Writing is a bodily function

Teaching comics

Some days back I built up this list as a sort of a guideline for myself and also something I could tell my students when they start my class. These are the things I base my teaching:

-craft/tradition
-material
-observation/awareness

The knowledge of the craft of making comics and the tradition of. Also the history of the art form. Things don't just appear from nowhere and a student of comics should be interested and aware of the rich history of the art form. This includes the knowledge of how comics have been made and why certain material has been favored.

Material is one of the most important factors in making any art. It can only be learned by using a material. The material of computer software is unclear to me and, to my experience, to my students. In a material world the feel of a pen on paper is essential in order to learn a material.

Most of my assignments require observation from the students. Observation is essential in writing and making comics. It's essential at all stages of the work. What makes a character act as he/she does? Be observant.

And as I say to my students: you have to have something to say. You don't have to know what it is, but you have to have it.

Something nasty

Something nasty for the backcover of 24. Or if I don't change my mind.
The issue was supposed to be finished today. Now I'm hoping for end of next week. This is only the second issue of the year and I'm supposed to do 7. Damn! But if I would at least finish issue 25 before summer. It's possible.

20 yrs

Been cleaning up and re-arranging the studio so the work hasn't really moved on in the last few days.
Today I'm returning to it. And this is good.
But what I'm really thinking is this: I have 20 years (if lucky) time to finnish my work (in the wider sense of the word) , 30 if I'm very lucky.
There are plans. Books I'd like to do. First I need to get this one done, though.

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Drawing muscular men

After 12 issues or so I began to feel there should be this " adventure comic" episode in the book. A wrestle scene. And so the Suomaa people entered the story. After so many years of using my old style I was a bit rusty at first and you can notice this from issue 21. Now after 2 issues I start to get it again. 22 was already a lot better and 23. Now with 24 I'm really enjoying it. It's quite rewarding.  I use some references at this stage ofcourse, but my smart phone camera has proven the most useful. And I think it's good to use references even for the simplest postures. In most cases I could solve a certain posture just by using my imagination, but it's quite easy to fall for all the same solutions over and over again. Anyways, it's been fun and soon it's ending. Issue 24 should be the last one of this period of realistic drawing. But do not despair true believer! I have a twin issue planned that should dig even deeper to the superhero genre. In ...12(?)...issues.

Miracles

Miracles will be needed if I want to finish this issue before first of may. Cover undone, back cover undone, club page... Five or so pages.

Other things

Maybe I need to get this book finished since I have other things I'd like to do. Some 4 or 5 books in different stages of almost done.
But there are 600 pages before I can move to something different. 600 pages and then editing|re-doing|adding for a year maybe. It'll go faster if you subsribe.

Rurik taking the Jezus faith

Slowness

The slowness of this project is agonizing. However I have now 600 pages under my belt and that's not so bad.
It's hard to get any feedback on the story. Sometimes. There have been 4 or 5 reviews. Of the 5 two were actually my favorite reviews ever. The kind that you actually learn something from.
But now issue 24 is going slow and I hope all would be just a bit better written with less mistakes of the grammatical kind.
And who is reading this anyway. Maybe I use it for a project later.

Finished

 

The story is reaching the midpoint. Been reading some of the past issues. The text is sometimes better sometimes not.  I'm waiting to get the story finished so that I could start to go through it with a comb. There are spots that I really really like and I would prefer to get the whole thing to that level. And I think I could. And part of me would like to get to that part of the project right away. But that's not the spirit of the project. There needs to be pieces that are...unnecessary...unfinished...ill-motivated. Mistakes that I might smooth over a bit, but not make disappear completely.
We'll see.

King Ommot travels south

Ideas

You don't get far with ideas.

The week

The week left me satisfied. Got three bigger ideas I would maybe like to do someday. Ideas...

Back in the Art school

Back in the art school (UiaH) I used to work a lot with charcoal. For a very long time it was my favorite material. Normally I would start by blackening the whole paper, then doing the drawing on top of the blackened paper and then starting to open up the light areas. Now with markers I notice I use the same idea in many panels. This is perhaps most obvious in some of the back covers. This manner of working seems to suit me especially well. Sometimes working with markers and scraper board this is a bit risky, there is a limit to the punishment the board can take, but it pays off.

For the first time

As far as I know, today for the first time there have been more visitors from France and Russia than from Finland.

Going on

There remain 10 pages or so of issue 24 to do. Again I started adding them. Don't know if all the added pages are that important.
Well, in issue 24 first real female character, not counting Ämmä, Ohto's mother. Ah, plenty of stories I could tell of the youth of Ohto, passing of Ämmä, Atti and Appo... But soon it's time to move on and bring some new info of Fu to the light.

Pics

Pic

Bad

The week has been bad, but the issue proceeds, one panel at the time. Meanwhile issue 23 is almost ready for the printer.
Thinking back: remember that when I started the project there was only 2 panels on a page. Now there's four. I can imagine there could be issues with an average panel count of five or six panels in a page in the future. Maybe.

Old

Went through some of my mysterious boxes today. Less of the nice illustration originals left than I remembered. Haven't kept track of what I've sold and where. I never did that many illustrations anyways. In the process I came across some of the half finished pages of the book I started after Silvia Regina (from 2011) and there were a couple of gems there. All and all material enough for a 24 page book or something like that. Maybe after 2019 maybe I'll return to those maybe...

11 pages

11 pages to do for issue 24. The downfall of Suomaa people, Oula and his sister Päivätär, king Ommot... Suomaa people grow disgusting and stay that way.

Evolution

News

Very exciting Läskimooses news coming along, can't wait to break it to you.