I never got around to figuring out the last "improvements" Facebook made...now I'm going to be forced to figure out this Timeline thing. Does skipping over the last "improvement" put me ahead or behind?
To tell the truth, I don't really get the Timeline pages of friends that I've looked at...it all seems like a big mash of STUFF all over the page. What do we read first? How do we add, delete, ignore? It looks like controlled chaos.
Sigh...serenity now...
.
When I read a cartoon that I find funny, I usually smile. Sometimes it's an inside smile and sometimes it's a visible grin. My cartooning girlfriend, Stephanie Piro, made me laugh out loud...three times...when I read this strip. I love the way she used an actual nib pen within the strip...even though neither the cartoonist or the cartoon spoke directly to the audience, it still adds that dimension of breaking the fourth wall. The faces of the cartoon woman are incredibly expressive...you can just feel the shock in the first image and see (and hear) the pique in the second image. I think I got an extra little kick out of this because there's also an element of the inside joke for me. Not that there's actually another gag that only people who are cartoonists will get but that I can identify with that unique relationship a strip cartoonist has with the inky world they create. It struck me as funny to see that world talk back, exasperated at the control we have over their lives.
Stephanie has a very loose style. I've seen her draw her cartoons...a drawing board on her lap and a pen in her hand and away she goes. No pencils. I was agog. Simple, flowing, minimalist lines that demonstrate expression, feeling, movement and nuance. That's a real talent.
Stephanie Piro is the Saturday cartoonist for the syndicated comic strip "Six Chix". She also creates the panel "Fair Game" and has illustrated and written so many cartoons books, I can't even begin to mention them all here.
I decided I should be blogging on a regular schedule. Like every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Today is Wednesday. I don't know what happened to Monday...
Just bought myself a Faber-Castell Pitt brush pen and was trying it out on some scrap paper. It's not bad...I find it a bit easier to control than my Pentel brush pen. I miss my C-5 speedball...the paper I've been using doesn't take the nib very well. The ink bleeds. I've been using the Canson XL recycled bristol...mainly because it's the only paper I can find around here that's somewhat suitable to my needs. All the art supply shops that I manage to find keep closing so I've been shopping at a large craft store chain. They seem to have mainly watercolor and sketch pad paper and I want a very white, smooth bristol for ink. I just bought another four pads to tide me over (14x17 inch pads with 25 sheets per pad...I get three daily strips out of a page) but I'm going to look around for a supplier that I can order from online. I've given up on the personal shopping experience for art supplies. I used to have a Canson paper that I LOVED...clean, bright white, smooth, smooth bristol surface, EXCELLENT for my speedball nib...but the last supplier I had told me Canson had discontinued that line. (I guess that's why he gave me a deal to buy out what he had in the store...he wanted to get rid of the last of the inventory...he let me fall in love and THEN told me there was no more)
Oh well. The search continues.
Well...yes. I agree that the phrase may be a bit overused. But for the next few days, I've used "I am woman, hear me roar" as the opening line in a series of short poems in my Between Friends strips. I've been feeling for a while that it's time to move my characters along in age a bit and these strips reflect that.
These poems are written from a life perspective rather than a political one. The series is a departure from my regular Between Friends comics. Whenever I do something a little out of the norm, I wonder how they'll be received...if people will enjoy them, hate them or just glance over them with one big yawn. For myself, I had fun writing them. I made a list of as many words as I could that rhymed with "roar" and went from there. The content is influenced by the fact that my son will be attending university out of town next year and my daughter will be in her senior year at high school. Their growing independence affects my own.
I've always loved my cartooning career. It's been a wonderful method of creative self-expression and aside from relentless and demanding deadlines, the flexibility of my working hours has been a godsend as a mom. On the threshold of the empty nest, I'm grateful I have something that will engage and interest me when I eventually begin to notice that no one in the house is calling for me to come and make them something to eat.
Sigh.
Today, at the King Features Daily Ink Blog, I give the inside scoop on Helen. Helen is a supporting character in my strip. She is Maeve's assistant at the office and of all the characters in Between Friends, I think I'd enjoy hanging with her the most if she were a real person. You can find out why and get a few other insider details at the Daily Ink Blog!
Read Between Friends daily by clicking here.
Order the Between Friends 2012 Wall Calendar by clicking here.
In last week's Between Friends, I did a little series about necks.
I'm not big on jewelry...for me personally, I mean. Aside from my wedding ring, earrings are usually the extent of my baubly. So when it comes to neck camoflage, big chunky necklaces aren't going to part of my plan of attack. Likewise with scarves. While I think they look very chic on other women...I just can't seem to get the hang of the whole casually draped hip look. My scarf-wearing is limited to my late evening walks with the dog...and believe me, it's all about warmth not fashion. And turtle necks? I used to love wearing turtle necks...but sometime into my thirties they started to make me feel choked. I don't know why. For lack of any other explanation, I'm going to blame it on my catch-all excuse: hormones.
