Hello all! It's been a little while since I posted on here, mostly because I was stuck with a horrible case of mono that ensured that I remember very little of the entire month of April. But, I'm back to 100% now! And I wanted to talk a little bit about one of my inspirations...
My mom found this image the other day when she was on a spiritual Google pilgrimage reminiscing about dolls she'd owned as a child in the 60s and 70s. I immediately fell in love not only with this poster (one repetition of the word "mod" wasn't enough to drive the point home! They had to repeat it FOUR TIMES!!) but also Francie the doll's own clothes. I love 60s mod clothes and aesthetics both for my own outfits but also because of how they can inspire my illustrations and comics. The super-bright colors, overloads of interesting patterns, and fearlessness inherent in the mod style really appeals to me.
A sketchbook drawing I did of the mod style I like!
I love to do crafty things -- I've been knitting for years -- and it's something that's very relaxing for me. I also have a super hard time finding clothes that fit me, as I'm very small. So, I asked my dad to teach me to sew! I've now been sewing for a while. Here's the first dress I made a few months ago.
As with anything, I feel like having sewing as a hobby will help me understand the construction of clothes more, and will improve how I draw them in both Chapel and my other comics. In this vein, I decided to draw what Chapel might look like if "The Chapel Chronicles" took place in 1966!
For those of you who follow my Chapel Chronicles facebook page, you should all have heard the news of my exciting museum exhibit. Basically, I was asked to contribute my artwork to an exhibit at the Los Gatos Art Museum -- and Saturday was the opening reception! It was amazing. I got to meet some of the other five artists in my exhibit, "Storytelling in Pictures: From Idea to Art" as well as the museums' docents, supporters, and visitors. A lot of kids were really excited to meet me, as they had heard that one of the artists was only a couple years older than they were (everyone else in the exhibit is an adult). It was amazing to meet so many people and celebrate the exhibit opening!
My section of the exhibit turned out looking amazing. They're displaying two of my Chapel comics printed at really huge sizes, which really enables you to see all the detail nicely! They also have a TV screen hooked up that plays one of my process videos on constant loop:
Since a big feature of the exhibit is showing not just the finished pieces but also the preliminary sketches and process pieces, they have two frames showing a step-by-step progression from original sketch, ink, to final Chapel comic (click on the pictures to enlarge):
There's also my non-Chapel comic "Jam Days," which won a gold medal in the 2011 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and even a glass case with my Chapel thumbnails sketchbook and a handmade Chapel storybook! Again, click the pictures to enlarge:
I'm so happy I was able to be a part of this AMAZING exhibit!! Thank you so much Museums of Los Gatos for inviting me and for putting in the hard work to curate and set up such an excellent exhibit. As a reminder, I'll be back at the museum on February 3rd and 10th to teach free comics workshops for all ages. More info on that here and here!
Yesterday, I taught a comics workshop at 826 Valencia, a nonprofit tutoring and arts center in SF. I've taught about six classes there before, each with a different theme for the kids to base their comics around. Yesterday's theme was politics, as it just so happened to be the day of Obama's swearing-in.
I was a bit worried going into the class of how much knowledge the kids would have about today's politics and whether or not they'd be able to make jokes based on politics. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised!! The kids knew much more about politics than I expected: When I had them list basic political facts they knew, one 10-year-old student ripped off a long description of swing states and why winning Ohio was crucial to Obama's overall 2012 victory. Wow.
Once I explained my comics process and started circling around to chat with each student and develop their ideas one-on-one, you could hear little but the scratching of pencils for the next two hours. The group was totally invested in their work and stayed remarkably focused for the entire span of the class -- it was one of the best student groups I've yet had in terms of their ability to focus and their dedication to their work. When you're in the 8-11 age range, it can be difficult to work on one comic for two hours straight, but these kids rose to the challenge!
