Just a little

Over on the Comics Tier, I shared the full pencils for this comic commission I'm doing for Dr. Emily Nagoski- adapting a concept from her newest book, Come Together, into some easily-digestible comic pages that she can use during presentations.

I've been chipping away at inking my pencils the last couple weeks. It's a job that should really only take me one week, I think, but I keep... waiting. I wait till the end of the day before I start and then- oh!- wouldn't ya know? The day's done, it's time to stop working. Darn it!

 The thing is: I genuinely like working on this project!

It was a good, hard, fun challenge to convert Nagoski's exercise into visuals, and laying out the comics storytelling was fun, and inking (my favorite part!!) is fun! This is a comic that actively feels good to work on! Why do I keep avoiding getting started each day??

 I'm blaming it on the Wintertime Poo Brain.

It's honestly offensive how simple of a creature I am. Oh, the sun hasn't risen when I wake up? Oh, it's getting dark by the late afternoon? Welp, guess my brain will just be poo now!

Like. Humans have received thousands of years of evolution enlarging our brains, giving us the ability to reason and use logic, to think beyond our basic survival needs. Our big super brains can take us to the bottom of the ocean and to the moon, we cure diseases and perform heart surgery, we make computers that keep us connected in real time to millions around the world. Oh, but it's dark and cold and wet now? My fragile mammal body is telling me to curl into a sad little ball and go to sleep until the sun comes back.

 Anyway, anyway.

Here's a couple little snippets of some of my inks alongside their pencils. The blue toning is just a placeholder fill until Matt goes in and works his coloring magic.

 My studio moved just moved to a location closer to my neck of the woods, so I have been biking a whole lot more again and that does wonders for my poo brain. Even biking in the rain! I get all suited up in my rain gear and ride straight through that Portland gray rain. I love it. --Riding my bike, I mean. I love riding my bike. I don't love the rain. But when I'm suited up? I'm impervious. Riding through the rain really isn't so bad, it's just once you arrive at your destination and then you have to de-suite yourself, that's the part that sucks because then you have to touch all the dirty wet layers. But that part where you're just cruising, you're pumping your legs to get where you're going, you're marveling at the changing tree colors, you're reciting back basic phrases in French as you listen to your language lessons through your earbuds... Yeah. It's not so bad. It's kinda alright. It's nice. It's nice.

Enough about me.

What about you?

Did you dress up for Halloween? Did you get any Trick-or-Treaters? Did you buy/pick any pumpkins?

How do you survive the cold, rainy months?