Radiant inks & emotional moments
So I’ve been madly colouring my 50 copies of ‘Clueless’ and then signing and numbering them (limited edition!) for this Saturday’s zine fest. I used my radiant inks, which was fun, because I usually use watercolour on my comics, and this covers the paper more quickly and intensely. It’s a slightly unforgiving medium – if you have too much ink on your brush you can’t push it around, like you can watercolour or oil. But since my style is messy, and I can go to photoshop for flat colours, I try not to worry too much about it. If you live in Auckland you can come and buy one of these (56 pages! $10!) at Zinefest, or else you can email me: sarahelizabethlaing@gmail.com to order your own copy. Alas non-zinefest price is $12 – I need to break even on the print costs (all labour, writing & handcolouring is free. Such is the life of an artist.)
Here is another little zine I’ve made for the day: Katherine Mansfield has an emo moment. I kept on messing it up, blobbing black ink in all the wrong places, and I had visions of doing a whole series of these but it’s Wednesday already and I haven’t started.
Zinefest this weekend!
This weekend, I am going up to Auckland Zinefest. I have got a comic to sell – the print version of my ‘Clueless‘ comic, about being pregnant in New York City – which I first published here. I have fixed a few spelling mistakes, redrawn the shabbiest of the pictures and am hand-painting the covers of 50 copies. It’s a whopping 56 pages long. If you come to Zinefest (this year it’s at the Pitt Street Methodist Church, Saturday 29th August, 12-5pm) you can buy a copy for $10. I will be selling the remaining copies on Felt for $12+postage. Message me if you want me to save you a copy!
I have also done my usual array of hand-painted books in the hope of recouping my printing costs, including this one here: a redux version of George Orwell’s famous ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’ essay:
I was first shown this essay when I was in high school, soon after I’d read 1984. I was impressed at how exacting Orwell was about tea-making, how much attention he paid to each step. Also – six spoons of loose-leaf tea – obviously the man hadn’t discovered coffee.
Two posts in one day! I’m making up for lost time. I saw ‘Very Semi Serious’ on Thursday – it was a lovely movie. Made me feel wistful.
And here is an Emily Flake cartoon.
Six-year-old girls, observed
It freaks me out when kids start talking like Hollywood movie scripts. Or miniature versions of their parents. But of course that’s going to happen. Actually it freaks me out when kids are mean to each other. It takes me straight back…
Cat comic!
As you can see, I’m experimenting with more mobile-friendly comics. The thing that I can’t quite manage is drawing short comics – once I get going I can’t stop, sigh.
This blog was posted while Shadow sat on my lap – she’s still terrified of the children but she’s very friendly while they are at school.
Writers on Mondays and a nice review
This is a snapshot of my journal – I have an office in town two days a week, and it’s situated dangerously close to the art supply store. On Tuesday I bought myself some new colour pencils (my collection has been swallowed up by the children) and today I bought myself a mechanical pencil so I can indulge in more architect fantasies and won’t have to live in a flurry of pencil shavings.
For those of you who are Wellington-based, I will be on a panel at Te Papa on Monday at 12pm. I am very excited because it will be with two people whose work I admire, Gregory O’Brien and the artist John Reynolds.
Also, today I saw this – a nice review of my Let Me Be Frank comics.
Paradox
Oh the dilemmas of knowing too much and reading way too many essays online. I feel saturated in intelligent essays, which is a wonderful thing, but it makes me aware of all the possible ways of living and failing.
This comic here was prompted by this Jane Campion clip. It’s pretty cool – you should watch it.
I gave my character different hair in this comic – I am experimenting with a persona, as I do potentially have a new job drawing comics (alas not being paid squidillions for it) and I am exploring what I might do – observational stuff, like I post on this blog, or perhaps some kind of fictional drama, like what Posey Simmonds did for the Guardian. Of course she wrote this when print still reigned supreme and people didn’t read everything on their tiny phone screens.
Pop quiz: how do you read my comics? On your computer or on your phone?
Oh, and look, here is my manuscript! It’s over 300 pages but looks really huge because I hand painted it all on heavy paper. I still have to go back and revise stuff, and now Gerri Kimber’s found some poems from Katherine Mansfield’s lost years, so maybe I can bring some of that to the manuscript. But still, I feel a sense of achievement having got this far.
Picnic at Red Rocks
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Hello! It’s been a while. But I was sitting around drawing comics with my kids (it’s school holidays) and I thought I would post this one, about our trip to Red Rocks. My father tells me he walked there fifty years ago, and was hit by a piece of falling scree. He had to walk out again, bleeding all the way to Wellington hospital. He still has the scar.
How are you? Is there anybody out there? I have almost finished my graphic novel (just one chapter to go) so maybe I’ll start posting here more often…
Zine and comics course at Studio One Toi Tu
This is a sketch I made of a creative writing class I took last year – I found it in my teaching notebook, which is completely filled up. Which means that I have done quite a lot of teaching lately.
I am taking another class – this time an 8 week one, my longest yet. It’s called ‘Zines and Comics.’ It’s a multi-disciplinary creative writing class: the emphasis is personal storytelling, using whatever means possible. Writing, comics, found photos, hand-lettered type… I will even bring in my 1920s underwood typewriter so people can make 1970s-style punk zines. There will be pens, paste, scissors, india ink and old magazines and books to ravage in order to create photocopiable publications. I’m going to rummage through some of Lynda Barry’s online teaching resources for inspiration, as well syphoning my own knowledge as a writer/cartoonist/graphic designer and teacher. I’ve got a few binding techniques up my sleeve, from special cuts and folds to tricks with staplers and erasers. There’s also my personal favourite – hand-stitched spines.
So if you live in Auckland and have Thursday nights free, you should come along! It will be fun, super-creative, you’ll meet some nice people, and as the class will be small I’ll be able to tailor it to your personal interests. The course costs $164 if you enrol by Tuesday 21 October. Call Studio One on 09 376 3221 and please book! I am leaving Auckland early next year and this is the last class I’m going to teach up here for a while.
Class name: Zines and comics
Start Date: Thursday 23 October, 7-9pm
Cost: $164
Enrol: ph 09 376 3221 or email studioone@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
Website: Studio One Toi Tu
I dream of Oscar
I am still officially taking a blog holiday, but here is another snippet from my Katherine Mansfield journals – Katherine’s dream about Oscar Wilde and Lady Ottoline Morrell. At the moment I am working on a Bloomsbury section of my book, and here’s a rough sketch of Ottoline Morrell at Garsington:
The internet is truly amazing for this kind of thing – Garsington (the manor where Ottoline hosted the Bloomsbury Group) was on the market a few years back for 6.5 million pounds, so there are loads of photos to be found.
I also wanted to point out a few other places I’ve been appearing on the internet: my Let Me Be Frank comics were reviewed here – it was a lovely review, even though Rob Clough described my drawing style as slightly crude. Ah well, at least that means I don’t draw ‘competent boy comics’, as described by Indira Neville in our Three Words interview over here.
If you’re wondering what Three Words is, it’s our anthology of NZ Women’s comics that we are getting together at the moment. If you are a female cartoonist with any kind of NZ affiliation, please send us your comics! And join our facebook page even if you’re not an NZ woman cartoonist – this is where we’ll be posting lots of news. Also, Adrian Kinnaird talked about us on Radio NZ the other night – listen here.
LET ME BE FRANK 