying to achieve, so I did some experiments. I mixed  combinations of greens, blues, yellows, and reds in order to understand how to make more-muted greens and how the different blues behaved. Basically, I got to know my colours a little better, which I should have done first, but I was overconfident and in a hurry.

The watercolours I was using were gifted to me from MK Reed, and I need you to know that she wrote the name of each colour on the little pans she used. MK, thank you, I am so grateful for this. You're amazing.

I wanted to jump into a second attempt at the painting, but I was feeling a little too timid (and a bit tired), so I taped off four rectangles so I could experiment with washes and wet effects and do little studies. I learned a lot, especially about pooling and bleeding, and the difference between the more traditional colours (siennas, ochres, ultramarine) and the more vivid ones (permanent green, etc).

I did this while I had a nice chat with Lucy Bellwood and Chris Schweizer, talking about improvisation versus planning in story writing. Also lamenting how much work comic books are.

With the confidence of those studies under my belt, I jumped into the second attempt.

It definitely benefits from the practice, as well as additional planning. I'm really pleased with the base washes, I like the greater level of contrast, and I'm much happier with the different qualities of green. And much to my surprise, I really like the suggestion of the neighbouring house on the far left. I made that choice quickly, and wasn't sure it would work, but I like it. Yeah, there's a goof in the sky, I chose to leave the front door bright yellow and I'm not sure it works, and umm maybe the horizon line is crooked, but I won't mention it to them if you don't.

There you go. That's my one watercolour painting for the year, done.

The Witcher.

I am watching The Witcher, season two, over on Netflix, because sometimes you really want a pizza, and it doesn't have to be the world's greatest pizza, but it does have to be a pizza. Even though this pizza could be better, it is distinctly A Pizza, and so I look forward to each episode.

(Filed under: there ought to be no such thing as a "guilty pleasure.")

Thank you, Patrons.

We're approaching the end of the 2021, which means it's almost a year since I opened up this Patreon campaign. I cannot overemphasize how grateful I am to each of you for your generosity and encouragement.

Your monthly pledges have added up to roughly $460 each month, on average. This has allowed me to cover:

• hosting and domain-registration fees for DelilahDirk.com (where the comic is shared to all) and TonyCliff.ca (where the comic's RSS feed lives, and where making-of or "educational" posts are shared to all).
• Tool costs, like my Adobe Photography plan (CAD$180/yr), a copy of Affinity Publisher (a measly $70, which will surely come in handy down the road, when I need to layout a print version of DD4), assorted pens, and roughly $240 worth of that Strathmore Bristol paper you see littered all over my office, above.
• Our utility bills each month (on average about $250), which keeps the lights on, the office warm, and the bits and bytes a-flowing from me to you.
• Buckle up, cause this one is A THRILL: disability insurance (about $650/yr, if I recall correctly). Which means that theoretically, knock on wood, if my wood-knocking hand is perforated by, say, an angry woodpecker and I am no longer able to knock on wood, it won't be a financial catastrophe.
• With enough left over that I can contribute to mine childe's RESP (yes, really. Sorry, I know that is also fantastically boring).

And what have I spent your time and patronage producing, this year?

• the broad-stroke outline for DD4 in its entirety.
• character designs and location studies.
• the 45 full-colour pages of Chapter One of DD4, all complete.
• 86 pages of Chapter Two, pencilled! (This is very "wow!" for me.)
• two large grant applications.
• process posts of varying in-depth-itude (I am glad to have heard from folks that these are enjoyable, because the process of writing them out has been edifying for me, for sure).

What's on tap for 2022?

• I gotta carefully review Chapter Two to make sure it needs to be as long as it is. I'm trying to thread the needle between making it tight (and, as George Saunders emphasizes, respecting the reader and their time) and allowing it to breathe, giving it space for fun little moments without being over-indulgent. It's difficult, but I think if I avoid looking at it between now and January, when I come back to it, it will be just fresh enough that I can judge it fairly.
• However that turns out, Chapter Two will be finished and going up online, ideally by mid-year. We will explore the island, Alexandra will make some surprising friends, and she will be blindsided by the horrible truth about being an English Lady. What will she do then, trapped with her parents on a remote island?
• Chapter Three. It will be started. Can I finish it by the end of next year? I am optimistic, but it will depend on how long it is. I really would like to get to the actual pirates sooner rather than later.
• I am excited for Chapter Two's Patron Acknowledgement page. I do not want to count my space-swans before they're hatched, but it's going to be really pretty.
• Inking and/or colouring livestreams? I'm going to try this. I might not be well-suited to it, but I do want to try.

This Week's George Saunders Update

Our 16-month-old child climbs on our bed. Occasionally, he grabs the big purple Saunders book from my bedside table, opens it to the back flap, sees Saunders' author photo…

and waves at it.

It is never not delightful.

I send my warmest holiday wishes to you and your families, friends, and loved-ones. However you observe this time of year and the changing of the calendar, I hope you have the love and security that you need (that we all need, really).

TC