Minor update

First off, a big hello to my new followers, and thank you so much for your kind comments and encouragement - it means a lot. Please let me know if there's anything you're confused about or anything you think I could improve upon - either artistically or story-related.

With that said, I apologize for the lack of updates. I had to move house back to Canada and it was a mad dash to get my flat in Bournemouth cleared out. I'm back home now and still kind of settling in. My drafting table is currently at my parents' house an hour away, so I haven't been able to draw any new LSA pages for a while. I know that sounds like a lame excuse, but I seriously can't draw on a flat surface anymore - I need the slight angle that the drafting table provides. :0

My other excuse is that I've started working at 8th St. Books & Comics in Saskatoon. I've seriously been wanting to work there since I was 16 (I'm now 25), and I always assumed it was just a pipe dream. Needless to say, it's been pretty awesome so far.

Now let's see some pretty pictures, cause I NEVER post a new blog entry if I've got no PICTURES to include!

This is a stand for my books & business cards that I made with help from my mom and Thea (thanks, you two!) for the show my course did in London. Most of the books got taken, because I'm a complete bonehead and never made a sign saying they were actually £3.50. I just pray they went to good homes. Hey, if any of you folks are out there reading this, please gimme a holler! No, I don't expect you to pay up - I just want to hear from you. :)

As Thea & I were working on this stand, the security guard came over and asked how long it had taken us so far - I said that I didn't remember, but then we pointed out my work to him (the instructors had printed the first three pages of the comic on huge, HUGE sheets of paper) and he said something like "Oh, wow! I saw those earlier and loved them! I thought a man had drawn them!"

.......and I was left wondering, what on earth is THAT supposed to mean? XD Women don't draw comics, or CAN'T draw, period? It sounded awfully sexist, but actually it was just hilarious.

Some new-ish pages. Some of these are already finished - I'll post them when I have a bit more of a buffer.

And finally, the model sheet for Jeremy's dad, Bill. This is dated November, I see - and yet he doesn't even show up until page 35 or something like that. Wow.

close, up, over

More "visual music." I'm not sure how or why "twirling ribbons" signify music, they were probably just really easy to draw. :p

I really think I should just set aside a day to colour stuff I've already drawn. Just for the hell of it.

Also HEY GUYS GO AND LISTEN TO THIS RIGHT NOW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRTzuutL6mA&feature=related

Synesthesia

I'm trying to represent music visually in this next sequence and it's proving rather difficult. I had a look at the Bach Toccata & Fugue in D Minor segment of Disney's Fantasia again to see if that would inspire me, but no such luck. So I drew this based on an old sketch from a couple years ago and it seems to be closer to what I wanted. Whether or not it accurately represents sound is another matter. At least it looks nice. :p

The biggest problem is I'm trying to draw this as black & white lineart, but to be a better representation of synesthesia, it would work much better in colour. I think I'll do a black & white and a coloured version and decide later which one to use.

Sketches and scribbles

Some hilarious thumbnail sketches - now you see why I don't post more of these. XD Even _I_ don't know what half the stuff in the top image means. Oh, and there's also a pair of legs for some reason. I'm really not very good at drawing legs and so lately when I sit down to do practice studies, they're usually of legs.

This is usually what my roughs look like right before I trace them onto decent paper and make them all slick and pretty. But what's this?

I was having a lot of trouble with that set of panels at the bottom left, so I redrew them on a clean sheet of paper. Seriously, you don't even know how frustrating it was - I was stuck on this page for about three weeks. D: When I get stuck I typically go and flip through some other comics for inspiration, but unfortunately most of my comics are back at home. I should watch films instead, I guess - I seem to recall a scene in Matinee getting me out of a jam and inspiring the Fun Tak Man page.

Split

I've had this image in my head for a while, so here's a quick rendition...it sure was fun to colour something again :)

I wanted to use a portion of this for a blog masthead but it doesn't seem to be working very well...oh, well...I'll keep trying...

(Edit: Tried to fix the arms)

(Edit 2: Aaaaand we have a masthead! It's not terrific but it's better than nothing...it'll do till I make something better!)

Jigsaw Puzzle In Space

Well, it's now February. How many pages have you got, Elaine?

*checks*...fourteen? And I've not finished inking a lot of those either. Oh, well.

Here's a fragment from yet another sequence I started today. I'm concerned that it's really cliched...I have the same concern about another sequence I've almost completed. EEEUUUGH. Do I just worry too much? I have no idea. The internet has made me so jaded and cynical.

Fun fact: this is not actually in space. Er, not like I had to tell you that, I suppose. :p

Old-ish sketches

Old-ish drawing of Jeremy from sketchbook #9 (2008). I decided at the last minute that the students should wear uniforms - I never had to myself, but I thought it tied in with the theme of searching for an identity (and subsequent loss of identity, as a psychotic episode basically turns you into a completely different person), of finding where you belong in the world. Hmm.

I did have a pair of jeans with that heart patch on them. I sewed the patch myself by hand - it was supposed to be the Frenchkiss Records logo. (I started sewing one of the Dischord Records logo as well, but only completed the letters "D-I-S" before losing interest. Ha!) Eventually I took it off the jeans and attached it to a sweater, and after that I lost it. I still haven't figured out what happened to it, and I'm still kind of sad about it.

I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this...little things don't matter. Or do they?


Here's some more, even older, from sketchbook #8 (2007). Eeeeugh, don't like these at all. Although I do sort of wish that I'd gone with a simpler, less realistic style for the comic. I guess "simple" just isn't how I draw comics...

Would you like to see something even older and more frightening than that?


EeeGADS!! Behold, the first drawing of Jeremy ever. From 2002. I probably drew this about a month before my breakdown. (Yeah, I was signing my work "LEN" at that time for some reason, I don't even recall why) Is it lousy? Has my drawing improved? God, I hope so.

sketchy sketchy

Now I realise that climbing a tree, in and of itself, isn't that weird. Bear with me - I'll do my best to MAKE it weird in context! Oh, this sequence is a bit farther along in the story - yeah, I'm drawing this all out of order. As if it wasn't confusing enough already...dammit, Elaine! XD

Page 2 and 3

Not sure how well you can make these out, but here they are anyway! Finished versions coming soon...

The Prophet

"Are you a prophet?

They only give binoculars to prophets...so they can see into the future..."

Rabbit In Your Headlights

Top: sketch for page 1. Below: thumbnails. I was told by a friend not to draw this sequence - his opinion was that it gave too much away. I think it was the captions I had written that did it, though - so I took 'em out. I loved this idea and I really wanted to draw it - starting the story at the climax, as it were.

As I was drawing this I couldn't stop thinking of the UNKLE video "Rabbit In Your Headlights" (sung by Thom Yorke) as it's quite similar. I didn't go back and watch it again, though...maybe I should have?