i've got it ~ !

at long last i know my true calling!

it's anthropodermic bibliopegy!

that's right, i want to become a book binder who works in human skin! okay, so maybe that's a mite grisly, but check out this job description:

The practice...was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer's skin.

come on ~ if nothing else, it's writing gold!

you're so going to see this in the Leverettsville Gazette.

: D

and this is what happens when i stay up past midnight.

real life stuff for a change ~

this morning, working on a homework assignment for my intro class that required me to look up job postings for my desired field (archives), got me thinking about how i need to take real life a little more seriously.

so i'm considering joining:

SAA ~ the Society of American Archivists (hey, might as well while i have that student discount)
MHS ~ the Minnesota Historical Society (where i'm considering volunteering in the fall)

i need to start looking like i take a profession (any profession!) seriously, first of all, and secondly, volunteering at the MHS would get me some much-needed hands-on experience and could lead to an internship (which i might need later).

i also learned that government archivists make a huge pile of money (an average of about 70k, with salaries into the 100s) ~ not that i want a government job, but i was very surprised. i'd much rather work for peanuts in a museum or special collections library.

to be honest, i hate taking real life seriously. being laid off so many times has spoiled my disposition toward working. it's hard to give your life to a job, love it, plan your future around it, and then have it yanked out from under you (let alone have that happen four times in five years). so maybe i'm gunshy about committment now.

i have to keep reminding myself that this is why i am here. it's why i'm back at school: to get a degree that will lead to a job that won't go away. archives never go away. part of their desciption is their permanance!

so i'm glad to feel motivated this morning ~ to be excited about getting serious about the profession. it's a big leap for me ~ and one long overdue.

: D

tot ziens ~ !

should it surprise anyone these days that i'm still trying to come up with the right medium for Razi-el? and should it surprise anyone that this would involve reinventing the wheel (that's almost a pun: wheel, ophanim, get it? wow bad).

so this is kaspar anselm, léonard's father (who's been dead for at least seven or eight years when the story opens). we only see him in flashbacks, but he's a powerful presence in léonard's life. i'm thinking of moving back into a smaller workspace (about 2.5 x 3.5). the larger, freer palette was just a little too loose for me and given that i'm not all that good compositionally, it grew daunting within a matter of pages (i mean honestly, just how many ways can you arrange boxes?).

i've always liked this about eddie campbell's work: it's generally predictable and then along will come a set of panels that will goose you and you go: squee! but you need the ordinariness of the box after box after box in order for that to happen.

this is how i was building Slaughter's Mountain originally, but it got away from me because i was working in about a 4.5 x 6 (it's amazing how much difference an inch can make!). i also was not "inking", but doing everything with paint and i've decided that's something i don't have any patience for. i need the inking so i can be less constrained about the paint. now i just need to remind myself to be a little looser about the inking (i did this with a quill instead of a pen and the effect is much sketchier, less cartoony).

see? it's all about having boundaries in order to break them!

: D

anyway, i think i'm going to give this a serious go and see where it gets me. i'll give myself a scene (like i did with The Red Door) and see if it works out. give it a fair shot.