Another page with the Roma family, although we’re almost done with this scene. Too bad; I love drawing mustaches, and the 18th century was otherwise a very clean-shaven era.
Now that election fever had passed (and thank heavens for that), it’s on to cheerier parts of the year. Coming up early on the world schedule of Festivals of Light is Diwali! It’s actually a little late this year – normally it falls in October. To celebrate, here’s my sixth goddess illustration – the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. Click to see her at full size!
Like many Hindu deities, Lakshmi has literally dozens of different forms, incarnations and names, has complex relationships with other deities (like Vishnu and Ganesh) and plays many roles. She’s probably best known for being a goddess of abundance – and that can mean simple good luck, personal fulfillment, or material wealth. Lakshmi is the one who fills your cup.
In most devotional images Lakshmi is depicted standing or sitting in a giant lotus blossom, floating on a tranquil sea – a bit like Aphrodite, she was born from the ocean. She has four arms (the better to distribute wealth!) and holds lotuses in two of them. She is sometimes attended by two white elephants. This is an illustration, not a traditional devotional image, so she is behaving a little less formally here! Lakshmi is generous of spirit, so hopefully she won’t hold it against me.
Since Family Man is an ongoing comic that updates once weekly, I like to feature a teaser detail from each week’s page. I look at all this art zoomed in so far during the long production hours that, when I see it in actual web resolution, I can be a little surprised at how much is no longer visible. It’s a good reminder to myself to keep moving, rather than wasting an hour drawing every individual hair.
But sometimes it’s fun to show off the little fiddly bits.
The time is upon us, or rather, me: the first two chapters of Family Man are coming into print as Family Man Volume I.
I’ve drawn two complete chapters, learned through experience how to design, print, publish, and ship books. All that remains is for me to finishing laying out the book and design a really snappy cover!
Oh, yes, well, also, to raise the money. It’s going to cost me $10,000 US to print this book the way it deserves, and I’m just too much of a self-employed 26 year-old artist to have that kind of scratch lying around the house.
So I need your help. For the last four years I’ve kept the comic 100% free of advertising and have never solicited donations to keep it running. If you’ve enjoyed it and have been looking for a way to support the project, this is your chance. I’ve put together a bunch of packaged options for pre-ordering the book, to suit any budget and degree of fervor, and I think they are genuinely pretty damn cool. You will like them! They are neat!
So, without further ado:
Here, have your update a day early. Huzzah!
Drawing all those cards was secretly the best thing ever. I don’t know why it was so enjoyable; it just made me happy.
Not much news this week from me! It’s strangely soothing to be coloring in book spines again, though. Also I expect this next little sequence is going to be popular with the librarians in the audience. (I know you’re there, ladies and gentlemen. I can hear you breathing.)
I’ll actually be speaking at a library (pre)conference this week in Portland, with studiomate Jeff Parker and others, courtesy my friend and occasional collaborator Sara Ryan, so I look forward to yammering at a group of my favorite information and public service professionals.
For my fellow residents of the Northern hemisphere, happy Spring!
At last, at last, at laaaaast, an update. Let’s not think about how long it’s going to take me to wind down from all the tea I’ve had tonight, shall we? Some costs cannot be estimated.
What a month, guys. I’m slowly digging my way out.