Bibliowhining

Bibliowhining celebrates its first anniversary today!

Scroll down, and you'll see all sorts of fun lists, including an
index of all the comics I've published here, top ten lists, and more!

From the beginning, I tried my best to stay focused
on this blog's theory of the business: to share my artwork
and insights about comics, a sadly misunderstood, yet
universally beloved genre. I'm a good draftsman, but not
good enough or well connected enough to make a living as
a professional artist (at least not by doing the things I love
to do) -- I wanted to set this blog apart from the Webcomics
by making it educational as well as (I hope) a source of eye
candy and amusement.

It took a long time for me to pick up all my cartooning tricks --
as an undergrad, I learned a few tricks which helped me to
become a better draftsman, but there were no cartooning classes
or teachers who were familiar with comics. It was a long journey
figuring out how to draw them so they would be suitable for
reproduction (as opposed to being hung up for a gallery show),
and what materials to use and everything -- I took bits and pieces
from Comics Journal interviews and other cartooning articles, and
learned a lot by viewing original comic artwork.

My artwork improved rapidly with each new trick I learned --
after discovering each new secret, I recoiled in horror at artwork
created even a week before learning the trick. The tips I learned
are so simple, so I wanted to put them all out in the open. Not to
put art schools out of business (I think only 2 people read this,
anyway), but to spread comics awareness and give any future
unpopular underground cartoonists a head start.

Bibliowhining also exists as an alternative to the alternative --
I'm not so fond of the memoir/super-serious introspective
comics that are in vogue today -- I certainly have opinions about
our society and culture, but I try to voice them through amusing
fictional burlesques. I (regrettably) did a couple introspective
comics a couple years ago, and am utterly horrified by them now.
I'm happier with the stories I currently produce.

Bibliowhining is also for librarians.

Thanks for supporting Bibliowhining!

Enjoy a list of all my comics, art tutorials, and other fun stuff UNDER THE CUT.

AND NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE'S
THE BIBLIOWHINING CLIP SHOW!!!

Top Ten Most Popular Entries:

Though comics are the most popular feature of my
site as a whole, the most popular entries seem to be
the silly, random ones.

1. Eat It - A parody of Katie Lee Joel and Sandra Lee-esque lame "recipes". With paintings!
2. Gone Too Soon - A tribute to my 14-year-old late schnauzer, Peppy, including artwork I've featured him in over the years
3. Fall Again - The enchanting "pop-up book" entry
4. Remember the Time? - The "Ames Lettering Guide" entry
5. They Don't Care About Us - In which Chrissy discusses her
fondness for old advertisements, and her sadness that they are often
omitted from electronic periodicals. With special guest star Ty Templeton!
6. You Are My Life - A "rhymic narrative" spoofing Alison Bechdel's Fun Home
-- with bunnies!
7. Ease On Down the Road - An older comic from when I suffered from
"Crumbitis". Also, why blue pencil is evil.
8. History: Part 1 and Part 2 - HILARIOUS writing, drawings, and comics
from middle school and high school. Enjoy parodies of your favorite stories and
poems from the high school honors curriculum AND MORE!
9. D.S. - "Write what you know," they say, and I know plenty about job interviews.
10. Carousel - A peek into the not-so-distant future -- one of my most
beloved stories.

Chrissy's Top Ten:
Some additional entries that I enjoyed, not including posts
already mentioned or recent posts already on the main page.

1. Dancin' Machine - There's a new kid in town, his name is
Diogi, and his breed is Bichon Frise/ possible Shih-Tsu/terrier.
2. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Punk's not dead, yet! Not with a band like
Mediocre Narcotica, and lyrics like I don't need your stupid house with a white picket fence!/ No, I don't need your stupid house, so you can go get bent!
3. Man in the Mirror - The beginning of Bibliowhining...when I decided to
"make a change" and become a new man -- a blogger.
4. Black or White? - "Coke fiend Chris" gets a makeover. The oldest comic on
Bibliowhining (not counting the old notebook drawings linked in the above list).
5. Smooth Criminal - An amusing comic about librarians... and murder!
6. Shake Your Body Down to the Ground - The illustrations I did for The
Salt Hill Journal
7. Big Boy - A white boy, a friend of mine, goes to China.
8. Liberian Girl - I thought this political cartoon I drew was incredibly
hilarious. I hope people pay attention to the little details I put into my drawings.
9. I Just Can't Stop Loving You - An insight into my culture.
10. Heal the World - I really enjoyed making this entry. I really cracked myself
up with it. It's a parody of the green movement. Lots of sly puns... it's a really stupid entry. I should have put this as #1, but I didn't order my list.

Complete List of All Chrissy Spallone Comics By Title
Comics are the best thing about Bibliowhining.

