The Tree Swing

tree swing sketch

I went to a picnic recently hosted by the Universalist Unitarian Church near me. It was hosted on the farm of one of the members. It was so scenic and so quiet and secluded that I drew some sketches of it. I think this is probably the best one of all of them.

I wish I got more sketches of the house itself – it’s an enormous country house built back in the day when windows had nine panes in them and there was a fireplace in almost every room. I want to go back there and draw more of the house – I’ll gladly do chores for the place if that’s what it takes to stay there and make art. One of the ladies at the picnic said that was what she did, and she made watercolor paintings of the house and hills around it.

The Ball Will Return: Thoughts on Creative Work

"the original" painting

There was a post I wrote on this blog years ago. It’s so old I had written it back when this blog was hosted on Blogger (jeez, remember that?). It was about the concept Neil Gaiman mentioned in a commencement speech in 2012: the concept of throwing your work out to the world like messages in a bottle, and hoping that the bottles wash back to you.

At the time I wrote my blog post, I didn’t mention it, but I had a kind of fatalistic view of the bottles – I thought that when I threw bottles out into the sea, they would never come back. I would post work, work, and more work, and get no return out of it.

It wasn’t until I came across Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert that I revisited this idea of throwing bottles/work out to the world. Continue reading “The Ball Will Return: Thoughts on Creative Work”

“How to Make a Minicomic” Workshop Coming to Not-At-Con Day

minicomic workshop flyer

I just finished this little flyer for a workshop I’m running next weekend – New Dimension Comics in my area is having Not-At-Con Day on July 23rd and I’m running a workshop on how to make your own minicomics. If you can’t make it to this one, no worries – I’m planning on running another workshop in Wheeling, WV sometime after August 4th (dates are still TBA).

I’ve been doing a lot of flyer-type work lately outside of comics. I wonder if it’s a sign…

“For My Best Friend,” a Sketch

gay black men illustration

I drew this over the weekend – it struck me as odd that there weren’t any greeting cards for gay men, especially gay black men. So I wanted to draw something.

This sketch is the start of something. I don’t think I’ll use this illustration specifically for a greeting card, but I’ll make a new illustration based on this one.