Answer Jar

 What is all this stuff? I try not to think about it before I draw. Often I start drawing whatever comes into my mind--- sometimes I'm sitting in my parked car and I draw what I see out the window. I love to draw when I'm in ferry lines. I take the ferry a lot to visit my parents. I like drawing what's in my rearview mirror. It's often easier to draw what's in a mirror, I think it flattens the image in a way that makes it less overwhelming to take on, plus, in a rearview mirror, its just a tiny chunk of the world. I try to draw what brings me pleasure. Lots of hats. This one came from a dream, which is more rare for me these days, but the dream just wouldn't let go. Anyway, I'm wondering if all these strips will eventually add up to anything. So far, I've had that experience twice, where a series of strips started to reveal a narrative, or maybe an implied narrative. I made those groupings into minicomics.

Darkness darkness

 #Liberty #Othello #West Seattle #Lalique #Centralia #Possession Sound

I Hope it Stays Dark Forever

 I started doing this thing about a year ago where I would choose a picture - a very casual snapshot works best, the more offhand and no big deal the better - and draw it in fragments until it became a comic. When it works, the drawings lead to other ideas that aren't part of the original photo, and it just kind of takes off from there. The pentagon shaped panels somehow make this fragmentary approach to cartooning more possible for me. Without an orderly row of panels, I feel more free to just fill them up with the next thing that comes to mind, or that I notice. I am happier drawing this way than I've been with drawing for awhile. I didn't know it at the time, but linear narrative was starting to bum me out. Leaving it behind, at least for now, has cheered me up artistically.

This came from a blurry picture of my mother, Katie, when she was a college student. It's perfect raw material for me, emotionally resonant, but unimportant -- it appears to capture be a random moment, perhaps even accidental, or trying out the camera. I do this with found photos sometimes too. I usually choose it because there's something in the photo I want to draw, but not that I want to draw the whole photo. And then I just kind of feel my way around inside the image picking out parts that would be fun to draw. And then sometimes, not always, it starts to congeal into something else.

#nonlinear #pentagons #snapshots #foundphotos #fragments

The Words Mean Nothing

 I've just not been getting along with words lately. Not just disinformation and AI, but just the sheer quantity of words words words. It makes me doubt. I'm still reading and writing and all that, but making stories lately has kind of escaped me. Which is partly why I'm making these strips.

#speechless #mute #lossforwords

Falling in love with a shape

#pentagons

Katie

#halstonperfume #winstoncigarettes #bensonandhedges

I struggle with baseball caps

#fentimanslemonade #oxfordstreet

Political Economy

#AliceNeel #JohnMaynardKeynes

Blood Donor

My favorite thing about giving blood is that you have full license to eat cookies and space out afterwards. I drew this last summer while sitting in my car eating mini-Oreos.

Pretty J.S. Sargent Ladies

 #johnsingersargent #nbbj 

Delicious

My favorite ink so far — take-sumi iroshizuku by Pilot. Deep black you can fall into.

fancy overused words

 I'm trying to draw these comics directly in ink with no pencilling, but occasionally I'm stumped by something and can't think it all through ahead of time, so I pencil. I'm also trying out a variety of fountain pen inks. This is Quink by Parker. The date is Noodler's American Eeel. I do not care for that ink.

Big Dark

 Sunset 4:24pm

Disparate

 

Wordless