So the other day I brought home a bagel and had a dream where someone ate my bagel and got really really upset about it in real life until i went downstairs and realized I had dreamt it all. It was a valentine’s day miracle!!!!

Okay i’ve done it!!! Click on the little follow button in the right hand corner to get an email every time I post something on this website. yaaaay. Also I posted this on my sketch blog but in order to make this post more substantial I want you all to know what I’ve discovered recently:

I DON’T UNDERSTAND

I’ve been trying to set up a way to subscribe for two days but the server I’m hosted on doesn’t have its software updated so I can’t download the most recent version of wordpress, which is making this very difficult. If anyone knows a good way to do email subscriptions without the most recent versions of WordPress please let me know! Until then or until my host updates his software, please follow me on Twitter or Tumblr and I’ll post there whenever I update. Thanksssss

Why do people only want to see my drawings when I’m scribbling lines willy nilly and not actually drawing anything? HMMMMMM?

PS if you are the girl from Sook, HIIII if you have your art up on the internet somewhere you should comment a link at me i want to see!

PPS Sook in Ridgewood NJ is such a delicious pastry shop. also: crepes. mmmmm crepes.

ppps I drew Newt Gingrich sitting on a rock

For the record this is a real photograph:

By the way, Did you know this about newts? If you didn’t, you should know it! The more you know the smarter you are!

Jeeves and Wooster – The Trouble About Love

So for a few years now I’ve been lazily fiddling around with the idea of starting up a web comic but not actually doing so. In order to get my butt into gear I’m going to begin posting a series of world building blog posts to put the story I’ve gotten written out so far into a richer and more engaging context.

Now I know that world building without characters and plot to entertain a reader can be boring, so I’ll also try and pack these posts up with as many concept drawings as possible.

To start, this is a sketch of the city of Edessa:

At first I meant to base the Satyr’s culture on that of the ancient Greek, out of which satyrs originally emerged, but as I was plotting things out it became more convenient to incorporate aspects from both Greek and Roman cultures. For instance, I based the map of Edessa on a few old Greek and Roman city maps that I unearthed through painstaking googling. Furthermore there are many cultural habits and traditions that stem from the two base cultures.

In the context of the story, Edessa used to be a large hub of Satyric culture before new laws enacted by the outside government a few hundred years in the past (which I will discuss in a later post) limited the Satyr’s living spaces to their designated home cities. As the generations wore on and no new individuals joined their populations, birth rates slowed, populations dwindled, and Edessa, following the trend of most other Satyr cities, became a place populated primarily by the elderly. The story takes place in a point in time in which the morale of the city is incredibly low, the inhabitants have grown increasingly more and more jaded by their unchanging and dismal situation, and the city has fallen into an endless routine that seems only to be counting down to the point where the population will completely dwindle and the city will die.

1. Center of Town/Inner Ring
Although in the past most of the town was thickly populated, as the population decreased the majority migrated toward the coast of the river, where food was easier to reach (particularly for the elderly who became increasingly less mobile with age). The city proper sits within the inner wall, and is colloquially referred to as the Inner Ring. This wall was first built as a means of defense against attackers but now serves mainly as another barrier between the Satyrs and the outside world. Although it is fairly easy to get in and out between the Inner and Outer rings, there are check points at the two main gates Up and Downriver.

2. The Greater/Lesser Theaters
A giant amphitheater built at the top of the large hill around which Edessa is built. In the past people would travel far for a chance to witness the festivals, plays, and political events that would take place in Edessa’s famed Greater Theater, but now it is mostly left deserted. The climb up the slopes of the hill is often too much for the now elderly population of Edessa to manage, and the Lesser Theater is much closer to the center of town and more convenient to use.

3. Ports
Travel beyond the jetties was forbidden by law once the gates of the Satyr’s cities were shut by the government, so most of the docks have gone out of use and become dilapidated and closed off to the public. However, many fishermen still venture out into the river within the city limits, and fish became a large portion of most satyr’s meals. As the years wore on, control over the ports by the central government loosened as Satyric populations began to dwindle and age, and the few guards that remain at border patrol stations on either side of town normally turn a blind eye to fishermen straying out a few hundred feet farther beyond the borders for their catch. Invariably, almost all of them return to town, as it is the home to all the family they know, many people depend on their catch, and due to the fact that it would be extremely difficult to get very far along the shore without being spotted by one of the patrol boats, guard towers, or passing by non-satyr owned ships. However, if one is able to avoid being spotted by the guards and is willing to put up with hiding from every non-satyr they encounter from that point forward at risk of being arrested, it is one of the more difficult ways to escape town.

Although the town is closed off to outsiders, ships from the large city downstream drift by daily, carrying passengers or goods upriver, serving as a constant reminder of the outer world.

4. Farmland/Outer Ring
The Outer Ring is comprised almost exclusively of farmland and vineyards, and is the source of most of the food that the Satyrs of Edessa consume. Occasionally, the fine wines of Edessa are traded out to enterprising and sneaky businesspeople from the outside world in exchange for goods, snacks, and supplemental foods, but this happens only a few times a year and not in very large quantities due in part to the difficulty of transporting goods through the thick forest surrounding the city.

The Outer Ring is sparsely populated. Most of the owners of the farms and vineyards, and about half of the workers remain on their land, but many of the Satyrs that work the fields commute from the inner city every day via tram. (As part of the outside government’s Satyr Conservation Program, electricity is wired in from generators in the forest, more on the program later)

I’m going to try doing some Diary comics a few times a week. I drew this one up real quick after work today about my trip to Fridays with Erik. I made the mistake of both sketching it in light blue and then giving it some tones with markers forgetting that it would totally screw the markers up once I tried to get the blues out in photoshop later. Whatever, here it is anyway. I’m doing these mainly so I can improve and mistakes are a part of improvement. Hoorayyy. GOOD NIGHT INTERNET.

ps that bread ended up being cold and the food wasn’t as good as it usually is :C so it wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been to switch restaurants.