Blogwithfeet: The art/rant blog of Renee Lott

A few things that kept me going in 2008

The Venture Bros. Season 3 DVDs... I can't wait till March...!

I’ve been watching a lot of DVDs, listening to a lot of music and audiobooks, and even playing a few videogames (I broke down and bought a DS) since I started work on Festering Romance, so I just thought I’d mention some of the best of the batch that helped me keep going through the dull and the tedious this year. I’ve definitely seen a lot more than I’m listing, but these have been my favorites, oldies but goodies, and new pals. Thank you,

DVDs and movies: -Sex and the City -The Venture Brothers -Futurama -Seinfeld -Freaks and Geeks -The X-Files (NOT the new movie though…) -Undeclared -Moonstruck -Singles -Planet Terror

Music: -M-flo -Heartsdales -The Avett Brothers -Clazziquai -Avril Lavigne -Honey & Clover OST -The Darjeeling Limited OST -Garden State OST -Sex & the City OSTs -Gossip Girl song lists

Books and audiobooks: -the works of David Sedaris -Lord of the Rings -Hate -Love & Rockets -Yotsubato -Julie Doucet’s works -Hitoshi Iwaaki’s works in English -8 Steps to a Pain Free Back (this book SAVED me!)

Games: -Cooking Mama 1 & 2 -Puyo Pop Fever -Mario Kart DS -Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure

Oh, and, just for fun, here’s my “Top Comics of the Year“ list in no particular order: -The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez -Against Pain by Ron Rege Jr. -Barefoot Gen vols. 5-6 by Keiji Nakazawa (though the inside date lists 2007, everywhere else I’ve seen says they were actually released in 2008)

Although I suppose it doesn’t say much that my “Top Comics of 2008″ are all reprints and compilations. Having said that, I still look forward to seeing the new Kramers Ergot once I receive it.

Hope you enjoyed the lists, and please come back on Monday for a new artwork post.

Pencils, Motivation, Australia

Australia movie poster

This week has been restful so far. I finished my pencils for Festering Romance (the last of 180 pages…) on Monday morning after having worked on them since May! Now I just have to do some fix-ups and revisions before I scan them all and start inking.

The inking stage will be much more fast paced, but it will be much more physically taxing. That’s the way it always seems for me, the pencils are me intellectually taxing while the inks, more physically. I become more physically worn out after inking and have to take breaks to lay down or either I feel like I will pass out or something. I hope I can stay on track. Deadlines will be a lot tighter now. The cover will also be due pretty soon, so a lot of things are going on. It’s exciting though. Things are really moving. I can really see the book starting to come together.

I took a few days off after finishing the penciling to unwind. I was kind of freaking out by the time the pencils were done, not just about the deadline (December 1) but the book in general. Originally, I hadn’t planned days off during the penciling schedule, but I of course ended up having to take some for a variety of reasons… Time ended up being so tight I started to feel guilty for all the time I took to sleep and eat. Deadlines, as always, intense stuff…

I don’t really understand when people who strive to work professionally in comics say that they make comics because it’s fun and wouldn’t want to do it anymore if it stopped being fun. Making comics is hard work, mentally and physically. You have to push yourself to get better and to keep going. It takes a lot of time, and there can be a lot of stress and exhaustion. Making comics is not always going to be fun and there are going to be dull and hard parts, but the difference with other work (if you love comics, I guess) is that it is rewarding in the end and there is a real sense of accomplishment… I feel there is a real goal at the end that means something to me on a personal level. I never felt this after a hard day of stocking shelves or dealing with inner-office politics. I guess it’s just that you have to love making comics, or it won’t be worthwhile to you. You’re most likely not going to make much money and it’s not always going to be fun. This is the way it is for me anyway, and that’s my rant on that…

But anyway, I wanted to go out since I hadn’t left the house much all month, so me and Kyle went to see Australia on Wednesday. I didn’t really look up too much about it, but wanted to see it because it was Baz Luhrmann’s new movie. Even not knowing much about it, it wasn’t what I expected, but we both still enjoyed it. It was pretty long, almost 3 hours, but it never got boring and never felt slow. By the time it got to the end, it seemed like everything wrapped up well and it felt like a good ending. I wouldn’t say that it’s the most spectacular movie I’ve ever seen, but it was fun and enjoyable and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again when it comes to DVD.

The previews at the beginning of the movie were so bluh… The new Clint Eastwood movie just looks awful… When I orginally saw the trailer for it I thought it was a joke, but there it was in front of me, real and on the screen. I originally thought it was a joke trailer made from splicing together 2 incongruous movies, but no… it is real…

We went by Target and yes, I guess Christmas is coming up! All the toys and Christmas stuff are out. I never really understand these new “hot” toys for the season, those “the Christmas gift of the year” type things. I feel like the novelty of a tickle-me Elmo or crappy remote controlled robot would wear off pretty soon. Oh well.

I guess that’s about it for now. Thanks for checking out the blog, and please check back on Monday for more artwork from Festering Romance and more blurbs about the book!