The glove is actually to protect my hand, not the paper. The side of my hand gets sensitive from sliding across the paper constantly, so I wear the glove to reduce friction.
Sorry to go off-topic so soon after a new Alison post, but I trust in the mental discipline of this bunch: We’ll be able to discuss more than one topic simultaneously.
In the next upcoming issue of Avengers Academy, the best superhero book on the market right now, IMHO, a character will come out. I find this particular episode interesting for a number of reasons.
He’s been shown aggressively hitting on girls on numerous occasions. So aggressively, in fact, that he chases them away. Based on my observations from high school, this is fairly realistic.
It’s established that he was abused as a child. The writer is very deftly establishing that the abuse didn’t “make him gay” but did lead to his extreme difficulty in coming to terms with his sexuality.
I dislike the character. He’s a dick. I like the fact that we’ve reached the point where a gay character doesn’t have to be a moral paragon and a role model. Gay people are human beings. Gay characters should have the same freedom.
Hoping you won’t mind a question of this nature, but what is (roughly) your day-to-day schedule for this kind of thing?
I realize that at the moment the impending deadlines no doubt have things all kerfuffled; and that surely things change over time. But –from past comments, etc– I’d always kind of assumed you were pretty much of “night-inker” anyway.
Hey, NLC.
My schedule is kind of confusing to me. I guess I am pretty much a night inker…but I need to be a morning and afternoon inker right now, too, and it’s hard to get myself going earlier in the day.
I seem to have completely opposite circadian rhythms for writing and drawing. I can only write first thing in the morning, and am pretty much wasted by 1pm. But I can’t really get drawing until later of the day, and I draw best at night.
another off-topic question – i saw the spider web up there – do you often go inking odd things on the margins of your work/reading? just wondering – coming from someone who used to doodle all the time in my notes – not so much now that i am the one making the notes in the first place : )
sorry you feel stressed with deadlines, but i, for one, am liking the little window to your world in terms of 4a.m. inking and seeing how your work actually “comes to life.” i am even more impressed now.
I just had a moment of recognition watching this video: I am working furiously to finish my dissertation by January deadline, and am also coming upon things I read/took notes on/wrote 3 years ago. It was discouraging at first, but now I’m realizing it’s kind of nice how I’ve set myself up this way. Probably not in as organized a fashion as AB, but still. Those half-thoughts were there, I just didn’t know how they would fit in until now. Good luck, AB!
I am so grateful and impressed. Grateful for the endless toiling which comes together with the pure genius, for the window on the creative process, and for the window to a moment of love and gentle sense of humor between you two.
The explanation about the different cycles for drawing, inking, and writing reminds me of (and adds to) a previous AB’s post about the difference between writing a book and writing and drawing a book.
This Associated Press story quotes an official Saudi government report to the effect that if women are allowed to drive, they will be more likely to have sex. I’m just speculating, I have no facts to back this up, but did they mean that the women would be more likely to have sex while they were driving??? Anyway, welcome to the 8th century!
So, if you’re considering some off-beat wacko gift idea, head over to ThinkGeek, where your purchase will help support the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement. End of shameless plug for ThinkGeek.
(… goes back to another night of de-cluttering her humble abode …)
Hey, how can a perfectly good PowerPoint file on a flash drive pick up illegal characters (such as “~”, etc.) in its name? The files are still there, taking up space, but my Windows 7 operating system refuses to recognize their right to exist. Gotta go… I’m in my office on the Moo U campus, and some crazy student has started singing opera under my second floor window. Crazy kids.
On a lighter note, I definitely hope the AP article bodes well for me. I am taking driving lessons–I have not driven for 17 years now and was never a super-skilled driver anyway–and I could definitely do with some pre-marital sex. I was never officially married, so I guess any sex I have would qualify as pre-marital.
Beloved HoH, my opera twin, what you mean the first MET broadcast of the season? I’ve already been to four HD simulcasts and missed all of the Saturday afternoon broadcasts because of the general moral turpitude of self regarding rigging up a way to hear them. Not only that have been to three live opera performances. It seems to have taken over my life. Kate, encourage that kid under your window to keep singing opera.
Oops, meant to include a shout out to Laura and encourage her in her driving lessons. I’ve been driving for 47 years and getting worse at it all the time, so I’m going to driving school too. Perhpas they’ll teach me to have sex in my car, although in a subcompact, I’d need to be a bit more limber.
Beloved opera twin? I’m flattered, but I’m standing in the rush SRO area while you are ensconced in first-row seats (or something like that, you get the idea… I’m an opera newbie relative to you).
Let me clarify… the first live Toll Brothers Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast of the season on WQXR. Friends across the pond, BBC carries the broadcasts live too, so you can partake of the operatic joy during the season.
The duet with Fleming and countertenor Scholl when he reveals himself to be the exiled king (don’t know the name of the aria) took my breath away, it was so good. Better than sex, and it didn’t require driving lessons.
