Wasted coffee 🇺🇸

a letter between two pauses

There’s something in the pose I sketched this morning that I think I can use on the commission I have to do. I used a picture of a woman floating underwater as the starting point of the sketch, thinking on how to draw the lack of gravity of a character that can fly. I also like that the girl is backlit, it will look more magical and dramatic in the commission.

I took my coffee mug from the kitchen to my living room, and I started to draw on the sketchbook. I gave the initial black and white drawing a light coat of watercolor orange, but the Moleskine paper is too thin and I had to wait a few minutes while the paint dried to continue with color pencils, otherwise I would cut through the paper while drawing. I forgot about the coffee as I kept thing about the image, and what lessons learned I could apply on the commission, and it got cold next to the sketchbook. I like to sketch while drinking hot coffee, as I like to use the coffee breaks to doodle, but this side effect of very often finding your mug with cold forgotten coffee in it can be a little sad.

Helen

I did this cover for Bilquis’s new book, Helen of Wyndhorn. I believe it will a variant of issue three. I felt like I was drawing a Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser cover, which I think was a good match for the spirit of this story.

When I was asked to do the cover, over a year ago, Bilquis had only sketches of the characters, and I tried to wait as much as I could before I started on the cover to have a better notion of the visuals of this story. Once she had two issues drawn, I dug in.

The inked piece followed the sketch pretty close, I think. I added a few floating elements which incorporated some details about the story.

The book is written by Tom King and colored by Matt Lopes.

More coffee?

I started this letter just after breakfast. I finished it after my afternoon coffee break, before I left the studio to play volleyball.

Except I’m not playing today because it’s too cold and a bunch of my volleyball friends decided to stay home where it’s warm.

Can’t say I blame them. It it getting cold fast in here, and to top it off, it has been raining on and off all day.

I pour another cup of coffee and finish this letter. The coffee is hot.

I have this invitation to play football which I have to consider. My brother already left for the day to play basketball with his friends.

I take a sip of my coffee and wonder when did my artistic life started requiring the practice of so many sports?

Be safe. Be kind. Be curious.
Pa-ZOW!

Fábio Moon
Moon Base, São Paulo
May 27th, 2024