The first page in my Comics Process syllabus
My philosophy for teaching is that the comics are borne from the kids' own imagination. I guide them through the process of developing jokes and designing their comics panels, but they are the ones who draw, plan, brainstorm, and write everything themselves. I try to teach them in a way that fosters their own creativity and shows them how to create more of their own comics in the future. When a student wrote that her favorite part of my class was how it was all about "the students' own creativity," I was proud and happy that I was able to communicate my core creative values through teaching!!
At the end of the class, even I learned a thing or two! One of the students tugged on my sleeve and said, "Emma, I really like my comic. Could I share it with the group once everyone's done?" I was surprised and delighted at this great idea, and got a quick show of hands of other students who would be interested in a "share time." Everyone loved the idea! At the end of the workshop, once each student had filled out their class surveys, I had them stand up around the table and everyone got a chance to share their comic if they wanted to. Seeing the kids read their comics out loud and laugh at each other's jokes was such a rewarding experience! I'm definitely going to incorporate a final "share time" into all my classes from now on. This was a great example of a time when the teacher is the one learning from her own students!
Hello! I had stopped using this blog for a while, mostly because I didn't feel very comfortable writing in the blog format. After a year of writing mini-blogposts for the commentary on my webcomic "The Chapel Chronicles," I decided it was time to return to blogging! While the commentary on my comics serves as a "behind-the-scenes" look on just the comic itself, this blog will be sort of a behind-the-scenes on my life (and art) in general.
As you read this, I'm working on tomorrow's Chapel comic! Here's my top-secret notebook of thumbnails (which are like miniature little "first drafts" of comic strips) for this last arc of The Chapel Chronicles' Season Three. I've had to blur out the text on the thumbnails because -- as Doctor Who's River Song might say -- SPOILERS!
Also note the life drawing which I somehow turned into a VERY DRAMATIC drawing of Hamlet...don't ask me why!
On another note, here's a music video for the song "Cameo Lover" by Kimbra, who I've only just started listening to. The aesthetics in this video are REALLY fantastic -- in particular, the color palette of bright reds and weird pastels is intensely pleasing to me for some reason, and I would kill for her swishy 50s-style dress (minus the weird pom-pom sleeves).
Until next week, thank you for reading this li'l blog of mine! Here's a picture of my dog to see you out, because who can resist adorable doggy photos? Nobody, that's who!
This is her "it's 9 am why haven't you taken me for my piddly morning walk yet" face.
So today I was working on this sketch of Poppy and her BFF Tessa (it will have a background and proper shadows soon). I'm pretty proud of how it turned out! I usually have trouble drawing people sitting, but not this time. Also, for Poppy's scarf/headband, I scanned in my mom's twilly scarf from Hermes and then traced over the pattern in Photoshop (my mom's hair is too short to wear the scarf on her head, though, so she ties it onto her purse). Also, Poppy's hairstyle here is inspired by the character Shauna Wickle of the excellent webcomic Bad Machinery, as Shauna wears her hair in pigtails sometmes.
Rather apropos of this, this morning I was all excited because it's Monday and hey, a new Bad Machinery comic would be up! So I read the new page (which is fantastic) and then I decided to go fart around on Facebook for a while.
WHAT. WHAT.WHAT?!*
Here's a little clarification: John Allison, who as you can see above just followed the Chapel page on Facebook, is the guy behind Bad Machinery, and a handful of other webcomics as well. I love his work. Just adore it. And now he liked the Chapel page. Wow!
*Also, if anyone got that very subtle reference to a certain science fiction show, good job!
So maybe a month ago I started getting really frustrated at my art style. It seemed really stiff, not as expressive as I wanted it, all these things. I would sit down just to do a doodle and before long my thoughts would turn to: BOO HOO WHY CAN’T I DRAW WELL WOE IS ME MUST JOURNEY TO THE ANCIENT CHINESE MOUNTAINS ON PATH OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT AND INNER ZEN.
This picture and the one above are doodles of my character Poppy Fairfax in a new, more expressive style.
Luckily, lately I feel like I’ve been gaining a lot of headway towards improving my art style! I’ve been experimenting a TON with digital coloring and have gotten WAY better, and I’ve also re-taught myself how to draw more expressive faces. I’m also getting better at making hair less static., and body positions that would’ve taken me AGES just a week or two ago are suddenly a lot easier! I'm one step closer to attaining DRAWING NIRVANA!
