Meet Serif!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

I don't think I've ever properly introduced my new coworker...


He's a 6 month old satin–black kitten with a small white star on his chest, and a keen eye for art. He crits my sketches, purrs nonstop and drinks my watercolor water when I'm not looking. He also keeps me on task. When I am honestly working, he sleeps like a baby; when I am fiddling around on the internet, he glares and meows. How DOES he know I'm on Facebook?

I named him Serif, Seri for short. He has a slightly too-long tail for the rest of him which is always curled upright, like the tiny thing on the end of a letter. I guess a "serif", in the typography sense, serves the purpose of readability –allowing letters to flow into words as you read them. I just thought they made them fancy. Serif has made my little life a lot more fancy. And he only drinks water out of glasses, not a bowl, which is much fancier.


Seri came from a local shelter, runt of the litter, but full of heart and gumption. He was the last to be taken home of his brothers and sisters (sad truth behind Emily's sad black-cat story?) Now I can't remember what this little world was like without him!



Today he was using my book dummy pages as a slip-and-slide using it as a landing strip on his crazed flight from the front door into the bedroom, screeching like a little owl. We make a good team. Most of the time he wants to cuddle and play, two things that are excellent for producing a painting. Together we are making some good art. Some sketches:









<3

Holden

Tuesday, November 4, 2008


I've been chasing this fashion/costume thing since I was a little girl...it is such an integral part of character designing for me. So while I work on books, in the after-hours, these "character girls" show up and I run with them. It is a treat to work this aspect into my books, when I 'm able to. I'd like to move in this direction independently and simultaneously someday soon. I'm making character sketches really while I let them dictate the tone, the costume, the era. I named her Holden. Something in her reminded me of an angsty female Holden Caulfield lost in a time of netted feather hairpieces and sailor bibs and bobs.