Interstellar Bug No.1

Interstellar Bug came about because my mundane job requires me to spend a lot of time, sometimes hours, on hold with insurance companies. I had a notepad, a red ballpoint pen and oodles of doodling time. My favorite panels are the ones where you can see the sun reflected in Bug’s eyes and the one where he gazes at his newly irradiated buggy apendages.

Bouncy bouncy

This weekend’s work was mostly preparation for the fair I’m doing with Kathy either the first 2 weekends in July or the last 2 weekends in July. When I have more info, I’ll let everyone know. I made a bunch of Original Journals and a lot of envelopes—this weekend will be devoted to making Deluxe Journals and packaging up Map Scrap freebies. I have so much fun just making things. I don’t think it’ll ever be my sole source of income, but I enjoy it.

What I do hope will become an income source is my illustration. I also worked on the Frederick Douglass project this weekend. I’ve done two sketches of the main house. They are more detailed than I think the finals will be, but this is more of a “Yes, I can draw” offering. Kathy found this great book on eBay called Le Grand Theatre Sacre du Duche de Brabant, Premiere vol. 1, by Antonius Sander in 1729. It is my inspiration for what I want the final image for the historical map to be like.

Kathy was a busy bee this weekend to and transformed the bird image I made for her tote bags into a free mailing label that can be downloaded from my website.

The Unceasing Voice

I got no work done last weekend, but I did get a healthy amount of inspiration while on my trip down south. Among my weaknesses for old things is a weakness for vintage paper goods. I looked in antique store after antique store for photos or letters or illustrated books. Every photo I found was way too pricey and there were no letters to be had, but I did find a booklet of sepia toned postcards from Milan. The postcards are really fascinating because instead of being one-sided postcards, each one was designed to be booklet with a blank page inside which I suppose would have been taped shut and mailed.
 
I also found a postage stamp collecting atlas from 1934. It doesn’t have any stamps in it, but it is divided into country sections with extremely dated and politically incorrect information about the country and illustrations of the stamps of that country. Some of them are extraordinarily beautiful. When I was younger, I was an avid philatelist because stamps are just so wonderful. They are miniature works of art.
 
On the plane ride, I amused myself by reading Decoding the Universe and You Are Here. You Are Here is a great collection of maps, real and imaginary which has helped immensely with my brainstorming about the FDHS map. Also, Kathy asked for an estimate for a map and some icons for a wedding invite she’s designing; so it got the mind working on that too. Decoding the Universe is a concise treaty on quantum physics and information theory and etcetera. When I picked it up at the bookstore, the salesman made a crack about “light reading.” Whatever. I just really enjoy science. I’m mentioning it here though, because, to protect it on the journey I removed its cover and replaced it with one of brown paper. It has inspired me to make a line of snarky book covers. Purchasers would put in the dimensions of their book in the comment field, with some size restrictions, and I’d also have standard sizes available. I’m really excited about it, but I’m a little worried about the printing logistics. I’ll figure it out though.