So last Sunday I had the honor to teach a 2-hour comics class at 826 Valencia in San Francisco!
I was really excited about being able to teach there, and I had written up a blurb and advertised the class on both 826 Valencia's site and my Facebook page. The night before I spent hours collecting books, rehearsing my comics introduction, and drawing a comic strip that I photocopied during each step of the creation process as an example (See the steps below!) I also dragged my mom and my best friend on a CalTrain trip with me to go to my favorite art store (Accent Arts in Palo Alto - visit them!) to buy Copic multiliners and lettering guides.
The first step in the comic process I created for the class - making a quick, small sketch or "thumbnail" of your strip.
I was incredibly excited for the class, and the night before I couldn't go to sleep because I was envisioning myself inspiring 8 preteenagers to create their own comics! I imagined that 826 would love me and invite me back to teach a week-long course, and lo and behold, I’d go on to teacher fame! Yeahhh, I got a bit ahead of myself there. This is one of the reasons I have a hard time going to sleep – I’m a hopeless romantic and I’m always envisioning how things will turn out and they never, ever turn out that way. When I’m sick and at home, I always imagine my grand homecoming back to school from The Land of Influenza, showered with hugs from people who missed me dearly and...yeahhh, it doesn’t work out that way. Ever. (Okay, I’ll admit it, sometimes it does).
Anyway, on the day of the class I got there early to set up, drew out the panel borders for all 8 of my students' comics, got the books I'd brought as examples organized, distributed the art supplies I'd bought, and set up a camera so I could film the class.
The second step, sketching out your actual comic.
A little before 3:00 pm, the time my class was supposed to start, my first student, Landon, showed up with his mom just as I finished getting everything ready. We decided to wait for more students to show up before I started my introduction. We waited five minutes...10 minutes...15 minutes...20...finally, at 3:30, I decided I’d start the introduction. Aw geez, I thought, I’ve only got one student! I had been hoping that everyone was just really late, but by then it dawned on me that not a single one of the 7 other students were going to show up.
As Landon moved from planning to drawing his comic strip -- which was really funny! -- I chatted a lot with both him and his mother. By then I felt really calm. I thought, If he gets a great comic out of the class, then I'm happy. I was silly for being all depressed earlier!
Then when I was cleaning up all the materials that hadn’t been used and my dad came and he was wondering why 7 of the spots hadn’t been occupied. I couldn’t say anything in front of the TA (“yes, no one showed up”) because I didn’t want to seem ungrateful. I started getting really sad thinking about how I had been imagining this amazing class and it hadn’t worked out that way. My dad tried to take me to my favorite ice cream shop, Humphrey Slocombe, (go there for the bourbon-cornflake ice cream but not on a day when the line’s excruciatingly long), but I couldn’t stand the wait and when I got home I didn’t want to talk to anyone.
The final step, inking your comic!
Then the sun broke through the clouds (metaphorically, though, ’cause it was sunny and scorching) when I got an email from Landon’s mom, Susan. She told me that since it was such a nice day out Landon had wanted to stay home and not attend my class, but she had been trying to stress the importance of keeping commitments and made him go. Landon had a great time at the class and even used the supplies and techniques I'd given him to make another comic that very night! Awwww!
This made me feel like it had all been worth it! Now I'm going to try again and teach another class in the fall. Hopefully it won't be sunny then and I'll have a full class roster! (We decided the gorgeous weather that day was the reason I had so many no-shows).
Landon -- thank you for keeping your word and coming to my class. I hope you keep on drawing!
Susan -- Thank you for your lovely note. Here’s hoping it’ll be rainy next time I teach my class! No, not rain, that’ll keep kids indoors, too…fog then! It’s San Francisco, so that shouldn’t be a problem, right?
Well, I graduated two Fridays ago, on the 10th. It was a very sad affair and many tears were shed. I've been with some of my friends for 10 years and a good portion of them are moving to different states and one to a different continent. I could write about how much I'll miss everyone, but I think I'll just include my graduation speech instead.
