Art & Comics by Katherine Roy

I’ve been thinking a lot about color lately. Every time the sun comes out and shines down on our little corner of New England, the snow melts just enough to slip into the street and reflect bright blue patches of sky among streaks of white salt on black asphalt. The warm yellows and cheery reds of brick buildings throw themselves at every window pane, and all of a sudden Main Street is alive and vibrant in spite of the season. I would rip off my coat and boots and dive into the color if only it weren’t so damn cold.

Last week Joe Quinones and Maris Wicks visited the Center for Cartoon Studies and gave a wonderful presentation of their work and current projects, and between their pages of comics and Alec Longstreth’s recent crash course in color theory, I am inspired to get back into figuring out what it is to use color well. This week while sitting in our local coffee shop I couldn’t help but notice a conversation in front of me, and, in my best SNEAK-ATTACK drawing style, Wacom tablet and computer already in front of me, I tried out a little color study:

And then right before I left I did another quick one, trying different colors:

And now I’m completely addicted. Expect to see more of these over the coming weeks.

A regular local. Iced coffee and a muffin for $4.04 every day.

A short cartoon story about kissing! I had a lovely time finishing this in pencil and watercolor last week. Hope you enjoy!

Another round of Tucker Box color…

Last week my work was hung in the Tucker Box gallery, a local coffee shop in White River Junction that exhibits work by CCS students, alumni, and fellows, along with serving delicious espresso drinks. My comic 25 Cents: A Caterpillar Tale was initially completed as a four page comic for cartooning studio, but was then reformatted and colored by Joe Lambert to be published in Seven Days Vermont Magazine about a year ago. It’s so much fun to see it at a big scale! Next to my work (right) hang the talents of former fellow Chris Wright (center) and second-year student Melissa Mendes (left). Hurray!

Here’s a sample page from my thesis project with temporary digital color. I’m still figuring out what the “look” of this project is going to be, but the story is finalized and the finished pages can commence.

This is from the third chapter (of five). Page 5 of of 18 pages.

Sorry I’ve been so delinquent about my blog in the last couple of weeks– it is crunch time at CCS, and there is much to be done yet on my thesis! I still need to design a cover and may attempt to submit a short piece to an anthology this week, but I’m finally in the homestretch for coloring my 19 page chapter and should be done by Friday. Thank goodness! It’s taking quite a while, but our movies are keeping me company. Tim and I own over 150 films, but every time one ends I wander over to our shelves and stare for several minutes, unable to comprehend how I can be looking at so many titles and still feel like we don’t have anything to watch. There’s only so many rounds of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy that I can take, as much as I love it!

Here’s a visual of the hours logged this week!