Monday, November 11, 2013

A Little Change Will Do You Good

Another Rubicon was crossed this weekend; allow me to explain: this might also clear up some issues some of you might be concerned about, that I plan to handle in more detail later.

I always knew how to draw Master Jeffrey, because I spent so much staring at Jeffrey my brother-in-law and imagining how to draw him. So far it has been effortless; in fact, one of the reasons I decided to do this story is because the process came so easily. The character of Ms. Edelbrock is another story...

As I've said, this is a true made-up story. I'm drawing upon real events, and no, I won't tell you any more than that for every reason you can think of and several you can't imagine. Ms. E fills is a compilation of several "life forces" including myself. The 'sigh" in page 29 has special meaning on several levels--at the risk of destroying my foreshadowing, I will describe one.

Some people did not like to spend time with Jeffrey. I was one of a large group that did, and it was a source of frustration to me that I was congratulated for this by the former crowd. If you liked Jeff, it was not a chore, or charity, to hang out with him. If I tried to explain that, I was just being "nice." As I may have mentioned once or twice already, Jeffrey was often exasperating, so I can't fault the people who thought this, but it always made me sad to think that they could not see past his faults to the genuinely good guy that he was.

So, back to the Rubicon - if you are not a scholar of ancient history, look up your Julius Caesar. I had pondered long and hard on whether to keep Ms. Edelbrock in one outfit (her superhero "uniform") or to change her clothing and hair. There were a lot of arguments on both sides, but as you can see, I went with plan B. Right now drawing Ms. E involves consulting piles of sketches and references. As her different facets gel in my mind, this will hopefully come more naturally to me. Meanwhile, I will be reading back issues of Vogue an Military History Quarterly to brush up on my fashions.

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