Week 19
The Podcast Sommelier and Chubby Blueberries
This week’s comic is more aspirational than something that really happened. I’ve been listening to less music and podcasts than usual. I can’t currently wear earbuds due to ongoing ear issues still unfolding, like a spinoff of last week’s illness. My ear issues are the first season of Frasier (actually, turns out that was incredibly successful and well-received from the get go) My ear issues are Joey. And hopefully will wrap up just as quickly.
Last week I was telling a friend about my ear issues and she cut me off saying “I’ll just read about it when the cartoon comes out”. And sure, if you could cut out the messy reality and just jump straight to the nicely encapsulated, enframed, enbubbled story, why wouldn’t you? Unfortunately I have to just live through it and see what happens. I actually started planning it out and it had spread to about 50 panels already and I don’t think I can be bothered undertaking such a feat. Also, it’s still ongoing so until there’s an end it would mainly just be complaining without any insight and nobody wants to read that.
Since my hearing is somewhat dimmed right now, I’ve been paying more attention to visuals. Wanting to get back to doing some standalone drawings. I’m currently walking around the city a lot pushing a pram. And sometimes I try to take photos while holding the pram, which results in some interesting angles. I didn’t quite capture this scene in the photo but I found it quite arresting so I thought I would try to draw it. This was the third attempt.
This mother had let go of her daughter’s hand while crossing the road so she could desperately take a photo of something behind her. I have no idea what she was seeing. Something at Fed Square. But I just liked that tension, the slipped grasp, the twist, the focus, the grumpiness of the dad.
I’m trying to bring more looseness to drawing, I’m doing a lot of that work here in the weekly comics. Some people might wonder why. If you go to my website, most of the drawings are more tightly controlled. But I guess I’ve just always admired art with more expression and with a strong point of view. I find it so much harder to draw like this than just trying to copy straight from life or a picture. Because you have to force your brain to interpret what you are seeing, to make strong choices. And you have to cede some control.
This Week I Learned…
The big blueberries are back and they are cheap. I love the big, fat blueberries and I gobble, gobble, gobble. It’s a complicated feeling, the joy of the fat blueberry. They come with a sense of sadness, an instant nostalgia. I want to hoard them, but I can’t stop eating them as quickly as possible. I don’t know why. Rachel is able to have one or two blueberries at a time. For me, a serving is a fistful. Maybe this is because blueberries didn’t exist for me growing up. Like sushi rolls. Maybe they existed in Melbourne but I don’t think I even tried a blueberry until I moved to Melbourne in 2012. The chubby ones are the best, and it’s only a short period of time you can get them cheap.