foxesinlove

Drawer paraphernalia

(I do not actually know how it manifests.)

A small burger joint

There's a corner place in our home town, on the street where we used to live on, that's the smallest kiosk-sized restaurant place you can imagine. It's been the quarters of three different establishments in the past five years.

Also check out this giant radish I just bought. I have no idea how to cook it, so I am currently eating it raw.

The content of one's character

We found a digital camera on an empty park bench last monday. The lost-and-found had a paper you could fill out, and choose whether the owner is allowed to contact you if/when they get their stuff back. And the lady whose camera it was texted us back on wednesday! As a thank you she sent us a lovely picture of a swan swimming serenely in sparkly water, and she's certainly a more skilled photographer than either of us could ever be.

Pollen season

My boyfriend has been doing allergen immunotherapy for pollen, and yesterday we confirmed that it works like a miracle! Instead of observing how my boyfriend starts sneezing himself to the stratosphere from the mere thought of birches reproducing, this year we didn't even know that the festively yellow dust cloud covering everything outdoors was birch before he looked up a pollen map!

Communication, communication, communication

You can't always avoid or skip pointless arguments, but occasionally you can speedrun through them by sorting out who could have done what differently, and then set a timer how long you want to be mad about it.

When life gives you a stovetop

It's officially "too hot to cuddle"-weather, my friends.

Rain

First rule of being outdoors: do not talk back at the weather.

Bicycle

We've gotten a new bike! It's a long-haul one with enough space in the back for a passenger and some groceries. We're still kind of practicing how to ride it together.

Offerings

All of these are things that my boyfriend's mother really makes, grows, gathers, forages or cooks, from their garden and the surrounding woods. And I forgot the pickles! She makes pickles from cucumbers grown in the garden.

Ongoing Consent

I know I have 100% probably already made at least one comic about this exact same thing before, but it's a nice part of a good relationship. Having clear boundaries makes everyone feel safer, because you can trust that they really will tell you if something won't do.

Mysteries of the universe

This comic was inspired by the time we encountered a random golf ball in a ditch beside the street, dozens of kilometres away from any golf fields. We started wondering just how far it would have had to fly, and how hard you'd have to swing to make it fly like that.

Weather control

Extra: This one also comes as an animation!

The Plaguefather Strikes Again

My fundamental rules for comic drawing are clarity, consistency, motion and emotion. Those are the only four things that matter, and a comic that isn't 4/4 is not good no matter how pretty it is, and a comic that meets up those requirements is a good comic, no matter how ugly it may be. A comic must be clearly readable, with no confusion of what is happening, who the characters are, what they are doing, and how they are feeling.

With this one, I have no idea whether it's perfectly rea...

Whalefall

I think whalefalls are the most beautiful thing I can think of. How wonderful, that after a long and rich life, a massive creature like a whale will return to the energy cycle as the most astonishing, splendid strike of luck that the teeniest tiniest life forms could not have even imagined. The whale knows nothing about the creatures that will celebrate its funeral, and the little bottom critters know nothing about what a living whale is like. And yet, they are overjoyed to encounter one.
...

Distress signals

When there's a baby crying in public, it's good to remember that the baby isn't enjoying this situation either.

Clean spot

It wasn't THIS bad, but wow there's nothing like zeroing in on one specific spot with the determination to get it clean, and then zooming out to see the ombré ring of dirt around the perfectly sparkly spot you just created.

Engine noises

Sometimes the best comic ideas are things that did actually happen, but exaggerated to the point of being surreal. This did happen, and while the motorbike wasn't doll-sized, it was still absurdly small. The driver of the vehicle was perhaps 15, and scrunched up on the bike with his elbows resting on his knees. The bike's engine was louder than any car I had ever heard, and was moving at a pace where I could probably have caught it at my running speed.

Reassurances

We poke fun at each other quite a lot, in a lighthearted way. It's his family's way of doing things, which took me a while to get used to. That they'll trade friendly lighthearted roasts with each other, without anyone actually getting angry or going straight for the throat with some nuclear option insult.

Bird Rage

I love following the antics of wild birds. This is the time of the year when they beat the crap out of each other. Watching teeny tiny songbirds just brawling is way more entertaining than it should be.

Waltz

This was supposed to become something more advanced and detailed, but as you can see, I got tired of messing with it and deciced to just stylize it as a messy sketch animation instead. I might come back to it one day, but so far that's as good as it gets. I'm satisfied with how the colours turned out, I chose them intentionally.

Double-checking

I tend to double-check on things that I didn't like on the first try. Moslty because my memory is bad. Either I forget that I already tried it, or I forgot why I didn't like it. Then I try it again and go "oooooh, this is why I didn't like it."

Instant relief

A towel. The thing I couldn't find in the dream was one specific towel that could be fashioned into a stretcher to carry my tiny baby-sized three-eyed grandma inside. For some reason only that one specific towel could do for this purpose, any other option was out of the question.

Though my waking life is generally quite stress-free, I often wake up relieved that I don't have to deal with whatever it was that I was just dreaming about.

Another attempt at VHS style animation

Still can't quite get the 80s anime feel right (I know, the lineart is too thick, but once I made that mistake I was committed to it), but I have now learned how to do video effects!

Bad days

This happens frequently. I can't tell when he's mad and when he's sick.

Retro Anime Laundry Day

I'm still enthralled by the way that anime has stylistically mastered the way of using minimal amount of frames to make the animation still feel dynamic and alive, and I am also in love with trying to achieve the fake VHS video look in animation, so I wanted to try and combine them. Tried to combine the two, I haven't quite mastered it yet, but I'm pretty happy with this as a first(?) try.

First signs of spring

This is us. He is unbothered by everything in nature, but can't stand being on touching distance with bees. I am fine with bees inspecting me for as long as they don't go under my clothes, into my ear canals, nostrils, or any place where they might get trapped, freak out, and sting me.

Rage against the machine

This happened. I accidentally ordered grocery delivery on one single bag of dried fruit and nut mix, and the delivery itself cost more than the bag. Having that little bot come all the way over here just to deliver one single 250 gram bag of snackies felt very humiliating.

I deleted the store app off my phone, because while I still don't know what exactly I did wrong, I clearly can't be trusted with it.

Sleeptalking

He does tap fingers in a very morse-type kind of way sometimes when he sleeps. I have no idea what he's dreaming of, and neither does he - he's told me he almost never remembers his dreams.

Gone but not forgotten

This happens every time if we don't write something down.

Shifting shade animation

I tried a lot of things with this. Didn't succeed to my satisfaction with most of them. Here it is regardless - I have to post it in order to relase it from my WIP pile.