I hadn’t intended it, but the treat I left Henry last night resulted in a trail of clues to where he’s hiding. Except it stops in the middle of the basement!

I’m sure nobody’s ever celebrated his birthday, so I made Henry a little ‘cake’ (apparently mice love peanut butter).

For about a week, Henry the Mystery Mouse has been scurrying off with the sunflower seeds we’ve been putting out for him. We thought he was around, but now we know he’s with us and doing fine! I bought a humane trap, but we don’t really want to put him outdoors until we know the weather’s not going to kill him.

I just wish he’d say hi.

I made another little ‘motion comic’ last night… [Since removed from server.]

I’m enjoying making these oblique little things, and glad that they give me illustration work of my own to show.

The sermon in church* last Sunday was on the theme of “humility” (to do with which week in Lent it was), and how a moment of humility is often how a journey starts. Hearing that gave me that little thrill of thematic recognition: Being humbled on Friday inspired me to start this new activity. We’ll see where it leads.

• That I’m going to church is a topic for another time.

Drew this a couple of days ago…

I am unduly excited about receiving a package in the mail today.

About a week ago, it struck me that trying to manipulate figures in 3D software — even those provided in my beloved Clip Studio Paint — is just too tedious. And as visual references, their proportions are always wrong and they’re too stiff-looking.

So I searched around for a portable artist’s model — but not those awful wooden things, which don’t look like anything and are horrible to pose.

Enter Modibots: Wee action figures created by a brilliant member of the 3D-printing community.

Now, if I were a parent, I’d be over the moon about being able to give my kids something to play with that’s blank, that doesn’t come with a prescripted story to confine their imagination.

As it is, the pictures made these little figures — for all their blankness — feel full of motion, character, and charm.

I placed my order, and today got a wee kit full of assemble-it-yourself parts. Just playing with them for a few minutes yielded all kinds of lively poses. These feel like the characters I draw, so I think this is going to be a huge help. I’ve finally found an anatomy reference that works for me.

Totally not toys.

As they arrived.

Removing the pieces from the frame.

Assembled!

Made a friend.

These are water-pistols. I don’t like guns, but figured these might be a handy reference at some point.

Man down!

Diver & gladiator

“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!

After getting that kick in my self-esteem on Friday, I asked myself “WWDD?” (y’know, Dan, my boss and mentor), and decided to lower the bar and start making every bit of work I could think of — just for fun, and from half-formed notions rather than waiting for the perfect, fully formed idea to emerge from my forehead like Athena.

So I made a little animated thing and rearranged my Comics page to make room for lots more like that — it’s behind the little fox doodle.

Sure feels a lot better than looking at what others are doing and getting down about it!

I spent the afternoon enjoying the hospitality of two local cartoonists, Troy Little and Brenda Hickey.

As well as being lovely people (whose studio is like The Best Toy and Comic Shop Ever), they are extremely talented — like as good as it gets good. The smooth beauty of the lines they draw, and the dense, lush, giant pages of excellently composed art they produce are just astounding.

The Sufis say (and I constantly remind myself), “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I’m reminding myself again, because next to them I feel, professionally, like a child.

But then, as James Kochalka said, “Craft is the enemy“: Cartooning is not about how good your line quality or draughtsmanship is, but about what you convey with your lines. Quentin Blake is a great example of someone whose lines are positively ugly, but whose work is irresistibly charming.

Don’t get me wrong: Brenda and Troy also happen to do compelling things with their beautiful lines, so it’s clearly not an either/or proposition.

Okay, I’m officially jealous.

So what can I do with this? Well, keep getting better, for one. And, in the meantime, do what Kochalka says: “What every creator should do, must do, is use the skills they have right now.”

(But, as Lynda Barry said somewhere, don’t just keep drawing cartoons about how stuck you are. So, yeah, it’s time to stop that.)

In related news…

Last night I attended the Charlottetown Comics Club, and this time I stayed!

The folks were really welcoming, fun, and up to all sorts of creative stuff.

So between these two outings, I seem to have found a great community and a huge source of inspiration.