Today’s old comic strip is from a mere three years ago. I was in the middle then of a rather lengthy experiment with drawing with felt-tip pens. I knew many cartoonists drew beautifully with felt-tips, and they are so much more convenient than dealing with India ink and pen nibs. However, I found felt-tip pens more difficult to control, and in my hands they rendered a monotonous line. I have gone back to the old ways. I now draw with a dip pen and a bottle of ink. A medieval monk would have no problem comprehending the technology.
122 responses to “Ask me no questions”
Does your pen have a feather on the end of it? 🙂
TR, I’ll add my congratulations to your daughter!
Bear, “If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.”
Debbe, I still have the flannel sundresses, but as it is suddenly 80 degrees around here I’m not wearing them much. 🙂
Jackie, my dentist is fighting an uphill battle to see that I keep all my teeth in their proper place and not in a glass on the bathroom sink. The way things are going I wish him luck.
Ghost Sweetie, 😉
Trucker, I’ll add my congrats to your daughter. And to her parents, who might have had something to do with it, also. 🙂
Jackie, as a law-abiding American citizen, it seems that my smallest firearm and I would be much less welcome in Canada than the most fanatical and extreme terrorist from any other country in the world. Go figure.
Also, if I can successfully pilot an aircraft I could probably pilot a powerboat. Very few problems that occur in an airplane can be solved by a life preserver or a call on Channel 16. 🙂
My brother and his family spent last weekend in West Virginia watching a niece perform as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. The niece has been getting a theater arts degree along with other education. She graduates this summer and already has a job lined up in New York. My brother said some director had been watching her work at the college and offered her this job. She not only acts, but can build scenery too. I told my brother she would have to join two unions, then.
Congratulations to your daughter, Trucker,
And belated birthday wishes to NK in AZ.
Last summer around these parts was a bust for sundresses (no pun intended). I’m hoping this one will make up for the resulting eye candy deficit. Meanwhile and fortunately, there are still yoga pants. 😉
Hey Jimmy, after you scan them do you have to adjust the contrast in PhotoShop to get the large dark areas to be black? Or do you do more than one wash to get them black? I find my lines come out fine, but large areas are never completely black.
Today’s TIP blog’s subject is what I was afraid it was: http://thatispriceless.blogspot.com/
Yesterday, as usual, I attended an annual scholarship recognition event. Everybody fully dressed, of course, but some e.c. nonetheless. And lots of really sharp students. One prof told me that the one who got my scholarship has a 4.0. I didn’t tell her that my wife had done that.
Peace,
Kind of reminds me of the Millennials discovery of vinyl records. My son thinks they sound better than CDs. When CDs came out, we loved how they sounded better than vinyl.
Snow White is a beautify work of art. While today’s animation looks nearly real, there is less beauty. Of course it is all in the eyes of the beholder.
Ghost:
In the immortal words of Rodgers and Hammerstein, let’s hope that June is Busting out all Over
Steve from Royal Oak, Snow White is a hand drawn masterpiece, as were all the animated movies and cartoons until the invention of the copy machine and computer animation. The old ones retain the special touches of the artists who drew these images. Find a copy of the old edition of The Art of Walt Disney in hardcover. It is a beautiful book with many double page foldouts of the images. Author is Christopher Finch, and it came out in 1973 or 1974.
Big owlets have left nest, probably perched on nearby branches, likely not yet flying. Two large birds on limbs in background might be ospreys [there are wetlands in the distance], but probably not a danger if adult G.H. Owls are still around.
http://pg.allaboutbirds.org/savannah-owls-second-cam/ Peace,
Steve, re “June (and others) busting out”: As Arlo said, “Mee, too”.
http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2005/12/28
Caution: Actual discussion of cartooning follows…
It’s Friday afternoon (aka The Time One Could Fire a Canon Through The Admin Building Without Hitting A Single Vice President”), so I’ve been thinking. Yeah, I know, that can be dangerous, sometimes even leading to such thoughts as “Just what the hell is wrong with people who didn’t cry when Old Yeller died, anyway?” Actually, though, it’s when I do some of my best work-related thinking.
