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July 11th, 2011
My family reunion really lucked out that Portland had such a cool spring. The roses were late this year so relatives got to see Portland's International Rose Test Garden in full bloom. It was superb. The sky was overcast so I managed to get a lot of good photographs. These are just a few of my favorites.
What flowers grow really well where you live?
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July 4th, 2011
I hope all my US and Canadian readers are having/had a great three day weekend. Fireworks and barbecues, friends and families... The first weekend in July is easily one of my favorite weekends. And this year we're having our long-awaited family reunion here in Portland! :D It's so great to see everyone and share delicious food. How is your weekend going?
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June 27th, 2011
It finally feels like summer here! I'm so happy to wear shorts, eat delicious fresh fruits, and see family. Hope everyone else is enjoying the season. :D
My friend, Violet, just sent me a gorgeous drawing of Silas and Lae that EVERYONE MUST SEE. If I ever lose my forearms and become a human legschilla, unable to draw ever again, I will woo Violet with many, many cookies to finish drawing my comic for me.
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June 20th, 2011
During some intense spring cleaning, my sisters found a big box of Berenstain Bear books from our childhood. I grew up loving the colorful and detailed pictures and learned a lot from Brother and Sister Bear's stories. Surprisingly, many of the books were just as delightful to read as a 27 year old as they were when I was seven.
My favorite, "The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers", is the quintessential life-lesson book in my opinion. Sister Bear learns about the dangers of talking to strangers and becomes paranoid until Mama helps out. It has a delightful lesson on how to be cautious and wonderful illustrations, including a gorgeous title page and evil rainbow balloons.
I looked up how the bears were doing these days and was stunned to see how religious the series has become. Organized religion doesn't interest me so I felt disappointed by the change. However, I can still highly recommend the older books. Especially:
The Berenstain Bears and the Week At Grandma's
The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room
The Berenstain Bears in the Dark
The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble at School
The Berenstain Bears and the Double Dare
Did you read the Berenstain Bears growing up? What are your favorite childhood books?
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June 13th, 2011
Oh man, so hard to not talk about my favorite parts of this upcoming chapter. Instead I'll talk about this site's new feature: gallery pictures can now have comments. Yay! :D And just in time, the talented artist of The End, Ran Brown, went on a portrait spree of some of her favorite webcomic characters and Lae got included! You can leave comments about how awesome it is here or in the gallery. CHOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE.
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June 6th, 2011
I had an excellent break. I made plans for the next chapter and taught myself Blender, a free 3D program. All the frustration of learning the new interface was well worth the effort. I've only scratched the surface of Blender's modeling capabilities but it's already paid off. Chapter 4's cover is heavily based on a scene I designed in this new software. If you vote on TWC you can see an animated gif of my process. :D
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May 20th, 2011
Whew! This was a hard page to draw! 21 figures running around and laughing... At least Vidya is super easy to draw from behind.
I wrote my entire script out two years ago which makes me feel a bit like two different people. There's past-me, the writer, and present-me, the artist. Dividing the labor up this way has helped me focus on each job more. It's fun getting mad at past-me for writing visually challenging scenes like today's page but I trust past-myself to have a better understanding of the flow of the whole story than present-me so I follow her directions anyways. Oh, and I shouldn't forget about future-me, the comic rockstar. I leave a lot of work for future-me to deal with but she can handle it. She's a rockstar.
Speaking of future work I need to do, today's page marks the end of book one! I need to prepare for book two and tidy up book one for eventual printing so I'm going to take another short break. Additionally, I'm going to try updating on Mondays from now on to try and get better advertising numbers. What this means for you, my lovely audience, is the next Sweet and Sour Grapes comic will be Monday, June 6th. Mark your calendars or sign up for my RSS feed!
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May 13th, 2011
I've recently become addicted to audiobooks, particularly the free ones. I miss reading novels regularly and being able to draw while enjoying a story is very luxurious. And podcast audiobooks remind me a lot of webcomics to be honest. Both sets of creators are passionate for storytelling and work hard to make a wonderful experience for little return.
My favorite audiobook I've listened to so far is Shadowmagic, by John Lenahan. This family-friendly story has fantasy and humor and fast-paced adventure. I recently finished listening to it and immediately dived into the sequel, The Prince of Hazel and Oak.
Another excellent free audiobook is Guild of the Cowry Catchers, by Abigail Hilton. This pirate story is much darker and has mature themes not suitable for children. It's also only about halfway released so you can look forward to cruel cliffhangers... Still I love the characters and their fantastic world.
Do you have any favorite audiobooks, free or otherwise? I'm looking for more listening material!
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May 6th, 2011
It's Mother's Day in the West! Children's Day in the East! Whatever holidays are going on for you, I hope you can enjoy some time with your family. :D
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April 29th, 2011
I know the Stumptown Comic Festival happened a while ago but I wanted to mention a few of the people I met this year.
Almost as soon as I entered the convention, my eye was drawn to Nate Simpson's beautiful comic, Nonplayer. I had lost track of his blog and was delighted to learn he's publishing with Image now. The atmosphere and detailed landscape in his work is stunning. It was a treat meeting the creator even though he had no copies of his comic for sale.
Jen Wang is another I'd come across on my internet travels and then lost track of. I love how simple and expressive her line art is. I didn't see any comics for sale from her at the con, but exploring her website afterwards, I saw she has a comic called Koko Be Good that I will be hunting down later.
And I also met a fellow beginning cartoonist, Andy Peterson. He's only a few months into his comic, Lake Whimsy, but I was so happy to hear his enthusiasm for the craft. I love how enormous the field of webcomics is right now, with new people starting to tell stories everyday.