A little over two years ago, Dave Susman gave our sixth-grade class a writing prompt entitled “Plantings.” It began like this: “Take some seeds. Look at them. Describe them. Smell them. Then take them somewhere. Describe where this is. And then plant them. Let time pass. Describe that, if you like. Then show what grows. It’s not at all what you expected to grow. Not at all. Describe this."
We were Plantings ourselves. Ten years ago, the members of the eighth grade were still seeds. We might have been slightly different shapes or sizes, but in the end we were all the same: the beginnings of an idea. We came to Nueva, and Nueva nurtured us, let us spring from the earth and begin to figure out what kind of plant we would grow into. Through the times when we made friends or lost them, through the times when we complained about homework or laughed at the sun, through those golden moments when time seemed to slow down in front of me and I saw the wonderful faces of my friends, we have grown up together.
And whom I have grown into is not what I expected. I never could have predicted the kind of person I would be and the things that would make me laugh. I have grown, we all have. We are saplings now, realizing what we will become. We will all be transplanted to different places to finish our growth, but whatever way the wind takes us – be it different states or different continents – our roots will always stretch back to Nueva and to the time we shared here. We came here as seeds, but Nueva nurtured our growth, and encouraged us to discover who we are. Before Nueva, I was only a single sprout in a vast landscape, alone and unformed. But now we have all grown taller together.
I will remember these words for the rest of my life. They are the beginnings of a story, but they tell one in their own right: Take some seeds. Then take them somewhere. And then plant them. Then show what grows. It’s not at all what you expected to grow. But it is beautiful, and gleaming in the sunlight.
Someday when I have grown into a tree, settled into my place in the world, I will think back to Nueva. Nueva is where I found my current self, the beginnings of my personality; where I found my passions and my place and the 50 friends that made up, for these 10 years, my forest, my family, and my home.
Art update! And quite a lengthy one, as I've been painting a lot recently! I wanted to finish up a few new Chapel card designs before I go away to summer camp this Sunday, so here's a sneak peek at my latest 4 designs. I'll give you a heads-up once they're for sale. The last two are based on my Distraction Sketches from a while back.
From left: Spring Sympathy, Wish You Were Here, Regency Chapel Note Card & Pharaoh Chapel Note Card
Aaaaand, completely separate from Chapel, when I went away for my two-week class trip to Spain, I did a few little sketch paintings. Here's my four favorite ones:
I drew these during the 13+ hours of transit between Madrid and San Fran. The one on the right is inspired by this song, and the one on the left by this one.
Above, an unfinished 5 minute painting of siesta time in Madrid, and on the left, a portrait of my homestay buddy, Rosa.
Apologies that I couldn't edit these on the computer to optimize how they show up on the web - I don't have Photoshop on my new computer* yet and I'm left editing with Preview. Preview, I tell you! That's even worse than MS Paint -- all you can do is crop and rotate. There's not even an eraser tool! It's like living in the Dark Ages.
*In happier news, I got a new computer! An 8 gig MacBook Pro! As a graduation present! Yet further evidence that my parents are The Coolest People on Earth!
Soooo I'm just now back from Spain and New York and everything and my life has been HECTIC and I've been meaning to get around to blogging for a while but now I think I finally can. Things have been crazy ever since MoCCA in April. I've given up all hope of doing a wrap-up post on MoCCA, but I'll do one of my New York Carnegie Hall trip now.
I was in NY to attend the Scholastic Awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall for winning the National Gold Medal in Comic Art. Here's me outside Carnegie Hall (in borrowed finery) along with my medal!
Kids, take note: This is the slightly awkward posture a nerd cartoonist adopts when forced out of her usual T-shirt and cutoffs into FANCY MOM CLOTHES.
That night the Empire State Building was lit in gold in honor of the Awards! Also, when in the elevators in the Empire State Building, it's best to act weird and provide the security camera guys with a little entertainment.
