Aeron’s idealized fantasy of how it might have been if nobody had ever died or left home, and the whole family still lived together in their old house. (Cover of Tunguska #8.)
For years I had been scolding myself because I just “mindlessly copied” the window on the upper floor from the photo I used as reference for this. That window nook is clearly hand-built at a much later point and not at all typical for this type of Russian log huts.
But the other day, when some dialogue where Aeron was talking about their house arrived in my brain, it finally hit me: Of COURSE they would have built in a window or two in the upper floor if the whole family shared the house. The main floor is only the kitchen and a small room, so of course they would have converted the attic into one or two extra little rooms for Eva and Aeron …
Okay, so I’m having some trouble with the script right now, hence no updates in a while …
I have this kind of slumps quite often in autumn. And as usual, I didn’t know exactly what was wrong, but I just had a diffuse unwillingness to ink the page I’m working on right now.
But the thing is that I was going to give a pretty negative portrayal of the country where Willie is right now, but in light of how obscenely cruel the country where I live right now is, that would feel a bit dishonest. (I’m an Anarchist, but I’d rather spend time criticising right-wing liberalism, capitalism and imperialism, since that’s a lot more relevant today …) So I have to wait until my subconscious gets the story right.
Kind of frustrating, since this is such a relatively boring part of the story (to me, anyway), compared to what’s going to happen soon after …
In the meantime, have some sketches … I don’t draw much at all that isn’t actual comics, but here are some sketches of traditional Chinese stoves and cooking utensils. On the right there’s a steamer (that you put on top of a wok filled with water), a slow cooker (kind of a big wooden lid that you put on top of a wok on a low-temperature hole on the stove), and a wok for stir-fry on the hottest hole on the stove. A wood stove on board a ship is a serious fire hazard, so I should probably think of ways to make this type of stove safer. I haven’t been able to find any reference for real kitchens on old Chinese sailing ships. :(
In sketch 2, there’s a random scary piggy from some loose drafts for another comic (if I ever get around to it), and a potential spoiler for a future storyline in Dog Island (if I ever get around to it …).
V`(oo)´;V
30 Day Drawing Challenge - day 14: “Favourite fairytale”
Actually this subject was already featured in this drawing, but here is a slightly more obvious sketchy version.
In the fairytale, I always rooted for the wolf, and assumed that it was probably an evil propaganda story that distorted the true story and made the wolf look bad and glorified the terrible patriarchal humans who wanted to suppress Red’s sexuality.
So, what if the Big Bad Wolf was actually Good, and saved Little Red Riding Hood from her actually cruel grandma? :3
Thus, in a way Aeron seduced poor innocent Willie and awakened her strength and self-confidence to save herself from her toxic and destructive home environment…
He really kind of “eats” her at the end, too.
Indeed, there are interpretations of the fairytale that see it as a “puberty ritual” stemming from matriarchal cultures, where the girl is transformed into an adult woman through the act of coming out of the wolf’s belly.
As for the wolf being “bad”, some scholars argue that the animals that are traditionally considered “evil” and “unclean” in current patriarchal cultures or religions, such as snakes and pigs - perhaps also wolves? - were actually “good” or “holy” in the more ancient matriarchal cultures they replaced and contrasted themselves against.
I drew this two years ago, in August 2010. I don’t make a lot of “stand-alone” drawings and illustrations, but I got a sudden inspiration for this one. I saw it before my inner eye and had to draw it.
At that time I had a different plan for how Driftwood was going to end, so I assumed that Aeron’s presence in the image was only symbolic or something - after all, he looked a bit blurry along the edges …
Gradually I started to realise that this vision was actually telling me exactly what was supposed to happen!
I was a bit reluctant to accept it, because I thought it was a bit sexist that she apparently needed the help of a man to become free from another man.
Then again, it’s technically Samona who is helping them both. And Willie is the one who asks him if they can bring her back to their world. While Aeron’s original intention with the visit was to get some kind of closure for himself if she had moved on, as he assumed. But then I guess he saw how sad and depressed she looked and decided to appear and talk with her. :3 (And he was intentionally waiting for her to ask if they could bring her back, because it needed to be her own idea. … I guess he knows how to handle stubborn women after spending some time with his sister.)
It’s part of her “liberation” to dare to choose to be with people (plural :3) who like and respect her, and also, I guess, to dare to take the risk of loving somebody even though everything she has seen in her own family would suggest that it’s only going to go to hell sooner or later, for no particular reason.
And, most importantly, the story does not end there, and there’s a lot more to it than might appear at this point …
30 Day Drawing Challenge - day 27: “Someone you love”
It’s been a while since I did any of the drawing challenge stuff. Now that I just started drawing comics again, I noticed how totally out of shape I am. So sketching a bit now and then isn’t a bad thing to do …
~ Three facts about Willie: ~
1. She is like my daughter, literally. I was a teen mum and got pregnant in October 1995, at 14 years, when I got the first idea for Driftwood. Nine months later, in July 1996 (I keep thinking it was August, but it was really July according to my diary), I gave birth when I drew the first page of the comic. And now, 16 years later, she’s all grown up. ♥ ;__;
2. She is a metalhead, but in a kind of awkward way. She likes bands like Iron Maiden, Motörhead and Judas Priest both for the socialist and for the escapist tendencies in their lyrics. But she is convinced that her taste in music is totally uncool, and is a bit embarrassed about it. She was probably nervous when Sophie wanted to listen to one of her tapes in chapter 9, page 19. :3 (Thankfully there is a Swedish facebook page that confirms that she actually has very good taste!)
