Vince Napolo

Sometimes you need to let your angst out.

It would have been really hard to express this feeling in Jellybots. It needed a new fiction.

The thing about personal work is not having structure or deadlines. So my mind's been wandering a little bit left of the Jellyverse and I decided to doodle this. It's a really quick character study for a story that's been refusing to go away.

The name "Wanderhome." is a working title. In truth I'm not sure what this project really wants to be yet. Hell: he may not even be a dog in the end.

But for whatever reason, despite trying, I can't get away from this character. Vince Napolo is the chain-smoking proprietor of a ramshackle vegetable stand by the river. He may or may not be a dog. May or may not be a wizard. Time will tell.

Summer is coming. You can smell it.

Yesterday, you couldn't distinguish the sky from the sea. It was incredible.

Jellydoodles

I've promised myself that I'll post in-process work here as it's coming together, and so I shall!

It might actually help motivate me to keep sketching to figure this piece out and eventually finish it- I've been itching to take some of the Jellybots characters and put them in a full illustration...set the tone for the style of the world and not just the characters' heads-and-shoulders :)

...and after that very chatty post, I figure I owe you all some pictures. So here you go! These are just early sketches...and only a few that I liked, at that. I've still not solved the composition and concept...but it's nice to get something down. More soooon!

love love!

-n

A New Look, Springtime, and Thoughts On Coming Back 'Home'

Guys! It's Spring! It's almost Summer!

There are leaves on trees, and the smell of flowers on the wind.

And, resultantly, the blog needed a new look: Creamscicle. I've always wanted stripes...I just never got the time to sit down and customize. And I wanted to simplify the header so it would be something that could age a little more gracefully.

I'll probably be tweaking it as I get accustomed...and the palette will likely shift with my mood, but this is what's up for now :)

In other news, I have relocated (along with 38 Studios) to Providence Rhode Island. Back to where I graduated from school just 2 years ago.

I keep telling people it feels "weird" just to avoid explaining it. But I've been feeling the need to talk about it, so I'm going to indulge myself and do that here.

I've spent most of my life moving from place to place; my mother recently shocked me by calculating that this will have been my 19th move. In so many ways, the shifting of scenery has been the constant backdrop of my life. It has sculpted me in ways I can't even begin to understand. And throughout God has been so good to me; truly the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. This move is no exception; all of the facts are incredibly positive: For our company this has been an immense improvement on all fronts. For my roommate and I, we have a beautiful apartment in a great area of town with tons more space than our previous place. The greater availability of excellent food, alone is reason to celebrate!

But I can't help feeling, as this new season of life begins, a little melancholy. For all the places I've moved in the past, I've never 'gone back' anywhere. And right off the bat it's stricken me: you really can't ever truly 'go back'.

I think I loved RISD more than I've ever loved any place in my life. And since graduating in 2009, I've missed being here (in Providence) on a fairly consistent basis. Which is nothing unusual; in my experience the grass is always greener in hindsight.

But now being back, being so close to where I belonged for so long, it feels like standing in your old house with all the furniture taken out. And every time you close your eyes you can just see it...the couch was there, and there was the tv...the armchair...

But it's irrevocably different. Undeniably still the same place.

The strangest feeling has been when suddenly it doesn't seem like anything has changed at all. Suddenly I'll be in a dorm hall watching a movie among friends, huddled on that same old modular furniture. Every smell is just the same. And every bit of it is still alive with all those same memories. The only thing that doesn't seem to fit is me.

I've changed along with the circumstances of my life. But the circumstances of my life have brought me back to this same place. And now I have to face that change.

So this is not the Triumphant Return per-se. No trumpeter on the rampart has taken up the cry that the "Lords of Gondor Have Returned!" This is the slow, familiar witnessing as the old ebbs away and is replaced with something new and untested. I am back, to watch as every last friend graduates and departs, and to gather whatever new friends present themselves. Just like the changing of the season: Winter has passed and these will not be the same flowers.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. For my part, I am glad for this gift; to be back in Providence. I am very interested to see what he intends by it. I trust that it will be marvelous.

So "Hello" again, Providence. "Hello" again, all those friends still here. I missed the hell out of you.

Much Too Much - James Hersey

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Be blessed!

-n