Then the next day, we got some VERY good news: My winning comic "Jam Days" also got featured as part of ART.WRITE.NOW, an exhibit of selected winning work at the World Financial Center. Go check it out if you live in Manhattan! (An audio greeting I recorded also got picked as part of a cell phone tour!)
Flippedy-doodle hair and sweaty sheen courtesy of our sponsor, 3.5 Hour Scavenger Hunt Walking Around Manhattan In 90 Degree Heat. Just look at the pretty comic, okay?
Welllll, that's just about it for now. I'll put up an art update within the next couple of days, which will involve: Brand-new Chapel cards! Spain sketches! Free doughnuts! And much, much more!
This afternoon I am leaving for my 2-week-long class trip to España! We're hitting Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba, Granada, and Sevilla, where we'll have homestays and go to a local school. (If you've checked out my Spanish Chapel cards, you'll know I'm fluent in Spanish).
Anyway, I guess my long-awaited MoCCA Fest 2011 recap will have to wait until I get back. In the meantime, have a sketchdump of this week's doodles.
So finally, the long-awaited sketches! I know I promised these on Wednesday, but recently I've gotten completely sick of drawing my comic strips to the point where I'm all "OKAY, DRAWING TIME BEGINS NOW!" and I put on motivational Doctor Who music and I get all my pens ready and 50 seconds later I get distracted by our shiny new button-maker and VWOOP, there goes an hour!
Anyway, two days ago I decided I'd start doing warm-up sketches to try to keep myself from getting distracted, and whadda ya know, now I get distracted doing warm-up sketches.
Anyway, here's the Distraction Sketch of a couple weeks ago (this is what kicked off the whole idea):
It's Chaperu-chan! Her clothes are based off of this Japanese doll my granddad used to own, and I copied the name from some "write your name in Japanese" website. And in case you can't tell, those hurriedly-done blob things on her kimono (Is it a kimono? Yukata? Robe-thing?) are actually majestic embroidered dragons, mutilated by my lazy artist hands. Oh well, it was fun to draw.
This is yesterday's, and I'm really exceedingly fond of it, dahling. Chapel's expression just gets me every time, it's got the right fake-shy flirtiness about it! And I really like her dress and bonnet and that weird scarf drapey thing those Regency gals always have fartin' around on their arms.
And this is today's. I spent ages looking up reference photos for the clothes, but best of all I like Chapel's expression/dialogue. Originally the punchline was gonna be, "I should've worn waterproof kohl today" with the stuff all runny around her eyes, but I like this punchline about 20x better. It's totally how I would act as a pharaoh. And in case you're wondering where Chapel's feet are, the answer is the dress is so long it's covering them up.
More Distraction Sketches as I make them, further hampering my airtight comic strip schedule! Oh well, at some point I can paint these and turn them into a note card assortment, so it's not ALL bad.
First of all, I'd like you to take a look at that picture. Drink it in. Relish it. Now here's a couple things I'd like you to take away from that photo, besides the fact that those papers are pockmarked with Alvin "drafting dots" like pimples on the nose of a 17-year-old boy*:
A. That there, my friend, is 14 Chapel comic strips, drawn by moi. That's right, 14. Which means that...
B. Whoop! I'm halfway there to my shining end goal of 28 STRIPS. Which means a glorious, bound-up comic book complete with beautiful bonus sketches and insightful, witty behind-the-scenes commentary is only a few penstrokes away.
C. And never mind that I have to totally redraw some of the ones in that picture and still produce 14 more to boot! Let me have my fantasy!
D. Also please note I spent maybe 30 minutes getting each one all paperclipped and taped and labeled with its own little orange Post-It and arranged in order corresponding to both its week theme AND its reading order within that theme. And then I took an additional 15 minutes arranging them in a magnificent, awe-inspiring, masterful fan-crescent-shape thing.
E. This list probably tells you more about me than you will ever need to know.
By the way, I'll post a whole buncha sketches on Wednesday! Feel free to sit on the edge of your seat and wait in anticipation for the next two days. Spoiler alert: It may feature someone called "Chaperu-chan."