3. I’ve taught myself to speak with a Geordie accent. I’ve just spent an hour trying to record voice-overs of Willie’s dialogues, so people who don’t know the accent can hear what she sounds like, but my microphone is total crap … V`(oo)´;V
30 Day Drawing Challenge - day 5: “Favourite place”
My favourite place in Driftwood might be the piggy island that Willie dreams about in chapter 9, pages 33-35. V^(oo)^V
~ Three facts and speculations about the piggy island: ~
1. It’s kind of based on Big Major Cay in the Bahamas. But the piggy island in her dream is an atoll.
2. Pigs who were mistreated, or simply freedom-loving, have always been escaping from human settlements to freedom and autonomy. On islands along frequent trade routes, pigs were often let loose on purpose to provide a food source for ships that would pass by later. Also, before the age of freezers, pigs were kept as “live food storage” on sailing ships, and some of them may have escaped and swum for safety and a bright new life of liberty on a nearby desert island. I call that the “Piggerson Crusow” theory.
(There were a few ship piggies who became such beloved friends of the sailors that they were never killed. Instead they sailed along on many journeys around Cape Horn. But that’s another story …)
3. Wild, feral and domestic piggies give clues to the history of human colonization of the pacific islands. Not to mention that they give clues to the history of porcine colonization of the pacific islands! Which I personally think is much more interesting … V`(oo)´V
30 Day Drawing Challenge - day 4: “Favourite food”
Smoked mackerel is a favourite food in Driftwood. :3
It is also one of my own favourite foods, though a guilty pleasure, since I like fish as living creatures and don’t like them to be killed, and definitely not in such excessive mass murder as has become the practise in the world recently. So I only eat mackerel, or any fish at all, maybe once or twice a year. I had a tin of mackerel filet last week to celebrate finishing Driftwood. :3
~ Three facts and speculations about smoked mackerel: ~
1. What they ate in chapter 8 was Pacific chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus. It’s the most fished variety of mackerel. They spend most of the year swimming around in the open sea and only get close to coastal areas in the summer.
2. Mackerel spoils very quickly, so it should either be eaten on the same day it’s caught, or properly preserved (smoked, for example!) or refrigerated.
3. The mackerel they ate were tea smoked, or wok smoked. Here is a recipe for tea smoked mackerel, and here’s another recipe with tea smoking (but salmon). That’s a “hot smoking” method, so the fish only lasts for a few days. “Cold smoking” (smoking for a longer period of time so the fish is dryer and saltier) makes the fish last for months. More tips on different ways to smoke fish!
30 Day Drawing Challenge - day 3: “Family picture”
I skipped to #15 because it was so much fun to draw them. Click to enlarge!
~ Facts and speculations about these three families: ~
1. Willie’s mum changed her name a few times. From Soňa Fischerová to Soňa Čapeková (after marrying Jan) to Sonia Čapeková (in the UK) to Sonja Friis (after remarrying for appearance’s sake in Norway). Her nickname (never mentioned to her face) is Sonja “Freeze!”, because she can be a bit intimidating. Of course, she can also be really charming if it serves her purposes.
2. Eva and Aeron don’t look too much alike, but when you see their parents it all comes together. Yuliya apparently had an Asian father, so maybe people who don’t know them and see them together will think Aeron is the father and comment that she looks just like him …?
Natasha moved in with her husband’s family when she married. Grandpa Sanin was killed in the Great War, while Oleg survived it but was killed in the Civil War. He was around 30 years old when he died, while Natasha was around 40 when she passed.
And Oleg was … pretty hot. :3
3. Temcheng and Bijou have two brothers who are only hinted at in the comic. They are “good sons”, while Temcheng does his own thing and is a “bad boy”. But it’s somewhat acceptable to their mom since he’s a boy. While Bijou, who is several years younger than her brothers, was kicked out and disowned for getting pregnant at 15.
30 Day Drawing Challenge - day 2: “Favourite animal”
Some of the animals that appear in Driftwood are doggies, hedgiepiggles and various sea creatures. But my favourites are of course the piggies. V^(oo)^V Several regular piggies make appearances here and there in the comic, and Seraphine’s species looks a bit like pigs. And then there’s Sophie’s plush piggy Miss Piggerson in chapter 9 …
~ Three facts and speculations about Miss Piggerson: ~
1. Maybe Miss Piggerson once belonged to a child who grew tired of his or her toys and thus left her behind when the family relocated from the doomed terrace. Or maybe she belonged to an elderly person who wanted to give her as a gift to an estranged grandchild, but never got the chance. Or maybe she was already an unwanted gift, abandoned by the recipient …
2. Miss Piggerson captured the heart of Sophie, who deeply sympathised with her fate, as she herself had more or less been kicked out of her home by her mother and stepfather.
3. Sophie and Miss Piggerson became inseparable, and together they may now be living the dream in the squat scene of continental Europe.
30 Day Drawing Challenge - day 1.
(I couldn’t start yesterday because somehow my tablet didn’t want to work, and then I was busy with other stuff. That’s just as well, because thusly my slow wits had time to think outside the box. So now I’m going to add “… in Driftwood” to each of the challenge topics, to make it more interesting! :3)
All of the characters in my comics have a little something of me, though no one is mainly based on me. I haven’t drawn Shannon in a long time and she’s definitely the one who looks the most like me, so I chose her for this.
~ Three facts and speculations about Shannon: ~
1. About half of Shannon’s scars are from fighting and half are from non-combat related workplace accidents.
2. It is speculated, but has not been confirmed by any of those involved, that when Samona first met Shannon, she was hoping that Shannon liked girls, too. As it turned out Shannon preferred Seraphine, but they got a nice platonic friendship. :3
3. Shannon has mentioned that she had a miscarriage once. It happened before she met Seraphine. Humans and Seraphine’s species can’t make babies …
Totally digital drawing, from a few years back.
