Making things always
Summer, books, drawings, so many paper stars and... poop pants?
Hello, friends!
The other day I made this because I was feeling upset about the news of Jorge Gutierrez (writer-director of The Book of Life), announcing working on an AI-generated animation project with Amazon Prime1. I wanted to channel that frustration into something I could make with hands, something silly to counterbalance my intense feelings of frustration and disappointment.
When I’m in my head, one of my favorite ways to reconnect with my body and feel more like myself is making stuff that involves scissors and glue. It reminds me of being a kid, and turns making “art” or “illustration” into “playing.” And playing means I’m trying things out, and can be loose and messy, with no perfect outcome in mind. It’s one of the best feelings, and is a necessary component to my creative life. So I made this goofy little paper cut out and decided I liked it and so I posted it, and the feedback has been mostly positive, except for a few grumpy gen AI-uses who have found it and said silly things. I really would rather have poop in my pants right now then be a self described “artist” defending gen AI on substack to a stranger though so…
This comment made me particularly sad for this person. If everything I made, I made with money in mind… oof! I guess that’s one way to exist in this world.
I don’t want to think about Gen AI, but unfortunately it has been coming up in my daily life more and more. At the bookstore I work at part time, a good chunk of the management/ownership use it. It sucks to see, especially when it’s something I know could be made a million times better if they just took an extra twenty minutes or tapped someone else in. It’s weird to see it in a space that feels antithetical to its use— a place that literally exists to share human ideas and art in book form. It feels even weirder to see than when Amazon boxes get delivered there (Amazon, the great killer of small businesses, consistently undercutting book prices to the detriment of bookstores AND authors, not to mention their workers, not to mention Jeff Bezos’s politics and what he spends all that money on) but I digress— that’s a whole other rant. A whole other, but also part of the same beast. Billionaires shouldn’t exist. Free Palestine.
Lately
Drawing always
I’ve been trying to combat the way that being in deadline hell makes me fully fall off drawing for pleasure. One way is giving myself a few easy options for things I can draw as warm ups or in between tasks. So my current trio of quick art options is: master studies, people from photographs, and 4 panel comics.
When I say “master studies,” I don’t exactly mean like when fine artists copy long dead painters who are universally considered masters. Instead, they’re people I consider masters, that I have more of a direct relationship with, often picture book artists. For example, I recently picked up this Tomi Ungerer collection and tried recreating some of this art in my sketchbook. The goal isn’t really to improve my work, but to think more deeply about the work I love and the real person who made it. When I’m drawing a scratchy line, it’s like my hand and his hand are superimposed, in contact through time and space. Also, it’s fun!
For people drawings, this is both for pleasure and something practical. I’d like to add more types of people and their features in my mental index. So i’ve been collecting photos, mostly from old magazines, and sketching from them.
I got on a streak recently where I drew a little messy 4-panel comic every day for about two weeks. Then I misplaced the tiny notebook I’d been doing them in! I found it today so I’m hoping to get back into it. I grabbed this notebook recently at CAKE in Chicago from Diskette Press. The panels are so tiny that it’s a little uncomfortable to draw in, and my art and lettering comes out a bit sloppy, but that just makes it a fun challenge.
Second hand supplies
Anyone who knows me well know that’s Austin Creative Reuse is one of my favorite places in the whole world. It’s a second hand arts and crafts supplies store and it’s where I’ve found so many treasures— my print gocco, plenty of paints and pen nibs and good paper, and recently, a coil binding machine.
My first attempt came out pretty sloppy, but I’m still pleased with it. It’s a collection of magazine photos to draw from.
For my second and third books, I used pieces of the cover of a very damaged children’s book that I got at (surprise!) ACR. These are sketchbooks full of second hand paper.
Another fun find were these vintage stamps. They had a massive bin full of them. Whenever I see beautiful stamps, I like to imagine them framed in a teeny tiny house.
Out in the world
The barn swallows are back, and a pair built a new nest right by my apartment. I’ve loved peeking at them every day.
I sketched a little during the opening sets at a Tiger’s Jaw show recently. I’ve seen then so many times and they always put on such a good show. Yes, I take my sketchbook with me everywhere.
I’m gearing up to visit Chicago again in a couple of weeks, this time for my bookstore job. In case you don’t know, I’m the lead children’s bookseller at a shop here in Austin. I’ll be attending Children’s Institute, which will be my first time in a long time doing any kind of book event as an attendee instead of an author.
Speaking of kid’s books, if you haven’t checked it out yet, Christian Robinson’s Dad came out recently and is so beautiful. He’s one of my favorites. I love the way he plays with shapes and colors and can layer in so much emotion and meaning into so few words.
Soon
The Girl Who Loved Monsters, the middle grade book that I drew in collaboration with writer Insha Fitzpatrick, comes out next month on July 28th! Consider preordering it. That helps a lot! We’ve got some fun stuff planned in order to celebrate its release. You’ll be hearing more about that very soon.
That’s all for today, friends. Take care!
Till next time,
Currently reading: Milk Teeth by Caitlin Starling and How To Defend Books and Why by Danny Cane
Last watched: Oddity (2024)
He’s since cancelled the project and apologized to “those [he] upset.”