A guide too all the haircuts I and my brother have had over the years.
Read MoreA day in the studio
Hello hello!
This week we take a sneak peek at my studio. The studio is this magical place for both the artist and anyone looking in at the artist. It reflects how they work, what they love, and what they aspire to do and create. For me a tidy organised study is the only way to go - I try to clean it up at the end of each day before I head home but while I'm there it's a total bomb site.
For years I thought that spending time creating work was like filling a sketchbook; if you were a real artist you worked hard from 9-5, got a tonne of work done and then knocked off for a G&T with your other artist buddies talking about philosophical things and all the rad projects you're working on.
I soon realised that this was rarely the case. Those dream studio days do happen but they are few and far between.
I have many plans to organise my days. Plans so that I'll work really hard on big projects, writing work, commissions, planning lessons (all the brain work) in the morning, and then go and visit libraries and museums in the afternoon, reading and learning about new things. Or watching films or sitting in the sun and drawing people and plants and buildings I see.
Of course these plans are admirable but have not yet come to fruition. Paid work comes first and I don't want to 'put off' finishing Oh Brother but I've been finding it so hard to sit down and write it. Often when I do, I get emotional, remembering the stories. Or I start worrying about whether what I'm writing will be good enough; will this actually help anyone? I know these are thoughts I must dispel from my mind if I am to get anywhere with the next two parts and hey, some days are diamonds and I get quite a bit done.
And I do worry about my work ethic. Am I creating enough work? Am I creating quality work? Am I focused enough? Am I posting enough online? I worry that maybe I just don't have what it takes to work in a studio full-time. Maybe I can't hack the ebb and flow of the creative process and I won't be able to push through those slump periods. The line between work and play is blurred when you are creating because you can't tell your brain to stop thinking about your project (at least I can't).
Having a separate space to work does help. Walking somewhere and sitting down to work. Going home and now you can relax. Although I find it hard to not do something. I feel guilty if I don't just finish off that drawing or send that email but also my body is telling me to relax. All work and no play makes Gina a dull cartoonist. I should listen to my body more.
I'm constantly questioning my abilities to create the art I want to create, which hopefully will translate into improving and honing my skills rather than turning me off from creating my work all together. I want to create work I'm happy with but I also never want to stop learning and getting better.
Stay Excellent Pals,
xx
The draft
This week I'm giving you guys a look at some of the stories from part one of Oh Brother (draft version) that I finished a couple of months ago. I've picked three short stories that I think stand alone okay for you to have a little look at. These stories are currently somewhere between detailed thumbnails and loose pencils (I haven't really decided what to call it other than Not Final Art).
Story one. From near the start of part one we have How to Explain Rob. This is fairly self-explanatory. Before this story we have a few examples of what it's like to live with Rob. This is the first time in the book that you see Rob and Gina interacting with other kids.
Story Two. The Diagnosis. As it sounds, this story is about my parents finding out about Rob's diagnosis. Rob was two when he was diagnosed with autism (I would have been four). We also jump forward in time to see my reaction to their story of Rob's initial diagnosis.
And story three. As part one is called Communication, most of the stories and anecdotes are about my and my family's attempts at communicating with Rob. In The Mist I talk about the more ethereal feelings around having a brother with autism.
Those are the three samples I thought would work well displaced from their home in the book. I hope I picked the right ones.
If you want to read more of the draft and live in Adelaide, you can! I'll be putting on an end-of-year Oh Brother wrap-up show, exhibiting some of the diagrammatic illustrations I've done during the year, the sketchbooks with notes and illustrations, and the full comics manuscript draft for people to read and flick through. I've also put together a mini-comic sampler of some of my favourite Rob comics and background material. For more info about the event, click here.
Write you next week.
Gxx
In which our hero gets a new sketchbook
I hope you liked this week's post! I ended up buying the fancy Moleskine - in fact I drew this comic in it! What are your favourite ways to get your ideas down? Do you prefer sketchbooks or individual sheets of paper or digital? What's your favourite sketchbook to use?
Have a lovely rest of the week if you can!
Gx
All those other ideas
This week I have just a short little comic for you about some of the other ideas that are floating around inside my head.
Sorry, it's kind of an abrupt end to this week's blog comic. A lot of my time is being taken up with prep work for my very first real-life scary-big comic convention (more on that later).
Hopefully one day I'll get around to writing all these stories I have in my head. I would love to illustrate science and non-fiction stories as well as a ridiculous adventure/fantasy tome.
What kind of stories do you write?
Gxx
What is a 'Patreon'? - Special announcement
Hello hello hello!
SO GUYS! I have some news. I have started myself a Patreon account. For those who don't know what a Patreon account is let me explain!
A Patreon account is kind of like a Kickstarter, where you donate money to an artist or group working on a one off project (for example funding the publication of a comic book or to produce a podcast or board-game), and receive a reward (how rad the reward will depend on how many dollars you donate).
