Tangential to the topic is the current administration revoking bear baiting in federal lands, including national parks. I never miss an opportunity to point out using the term "hunter" is a misnomer (excepting with the prefix "slob") in this context, as it's ethically and morally equivalent as bringing a gun to a restaurant buffet or supermarket and shooting packaged meat. Note how much compositional tweaking happened between the initial doodle, and the sketchbook version, and the published panel with a few more minor adjustments for a cleaner compositional arrangement of the visual elements.
At first the caption said “His name was Doug.” But nobody understood it, so then I changed it by expanding it to his full name, “Douglas.” Now more people will get it. Just kidding, it’s another hyper-regional reference that only True Alaskans®™ will know anything about, with a big chunk of the Venn diagram overlapping the huge arboreal scientists demographic. There were a few guffaws after reading the main gag component, so the attempted two-fer isn’t actually necessary. But hey, “A right!” “Then a left!.” Though sure enough it was pointed out to me that there weren’t any fir trees up in our neck of the woods. There are however non-native Balsam, Siberian and Subalpine firs. So the print version had the bonus caption gag deleted.
By the way, the picture isn’t posed, MoochieBear, a poseur nonetheless, really did sack out in his usual spot sprawled halfway out his cubicle that sits in-between the drawing board and the computer desktop section. It goes without saying it goes very, very difficult to maintain discipline and focus in the face of such overwhelming peer pressure (“paw” pressure? “purr” pressure?).
Also as a bonus to Ink & Snow readers, here's a one-minute video of how I ink my spruce trees using, appropriately enough, a stick. The YouTube algorithm will no doubt ban it on account of the
accidental/incidental background music - as of late I’ve been blasting
an INXS mix in the studio, and the song “Burn For You” can faintly be heard in the background of the classroom. Michael Hutchence has been on my mind a lot as of late, following an emotional introspection of a similarly-themed Chris Cornell
(another charismatic and spellbinding frontsman whose song “Seasons”
was featured in a new comics-poem uploading here back in April).
Update: And just what I feared came to pass with tripping an
automatic flagging, which is under appeal: "I am a professor of art at
the University of Fairbanks Alaska and the video is of a technique I
teach in my Cartoon & Comic Art and Pen & Ink studio art courses
using a stick to create black spruce trees when published in my weekly
cartoon. The incidental background is less than 60-seconds of music
playing in my classroom during this demonstration. This educational
short is entirely afforded copyright exemption under the First Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution under the fair use provision as it is an
educational video.” We’ll see if they rule in my favor – I’ll know in
thirty days, but in the meantime.... Update II: as of this posting my appeal worked and the clip remains!
Inspired by a fur-tive returning visitor to the cabin who raids the birdfeeders over what remains of the night. Usually the only evidence there is of its presence is when I pop out on the front porch and see a mysteriously swinging suet cake. Bonus Trivia: Also an obvious homage to the classic comic book character.
A doodle born from our experiences last season with encroaching wildfires, one of which we were right on the border of evacuation from. Freudian connotations aside,it pairs with another potential panel based on my recent excursion to the Lower 48 and the joy of flying cross-country. Similar to last week's post about the "Sketchbook" series these are
however unpublished And/or exhibits #1, #2 , #3 and #4 in how to bail
myself out of a sudden gap in material to upload?
Lastly, a somewhat depressing observation on one of the little details denoting the passage of time. I recently re-instituted daily supplement to my diet so as to ensure sufficient vitamin D at least so as to assist with combating symptoms of S.A.D.
A couple recent panels that were publish under the Nuggets banner but instead of the usual meticulous craftsmanship and painstaking attention to detailed process readers have come to expect, they were just simply scanned straight from the pages of the omnipresent sketchbook. It's an occasional series that is relatively rare, and illustrates a much more spontaneous, organic and raw variation on the normal series. Okay maybe my repository of material was running dry and I needed to fluff out the monthly packet of submissions so as to get a little breathing room.
I gave up many years ago, the battle was lost, and kitty hair has now overrun everything. It's been a long-running tradition of mine to always do any serious framing somewhere else, as that is the one last area the line must be drawn.
Whilst photocopying the doodle from my sketchbook - sometimes I have a secondary set selected from a current sketchbook to show in the classroom for a demo - someone commented that they were "Team Togo." How have I made it this far without knowing about him (or his movie either)?
This made for a perfect demo panel to illustrate the technique of scumbling for the pen and ink portion of a drawing class. Or maybe it was a cartooning class. Or perhaps the Pen & Ink class...
A canny eye can recall one of the doodles on my sick-sack from last summer was this idea, drawn on the return flight after the gag cartooning workshop in Vermont.
I think that this is the first-ever interactive cartoon I've ever drawn. At the very least dear readers will make mental connections, as is often the case while staring out over the windswept frozen tundra yard.
This particular panel is a perfect specimen to show not only my preferred palette, but showcases the importance of doing a doodle beforehand so as to keep that mental Jacob's Ladder of ideas turning over and over. In other words work it out first in the ol' sketchbook.
As a college art professor I am always seeing every conceivable style of not just art but attire and appearance. Shaved heads and skin art notwithstanding (both of which I'd undergone a very long time ago), I am also reminded every time pen or pencil touches paper how much there will always be left to learn. From mistakes and from experience: that's what makes this such a uniquely human activity, one that will never be replicated any other way.
This is one of the few times I've been somewhat happier than most about how the watercolored wash looks as compared to the digitally colored print version. As in both are okay, especially the Photoshop one, which means I'm maybe getting somewhere with my palettes finally reaching the aesthetics I envision. Now back to the proverbial drawing board.
I always recommend to my students one of the practical advantages behind maintaining a sketchbook: not only does it document your though process at the conceptual stage (and serving as a reminder since I always forget ideas unless I jot them down)it's also the time and the place to make mistakes, so as to take advantage of any experiments before committing to the cartoon.
PS: Oh and this concludes our month-long series of grizzly bear themed posts... never fear there'll be plenty more ambling by eventually.
