Mundane Circus: Sketchbook: Rafi (July 2005-)

I drew this picture in Houston, during a long (4-hour) layover at IAH, on my flight to San Diego for Comic Con. Houston, of course, is home of the oil and petrochemical industry, Johnson Space Center, the Astrodome, ADV anime & manga, and "The Tighten-Up".

As for what Rafi is saying, you may be more familiar with the original English version of the famous anti-litter slogan, "Don't Mess With Texas".

I drew this picture for Roberta Gregory, creator of Bitchy Bitch, at the 2005 Comic Con in San Diego.
Rafi hates to admit it, but she can be just as bitchy as "Bitchy".

Drawn at Comic Con for Jimmy Gownley, creator of "Amelia Rules" and "Shades of Gray", both comics that I have read the past 10 years or so.

In a stupid moment, Rafi tries to imitate The Flaming Carrot, only to end up imitating Michael Jackson's 1984 Pepsi commercial instead.
Drawn for Carrot's creator, Bob Burden, at Comic Con.

Back home, I drew this picture of Rafi, entirely in pencil.
Rafi looks cute, though bright greens generally don't turn out too great in the scanner.

This is a black-and-white drawing of Rafi, that I have drawn for the program for the February 2006 MegaCon in Orlando, which I'll be attending for the first time ever as an exhibiting artist.

Rafi is shown here in deep despair, wishing to die. The main caption reads in French, "There are some days in which you cannot just take it anymore..." I drew this during a time recently, when I had some serious personal troubles in my life.

And this is the original pencil sketch of the above picture.

Following Hurricane Katrina making landfall near New Orleans on 8/29/2005, I have prepared a special salute for those victims.
To see it, click here.

This is Rafi, saying that she's happy, just being herself.

As for her dress, I simply taken her tie-dye shirt and extended the pattern to the skirt, effectively making it into a dress. After taking a close look at Rafi's summer outfit (on this page), I practically improved on the concept by making it into a dress.

Doesn't Rafi look cute?

Here's another picture of Rafi in a dress, saying, "Aren't I a pretty gouine?"

While looking natural is important, what also matters to Rafi's happiness is being pretty -- in her own way.

And this is Rafi, posing as Sappho, "The Tenth Muse", who's, more or less, the founding mother of lesbianism. In ancient Greece, Sappho ran an all-girls school on the Greek isle of Lesbos, with an emphasis on music and poetry. The all-girls school and the location was how the word "lesbian" originated.

Once "A Gouine's Story" is over, I would like to use Rafi Sappho to some capacity -- one idea is on the history of lesbianism.

Various visions of Sappho exist, though my vision of Sappho wears glasses, has a nose ring, speaks French instead of Greek, and is actually a gouine (the actual Sappho was, at least, straight). She, by the way, says, "Let me inspire you! And if you're a woman, let me love you!"

And here's the original pencil sketch of the above drawing.

This is not really a sketch per se, but it's a mock-up of what Rafi's driver's license would look like.

While this is a decent representation, it isn't a truly-accurate one -- the sample at left (from Michigan's web site) was all I had to work with, since I couldn't find a larger sample, nor did I actually see a Michigan license "in the flesh". As a result, a couple of items I had to guess on.

The picture of the Mackinac Bridge (which spans Michigan's two peninsulas), which came from this site, was the closest to the license.

This is the very first picture of Rafi, done completely using Paint Shop Pro and my new pen tablet. Of course, there's more to this, as I was just testing it out. But you'll see amazing results from this point on in the strips and pictures.

This was the title graphic to "A Gouine's Story", my epic comic strip about Rafi's life. However, things happen, which lead to another premature end to a comic sequence. One of these, is a book, called "The Pretty Gladiator", about Sister Adele's life.

But if you think I've given up on "A Gouine's Story", you're nuts -- I do plan on making it into a book, in addition to books based on other individual characters of the Fusey family.

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