INSOMNIA TATTOOS

Art, illustration, and tattoos by Natassia Nicolau. San Diego, CA.

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New page!  I’m starting to have serious doubts about my decision to go the tradtional route in painting this comic.  I thought it would save me a little time because I’m generally pretty quick in this medium, and I really love the feel of it... but it’s been costing me more time than I anticipated.  The og Alice was digitally painted with a half-tone look, which I don’t hate but I also don’t think it has the same warmth.  On the fence with this, what do I do???

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Sketchy times.

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Two pages in two days, what!!

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New page!

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Page 8 is up, check it out!

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Chugging along. I’ll never tire of drawing butts. 🍑

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New page (more of a chapter header) is up!

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Slow going, but it’s been busy at work and I’ve been functioning on low batteries. Still my favorite thing forever, drawing hands and feet 😽

[mydarkenedeyes]

Trevor Young | Tumblr (Oil on canvas)

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2010 and today. Time passes way too fuckin’ quickly.  Alice might look a little different, but at least she doesn’t get older.  xD 

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New page!  They grow up so fast.

Just as a point of interest, the coal mine explosion from the previous pages was a true event. The year was actually 1951 (I had to fudge that to fit the narrative of the story.)  Almost 120 people were killed, and digging 56 hours after the explosion rescue workers weren’t expecting to find any survivors.  But one hardy dude, Cecil Sanders, found his way into an air pocket in the rocks. Even he didn’t think he was going to live through it, and wrote a note to his family on the back of a cough drop wrapper. But lo, he was rescued in the nick of time and lived to less than a decade ago.  There’s your trivia for the eve.  

aliceisleaving.com

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More sketching between tattoos. 💩

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Jumping into an old project is tricky business. These two have been galavanting around my head for almost a decade, but I still have to relearn how to draw them whenever I wait a little too long. Ev always ends up looking a little too young the first few sketches. Alice’s warmth takes some stretching to come through. I’d love to figure out the psychology behind that.

[beardchaser-deactivated20181208]

I saw this and thought, “omg someone is ripping off

@insomnia-tattoos” then I saw who posted it… 🙄#imanidiot

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I think that says more about how badly I suck at posting at a regular frequency than anything about you. 😂😭

[insomnia-tattoos]

Jumping into an old project is tricky business. These two have been galavanting around my head for almost a decade, but I still have to relearn how to draw them whenever I wait a little too long. Ev always ends up looking a little too young the first few sketches. Alice’s warmth takes some stretching to come through. I’d love to figure out the psychology behind that.

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Oops, I let another three years accidentally go by.  

To be fair, I’ve spent that time in the midst of a difficult (but necessary and incredible) career change, and it left me little emotional energy to apply to something that takes as much emotional energy as this.  And then there’s that whole thing about non-emotional energy, I can’t even get into that lolololol.  So yeah, it’s been a minute… but Alice has been on my mind that whole time.  I’m gonna do this thing if it killS ME.

Also, if anyone can give me tips on comicpress, I’d be super grateful.  I’m basically like a 1950s time traveler when it comes to navigating stuff like that.  xD

www.aliceisleaving.com

[insomnia-tattoos]

I've been painting portraits of people I admire or even find interesting for fifteen years, and somehow never attempted one of my more personal heroes: Tom Waits. Well folks, it's about goddamn time. Now I gotta go draw some tattoos.