*Just sayin', but that should so be their tagline. "Alvin Drafting Dots: We make your pages look like they've just walked out of a 7-11 wearing a hoodie and jokin' around with 'the dudes.'"
So I have some very exciting news to share with you today. Very, very, exciting news. Y'know, wet-yourself-caliber exciting. (Or maybe that's just me).
First off, a little background: From August to December I created an 8-page short comic called "Jam Days." ("Jam Days" doesn't have anything to do with Chapel, but I was so touched by my teacher's Chapel-themed drawing to the right that I had to include it). At the beginning I started off working for two weeks per page: One week, I'd sketch the page, and the next I'd ink it. But then my mom found out about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, an extremely prestigious competition for teens with various divisions covering all kinds of art and writing, including Comic Art. (You can see where I'm going with this, can't you?) Anyway, at that point it was maybe October, and the bulk of the work on "Jam Days" was yet to be completed. Although when I heard about the competition I wished I could make up a more serious story to draw, there wasn't enough time to plan out an entirely new project before the deadline. So I was going to submit "Jam Days."
I'd planned to work on it at a leisurely pace, unlike my previous project from two years ago which I did all in one go. But I calculated that in order to finish for the mid-December deadline, I would have to work twice as fast -- because I still had to paint every page as well. So for about two and a half months, I would draw and ink a page every week.
For the first part of the week I'd draw and draw furiously until I had the entire page penciled. Then I'd email a scan to my incomparable comics tutor, Dan Archer, who would critique it and send it back to me. After a month of that, I had all the pages finalized and inked. But I was far from done - I still had to paint them.
Painting the comic was very precise and time-consuming, and there were about two weeks when I would get home from school at 4 and paint until my bedtime at 9. In the end, I managed to finish everything - all 8 pages, written and drawn and lettered and inked and painted and shaded by hand - just in time for the deadline.
I also submitted a poetry collection I wrote, consisting of two prose poems. Below is a time-lapse I made of painting the last page of "Jam Days."
The way the Scholastic Art & Writing Competition works is that there are two levels, the Regional and then the National level. First, kids submit work to their Regional affiliate. At the Regional level, prizes awarded are Gold Keys, Silver Keys, and Merit Awards. Those who are awarded Gold Keys then get forwarded to Nationals, where their work is judged by professionals in the industry. There, the highest honors in the country, Gold and Silver Medals, along with other honors, are awarded.
Mid-February, a couple days before my 14th birthday, I found out that - YES! - I won two Regional awards in the California state.
First, for my poetry collection, a Merit Award! And...
...A GOLD KEY FOR "JAM DAYS!" That's right -- I got the highest prize at the Regional level! Because I won a Gold Key, a week from today - on the 19th - I get to attend the Regional celebration in San Jose, where I'll be awarded my real Gold Key pin and certificate, along with a pin for Dan, my teacher.
Also because I won a Gold Key, "Jam Days" was forwarded for judging at US Nationals, the highest level of competition. A long month of waiting had begun...a month filled with both my mom and me obsessively checking the website, re-reading the interview with the Comic Art judge, looking through last year's winners, knocking on wood, praying (that was just my mom), having nightmares (that was just me), and secretly hoping.
Our stress/worry level increased with each day leading up to when the winners would be announced...
...which was yesterday, March 11th.
And...
I...
WON!
YES, I WON THE GOLD MEDAL FOR 8TH GRADE IN COMIC ART! And only one other middle schooler in the US won this award for their comics!
Because I won, I get to attend the medal-winning ceremony at Carnegie Hall on May 31st! I'll be staying in a schwanky hotel chock-full with other winners, and there'll also be an exhibition of winning artwork! I can't wait to meet all the other winners.
Really, I still can't quite believe I won, but I guess my months of hard work paid off. I have never been more proud of myself in my life, and I am so incredibly happy and honored to have won this award. And I couldn't have done it without Dan's guidance, so please go check out his comics.
I'll post an account of my trips to San Jose and Carnegie Hall after they happen, so please check back.
