Here below is the evolutionary chart of Squishy the Sugar Glider, from his inception in 2009 to his current recreation in 2014!
The image is provided thanks to the Strawberry Dough series' 2nd anniversary coming tomorrow!! On the fateful day of August 12th, 2014, I stepped into the waters of independent book publishing with this 40- page graphic novel based on my lime green, doughnut obsessed sugar glider and his Outback Posse. Below is my 4- page essay-of-sorts about the origins of the character and the series.
Have fun reading!
Even better? This essay is a part of the full compilation of Strawberry Dough and Season's Sweetings called Strawberry Dough: Full Course Dessert!! It's 160 pages worth of delicious comic goodness with my group of outback animals developed within the past two years and I'm happy to share the whole collection with new readers and those looking to complete the series. (for now)
Head over to the shop to purchase and share it with others! Thanks, as always, for the support.
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 Springwas 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.
Okay. I’ll admit that my Instagram and Big Cartel pages
have taken my attention fully away from my blog for three months and counting.
Either way, I’d like to extend a big ol’ THANK YOU to those who have been
visiting the Blue Aura Oasis blog for that time!
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk art, shall we?!
As I lightly wrote back in August’s Strawberry Dough Retrospective, I began planning out a 4- part series for the next series of
travels and tales of Squishy the Sugar Glider and his Alpine Outback posse,
called Season’s Sweetings. The main idea of the project was simple: give the
audience more of what they’ve asked for since early 2015. Splitting the books
up into 26 page parts based on the four seasons starting with autumn was the
main takeaway from my brainstorm.
Growing up in New
York City for a majority of my life –so far!-, I was able to indulge myself in
the lifestyle and quirks of living through all four seasons of the year. Sure,
relocating over to the San Francisco Bay Area was helpful for my soul and well-
being as a working class adult, but I had to face a very painful fact: only
Summer and Autumn truly exists here. That doesn’t sit all too well for drawing
out a bunch of silly and philosophical comic pages with a doughnut- obsessed
sugar glider, so I was lucky enough to recall all of the blissfully allergic
springs, explosively scorching summers, and blistering bittersweet winters of
the Tri- State Area in preparation of this series!
Autumn was completed on September 29th and the
reception has been rather positive so far. The many elementary school students
I have as my growing fan base loved the interactions between the characters of
the first book and are definitely beginning to see patterns of their travels.
Two big things I needed to enforce this time around. First off-
The Color Use
Wombat strolling on a lonely leaf- flowing pathway was a
page with much needed gradient maps to emphasize my view of autumn’s beauty
through the grapevine. It could also have something to do with the fact that it’s
my favorite season!
Thanks to the success rate of this page, I managed to
utilize the digital tool onto my hand drawn pages for better affect on the
audience, while reading the narration within the panels.
Whether or not they worked is entirely up to the viewer, of
course! And secondly-
The New Character
While coming up with a simple yet effective way to branch the
character roster out from the main six animals, I began reaching into my memory bank
from April. There was a specific marsupial I drew out as a sort- of Cultural
Awareness post for not only Easter, but for extinct species of animals on the
continent of Australia. Bilby, the character, was born out of the drawing above.
She had a certain flair to her that screamed ‘THIEF’ to me and as I sketched
out a few more facial and body visuals in ink over the summer, it became too
clear to me that she has to be my next character.
And Squishy’s next rival.
See, Bilby isn’t a one- shot appearance like Dingo. Staring
and barking contests can wear thin on a band of marsupials. Bilby has bigger
ambitions. In the Autumn book, our introduction has a cunning nocturnal
heckler mercilessly nabbing the unhatched egg of an undisclosed animal. Bilby
even left a calling card! Talk about bold.
This led to many page ideas of seeing how Bilby’s
unannounced run- in with Squishy’s glide for the maple doughnut can indeed
throw a monkey wrench into-
Alaok’s Evening of Yoga-
Hedgehog and Echidna keeping predators away from their
lime- green buddy-
And finally, food eating contests on the 31st of
October.
The book’s topics and length caused an uproar of ideas
battling in my head for supremacy of the Winter book-
And while Autumn was
all fun and animal shenanigans, the Alpine Outback’s winter was getting-
Funkier.
One thing I’ll wholeheartedly admit while drawing out the Winter
pages and drafting out the narration is that I knew this season should bring depth
not only to the characters, but the subject at hand. Make no mistake; Strawberry Dough started it’s life as short but silly comedy of errors for an outsider
sugar glider and his loyal doughnut. Then while ‘reviewing’ the book a year ago, my dad
called me to say these words:
"Y’know somethin’ Aaron? I really just read most of this
for the first time and, I think I get it now! This is a book about survival and
choosing friends wisely. Heck, adults should get a kick outta this too!"
He wasn’t wrong. One general misconception of comic books
and graphic novels at large -especially in America- is that they’re made specifically with only small,
dim- witted children and illiterate adults in mind. The truth is that MANY
authors and illustrators litter their content with subliminal and subtle
messages underneath the tide of humor. For that reason among others, I can’t
consider Strawberry Dough -nor SolForce- a Children’s Book.
Without giving too much away, Winter proves that!
Above are just a handful of pages I chose to preview to others
before it’s release on December 8th. My grand plan for the ‘Spring’
and ‘Summer’ books is to explore more of this surprisingly broad setting I’ve
established for a year, alongside bringing in a few more Aussie and New Zealand
animal inhabitants into the fray to tackle Squishy, Alaok, Hedgehog, Echidna,
Bandicoot and Wombat’s comfort zone.
Make sure to share the links to the ‘Strawberry Dough’
books to your social media circles and have a great holiday season!!
