That's What Reference Photos are For (aka Fun with Downtown Buildings)
This is from a family vacation last winter. I finally made time to draw this! That's what reference photos are for.Hey patrons! I hope the holidays are treating you well. If not, don't worry: they're almost over and you've got this!
A friend of mine commissioned this postcard of her husband's office building as seen from the Hawthorne Bridge.
Political Cartoon: Bankruptcy Lane
Barry's and my November political cartoon (now with more of Becky's thoughts about transportation below!):
This comic was inspired by current events. Some background: 82nd Ave is a 4-lane road that cuts through East Portland. It's flanked on both sides by shopping centers and grocery stores, car dealerships and auto repairs. It services the busiest bus line in Oregon, which is often delayed by traffic. It's also one of the most dangerous streets in the city for drivers, bicycli...
2025-12-17 06:43:04 +0000 UTC View PostBecky: Welcome to The War on Cars
This is a true story from the children's theater. It must have happened during my first year or two there. I swear I eventually got better at making small talk with children! I've been meaning to turn this anecdote into a comic for years. It was a moment that changed how I think about car crashes. Also, I was tickled by the way each of my attempts to be reassuring backfired even worse than the last one. A couple weeks ago, I had an excuse and a deadline to put pen to paper.
One of my fa...
2025-12-06 21:52:58 +0000 UTC View PostPolitical Cartoon: Crap you hear in a wheelchair
This is Barry's and my political cartoon for October. It's a genre of cartoon I like to call "Nine types of jerks."
As a cartoonist in the internet age, I'm really lucky to have access to drawing tutorials as well as reference photos! I found wheelchairs really hard to draw from photos (what are all those bars for? WHAT'S HAPPENING UNDER THERE?!). But I knew there were some tips and drawing tutorials out there. I saw them on timeline every once in a while, when a cartoonist hadn't done ...
2025-12-02 01:02:51 +0000 UTC View PostThose Autumn Leaves (and Sketchbook Pages)
Hey patrons! Here's the latest in postcards and sketchbook pages.
I went to a fundraising concert at Portland Center Stage and had some great luck with seating:
Larry Owens aka Zach from Abbott Elementary sang Sondheim. It ruled.A couple that I'm friends with just moved to Greece, and this was their goodbye hangout.
Political Cartoon: They Think They Own The Road!
This is my September political cartoon for Barry.
In recent years, I’ve become involved with local organizing efforts around safer streets. I’ve had some galvanizing experiences, like witnessing a hit and run during a group bike ride on the way to a memorial for victims of traffic violence. Another time, a driver in front of me...
2025-11-03 18:43:55 +0000 UTC View PostKeepin' it Classy
This was at Pictures Tell The Story: Political Cartooning in Portland. If you have some time, the panel discussion is worth a listen. It has lots of interesting old-timey political cartoons and a bunch of insp...
2025-10-24 17:24:02 +0000 UTC View PostWhaaat happened to September?
I'm so pleased with how this postcard turned out! Naomi and I checked out Alchemy Cider Co.--ask about their cider discount if you bike there!--and the evening light on the patio was really gorgeous. I took a picture and made the postcard over the next week.
I can't believe it's late-mid-October (didn't the summer just end?!) but my sketchbook is full of all the things I've been up to.
A group called 2025-10-17 16:14:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Political Cartoon: The Cities Are Full Of, uh, "Crime"
Barry wrote this cartoon, and I was happy to draw it. I went to public schools in predominantly-Black neighborhoods from Kindergarten through 9th grade, and I lived in Brooklyn on and off after college, so these neighborhood scenes felt familiar to me.
Speaking of political cartoons, there's a free political comic fair and pane...
2025-10-08 17:16:53 +0000 UTC View PostPostcards: These pretty much happened verbatim
I was proud.
I'm really happy with how I colored the back of this postcard. I feel like the colors create a very clear difference between the world of the podcast ad and the kitchen. ...
