We’ve been on the road a lot the last couple weeks, including a trip to see the Hubster’s family in DC. We spent a lot of time working in my mother-in-law’s yard, pulling weeds, trimming trees, and yes, taking out one very nasty rosebush that hit me in the face at one point. It was a fun trip, and we’ll be back in DC again in a few weeks to do even more gardening.
You’ll notice that my brother-in-law has a halo, just like the Hubster. There’s a reason for this, and it’s not because I think he’s an angel (though he is a great guy). The real reason for his and the Hubster’s halos is that my in-laws had these painted plaques done during a visit to Puerto Rico (where my mother-in-law is from). Each plaque depicts a different member of the family as a saint. My father-in-law was the patron saint of good husbands. My mother-in-law is the patron saint of good wives. And then each brother in the family had a particular aspect they were supposed to represent. The Hubster is St. Michael the Magnificent (he’s the oldest of 5 boys). My brother-in-law Chris, whom I drew in this week’s webcomic, is St. Christopher the Cheerful, and he is pretty cheerful every time I see him. Like I said, he’s a good guy. Of course, all my brothers-in-law are good guys, and I’m grateful to have married into such a wonderful family, so I’m always happy to go see them, evil rosebushes or no.
Of course, one of the problems I have with traveling is that it makes it hard to keep up with the website, I can manage to get a week’s worth of blog posts done in advance, but then I have to get the next week’s web comic going while I’m on the road. I still haven’t figured out the best way to handle that. To keep packing simple on this last trip, I decided to draw the webcomic on my iPad. The results aren’t bad, but they’re not as polished as I would like. I could take paper and pen and do it, but I’d have to pack my pens, my drawing pad, a t-square, a drawing board. Plus I worry about how to carry around my paper so it won’t get mangled.
I could just not worry about doing a 4-panel strip and instead do a color sketch on the iPad, and I’m leaning more and more toward that. I can do a nice digital painting on the go. But I still need to find a good way to do webcomics on the go, as I have a new comics project in the offing that I will have to do whilst running around with the kids. I just don’t get that much time at my desk, so everything pretty much has to be done on the go.
I’ll figure it out eventually, I’m sure. I just need to keep experimenting until I find something I like. You’ll see the results here, I’m sure 😉