I’ve been driving for almost 35 years, and I wish I had as much mileage in my love life, so I tend to doubt the association of driving with sex. Unless of course, there’s something about llamas that I’m missing.
(… goes back to wondering how they fit those llamas in a sub-compact, and exactly what one would do with/to a llama … oh wait, don’t they have those really long tongues? Nevermind …)
My car is a Honda Fit, and it can be configured in many ways. The back seat folds down and reveals forty cubic feet of storage space. You can fold down the front seat too, and fit a long board into the car. They put a llama in the back seat with everything folded down. And this is a subcompact, mind you.
Kate L, the PP file has become corrupted. There are any number of ways that could have happened. If you download Open Office (a free program), you might be able to open it. Otherwise, try the IT department on your campus–if it is a class-related file, they might be willing to try and recover it. But, if you have used the file before (posted it to Blackboard or emailed it to someone), maybe it exists it in a different iteration that is still recoverable. But, this is why you should back-up everything, including flash drives (which have a specific lifespan, which yours might be approaching, so it would be best to backup everything on it).
Alison–perhaps it is the light or what you are eating. If you need to ink at all hours of the day/night, try keeping the lighting and your eating habits similar (some people save their protein for later in the day–try eating it earlier).
Work, woman, work! 😀 We, the people, can’t wait to read it! Happy inking. (I love your work an’ all, but of course the best part of the video are the last 2 secs – I wish my woman would get up 4AM to come see what I’m doing, and then finish it off with a smirk and a remark in a tone that can only imply el ow vi i. You happy person, Ms Bechdel!)
23 Responses to “inking away”
Is the glove just to keep from smearing the paper?
Three years ago from shooting the pose to inking the panel? That speaks of a set of organizational skills beyond my comprehension.
more like disorganization skills, Dr. E.
The glove is actually to protect my hand, not the paper. The side of my hand gets sensitive from sliding across the paper constantly, so I wear the glove to reduce friction.
Sorry to go off-topic so soon after a new Alison post, but I trust in the mental discipline of this bunch: We’ll be able to discuss more than one topic simultaneously.
In the next upcoming issue of Avengers Academy, the best superhero book on the market right now, IMHO, a character will come out. I find this particular episode interesting for a number of reasons.
He’s been shown aggressively hitting on girls on numerous occasions. So aggressively, in fact, that he chases them away. Based on my observations from high school, this is fairly realistic.
It’s established that he was abused as a child. The writer is very deftly establishing that the abuse didn’t “make him gay” but did lead to his extreme difficulty in coming to terms with his sexuality.
I dislike the character. He’s a dick. I like the fact that we’ve reached the point where a gay character doesn’t have to be a moral paragon and a role model. Gay people are human beings. Gay characters should have the same freedom.
You can read about it at http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=35708
Best of all, the comments are, so far, almost overwhelmingly positive.
Alison,
After three years, you were able to find the picture and draw it.
I can cut a sandwich in half, eat the first half and then be unable to find the second.
AB: Concerning the 4AM inking.
Hoping you won’t mind a question of this nature, but what is (roughly) your day-to-day schedule for this kind of thing?
I realize that at the moment the impending deadlines no doubt have things all kerfuffled; and that surely things change over time. But –from past comments, etc– I’d always kind of assumed you were pretty much of “night-inker” anyway.
(Just being curious.)
The best, hand-crafted New England cartooning! 🙂
Hey, NLC.
My schedule is kind of confusing to me. I guess I am pretty much a night inker…but I need to be a morning and afternoon inker right now, too, and it’s hard to get myself going earlier in the day.
I seem to have completely opposite circadian rhythms for writing and drawing. I can only write first thing in the morning, and am pretty much wasted by 1pm. But I can’t really get drawing until later of the day, and I draw best at night.
another off-topic question – i saw the spider web up there – do you often go inking odd things on the margins of your work/reading? just wondering – coming from someone who used to doodle all the time in my notes – not so much now that i am the one making the notes in the first place : )
sorry you feel stressed with deadlines, but i, for one, am liking the little window to your world in terms of 4a.m. inking and seeing how your work actually “comes to life.” i am even more impressed now.
peace to you and good naps! k
I just had a moment of recognition watching this video: I am working furiously to finish my dissertation by January deadline, and am also coming upon things I read/took notes on/wrote 3 years ago. It was discouraging at first, but now I’m realizing it’s kind of nice how I’ve set myself up this way. Probably not in as organized a fashion as AB, but still. Those half-thoughts were there, I just didn’t know how they would fit in until now. Good luck, AB!
I am so grateful and impressed. Grateful for the endless toiling which comes together with the pure genius, for the window on the creative process, and for the window to a moment of love and gentle sense of humor between you two.
The explanation about the different cycles for drawing, inking, and writing reminds me of (and adds to) a previous AB’s post about the difference between writing a book and writing and drawing a book.
Good luck, AB–and yelena, too!