But what I was thinking this time came to light due to recent comments regarding Gene’s apparent change of hair color. To wit, does second-party colorizing of the art work produced by a cartoonist in black-and-white add anything to that art? Or (and not to revisit the colorization of classic B&W films controversy of several years ago…”Hey, I’ll bet Citizen Kane and Psycho would both be a lot better if they were in color!”) does colorizing the art work produced by a cartoonist in black-and-white actually diminish that art?
At best, I can’t see that color particularly adds anything to Jimmy’s work, and at worse it risks changing his vision and intent. Off the top of my head I can think of two occasions (“river bank” and “seagull dumps on Gene at the wedding”) where the work of syndicate colorists changed the cartoon to the point that he felt it necessary to clarify here on the blog what he intended when he drew the strip.
I realize that selling the publication rights to one’s work often means giving up a certain amount of creative control of it, but how much loss of his/her creativity does the artist have to tolerate? (And yes, I realize that whatever else A&J is, it is also a business endeavor.) I don’t recall Jimmy ever addressing this per se, and I’d be interested in knowing his thoughts on colorization by the syndicate and his perceived impact (if any) on his work.
My, we ARE deep aren’t we? Funny because I was thinking same thing about art as it related to an artists proof low number signed silk screen signed and dated, numbered by artist and a $95 print off net.
And yes, it is both art and a business. And Jimmy is an artist.
About that original we get to bid on?
Just saw a very long snake swimming in my beautiful stone ditch. I do not know where he will go and my yard is full of cats. Dickens and I went inside. I would say he was about 5 feet, based on his swimming length which undulated.
Where is a snake killer when you need one? I would fall in with snake.
Drying off in air to put clothes on to fold laundry. Go figure.
Ghosr, that is an interesting thought you brought up. Do you still have a pilots license and I know you flew Pacific northwest. Did you fly any float planes? As in tree topping to Alaska?
Eeek! Worse than snake, two tornadoes in Oklahoma moving east.
To paraphrase (you’re welcome) Samuel L. Jackson, “Enough is enough! I have had it with these blankety-blank snakes in my blankety-blank stone ditch!”
I still have my licenses, haven’t had a need to renew my medical certificate lately. Have single engine and multi-engine land ratings, never needed or got seaplane ratings.
Much worse than the snake. Leave the snake alone and it will probably leave you alone. About the ospreys I thought I saw on limbs in the background. Here they are investigating the nest.
https://twitter.com/SavannahOwls?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Don’t know where the adult and nestling owls are, but those hefty young did not look ‘wingy’ enough to fly. But, what do I know? Peace,
Thanks again for belated birthday wishes. Debbe, I am now 74—not a particularly exciting number like, e.g., 70 or 75 even. On the other hand, as I may have already said here (memory failing, you know), I don’t mind growing older, since I intend never to grow up.
My sentiments exactly, Nancy!
Or as I once heard it aptly put, “Growing older is mandatory, but growing up is optional.”
I’m a firm believer in what Arlo noted yesterday, remembering not to walk like an old man. For many people, perception is reality, so why let them perceive you as old. I also remember to never make what Jerry Seinfeld called the “Old Man Noise” when I get up from a chair. Or for that matter, to not use my arms to push myself up unless it is a deep upholstered chair or sofa.
Old Yeller? There are people (sort of) out there driving vehicles 80 mph who could not tell you who Walt Disney was because they were not even alive in the 20th century. CD’s? Just wait for someone to ask you what a CD has to do with music. I started this line of thought yesterday when I remembered every word of Glenn Campbell’s songs as I sang along with the CD although I had not heard many of them in-what?- 30 + years? Yet I couldn’t remember what my wife had just told me for the fifth time. Oh well, poor Glenn can’t remember the words, OR even recognize his family so I’m doing great.
Don’t grow up, it’s a trap! But if you are really, really good you get a second childhood and get to pick the toys.