2025-09-17 04:16:11 +0000 UTC View PostSummer odds and ends
I'm really proud of this postcard from The Hollywood Theatre! It's a gorgeous, iconic building that shows new movies and rare/thoughtfully curated ones. It holds a lot of good memories for me.
I took this photo of the theater on a misty night after Naomi and I saw 2025-09-02 04:53:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Political cartoon: Trust Us, We're Doctors
Hey patrons! I drew this cartoon for Barry last month. I'm really happy with how it looks, so I'm sharing it here, along with our original Patreon post. The comic I drew for Jonathan Baylis' next issue of So Buttons will debut at Small Press Expo in a few weeks. There's a sneak preview at the bottom!
I love drawing a "thingie through the ages" comic. Th...
2025-08-25 17:23:20 +0000 UTC View Post2 postcards, and much ado about protected bike lanes
\
I tried to find a link for this hot sauce and got a defunct Square site, but it's this stuff:
This summer has been very bikey, perhaps my bikeyest on record!
I tabled at Sunday Parkways with Bike...
2025-08-16 01:59:35 +0000 UTC View PostPolitical Cartoon: They Will Never Be Shown
Hi patrons! I've been working hard on a 4-page comic for Jonathan Baylis's next issue of So Buttons. Jonathan writes autobio comics and gets a different artist to draw each one. He has a knack for fitting the right artist to each story. For example, in 2013, I drew a story about Jonathan getting laid off and using his severance to go to the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. At that time I'd recently been working on cruise ship...
2025-08-08 06:23:19 +0000 UTC View PostBike Summer
Hi patrons!
Every year, Portland celebrates Bike Summer (formerly Pedalpalooza) from June through August (formerly just June). There are 5-10 group rides per day, with every theme from "Portland Streetcar History" to "Lady Gaga" to "Bagels." There are often costumes, music, and whimsy involved. It...
2025-07-29 14:46:09 +0000 UTC View PostBook 1, Page 204
I love visiting the area that the Turtle River Highway is based on. And I really enjoy getting a chance to draw all the cool dramatic shapes and textures that you don't find in a city.
a photo from my 2015 birthday bike ride, making an appearance in panel 1
Lillian's enthusiasm for trivia and comes in handy when Barry and I want to give the reader some historical context for what's...
2025-07-18 18:09:39 +0000 UTC View PostBook 1, Page 203
Hi Patrons!
I really enjoy how people connect (and sometimes butt heads) over food.
Despite being from Pittsburgh, a pierogi-rich city, I don't have a personal connection to pierogies. According to the internet, "pierogi" is a plural noun, and adding the S is an English thing that annoys some pedants. But plenty of Ukrainian-Canadians with immigrant relatives write "perogies." There was a Reddit thread where Americans and Canadians tried to find out why their Ukrainian grandparent...
2025-07-11 06:12:24 +0000 UTC View PostBook 1, Page 202
I've drawn more smoking in SuperButch than anywhere else in my life, put together!
Pros:
Historically accurate
Every character always has something to do with their hands
Cons:
How does smoking work, again?
I have to draw so many hands!
Meanwhile, in Portland...
Naomi's mom was in town last week, which was a great excuse to go to the Portland Art Museum. The current exhibit centers on Monet's Waterlilies, displayed between collections of the Japanese woodblock prints that Monet was excited about at the time, and some European prints inspired and influenced by the Japanese prints. It was so cool! Go see it if you get a chance! First Thursdays are free, and you can get in with your P...
2025-07-03 15:53:39 +0000 UTC View PostSuperButch is back! Book 1, Page 201
Hey patrons,
You know I love drawing a background, so let me tell you all about panel 1! Barry describes the setting as "a grassy area at the side of a road, by a hole-in-the-wall town." For an optimal view of the town, I interpreted "grassy area" as a parking lot next to the train station off the main street. I've taken a scenic train ride on the Oregon coast (thanks Emily!) so I can confidently say it's authentic. ...
