travelogue – Lucy Bellwood

Hourly Comic Day 2017

Hey friends! I’ve got a new comic for you today:

This is my seventh year doing Hourly Comic Day, and it’s really such a delightful thing. For those that aren’t familiar: it’s a global art project where folks draw a panel for every hour they’re awake on February 1st. It’s a wonderful way to discover new artists, take a look at what everyone’s up to, and chronicle a day out of each year. This year I just happened to be wrapping up a couple weeks in Hawai’i, so there’s a bunch of tropical escapades in here.

You can read the whole comic over here on Medium. I love having these annual visual check-ins that remind me of where I’ve been every February since I was a junior in college—especially if this tropical trend continues. Wonder where I’ll be in 2018…

Did any of you participate? I try not to read people’s till I’ve posted my own, since it wigs me out and I get self-conscious, but now I am FREEEEEE. Link me to your entries in the comments or on Twitter.

You can also read all my previous years’ entries here: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011!

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.)

Comics, News

Down to the Seas Again at Sequential Art Gallery

Big big big news, everyone: I have my first-ever solo show opening a week from today at Portland’s Sequential Art Gallery! Down to the Seas Again will collect all my original art from this summer’s voyage aboard the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship in the world. I’ve been slaving away over this comic for the last month or so, and I really can’t wait to share it with you all in person. We’ll have all 20 watercolored pages up for your browsing pleasure, as well as nautical comics for sale and a lot of process-centric stuff for you to investigate.

The opening reception will take place during Portland’s First Thursday Art Walk on September 4th from 6pm-10pm at:

Sequential Art Gallery + Studio
328 NW Broadway #113
Portland, OR 97209

I’ll be on hand selling comics, showing off originals, and getting excited about boats. I would absolutely love to see you there.

If you’re the Facebookin’ type, you can keep an eye out for the official event on Sequential Art Gallery’s Facebook page. If you can’t make the opening but would still like to check out the show, you can do so all month during the gallery’s regular hours: Mondays from 2pm-6pm, Saturdays from 11am-5pm, and by appointment.

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,

News

Summer Travels: The 38th Voyage

Big news, friends! I’ve been selected to participate in a fellowship program through the Mystic Seaport Maritime Museum this summer, sailing aboard the last wooden whaling ship in the world — the Charles W. Morgan. This is a huge thrill, and promises to be the catalyst for a new installment of adventurous nautical comics. Just look at this beauty:

Originally launched in the 1840s, the Morgan has been fully restored and will be sailing around the Eastern Seaboard for three months this summer, taking on 80 fellowship participants who will each capture an aspect of the voyage according to their own disciplines. Needless to say I’ll be drawing some comics and sharing them all with you when I return! Here’s the itinerary:

While the stint aboard is brief (a mere 24 hours), I hope to use my time in the area to visit a few other vessels as well as Mystic Seaport itself to gather more info for the comic. I’ll very likely be based in Boston during the trip, and am looking into the possibility of doing a reading while I’m there, so stay tuned for more details as July draws near!

You can learn more about the various voyagers and their many specialties here. I’ll be sailing on the second day sail from Provincetown on or around July 10th. For more information about the voyage, the ship’s restoration, and local events you can attend, visit Mystic Seaport’s homepage for the 38th Voyage.

Do you live in Boston and have a recommendation for a good reading venue? Let me know! Otherwise keep your eyes peeled for reading details, further updates and sketches from the road once I set out.

News

Grand Adventure: Print Edition Pre-Orders

GrandPress — Stats: 28 pages, full color, 5.5″ x 7″, $10.

The wait is over! I stopped by ColorHaus this morning to check out the proofs for Grand Adventure, and I can safely say these comics are going to rock your socks off. The printers have done a fantastic job replicating the watercolor and picking out papers that really make the art shine. Couldn’t be happier.

If you haven’t heard, Grand Adventure is my daily diary comic from a three-week rafting trip through the entirety of the Grand Canyon. I recounted the day’s activities each night we were on the river, generally painting the pages before breakfast the following morning. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip, and I’m really happy I decided to document it like this.

I’ll begin shipping copies of the comic November 7th, but you can pre-order one today to beat the rush. Have at ’em!

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Grand Adventure — Part 3

Here it is, friends: the final installment of Canyon Comics! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading along and experiencing the adventure secondhand — it’s been great to share it all with you. You can now find the whole thing in sequence on the Other Comics page for easy access.

I’ll be rescanning all these pages on the fancy new watercolor scanner at Periscope in the next few weeks so the print edition will really shine. I’m looking forward to making some quality full-color minis for you all.

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Grand Adventure — Part 2

More comics! For you! Here’s the second installment of pages from my Grand Canyon trip last month, covering the Adventure with the Flash Flood and our run through Lava Falls. The last batch of pages will go up on Wednesday due to a Leaving My Sketchbook at Home Like an Idiot error.

For the many of you who have asked about a print edition, never fear. Your wild cries have been heard and I’ll be putting one together before the end of October. Thanks for convincing me to make ’em!

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Grand Adventure – Part 1

As promised, here’s the first half of my diary strips from my trip through the Grand Canyon! I had so much fun drawing these. It’s been far too long since I had the space and time to just draw for myself every day. Part two should be up sometime next week, so keep an eye out.

Enjoy!