Blog – Page 33 – Lucy Bellwood

Inktober-In-Progess: Dealing with Demons

As you’ve probably all noticed, this month’s Inktober challenge has morphed into something of a themed exercise for me. I’ve been illustrating my horrible little self-doubt demon in his many forms, trying to name some of the fears and anxieties that everyone deals with (in one form or another) when they sit down to make work. Here’s a selection from the first half of the month.

If you’d like to join in, please do! I’m trying to keep an eye on the #drawyourdemons hashtag and I’d love to see what your little jerks say and how you respond to them.

This character came out back in 2012 when I was stuck in an art rut. A bit of digging in the Ancient Bellwood Archives revealed the original:

Followed by this additional doodle:

(I can also guarantee the little bastard’s been plaguing me since long before I started making comics about him.)

Anyway, I’m contemplating putting all these illustrations together in a little minicomic when the month is done. If you’d like in on that, keep an eye out on Twitter. Happy Inktober!

Comics

New Comic: Scurvy Dogs

That’s right! My latest comic, an examination of maritime history’s deadliest deficiency, is now live! For the last few months, Eriq Nelson and I have been hard at work researching the ins and outs of scurvy in the Golden Age of Sail, and now we’re bringing our findings to you in 18 pages of informative, entertaining comics.

There’s even a Napoleonic Capybara. No joke.

I’ve had such a blast working on this piece—even if the production timeline was somewhat delayed by the Kickstarter I ran this summer. Speaking of which, this comic will round out the hardcover collection of Baggywrinkles comics I’m publishing in 2016! What’s more it’ll be in FULL COLOR! Gosh I’m excited.

Anyway, you can read the whole thing right here! I do hope you enjoy it.

Conventions

Rose City Comic Con This Weekend

Hey Portland friends!

Just a courtesy notice that I’ll be tabling at Rose City Comic Con this weekend and celebrating the print debut of my newest comic, Rim to River!

If you want to try before you buy, you can even read the whole thing online right here. I’m so thrilled with how these puppies came out. Come snag one for yourself! Here’s the details of where you can find me and the rest of my compatriots from Periscope Studio:

As you can see here, I’ll also be appearing on the Comics Journalism panel on Saturday morning at 11am in Room 5. Should be some good discussion around bringing real-world stories to life on the page. More details on the Rose City Comic Con site. Hope to see you there!

Comics, Illustration

XOXO Livesketches

This past weekend I had the exceptional pleasure of being hired by Medium to live sketch all the speakers at XOXO, an annual arts and technology festival run by my pals Andy Baio and Andy McMillan here in Portland. I’d heard great things about XOXO in the past, but this was my first opportunity to check it out in person—and BOY HOWDY IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT. Yes, I felt like my arms were going to fall off after each day’s sketching (20 minutes per speaker, with seven to ten people each day of the conference), but I met so many fascinating folks and got to hear some really wonderful presentations. Here’s a truncated image of all the speaker portraits from Saturday and Sunday (not including the pull quotes from each talk, which you can see over on Medium):

Crazy.

And now it’s time to gear up for Rose City Comic Con this weekend, where I’ve got a new comic making its print debut! Expect a post about that in the next couple days.

I’m also planning to collect some more complex thoughts about what XOXO meant to me once I stop being socially hungover from non-stop connections and late nights over the weekend, but that’s a story for another time. In the meantime, check out the full post on Medium!

Comics

New Comic: Rim to River

Hi everyone! It’s been a minute, huh? As some of you may know, I recently returned from my second whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. I went as a “voyage cartoonist” with Arizona River Runners, a Flagstaff-based rafting outfit, to document one of their seven-day motorized whitewater trips down the Colorado River.

You can read the whole story here (or pick up a print copy at Rose City Comic Con in a couple weeks), but suffice it to say I had an amazing time—I’m still reeling from the experience. While I was gone I penciled and inked sixteen pages, then colored them all in the week that followed. It felt so good to crank out a completely new piece of material on the heels of Kickstarter madness last month (THANK YOU, by the way, for making that such a colossal success! More news on that soon), and I’m excited to get back to drawing new content in a big way.

(This comic wouldn’t have been possible without the support of all my kind folks on Patreon, so if you’re looking for a way to help make even more art happen, check that out here.)

News

Baggywrinkles Now LIVE on Kickstarter!

The day is finally here, friends! Baggywrinkles: A Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea just launched on Kickstarter and it’s time to get this sucker made. If you’re already on board and you wanna get straight to the business, here’s the page!

Wait, what’s a Baggywrinkle?

A Baggywrinkle is furry, cylindrical device used for preventing chafing between a ship’s sails and the surrounding lines. It’s one of the most distinctive features of a ship’s rigging, made all the more ludicrous by the fact that you spend a LOT of time explaining what it is to visitors—a hard sell when it’s got such a weird name.

But it’s also the namesake of my educational, autobiographical series about the time I’ve spent sailing on 18th-century tall ships!

So, you’re making a book?

THAT’S RIGHT. Baggywrinkles has been running in little micro-installments for five years now. With 90 pages of content under my belt I’ve finally got enough material to bind everything together into a really handsome 6″x9″ softcover collection.

I’m funding this book on Kickstarter because it allows for some really thrilling opportunities to do this collection right. You can check out the campaign page for full details, but the most important thing I want to tell you about is that if we exceed our funding goal of 15k by just $5,000 I’m going to hire Joey Weiser and Michele Chidester to render the entire collection IN COLOR.

