See, vast trackless spaces,
As in a dream they change, they swiftly fill,
Countless masses debouch upon them,
They are now cover'd with the foremost people, arts,

institutions, known.

my boy Whitman

I think it may be a good idea to watch How to Train your Dragon a bunch o'times...

Something tells me I'll be getting my period: I just spent 45 minutes picking snails from the footpath, crying like a waterfall about all the little ones I failed to save from people who walked here before me and crushed them..

But hey, I just listened to the Max Richter's Leftovers's theme for the hundreth time and figured out how to save the world. Silver lining.

Learning 3-shade ... shading. Got it down to 7,.... getting there

In case you're wondering why I always use Gaiman's Murphy and Daniel - it's because they are the two easiest characters in the world to colour :D So, prosaic before plagiarised :D

Forest morning

Tried to look for shroomies, alas. Only found one ancient moss-covered fungi. So chased spiders instead, avoided fucking ticks and laughed at Starbark's aloof, regal poses while she waited for me, sunbathing :D

Understanding palette

The lesson yestereve was how to SKETCH the figures or at least how to flat paint them and then make them look like they were sketched... Reverse logic. The lesson 4 hours later is palette. Colouring them outside the background makes them look stupid. Colouring them WITHIN the existing palate, extremely limited as it is... Is closer. Not there yet... but closer. 

I should really draw Murphy bald. his hair takes fucking for ever to light properly. 

Slowly on mount Fuji, snail.

Holy mother of cows was that a massive hail storm! Don't think I've ever seen one like this before, the rain so violent and ice the size of walnuts... hey, guys who are messing round with weather, get your shit together. One of our cars now looks like it had smallpox as a child. 

Anyhoo. Since I can no longer bend my wrists, am dizzy and it's two in the morning and I have to be up at half to six...

I am still nowhere near satisfied with my lessons in vector comic-drawing (got the landscape pretty much to where I want it, but not the characters...), but I am something like 400% better at it than I was when I started this time last week. Luckily these two clowns continue to wander and banter, so I can practise on them. I'm using Gaiman's Morpheus as the model because he's hot even when he's fucked up.

Tovelyn of Tooke comic

Okay, so, I am slowly starting to conjure this new companion comic to Goose, based on the itinerary I made with the watercolours few days ago. It's part of the last story of the second chapter, in which Kay and Orc head out towards the islands - he for some much needed vacation before last battle and she to find what happened to the ranger who came this way. There are 89 days of the original journey recorded, with four pages later found. Same as my itinerary, this is 'harmonica' folded patchwork of page after page. On one side it's a dark itinerary, oddly drawn by an amateur with an odd interest in odd things, though shy and proper, and on the other is a personal journal. Tovelyn was/is a confused character, secretive and complicated, not even their gender is known, and looking for clues on the increasingly bizarre map will be the base of the story...

Cover

Back cover - rules of the March

 Page 2 and 3 front

Page 2 and 3 back