This Associated Press story quotes an official Saudi government report to the effect that if women are allowed to drive, they will be more likely to have sex. I’m just speculating, I have no facts to back this up, but did they mean that the women would be more likely to have sex while they were driving??? Anyway, welcome to the 8th century!
HERE is the AP story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/03/saudi-arabia-women-driving_n_1127021.html
Hmmm… “The Night Inker” “…she only inks at night…” sounds like there’s a screenplay in there somewhere.
Totally off-topic, but with the usual themes… while listening to today’s fabulous first Met Opera broadcast of the season (Handel’s Rodelinda, with Renée Fleming in the title role), I perused the ThinkGeek catalog which arrived in the mail yesterday, and gawked at the latest array of bacon-themed products. Surely there’s someone on my list who needs Bacon Soap or bacon-flavored popcorn. Not me, of course. A quick search of the ThinkGeek site reveals even more bacon-inspired madness:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/whereisit.cgi?y=&x=&t=bacon&disppage=1&dispnum=all
So, if you’re considering some off-beat wacko gift idea, head over to ThinkGeek, where your purchase will help support the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement. End of shameless plug for ThinkGeek.
(… goes back to another night of de-cluttering her humble abode …)
Hey, how can a perfectly good PowerPoint file on a flash drive pick up illegal characters (such as “~”, etc.) in its name? The files are still there, taking up space, but my Windows 7 operating system refuses to recognize their right to exist. Gotta go… I’m in my office on the Moo U campus, and some crazy student has started singing opera under my second floor window. Crazy kids.
Let’s hope the right to vote passes in SA!
On a lighter note, I definitely hope the AP article bodes well for me. I am taking driving lessons–I have not driven for 17 years now and was never a super-skilled driver anyway–and I could definitely do with some pre-marital sex. I was never officially married, so I guess any sex I have would qualify as pre-marital.
Beloved HoH, my opera twin, what you mean the first MET broadcast of the season? I’ve already been to four HD simulcasts and missed all of the Saturday afternoon broadcasts because of the general moral turpitude of self regarding rigging up a way to hear them. Not only that have been to three live opera performances. It seems to have taken over my life. Kate, encourage that kid under your window to keep singing opera.
Oops, meant to include a shout out to Laura and encourage her in her driving lessons. I’ve been driving for 47 years and getting worse at it all the time, so I’m going to driving school too. Perhpas they’ll teach me to have sex in my car, although in a subcompact, I’d need to be a bit more limber.
Although the ads for my car show people with a llama in the car, so there may be hope for me yet.
@Therry (#16)
Beloved opera twin? I’m flattered, but I’m standing in the rush SRO area while you are ensconced in first-row seats (or something like that, you get the idea… I’m an opera newbie relative to you).
Let me clarify… the first live Toll Brothers Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast of the season on WQXR. Friends across the pond, BBC carries the broadcasts live too, so you can partake of the operatic joy during the season.
The duet with Fleming and countertenor Scholl when he reveals himself to be the exiled king (don’t know the name of the aria) took my breath away, it was so good. Better than sex, and it didn’t require driving lessons.
I’ve been driving for almost 35 years, and I wish I had as much mileage in my love life, so I tend to doubt the association of driving with sex. Unless of course, there’s something about llamas that I’m missing.
(… goes back to wondering how they fit those llamas in a sub-compact, and exactly what one would do with/to a llama … oh wait, don’t they have those really long tongues? Nevermind …)
Oh dear… hell hath wrought no fury like a llama scorned:
http://shelby.wbtv.com/news/news/llama-attacks-man-and-chases-deputys-car-being-trapped-pasture/59308
(… goes back to thinking how lucky for this guy it wasn’t a moose chasing him …)
My car is a Honda Fit, and it can be configured in many ways. The back seat folds down and reveals forty cubic feet of storage space. You can fold down the front seat too, and fit a long board into the car. They put a llama in the back seat with everything folded down. And this is a subcompact, mind you.
Kate L, the PP file has become corrupted. There are any number of ways that could have happened. If you download Open Office (a free program), you might be able to open it. Otherwise, try the IT department on your campus–if it is a class-related file, they might be willing to try and recover it. But, if you have used the file before (posted it to Blackboard or emailed it to someone), maybe it exists it in a different iteration that is still recoverable. But, this is why you should back-up everything, including flash drives (which have a specific lifespan, which yours might be approaching, so it would be best to backup everything on it).
Alison–perhaps it is the light or what you are eating. If you need to ink at all hours of the day/night, try keeping the lighting and your eating habits similar (some people save their protein for later in the day–try eating it earlier).
Work, woman, work! 😀 We, the people, can’t wait to read it! Happy inking. (I love your work an’ all, but of course the best part of the video are the last 2 secs – I wish my woman would get up 4AM to come see what I’m doing, and then finish it off with a smirk and a remark in a tone that can only imply el ow vi i. You happy person, Ms Bechdel!)