Just a short post tonight — I’ve been working in the studio all day doing various things, including this character study for a new maquette. The graphic novel I’ve been working on with Spam the Cat has a lady Sasquatch and although I’ve finished the thumbnail drawings, I still didn’t have a clear idea of her exact looks or proportions. So I delved into the books I have on the subject, and followed up that research with a look on you-tube of the famous (or infamous) film from 1967, the Patterson-Gimlin film, and then of course got last in a bunch more.

What is it about stories of a big, hairy, smelly, elusive wild-man that captures our imaginations so? Reading all the stories about sightings, I found myself wishing I could see one too, but I know if I did, especially at night on a camping trip, I’d be scared silly — and I don’t like to be scared! Part of it, for me, might be the desire to understand these strange creatures, if they exist, and communicate with them.

That not being very likely, I’ll have to be content with making up the form and working out how to express the personality of the one for the story. In case you’ve just found me for the first time, this is a story written by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough for me to turn into a graphic novel, involving her famous cat detective, Spam. I’ve been working on a maquette of Spam in polymer clay and documenting it here, here, and here. As soon as I finish him, I’ll be starting to build this young lady:

Sasquatch — ink, mainly drawn with brush, background with pigma pen. And yes, she’s a bearded lady, because all but one of the Sasquatch sightings I read about had beards on both the males and females. They’re just hairy folks.

Here she is with watercolour. I wasn’t thrilled with the results, it got a bit muddy as I was trying to get the feel of the paper, which is Stonehenge. I’m testing different papers trying to find the ideal one for both ink and watercolour. The Stonehenge, a popular drawing and printmaking paper, may fit the bill, but I’ll have to handle it a bit differently than I did here.