- American Idling (excerpt, 2008) - "Why didn't THEY join ME?"
- Brain Food (2010) - "I found this fun toy while going spelunking yesterday..." CONTENT
WARNING.
- Bun Home (2008) - "There was a little bunny and he lived a bunny life/That every day in
every way was filled with bunny strife."
- Car Wreck (2008) - "Cheese and Crackers!"
- Chop Schtick (2009) - "I guess if you don't understand the lyric of a song, it's the rhyme
that attracts you."
- Coke Fiend Chris (2004/2009) - "Do you like Tom Petty, man? Do you like Tom Petty?"
- Donkey Rides (2009) - "Free...to leaches!"
- InVacebook (2010) - "Yo yo yo, I like dis show!"
- Karl in China (2009) - "And speaking of Phillies, there's a Philly over there I wouldn't
mind sliding into home with."
- Latte Payment (2010) - "I like my coffee like I like my women."
- Lights Out (2010) - "I think there's something wrong with my wiring."
- Mediocre Narcotica: Beat Yer Meat (2010) - "Do you really need that burger from the
Burger King?"
- Mediocre Narcotica: Job Interview (2010) - " Look, fool! I shaved my head today! Does
that negate qualifications from my resume?"
- Mediocre Narcotica: Revenge of the Nerds (2010) - "POW POW! There goes the
B.M.O.C.! He never got the chance to finish R.O.T.C.!"
- Mediocre Narcotica: You're Losing Your Edge (2010) - "Joey was a hardline one
Saturday night/ He sat sick and tired of the same old Sprite!"
- Middle of the Road (2009) - "I think I shall stand here for a~while."
- Pain Branch Library (2009) - "I need to return some library books."
- Pound Cake (2006)
- Slob Interview (2010) - " 'GRAPHIC NOVELS' ...HAH!"
- Swiner Living (2009) - "No use crying over spilled milk!"
- Tales from the Stix (2009) - "It's the women. They are crazy."
- The Proper Education of Your Children is of Great Importance! - "Buy war bonds."
- A World Without Surprises (2010) - "People just throw a bunch of garbage around on
the floor, call it 'art'..."

The Art Lessons

Figure Drawing: Bibliowhining stresses the importance of sketching
people in their natural habitat, as shown in the posts Ain't Nothin' Like
The Real Thing, In the Back, and Off the Wall. Sometimes, however, one must resort to supplementing with photography (Dancin' Machine), or using oneself as a model (Man in the Mirror).

Painting: Human Nature gives insights into how I mix colors.
Beat it shows the sketches I sometimes use for a painting.

Realistic, Michelangelo-like drawing: Who Is It takes you step-by-step
through the process of drawing a portrait or other realistic
object, concentrating on form and shadow. I'm glad that this drawing
looks horrible to me now; that shows that I've improved over the year.

Cartooning: ABC shows how I draw a comic from start to finish.

Materials: ABC shows all the materials I use in my cartooning,
but the posts I Just Can't Stop Loving You,
Blood on the Dance Floor, and Ease on Down the Road
go more deeply into specifics, and the trials and
errors I went through to find the right materials.

Photoshop: In Shake Your Body Down to the Ground and
Black and White, I share my limited yet useful knowledge
of Photoshop.

Lettering: In Remember the Time, I show you how to use the
Ames Lettering Guide to letter your comics, even
though I don't know how to use the Ames Lettering Guide,
and I don't think anyone else uses it.

Bookmaking: In Speechless and Fall Again, I share some of the bizarre
little books I've made.

Submitting your work: Heartbreaker and Shake Your Body... detail my
experiences submitting work to publishers. There
is failure and there is success, but failure can be more
educational.

Thanks for reading Bibliowhining, this nightmarishly
formatted little blog! I hate this template, as I
would like to have a side navigation and avoid these
long lines of text, but this is the only template offered
by Blogger that lets me display images as large as I do.
If I use the template that most people do, my images get
chopped up. So thanks for your patience!

There's also an archive at the bottom of this page that
I suspect isn't getting much love, but it has
lists of entries by topic if there's anything in
particular that you're interesting in reading.

-Chrissy Spallone

I spent a few hours this week being "creepy", watching and drawing folks at the Thorden Park community swimming pool. I love it when the weather gets nice enough that I can do this -- in some ways, it is superior to being in a figure drawing class...

For one thing, there are kids. Even when kids are just lying there sunbathing, they're never boring. They never stay in one spot for long, so I really have to rush my drawings, knowing that time is limited. Their complete lack of self-consciousness is also a plus. One kid passed me by, noticed I was drawing people, and shouted, "SHE'S AN ARTIST!" In the past, I've also had kids come up to me and ask if they could draw with me, like I was a peer. Kids are great.

Also, there is more diversity, both in body types and in ethnic groups. I don't draw people because I'm too cheap to buy a subscription to Playgirl; I'm more interested in learning to draw a variety of "types" than how attractive a model is. I haven't seen an obese person sign up for figure drawing classes, and in fact most of the models are slim, non-muscular milquetoast collegiate types OR senior citizens. This was my experience; yours may vary. At this community swimming pool, I can have my pick of the dozens of models, and can choose the most interesting or "useful" characters.

"Professional models" aren't very natural in their posing. Many just sit there, or recline. Even when they try to be natural, it's hard to imagine the gestures people use in their day to day lives, and model them. I need these gestures when drawing comics, if I want to create a believable cast of human characters.

The only drawback is that people are always moving around, so it's challenging and at times
barely possible to capture the gestures I want. Forget about adding detail.

So Chrissy, why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer!
If I wanted to impress everyone with my Michelangelo-like drawing skills, I could do that, but I would learn much less from the experience. Drawing from moving models, I have to adapt myself to capture as much information as I can in what is sometimes only a few seconds. These are moving little kids! My skills develop more rapidly when I'm under pressure like that. I can't fall into the trap of favoring and concentrating on one part of the person, e.g. the face. I have to quickly decide what information will be useful, and give equal time to all of it or I get nothing. This way, the anatomy becomes more intuitive and, when drawing figures in a comic later, I have an easier time drawing a variety of poses off the top of my head. I also refer to these life drawings quite a bit when drawing comics.