2025-06-28 02:26:28 +0000 UTC View PostClouds and clutter, clutter and clouds
I enjoy drawing workspaces and clutter, so panel 2 was fun. This is the lobby of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle. They have a bunch of mosaics inside.
Google street view was helpful for panel 1. I also had a photo of this view from the time I'd texted "whew, almost there!" from the bus.
2025-06-18 05:56:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Pride Month/Bike Summer is here!
I'll let you be the judge here:
Hi patrons! Happy Pride Month.
It's also the start of Bike Summer in Portland. I've been struggling to balance comics productivity, socializing, rest, and Doing Goodâ„...
2025-06-01 23:18:12 +0000 UTC View PostTake a sec to appreciate this moment!
Hey patrons,
It's been a rough week in a couple of ways...
...but I'm really happy with how these postcards came out! I've been inspired by Mateusz Urbanowicz's watercolor series, 2025-04-14 17:30:12 +0000 UTC View Post
City Hall Sketches and Postcards to Voters
I've been trying to show up where I can. It's hard to know where to put time and energy, given how many things need attention. A couple weeks ago, I saw a flyer asking people to show up to a City Council meeting to "stop Zenith" (aka show support for a City Council resolution to ask the mayor and the auditor to investigate Zenith Energy).
The meeting lasted over 4 hours, so I had a bunch of tim...
2025-04-07 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostFebruary/March sketchbook and postcards
This postcard was my best imitation of Jaime Hernandez, whose latest comic collection, Life Drawing, recently came out. I really love how the world he draws is a combination of realistic and cartoony, mundane a...
California Doodlin
I still get a kick out of the buildings when I visit LA. Seriously, why is the post office an amusement park castle, and what in the half-timbered heck is going on next door?
Naomi and I went to SoCal at the end of January, but I just finished some postcards from the trip, so here's everything.
It started with a reluctant shopping trip:
2025-03-20 18:11:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
"Let's Compromise!": a political cartoon with Barry
Hi patrons! This is Becky from the paaast, scheduling a political cartoon to go out while I'm on vacation.
Barry keeps a digital folder of potential political cartoon scripts. Sometimes he'll point my attention to a script that requires drawing specific environments or various historical periods. Other times I'll browse the folder and pick something that sounds fun to draw, or that covers a topic I'm interested in. So I often start a Patreon post with how I came to draw this particular ...
2025-01-27 22:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post"Personal Vehicle Arms Race": a Political Cartoon with Barry
Hi patrons,
Happy new year! I'm sharing a cartoon that I did with Barry last November because a) I'm super happy with it, and b) I'm visiting family for the next 2 weeks and I wanted to post something that's not a half-finished SuperButch page.
Here's what I wrote about the cartoon for Barry's Patreon:
I've been a bike-commuter for twelve years and in that time I've noticed the average vehicle size getting bigger. There's something unnerving about waiting at a re...
2025-01-18 22:28:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Unemploymus Finitus
Great news:
I'm the new Patron Services & Office Coordinator for Cappella Romana, a vocal group and genuine buncha music nerds here in Portland!
One of my first days of work was a 13-hour day trip to Seattle for an evening concert. I was feeling nervous about several hours on a bus with my new boss and ~18 ...
2024-12-19 06:34:55 +0000 UTC View PostBook 1, Page 200
First of all: WOO-HOO! PAGE TWO HUNDRED!!!
It's so gratifying to have a few pages to just draw the heck out of this highway. Especially since Barry lets me ignore his script:
This page is divided into three panels, one on top of the other, each taking up a third of the page. There are also a few narrative captions floating over the panels.
Panel 1 shows the car stopped at a scenic lookout point alongside the highway. Some of our six are still in the car, others h...
2024-12-15 20:25:22 +0000 UTC View Post