Shoe Shop Confusion

This slice of life incident happened recently when I was on the hunt for a new pair of shoes. This country is so rich in the various cultures & languages, it could easily become tricky to be understood. Events similar to this one most probably happens quite frequently. I mentally jotted the conversation & drew a draft the moment I got home. I've come to realise that stories may be 'less planned & structured' at times and still provide enough joy. Stories need to contain a lot of play & play mostly doesn't consist of too much planning. You just tell it as it is.

I've also wanted to explore ink washes & drawing from memory. Therefor the light source & perspective is quite straigthforward still. It is a lot freer to work in washes, I might like to do more in the future.

My Family poster

I've recently been asked to draw an educational poster of the family. It is intended to be coloured in by pupils of the class so as to involve them in the process. The poster is available in any standard size: A3, A2, A1. It will be distributed to schools in rural areas all over Mpumalanga & beyond. Here in sunny South Africa eleven official languages are recognised - that's a lot of languages! In Mpumalanga most speak either English, Siswati, Sotho & Afrikaans. To sovle the printing cost/language dilemma I left the boxes blank for each teacher to fill in the appropriate word in their mother tongue of choice. The above image serves only as illustration of what words are intended for which boxes, but the original obviously is blank.

Since then I've begun on a new comic that's been with me for a while now. It's only been an idea though, I haven't had the courage to draw it yet, until now. It's a tough story to write - I'm not even sure if I will publish it, but it has to come out to the light. It can't stay in my head anymore. So write we shall & what will happen in the future, we'll see when we get there.
I've read this graffiti on a desk, toilet door, somewhere recently: 'nothing interesting happens when you know where you are going'. It sums it up well.

P.S. Oh, I should've mentioned: distribution of this poster is free, so if you want a mahala copy for your classroom in high res pdf format (A2 size), just post your request & I'll e-mail it through to you.