Accomplishments and some thoughts about some art
Today has been really good -- a very nice change-up.
Journalist stuff: I have a personal essay up on CityLab today! It's called "A Pilgrim in Chicagoland" and it's about what happened when I finally went home and... bought as much Chicago-branded merchandise as I could. I hope you enjoy it/can relate to it/share it, because popular-on-social-media posts make me very attractive to employers and editors. /craven (Reminder to please not mix'n'match with RL name and "newredshoes" anything, thank you!)
Captain America stuff: Oh my god, why don't I have child-sized feet? (However, I'm pleased that my Chicago star earrings match the shield star so well. Good composition, Instagram photo.)
Diary comics stuff: I completed a nine-panel account of my day playing hooky in Union Square last week, and I'm really pleased with how it came out. My scanner is still terrible and cannot grok the size of my notebook. If I keep this up and it becomes more of a problem, I'll... just have to get another scanner, won't I. And if you want to see the other diary comics I did last week, there's always my "making comics" tag.
Therapeutic gourd-hacking
Falling out of bed
No wallet
In addition to all that, I biked up to Park Slope to spend the day with T. We found what is probably the most perfect of all hidden coffee shops, and I'm now determined to become a regular. During our work break, we went back to the world's greatest art store, where I originally just wanted to buy a non-photo blue pencil and emerged with some cheap watercolor paper and a $9 set of 36 watercolor blobs.
sanjanasart has the most engrossing, soothing, beautiful videos of watercolors in progress, and between that and a general desire to paint more, I thought it couldn't hurt.
Last night I devoured
NicoleJGeorges's incredible Calling Dr. Laura. You may think it's about a Portland lesbian who rescues chickens and KJs at a dive bar at first, but watch it unfold into a story about family, secrets and the patterns we recognize in ourselves. It's so staggeringly good. (And her use of ink is really appealing!) I saw her at MoCCA Fest on a panel about autobiographical comics, and if I hadn't been utterly overwhelmed by the con experience, I would have bought the copy from her directly. Luckily it was at the Strand when I went last week, so... highly, highly recommended. Really deft storytelling that took me totally by surprise by the end.
(For anyone curious about the rest of this haul, not too impressed with Paper Girls, but The Influencing Machine is a super smart, totally un-put-downable look at the history and politics behind the media in the U.S. and abroad. Even if you're not a journalism nerd, I think it's really worth your time -- Brooke Gladstone is also the co-host of On the Media, so she knows what she's talking about. I'm just starting Lynda Barry's Syllabus, but I'm already excited. I think I like her pedagogy more than her actual comics. Not a bad thing -- her pedagogy leaves me in raptures, so it's tough competition.)
This was originally posted on Dreamwidth, where it has
comments. I would love to hear from you at DW! If you can see this post, you can comment here using OpenID. Thanks!
Journalist stuff: I have a personal essay up on CityLab today! It's called "A Pilgrim in Chicagoland" and it's about what happened when I finally went home and... bought as much Chicago-branded merchandise as I could. I hope you enjoy it/can relate to it/share it, because popular-on-social-media posts make me very attractive to employers and editors. /craven (Reminder to please not mix'n'match with RL name and "newredshoes" anything, thank you!)
Captain America stuff: Oh my god, why don't I have child-sized feet? (However, I'm pleased that my Chicago star earrings match the shield star so well. Good composition, Instagram photo.)
Diary comics stuff: I completed a nine-panel account of my day playing hooky in Union Square last week, and I'm really pleased with how it came out. My scanner is still terrible and cannot grok the size of my notebook. If I keep this up and it becomes more of a problem, I'll... just have to get another scanner, won't I. And if you want to see the other diary comics I did last week, there's always my "making comics" tag.
In addition to all that, I biked up to Park Slope to spend the day with T. We found what is probably the most perfect of all hidden coffee shops, and I'm now determined to become a regular. During our work break, we went back to the world's greatest art store, where I originally just wanted to buy a non-photo blue pencil and emerged with some cheap watercolor paper and a $9 set of 36 watercolor blobs.
sanjanasart has the most engrossing, soothing, beautiful videos of watercolors in progress, and between that and a general desire to paint more, I thought it couldn't hurt.
Last night I devoured
NicoleJGeorges's incredible Calling Dr. Laura. You may think it's about a Portland lesbian who rescues chickens and KJs at a dive bar at first, but watch it unfold into a story about family, secrets and the patterns we recognize in ourselves. It's so staggeringly good. (And her use of ink is really appealing!) I saw her at MoCCA Fest on a panel about autobiographical comics, and if I hadn't been utterly overwhelmed by the con experience, I would have bought the copy from her directly. Luckily it was at the Strand when I went last week, so... highly, highly recommended. Really deft storytelling that took me totally by surprise by the end.
(For anyone curious about the rest of this haul, not too impressed with Paper Girls, but The Influencing Machine is a super smart, totally un-put-downable look at the history and politics behind the media in the U.S. and abroad. Even if you're not a journalism nerd, I think it's really worth your time -- Brooke Gladstone is also the co-host of On the Media, so she knows what she's talking about. I'm just starting Lynda Barry's Syllabus, but I'm already excited. I think I like her pedagogy more than her actual comics. Not a bad thing -- her pedagogy leaves me in raptures, so it's tough competition.)
This was originally posted on Dreamwidth, where it has
comments. I would love to hear from you at DW! If you can see this post, you can comment here using OpenID. Thanks!