November recap – Thank you Patrons, what is the sun anyway, a lot of drawings

Hello world! I hope everyone has had a good month of November. Did you get your winter gear out? It snowed here, in Quebec. Earliest snow storm in a long while, because if there’s anything winter needs here, it’s a prequel…

November, it seems, was this year’s final boss. As I was planning out my month, I kept having chest pain and sweaty palms. “How the hell am I gonna do all this?” There was a time when sleeping 10-hour nights didn’t make up for how exhausted my body was. But I learned from flirting with burn-out last year, so I took the necessary measures and at the end, as it always does, everything went fine.

Earlier this fall, I took on a big contract involving drawing 80-something illustrations for a kid’s book called “CSI: Ruelle Verte”. Turns out, it was a LOT of drawings! But it was also nice to draw in a simple and straightforward style. I think it fueled some questioning I had for the style of Utown and eventually led me to tweak the character’s designs.

Speaking of which! The Utown website is almost done. The best decision I took all year was to have it done by someone else (being fellow studio-mate Ken Mallar). Delegating, it’s fun and useful! So while the integration is in competent hands, I’m busy drafting character bio sheets, like I did so many times in the past. Only this time, it’s for real! Anyway, it should come online early next year. In a little more than a week, the first pages will hit Patreon. And since November 19th was a special Thank You day for Patrons, I drew a little something for everyone who has pledged in the last year.

November also has two book fairs, one in Rimouski and the Salon du Livre de Montréal. Lanyard season once again! The surreal part was being on a talk with legendary author Enki Bilal and having him sign my dad’s derelict 1981 copy of La Foire aux Immortels, a book that was my gateway drug into sci-fi. I can’t remember anything I said during the talk (probably for the better) but I’ll remember this moment for a long time!

Whew. I’m tired. One last stretch before the end of the year! As usual, here is what kept me sane during November:
Reading: Middlewest, by Skottie Young and Jorge Corona.
Watching: Klaus, which art was as amazing (thank god). The Dragon Prince, my guilty pleasure (elves, dragons, magical creatures), She-Ra. Overall, a lot of cartoons.
Listening: Blackwater Holylight, an all-female doom metal band. I’m in a phase.
Artist: Eva Vilhelmiina. I’m obsessed with colors since I started teaching and I found her through one of my many, many research sessions.