Well the first part isn’t so in Patrick’s latest page of “Don’t Look Back.” (permalink)
Just see what Molly has to put up with:
I mean, really, that line was a moldy-oldy back in Wenceslas’ time.
But in snowbound Portland, everything is indeed calm and bright. And quite pretty.
Happy holidays to all, whichever one(s) you chose to celebrate.
I usually do some sort of drawing for the winter solstice on the solstice itself and what’s above is this year’s. This is my first piece of color in a couple of months; I literally dusted off the Cintiq to do it.
Instead of the typical Celtic/Wiccan/Robert Graves solstice theme, I thought I might see what other imagery I could play with and found this courtesy of Wikipedia:
The Saami, indigenous people of Finland, Sweden and Norway, worship Beiwe, the sun-goddess of fertility and sanity. She travels through the sky in a structure made of reindeer bones with her daughter, Beiwe-Neia, to herald back the greenery on which the reindeer feed. On the winter solstice, her worshipers sacrifice white female animals, and with the meat, thread and sticks, bed into rings with ribbons [sic]. They also cover their doorposts with butter so Beiwe can eat it and begin her journey once again.
Though I didn’t get it done for the solstice proper, I still thought it appropriate to share given the current snow bound state of Portland, Oregon. There is a truly impressive amount of snow on the ground for Portland, mostly unspoiled by plowing or shoveling. Something which I got to experience first hand during a foraging trek to the grocery store earlier today, where I happened to have bought butter among other things. Though we’ll be using it to put on pancakes, I think.
A peek from the latest page of Patrick Farley’s Dicebox Aside, “Don’t Look Back.” (permalink) I predict punches real soon.
There was also a two page update last week that I neglected to mention here due to my current reason and excuse for most things these days: Taran. I am getting the hang of her (and her me), and a rhythm is emerging. Even so, I get frustrated at not being even remotely on top of things. Hell, a good day is when I manage to do all the dishes if nothing else. But I have very few if any regrets in having her; it does help that she is pretty darn cute:
This photo shows another reason I’m grateful for Patrick’s epic page count for this guest story (up to 23 pages and still going!). That’s me holding her and the hand brace on my right hand—a.k.a. the drawing hand—is due to the carpal tunnel injury I’ve had for seven weeks now. Apparently this is a common side effect of pregnancy and delivery, even more so with a c-section, though it ought to have gone away by now. So it’s off to the hand specialist I go.
I went about 5 weeks without drawing a damn thing, then gradually began sketching again as I couldn’t stand it anymore. It’s a bit clumsy and slow going yet, with frequent breaks, but getting better. I even managed my first bit of cartooning yesterday (and did all the dishes to boot!). As with everything else these days, it involves the Kid:
To make up for last week’s lack, there are three pages of “Don’t Look Back” from Patrick this time out. (permalink)
This week’s suggested soundtrack is “Magnum Opus: Father Padilla Meets The Perfect Gnat / Howling At The Moon / Man Overboard / Industry On Parade / Release The Beavers / Gnat Attack” by Kansas. Quote Patrick: “I miss the era of song titles with slashes.”
On that note, I’m shamed to say that I didn’t get the pun in the above image until it was pointed out to me. I will now hang my head low.
