Register right now for the Graphic Memoir Workshop this Sunday, from 1 to 4 PM

Graphic Memoir Workshop by Danièle Archambault

A practical introduction to the world of graphic memoirs!

Do you want to preserve the memory of the significant moments in your life, in a special and exciting new way? This inspiring workshop is for you!

During a three-hours session, you will have the opportunity to develop your own one-page graphic memoir about a chosen moment of your life, in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.

We will  first look at the work of graphic memoir authors like Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) and  Art Spiegelman (Maus) then you will get a practical introduction  to the techniques of comic book art. You will then start developing your own unique story in your personal style.

Don’t worry! You really don’t need to have a background or special talent in art or in literature!  Just come with your stories (funny or sad), your special memories or your personal reflections on life.

When: Sunday, May 20th from 1 to 4 PM

Where: Cartoon Art Museum, 655 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105

Cost: $30 for members. $40 for non-members

Instructor: Danièle Archambault, Ph.D.

Registration: http://guestlistapp.com/events/103386

Age: 18 years old and over. (Please note that registration is limited to 10 participants!)

C’est la course finale! Mon quatrième album de bande dessinée est presque (presque…) prêt à être envoyé chez l’imprimeur! Il sera prêt, je l’espère pour le Festival de bande dessinée de Montréal! Voici un extrait de la couverture…

My book Québec-California is coming soon!

Final rush! I’m almost ready to send my fourth comic book to the printer. Almost! I hope it’s gonna be ready for the Festival de bande dessinée de Montréal (Montreal Comic Book Festival).  Here’s a glimpse at the book cover.

Album de bande dessinée Québec-California. Danièle Archambault.

The Girl Scout Heritage Museum

Celebrating Girl Scouting also means remembering its heritage. Yesterday, the  Girl Scout Heritage Museum  allowed the visitors a unique look at the evolution of Girl Scouting through the past 100 years.  Members of the Girl Scouts of Northern California Heritage Committee put together an amazing exhibit! Visitors had the opportunity to look closely at vintage GS uniforms and artifacts and to stroll through a fantastic outdoor exhibit showcasing the evolution of GS camping through the years.

Photo Op Boards of Historic GS Uniforms.

The Photo Op Boards of Historic GS Uniforms were a huge success! Similar to carnival cut-outs, those boards featured two vintage GS uniforms from different eras on each of them. Leslie Burchyns, Marion Mandell and I were very proud of our project! Volunteers from the Palo Alto Service Unit One in Palo Alto helped us through out the day to make sure that everything ran smoothly while girls and adults got their pictures taken. So, many thanks to Evelyn Aguon, Winnie Doty, Joanne Westerndorf, Diane Reklis, Marcie Brown, Laurie Winslow, Karen and Kelsey Smestad.

Marina Park and Joyce Richards in vintage GS uniforms!

Marina Park, CEO of GSNorCal and Joyce Richards, ex CEO of GS San Francisco Bay Area were the first visitors to have their picture taken in the boards. Joyce is in a uniform from the 1919-1928 period (notice the bloomers!) while Marina features one used between 1928-1935.

Now Leslie Burchyns and Marion Mandell in vintage GS uniforms!

The second board featured uniforms from the 1940s. One of them is the first uniform of the Girl Scout Mariner (1934-1940). The Mariner program started in 1934 for older girls interested in outdoor and water based activities. The second uniform is a summer camp uniform from 1940. To be able to move freely girls wore this special uniform which features a shirt, a scarf and wide shorts. The camping uniform on the board belonged to Marion Mandell but the head belongs to Leslie Burchyns!

Uniforms from the 1960′s were displayed on the third board. The Junior Girl Scout uniform worn between 1963-1968, consisted of a green dress, a green elastic belt, a sash, socks, a beret and…a bright yellow bow tie!  The Brownie uniform of the same years (1961-1968) featured a brown dress, an elastic belt, brown socks, the famous beanie hat and…a bright tangerine tie! Those were the colors of the 1960s! The Brownie Girl Scout is holding a Brownie doll, wearing the original Brownie pixie-style hat. I think the models are quite cute!

Meet me at the Cartoon Art Museum  in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon, May 20!

Graphic Memoir Workshop by Danièle Archambault. Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.

This Graphic Memoir Workshop will introduce you to the art of preserving the significant moments in your life in a new and exciting way. We will first look at the work of famous graphic memoir authors then you will get a practical introduction to the techniques of comic book art. We will then focus on developing your own unique story in your personal style.

Don’t worry! You don’t need to have a background or special talent in art or literature. Just come with your stories (funny or sad), your special memoires, or your personal reflections on life.

Graphic Memoir Workshops are fun! See the video!

When: Sunday, May 20th from 1 to 4 PM

Where: Cartoon Art Museum, 655 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105

Registration: http://guestlistapp.com/events/103386

Age: 18 years old and over. (Please note that registration is limited to 10 participants!)

Un essai pour une autre planche de bande dessinée.  Un autre style…

C’est facile de trouver l’inspiration…Il pleut encore aujourd’hui!

Question: Mais de quoi parlent-elles donc?

It’s still raining in California!

I am trying a different style for this page.

It’s easy to figure out rainy days stories…It’s still raining today!

English translation of the dialogs:

Mat (short for Mathilda): Let me do it, mom! I’m better at it than you are!

Mom: No way! It’s raining and you’re still in your nightshirt and slippers!

Mat: Then, you have to be really careful.

Mom: Of course! I’ll go very slowly.

Question: What are they talking about?

Maman, va doucement!