Patron has this same donation // reward system except instead of a one off payment you make a monthly payment, kind of like a subscription, and you get a monthly reward! Of course you can unsubscribe at anytime and you can just do a one off payment (then unsubscribe the next month) if you want to help me out but can't commit to a monthly deal.
I want to keep working on my book about growing up with a brother with autism (and also to keep drawing silly little autobio comics). If you’ve been enjoying these blog posts and can spare even $1 a month and help me out by donating (and get yourself some sweet rewards as well as my everlasting gratitude) I would be over the moon!
If you’re keen to become a George Rex Comics Patreon Member, just follow this link to my Patreon page and then click on the orangey/red 'Become a patron' button and pick your donation level. Any and all dollars are appreciated, literally every dollar counts.
If you can't/don't want to donate for whatever reason - I understand! I'll still be making comics and writing this blog (I don't think I'll ever be able to stop) and you’ll still be able to see them. Patron members will just be able to see them a little earlier than everyone else and will get a few extra treats (like Badges sent to them through the post or special extra short comics just for them).
If I can get some regular Patreon support then I'll be able to focus on my art and get more of it out to you wonderful people. And for all of you wonderful people who have already read about this on my Facebook and Tiny Letter I'm sorry you've been hearing about it from so many different angles. I promise that I won't be talking about it for a while now.
Thanks for reading, back to normal, once a week posting now. I really appreciate you guys just reading my blog, it's a pretty awesome thing to have people read your blog and take the time to respond and comment on what I write.
You guys are great.
xx
Artism
I have always loved art in its many mediums – particularly drawing (comics) and writing (comics). I've dabbled in music, I tried my hand at printmaking, I even once made a nifty fish-shaped knick-knacks dish (it was a cartoony fish, giving the knick-knack owner a thumbs up, of course). I've tried sculpture and installation but I can't say that I was, hmm, successful.
My mother is always a whiz at most things crafty. Where I would fix a broken zip on an overall dress with several button badges, she would sew in a new zip. Where I would blutak the crack in the broken vase, she would plant a succulent in it. Where I would throw away that pair of old jeans with the awkward hole in the crotch, she would craft them (with the help of paint and glitter) into nifty bags and quilts. Where I would knit a scarf that gained so many new stitches that it had doubled in width by the time I'd finished, she would knit me a rad knitted vest (with a design to make it look like I'm wearing a tie).
And where I couldn't see that Rob had any interest in creating art, she would see Rob's many abilities to create art out of the most ordinary of objects. Mum would see what she calls Rob's 'Artisms' (like art and autism smooshed together) all over the place. And once Mum pointed them out to me I couldn't not see them. Here are a few of the highlights from over the years.
Now that Rob lives in full-time care, I don't get to see these Artisms anymore, as you need to spend lots of time around Rob to really get to know him and to experience his creations.
That's one of the things I miss most about having regular doses of Rob in my life: the moments when you just stumble across a pile of things, arranged just so, that you know Rob has carefully thought about and placed.
That's it for this post. Catch you next week when I write about all those other ideas I have floating around in my head and talk about my addiction to buying sketchbooks.
Gx
Why the blue pencil?
Hello hello hello!
I've been thinking about how much my comics-making has changed this year when it comes to writing and planning, which got me thinking about how much my drawing process has changed too.
This led my brain to the blue pencil and why it is a thing in comics making. If you're a seasoned comics nerd you will know all about the blue pencil - if you are new to the game you may not know. If you want to find out more about blue pencils and how the pencil (blue, lead and otherwise) has played a part in my comics life so far, read on...
Thanks for reading, pals! Have yourself a really lovely Wednesday; not many people give Wednesdays the time they deserve.
Gx
F-f-f-f-f-fashion
I've always loved putting together an outfit, although it wasn't until high school that I admitted this. I remember talking to my Dad once when I was about 10 and I was very adamant that I would never wear make up or care about how my clothes looked. His response was 'Just you wait, in a couple of years you'll change your mind'. Well, he was wrong about the makeup but he nailed it with the clothes. I love colour coordinating my wardrobe and finding items that match perfectly together. I love op-shopping and finding the perfect cardigan that I've been searching for, and having 10x the same pair of shoes but in different colours so they can go with different outfits.
For Rob's part, his tastes were less narcissistic than mine and focused around comfort levels. I have always claimed that I would choose comfort over style but I don't know if I'm entirely telling myself the truth.
But although I'm pretty happy with how I dress now and I think I manage to tread the line of comfort and lookin' good, there were many painful years of trial and error (mainly error) to get to this point. Let's start at age 8 (Gina) and age 6 (Rob).
