SPQR Blues part LXXI

[spqrblues]

Hmm... all that hair looked a little bit different in my head... then in the pencils... :)





Update: dr_phil_physics suggested I try colouring the big panel. I managed to get about halfway through during lunch, but now I guess I should get back to work-work. Now that I look at it in colour, I see I still have to work on those proportions...


I'll update the colour image if I find time to get back to it in between working on crazy end-of-year deadlines :)

It's all a learning process :P

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Comments

[xanath.livejournal.com]

Ahh, yes, the spearblade comb. ::shudders:: Wonder if that edge has been sharpened.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

That's some pretty hair she has there... wouldn't want anything to... happen to it... </mobster voice>

[ndgmtlcd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we wouldn't want the little lady to have something that looked like a bowl cut now, wouldn't we? Like the dame says, a decent girl has but one chance to have a wedding day, hasn't she?

[frostedelves.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Also gorgeous. :) That implement scares me, but then there are all those wonderfully illustrated hairstyles.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

It's... probably not sharp.

Though it could probably take out an eye. Or an ear. Probably not an entire head. Unless Calatoria is wielding it, in which case I wouldn't put anything past her.

[pikku-gen.livejournal.com]

*explodes over hair* I love to draw hairstyles, and thus also watching well-drawn hair! I could actually do some of the hairstyles just based on your drawings! Lovely!

...and I'm waiting in superstitious awe what kind of creation Iusta will have on her head at the end of this...

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I realised last night that I'd never actually seen (to my knowledge) a statue or painting or illustration of the traditional wedding hairstyle--not without a veil over it, anyway. Which led to a flurry of digging through boxes of books, which led to no pictures. I did finally find something on this site (http://www.espr-archeologia.it/), which also has several pages dedicated to the wives of Marcus Antonius (!) including his first wife Fadia (!!) and possibly even in a sympathetic light (!!!), which I guess you have to be an Antonius geek to appreciate. I haven't had a chance to read it thoroughly yet, so I hope I'm not disappointed. Actually, I think the author has decided Antonius was virile and handsome but hopelessly dominated by women. Oh, those crazy women, insisting on having opinions and public influence, pfft.

[pikku-gen.livejournal.com]

Indeedy. *grave*

[jdalton.livejournal.com]

I only just figured out that you hand-letter. Now I am doubly impressed (because my hand-lettering stinks).

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I've always been pretty obsessive-compulsive about my handwriting, fortunately not so neurotic so that I can't finish a page, but I've been known to go through two or three holiday cards trying to make the card look just right (another reason why I never get cards out on time, if ever :P ). Hand-lettering also leads to much White-Out and grief when I misjudge the length of the line. But in fact I don't seem to be able to get the hang of using a font instead. Recently I found some really nice handwriting fonts to try, so maybe I'll take another swing at drawing the balloons as part of the page and adding the type on top. Which means I'll have to get used to the look of a "naked" page of art. Eeek! Okay, now you know more of my neuroses than I should have admitted to.

Hand-lettering is soooo passée. I should join the rest of the 21st century (plus I keep thinking I should make things easier for the translation into French (http://spqrblues-fr.blogspot.com/)) :)

[pikku-gen.livejournal.com]

Ooooooo! I need to delve on that the moment I'll have the time. As a translator, I love reading good translations.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

_w_o_o_d_ is entirely responsible for all that hard translating work :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_w_o_o_d_/]

...I'm not sure what Cataloria Themis is trying to do, there... Or did she want Mrs Nonius Balbus to stop the wedding, and it backfired ?

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

Stop the wedding, or get the new wife to a very rich family to be indebted to her even further while also trying to scuff over their past relationship? "Of course I didn't try to kill you/have you declared a slave even if you weren't! I sorted out your hair problem, didn't I, sweet daughter?"

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Mama Mus will probably want to get to the bottom of this. No one messes with her daughters(-in-law)...

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

I'm getting ticked off at all the "you have your customs, of course" and "wow, you're almost like a real citizen!" stuff. I know it's accurate and all, but I want to shake all these folks. >:(

I wore my hair very short as a kid because my mom had a hard time getting a brush or comb through it.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I wore braids almost every day. And lots and lots of little barrettes to keep everything in place, and those elastic hair ties with the big marbles on the ends.

Then around 4th grade, my puppy chewed off the ends of my hair, and it's never been the same :P

[pikku-gen.livejournal.com]

Mine was shortish when I was a kid, then as a teenager I decided to let it grow... nowadays it's long enough to sit on when braided. Interestingly, most of my friends had it the other way round (long when kids, short when teenagers).

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm so obsessed with drawing long hair because mine just won't grow any longer than a little past my shoulders. I also think guys should wear very long hair. And eyeliner. I'm not sure why I'm drawing Romans, in that case....

[kyleen66.livejournal.com]

The big panel is to absolutely to die for.

The details make me sqweee!

More! More! More! ^_^

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

As soon as it hits 6pm, I will declare my work day over and draw, draw, draw :D

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

The color version is everything I hoped it would be. Mus' sister is really cute, too. (grin)

Dr. Phil

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

It's all your fault! Now, let's see if I can stop tweaking it every half hour or so and focus on work for another 10 minutes, and then get scribbling on the next comic :)

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

awesome stuff! The color is really great work, too!

XD

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) I'm slowly learning this newfangled colour thing, but my heart still belongs to b&w and fiddly itty bitty lines.

Maybe once a month I'll do a splashy colour panel just to shock and surprise everyone :D

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Same here...Not big on working with color. It's overrated... :D

fiddly itty bitty lines...OOOOh we are SO on the same page :D

I think a once-a-month panel is a very good start! I know I need to start throwing in some color into my work.

[g-minus-2.livejournal.com]

that's beautiful and striking, and I really am curious about the motivations here. :D

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Thank you... the next challenge will be trying to make the motivations clear :)

Is Nonius Balbus' wife treating herself to being pronuba? :)

[(Anonymous)]

sooo pretty drawing :)

SPQR Blues really stands out because it has 'just plain' people, too
(although golden blonde Iusta isn't by either Roman nor our standards. :)

I'm guessing Nonius Balbus' wife was bored (plus her husband is alive and she is probably married the first time, see the decent girl remark, so is eligible as pronuba), what better way to pass the time than being right in the middle of the wedding of the year? :)
Also, the sour expression of Calatoria Themis whenever N.B.wife isn't looking at her is grandiose :)

best regards,
spz

Re: Is Nonius Balbus' wife treating herself to being pronuba? :)

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much :)

And, yes, that's what the lady is up to. Well, someone has to do it, and there's nothing going on at the theatre today.... This is the most interesting gossip/soap opera in town, and she can get a big role in it while Hubby is entertaining elsewhere or busy with some sort of virile activities.

Of course, since Roman women paid a lot for a wig of genuine red-gold hair (Iusta's really glows a whole lot more on the work monitor than on the laptop at home :) ), and slathered all sorts of bleaching concoctions on their heads... hey, maybe Nonius Balbus' wife has secretly sharpened that spearhead and is planning to accidentally shear off enough for a curly headpiece XD

Re: Is Nonius Balbus' wife treating herself to being pronuba? :)

[(Anonymous)]

No - don't let her cut it off! I love how you draw hair. I makes me want to grow mine out. I can't wait to see what goes on at this wedding.
-gwendolyn

Re: Is Nonius Balbus' wife treating herself to being pronuba? :)

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I promise lots of hair, lots of guests, and lots of wedding craziness before the end of the year :)