Les planches vont bon train pour la série Québec-California. Après avoir fait le premier brouillon de cette histoire-ci, je me suis rendue compte que la planche se prêtait bien à un jeu de devinette. Tout ce que je peux dire, c’est que cette histoire s’inscrit bien dans le thème de l’album et que mes dialogues sont déjà écrits. Je suis curieuse de savoir si vous pouvez deviner le sujet de cette histoire. Alors?

Guessing game for a comic book page.

I have too many stories for my Québec-Caifornia book. I need to work faster if I want to be done in time. Once I was done with the first draft of this page, I realized that many stories could fit the sequence of drawings. All I can say is that the story fits well in the books’ theme and that my dialogs are already written. Do you think you can guess this pages’s topic?

Devinette pour une bande dessinée. Guessing game for a comic book page.

L’histoire de la randonnée de Catherine et Lise au fameux Stanford Dish continue. Voici une case de la deuxième page de cette histoire de la série Québec-California. Lisa ne tient pas à ce que Catherine aille voir les panneaux. Pourquoi donc? D’après vous?

Je travaille déjà sur une autre histoire du livre, une histoire en trois pages cette fois. Et comme il fait encore beau, je me dépêche de finir tout le travail que j’ai à faire (celui que j’aime le moins…) pour pouvoir aller travailler dehors sur mes planches de BD.

Hiking at the Stanford Dish

The story about Lisa and Catherine hiking at the Stanford Dish goes on. Here’s a panel from the second page of this Québec-California’story. Lisa doesn’t really want Catherine to go see those boards. Why is that? What do you think?

I’m already working on the next story. And it’s a beautiful sunny day, today. Again… So, I need to hurry up to finish all the other work I have to do so I can work on my pages outside.

Après des jours et des jours de pluie et d’orage, on a finalement eu du beau temps dimanche. J’en ai profité pour m’installer dehors pour travailler sur mes BDs . J’adore écouter les émissions radio de Radio-Canada sur mon ordinateur tout en travaillant sur mes planches.

Dans cette nouvelle histoire de la série Québec-California, Lisa et Catherine vont faire une randonnée au fameux “Dish” de Stanford. Bien sûr, il y aura une petite surprise pour Catherine…Il faut attendre un peu pour savoir ce que c’est.

Ce radiotélescope, ainsi que tout le terrain autour, appartiennent à l’université Stanford. L’antenne parabolique marque le paysage dans les basses foothills près de Palo Alto.

Finally, the sun is out!

After days and days of rain, the sun finally came out Sunday. I decided to work on my comic book pages outside. I love working outside while listening to Radio-canada on my computer.

In this new Québec-California story, Lisa and Catherine are going hiking at the Stanford Dish. Catherine is explaining to Lisa that, although she heard about the famous Dish, it’s her first time hiking there. Then she wonders why she cannot see the Dish. Lisa explains that  it’s hidden by the hills and that she will soon see it. (The English translation will come later. When I work on a book, I do the French version of all the pages first, then I translate them later). Of course, this story will bring a new surprise for Catherine but I can’t tell you what it is yet….

This radiotelescope and the land around it belong to Stanford University. The antenna in the lower foothills can be seen from far away and is a famous landmark in the region.

Dessiner dans ma cour. Drawing in my back yard. Danièle Archambault

Stanford Dish. Le crayonné. Penciling.

Stanford Dish. La série de BD Québec-California.

J’ai repris le travail sur la série Québec-California et c’est vraiment plaisant. Les histoires, les souvenirs, se bousculent. Voici les deux premières cases d’une page de l’album.  Par ce beau dimanche d’été, notre famille, comme bien d’autres à Palo Alto, fait une petite promenade dans la nature Je découvre avec plaisir l’endroit merveilleux et grandiose où mon fils passe ses journées avec le camp de jour. Je m’inquiétais un peu de le voir partir tous les matins en autobus vers Foothills Park. Après tout, c’est un garçon de la ville… Mais là, vraiment, je commence à me détendre, à apprécier les couleurs, la flore…Mais où va donc ma fille?

La suite de l’histoire s’en vient.

Nous avons à Palo Alto, de nombreux parcs mais Foothills Park est un endroit spécial.  Un parc de plus de 1,400 hectares avec de nombreux sentiers de randonnée, un lac et un refuge pour plusieurs animaux.  Les fleurs sauvages y fleurissent surtout à la fin de l’hiver et au printemps. L’été étant la saison sèche, on y voit peu de fleurs.

Promenade à Foothills Park, Palo Alto. BD Québec-California

 My comic book series Québec-Caifornia.

I’m working again on the Québec-California series and it’s a real pleasure. So many stories to tell! Here are the first panels of one of the pages. It’s Sunday morning and, like many other Palo Alto families, we decided to go for a nature walk. It’s amazingly beautiful! So, this is where my son comes every day with his camp! I have to admit that I was a little bit worried to see him leave every morning with camp bus to go to Foothills Park. After all, he is a city boy…However, this walk is reassuring. I admire, the colors, the great air, the flora…But where is my daughter going?

I’ll post the following panels soon…

There are many lovely parks in Palo Alto, but Foothills Park is quite special. It features 1,400 acres  of open space, with many hiking trails, a lake and a refuge for wildlife.  Because summer is a dry season, winter and spring are mainly the seasons for wildflowers.

Hiking at Foothills Park, Palo Alto. Comic book series Québec-California.

For the spring session,  my weekly graphic memoir workshops are on a drop-in basis. Each week will bring a different topic.

This week’s graphic memoir workshop is about the inking process: creating the black lines. We will first look at the work of various accomplished artist. Then, we’ll talk about tools (brushes, nib pens, and technical pens) and how to use them to produce beautiful black lines and special effects. We will first practice using them on various types of paper and then you’ll get started on your own page.

This is what I’m inking right now. Yes, I’m working again on the Québec-California series.

Inking a new page's panel of the Québec-California series.