Next up we have ages 10 (Gina) and 8 (Rob). Desperately not wanting to look like a girl (but still being proud of being female), I took to wearing baggy oversized clothes and imagining myself as a much more adventurous sort than I truly was. Being a spy was a big one. I would fawn over the 'Spy Gear' in the David Jones and Myer toy sections (they seemed to have the best spy gear range) that I couldn't afford. In particular I wanted a 'Spy night glove', which was just some lights you'd clip to your hand so you could break open safes and the like in the dark. My Dad decided that we could make one (so I could learn about batteries and science stuff) instead of forking out dollars for something that would inevitably break, get lost or thrown out. I still have the glove today.
Rob favoured the simpler approach of a bright pink body tube. He would shuffle around the house wearing nothing but this thin tube of material. It was pretty hilarious.
13 (Gina) and 11 (Rob). First days of high school are always daunting and scary. Still a proud tomboy, I would soon find out how mean girls can be. I was pretty okay on the bullying front; I had enough friends that even though I was low-level bullied until year 12 I managed to get through reasonably unscathed. The thing I most remember about my first day at school was that when I was washing my hands in the girls' bathroom, another girl came out and started screaming that a boy was in the bathroom and then laughing at my face. For some reason it didn't much bother me. Maybe because having Rob as a brother had instilled in me that everyone is different and it doesn't matter what we look like or how we act, we are all just humans.
Rob, for the most part, loved school. He would run out to the bus when it came by to pick him up and for a while pretty much wore his school uniform everywhere (not just at school).
15 (Gina) and 13 (Rob). My tomboy phase, although spanning several years, came to a head when my body hit puberty. Most of my fashion of this era consisted of baggy open button-up shirts over tee shirts and cargo shorts. I was inspired by the fashion sense of Gordo from the popular children's show Lizzy Maguire.
Rob's tastes weren't dictated by popular culture; instead he went for the more natural look.
17 (Gina) and 15 (Rob). Everyone has a hippy phase, right? Where you just really like flares and corduroy and vintage kitsch kitchenware? I was chatting to a pal about the various fashion phases I've gone through and she talked about how the style of the 'hippy' was a way I could experiment with my femininity but still be kinda scruffy like a tomboy. I thought she raised a good point.
Rob around this time grew very attached to some 'happy' pants I bought on a whim at the kind of store that would sell beaded bracelets, incense and tarot cards. They were made of a patchwork of crazy patterned materials and Rob loved them. He even started wearing them to school instead of the uniform pants.
Rob (18) was most famous in our family for co-opting our father's leather jackets and transforming them into works of vegemite art.
Me now (25). It's scary to think about my age. About how much I wish I'd already done with my life and how many things I want to do before I turn 27 (which is a special number to me) and when I turn 27 I'll basically be 30 and isn't that when you're supposed to have your life together? That seems to be what the movies tell me. Either that or that you shouldn't lose the child in you or shouldn't wish to grow up too fast? Maybe I need to watch BIG again.
Anyway, I'm pretty happy with my ability to dress myself now. If I was able to just decide on one style I really like, I'd be able to downsize my wardrobe. But somedays I want to look a bit fancy in my culottes and cardys (see below) and sometimes I want to wear dresses and denim or check shirts and cotton skirts. And sometimes it's jeans and a t-shirt or it's nothing.
Sometimes I think if I just stick to buying a limited amount of colours then I'll be okay. You know, just red, blue and green. And black I guess. Oh and mustard yellow. And you can't forget purple or the occasional orange. And you know sometimes brown can look really nice. You see my problem!
Basically, my choice of what to wear these days comes down to "Can I draw that?" If I can't draw it, is there any reason for me to have it?
That's it for this post. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into some of the many fashions I and my brother have had.
xx
Scout patches
Growing up with Rob was mostly fun. But at times it felt like a lot of hard work having to remember to lock all the doors all the time and making what felt like 100s of pieces of vegemite on toast. You would learn ways to tell when Rob was about to have an angry episode and know when to dodge his pinch attacks (he has the fastest hands in the west).
Learning all these skills and clocking toast-making time felt like I was part of the Scouts. I always liked the idea of Scouts: adventuring and exploring, always being prepared. I felt I was a born cargo short wearer. I particularly loved collecting things (literally anything), so the idea that you could earn cloth badges for learning skills was very appealing. But for some reason I never ended up being a Scout. I was probably too scared to meet new kids.
Anyway, thinking about all the time I spent learning to be prepared for and around Rob, and learning ways to avoid Rob's meltdowns, I realised I was a Scout. A Rob Scout. So I thought I'd design myself some badges to celebrate my preparedness. I mean, the bruises from bites and pinches are okay but they don't look as good as cloth patches sewn on a sash.
I picked pink to be the Rob Scout colour because, as mentioned in the Pink is the New Black blog post, Rob's favourite colour is pink, so I thought it appropriate.
It's just a little blog for you today but don't worry, more will be coming soon.
xx