Art – Page 7 – Lucy Bellwood

Sketchdump 8.23.14

Proud to say I’ve been back on the sketchbook horse this month after a lengthy fallow period, so I figured it was high time to show my work. Behold! Some nudes from a figure drawing session last week (five- and one-minute poses, respectively):

There’s also a bundle of progress shots from my work on the Charles W. Morgan travelogue, random sketchbook pages, and the odd outfit sketch or two.

Gosh you guys: drawing for fun is FUN. Did you know? I forget sometimes. I’ll try to do another of these before too long!

Comics, News

Boston Travelogue Now Available via Patreon

Greetings, friends! For those of you not currently involved in my Patreon page, I just wanted to put the official word out that I’m updating my Boston travelogue comic there with a new page every week for Patrons pledging $1 a month or more. There are several patronage levels that nab you a variety of perks, from PDFs of all my published work to a weekly behind-the-scenes post about what I’ve been working on, and enable me to focus more on telling these kinds of stories. Win-win!

The Boston travelogue comic serializes my recent trip aboard the Charles W. Morgan–an 1840s wooden whaling vessel–and blends the page-a-day travelogue style of Grand Adventure with the historical interests of Baggywrinkles. I’m really happy with how it’s been coming together, and I’d love to share it with you early via this new platform. (The finished comic will be full color watercolor, but these sneak peek pages on Patreon are digitally toned.)

I’ll also be having a solo show at Portland’s Sequential Art Gallery in September to display all the original art from the journey. The opening reception takes place Thursday, September 4th from 6pm-10pm and I’d love to see you there. The completed print edition of the comic will be making its debut in full color at SPX later that month, too. You can check out my list of upcoming appearances on the lefthand side of this page for all Fall show dates!

See you on Patreon,

Comics, News

GWS Guest Strips Up and Running

Big week, friends! While I’m still away doing Boat Stuff in Boston, my five-strip guest arc for Danielle Corsetto’s delightful series Girls with Slingshots begins running TODAY. Check back on the GWS site each day this week to follow Hazel and Jamie in their quest for reasonable underwear. I promise it will be a thrilling ride.

I’m also selling the original inked artwork from these five strips over in my store, so give ’em a look if you’ve been in the market for some Lucy Bellwood originals.

And if you want to come see myself, Danielle, and Erika Moen in the flesh, we’ll be doing an event at Bridge City Comics in Portland this Saturday from 6pm – 9pm. I’m honored to get to sign alongside these rockstar dames, and Bridge City is one of my favorite comic shops in town, so get’cherself over there and say hello! Here’s what we all look like in case you feel alarmed or confused.

Enjoy the guest arc and I hope to see some of you on Saturday when I’m back from the East Coast!

Comics

New Comic: Greening Islam

I have a new comic up today in collaboration with writer Audrey Quinn, Symbolia Magazine, and Showtime’s Years of Living Dangerously TV series. It’s a big honor to be involved with this project, which strives to bring greater awareness to the challenges of climate change through comics journalism and media outreach. These are big, scary topics and I often find myself shying away from them because I feel too small and scared to make any sort of difference. Illustrating a story about someone who’s working to change that through an unexpected avenue was really powerful for me. I hope you enjoy it!

Comics

New Oh Joy, Sex Toy Guest Comic

I was so excited to return to Erika Moen’s Oh Joy, Sex Toy this week and deliver a guest comic about the exciting, unorthodox possibilities of the lowly Cutter Snake Bite Kit. The comic is (obviously) very not safe for work, but if you’ve got a spare moment in the comfort of your own home or exceptionally progressive workplace, give it read!

While you’re at it, be sure to check out Erika’s Kickstarter campaign to print the first year of OJST comics — including my first guest strip about rope bondage! The campaign has already shot through it’s initial funding goals, but all the excess funding raised past this point goes towards paying the guest artists a higher page rate, so every dollar helps make it more feasible for me to do many more guest strips in the future.

