Chaotic beginnings

The Looby-list of good things: miniature flowers, surrealist hats, comic book creation and really good hummus.

Hello,

I spent a little time this week working on my next comic book. It’s a chaotic process at this stage because I write dialogue, note down the action, and create doodles simultaneously. I use Post-it notes for panels and tear pages from an old notebook to scribble across and structure the flow. You can see it’s a pretty big mess, and while I love the creative freedom of jotting down things as I think of them, I am now getting to the point where I am losing control and need to bring it all back together again.

If you happen to be someone who is interested in making comics, it’s definitely worth checking out Jessica Abel’s Visual Scripting: using InDesign to write scripts native to comics, which has a downloadable template for Adobe InDesign. This is a great method for plotting, forming structure, creating flow and dialogue. An added advantage is that you are drafting it directly into a document which you can eventually send to a printer.

Anyway, for those of you who don’t make comics (and those who do), here’s this week’s list:

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Sweet and spooky distraction:

“Beyond the hedge, beneath the well, ancient spirits sing their song to reawaken the mystery of the hidden apple.”

I love this weird little film which was first spotted by our editor-at-large last summer at the Festival Stop Motion Montreal.

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Riso Printing:

I am fascinated with risograph printing and can’t wait to try it (maybe my next comic?). 

“Risograph printing is a technique best described as a ‘digital screen printing.’ The process is similar to screen printing, but with the convenience of an office copier. It’s known for its vivid colours (that other printers can’t produce) and its specific textures. These machines deliver ‘perfect imperfections’ and provide a cheap and easy method for reproducing work at large quantities, like posters, prints and zines.” - Riso Pop.

Last week The New Yorker published its first-ever riso print design cover by artist Sarula Bao. It’s such a joyful, spring-flavoured cover. You can watch a little “how she did it” here. 

bao___haus

A post shared by Sarula Bao (@bao___haus)

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Miniature delight:

This time last year, I was fully absorbed in making miniatures, and, as it was spring, I was making miniature bouquets with real, tiny flowers to put in my tiny house. Here’s a little gallery. Sorry if it’s too small to see on your phone, but you can see more of my miniatures on my Instagram. Just scroll back a bit.

More Miniature Delights:

Danielle McGurran is an immensely talented miniature artist who works to create tiny, grungy urban scenes. (h/t Lliam)

“The engine that keeps me going is the idea of people being delighted by my work. I love the idea of delight. I don’t really believe in happiness because I feel like that’s a made-up thing that maybe only Danish people know about, but I do think that delight should be the goal in life. My miniatures are these delightful little confections that people can dip into.”

Exactly.

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Creative Process:

In my Wednesday newsletter, I wrote about the creative process and my personal approach to making work, allowing my creative urges to dictate my direction. I had many lovely responses to the piece, including one reader who sent me a link to this article. Casey Gerald (author of There Will Be No Miracles Here) discusses “not worrying about defining yourself … the importance of having a variety of jobs before you make creative work, and the ways in which our lives are our biggest projects.” which is exactly what I was banging on about. We are just people doing things and then doing other things. It’s pretty simple. Thank you, Olugbemisola, for the email. x

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TV Watching:

Succession (HBO), of course. Holy moly. 

And also Beef (Netflix)… which I love because while we know it’s an obsession fuelled revenge story, there is a restless sense of not being able to quite predict which way this plot will turn. 

And lastly, I binge-watched Transatlantic (Netflix). It felt like a cartoon version of a story of the French resistance, but it was pretty enjoyable. If you are a period drama nerd, the costumes and production design were nicely done. There is a great appearance of a shoe hat worn by protagonist Mary Jayne Gold (Gillian Jacobs) at surrealist artist Max Ernst’s birthday party.

The actual, in-real-life shoe hat was created by Italian couture designer Elsa Schiaparelli and surrealist Salvador Dalí. 

According to the The Met; “The hat was made to wear with a black dress and jacket embroidered with red lips which were suggestive of those belonging to of the voluptuous actress Mae West for whom Schiaparelli was designing movie costumes at the time.” I read this now, and I realize that embroidered red (well, pink) lips appeared on another one of MJ Gold’s outfits:

It makes me wonder how many other pre-war art world Easter eggs there are to be found in Transatlantic. It must have been fun to research and create.

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Dream Houses:

This place needs a whole lot of love, but what bones! Let’s start a group and buy it and do it up. You bring the tools and the know-how; I’ll bring the soufflés and the hummus. If this one doesn’t suit you, you can find a whole lot more over on Cheap Old Houses’ Instagram. How about an abandoned French chateau? Maybe you’d prefer this mini tower castle in Italy?

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Crone Cooking: Hummus

In an effort to cook 52 essential recipes by the time I turn 52 (March 2024), I have started a little list, and this week was dish number five: Hummus!

After soufflé and bagels, I was pleased to have an easy week. I decided to try and make the best hummus possible, which, after a bit of internet research, seemed to involve a few essential tips. 

• Cook the chickpeas (even if they are canned) for 20 minutes with 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda for extra mushiness

• Soak the raw crushed garlic in lemon juice to make it milder and less bitey

• use good quality tahini, and don’t skimp

• use ice water to thin it 

Otherwise, it’s pretty straightforward. I went with a combination of this recipe, this recipe and this recipe (I think this last one will do it just fine). It has a tang to it which I am not used to with commercial hummus, but it’s so light and fluffy. We hoovered this up.

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That’s all for now! 

Remember to check out the extra-tasty, extra content on Wednesdays. If you have any thoughts or feedback, leave me a comment or email me. I love to hear from you… Or just click the little heart icon, which makes me so happy. Thanks for reading, and have a good week.

xo,

Claire

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What’s coming up on Loobylu (aka The Subscriber Pitch):

The next paid-subscriber-only edition will be pages from my sketchbook diary from the week.

What came before:

In the last paid-subscriber-only issue, I had a long gab about work, creativity and focus. Before that I drew some pink pants. And before that I wrote a little bit about our trip to beautiful Montreal.

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