I have a lot on my plate right now, but there is also weird periods of downtime where I can get a lot of my own work done. So in the latest break between layouts and scripting revisions, I penciled the second half of Cob. This is the first of those pages! I literally have 4.5 pages left to pencil, and I can get it out to people to review! It will be half “done,” though I am more than willing to re-ink and re-layout pages. 2.5 of the pages I have to pencil (and thumbnail, which means it could be 4.5 pages) are already an edit to the story. That’s what happens after you work on a graphic novel for 5 years. I mean, not continuously. I started it before I got my certificate in natural science illustration, which was the year before I went to The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS). I got back to work on it after getting my masters from CCS. And it went from fairy tale to sci-fi setting. So it was a complete revision. I cut some things I loved, but I am hoping it is for a better story in the end. Kill your darlings, and all.

Before I can finish up those last 4 pages of pencils, I have some edits to a script I must do. I also must prepare for some workshops I will be teaching. I am doing an inking class at Dakota Art in Bellingham, again, at the end of October as sort of a cap off to Inktober. And in November, I will be doing a zine workshop to show a bunch of ways to make a zine out of a single sheet of paper. If you are in the area, you can sign up at Dakota Art!

I already have my theme idea for Inktober. I want to do something like I did in 2017 with Her Blood and Bone, illustrations that I follow up with flash fiction pieces. This time, I think it will be loose drawings of old people in really cool locations. Based, of course, on the official prompt list. Somehow. I want to draw a bunch of wrinkly old people in a bunch of cool places filled with plants. I have a lot more work now than I did in 2017, so I might not be able to do as cool of drawings, but we’ll see.