Strawberry Dough Season's Sweetings: Summer Bliss

Since this artist and this song has been buzzing around my head and iPod for months, allow me to share it with you. Play it while reading this post:

 

 

Paul Hardcastle, a multi- instrumentalist jazz musician from Britain, provided me with one of the many sounds I've used as a sugar glider drawing playlist for the past few months. The hotly awaited season of summer is about to arrive here in the states, and what perfect way to ring it in but with the release of Strawberry Dough Season's Sweetings: Summer!! It is now available for purchase on my shop.



 

 

 

I remember sharing this cover art for the final season for this series a month ago as a penciled sketch on my Instagram page once Spring was completed. From the very start of my character choices for the first Strawberry Dough, many readers were shocked at the omission of certain obvious animals native to the Australian and New Zealand lands. At the time, they didn't fit the comics I drew out, so I left it to the Winds of Fate -again- to remind me when was the perfect time to unleash the two new characters onto the Alpine Outback

 

Let's start this preview with a bright first page, shall we?!

 

 

I have to give a ton of credit to the Aussie Instagrammers out there for providing me with such vast landscapes and wonderful native birds to draw for this latest comic's intro! Of course, such dazzling décor would be disrupted by-



 

FIRECRACKERS!! Set off by a mischievous... Platypus... 

 

Before I continue, I must state the context of this page. Being an animal lover since age five, I've done my best to educate others on what exactly ticks certain creatures off. I felt that it was necessary to warn others of the use of certain objects that can cause damage. In this case, fireworks and firecrackers frighten the living daylights out of many animals. While this was used for comedic effect for a plot point, make no mistake: the way those birds reacted is VERY similar to how your dog, cat, guinea pig or rabbit would react if you took them out for a 4th of July celebration. They are safe indoors!

 

Now, onto why Platypus exists.

 

 

With the summer season hitting the Alpine Outback, the ever- so mythical Northeast region begins to bloom in popularity the way Kiwi and Dingo shared with the others during Spring. Platypus acts as the herald for the region, carrying out acts of naughtiness to fend other animals off until his -gulps- leader says to let them in.

 

 

He was a character long in development to appear in a book! Thanks to the platypus being an unusual creature to zoological standards -duck- billed, beaver- tailed, otter- bodied-, his overall design will make for a great sticker to add to the series collection! As seen above, his leader I'll speak of at the end. 

 

One joy I had while finishing this book was reuniting Squishy and the Alpine crew with Kiwi and her kiwifruit to see the side effects and wonder of their full journey unfolding!  

 

Note to self: Bandicoot can't avoid thunderstorms easier than trees.

Since this IS the ending book to the current Strawberry Dough series, there has to be cap- offs to things that have happened in the previous seasons. Case in point: Goanna still exists-

 

And Bilby arrives with Dingo! Once a month passes, I'll have a blogpost detailing exactly what I was going through at the time I started this book and finished it. In a weird philosophical way, Summer is the encapsulation of my latest transition in the Bay Area for the past two months. Much like I've described in Brooklyn By The Bay, it's a change I saw coming.

Much like how Kangaroo makes her grand entrance in the book!

 

 

 

Thank you all for reading, sharing and supporting my books! I'll be back to talk about something more key to my career... on Monday.