This week was a monster!

First on the docket is the new ANDREW JACKSON JIHDAD gig poster that’s now available in the store!

Also ‘SELF-PORTRAITS: FOLIO ONE’ is now available for purchase! This zine is a collection of my self-portrait illustration series, including ‘The Crying Series,’ which is not on the internet.

CHICAGO ZINE FEST was a good time. Thanks so much to everyone who came by the table! Your support is always amazing. I don’t actually have any photos from the event, but thanks everyone. My heart grew a hundred times its original size.

This past Friday was the opening of LONGING FOR HOME: READER’S ART 12 at the Susan Hensel Gallery! My book Going Back was included in the show. Here are some shots from the party:

And final news is that yesterday I was recorded for the LUTEFISK SUSHI PODCAST! It’ll be online April 5th.

Castles: Observational Drawings From France 2011 is now available! It is 18 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″ pamphlet.

A collection of observational sketches I drew while on a two-week trip to France in October 2011. I visited seven medieval structures during my time there: five castles, one monastery, and a single tower, in the center of Paris.

Each zine comes with two randomly chosen buttons! The button designs are exclusive drawings that aren’t featured in the book. There is also a new Castle Combo Pack, where you can get all my castle products, plus all four tower buttons!

Available at THE STORE!

You can view the entire thing on my site here: link

Here’s a drawing of Château de Langeais that was cut from the final zine:

And here are a bunch of random drawings that need to get posted (click to view larger):

Ah, and while I’m here, there’s been another watercolor painting added to The Store. This time of Jesse Pinkman, from the TV show Breaking Bad:

Click to purchase!

You can see all the watercolors that are available at The Store under the tag ‘ORIGINAL ART.’

And of course, commissions are still open!

(PHEW. Not quite caught up with the updates, but close!!)

I was accepted to CAKE, the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo! I’m really thrilled about it.

I’m going to be making watercolors this month to pay for the table. Here two new ones for sale, and more are on the way (click the images to purchase!):

There are also lots of other things you can get at THE STORE, and I am available for COMMISSIONS.

Thanks! Your help is really appreciated!

First off, I’ve opened up a new Etsy store! It currently stocks my screenprinted posters, but I may put up my books soon, too. BigCartel still houses my original art — for now…

Etsy Etsy Etsy!

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So now that that’s out of the way, let me tell you about what’s coming up!:

First project is a castle zine, of the observational stuff I did on my trip to France. It will be available in time for the Chicago Zine Fest on March 9 – 10.

Some sample stuff from it:

Sketch of Langeais castle in the Loire Valley, France, October 27, 2011

While I was drawing this, a bird ate a berry above me and spurted juice. That’s why there’s a bright fuchsia spot on this sketch. (It’ll unfortunately be black and white in the final zine.)

Detail of a sketch from Carcassonne, France, October 2011

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The second project is the on-going The Summer I Forgot My Middle Name Was Grace. You may remember that I posted a bunch of drawings from the piece a while ago: (click here to check them out on my portfolio site). Well, now most of the drawings for this book are done, at least I think they are, so I’m onto the text!

Here are some reviews:

I have no idea what the final form of this novel will be like. Well, I have lots of ideas, but nohing concrete. My plan is to keep plugging away and its amorphous goo existence will eventually form solid cohesion. Not much more I can ask!

Okay, I’m off to call city officials and convince them to snowplow my street so I can get to work.

3-color screenprint on 100# French cover stock, 18″ by 24″, signed & numbered edition of 50, 2011

Available for purchase.

Relation is sexual melancholia. A small and poetic art book, it features pencil drawings of graceful yet twisting figures in calm erotic positions, cuddling rather than being provocative. The book is speckled with text that is joking yet deceptively serious, creating a poetic dialogue with the pages of nude couples. Do the figures have deep-set issues with sex? Do they know each other or are they anonymous? Are emotions too complex, even when people want to transcend them for the sake of their libidos?

You can see the book like this, or you can see it as a fun, pocket-sized book of sexy drawings. Either way, I am proud of the quality of Relation, and hope you enjoy.

The book itself mimics the look of small pocket-sized journals. The drawings are printed in a fine gray ink on toned paper, creating the illusion that the book contains the actual pencil drawings. I was once asked if I had redrawn every book by hand, and I take that as a compliment to the quality of the printing. (I was also once asked if the drawings were done from observation, which I also take as an extreme compliment.)

Relation is available for purchase at The Store.

Holy shit, it’s finally happened!

My portfolio site CathyBoy.com has been updated!

Many new additions to the Portfolio! New books Going Back and Relation can be read online, and are also available for purchase in physical form! Head over to The Store to check it out! Also have added a “Prints” section, which includes the CMYK screenprint Myrddin. The “Drawings” section is also packed with new stuff, including watercolors, illustrations and self-portraits. There is also a new promo page up in the “Comics” section for the graphic novel Jeremiah.

Going Back and Relation are two books I’ve been working on for a while, posting images from them onto this blog, and I’m really excited to finally launch them. I had them at the two conventions I’ve attended recently, but it never feels real until they’re online. I hope you find them interesting and engaging! I’ll post more in-depth about them when things aren’t so hectic, which will hopefully be soon.

CathyBoy.com Update!