Anyway, a friend sent me this youtube video on tying scarves and I thought I'd share it with you here. Just because I can't swing the hip look, doesn't mean I can't pass along a little tip or two. After all, we gals have to stick together.
If you're coming to my blog, I'm guessing you enjoy comics...so I'd like to give a shout-out to some of my talented cartooning friends who have book collections you might be interested in giving as a gift or to yourself!
The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee
...and of course, my Between Friends 2012 Calendar
I'm taking today off to drive to Hamilton to meet up with my Canadian chapter members of the NCS for lunch. (and stop off at Curry's to pick up some much needed art supplies which
I can't seem to find anywhere in the Niagara Region...every time I find an art supply store it seems to close down before I get to make a second visit...anyone know of a good art store in the Niagara Region??? Somewhere that sells microns?)
Now that my 2012 Between Friends calendar is finished and ready for online orders in my Between Friends Cafe Press store, I'm going to zero in on getting ahead of deadline so I can take some time off for Christmas.
Also...if you're a student or you know a student who likes to cartoon, here's another reminder about the Jay Kennedy Scholarship:
Do you cartoon? You could win a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to Las
Vegas to meet the top names in cartooning. Don't delay - the deadline
is December 15.
Applicants must be students at a 4-year college in the United States,
Canada or Mexico who will be a Junior or Senior during the 2012-2013
academic year. Applicants do not have to be art majors to be eligible
for this scholarship.
For more information and an application, please visit:
http://www.cartoonistfoundation.org/
The annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, in memory of the late
King Features editor, was funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the
Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous
donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many
other prominent cartoonists. Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of
top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist.
The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards Convention
attended by many of the world's leading cartoonists.
Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday. Oh...and don't forget you can read Between Friends daily by going to this link!
Here it is! The Between Friends 2012 Calendar! The perfect gift for your mom, sister, favourite aunt, wife, co-worker, BFF or even yourself. (Who says we can't treat ourselves once in a while?) You can order your calendar right here...no fuss, no muss, no shopping crowds...don't you love online shopping?
One of my favourite online spots to visit while I enjoy my morning coffee is Comic Strip of the Day. Comics aficionado, Mike Peterson profiles a different cartoon each day and gives a little commentary about his choice. I enjoy his picks not only because some of his choices are my own favourite comics but also because he always turns up some new, unfamiliar ones. Today, I was flattered to see Between Friends was the Comic Strip of the Day. (thanks, Mike!)
What struck me while reading Mike's comments about this strip is that he referred to Susan as my doppelganger. I've admitted many times that I identify most with the character of Susan...so I'm not quite sure why I was surprised to read that. Am I the ostrich with its head in the sand?
Yes...Susan is me and she's not me. Maeve is me and she's not me...and there's a little bit of me in Kim as well...but not really.
The idea for this strip came as a result of my trip to Wisconsin to speak at the Kenosha Cartoon Festival. I usually catch all my flights from the Buffalo airport as I live so close to the border. (It's much closer to me than Toronto.) However, these days you really need to be at the airport a couple of hours before take-off and you never know how long the line-ups or hold-ups at the border crossing will be...so with an 8:00 flight I left the house at about 5:30 am.
My husband drove me and I insisted that he make a pit-stop at the local Tim Hortons so I could buy a small cup of caffeine. You know...so I could wake up and be coherent by the time American customs asked me my citizenship. We went through the drive-thru...I ordered a small coffee...the voice told me it would be $3.00. As we swung around the corner to the pick-up window, Tim said that was awfully expensive for a small coffee. I mumbled something that they meant that was the change they were giving me from my five. Yes...I know that doesn't make any sense. Refer back to my comment about my need to be caffeinated in order to be thinking coherently.
As we drove away, the math suddenly clicked. Wait a minute. THEY DID JUST CHARGE ME THREE BUCKS FOR A SMALL COFFEE! Let's go back!, I told Tim. No, he said...we don't have time to fool around, we have to get across the border and get to the airport. I grumbled but agreed that he was right and we better keep going and THIS COFFEE HAD BETTER TASTE AMAZING FOR THREE BUCKS.
Fast-track to after the Festival and I'm back home and Tim and I are sitting in the family room watching televison.
Did I tell you I went back to Tim Hortons when I got home from the airport?, he asks me.
NO! DID you? What happened?, I asked him, with rapt attention.
I went in and asked them how much a small coffee cost., he said.
Yeah? And?
And when they told me, I told them we got charged three dollars this morning on the way to the airport. So they apologized and just gave me my three dollars back.
You would have thought I won the lottery.
Thus...the above strip. And yes...I do feel pathetic on a whole lot of levels.
...and no, Susan isn't me...but she is...
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