I cannot express with words how excited I am about this possibility. LOOK AT THESE LOVELY COLORS! THE BOOK WOULD BE SO AMAZING! I mean, it’s gonna be great either way, but I’m really gunning for color.

So go check out the page and take a look through all the rewards. There’s lots to enjoy—prints, original art, special PDF bundles, and more. And thank you for being such stalwart readers and supporters. You all mean the world to me.

FOR BAGGYWRINKLES. FOR GLORY.

News

T-1 Week to the Baggywrinkles Kickstarter!

Ahoy, friends! I am so, so excited to announce that Baggywrinkles: A Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea will be hitting Kickstarter July 20th.

What is Baggywrinkles, you ask? Why, it’s my educational, autobiographical comic series about living aboard an 18th century tall ship! You can read the first five issues online for free, and check out new content from the series every week on Patreon. I’ve been working on these short stories intermittently since 2010, and I’m finally ready to bring the whole bundle together under one cover.

So next Monday (July 20th) I’m launching a campaign to fund the printing of a 100-page, 6×9″ softcover collection featuring Issues 1-5, the never-before-seen-in-print Issue 6 (all about the history of scurvy), and a host of other exclusive goodies. Take a look at the finished cover design!

I’ve been hard at work with a team of stellar professionals to make this collection something you’ll all be proud to own—we’re talking French Flaps, patterned endpapers, high-quality matte paper stock, and deliciously thick covers.

Tiling-Background — So pattern. Very endpaper. Such nautical.

I’ve also got some really neat extra rewards. Like remember this giant guide to sailors’ tattoos I drew for the Vancouver Maritime Museum?

Well, I’m gonna turn it into a super fancy two-color, limited edition letterpress print in collaboration with the fine folks at Twin Ravens Press in Eugene, OR! And there’s more extra rewards to come.

This post is your official warning to watch this space (or follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram) for the campaign launch next week, and to keep your eyes peeled because I’ve got a very special stretch goal that I’ll be announcing once the book goes live.

I can’t wait to share more with you—stay tuned!

Comics

New Comic: Salt Soap

This is a short piece that I’ve been meaning to draw for a few years now—glad to finally have it finished. You can find it in print in Irene #6 later this year. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed the comic and want to see more, why not chip in a couple bucks a month on Patreon? Your support keeps me drawing—thanks!

News

New Panel Recordings: Frisky Fun, Young at Heart, and Best Foot Forward

Hello, friends! Here’s a quick post to let you know I’ve added three new panel recordings from VanCAF 2015 to my collection of educational audio content over on Soundcloud. Read on for all three:

Frisky Fun for All: The World of Adult Comics was just about the most fun I’ve ever had on any panel ever. Me (Boats), Erika Moen (Oh Joy, Sex Toy), Amanda Lafrenais (Love Me Nice), and Adriel Forsyth (Arizona) discussed everything from the representation of diverse body types, non-binary identities, and myriad kinks in illustrated porn, to using adult comics as a platform for sexual education and awareness. I was so honored to participate in this conversation, and I’m really glad we grabbed audio to share it with a wider audience. [Photo credit to Shary Contrary!]

You can also check out…

Young at Heart: Comics for All Ages, with me, Doug Savage (Savage Chickens), Joy Ang (Adventure Time), Ian Boothby (The Simpsons Comic, Futurama), and Nina Matsumoto (The Simpsons Comic, Yokaiden) discussing the ins and outs of great all-ages work.

And Best Foot Forward: Promoting Your Comics and Yourself with me, Kel McDonald (Sorcery 101, Misfits of Avalon), Shannon LeClerc (Rainbow Killers), and Canadian Comic Book Hall-of-Famer Ken Steacy (Spider-man, Astro Boy). Thanks to Rob Cottingham for the delightful sketchnotes from this panel that also serve as the header image for this post.

As always, you can check out the many other panel recordings at my main SoundCloud page. Want to express some gratitude for all the free audio content? My Soundcloud membership is made possible by generous support from folks on Patreon. If you’d like to join them and get some neat perks while supporting the creation of more comics, head over and check it out.

Conventions

Special Edition: New York This Weekend

Greetings, East Coasters! I’m heading to your fine shores this weekend (June 6th & 7th) for Special Edition: New York, a comics-centric show from the folks who bring you New York Comic Con. I’ll be in Artist Alley at Table H3. There’s a great line-up of creators attending, and I’m really excited to do my first-ever show in New York (and stick around for a few days to explore the city). I even designed one of the show badges!

Our pieces needed to include a New York landmark, so of course I chose the South Street Seaport Museum, home of the tall ship Peking. I can’t wait to visit and see her in person—did you know she’s featured on one of my super fancy nautical postcards? She’s also the subject of Irving Johnson’s incredible film “Around Cape Horn”, which is a must-see for anyone interested in tall ship culture.

I’ll be bringing loads of great comics, including the first six issues of Cartozia Tales! These award-winning all-ages adventure comics are generally only available by mail subscription, so be sure to stop by and pick up some signed copies in person—I’ll even have sticker sheets and paper dolls. Here’s a selection of pages I’ve been drawing for the series:

If you want to learn more about Cartozia, there’s some really fun behind-the-scenes stuff happening on our Tumblr this week. Take a peek!

I’ll also be running an iteration of the ever-popular Freelance Like a Rockstar panel on Saturday from 3:45 to 4:45pm in Theater 2. Come learn about freelance career secrets from me, Ron Chan, Cat Farris, Molly Ostertag, and Katie Lane. I’m really thrilled with this line-up—lots of experienced folks who can share valuable advice and answer your burning questions. More details here.

I think that’s it from me—hope to see you in the Big Apple!