News
February 11th, 2011
Got new fan art in the gallery! Check out Violet's sketch of Tamal. <3
Are you excited for the next Pokemon game to come out? I probably won't be the first in line on March 6th but I'm looking forward to meeting some new critters eventually. In anticipation for the game check out these fanciful takes on pokemon:
* Pokemon Counterparts - Characters dress up as pokemon! Navigate by clicking the numbers on the left and then the right.
* Pokemon Fusion - What would the offspring of two different pokemon look like? Not all combos are winners but most are really goofy.
* Portrait-Dex - Cartoonists draw themselves as pokemon (not for kids).
News
February 4th, 2011
My husband and I really like playing board games but it's hard to get a good experience with only two players. That's why we enjoy Board Game Night here in Portland so much. There's an abundance of people looking for others to game with. We've also learned about lots of new games by just showing up and joining a table. Here are my current favorites:
Ticket to Ride - Build railroads across North America, going through key cities to beat your opponents!
I tend to enjoy games where you add more and more to your "empire" and this fits the bill perfectly. The people that introduced us to this game were so enthusiastic about it that they had built a custom, living-room sized version. The photos were impressive.
Pandemic - Work as a team to save the world from deadly diseases! I am a big fan of cooperative games and love the creative solutions people think up together while playing this game. There are so many ways to lose at this game... The first time we played it we just barely managed to save humanity from extinction. The intense situations hooked me immediately.
Do you have favorite board games? Who do you play with?
News
January 28th, 2011
Sweet and Sour Grapes is now two years old! Yay! I'm pretty sure this sort of thing is much more exciting to the creator than the reader but I'll share it with you all anyways. Celebratory doodle!
The comments on this site have been feeling a little cumbersome so I begged my charming programmer to add some useful features. I'm very excited that we've now got nested comments, so you can reply to specific posts, and gravatars, an avatar system that works across many sites. It's quick and easy to link an image to your email address so each time you comment, the same image appears next to your name across multiple sites.
News
January 11th, 2011
Tuesday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. In honor of the event, I teamed up with the Comic Creator's Alliance - a group of over 100 comic book creators (both web and print!) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. There are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. It won't end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.
So here's what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single image! This year's theme was "The Brady Bunch." There is so much going on in this image--Each time you look at the wallpaper you'll find fun new details.
Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. Or, this year you can buy a print! The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th - 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love 146 and Gracehaven House- two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.
To learn more about the CCA and to donate visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com. To learn more about the problem, visit love146.org. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)
News
January 7th, 2011
For the last couple of months I've been messing with a different penciling style. I'm trying to think less about the contours of a figure and more about the mass and silhouette. I think it's helping but I'll still accidently slip back into contours once in a while. I put a chibi example up on Top Web Comics, probably my last vote incentive for a while.
News
December 31st, 2010
2010 is already over! Like last year, I compiled all the pages I made this year into one big, happy image. It's both fun and sobering to see an entire year's worth of work condensed like this. On the one hand, I completed far fewer pages than last year. On the other, my color choices, layouts, and atmospheric effects have greatly improved. I'm very keen to see where 2011 takes me.
Like many people, I make resolutions at the beginning of the year. Something I struggled a lot with during 2010 was finding the right balance between work and home. For 2011, I want to be more mindful of this balance as I continue to expand Sweet and Sour Grapes.
How do you keep your home life and work life from bleeding into each other? Are you making any resolutions this year?
News
December 24th, 2010
The music! The cookies! The shopping... It's Christmas!
I'll be pretty busy with friends and family but the comic will update normally. There's energetic new fan art in the gallery, a much-needed update to the World page, and a new seasonal vote incentive featuring my favorite part about the holidays. Hope you all have a good one!
News
December 17th, 2010
In January, I'll be participating in a fundraiser event called the Comic Creators Alliance to fight modern slavery both in the USA and abroad. I wanted to help last year, when 87 other comic creators created one epic desktop wallpaper image featuring all their different characters, but it was all I could do to keep up with my comic. This year, I'm a bit better organized so I'm joining in!
I'll provide more information on how people can donate to the cause in January, when the event takes place. But for now I want to encourage other comic creators to enlist and help generate buzz. The deadline to contribute artwork is December 31st so plan ahead better than I did last year!
News
December 10th, 2010
One of my family's fun Christmas traditions is trying to outdo each other with our gift wrapping. Often times we would pick a visual theme and apply it to all of the presents we give. It made it very clear who each present was from. While a lot of fun, the aftermath of of Christmas started to bother me. All that waste, and lately plastic wrappings have become more common so it's not even all recyclable.
So this year my husband and I didn't go to Michaels to pick out our wrapping supplies. We went to SCRAP, a local organization here in Portland, Oregon that takes donated craft supplies from individuals and businesses and sells them to the public for super cheap. "Craft supplies" can be fabric remnants, wallpaper samples, old calendars, barrels of bottle caps and corks... My husband picked out giant rolls of old blueprints as his wrapping paper and I found some colorful, dated roadmaps. I'm so glad that we can make our presents look good on a budget, reuse old material, and be able to recycle it when we're done.
Next year though, I hope to do what my webcomic friend, Dan Potter, does with his family. They use fabric bags as reusable wrappings! It sounds just as expressive as paper gift wrap but a lot less wasteful. I only wish I had figured out this neat tip earlier so I could've had time to set up such a system this year.
How do you feel about wrapping paper? Do you enjoy getting new patterns each year? Have any tips on reducing holiday waste?
News
December 3rd, 2010
Bwahaha! Another awful cliff hanger!
My friend, Dani, gave me an awesome gift last month when we met up at NEWW. Lae fanart! And continuing my Show and Tell, I read a strangely compelling webcomic recently: Question Duck. The answers in the comments are fun too. :D