Category Archives: scenes

Race Selfie

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This is Pi Day #105

In my quest to sketch out some new scenes, I went looking for a reference photo of myself running and ninety percent of what I found was selfies. The thing is, when you run a race you’re either paying a hundred bucks for the official photographer package… or you’re relying on those quick pics you grab of yourself on course with whatever phone you bothered to carry. So… selfies.

Part of this sharp turn in the tone of the art for this comic has been introspective. Rather than exploring the “kid’s say goofy things” paradigm, I’m trying to (starting to… meaning to) set a tone towards that of the observational father, involved but moving into a role of dependable dad who is more often a step away setting an example for life than playing taxi, grooming moral behaviors rather than reading the rules, or acting like a safety net rather than any other parenting metaphor for what you do before you let go.

It’s a tough transition, and part of that is living a life. So I run.

The Timelapse

Pardon the “tracing” … I imported a photo and then a previous sketch cuz I was having trouble getting the proportions of the fish-eye selfie right. It locked in eventually tho.

ImPosture

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This is Pi Day #104

I was just sitting and The Girl walks out into the den, plunks herself down into a chair in this very prim little pose, and sits there thumbing through her iPad for about fifteen minutes.

I was slouched into the couch across the way, doodling on mu own iPad (mucking around with a different, more cartoonish sketch of The Girl slouched onto the couch playing on her iPad, in fact) and it struck me that the momentary sketch I roughed out over the ensuing few seconds was far more interesting than the from-memory sketch I was doing.

A day of refinements later, even The Girl herself grinned and wanted a copy of the final piece. I must be doing something right.

The Sketch

Bus-ted

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This is Pi Day #103

I have this interest in re-invention as I continue to work on this comic of mine.

What’s the gag, you ask? A drawing of some kids getting on a bus… I don’t get it.

So the thing about this project is basically I get to do whatever I want, since I’m the one paying for it and working on it. If no one looks at it… meh. It’s not like I there is an income attached to this.

If this comes off as a bit of an excuse or an apology for just drawing a “scene” from my little dad-o-verse instead of a comic, it both is and isn’t. The first season of This is Pi Day really did shortcut the art to focus on the story telling. So, this season is shortcutting the story to focus on the art.

Moment have inspired me. Scenes from life. Scenes from the day-to-day. Little glimpses at growing up and captured instances of time. The Kid instagrammed from the bus the day before I drew this. “Just another Friday on the bus.” Because a year ago I was picking her up from daycare and spending fifteen minutes each day hearing her rambling explanation of her day, and now I’ve been replaced by a slip of paper: Dad Life.

A guy’s gotta sketch that.

The Sketch