Art, News

New Nautical Postcards

I’ve added not one, but TWO new postcards to my nautical line-up as of this morning. You can now own prints of HMS Rose (otherwise known as HMS Surprise in Master and Commander) and the Peking (last of the prestigious Flying-P line) via my online emporium. These cards feature the same matte, silky goodness previously seen on the barn swallow prints, plus 1/4″ rounded corners for maximum charm factor. Buy a pack of 5 or treat yourself to a variety bundle. The 16pt card stock is extra hefty so as to withstand the rigors of the postal system should you choose to mail any of these via the postcard format supplied on the back:

I’ll also have these designs available at TCAF in a couple weeks — stay tuned for more details!

Comics

New Comic: Flip the Switch

So a while back I hinted that I’d soon be contributing some work to The Nib, Matt Bors’s comics portal over on Medium.com. That day has finally come! I went to check out Float On, the nation’s largest sensory deprivation tank center, and made you a whole comic about it. If you’ve ever wondered what happens to a work-addled freelancer’s brain when you cut off all its access to outside information and stimuli for 90 minutes, this one’s for you.

Click through to read the whole story on The Nib.

Art, News

“Setting Realistic Goals” Talk @ Making Comics MOOC

So this is something of a new game for me: in a few weeks I’ll be speaking on a panel of creators as part of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) run by MakingComics.com. The CEO, Patrick Yurick, was actually at CCS the same summer I went through my Comics Conversion and started doing this stuff for living, so it’s pretty neat to see where the two of us have ended up after four years.

The course is free and open to the public, with a pretty minimal time commitment and a rockstar line-up of creators ready to talk about four key topics as each week of the course goes by. It’s like a panel discussion where you can log in and ask questions in real time. The course is perfect for those of you looking to launch a comic or learn more about the process of going from idea to finished product.

Here’s the flier for the week I’ll be participating:

Look at all those cool dudes! We’re gonna get technical up in this business — motivational techniques, time management, maintaining momentum oooooh yeahhhhh. However! To attend the talk you’ll need to register for the course (again: FREE) before this Saturday. If you’d like to learn more before you register, or take a gander at the other weeks’ guests, click here — there’s a great FAQ about how the MOOC is structured and run.

Hope to see you online April 9th! And be sure to register this weekend to participate.

Art

Nautical Postcards Round 1: Swallows!

Getting boxes from the print shop always feels like Christmas — the excitement, the possibility, the wondering whether that thing you asked for is really as cool as you think it is in person.

The answer is yes: it is.

These are my first proper postcards and I have to admit I went a little bonkers putting them together. If there was a bell, I added it. If there was a whistle, that too. These suckers are printed on silky smooth 16pt matte card stock with rounded corners and they look and feel SO GOOD. I couldn’t be happier. Here’s a closer look at the art:

As someone who tends to have a lot of art on her walls, I wanted something that would look lustrous and beautiful enough to display with or without a frame — even after going through the rigors of the postal service. These cards definitely fit the bill. They are both attractive and BEEFY.

I have packs of five available in my store, and I’ll also be throwing in a free card with any order for the next couple months! Shop around and stay tuned for the next installment of these prints — I’m hoping to roll out a whole sequence of nautical cards before the year is out. Have something you’d like to see? Drop me a line in the comments.

Art

Patron Saint: VanCAF Promo Card

Had a lot of fun illustrating this exclusive postcard for the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival last week. It’s funny how certain pieces really showcase the concept that “Everything’s a Remix”. There are a couple influences here that I’d feel remiss not pointing out: the concept for this piece is totally a spin on a shoot my photographer friend Peter Chee did a couple years ago. His original subject, my pal Tess Myers, is a metalworker, so the halo featured all her tools. I loved that photo and have always wanted to do something similar for illustration or comics.

The second influence is definitely Erika Moen’s saintly portraits, though they have the benefit of real gold leaf (shiny!). I love Erika’s comics, but I’ve also been really inspired by her mixed media collage illustrations. I have all this fancy paper at home that I never really play around with anymore (I used to be more of a book arts gal), so this was an excuse to try something a little more illustrative.

Anyway, keep an eye out for these at VanCAF 2014! I’ll be exhibiting there in May.